Forty Four: From Campaign to Champagne

I received a most peculiar e-mail today from Bacchus Wine shop for a sparkler called “Forty Four: Barack Obama Sparkling Wine.” It’s a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Ugni blanc (the grape typically used in Cognac) which sounds quite odd to me. I guess it doesn’t matter what it tastes like since most people will buy it as a collectible for their shelves. The name derives from the fact that Obama is soon to be the country’s 44th president.

“On November 4th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the first minority person to achieve the great office since the founding of the union. This commemorative bottle of Sparkling Wine celebrates Obama’s historic achievement; a toast to the human spirit’s ability to accomplish great deeds despite the odds. Reflect and enjoy!”

It’s available at the Bacchus online store or for direct purchase via Google Checkout.

I’m sure this isn’t the first Obama themed potable on the market. Have you found any other Obama commemorative bottlings? Consumed any?

Wine Cartoons Help France with the Asian Market

Yesterday, The Times featured Tokyo’s newest wine critic: Shizuku Kanzaki whose reviews are featured in neither blog nor glossy mag, but in a cartoon called “The Drops of the Gods” or, “Les Gouttes de Dieu” in French. The comic’s hero (Shizuku) is on a quest to find the 12 best wines in the world, as selected by his recently deceased Father who is a world famous wine critic. Perhaps the villain of the comic is his sommelier adopted brother, who he is competing against. Whoever finds these 12 wines first will inherit their Father’s vast wine cellar.

The comic is doing wonders for the French market in Asia because the writers, the Kibayashi siblings, have a strong preference for French wine, saying that they don’t feel the terroir of new world wines. When a wine appears on the list, retailers are sure to search for it and stock their store, knowing that they’ll be asked for it. People are being exposed to these wines in a fun, approachable way with analogies of a 2001 Bordeaux to the band Queen, for example.

The comic appears every Thursday in Japan in the magazine “Weekly Morning” and has already been translated into multiple languages. It has been appearing in the magazine since 2000 from what I found, and has also had tremendous influence in South Korea, where men carry the comic with them to bars for reference.

As I’m sure you’re curious, these are the wines that appeared in the first volume:

• Domaine Bizot les Jachées - Vosne-Romanée - 2000
• Richebourg Vosnes romanée 1er cru, 1997
• Rosso Miani
• Château Mont-Pérat - Côtes de Bordeaux - 2001
• Domaine de la Romanée Conti - Richebourg - 1990
• Pomard Rugiens Bas 2000
• Domaine de la Romanée Conti - Richebourg Grand cru - 1959
• Château Mouton Rothschild – Pauillac – 1982
• Opus One 2000
• Château Léoville Las Cases 1983
• Château Baron Pichon-Longueville

Clearly Bordeaux and Burgundy reign supreme with the exception of Opus One, which is of course French in style. I can’t seem to make sense of the lone Rosso Miani, anybody else?

In any case, exposure to a new wine market is always a great thing and France can use all the help it can get these days, though I don’t suspect that these are the wines they’ve got a surplus on.

Rapper Lil’ Jon Starts His Own Winery: Crunk and Class Unite!

A recent post on the ever-trustworthy, Superficial.com breaks the news that the king of crunk and oversized silver gobelets, Lil’ Jon, will be starting his own winery. When asked about the new venture, Lil’ Jon simply replied “HAAWHAAT? OKAAAAY… YEAAAAH!” to all questions.

Seriously though, he had something far more intelligent to say when acknowledging that he’s no wine connoissuer: “I’m not no ‘drink wine every day’ kind of dude,” he said in a telephone interview. “I’m not like an expert, so don’t ask me no questions … I just like the taste.” He went on to say “This is not no ghetto Boone’s Farm, this is some real wine.”

Its official name? Little Jonathon Winery. If he treats his wine in any way like he treats his pearly whites, we know we’ve got some deliciousness in store for us!

U.S. Wines on the Rise

Who’s that guy?

Yoga and Wine?

It’s true, these odd bed fellows have come together at yoga and wine retreats hosted by Angela Gargano, a yoga instructor and previous wine buyer for Cost Plus World Market. She teamed up with another yoga instructor from L.A., David Romanelli, to create tours in a myriad of destinations as far as Tuscany and as near as Madison, Wisconsin. The retreats feature days which kick off with a yoga session, followed by culinary tours and guided wine tastings. To read more, check out the full article. Sounds like a recipe for a perfect StrumErika vacation to me .

Wine Tastings Gone Wild

Binge drinking and stripping? Getting trashed in a limo? Tabletop dancing? Are these images becoming synonymous with wine tasting? I certainly hope not, but a recent article in the New York Times states that this may be the behavior that New York wineries are facing on weekends. Buses and limos full of people have been taking wine tasting trips which often get out of control. People trek to vineyards in the Finger Lakes and Long Island regions (places which have been struggling to gain credibility as decent wine producers) with the goal of getting sloshed for free, paying no mind to taste nor quality. It’s really a shame that people take advantage of the wonderful experience of enjoying free tastings. Wineries are now being forced to charge for pours- becoming more like countryside bars than vineyards. Though I certainly don’t condone drunk driving it is deplorable to rent a limo with the intention of hitting each winery on a strip like a Las Vegas bachelorette party. I hope folks can get it together, become adults and learn to appreciate wine as much more than a means of getting drunk. Otherwise we may start to see the diminishment of free wine tastings for good.

Drink a Bottle, Find a Date

A new French brand of wine called Soif du Coeur (Thirsty Heart) is creating an entirely new concept in love connection. People purchase either a blue label (for guys) or pink label (for girls) Soif du Coeur. They drink the bottle and at the bottom of it, they find a secret a code. They visit the Soif du Coeur website(officially launching in June at Vinexpo in Bordeaux), enter in the code, and are paired up with the wino of their dreams, to ultimately go on a date. Seems like a pretty crazy fad and the odds of finding a suitable match are slim, but a fun idea nonetheless. Read the full article here.

What Millenials Say About Wine

VINEXPO- the folks behind the large wine exhibition which takes place in Bordeaux every year- recently conducted a study on the current position of wine in the mind of a millenial. Millenials are the next generation after Gen X’ers, comprised of those between the ages of 13 and 30 years old. The study was carried out in the US, France, Japan, Belgium and the UK. Being a Millenial myself, the results of the study were not shocking. However, it is always interesting to take a pulse on the current state of the wine world for young people- an emerging wine drinking demographic.

Some interesting findings:

Those surveyed in the US said they are “not very familiar with wine” and it is only “occasionally served in their families and “that’s European culture.”

American and Japanese millenials thought wine was associated with “sophistication” and is somewhat “snobbish” and “pompous” while French felt that wine could embody both the “noble chateau and grand estate” as well as “the rustic countryside farmer who makes his own wine.”

Millenials from all of the countries made comments about how wine is becoming more young and trendy. For example, French and Belgians said wine bars “used to be old fashioned, but now they are beginning to attract younger people.” Those from the UK said “wine has become trendy” and those from the US said “branding” has “made wine more fun” and “younger.”

All of the Millenials also said that their wine consumption is hindered by how difficult, diverse and complicated wine is. Millenials are worried about what their wine will taste like and whether it will match with their meal.

Americans and Japanese in particular felt that branding was important to make wine younger but those from the UK said marketing must not be obviously targeted to young people and the traditions of wine must remain intact. All of the countries agreed that wine should be more “fun” and they want the myth to be taken out of wine culture.
These are all assumptions I have had about wine for the younger generation and I don’t think there is anything mind blowing here. What I found to be most interesting, however, is that young people from Europe, the US and Japan actually had similar views on marketing wine to Millenials. It was interesting to read how three markedly different cultures with unique wine experiences seemed to agree.

Winery Given Carbon Neutral Status

After finally seeing “An Inconvenient Truth” last night I was very excited to see a new article about a winery making leaps and bounds to control its carbon emissions. Backsberg Estate Cellars in South Africa’s Paarl region recently went through an audit to determine the carbon emissions involved in all of their winemaking and farming activities. Following the audit, the winery will need to plant 900 trees, possibly convert to bio fuel, and review packaging, among other things. Despite the tremendous effort this will require, CEO John Spiers sees this as an important measure for the future of the winery and exporting goods to the US.

Hopefully American wineries will return the favor by undergoing similar measures in the near future. You may read the full article here

IRI Unveils Top 30 Table Wine Brand Performers List

Need a little help wine shopping? Take a peek at this list of the top 30 most influential table wine brands discovered in a study conducted by Information Resources Inc. This list is based on significant growth over the past year. If you’re looking to purchase a bottle but don’t want to break the bank, I highly recommend consulting this list. I have bolded some of my personal favorites:

Of note, 23 of the top 30 brands are California brands, suggesting the influence of American vineyards on the global wine market. In addition, Australia was the number one import company for the US market. This is no surprise as Australian wine brands have done a tremendous amount of work to make their wines more approachable, and market friendly.

See the full article here: