Dr Vino’s wine blog

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Two Buck Chuck, the celebrated wine that debuted at Trader Joe’s several years ago will never have a British equivalent, Two Pound Chuck. Why? Taxes.

The duty on a bottle of wine under 15 percent alcohol in the UK is £1.46. Throw in VAT at 17.5% and you can see why it is essentially impossible. Even wines under £4.99 have a distinct aroma of taxlicious since 40% of the price paid at the register ends up going to HM Treasury.

That’s one of the things I learned writing a short piece about wine and politics for The Guardian & Observer guides to wine, which appeared on Saturday on newstands in the UK (a second part of the guide will follow shortly and I have another piece in that). Fortunately, since I can’t pop down to a WH Smith and pick up a copy, the full contents of the section are available on the Guardian web site. Be sure to check it out for more fascinating articles by Jancis Robinson, Steven Spurrier and others.

Domaine Tempier, venerable rose from Bandol, emerged victorious against arch rival from Provence, Domaines Ott, in a war of the rosés on the official Dr. Vino Deck this past weekend.

First up was the Ott (Chateau de Selles bottling), with its sleek and stylish bottle that vaguely resembles a pink bowling pin, boasting a retail price of $30+ a bottle–obscene by rosé standards, which has made it the unofficial wine of the Hamptons.

Better than my reduced expectations had led me to believe, the overpriced yacht juice that is the 2007 Ott actually Read more…

The folks at Nestle have a wine flavored KitKat in Japan! Clearly they need our help. I mean really, what KIND of wine?!?

So what should be this product’s tagline? Hit the comments with your thoughts!

To get the ball rolling, I’ll riff of the classic Reese’s ad with “You got your chocolate in my wine!”

“You think Champagne prices have risen a lot already? Just wait til the holidays when the prices will go up again.”

That’s what a leading NYC sommelier told me a few months ago. When I heard it I went out and bought two bottles of champagne as a feeble hedge against the impending price rise. (But I drank them already though!)

Prices of many wines have indeed gone up. Last spring, I managed to find in my office the 2007 and 2008 catalogs of the same importer’s tasting. Prices were higher across the board, ranging 15 percent and went up as high as 40 percent. I should have alerted Ben Bernanke since that is several times the overall rate of inflation!

But recent developments have me wondering if the sommelier’s prophecy might still be true. Read more…

If you’ve wanted to work for the Church of England but have felt constrained by the whole clergy thing, Birmingham Cathedral in England may have just the position for you: sommelier.

According to this article, the Cathedral has hired a new “director of hospitality and welcome” away from a department store. He plans to open a chain of wine bars in the downtown area as well as implementing “loyalty cards” for regular parishioners (on the tenth worship you get a tall glass of forgiveness?).

Mark Hope-Urwin, the new director, said: “We’re not trying to encourage drinking, but the cathedral has to engage more with the city and find ways of meeting people on their territory.”

Perhaps educating parishioners about wine will lead to an upgrading of the Communion wine? Wouldn’t want them to spit that, after all.

Hit the comments with your thoughts on what’s on the wine list at an Anglican wine bar!

So my trip to Oregon in July was a pinot-drenched journey–literally.

Because I was flying on United, I was a little wary. A previous commenter on this site had noted that the airline had confiscated his wine even though it was in his checked luggage. (Their policy now states that all wine in the hold must be in a Styrofoam shipping container even if it is in luggage.) So I didn’t want to splurge on too many bottles or any at too high a price in case they were taken away.

I put six bottles in a cardboard carrier and put it in my wheelie duffel. When I arrived back at Laguardia, my six pack had turned into a a five pack and my bag smelled like a winery. Fortunately, the pinot washed out without a problem.

I’ve put a lot of wine in my luggage over the years and thus far escaped unscathed. But it can’t hurt to use a little extra padding–or even use that Styrofoam shipper! Click through for a gory picture of my broken bottle–and of a funny celeb I saw making a spontaneous gate announcement in the terminal. Read more…

As many of you set out on drives for this holiday weekend, consider this conundrum from our recent trip.

As wine geeks are wont to do, we brought a case plus a few bottles on our Adirondack adventure. The wines were from different producers and I bought them from different retailers. We had enjoyed several of the wines in the preceding two weeks and decided to share them with our relatives.

Yet several of the wines tasted too advanced. And we’re talking some 06s and 07s, which shouldn’t be advanced at all.

So what happened? I’m not sure. We did stop for a three-hour lunch with some friends on the way. I parked the car in the shade but when we returned, it was in the summer sun. I’m tempted to say this stint was the cause of our wine woes. But I’ve received so many wines via UPS that must have had even more exposure to the heat of summer than that. Do you have a theory?

Fortunately, the wines were diminished but not destroyed and some seemed unaffected. But as a precaution, I might bring a cooler next time we are going to make a stop on a trip like that. Assuming I can fit it in the car with all the kids’ gear etc!

As the summer winds down, a few more events start up for my book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. I hope to see you at one of the events!

August 31: Palmer Vineyards, Aquebogue, on the North Fork of Long Island, 11:30 AM. A talk with host Larry Davidson in the last of this year’s “Writers on the Vine” series. $11 admission fee, which includes a glass of wine. No reservations necessary.

September 11: Signing at Crush Wine & Spirits, 57th St between 3rd and Lex. 5:30 - 7:30. French wines relating to themes in the book will be poured! Drop in any time!

September 18: Rebel wines from France. A talk and a tasting at the West Loop wine shop, Just Grapes, Chicago, 6 PM. Pre-reserve now

September 19: book signing at Sam’s Wine, Lincoln Park, 5-7 PM. Drop in any time and say hi!

September 20: University of Chicago, “France and America: Wine Politics and a Tasting Showdown.” I always look forward to these Saturday afternoon seminars and this one will be particularly fun since we will discuss the themes of the book, and then taste excellent wines from the two counties. All participants will get a signed copy! Note: this is at the Gleacher Center, 2:30 - 6:30 PM. Advance registration essential since these sell out!

And there’s always my NYU class, “Becoming a Wine Expert,” starting October 15 for six consecutive Wednesday evenings.
October 28: panel on wine and climate change, American Museum of Natural History. Details to follow closer to the date.

With convention season now upon us, Eric Arnold and I got in the mood and tasted some wines from blue states and the more difficult–viticulturally speaking–red states over on Forbes.com (with videos!).

With California, Washington, and Oregon making something like 95 percent of American wine and coming up as blue on the electoral map, the challenge is to find good red state wines. I won’t steal the thunder of the piece but I will say that the wines we tried were surprisingly good. Here’s the quick list:

* Galena Cellars, General’s Reserve, from Obama’s home state of Illinois (find this wine)
* Heron Hill, Riesling, Finger Lakes, NY (find this wine)
* Caduceus, Arizona Stronghold, McCain’s home state, yes, but also now where Tool lead singer Maynard Keenan is growing vines (find this wine)
* Barboursville, Barbera, 2006 from Virginia, a state that swung red last time but is very much in play this year (and former Governor Mark Warner, a vineyard owner, is the Keynote speaker in tomorrow’s Democratic convention; find this wine).

I tried to recreate this lineup for a corporate tasting while I am in Chicago next month but none of the three non-Illinois wines were available in the market via wine-searcher. And none of the retailers I checked online even stocked the Illinois wine. It’s really too bad I can’t ship the wines there from an out of state retailer now that it is illegal. So I had to choose another theme for that tasting, alas.

Mike Steinberger posted a piece to Slate.com on Friday detailing the folly French appellation politics (entitled “How Bureaucrats Are Wrecking French Wine”). I’m glad to see the topic getting a broader airing since it is at the heart of my book, Wine Politics, which Mike kindly mentions. But go check out the article and see Mike’s plan for AOC reform if he were French wine czar for a day.

Mike mentions the growing ranks of quality producers who have had wines refused by the tasting portion of the appellation process. When the list includes names such as Jean Thevenet, Didier Dagueneau, Eloi Dürrbach, Marcel Lapierre, Thierry and Jean-Marie Puzelat, Marcel Richaud, Georges Descombes, and Philippe Jambon, you’ve got to wonder if that doesn’t say more about the appellation politics itself. But there’s one other notable rule breaker who could be included in that list: Philippe Pacalet. Read more…