• Feds clamp down on fake pinot noir: U.S. liquor authorities will require that importers get a French government declaration if they want to bring Languedoc pinot noir into the country. The declaration must say that the wine has been produced in accordance with appellation rules and French law. Decanter reports that the ruling, from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, comes in the wake of the Languedoc pinot scandals, where French companies sold millions of bottles of fake pinot to Gallo for its Red Bicyclette brand, and also sold it to other U.S. companies, including Constellation.
• French wine crime: A French blackmailer attempted to extort €1 million (about US$1.3 million) from Romanée-Conti, the Burgundian producer that makes some of the4 world's most expensive wine. His plan? To poison the vines. The blackmailer, who was arrested when he tried to collect the ransom, sent two letters to winery officials, and one included a map of the Romanee-Conti vineyards. "It was written that if we didn't hand over a million euros he would quite simply poison the vine stumps," said a Romanee-Conti official. A bottle of Romanee-Conti, by the way, can sell for as much as $30,000. A tip of the Wine Curmudgeon's fedora to Tom Johnson at Louisville Juice, who first noticed this.
• Have a spare $25 million? That's the asking price for the 56-acre Napa estate of the late Robert Mondavi, the icon of California wine. What do you get for your money? An 11,500-square-foot main house with 36-degree views of Napa, two bedrooms, a 50-foot-long pool in the living room that Mondavi regularly used, a roof that opens up over the pool. Also, an underground wine cellar, a guest house and two tennis courts. My pal, the late Darryl Beeson, had dinner with Mondavi shortly before the latter died at the home. He said the pool was really quite impressive.
Comments