The Wine Curmudgeon

Winebits 121: Labeling controversy, Aussie wine fraud, Chile price hike

• Change to varietal labeling laws? When is a zinfandel not a zinfandel? When it's used in a field blend, thanks to federal labeling laws meant to protect the consumer. In this case, notes the Los Angeles Times, consumers have been led to believe that single varietal wines are better than blends -- which obviously isn't true, as anyone in Bordeaux will tell you.

• Scammers hit wine investors: Scotland Yard detectives have arrested six people in connection with an Australian wine investment scam. Decanter reports that victims handed over thousands of pounds to the company to buy well-known Aussie wines for the investors, bu that the company didn't own the wines and had no intention of buying them. The detective in charge of the case said these kinds of scams are becoming increasingly popular. Obviously, they weren't heeding the Wine Curmudgeon's advice: Invest in something that you can't drink, which takes all the fun out of drinking.

• Chilean wines to cost more?  The Chilean earthquake did more than destroy some of the country's grape harvest. It wrecked roads and infrastructure, making it more difficult for the country's products -- including wine -- to get to market. That, says analysts, may well increase the price of wine.

labeling laws, wine fraud, Chilean wine

Winebits 120: Chile earthquake, pinot fraud lawsuit, Ridge anniversary

• Chilean wine losses: The Chilean earthquake has caused significant damage to the country's wine industry, but it could have been worse. The Wine Spectator reported that officials expect to lose about 14 million cases of wine worth $250 million. But that's only about 12 percent of the 2009 harvest, which is the good news. Some wineries, though were more hard hit, including Santa Rita and Montes. The latter, in the Colchagua valley, lost of 20 percent of its Alpha M, Folly and Purple Angel wines.

• Consumer files lawsuit: A California wine drinker has sued Gallo and the French company that supplied it with fraudulent pinot noir. The lawsuit alleges that Gallo and its supplier, Sieur d ‘Arques, engaged in unfair competition, false advertising, and fraud in the bottling, distribution, and sale of Red Bicyclette pinot noir. That's an odd lawsuit -- not because fraud was committed by Sieur d'Arques officials, but because of the money involved. What's the point of suing over a $10 bottle of wine. How much in the way of damages -- even punitive -- could a jury reasonably expect to award? Gallo, as reported, was not involved in the French criminal case.

• Happy 50th birthday: Ridge Vineyards, which dollar for dollar may be the best red wine producer in the United States, has celebrated its 50th anniversary. Eric Asimov at the New York Times has the details: "Perhaps because of its longevity and its consistency, and because its wines are actually available to consumers, Ridge tends to be taken for granted, its achievements noted dutifully even as attention shifts to the new, the expensive and the scarce. That seemed reason enough to spend an afternoon visiting Ridge before the celebration."

Chile earthquake, pinot noir fraud, Ridge Vineyards

Patrick Mata, Ole Imports

Patrick Mata is the Wine Curmudgeon's kind of guy, and not just because he's one of the world's best wine importers. It's because he understands the value of a buck.

"Why don't wine buyers want more for their dollar?" he asked me during a visit to Dallas this week. "What's the point of that?"

In Mata's case, that means Spanish wines. He is co-owner of Ole Imports, which not only brings in quality wines, but quality wines that are terrific values. Ole products are often candidates for the $10 Hall of Fame, and they get terrific reviews -- not only here, but from people like Robert Parker. Most importantly, they're honest wines, tasting like they're supposed to taste. Mata's producers make Spanish wines, not Spanish wines made to appeal to U.S. palates.

And that's not an easy sell, he says, given the way the wine world works. "That affects my life completely," says Mata, whose family has been in the wine business in Spain for 200 years. "The most successful wines from Australia, from Napa, they have very little typicity. They're one dimensional. They have no sense of place."

Fortunately, Mata has had great success selling Spanish wines with a sense of place. More about how he does it, along with his thoughts on the wine business, after the jump:

Winebits 119: French pinot noir fraud, Chinese wine fraud, ancient wine

• Pinotgate: That's what my pal Dave McIntyre is calling the fake pinot noir scandal, and he has some interesting follow-up information. Dave reported in the Washington Post that the federal alcohol police are investigating Gallo and fellow multi-national Constellation Brands. Gallo, of course, was the victim of the fraud, and Constellation acknowledged last week that it may have inadvertently bought some of the fake pinot, too. A federal spokesman said his agency "will be going to these companies and asking what they knew, and when they knew it." Gallo and Constellation may have violated federal wine labeling laws by selling the fake pinot as real pinot. It's nice to see someone following up on this story.

• Fake French wine in China: This time, apparently, it's the Chinese perpetrating the fraud on the French. Chinese counterfeiters have produced 33,000 cases of wine, and it looks just like a high-end French product that is exported to China. The French producers say the wine is apparently cheap South American that is put inside the French bottle and sold as the French wine. All of which makes perfect sense, given the Chinese penchant for counterfeiting Western products.

• Wine archeology discovery: Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a 1,400-year-old wine press, and it was probably used to produce high-quality exports for Egypt or Europe. A wine press is used to extract juice from the crushed gapes. The region where the press was found had a very large wine industry at the time, and the size of the press indicates that the winery produced more wine than was needed for local consumption. The only question the archeologists didn't answer? What score the wine received.

pinot noir fraud, Chinese counterfeiting, wine history

Winebits 118: Grape glut, Piero Antinori, Franzia takeover

• Oversupply might be worse than thought: The news last week that the 2009 California grape crush was the second-biggest ever was tempered with predictions that this glut would be better managed than previous ones, which saw grape prices drop and wineries suffer during good economic times. Turns out that may not be true. I talked to a long-time California wine industry member last week, and he said the glut is not only dropping the price of grapes (and may force some wineries out of business), but could also affect how wine is made. Federal law allows 15 percent of non-appellation grapes to be used in appellation wines; that is, if a wine says Napa on the label, 15 percent of the grapes can come from regions that aren't Napa. I was told that an increasing number of wineries, looking to cut costs during the recession, will take full advantage of the 15 percent allowance. This was almost unheard of during the boom times.

• Italian wine history: Piero Antinori is one of the great names in Italian wine, and my pal Alfonso Cevola has a five-minute video of Antinori posted on his blog, On the Wine Trail in Italy. The sound isn't great, but what Antinori says is. Particularly fascinating is how Super Tuscans, the red blends from Tuscany that revolutionized Italian wine, came to be -- a reaction against the poor quality of sangiovese vines that were being planted.

• Franzia family gets Red Truck: And a host of other wines, after a company controlled by Fred Franzia of Two Buck Chuck fame took over the company that made the popular, inexpensive wine originally started by Cline. This is huge news, and not just because Red Truck sells hundreds of thousands of cases. It's another sign that the recession-fueled shakeout in the wine business is underway, as those with cash -- like Franzia -- move in on those who don't.

grape glut, Piero Antinori, Red Truck, Fred Franzia