The Week in Wine Episode 39

End of Month special! Too many wineries in California is the story that continues to dominate the headlines, alongside En Primeur coverage from Bordeaux. The best value Sauvignon Blancs of 2026 gets eyeballs while Mexico's push to shout down prohibitionists also makes one of the top stories of the week.

The month of May was dominated by the stories coming out of the USA, with the Too Many Wineries, Not Enough Consumers dominating readers' attention this month. Other showings included most-wanted wines and, more importantly, it turns out, most-wanted whiskeys, as well as ups-and-downs in Champagne and the rumors that Beyoncé and Jay-Z might be in the market for a château in Bordeaux.

This week's wine news roundup covers top tennis player Amélie Mauresmo revealing she bought a 1945 Château Mouton-Rothschild on eBay several years ago. 

Also, Vintae, the Spanish winery best known for its recognizable Matsu range of wines from Toro, has acquired a 90-percent holding in Bodegas Riojanas; Israel formally establishes the Negev wine region as a GI (Geographical Indicator); officials in Peru formally announce that June 11 will be Peru's National Wine Day; and a shadowy group in France contests last year's Cognac yield levels. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to the Wine Searcher Week in Wine News Podcast, where we look at the latest headlines and top stories in the world of wine. For more on all of our stories, go to winesearcher.com. Good morning, good.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Good morning, Ollie. How are you? Oh, top of the world. Couldn't be better. Couldn't be better. Nice. Anything good to drink at the weekend? Um, I had a few things. I had a couple of interesting, um, again, contrasting wines. And again, one of them is um uh from uh the U United States. It was uh it was a Sonoma County Zinfandel, Sebastiani, nothing spectacular, right? Perfectly good wine. It did get me thinking though, it's it's slightly thinking that I mean, do you ever ask yourself the question, am I drinking right? You know, am I drinking am I drinking seriously enough? You know, I mean, are you are you thinking about your wine? Are you drinking it because it's something new that you want to try or it's something that you're interested in exploring the possibilities of, or do you just drink it for fun? I mean, and that's it, and I'm increasingly finding myself drinking for fun because because for years now, since I've been in the wine writing game, it's been drinking for work has impinged on my drinking for pleasure. Um, it's it's made inroads where I've been sitting there at a barbecue having a sip of something and chatting to somebody, and somewhere in my the back of my head there'll be a nagging little voice saying, Are you properly assessing this wine? Are you giving it enough of your attention? And what what how will you recommend it? And it's just oh god, sometimes sometimes I'll just want to drink for the sheer fun of it. And to be honest, that's what I did this weekend. I was that that Sebastiani's Infantel was a lovely wine, it was a really enjoyable wine. I mean, it's it's never going to win trophies, probably, um, only because the sort of people who tend to judge these competitions, as you would well know, being one of them yourself, can be awful, dreary, terrible, boring wine snobs and bores of the first water. Um, but but you know, but it was a genuinely enjoyable wine.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

I had nothing of note this weekend. I had a I think a natural Alberinho, which was nice, it was lovely, very good, very delicious. But um, actually, to your point of whether you're thinking about drinking, I think that happens in all in all um professions, doesn't it? You sort of get you you get a little bit um jaded with your own domain.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

It's it's very true. I I I almost entirely stopped writing letters when I became a journalist. Right, yeah, I I used to write letters home a lot. But um, yeah, but yeah, like you say, it's um it but it can I found it very hard to write for pleasure when I was spending all day churning out you know reports on the goings-on at the Manawatu Wanganui Regional Council, or um you know, or some minor um car crash in some Wanganui or somewhere, you know. It was um yeah, it it was very it was very tough to then sit down with a with a with a pad of paper and a pen and go, Dear mother. I hope this finds you as it leaves me in the best of health. Um anyway.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

The other thing, the other thing I was gonna say also was that I think that in terms of thinking about drinking, uh, I tend to find that the best wines are the ones you start off without any preconceptions, just as an enjoyment wine, and you realise as you're drinking it, oh, this is actually quite good.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

That's the best time, is when somebody hands you a glass of wine at a barbecue or a dinner party or something, and you take a sip to wash down your steak or whatever. And um the next minute you go, hmm, oh you know what? That's lovely. Yeah, it is, it's a lovely, it's a lovely way to find wine, as it were.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yeah. Anyway, shall we?

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Oh, let's let's we've got a bit to talk about.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, we do. Let's uh run down the week's most read stories, shall we, last week?

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Well, the week's most read stories last week is the same as the week before. Really? It's yeah, it's still too many wineries and not enough consumers. People just cannot get enough of that story.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

It seems like gone.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

Sorry, it seems like it gets uh the I mean it's a lot of a thing with Google, Google will occasionally pick up a story and sort of serve it up to thousands and thousands of people. But um, this is the story about the bank report that suggested that it was going to be increasingly hard to sell wineries, and there are far too many of them competing in the same space. Yeah, um, and uh because this is a an American-focused story, it was just basically there are too many people in California selling Cabernet, right? Which is kind of did we not know that already?

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yes, but it's sometimes it's helpful to have this pointed out in print, if you know what I mean. Everyone probably everyone probably knew or understood this was the case. This is true.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

It is good to have these things spoken out loud, and to have that small child pointing at you know the naked emperor going, yeah, man's not wearing any clothes. Um exactly. Um, but yeah, so that's um crashingly predictable, I'm afraid. Again, and it's the second and third most read.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Well, just as if is it as if the last seven days haven't really happened in Wine News, dare we suggest?

SPEAKER_02 5:24

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay, no, no, no. The next story after that is from the Bordeaux 2025 On Premour campaign.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

It was David Allen's story on the wines to buy and drink, which is so basically. Yes, these were the wines he thought were the best value wines of the 2025 vintage in Bordeaux.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

And um, that was a good story. I enjoyed it. Um and it made it made me think too, which is good. So it's um, you know, which is what you really wanted to do. And again, as with the story from last week about the right bank wines, it it definitely made made me want to have a look at some Bordeaux. Um it was nice to see my one of my favourite domains in Bordeaux mentioned as well, specifically Chateau Fayel and Sagore. Um, I've always loved that wine. I I really have, it's magnificent, and it's uh such a bargain wine. I mean, it really is. Um sorry, the wine that was mentioned was their second label, the Frank Felon, which is um after the named after the founder. And it's I mean, you know, that's a great price as well, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah, I I read I read Sociando Malay as well. I really like Sociando Malais, and you mentioned that and Sociano Malay's second wine. It's always nice to to have a few pointers on second wines.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

It is because people forget about second wines, you know, people either dismiss them, but I mean there's a reason they dismiss them or they're not aware of them.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Um and there was um I remember having one was two, I think we've got it was when my parents were living in France. They they got a bottle of the Vieux Chateau Vieux Chateau Sertan's second wine, which is Gravette de Serton in 2003 vintage, the really hot vintage, and it was blooming delicious. We we should have bought more of it. It was on sale in the supermarket. I was like, well, it's a good estate, and it's 2003, so it's pretty warm. And normally it's sort of you know, second wines, it's kind of young vines, it's all the sort of you know, the non-quite made-its. But if you've got not quite made-its in a very warm year, that'll give you a pretty lush wine. And sure enough, it was it was blooming delicious, and yeah, we never we never bought enough of it. Anyway, that's that's always the problem, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:44

That's always the problem.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

What else was that? What was that what else ranked this week?

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Well, funnily enough, uh going back to last week again, uh the right bank's embarrassment of riches from the Bordeaux 2025 On Promour, that's still that's still packing them in.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Oddly enough, the best value Sauvignon Blancs of 2026 as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

That's a relatively recent one, isn't it? That was that was Saturday's story.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

It is, yeah. Wow. I was well, I mean, it's just I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, part of the problem living in New Zealand is that you you become slightly dismissive of Sauvignon Blanc for the reason that you just uh there's just so much of it about, yeah. Um, and so much of the New Zealand wine industry is based around Sauvignon Blanc because it pays all the bills. But yeah, it's um you do you do tend to forget that people love it. Yes, you know, and they're it's a gateway wine, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

And it's also it's a fantastic at this time of the year, you know, in the northern hemisphere, summer, you know, this the start of summer, it's a beautiful time to be drinking Sauvignon Blanc.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think what's interesting with our what sorry what's interesting with our list was that there there weren't many, but there was there were a bunch of wines that were surprising, in that there was quite a few from Chile, Chile, I should say. Um, a Lake County USA one, which was quite cool. Um the the the thing I noted was that the Sauvignon Blancs that we had there, as in like good value, interesting Sauvignon Blancs, they weren't your typical ones. I mean, no, like tomato isn't renowned for being a very typical Sauvignon Blanc, Arnsfield, same, same deal. Uh, there's only a couple in there that you'd say are absolutely classic uh Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs. Indeed. Indeed. Very interesting list. Very interesting list. Any particular favourite stories of the last week?

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Kind of in a way. Uh the Codex Elementarius story, uh, yes, which was Mexico shoots down prohibition push. So this is about this uh secretive shadowy grouping that we've mentioned before, yeah, that we actually brought to the public attention, I think, uh a couple of months ago, called the Codex Elementarius, who are basically a bunch of scientists who come up with food safety guidelines, um, which are then promulgated publicly by the World Health Organization or the WHO. And they've been trying to get somebody to push the idea that to officially push the idea that the the the idea that the WHO seems to have latched on to that all drinking is bad, that there is no safe amount of alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Um and this kind of uh specious bullshit, if you pardon the phrase, um just really annoys me. And it's great that this Codex Elementarius group, which are basically made up of scientists and consequently not quite so easily swayed as the more political types who end up in groups like the World Health Organization, um, seem to be not very taken with the idea of simply tearing everything as bad with one big brush. Um, and so the Mexican delegates um knocked it back, South Korea knocked it back, Japan knocked it back, um, and uh brilliantly Australia did. Um, but that was always gonna happen, let's be honest, with the Australians. Um the it it was as our uh esteemed US editor Blake Gray said, it did seem to almost come down to national stereotypes. The Australians threw their papers down and said, not a chance, mate. Yeah, uh the Japanese were very polite about it, but in their own way, quite firm. And the Mexicans stood up and almost you know threatened a duel over the future of tequila. Uh so so uh the yeah, that was a fun story, but the reason I'm hesitant at about recommending it as my story of the week or even my favorite story of the week, is that it's a it's a pretty niche story.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Given that it's the end of the month, shall we run over the month's um top stories?

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Well, okay, right, let's just do let's do the last four weeks, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Just for clarification for our our listener. Uh actually, no, that's too. I've got to stop referring to our one listener.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

No, I like it. I like it. I think we should. We just you know, keep it personal.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

Well, that's fair enough, and he's been with us since the start.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Right. Yeah. Yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_02 12:19

Um, although in fairness, we do have more than one listener now because um my daughter was complaining to me recently about something I said. Um and I think it may have been mentioning her, actually. So hi, darling. Uh and it's all right, if we look back over the past four weeks, anyway. Yes, I was going to say the reason that we could probably do a month end on the you know on the first of June, which would be the our next scheduled start. But um, here in New Zealand we've got yet another public holiday at the end of the weekend, so we won't be here on Monday, and we'll be a day late with our next installment of this um breathtakingly important uh news message. Now, so for the last month for the last four weeks, certainly. Um, let's have a look at the stories. And you're not gonna believe this. Too many wineries and not enough consumers is the top story of the month, as we kind of expected, to be honest. Yeah, now another story from the week before saying the wine industry finally gets some good news was our number two story of the month.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

What was that one about? Remind me of that? What was that?

SPEAKER_02 13:23

What it was that was the news that according to a report saying that the decline in sales seems to be bottoming out. Well, oh, that's it, yes. And there are green shoots. Uh again, this is focused on the US market, yeah. So, you know, don't bring us up and complain that this isn't happening in your neck of the woods, yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's a listen, and this is just uh obviously the fact that our two most red stories are US focused stories is simply a function of the fact that most of our readers at Wine Searcher and most of our users at Wine Searcher are based in the United States, but anyway, yeah, so and they were by by some distance the top two stories, right? Um then there was the world's most wanted single malts of 2026. Similarly, the next story would have been the world's most wanted wines, which is quite interesting that more people were interested in single malts than were interested in the most wanted wines, but you know, there you go. And then, curiously enough, was the wine searcher gets a new owner story, which was a tremendously popular story, yeah. And one that's it was a it was a a surprise to me, to be honest, because normally, well, as I think I've said before, whenever we write a story about wine searcher, anything new happening at Wine Searcher, or you know, and just basically anything to do with Wine Searcher, it gets a uh a kind of a readership thumbs down from the uh from our readers.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

They they're dangerous of being yeah, of coming across as navel gazing.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

But this one, no, it was uh very well well well consumed story. Oh you might know so there's three other stories here to round out the top 10. Uh I well, pretty much round out the top 10. One of them is a story not about it's a it's our most successful Bordeaux story of the year so far, and it's got nothing to do with On Premier 2025, really. It's uh it's a story about the 2024 bargain, uh vintage, and it's about bagging bargains from the 2024 vintage. Yeah, so because because 2024 was not a typical vintage, and it was as they like to say in France, a heterogeneous vintage, which means a bit a bit more hit and miss than you'd imagine. There are absolute bargains to be had. And uh our correspondent Raymond Blake then goes on to list them.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

And um, yeah, so it's um I think also the timing was good as well because it came out just as Empremer was gearing up.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Indeed.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

And I think with with people's interest in Bordeaux sort of peaked, writing about a vintage that's actually in bottle is is the way to go. I think it's quite a good, it's quite a good little uh sort of Bordeaux adjacent story. Indeed.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

And then um sp speaking of Bordeaux, the 2025 story, the biggest, it's it's it's uh one of the bigger ones from there was Constantine Baum's roundup of the Entremour campaign, I suppose you call it, which was yeah, that was pretty good. I mean, you know, it's it's pretty good, solid story. And then sneaking into the top ten, what have we got here? What your story about Beyonce and Jay-Z um looking to buy, possibly looking to buy Chateau Palmer. Although I I I believe you couched it in terms that suggested that this was more of a media beat up by the sun in London than anything else.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah, yeah. Although I did see that that story's got legs because I did see another report about Jay-Z. Somebody had pictures of put uh somebody had put up a picture, it was a story, and Jay-Z was holding two bottles of I presume half-drunk Chateau Ekem uh the other day, which was interesting. But so it's this the the news story is still doing the rounds. I think everyone's moved away from it being Chateau Palmer. I think that's relatively unlikely. But apparently they're still on the on the lookout, so you know, watch this space. You never know.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

You'd never know. Ooh, you know, tidy up your front lawns, people in Bordeaux, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Any particular fate, any particular favourite of yours for the last month?

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Um, I'll tell you one that I that I enjoyed this month was about the champagne sales and how there are more snakes than ladders. That champagne sales are still sliding, and they have been for some time now, despite the best efforts of the uh champagne authorities, shall we say, for want of a better word, the CIVB, CIVC, um, to sort of whistle past the graveyard and pretend that things are hunky-dory. But it does look that perhaps the decline has bottomed out. Um Champagne is a Champagne is a region that's both blessed and cursed, really, isn't it? I mean, it has it's blessed by having one of the most easily marketable wines, wine styles that there is. I mean, it's it's almost the definition of wine, in a way, you know. I mean, it's there is no conversation around wine without champagne being involved, I would suggest. But it's also it's got fierce challenges. So, I mean, it's frequently overcropping, for example, massive overuse of fertilizer and pesticides and so forth, so that it makes the I mean the the soil there now looks like I imagine it must have looked shortly after the Battle of the Marne. It's just it it just looks appalling. It it looks like a wasteland in places. I mean, even in some very, very posh well, not posh, but uh prestigious places, yeah. You know, some very prestigious plots of grapes look like they're growing in a rubbish tip.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Um, but yeah, the interesting thing was that I think I think Caroline Henry does some great work on that is that and she highlights it often too she gets quite a lot of hate mail. Oh because you're not actually supposed you're not supposed to be you're not supposed to be allowed to use pesticides in the herbicides in champagne vineyards, and yet it's clearly happening. There's heaps of people doing it.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Of course it is, and clearly the champagne authorities are going, no, nothing to see here. Yeah, yeah. There's also you know, and then there's there's all the issues around migrant workers there and the and the appalling treatment thereof, yeah. Um, and then of course there's been the sales decline, which has been really worrying. I mean, it's and you can tell it's been worrying because as we were talking about the other week, about there are entire big well-known houses who are looking around, patting their pockets, going, Hmm, I don't seem to have any money on me at the moment. Um so there's a it's I mean, there's a lot to say, but the good news, the thing I liked about this story was that and as you say, our correspondent over there, Caroline Henry, she does serve it up large to um the Champagne authorities whenever they fall down. But she has pointed out this time that you know the decline may be halting, yeah. You know, it it may be it maybe we may have hit rock bottom in Champagne, which combined with the idea that we may have hit rock bottom in um California too, suggests that maybe somewhere down the line at the end of a very, very long tunnel, someone has just lit a match. Or um, you know, um it's the there's the the vague possibility of the scintilla of a spark of possible green shoot of a mild recovery somewhere in the distance.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yeah, you can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

I don't want to get people's hopes up.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

No, I was gonna say my thesis would be the opposite that the tunnel is filled with with LPG, liquid propane gas.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Right, it's all about an oncoming train in the distance.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Exactly. It's the train, not it's the train, not daylight, that's coming towards us. That's my that's my take. There we go. Positivity. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

So right then, right then, let's let's get let's get let's talk about you. Okay, yeah, let's talk about me. Um, this is the Sunday story. There are a couple of stories that uh didn't go in just because they quite weren't quite um up there, but they are interesting in their own right. One of which actually follows on from the the sort of champagne issue, which is that Pomerie is still trying to look at a way of renegotiating its debt. And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I think. I think I mentioned it in my story. Um it this turns out there's some Vitisphere that Pomerie is still trying to work out how to refinance and trying to postpone its um its debt sort of issues for a while. So that's that's one that's on the cards. Over to the Sunday story. There was actually quite an interesting story about Amelie Moresmo, who's a uh the former French number one tennis star, who I did an interview with Rebu de Van France where she admitted that she'd bought a 1945 Mouton Rothschild on eBay. Back in the day. Back in the day when it was, you know, eBay was still eBay's always been a relatively dodgy place to snap up some wines. But eBay France, you used to be able to actually get some quite interesting wines. Again, Providence was key, but anyway, that was that was quite interesting.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

If you don't mind me if I may interrupt you there for a minute, I mean I've I've often seen wines advertised on eBay, eBay and so forth. You know, so it's obviously private people selling their wine on eBay. Um don't you need a license to sell wine? Uh yeah, you you probably should, I think. That's a good point. I don't know how they work around that one. I'm pretty sure in almost every jurisdiction I've I've that I've certainly ever been in, you needed to be licensed to sell alcohol. Yeah. Um I'm not sure how that works. Maybe they just go, Oh, well, you're only selling two bottles. I mean, what's the limit before you actually become a uh a wine merchant? If you've got a big seller, I mean, you know, it's um anyway. If anybody knows, if anybody knows, get in touch. Please, please do get in touch. Let us know. Um actually, and and get in touch if you've just just let us know your experiences selling wine online, uh like through these through these sites because I'd I I'd love to know because it might not just be people who buy wine online who get ripped off by unscrupulous con people, con artists. Maybe maybe people who sell wine online have been have been ripped off by unscrupulous pr potential buyers or prospective buyers. Um or or maybe just everybody has a really brilliant experience with it, and um everybody gets what they want and not what they deserve.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Yeah, well, there we go. Anyway, we'll find out.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

Yeah, so let's let's get back to this.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Yeah, another interesting story was that there were a couple of former employees from Pepe Viera's two Michelin Stard um restaurant, Camino de Celpe, which is in northwest Spain, had been arrested on suspicion of sitting around 50 bottles of wine worth 40,000 euros from the actual restaurant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's quite a margin. What's including a Lefleve Pulini Morachet and uh all sorts of assorted bottles. Quite the team and I had quite an interesting time because the the Guardias Civil had posted a picture of you know how police picked sort of take a picture of their hall. Yes, yes, they'd taken a picture of all these bottles of wine, but it was just slightly out of focus. So on Friday evening, uh Friday afternoon, quite a few of us were sat there trying to do Google searches on these very blurry wine labels and work out what was what it was quite good fun. But um, as somebody, as one of our team pointed out, Rob said, Well, looking at what's there, I think 40,000 euros is a bit of a exaggeration. And I presume most of it was sold or drank or never quite made it to the police.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

You can only presume as well, looking at the photograph um you mentioned, which um we might stick up in the comments or something here, so people can people can play this game at home. Um there wasn't, I mean, well, was that just a representative sample? Because there wasn't that many bottles. It certainly there was certainly wasn't 40,000 euros worth there.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

No, and it certainly wasn't 50 bottles either.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

So I are we missing as somebody said 50 bottles. I mean, what sort of margin are they putting on these wines?

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Well, it's a it's a two-star Michelin restaurant done.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

I don't care. I don't care. I don't look, I mean, let's be honest, the second star is usually for ambiance, whatever that's supposed to be, isn't it? So I mean, oh dear me.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Don't get me started on the Michelin guide.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Oh, yeah, just big big plates, small servings.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Let's not let's not go there. Uh Vintae buys Bodegas Riohanas. So this is Vintae, which is a Spanish winery which was established in 1999, I think. And uh it has bought or has taken a 90% share of Bodegas Riojanas, which is a sort of venerable Rioja institution, Rioja Alta, um makes Monte Monte Real, Vinia Albina, Breta Vieja, and yeah, it's been taken over by by Vintae, which is best known for its, as I said, Matsu range of wines, which people don't necessarily recognise the name, but the labels are very recognizable. It's a range of Toro wines in which they basically put these sort of sepia-toned, sort of grey sepia-toned pictures of different ages of men who seem to be sort of this, you know, 1950s, if you will, working men from Spain. And the ages of the men were sort of like denoted the ages of the wine. So, you know, you had a relatively young gentleman was a Hoven, then you had a sort of getting on towards middle-aged dude, 30, 40-year-old dude was a Creantha, and then you go, you know, you had to reserve a grand reserver for the for the really old dudes. I think they they they branched out and sort of, yeah, very quite predictably had. I think they they started having women on there as well. And so that was you know, for white wine, which I you know, uh it yeah, I'm not overly I'm not overly enamoured of the idea. It's a good idea, but I'm not overly enamoured of the um of the implementation.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

The gendering of reds and whites, yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Yeah, that's that's that's a bit tired, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yeah, well for that exactly.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Um, but anyway, it's that's well known for that. It was ventied very much well known for those labels.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Well, it's it's gonna be an interesting journey from here on in, then, and one probably worth watching because I've had some of the Riohanis wines in the past, and I've liked them. And I mean they've been quite traditional Rioca wines, you know, they're very much very much at the leather and cedar cigar box end of the end of the spectrum. Um, well, certainly the two or three I tried. So it'll be interesting to see how this young thrusting company deals with uh rather more tradition-bound, I would suggest, entity. But um, yeah, it'll it'll certainly bear what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 27:58

Yeah, well, I think as as the owner said, Rich is Richie Aramba uh Arambari, which obviously a Basque Sono. This represents a challenge for us, he told uh the newspaper he was interviewed by. Integrating Bioregas Riochanas into the universe and structure of Vintage will be a path as demanding as it is exciting. Oh, the diplomatic language of PR Americans. Fantastic. I mean the guy's a CEO, he's not gonna say, cool, we're gonna. I I I did it on a whim, and we're gonna have a struggle with this. This is going to be a nightmare. I think I think he knows what he's doing, and I think he's he's bought a bunch of of quite uh impressive heritage brands. Yeah, it'll just be interesting to see how how they push forward. Especially, and you know, this is this forms part of, like I said at the end, it forms part of a wider thing going on in Spang with like Cordonu and Bodegas Faustino both looking for for buyers. Moving on, uh, Israel establishes the Negev wine region. So this is the Negev Desert Wine region of southern Israel, which basically so this has become, as far as I can understand, from I think it was the Jerusalem Post said that had this one. It's the Negev has become the second officially recognised GI geographical indicator after the Judean Hills. Now I didn't realise Israel had so few GIs. It's quite interesting. I I would have thought also Judean Hills would have come relatively lower down the list in terms of um what to stamp a GI on top of. But anyway, yeah, so the Negev, which is, I mean, the Negev is really arid. I mean, it's majority desert, obviously. It sort of spans the southern part of Israel, basically, from Islat, which is down in the Gulf of Akkaba, um, right at the bottom of the country, all the way up to pretty much. I mean, they say it's up to Kiryat Gat, excuse my pronunciation, which is just uh not it's only a short drive south of Tel Aviv. So there's quite a massive chunk of of um Israeli land, and it's arid, semi-arid. So it's quite a thing. Interestingly, though, there's quite a bunch of producers there. We've talked about um them before in terms of like I think they're they've obviously been pushing for recognition in the Negev, and they caused had a controversial tasting that was called off actually in Italy after there was sort of back and forth, you know, tying in with what was going on in Gaza. The thing that sort of that I find quite I don't know, I I struggle with a little bit is when you look at uh official maps of Israeli wine regions, there's the majority that you look at, there's absolutely no indication that Palestine exists. There's no there's no indications of the Gaza border, there's no indications that there's a West Bank. It is entirely, if you imagine, it includes Golan Heights, it includes the West Bank, it includes Gaza. It's all if you look at official maps and sort of you know, that which I find a little and and other people have mentioned this too, that actually, you know, if you look at them, there's there's no there's no indication that Palestine actually exists, which I find a little bit uh tough.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

I'd I'm not usually but not but not entirely out of keeping with the the the current political sentiment. No, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, as I said as well, like Judean Hills and Shamron wine regions, you know, if you look at uh if you interpose uh a political map over the wine map, the majority of those would fall within Palestine or the West Bank. Uh so anyway, but anyway, that was interesting. I thought a second GI for Israel, which I I thought Israel had had sort of established a lot more, but it turns out there's only two. They've got about five, haven't they? Well, they've got five, but I think that they're official, they're not geographical indicators, they're not sort of filed in terms of, you know, officially part of the Treaty of Lisbon thingy. Next up was Peru has formally announced that June the 11th will be Peru's national wine day. So what are we gonna do? Hurrah! In a week or so's time? No, two weeks' time. Roughly two weeks' time, a bit over two weeks' time. We're gonna have National Peru and Peruvian wine day. Another reason, another reason to drink wine. Just what we need. Yes, I didn't I I didn't they didn't notice mention anything about pisco. I mean pisco is a national beverage, but it's sort of I I hope we can open pisco on the 11th of June as well.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

I should imagine, and I and this is meaning no disrespect whatsoever to any Peruvian living or dead. Um, but I imagine that every day is Pisco Day in Peru, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and and if it isn't, it it should be. Actually, no, let's let's let's let's be responsible and say no wine drinking should be done in moderation.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Yeah, of course, and piscoff sours one a day, maximum. Um I to contradict you, Don?

SPEAKER_01 32:51

Who am I to contradict?

SPEAKER_02 32:52

Well, uh that let me tell you, they're an occasion of sin, as the Catholic Church used to teach us about these things. Um, you know, while not being sinful in and of themselves, they do they may lead to situations that may be deemed sinful for the purposes of final judgment.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Right.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Anyway, anyway, but let's move on from sinful fisco and let's let's uncover another shadowy group.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Yes, so then second of the week. So this is collective 78.37, which is um 78.37 is the degrees Celsius at which ethanol evaporates out of wine. Uh anyway, this is an organization which has established itself in Paris, a law firm in Paris, whose charter is totally anonymous. So this collective, the the only people we can we can see who are the president and the treasurer, and as far as I can work out, the president is a lawyer himself based in Paris, and the treasurer, I think, is a similar deal. Can't quite work out where the treasurer's sort of crops up. Anyway, they are there's a group that's entirely anonymous, and they have taken um basically taken the cognac body to court, I think. Sort of if I read this correctly, they basically they they've they filed against a recent ruling about yields in cognac for last year. So um actual so you you get these official yield levels are set out already in stone, and then as you know, once the harvest is over, once things are kind of worked out, then sort of retrospectively yields are published, and you know, and especially with cognac, where you know you have to have the wine first and then it's distilled and so on and so forth, you then get the the yield uh published later. Yeah, and this yield that they published this this year for for last year, how how much more confusing can this get? Uh was quite low compared to previous things. Well it was, isn't it? Like significantly? Yeah, it was quite significantly lower. So they've come out against it, but no one can work out who's having a go at this. So is it is it the big houses who are sort of fed up at having to drop how much they can produce and well, or how much they can buy? Is it the the people themselves, the the people that distill, you know, the individual distillers? Is it the growers? No one knows, and so you know, there's the idea that it's probably gonna be grassroots, uh wine growers, and sort of independent distillers who are having a crack at this one. But as other people have pointed out, like you know, union there's quite you know, in France, quite strong union um adherence. The union some of the unions have said, well, this isn't really how unions proceed, unions tend to be quite open and work collectively as a group and are very open about their what they militate for. Yeah, and this doesn't correspond to that, and so yeah, as I said, the the the news has said cogs in the cognac rumor mills spinning uncontrollably.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Well, this is it. I mean, I I I do like the uh commentator who pointed out that they want to remain anonymous, most likely because their position is going to be unpopular. I think that shows great foresight on behalf of the uh founders of this collective. Um because if there's anything, French farmers generally, you know, I mean, they'll they'll drive up the steps of the Elysee Palace in a tractor and dump cow dung all over the front gates at the drop of a subsidy. So I don't, you know, uh and grape growers, it's hard to imagine a more kind of desperate group at the moment in France than grape growers, yeah, yeah. Um with with with the prices they're getting. So um, you know, yeah, we shall see. Um I don't suppose they'd um they they'd scruple at all about uh taking their pitchforks to anybody who suggested that they shouldn't be growing grapes.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

I know. So it's interesting, it's it's very it's an unusual one, it's very strange and very like made made even more sort of mysterious by the fact that it's all anonymous and yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Indeed, indeed, and nobody's willing to go on the record and be quoted about it.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

And yet, and yet they've got to be. And yet they had and then there's this this yeah, so it'll be an interesting one to watch that one. It'll be very interesting. Because Cogny obviously is going through a really tough time at the moment, and uh yeah, this this forms part of that broader picture. Anyway, what have we got to look forward to this week, non?

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Well, there's all sorts to look forward to this week. Eagle-eyed listeners will have seen a story about Lambrusco today, yes, which uh fantastic. Now, considering that almost 10 years ago, people were talking about a uh a Lambrusco comeback, presumably on the grounds that all things are cyclical, even lamb, even Lambrusco enjoyment. Um but it's but it seems look, there's the story quotes sources um um with names, with names, who are uh genuinely believe that it's good, and that well, not just that Lambrusco is good these days, but that it's uh a great option in restaurants because you know it's a pleasant buy-the-glass wine, it's very versatile with food and so forth. But um, I mean, for those of us who remember with horror the 1980s and um the crimes committed under the name Lambrusco, yeah, it's uh it's it's uh if you pardon the phrase, it's a hard one to swallow. But um, look, fair play, I'm willing to give it a go. I mean, all the all the all the cool kids in the natural wine area are loving their Lambrusco, aren't they? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Oh, that's fantastic stuff.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Anyway, uh well, I mean, there'll be more bits around um Umpremure, obviously. We're starting to get some prices coming out now, which is interesting because some of them are slightly lower than last year, and some of them are slightly higher than last year, which is um you know, wow, who didn't see that coming? Um, you know, prices may vary. Who knew? And we've got oh, we've got a lovely sort of a retrospective look of New Zealand from a gentleman who is now uh Angelo Camilo, that's his name. He works at Sonoma University, right? I believe is the phrase is the place where it is. Yes, it's it's Sonoma State University. He's the F. Corbell Professor of Wine Business there. Um, he back in the 1980s, uh Dr. Camilo, um, as he is now, worked in the New Zealand worked in the New Zealand hospitality industry, basically, but um specifically in the sort of wine and restaurant end of things. And he came back here recently and he was frankly amazed with the difference that a mere 40 years had made. And so he's he's written a little piece for us about it. So um that'll be going out as part of our Wine Voices section later on this week. Um it's uh it's a it's a yeah, it's a good story, it's a great story, in fact. Um, it brings back a lot of um pleasant memories for me because I've been here, I've been in this country 30 years now, and um I've been visiting here for 35, and a lot of it is very familiar to me from my early days. I mean, I I I sometimes have to pinch myself when I look around and see how far we've come in New Zealand in 30 years, um as a as a wine industry, certainly. Yeah, it's but but the entire hospitality experience, and I can tell you 30, 35 years ago, hospitality wasn't the first word that sprung to mind when you went when you went out for a beer or whatever in New Zealand. Um there were some pretty rough canes. I remember a time when the um you know the uh the veget the entire vegetarian option was a side of french fries. And that was in one of the that was in one of the biggest, most profitable restaurant chains in the country, Coban Co. Um anyway, yeah, such as like but anyway, so we got that. Yeah, and we've we've got other things as well. We've got our uh best value stories starting this I've started this week. So we started with Sauvignon Blanc on Saturday. Yeah, um we've got Sarah coming up, and we you know, and we were so we're we're trundling through those that series this month as well. So there you go. Lots to keep you interested this week, and we've also got more news from the US, obviously, and it is to do with it's it's another it's it's something else on tariffs, and and so for yeah, so we we've got a like I said, we've got a an absolutely jam-packed week ahead of us, newswise.

unknown 41:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

I'm talking about discussing it next week.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Yeah, exactly. Look forward to talking about it with you on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Yeah, yep, it'll be marvellous.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Excellent. Well, you have a great week, Don.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

Yep, you too, Ollie. And uh yeah, we'll talk to you next time. See you next week. Alrighty, talk soon.

SPEAKER_00 41:53

Thank you for listening to the Week in Wine News podcast. For more than all that we discuss, and for price of retail information on all the wines near you, including comprehensive coverage from our pro membership option, go to wineheimsearchery.com.