grapes

$4,000 of Rare Wine Grapes Stolen Off the Vine in Washington

Filed under: Wine

The owners of Grand Rêve Vineyard in Red Mountain, Washington are reeling after an unexpected and mind boggling crime: sometime over the last week $4000 worth of rare grapes were stolen right out of their vineyard. Coined 'The Great Grape Caper of Red Mountain' the theft was clearly well planned and cleverly executed as the thieves made off with a ton (literally) of very specific and exotic grapes called Bushvine Mourvedre. Because they ignored every other kind of grape and did such a clean and complete job it's being considered the work of professionals. "Whoever it was, knew what they were doing." said Ryan Johnson, one of the vineyard partners and manager. "They were very thorough."

Mourvedre grapes are usually only found in areas of southern France and are often used in valuable, high end wine. 'Head trained' to grow as a bush instead of on a long trailing vine, they're particularly labor intensive and this harvest was a bit of an experiment that started way back in 2008. "The most frustrating thing about this is we waited three years to see what these vines would do," said Johnson. "This was our opportunity to see what the future might hold for us."

At this time authorities have no suspects but think it was an 'inside job' by someone familiar with the tightly-knit Washington wine community. Paul McBride, the other partner at Grand Rêve, said "For somebody in the state to think 'Gosh, I have just got to have that Bushvine Mourvedre,' that takes a real wine geek." Plus the thieves had to know where the grapes were, how and when to harvest them, and have a means to quickly sell them or make wine. This was no spur of the moment effort.

If there's any bright spot in this dark cloud it's that the thieves may not have gotten quite as great a bunch of grapes as they could have. According to Johnson "The grapes are good right now, but if they'd waited another 10 days, what they got would have been absolutely phenomenal. They missed out."

The stolen grapes are valued at about $4000 but estimates put the wine they would have made at worth over $30,000.

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Tags: crime, grapes, theft, wine

Remy Martin Unveils $1,000 "Diamant" Cognac

by David Kiley (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits

Rémy Martin has unveiled a new super-premium cognac it will begin selling through travel retail this October.

"Diamant" Fine Champagne Cognac is crafted from some of the most sought after grapes in the Champagne region. According to Cellar Master Pierrette Trichet, Diamant contains very rare grapes and boasts traditional distillation methods and long maturation in Limousin oak casks. "To create Rémy Martin Diamant, I have selected the rarest eaux-de-vie from the heart of Cognac – from among the top 10% that are the most prized - and polished them like a precious stone," says Trichet.

Fine Champagne Cognac blends between 300 and 400 eaux-de-vie made exclusively with grapes from the Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne regions. Rémy Martin selects each year eaux-de-vie from Petite and Grande Champagne, from among the local distillers' best production.

On the nose, Rémy Martin Diamant has delicate floral notes of honeysuckle and iris, followed by an aromatic heart of summer fruits such as plum and fig. After that come notes of hazelnuts, candied orange and hints of saffron and jasmine.

Inspired by a faceted diamond nestling in a jewelry box, Diamant will be launched in October at DFS stores in celebration of the leading travel retailer's 50th anniversary. Price: US$1,000. The DFS launch will be followed in December by the Cognac's introduction at other key travel retail outlets.

Tags: champagne, cognac, diamant, grapes, remy martin

Growers And Champagne Houses Set To Battle Over Yield Limits

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Back in April of this year we saw one major champagne producer advocate lower production rates to compact the drop in sales. Now with harvest fast approaching, the battle is heating up over a reduction in yield. The London Times says that they may be ordered to leave up to half of the grapes on the vine in order to prevent flooding the market with champagne there is no market for. Last year the harvest level was 14,000 kg for every hectare farmed, this year Champagne houses are advocating 7,500 kg a hectare. Growers realize they have to harvest less but are pushing for 10,000 kg a hectare. The champagne houses are finding that they already have over a billion bottles in stock in their wine caves, far more than they usually keep on hand. Champagne grapes harvested will turn into wine which is ready for sale in 2011. The problem is that no body seems to know just how fast the economy will rebound and if, when it does, it will take champagne consumption with it. Champagne drinking is associated with a certain type of extravagance and it may be that even if the economy recovers quickly people may still not be ready to raise their glasses with the French bubbly.

Grape growers are coming off years when they received high prices for their grapes and champagne production was kept high to keep up with increasing demand. They are angry and according to an article in the Economist some say that the big champagne houses knew a crisis was coming, a charge the champagne houses deny. Merchants and vineyards are meeting Wednesday to set the maximum yield. If they can't reach a figure together then the regional prefect, who represents the French Government, makes the decision.

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Tags: champagne, france, grapes, wine

Midwest Gets World's Largest Wine Appellation

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

The world's largest wine appellation is right here in the U.S.A. The Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA covers 29,914 square miles along the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries including parts of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These aren't exactly areas we first think of for wine but in recent years more and more wineries have popped up in the area and good wine has been emerging from these unexpected places. The boundaries of the AVA are all part of the "driftless" Paleozoic Plateau and have a different type of soil than areas that have undergone periods of glaciation. Grapes in the Upper Mississippi Valley AVA include ones that can handle cold winters such as the Chardonel, Edelweiss, La Crosse, Marechal Foch, Frontenac and Saint Croix. The new appellation is fifty times greater than Bordeaux and officially goes into effect on July 22, 2009.

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Tags: grapes, upper mississippi valley, UpperMississippiValley, wine

Bunch O' Grapes Cost BIG Bucks

by Gillian M. Kalson (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

A giant bunch of Japanese grapes recently sold for almost $1000 at an auction in Ishikawa. The Ruby Roman variety, developed by the Ishikawa Prefecture Agricultural Research Center, was sold to an upscale hotel owner on Monday. The single bunch, consisting of 30 grapes each slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball, were described as "delicious: sweet but fresh at the same time, very well balanced," by Agricultural official Hirofumi Isu. At that price they better be!

[Thanks, Laurel]

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Tags: auction, grapes, japan, ruby roman, RubyRoman

Chopard's Precious Grapes

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Put two of my favorite loves together, fine jewelry and fine wine, together and you get this beauty. Chopard's artistic director Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele has created a parure of a necklace and earrings with a grapevine motif to celebrate the Festival del Sole in Napa Valley. Fashion Week Daily reports that the pieces are set in 18K rose gold and feature white and colored diamonds as well as gemstones that mimic the colors and shapes of grapes, vines, and leaves.

The ten-day festival is a luxury affair currently underway through July 20. It features concerts and presentations as well as gourmet meals and wine events throughout Napa Valley.

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Tags: chopard, festival del sole, grapes, jewelry, necklace

Champagne Gets The Underwater Treatment

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Champagne producer Louis Roederer has put a new twist on aging their sparkling wine, they are testing out aging the wine in the cold seawater 50 feet down in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy, France. Roederer has placed several dozen bottles underwater and plan to bring them up in one year and hold a tasting session to compare them against wines aged the traditional way in their sellers. Roederer is the first producer to test aging sparkling wine in this way but others use this message for still wines including the Cavas Submarinas wine from Chile.

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Tags: champagne, grapes, louis roederer, sparkling wine

French Town Hopes For A Second Chance To Make Champagne

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

The threat of a Champagne shortage and the recent decision to consider expanding the Champagne grape-growing region might be good for one small French city. The Wall Street Journal tells the story of the town of Péas, which in the 1950s decided to stop growing grapes and turn toward other agricultural pursuits such as wheat and potatoes. Legend has it that when the mayor at the time found out that his city was eligible to seek inclusion in the champagne grape-growing region, he threw the letter away.

Huge mistake. A hectare (around 2.5 acres) of agricultural land in Péas is valued at less than $9,000 while a hectare of land that can be used to grow grapes for Champagne can be worth almost $1.5 million. What a difference one letter could have made.

But Péas may be getting a second chance to earn that Champagne money with the plans to expand the regions boundaries. As you might imagine, the town is rather excited about the prospect. They will have a long wait though, the first new vineyards probably won't be planted until 2015, with a first harvest in 2017. For now, all we can do is wish Péas bonne chance.

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Tags: champagne, expire-images:2008-12-15, france, grapes, vineyard

Adopt A Grape

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

More proof that the current trend in wine is toward being involved in the winemaking process comes in the form of a new website, Adopt a Grape. The website is an interactive experience in which you chose a grape from a specific row and vine in the vineyard and then receive video updates as the grape goes through the growing season and harvest. The site was co-founded by Duane Hoff, owner of Fantseca Winery in St. Helena which is having their hands-on harvest experience on October 6 if you want to experience winemaking first hand.

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Tags: adopt a grape, AdoptAGrape, expire-images:2008-9-25, grapes, vineyard, winemaking, winery

Drought Threatens Australia's Grape Crop

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Last year the news was all about Australia's wine glut and vineyards dumping their harvests. This year the situation is much different, Australia's wine grape harvest next year could be cut by more than half because of the worst drought in a century. In the U.S. it is currently harvest season but in Australia the harvest is still months away. Still there is reason to be concerned because yields will be done in regions that rely on irrigation water from the Murray-Darling Basin. The Wine Grape Growers Australia executive director Mark McKenzie has said between 800 and 1,000 of the nation's wine grape growers could be at risk of going out of business because they cannot buy water. The news comes as Australian wine exports have reached record numbers.

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Tags: australia, grapes, harvest, vineyard, wine

Vino Erectus

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

My love of Wine Spectator's Unfiltered column continues unabated. This week they had a piece on Vino Erectus, the unique project of young vinter Franco Ariano. Ariano's bold plan is to train grapes to grow upside down (tip facing up) ten ferment the grapes in an antique 400-liter glass pharmaceutical amphora, bottle the wine and then bury the bottles in the ground for a year. The resulting Sangiovese blend, made from grapes on Ariano's two-acre vineyard in Saludeccio, Italy, will sell for around $2,700 a bottle. Ariano says that growing the grapes in this way leads to earlier ripening and better ventilated bunches.

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Tags: grapes, Italy, sangiovese, vino erectus, VinoErectus, wine

Blackstone Launches New Sonoma-Based Wines

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

Like Kendall-Jackson, Blackstone winery is seeking to seek the next level of the wine market with a new line that appeal to a different price point than their main line which is generally under $10. The Blackstone Sonoma Reserve is produced at Blackstone's Kenwood Winery in the heart of Sonoma Valley and includes a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Bordeaux-inspired red blend, Rubric. The wines use grapes sourced from premium vineyards found upon the hillsides, benchlands and coastline of Sonoma County and are made by winemaker Gary Sitton.

The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Chardonnay uses grapes from the cool climate areas of Russian River Valley and Carneros, with small percentages drawn from the Sonoma Coast and sells for $16.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Merlot uses grapes from the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Sonoma Valley and also sells for $16.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Pinot Noir uses fruit from the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley region and is aged for 12 months in French oak. It sells for $18.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve "Rubric" is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah. It is matured in a combination of French and American oak barrels and sells for $18.99.

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Tags: blacstone wines, BlacstoneWines, chardonnay, grapes, merlot, pinot noir, PinotNoir, red wine, RedWine, sonoma, white wine, wine

Champagne Guzzlers Stretch Moet To Its Breaking Point

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

If you are a fan of Moet et Chandon, here comes some bad news. The director of the Champagne house, Frederic Cumenal told the French newpaper Les Echos that they are facing supply issues. Because the Champagne region is an AOC and is limited by geographical boundaries it stands to reason that there is not an endless supply of grapes. The continued growth and popularity of the Moet et Chandon brand has streched the brand to its limits. Cumenal said that yields are at maximum. Nature can only be pushed so far and so a new rule for the 2007 harvest in the region stipulates that growers must save excess grapes in good harvest years to put on the market during limited supply years.

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Tags: champagne, france, grapes, harvest, moet et chandon, wine

New Company Makes Innovative Use Of Wine Leftovers

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Wine, Green

Yesterday I mentioned distilleries that use old whisky casks as barbecue chips and it got me thinking about winemaking leftovers. That's when I ran across this story, on Apres Vin, a new company in Washington that specializes in using winemaking leftovers. The company creates gourmet grape seed oils based on varietals such as Riesling and Merlot infused with chipotle. The ground-up seed meal from creating the oil can also be dried to make varietal flours such as Merlot and Chardonnay, which can create purple tinted baked goods. The flour is also high in antioxidants. The company is also exploring other options such as wood stove pellet fuel made from grape stems and seeds, paper and ink from the grape skins and even Chardonnay biodiesel. The company's website isn't live yet and so far the products aren't available in a lot of places but I think this is a brilliant idea and one I hope takes off.

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Tags: apres vin, ApresVin, biodiesel, grapes, washington, wine, winemaking

Tinto Figuero Noble 2003 Wine

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

The May issue of The Tasting Panel has an article on hot wines from Spain and Portugal. The Garcia Figuero winery is a labor of love for Jose Maria Garcia and Milagros Figuero, a wine-growing couple who focus on Tempranillo grapes in the Ribera Del Duero region. Their showcase wine is the 2003 Figuera Noble. The grapes for this wine are sourced from estate vineyards over 70 years of age. The wine was then aged in new barrels for 21 months, the first 15 in American oak, and the last 6 months in French Allier and Troncais oak and is aged 15 months in the bottle before leaving the cellar. The result is a deeply purple wine with a nose of candied black fruits and taste of chocolate and berries. It sells for around $160.

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Tags: garcia figuero, grapes, spanish wine, SpanishWine, temperanillo, wine

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