Food-Mile Researchers are on a roll.
Who would have thought a few short years ago that you could earn an income by becoming a "food-mile researcher". There is a whole new industry out there funded by your tax dollars. In a recent article by British journalist Anna Shepard she suggested to : "Buy a bottle of French wine instead of a New Zealand vintage" to reduce "food miles" This of course had New Zealanders up in arms. According to professor Gareth Edward Jones, a"leading" researcher on food miles the answer perhaps in saving the planet is "don't drink any wine". Not so fast says Dave Pearce, chief winemake of the New Zealand Wine Company."Don't be fooled by food miles". Meanwhile according to a report published last year by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the global livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transport. But if you are a potato farmer in the UK, things are looking up. According to Julie Sloan "With potatoes on our doorstep, there is little doubt that more modern carbohydrate alternatives, such as rice and pasta, cannot compete with the clear conscience
shopping of buying home grown potatoes" So if you are a "meat and potato" kind of person, like myself, 
you will only get half the enjoyment. Lots of potatoes but no meat please! Now I am all for cleaning up the environment and not just for future generations. Lets start with fines for people who spit their gum on sidewalks and an equally repulsive habit by those who throw their cigarette buts there as well. And all you food mile researchers, I am sure the bike pictured above is available in a beautiful environmental green. So get a group of you together and bike to work. And perhaps you can have your local wines delivered by this energy saving mode of transportation. Click on the picture to the right to get the idea. But PLEASE, lets not get carried away. I love my meat, I love my potatoes and above all, I love my wines. But an even more important issue is that people are going to suffer badly because of an over-enthused approach to this "food-mile" fad. Now that I have got that out of my system, I am going to enjoy a delicious glass of Spanish Tempranillo, all the way from Spain.
Two of the most distinguished "Grand Ladies of Wine" have spoken out on the future and pricing of Bordeaux wines. Baroness Philippine de Rothschild, at a lavish dinner at her Chateau Mouton Rothschild spoke of her concerns about the Bordeaux wine trade and suggesting wine was not for investing but rather for drinking. 
Meanwhile Jancis Robinson in a podcast conversation with Berry Bros and Rudd's Bordeaux sales director Simon Staples, openly states "I hope 2006 will not be a success. I hope it will really show the Bordelais the shortcomings of the system" Listen to the podcast.
Could these excessive prices be blamed on the Emperor? You can find an interesting observation on pricing and who is to blame over on Slate .
However the status seeking nouveaux riche in China, Russia and other Asian countries are driving prices into the stratosphere as well.According to Timothy Tong ( that name has kind of got a ring to it, doesn't it? ) imports to Asian countries will increase dramatically. Imported wines make up only 5.6 % of Chinese wine consumption. Currently there are over 500 wineries in operation in China. The top 10 Chinese producers make around 10-12 million litres of wine annually. Expect plantings to increase as the Chinese become a wine consuming society. I recently had the opportunity to taste the the 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon from China's Great Wall vineyards. Certainly not great but quality will improve dramatically over the next decade. Then watch for a flood of their wines to hit the export market. A survey carried out for Vinexpo 2007 by the London-based International Wine and Spirit Record (IWSR) predicts global wine sales will increase 45 percent by 2010 and production by 41 percent with subsequent price increases. Europe's wine lake may be drained but is there a new one in the making behind the Great Wall of China?
Just a quick follow up on my previous post. It seems that Rosésare getting more popular. According to the the Nielsen Company's annual state of the industry as reported in Wines&Vines,
they are up 23.9%. And these are real Rosés, not your blush kind of pink drink. Also they are coming from all over the map,
not just home grown varieties. Happy summer time sipping everyone!
You might say I have come full circle. In college the "in" wine to drink was pink and was none other than Mateus. A light and sweet Portuguese rosé in that cute little dark green bocksbeutel. From the archives of Wines&Vines comes this interesting article on rosés. Then 1973 saw the "invention" of White Zinfandel at Sutter Home.Today they sell more than 4 million bottles annually. Beringer Vineyards produces one of the most popular white Zinfandels on the market and today White Zinfandel accounts for 10% of all wine sold by volume, making it the third most popular varietal in the US. Had not touched much of anything pink or blush for years till visiting France during the 2005 vintage. Even ordinary "house rosés" are very quaffable and very enjoyable, especially on a hot day. Couldn't resist going to The Great Canadian Pub on the left bank in Paris though, for a quick Canadian brewsky. More than half of the wines produced in Provence are rosés. Some of the very best rosés in the world come from the Southern Rhône Valley. The appellation of Tavel produces rosés only. Rosés are becoming more popular with North American wine drinkers and there is a trend to produce a drier style of rosé. British Columbia produces some outstanding rosés and now that .JPG)
they are done in a drier style I am beginning to quite enjoy them. The two bottles on the left in the picture are a couple of the best examples. St.Hubertus and Quails'Gate. ( click to enlarge ) So a Rosé by another name may not be the same but a Riedel glass by another name is the same. Riedel has just released a Vinum Rosé glass. They claim of course that a lot of tasting and testing went into the production of this glass. But other than a "pink" stem it is the same glass as the one that used to be called their Chianti glass. This then, again after much tasting and testing became the Zinfandel glass and then the Riesling Grand Cru. Talk about a misnomer. Grand Cru Riesling? And now its also the Rosé glass. Look at the pretty box with the pink ribbon. That's the Rosé glass. Look at the glass on the right. That is the Zinfandel glass. Some smart marketing going on? White Zinfandel popular, rosés more popular. Hmmm! Give Riedel credit though. Riedel will donate 15% of the proceeds from the sale of this glass to support "Living Beyond Breast Cancer". Living Beyond Breast Cancer, founded in 1991, is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life. A very worthy cause indeed. I have my order in for a few sets of these. Besides liking the funky pink stem, this glass (Zinfandel, Chianti, Riesling) is one of my favorite all around good wine glasses. I often take one to various wine tastings around town.
"Il est arrivé" Another first for Boisset, La Famille des Grands Vins. Two years ago Boisset teamed up with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and became the first French winery to launch a vintage-dated wine in a cardboard Tetra Pak called the French Rabbit. It has since expanded to other provinces and countries, including the United States, Ireland and recently in France, where it goes by the English name. According to Mr. Boisset "The French love it" Now Ontario has again been chosen to launch what is sure to become another winner, the Yellow Jersey. David Bantey of Boisset Canada confirms that plans are well in hand to launch the product in British Columbia and then into the US and other markets. Boisset, known for quality wines and with this unique packaging is sure to have another successful product in their line-up. Alder, over at Vinography, with a recent post on another yellow product, should be happy with this one. My bike is ready and waiting to travel down the yellow brick road.
A lot of research went into this project and the results are in. Shipping wine in bulk is the answer! According to this report "Results of a Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) report revealed bulk wine imports to the UK offer the greatest potential reduction of CO2 emissions." Imagine that!! Who would have thought. Bring a bunch of think tankers (WRAP) together and come up with this brilliant idea.
I am all for energy conservation but it appears to be creating a whole new industry. You have to wonder whether a "profit" motive is not involved. Shipping wine in bulk will lead to significant cost reductions . Will those savings be passed on to the consumer? I think not!
And how about those new "voluntary" labeling proposals? Voluntary is the key word here. It won't be long before some British parliamentarian will introduce legislation to make it mandatory. Another nightmare and great cost for vintners and in the end for consumers. Think and drink locally while the drinking is good. As Roger Dial proclaims "somewhereness" is good.
Bulk tanker wines with "anywhereness" wines not good.
A short 5 minute drive from my home gets you to Gold Stream Park and then another short 5 minute hike along a rocky trail gets you to this beautiful scenic waterfall. (Click on the pic.)Pure, fresh, clean water. The Olympia Brewing Company with their well-known slogan "Its the Water" has attributed the excellence of their beer to the high quality of water used to make their beer. The most famous beers in the world have always depended on a special source of water to create their version of the highest quality beer. Its not just the water, its what's in the water that counts. Switching thoughts slightly, its what is in the irrigation water derived from the Murray-Darling river system in Australia and subsequently returned to the river, that is a cause for great concern. An increase in salinity in vineyard soils is becoming a significant problem. With the severe drought that Australia has suffered, an increased dependency on irrigation is inevitable. But not so fast says John Howard,
the Australian prime minister, who in April announced that irrigation will not be allowed next year without significant rainfall in the next few months.
European vineyards are now starting to use irrigation on a larger scale. Global warming is one of the triggering factors here. France has just recently allowed the use of irrigation but on a restricted basis.Organic and bio-dynamic vineyards with their reduced dependence on irrigation will become more prominent. It will be interesting to see how the new rules will play out in tradition bound Burgundy. I am betting the dynamic trend setter, the Boisset Family with their corporate family of wineries called La Famille des Grands Vins, will lead the way. (See my March 18 entry "Snap a Cap.." on a bold move by this Burgundian firm.)
An excellent review of wine press terminology and types of presses available today, may be found in the reference library at WINE BUSINESS.com As well an interesting article in the January issue of Wines&Vines discusses the re-appearance of basket presses on winery cellar floors. Basket presses use the force of grape against grape as opposed to grapes being pressed against a screen. This less grinding action results in less extraction of harsh components from grape skins and seeds. According to some winemakers this results in higher quality wines. While basket presses are still used in the making of Icewines,
(scroll down to my Dec. 3 Entry) bladder presses are faster and more efficient. The first Willmes bladder presses appeared in the 1960s and resulted in a significant increase in German Eiswein production. Icewine grapes in their frozen state are as hard as marbles and require considerable pressure to extract their golden nectar. The bladder can be inflated rapidly and result in a fast extraction of the juice. By Icewine law grapes must remain in their frozen state while being pressed. So time is of the essence. The newer versions of bladder presses are gentler and operate at lower pressures so as not to impart harshness to the must but are also slower. If temperatures rise before the extraction is complete, the grapes will thaw and cannot be used for Icewine. One of British Columbia's best Icewine producers, the Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery in the Okanagan Valley, snapped up the old Willmes presses when the German Eiswein producer Schloss Schonborn, replaced their presses in the mid-1990s. So there you have it. Basket presses may be making a comeback but not in the Icewine sector.As always my thanks to the world renowned Icewine expert, John Schreiner for his invaluable information on Icewines.
I look forward to my weekly Vinography Image from Alder Yarrow over at Vinography: A Wine Blog. This weeks image by the outstanding photographer Michael Regnier prompted me to go back to the pictures I had taken during my visit to France in the fall of the great 2005 vintage. These grapes were a couple of days away from being harvested. B e sure to click on the image to enlarge it. I like to call this picture "Three Grape Clusters", not to be confused with Michael's "Three Red Leaves". Be sure to visit Alder's site to get a look at that delightful image. So like Michael, I ask you to identify my grapes.
Go ahead, you'll be surprised to find out what region they are from.
There has been a lot of news about the 2007 Australian grape harvest lately. Frost and drought has affected the grape harvest severely for this vintage and prices are predicted to rise for most wines. Production is expected to be down 400 million litres. While this is good news for the grape growers in Australia, big wine companies may be facing some tough negotiations with these same growers. During the oversupply, grape growers were forced to sell their grapes at practically give away prices but now feel its their turn. The British wine market has been recognized as a very influential one ever since they pretty much established the Bordeaux wine trade in the middle of the 17th century. While the number one destination for Australian wines has been the UK market there are signs of renewed interest in French and Italian wines. The good news all around however for producers is that there is a definite trend to higher quality and higher priced wines. Tesco, British supermarket giant, reports that sales of wines at £10 or more has grown by 75 per cent over the past two years. The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation announced plans to convince the Brits and the rest of the world that Australian wines are right up there with the best in the world and deserve higher prices. But perhaps it is too early to predict the demise of the "two buck chuck" phenomena. After all as Fred Franzia of
Charles Shaw Wines once uttered "No bottle of wine is worth more than $10." I just happen to believe that good wine can be worth more and perhaps a lot more than $10.
you will only get half the enjoyment. Lots of potatoes but no meat please! Now I am all for cleaning up the environment and not just for future generations. Lets start with fines for people who spit their gum on sidewalks and an equally repulsive habit by those who throw their cigarette buts there as well.
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