This week's news roundup uncovers drug smuggling, great websites and a move for Krug.
Sex-shop founder nabbed after cocaine found in wine
New Zealand customs and police launched a joint operation earlier this month after discovering liquid cocaine had been smuggled into the country inside wine bottles sent from Germany. Dubbed "Operation Vino", the joint investigation reached its conclusion this week with the appearance of 76 year-old Carl Petersen and 25 year-old Alyse Wilson in Christchurch Court, in New Zealand's south island. The pair are accused of importing cocaine with Petersen facing additional charges of possession for supply.
According to reports, Petersen, a former adult-entertainment entrepreneur who opened New Zealand's first sex shop in the early 1990s, was arrested with a large amount of cash (and more of the class-A drug) at his home. While there is little information concerning the identity of the wine in question, 1.5kg of Cocaine was found inside the bottles which were seized at Auckland's International Mail Centre last month.
"You wouldn't think someone of his vintage would be into that," a neighbor told New Zealand news outlet Stuff.
Best Hungarian wine website announced
Specialist website hungarianwines.eu has announced the winners of its inaugural Interwine Awards. The competition sought to highlight the Hungary's top winery websites, admitting that the pandemic had greatly increased the importance of having a solid online presence. Multiple aspects of each entrant's website were analysed, including layout, usability, photography, wine description, the online shop and search engine optimization (SEO). Judges included Wine-Searcher editor Don Kavanagh; Lucy Shaw, editor of Drinks Business; Andreas Larsson, World's Best Sommelier 2007; Csaba Rádler of EU grants firm Rekontir Group (which, along with Hungarian state agricultural body Agrármarketing Centrum, sponsored the awards); and other wine trade luminaries.
The winners, announced this week, are: Sauska (a winery in Villány but also sourcing fruit from Tokaj) in first place; Tóth Ferenc Winery in Eger, in second; and Heimann Family Estate (Szekszárd) in third.
"Overall, I found the quality to be very high – much higher than I expected and much better than many places (France in particular). I was impressed that some actually translated their sites professionally rather than simply leaving it to Google to do automatically," Kavanagh said.
100 year-old Tinajas recovered in Spain
Eight large 100 year-old tinajas (Spanish clay amphorae) were recovered from an ancient, long-abandoned underground winery in central Tomelloso this week with the intention of being rehabilitated by a local winery. Construction work in central Tomelloso – 180km (110 miles) south of Madrid in Spain's Castilla-La Mancha – uncovered the underground site on the location of the former family home of the López Montero family, which runs the Bodegas Verum and Altosa distilleries north of the town. The family believes the site was the location of the town's first wine still, installed at the end of the 18th Century. The tinajas are earmarked for restoration and a good clean before being returned to the current family winery where there are plans to return them to use and to use them in a project to revive local grape varieties, including Tinto Velasco.
Tomelloso is well known for its underground wine cellars, with some reports claiming there are more than 2000 such "bodegas" under the town, mostly installed in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. "The subsoil of the town is literally hollow," said local newspaper, La Voz de Tomelloso.
Krug to shift production to Ambonnay
Top Champagne house Krug is set to upgrade production facilities in Ambonnay by 2023, with the company's entire winemaking facilities to be housed within the famed Clos d'Ambonnay site. Twin three-storey buildings, linked underground, and built with ergonomics and environmental factors to the fore, will shepherd the wines from fruit receival to bottling. The historic Krug building in Reims will oversee lees aging, disgorging and labeling. The project, already four years in the making, has been dubbed "Joseph 2.0" (after Joseph Krug, who founded the Champagne house in 1843) and will see the cellar use rainwater recuperation, free cooling water systems and waste monitoring. "There'll even be a vegetable garden," chef de cave Julie Cavill told French publication Terre de Vins this week. According to Cavill, Krug staff took the opportunity of the impending destruction of the current cellar on the Ambonnay site to engage in some corporate-sponsored graffiti of its walls.
Burgundy: late pruning to battle frost
While France reels from the devastating effects of the last two weeks of frost, one Burgundian viticulturist hopes her late pruning trials will give more options to growers across the country. Working with the Jules Guyot University Institute in Dijon, Claire Naudin, of Domaine Naudin-Ferraud in Magny-les-Villiers, has been trialling leaving vin canes unpruned (in some cases until late April) in order to give new season buds the best chance of survival until the final cuts are made on the cane. The technique – already employed in numerous parts of the world – is generally more labor-intensive as vines are tidied in winter – at the usual pruning stage – leaving the main canes in place before their second, final prune in spring. Naudin's trials also encompass vine height, as the lower the buds are generally closer to the colder air.
While the recent frosts have caused huge damage across France, they are likely to provide Naudin's trials with significant results. "We'll have to wait until the end of April and afterwards to see if this approach has been effective," researcher Benjamin Bois told France 3. Naudin hopes the trials will lead to less pollution through the use of burners (euphemistically called "bougies", or candles) in the vineyards during frost events. "The pollution generated bothers me, even more for the effect on the local population," said Naudin.
TV show boosts Chilean wine sales in Ireland
Chilean wine sales have shot up in Ireland one year on from Casillero del Diablo signing a sponsorship deal with Irish television producer RTÉ. The deal saw the brand, which is owned by Concha y Toro, reach millions of viewers in Ireland across a six-week period through 72 stings (short clips after commercials aired during the episodes) on the terrestrial channels as well as slots on RTÉ's streaming services. As a consequence, Concha y Toro says sales in Ireland have boosted 58 percent, with the European country becoming the biggest per-capita consumer of Casillero del Diablo worldwide.
"We took advantage of the opportunity to create brand value by being there where the consumer was, given the consumption of entertainment and series during the [Covid] lockdown," Francisco Reutter, Concha y Toro's European commercial manager, told Chilean news outlet La Tercera.
Oregon wineries promote diversity
Seven Oregon wineries have clubbed together to form the One Barrel Challenge in an endeavor to promote diversity and inclusion in the wine industry by donating wine to support the Maurice Lucas Foundation – a local youth support organisation. Granville Wine Co., McCollum Heritage 91, Hazelfern, Division Winemaking Company, Adelsheim Vineyard, L'Angolo Estate and Chosen Family Wines all donated a barrel's worth of wine for which 100 percent of proceeds will go to the foundation, named after retired NBA All-Star Maurice The Enforcer Lucas. The foundation seeks to empower youth in the community by providing educational opportunities for marginalized communities. The wines will be available to purchase from 1 May.
"The One Barrel Challenge symbolizes a collective dream of making our beloved wine industry more accessible and inclusive regardless of color, class, or creed," says the One Barrel Challenge website.
April 18, 2021 at 07:00AM
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