french wine

2005 Fat Bastard Shiraz

Filed under: Wine

The fact that this French wine is called a Shiraz and not a Syrah lets you know they are going after the hearts of Americans. Another clue is that the wine is called the "hippo cuvee" which makes it nominally (to me at least) a "critter wine." As a rule, I'm trying to stay away from wines with animals on the front but my partner picked this up because he loved the name and so I was saddled with this wine with dinner. The Fat Bastard is 100% Shiraz and at around $10, it's not exactly a luxury wine. Sometimes a $10 wine can be surprisingly amazing. Not this one. I'm not so much a Shiraz fan and this wine is a prime example of why. It comes on strong with a big red fruit flush and a whole lot of peppercorn aroma and then... Nothing. It drifts away with hardly any finish. It's the wine equivalent of a comedy starring Owen Wilson. You choose it because you think it will be fun and charming and entertaining, instead you just end up unfulfilled.

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Tags: fat bastard, FatBastard, french wine, shiraz, wine

Winemaker Georges Duboeuf Fined For Fraud

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

We first found out last year that Georges Duboeuf, Mr, Beaujolais Nouveau, was being investigated for wine fraud. There was apparently something to the claims, he has been fined €30,000 for fraud because some of the wine produced by his estate was blended with a variety of grapes rather than a single source. A series of barrels had been mixed with inferior grapes in attempts to conceal a bad harvest in 2004. Under France's AOC system blending is forbidden in order to maintain the terroir of a particular wine. Duboeuf has insisted that the blending was a mistake and not deliberately done. None of the wine was sold and the production manager at the winery, Sylvain Dory, resigned. For his part in the wine, Dory was given a three-month suspended sentence and fined €3000.

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Tags: aoc, beaujolais, french wine, georges duboeuf, GeorgesDuboeuf

Wines Collected by Jacques Chirac To Be Sold

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Vintage wines that were collected by French president Jacques Chirac, while he was the mayor of Paris will be auctioned off this fall. The 5,000 bottles include several 1990 Château Pétrus and 191 bottles of 1976 Krug Champagne. The sale is expected to bring in over $630,000. The bottles are kept in the Hôtel de Ville and government auditors decided that keeping the expensive wine was a liability because of the price and the possibility that the bottles could be damaged by a flood. Also, the current regime just isn't drinking the way Chirac's crowd used to. Both the amount of wine consumed and the amount of money allocated to the wine budget have been drastically reduced. It's a pretty strong statement regarding the French attitude toward wine in light of the recent years of plummeting French interest in wine and resulting poor sales.

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Tags: chateau petrus, france, french wine, jacques chirac, JacquesChirac, krug champagne, wine

The French Aren't Drinking Enough Wine

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Will Americans will replace the French as the world’s biggest wine drinkers? An article from Beverage Daily references a new study that says that within three years this will be the case. As we first noted last year, French wine consumption is falling fast. A new report from the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) says that French wine consumption dropped another two per cent between 2004 and 2005 and consumption is already down by half over the past 40 years. Meanwhile, Americans are drinking more wine than ever, the amount grew three per cent last year. If the trend continues the U.S. will soon be the top consumers. Wine consumption is also on the rise in Britain, it grew five percent last year. Meanwhile French wine exports are rapidly falling.

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Tags: france, french wine, wine, wine consumption, wine exports

French Winemaker Creates New Wine Of The Year Program

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Decanter reports that a Bordeaux winemaker has found a unique way to increase interest in their wines. Chateau d'Arsac will feature a different guest winemaker each year. The winemaker can choose 15 hectares (around 37 acres) of property from which to make their own vintage. The owner of Chateau d'Arsac, Philippe Raoux wants to prove that the person who makes the wine makes the difference. The wines will be listed by episode rather than vintage and Episode One will be created by Michel Rolland. Episode Two will be created by Denis Dubourdieu. For the third year they plan to work with an American (which makes good sense since they plan to market the wine in the U.S. and the U.K) and to have consultants from all around the world participate. There will be 60,000 bottles of the Rolland wine.

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Tags: bordeaux, french wine, vinter, wine, wine news, winemaker

Chateau Soutard for Sale

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

We've mentioned some California and Oregon wineries for sale before but the chance to own a French grand cru chateau is rare indeed. Decanter reports that the St-Emilion grand cru classé Château Soutard is for sale. The Chateau has been owned by the des Ligneris family since 1836 and is worth around 35 million euros. It sounds like the family isn't any great hurry to rid themselves of the vineyard but the process is definitely underway. While some French vinters may be facing trouble, houses with a long history, like Chateau Soutard will hopefully always thrive.

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Tags: chateau soutard, french wine, FrenchWine, st. emilion, wine, winery

Wine Protests in France

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

It's time once again for angry French winegrowers to take their disgruntlement to the streets. Growers in the southern regions of Avignon, Beziers, Narbonne, Bordeaux and Nimes are demanding that the government help out the floundering industry with a variety of measures from tax easements to special loans. Paris spent more than $130 million in aid to the wine sector in 2005 alone. As wines from the U.S., South America and Australia gain more of the market and French drinkers continue to consume less of their own wines, the problem continues to plague the growers. According to Decanter, the desperate situation, in which some growers have seen their income decline by 50%, has led to several suicides in the region. It seems to be a problem that worsens every year and no real solution, beyond turning the wine into industrial alcohol which is more of a stopgap at best, has been found.

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Tags: france, french wine, protest, vineyards, wine demonstration, WineDemonstration

French Rocker Puts His Name To Wine

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

I'll admit I've never heard of Johnny Hallyday but in our continuing coverage of wine by famous people, I figured I'd add his wine to our evergrowing list. According to Decanter, the 62-year-old French rocker is now producing a Coteaux du Languedoc wine, produced in the south of France. Hallyday Wines Diffusion will be producing 50,000 bottles%uFFFD with a label that identifies the wine as being discovered by Johnny Hallyday. Will Hallyday's fame in France be enough to boost the opinion of the much-maligned Languedoc wine? Personally, I think I'd rather drink Depardieu.

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Tags: french wine, johnny hallyday, languedoc, wine

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