Day 201 Drink: Chateau Barreyre 2006 Bordeaux Superieur

Bordeaux is my favorite French wine region for reds. The wines offer big palate filling flavors that have demanded huge prices over the years. Much of this image is created by the Grand Cru wines and classified growths that create an entitlement image around some wines. These are wines that have built up a reputation over decades. Most of this image has been earned, but it does not mean that other wines produced in the next village or on the other side of the hill are not worthy of attention.

A push is being put on to promote Bordeaux Superieur wines in the U.S. by growers in the region to generate trial for these more affordable labels.

Chateau Barreyre 2006 Bordeaux Superieur is a $14 wine that drinks like a $40 bottle. Purple inky pour with an aroma of great dark berries. Plenty of body to this wine. Match it with big meals, it will be up to most game, sauces and spices. The flavor has a good base level of tannins, firm fruit and some well rounded oak. It is ready to drink now, but could certainly age for 3-5 years without a problem.

Day 175 Drink: Chateau Penin 2009 Bordeaux Clairet

When you think of red wine from the Bordeaux region of France you usually expect a purple, full-bodied wine. But Chateau Penin de-stems merlot grapes and after 24 to 60 hours of maceration the juice is run off. This means the wine takes on only a portion of the available color from the skins and ends up a bright rose color.

Chateau Penin 2009 Bordeaux Clairet has a mild fruit aroma. Served slightly chilled, the wine is meant to be an aperitif and its fresh, tart flavor profile and moderate tannin level do a good job in freshening the palate.

Lager Library: The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace

If you enjoy a good mystery, Benjamin Wallace's "The Billionaire's Vinegar" is a great story of intrigue that combines history, fanatical wine collectors, abundant wealth and one man who decided to parlay this combination into a scheme to amass riches by counterfeiting rare bottles of French vintages.

The story involves a claim that a Paris cellar was discovered with long lost bottles that once belonged to Thomas Jefferson. The third president of the United States and framer of the Declaration of Independence is recognized as America's first wine connoisseur and spent a number of years in France, so the story had the right elements to be major news when the find was announced. Surely a bottle of wine linked to Jefferson would be worth its weight in gold. Imagine the value of a discovery of more than two dozen bottles of drinkable Jefferson wine from some of the great French chateaus?

Wallace tells the story of Hardy Rodenstock, a German famous for throwing lavish wine events featuring rare vintages. His claim that he had purchase the contents of a Paris cellar containing bottles engraved Th. J. soon brought interest from Michael Broadbent, founding director of the Christie's wine department in London. In an amazing auction that pitted Kip Forbes (bidding on behalf of his father, Malcolm Forbes) and Marvin Shanken (publisher of the Wine Spectator) a 1787 bottle of Chateau Lafite Bordeaux sold for a record $156,000. Forbes would not be the only wealthy wine lover to lust after one of the bottles.

Like any great mystery, The Billionaire's Vinegar offers a few twists and a set of interesting characters. The setting shifts across various European locations, to the United States and Asia. There are conflicting opinions, scientific testing worthy of an episode of CSI Miami, and gumshoe detectives looking for clues.

Reading about the subculture of super rich wine collectors and outlandish tasting events is almost as hangover producing as some of the multi-day affairs when rare vintage wines were served in excess.

The book (Crown: $24.95) is a perfect summer read even if you are not into wine.

Tuesday Tasting: Opus One

Tuesday Tasting is a regular feature of Lyke2Drink that explores some of the best beers, wines and spirits on the market. This week as part of our reports on our recent California trip we stop at a Napa Valley landmark.

Opus One means many things to many people. With a bottle of its Bordeaux blend commanding $180 and its Scott Johnson designed winery building commanding the valley floor near Oakville, everything the winery does sets a tone. Formed from a partnership hatched in 1978 between Robert Mondavi of California and Baron Philippe de Rothschild of France, Opus One consists of just 169 acres. It is a property that looms large on the wine scene if for nothing more than it establishes heights for others to scale.

The winery uses only new French oak of medium to medium heavy toast. Each has its center section stained with juice by the winery crew, as is the practice at Chateau Mouton Rothschild. The vines are planted to a French style density. The blend of grapes used each year varies as winemaker Michael Silacci looks to come up with the signature that best fits the vintage.

The 2004 Opus One consists of 86 percent cabernet sauvignon, 7 percent merlot, 4 percent petit verdot, 2 percent cabernet franc and 1 percent malbec.

The result is a wine with subtle touches of dark ripe berries, with slight amounts of spice, cocoa and some firm tannins. For Opus One fans this wine promises a solid ability to age gracefully for years to come.

Is Bordeaux Replacing Bitter in the British Pub?

A pair of reports out of the United Kingdom suggest that wine could some day replace beer as the favorite drink of British pub regulars.

First, a study commissioned by French wineries and funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture states that by 2039 more men will be ordering wine at pubs than calling for pints. The report says that many British men already have a pint at the start of the evening before shifting to wine. The primary reasons given were that a second pint of beer gave them a bloated feeling (68 percent) and the wine selection in the pub was better than the beer offerings (52 percent). The one statistic in the French study that has to trouble U.K. brewers more than any other is that 72 percent of the 1,000 British men surveyed said they consider wine to be a more sociable drink than beer.

Before you dismiss the study as purple stained French propaganda, consider the numbers just released by the British Beer and Pub Association that show the British are drinking less for the second straight year. The 2006 figures show consumption of alcohol down by 3.3 percent in Britain. From 2004 to 2006, pure alcohol intake fell from 9.4 liters to 8.9 liters.

The report shows that beer makes up 43 percent of the nation's alcohol consumption; wine 29%; spirits 20%; and cider and other drinks 8 percent. In 1990 beer held a 57 percent share and wine was 18 percent of the market.

Wineries Lobby in Washington for Appellation Protection

Would you buy a wine labeled "Napa" from China? How about a "Champagne" from California? Wineries from the United States, Europe and Australia are meeting with officials in Washington this week to try to get tougher labeling standards for wine that protects specific geographic designations.

The wine world has long given significance to appellations. The belief is that the climate, soil and other growing conditions influence the grapes and that consumers come to expect a certain level of quality from a Bordeaux or a Sonoma wine. The problem is that with fame comes imitators.

In some cases the battle has been going on for generations. Champagne has become a universal word for sparkling wine, while Port is generic for a sweet fortified wine. The makers of the original versions of these wines believe they could boost sales if consumers were not misled by labels of producers not from their regions.

The U.S. and Europe did sign a deal last year to keep wineries from launching new wines using names such as port, sherry or burgundy on the label. Existing brands were grandfathered in under the law and do not have to change their labels.

Bordeaux Heist: Look for a Drunk Sommelier

When 3,000 bottles of some of the world's best wine goes missing where should the police look first?

In France earlier this week the management of Seignouret Frères, one of the oldest negociant houses, reported they were missing $1.17 million in 2004 grand cru Bordeaux, including cases of Lafite-Rothschild, Mouton-Rothschild, Latour and other top labels. The wine had been in Seignouret Frères' warehouse for a very short period of time.

Police believe wine savvy thieves spent several hours picking out the wine they wanted and loading pallets on a truck. They left behind lower priced wine and concentrated on famous makers. There was no sign of a break in. Because of tracking numbers on the bottles it is believed the wine is being shipped outside of France.

U.S. Will Bypass France as World's Largest Wine Market By the End of this Decade

According to an annual study commission by the VinExpo trade show held in Bordeaux, the United States is poised to become the world's largest wine market.

The study found that American wine consumption would rise to 27.3 million hectoliters in 2010 from 23.0 million last year. At the same time French consumption would drop from 27.4 million to 24.9 million hectoliters.

The world wine market is a $117 billion industry. For the first time ever, Russia and China appear in the study among the top 10 consuming countries.

French Frustration: Sluggish Wine Market a Blow to National Pride

For the French, wine is part of their national identity. Tough times in the vineyards are a blow to national pride and frustrating to those looking to maintain the country's leadership in an evolving world market.

Some things, like the glut of juice on the world market, are beyond the control of French winemakers. Others, like modernizing the marketing of French wine, are wrestled with as if someone was suggesting the colors on the French flag should be changed to green, purple and black.

French wines have long carried the name of their appellation as their key identity. Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace and other regions have loyal followings. If your wine comes from one of the "in" regions, things are mostly good. If you are outside of one of these areas, it's not so good. Things are particularly tough on the mid-level vin de pays wines. The French Agriculture Ministry recently released a report that showed 70 per cent of winemakers in the Languedoc-Roussillon region lost money last year. In Bordeaux, 80 percent of the vineyards were in the black.

Now winemakers from a number of regions are considering joining together to blend grapes and market product under a 'Vineyards of France' label. Cheap table wines are already blended under a "Product of France" designation, but this proposal would include mid-level quality wines. The thought is that "France" on the label will be a stronger selling point on the world market than designations like Cotes du Rhone. The French National Office of Fruit, Wine and Horticulture holding a meeting on the proposal this week.

Meanwhile, the French Wine Co-operatives Union is frustrated by delays at the European Commission, which is considering proposals to reform government policy towards wine across the European Union. Changes are needed since there is a surplus estimated at 1.5 billion liters of wine held in storage tanks around Europe. We could all help out by ordering a bottle of French, Italian, Spanish or other European wine at dinner tonight. However, with the equivalent of 3 billion bottles backlogged on top of the stocks already in restaurants, retail locations, distributor warehouses and in-transit along the import-export trail around the world, we would need to build up a major collective hangover before the situation solved itself.

Winemakers are angry because it has been a year since the European Commission held hearings on the matter. A report was expected in December, but has now been delayed until June or July. At that point, the EU Parliament will go on break and not likely discuss possible legislation until the Fall -- just in time for another harvest season to be winding down.

One proposal that has been floated is to rip out 400,000 hectares of vineyards. This has not pleased winemakers in France, Italy or Spain because they believe they would have to shoulder the greatest load in the reform package. While this debate goes on, wines from the United States, Australia and South America are making further inroads around the globe. It will take more than reducing the supply of European wine to solve the problem.

Beverage Bulletin

No More Pesky Wine Bottles: Palandri Wines of Australia believes it can significantly boost sales during the next several years by pushing an alternative to the traditional wine bottle. Palandri has developed a recyclable plastic and aluminum package it calls the "Cheer Pack" for its Baldivis Estate brand. The winery sees the package as easier for consumers to use and believes it could open up airline in-flight business because it saves weight and space when compared to traditional bottles. Palandri is exporting 3,500 cases of merlot, shiraz and chardonnay to Canada as the first major overseas shipment of the new package.


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Pittsburgh's Plan: The bankrupt Pittsburgh Brewing Co. said this week it will present a financing plan for $7 million to $10 million to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge M. Bruce McCullough by the end of November. The brewery, which makes the Iron City brand, says it has an investment group from outside of Pittsburgh ready to step forward with the funding. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2005.

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Polish Brewery Upgrade: Three breweries in Poland that produce the Tyskie brand are about to get a $100 million upgrade thanks to parent SABMiller. Brewery capacity of a Krakow-area plant is being expanded to become SABMiller's largest European operation. Tyskie sales in the United Kingdom have increased dramatically this year and SABMiller plans to roll the brand out across the U.S. in 2007.

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Government Issued Vodka: On the heels of recent poisoning deaths involving bootleg vodka, Rosspirtprom, the Russia state-owned alcohol producer, says it will produce a $3 per half-liter bottle "people's vodka." The company says the vodka is basically being sold at cost to eliminate the need for Russians to turn to bootleg vodka, which is often not safe.

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Bud or Bordeaux?: Saying it needs an alternative to compete with beer, French company Michael Paetzold has launched a 6 percent alcohol by volume wine -- with one twist: by law the new drink is too low in alcohol to be called wine, so the company is calling it Lir. The company is marketing red, white and rose Lir and expects to sell a million bottles this year. French wine consumption has dropped and the company hopes the lighter version of wine will appeal to drinkers who have reduced consumption because of health concerns and tough French driving while intoxicated laws.

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Ice Whisky: Glenora Distillery in Nova Scotia is releasing a first among the various wood finishes in the spirit world: Glen Breton Ice, a single malt whisky aged in an ice wine barrel. Using the company's signature Glen Breton Rare 10-year-old , the brand is aged for four months in a barrel that had previously held ice wine.

College of the Holy Cross High on Wine

Development offices at universities nationwide might want to consider offering students wine appreciation courses after they hear that the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts is on the receiving end of a multi-million donation thanks to the sale of graduate's wine collection.

Park B. Smith, a 75-year-old home furnishings entrepreneur and restaurateur, raised about $4.3 million for the school after the buyer's premium was paid to auctioneers Sotheby's and Aulden Cellars. Previously he had donated approximately $20 million to the school.

The highlight of the sale was the $1.05 million price paid for 50 cases of 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, recognized as one of the best Bordeaux wines ever produced.

Beverage Bulletin: Notes from the Drinks World

Washington Fire Consumes Hops: A fire at a Yakima, Wash., warehouse on Monday destroyed an estimated 4 percent of the U.S. hop crop. S.S. Steiner Inc., one of the largest hop buyers in Washington, operated the warehouse. There were 10,000 200-pound bales of hops in the warehouse at the time of the fire. American growers produce 24 percent of the world's hops and nearly 75 percent of those come from the Yakima Valley.

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Expensive Sip: A case of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1985 was sold for a world-record $345,000 at a Christie's auction in Los Angeles recently.

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Canadian Whiskey Changes Hands: Sazerac Co. has purchased the Rich & Rare and Royal Canadian Canadian whiskey brands from France's Pernod Ricard.

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New Kentucky Whiskey: Heaven Hill in Bardstown, Ky., is releasing Rittenhouse Very Rare Straight Rye, a 21 year old whiskey. The brand will sell for $150 per bottle. There are 3,000 bottles available.

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George Would be Proud: The publisher of Wine Spectator, Marvin Shanken, apparently also enjoys good whiskey. At a fundraising auction attended by Britain's Prince Andrew, Shanken paid $100,000 for the first bottle of whiskey made from George Washington's recipe in 200 years.

Shanken immediately donated Bottle No. 1 to go on display in the George Washington Distillery Museum, set to open to the public in April, located near Mount Vernon. Washington ran a distillery on his estate at the time of his death in 1799.


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More for Moscow: Vodka maker Russian Standard Co., has a new $60 million distillery operating in St. Petersburg. The new facility will produce up to 4 million cases of vodka per year, doubling the company's capacity. Russian Standard controls two-thirds of Russia`s premium vodka market.

Fill Your Tank with Bordeaux?

Grape growers in many parts of the world are experiencing too much of a good thing. So much so that the European Union spends $624 million annually to convert wine into fuel alcohol for vehicles and factories. The term the EU uses for this is "crisis distillation," but it has become fairly routine. About one out every six bottles of European wine ends up being distilled. About a year's worth of wine is now in storage in Europe and likely headed for fuel distillation.

Europe's problem is not isolated. Encouraged by tax incentives and a growing world market for its brands, Australian farmers planted large amounts of vines. Now Australia vineyards are trying to get inventories back in line by sending non-branded wine to stores at the bargain basement price of $2 per bottle.

In the U.S. the grape supply is expected to be down 14 percent this year because of weather conditions around the country. Don't expect to see any shortages, but you may see some premium products go up in price slightly.

While a wine glut may give consumers some immediate price breaks, it causes headaches for winemakers and retailers. The challenge for the Europeans is multiplied by the fact that consumption in key domestic markets is down, while challenges from American, South American and Australian wineries continue to grow. The EU is pushing vineyards to make wine labels easier to read, similar to American labels, while they also push for vineyards to be plowed under. They are also encouraging vintners to make wines that are more accessible and less complex, pointing to the success of easy drinking wines from New World markets.

A recent report on the impact of global warming on traditional vineyard areas suggests that some of the problem could solve itself as hotter than normal growing conditions cut production totals. You could have fooled many non-U.S. vineyards that are swimming in juice.

Perhaps we all need to do our part to reduce the glut by cracking open an extra bottle of wine this week.