The Week in Wine
Get all the latest wine news stories in time for your Monday morning commute.
A weekly run-down on the latest news in wine and spirits, covering top stories and breaking news from the team at Wine-Searcher.com.
Hosted by editor Don Kavanaugh and wine writer and winemaker Oliver Styles
The Week in Wine
The Week in Wine Episode 42
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US soft diplomacy hits Don via a bottle of Elijah Craig Small Batch Bourbon while Olly is still enjoying the aftertaste of a Barolo from Rivetto. The best-value Tequilas tops our most-read stories of the week, closely followed by a fascinating story looking at why Chile isn't getting past the notion of good value.
Other top stories include: Langhe's fight against climate change: Port's recent declaration (for 2024) as well as the likelihood of a 2025 declaration; and falling prices in Napa.
But this week, it's all about soccer with French former midfielder Jean Tigana in the headlines as well as Rioja winery Marques de Murrietta announcing its 2022 red is the wine gracing the tables in VIP lounges for the FIFA World Cup! Hail hits Burgundy; there's talk of early harvests across France (particularly in Muscadet); Remy Cointreau announces a 20% drop in its Cognac production; there's Prieto Picudo for the Pope and Bodegas Bianchi in Argentina looks to be navigating a way out of its debt situation.
ABOUT THE WEEK IN WINE
The Week in Wine goes out every Monday morning so that you can turn up to work with great talking points from the latest news across the world of wine.
Hosted by wine-searcher editor Don Kavanagh with wine writer Olly Styles – who also produces the podcast – nearly all of the stories we discuss can be found on https://www.wine-searcher.com/magazine
You can get in touch with us at editor@wine-searcher.com
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, Tom.
SPEAKER_02Good morning, Ollie. How are you? Oh, not too bad. You you you got caught me unawares there. You you went a bit suddenly there. I was just drinking a glass of water. Um, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm filled with the joys of early morning in June.
SPEAKER_02Filled with the joys of a winter's morning, and it's very cold at the moment, isn't it? I mean it's chilly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I know it's winter, but this is unseasonably cold. It's um we've had we've generally had like incredibly thick fog here this morning in Auckland. Oh really? Um, yeah, really thick. It's it's quite wonderful. I was I was I just went out earlier on to get some essential supplies and um coffee, in other words.
SPEAKER_01And um I was gonna ask, was it alcohol related?
SPEAKER_02No, it's too early in the morning. As I was driving back, I noticed there was a a rainbow in the air, and it looked very much like one end of the rainbow was at my house. So I told home, you know. I've been I've been furiously rooting around looking for the um pot of gold, but sadly I haven't found it yet.
SPEAKER_01There wasn't a winning there wasn't a winning lottery ticket or anything like that, was there?
SPEAKER_02No, so so I'm afraid you're stuck with me for another week. Okay, mate.
SPEAKER_01Well you and our listener are stuck with me for another week. The three of us, the three of us are sold on. That's the one. That's the one. Did you have anything nice to drink at the weekend?
SPEAKER_02Actually, well, I had a few things on the weekend. I mean, I'd I had some interesting things. Um, but I think the the best thing I had this weekend was I had a really nice bourbon. Oh nice. The Elijah Craig Small Batch. Oh now the Elijah Craig's lovely bourbon at the best of times, but the small batch is particularly toothome. It's um it it's it's everything you expect from from bourbon. You know, it's got it's got it all, it's got the butterscotchy bit, it's got the bits of vanilla in it, it's got some you know stewed fruit notes, it's got a bit of smoke, it's it's just really, really rich, and it has impact, you know, which is I'm not saying that it's usually strong or anything, it's a little bit stronger than normal, but um it is just absolutely satisfying. I was a phrase I often see in uh wine and spirits writing, and which I've always hated, even when I found myself using it on occasion, and that was eminently drinkable, because as far as I'm concerned, as far as I'm concerned, to qualify as eminently drinkable, all you really have to do is be liquid. Um but this really was eminently drinkable. I felt quite eminent drinking it, even I felt very important. I now understand why watching all those American TV shows that I did when I was young, when people were trying to convey an image of power and they had a bottle of bourbon, and then they'd pour it into a glass, a heavy cut crystal glass from a decanter, yes, and they would sit there and smile insincerely at each other. Um I can't imagine why, but I'm just picturing Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing right now over the rims of their glasses, and I can see why now because it made me feel particularly eminent. Um, what about you? Did you drink anything spectacular or or memorable?
SPEAKER_01No, I didn't this weekend, but let's let's go back about what, five days, five or six days? And there was that Rivalto Barolo that we had. Oh, yes at a little Italian, a little Italian place.
SPEAKER_02Yes, indeed. We just just for our listeners uh information, Olli was in the same town as the rest of us for a change. And so we went out for dinner and we did a BYO thing, and we people brought a bottle. And two of our workmates, thank you, Nikki and Rob, brought a beautiful bottle of Barolo.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Rivalto Barolo, 2020, Barolo di Comune de Seronga d'Alba. You always want to make it a sing song noise, don't you, when you when you say Italian wine names? Well you kind of do, don't you?
SPEAKER_02But um as long as I see the word Serrelunga d'alba on a bottle, you know it's it's going to be a quality product, really.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it was delicious, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_02It was, and it was it was almost still too young.
SPEAKER_01But it was uh it was definitely too young, yeah. It was still delicious.
SPEAKER_02It was reaching its first level of approachability. You know, the way with Barolo, it sort of comes in waves. There's uh there's you know, it's usually around the sort of five to seven years, you can there's a there's a window where you can climb into it, and it seems to almost close up a little bit then until it's ten. And then but uh I mean obviously I think it really comes into its own 15 years on, but it's uh for me anyway. That's just something about the with the wines of that age that are just astonishing. Astonishing. But that was really good. In fact, we had some really nice wines that night, as I recall.
SPEAKER_01We did. We had a sassy we had a sasakaya, didn't we?
SPEAKER_02We we did, we had a sassakaya, a 2010 Sasakaya. Yes, indeed. And it's not often that that won't be the award-winning wine at the table.
SPEAKER_01Well, it was it was up there, it was definitely up there.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it was definitely up there. I mean, it was just that was just beautiful. And great food too. I really, I really like that little restaurant. Setabello, it's called, if you're ever open. Props to them.
SPEAKER_01Well, let's let's talk wine news, shall we? What's been the news of these folks?
SPEAKER_02It's been a big week. I mean, it's been a very big week. I mean, I know we talked the other a couple of weeks ago about you know weeks where you get big sudden increases in readership, but this week was just beautiful from the point of view of an editor. And dominated by two stories. I bet you can't guess what the first one is.
SPEAKER_01Oh hang on, hang on, hang on, wait. Let's I'm gonna go checking his notes. He's checking his notes. I'm sort of furious. I reckon best value to Keelers, surely.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. That's it. Right. It was it was um that was the winner. Uh quite an easy winner, but I'll tell you something. The second story, the second most popular story is one you won't guess. Go on. The second most read story of the week was a little bit more unusual. It was also a story I think that benefited from having quite a simple premise and being done very well. The story was by Tom Highland, our man in Chicago, and the story was called Why Isn't Chilean Wine Selling? This is a good this is a perfectly sensible question, really. I mean, people might think, oh, Chile sells loads of wine. But it doesn't sell enough in the US, really. Um especially not of its higher end wines. You know, your Sandorito 120s are will will be flying out of soup off supermarket shelves left, right, and centre. But Chile isn't just about good value anymore, it's also about quality. Um so what Tom did, and a brilliantly effective story, he he talked to five or six winemakers from Chile, and he also spoke to a wine director at a South American, a Chilean-based basically um restaurant group in Chicago. And they all say the same thing. People just they want to they're not looking for value anymore, but they're also not looking to Chile for quality. It's all to do with consumer perception. Um as one Sebastian Lab um from Caso Real in the Maibo Valley says, I don't think Chile needs to prove quality anymore, it's about showing identity. Uh he also goes on to say Cabernet Sauvignon should stay at the center of that converse conversation, but we have a real opportunity with Carmen here to build something distinctive over time. And I would I would suggest that's correct. Everybody pretty much said the same thing. I mean, Maria Luz Marin Spring from Casa Marin in San Antonio Valley said there's a paradigm for Chilean wines, good, beautiful, and cheap. And because of this, all Chilean wines are grouped under that image, and regrettably it has become you know their flag of convenience almost.
SPEAKER_01So Chile's sort of fallen off the radar a little bit. I think because I remember like back in the early 2000s, you know, things like and you mention it as well, and or or Tom mentions it in his piece, Cloop Alta was, you know, it wasn't well known.
SPEAKER_02Well, everybody was talking about it. This was it. This was this was the great Andean winery that was going to change the paradigm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um as everybody likes to do these days.
SPEAKER_01These days over the last 20 years, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But to be honest, I remember Chilean wines from the early 90s when they're first coming out, and they were cheap. Yeah. By the mid-90s, there was some great wines coming out, there were brilliant prices, but there were such good value. I mean, I I'm thinking wines like um Cosinho McCool's Antigos Reservas.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_02It was a great cabernet that you could pick up for $15 a bottle. They're they're Antigus Reservus, they're oh sorry, not their Antigos Reservas, the Finisteria. They're very top-end wine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I used to sell for thirty I used to sell that for $33 a bottle. I couldn't keep it in stock at that price. And that was a lot of money back then in the at the end of the 90s. But I mean these were really good wines, but people weren't looking to Chile for quality then. They were looking to it for for volume and for price. Yeah. It still is uh at that level uh to me in many ways. I mean, I notice whenever I go to Ireland, which I do every couple of years, so walk into a bar and order a Sauvignon Blanc, I guarantee you it'll be Chilean.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I can I can almost guarantee you it'll be Santa Rita 120 in a little small quarter bottle. It seems to have it seems to have completely taken over. I mean, which is quite surprising in the Sauvignon Blanc space, where you'd imagine that New Zealand has it. But I think part of the problem that Chile had was because Chile started off as a value proposition, it's a lot harder to move up than it is to move down when it comes to price. Yeah. It's if you look and I'll you know I keep talking about New Zealand here, and I'm not sure why, but New Zealand went in with a conscious decision to go high. They went into export markets saying our wines are worth this, this is what you'll pay. Yeah. It's never really dropped its trousers really on you know on price. Yes, there's plenty of bulk wine leaving the country and all the rest and so forth, but bottle labelled wine still holds its end up. I mean, New Zealand gets a lot of money per litre by comparison with other countries. I mean, it's well, is it only I think it's only France that beats it into the US for pro for dollars per litre on value.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02However, with Chile, with Argentina, with South South Africa, even to a certain set extent with Australia, because they went in offering a large amount of affordable wine, yeah, they're they've kind of been stuck there. You know, there's nowhere to go for them. It's it's very hard to break that ceiling.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um interestingly, well, interestingly there was I mean it is a US focused piece, obviously. But I told you. But um, interestingly, no, no mention of Russia, which was uh it's one of the major markets for Chilean wines or growing anyway. Yes, well, which they're breaking to keep quiet about for obvious reasons.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I think I think probably being asked the question about selling it to the US, there wouldn't have been too many volunteers to go, oh but look, we're doing brilliant things in Russia. True, true. But um but yeah, but that was a that was a that was a really good story this week, I think. Um and the other one is I think from last week, is it, which is about the prices of Bordeaux tumbling. Yes, it is from last week, last Saturday. The prices of Bordeaux tumbling in the U in US retail. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so by Blake, we're still I mean, that's still hogging the limelight, as it were. Nebbiolo facing the Lange Road ahead.
SPEAKER_01Which uh great headline.
SPEAKER_02Not mine, I hasten to add. That was deputy editor Nat Sellers' creation. That that particular Frankenstein was hers. Um, however, it is um no, it's a good story and it's good getting good reads.
SPEAKER_01Nice.
SPEAKER_02That's a story about that's a story about Nebbiolo um producers having to change the way they operate in the vineyard to deal with not just weather but climate generally, like more broadly. It's a little bit like you know, I hesitate to say Bordeaux and weather in the same breath after after after that podcast we did on it. Yeah, but um yes, it's it's it's all about how how you you mitigate climate impacts in the vineyard, but also in the winery. Right. So yeah, and it brings us nicely back to Nebbiolo, which was what we were drinking on Tuesday.
SPEAKER_01Exactly, yeah. Did you have any favourite stories from last week?
SPEAKER_02Uh yeah, definitely. Poor 2024. A flagship year. Flagship year. Absolutely loved it. I love the idea that it's a it's a 2024 is a was declared as a vintage year, and 2025 likely will be as well. But uh the thing what I'm thinking about is honestly, with the weather in the Jura, why isn't every year vintage year? I mean you're gonna have to be really picky about your reasons for not declaring a vintage, aren't you? Yeah, I mean it it's just I mean, I've I've been there at this time of the year, and it is unbelievable. Oh, sorry, not this time of the year, but during the you know, growing season and harvest season. It is unbearably hot.
SPEAKER_01It's very hot, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and just all those lovely Turigas just ripening. Yeah. Just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I also enjoyed Blake's story on California wineries dropping their prices. This is about fees and visitor numbers falling in wine country. Yeah. So that in unbelievably, California wineries have suddenly realized that constantly hiking their prices might be harming their visitor numbers.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So we talked with Gl we talked with G with uh Blake on this.
SPEAKER_02We did, we did. In another yes, indeed, in another podcast. But it's um it's it's it's a nice uh I I I often picture wineries in California just scratching their head and going, why aren't people giving us $400 for a bottle of wine anymore? What's what's happened here? Why is things why have things changed? I don't like change. It's you know, it's uh there's very much a there was a sense of I can have a feeling a certain sense of entitlement amongst certainly Napa wineries, that they would continue to produce ever increasingly expensive cabernets and people just continue snapping them up without ever being told why, except that it's from Napa and it's Cabernet. It's all a bit, yeah, bit weird. Anyway, but that's that's enough about my favorite stories and my stories of the week. Let's have a chat about yours. Um because because as you admit it to me, which I which I I certainly think is not a not a tremendously sensible thing to do for your editor, is to admit there's so many you missed out this week as well. Yes. But but first, first, before we get around to that, let's have a quick chat about the ones that you did that you did manage to find.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02And um wonderfully, wonderfully, you started off with a World Cup.
SPEAKER_01I did either way. I did. More of which later. But this is a lovely little story. Uh La Figureau basically unearthed. I mean, as you do in these things, you sort of go back, you you sort of scrabble through the archives and find any kind of link to football. And they did, and they found they found one to Jean Tigana, who is one of the um one of the original four of the Carré Magique, which is like the the magic square, the the midfield lineup in the mid-1980s, which was predominantly I mean, Michel Platini was the one that dominated headlines back in the day, if that will that'll take you back. But um, there were there were a bunch of them, and they they basically dominated the midfield for France in the 1980s, which sort of paved the way for France becoming a powerhouse into the 1990s, and you know, I think they won the World Cup in 1998, didn't they? They did for the first time. Yeah, yeah. Uh anyway, and then they went and won it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he he basically initially in the 1990s, he he got hold of a crew bourgeois estate, which is called Chateau Bibion Tigana, which was which is he sold off. It's now actually just Chateau Biblion, and it's owned by another group. And he moved south to Kissis, where he now runs La Donna Tigana in Cassis, alongside his daughter Canel. And they they just talked about how him he basically said several years back, people enjoying his wine gives him more satisfaction than his career as a footballer and manager. I mean, he's probably more famous in certainly in the UK for being the manager of London's football uh Fulham Football Club, where which he brought into the premiership in the early 2000s.
SPEAKER_02Well indeed, but let's be honest, Fulham is pretty much still uh and I'm sure Fulham fans are about to start hating me hugely. Thankfully, thankfully, our listener isn't a Fulham supporter, or or maybe, maybe he or she is. Um well, maybe you are, in which case, you know, you have my deepest heartfelt sympathies. But they're a bit of a niche, even in London, they're a bit of a niche product, really.
SPEAKER_01I used to live down the road from Fulham football from Craven Cottage.
SPEAKER_02I used I used to drink around the corner from um Chelsea, but uh you don't find me boasting about it. Oh so did I actually.
SPEAKER_01I used to live quite near Chelsea too, but then that'll be a few years.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, that was a terrible, that was a terrible place to be on a Saturday when Chelsea were playing at home.
SPEAKER_01Oh god, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02Not not quite as bad as being in being anywhere near the Isle of Dogs when Millwall were playing at home.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna bring up Millwall.
SPEAKER_02Millwall, for those for those who who are appreciating the beautiful game as it is being played currently in North America, Millwall are the sort of team whose um one of their major chances you're going home in a something ambulant.
SPEAKER_01They had they had supporters that are they're not welcoming people. They had supporters called the butchers, didn't they? They used to turn up and sort of, you know, wherever the a game was certainly if it was a London derby, they'd turn up in Chelsea, for instance, in butcher's aprons and blood colour butcher's aprons.
SPEAKER_02They were their their team song, in fact, the the the the like the cob song is No One Likes Us, We Don't Care. Which goes somewhere to telling you about it. I used I used to live quite close to um Queen's Park Rangers as well, but um they were not they were another small tragedy of a football club. Anyway, enough of this again, once again getting mugged down memory lane. We better get through this.
SPEAKER_01Apologies to all Millwall fans and football and Fulham fans. Uh so first up is hail hits Burgundy. This is a major unexpected hail storm hitting the Cote de Bone. Uh, pretty pretty much sort of in that bone pomard seven-year-bone triangle. It's hard to know just how much damage the hail has caused, certainly in that it'll take a little while for it to come through. There I saw pictures of sort of just very young berry clusters looking quite grey after the passing of hail. Uh obviously, though, the the pictures that get published are the are the worst ones. There was somebody did say, this is again, you know, it's it's hearsay, so it's still to be taken with a grain of salt, that Lituron, which is um a very decent Premier Cruis vineyard in, I think it's Premier Cruis vineyard in Bow, has lost an estimated 70% of its crop, according to one source, shall we say? Yes. Anyway, so we'll find out more about that, but but not a great thing, especially given that actually Burgundy, and you know, it could still have a fantastic harvest, but was well on the way to having a really wonderful harvest. The weather's been sublime. Another thing we should sort of state, and we'll come onto this later on, is that actually across France, harvest is going to be early this year. And we've talked about it a little bit before, but there's there are indications that harvest is going to be once again very, very early, unusually so. Next was uh a story pretty much from Vitisphere, which is the French wine website, wine news website, which said that basically they they they've got lots of ins with the trade in Bordeaux, especially. I'm basically saying that you know bulk prices of of Bordeaux wine are are down and continuing to go down. And I mean, there's the for me the sobering statistic was the the last one, which is where basically they said you're getting X amount for certain uh volume of wine. And you say, and he basically this this guy did a calculation. He said if if 1,200 euros per tonne, which is I think it's about 100 cases, something like that, a tonneau. Yeah, 112 bottle cases is the break. If 1,200 euros is the break-even point, then 74% of Bordeaux Superior is sold at a loss. And he said that well, if you remember that, you know, if you look at the way that it works, you know, because everything depends on yield and how much you can produce. So he said that if cost cost of production, so cost of production sits at 1,400 euros per tonneau if you're producing 54 hectolitres, so 5,400 litres per hectare. But he says, well, you know, in a year like last year, the average yield was 36 hectolitres per hectare, which is you know quite a significant reduction. That's 3,600 litres per hectare. You know, if you if you if you say that's your your yield, then 100% of what you're seeing there is sold at a loss, which is very, very sobering. Anyway, you know, more bad news from Blue.
SPEAKER_02So this is to go back to our Pollyanna versus the Grim Reaper analogy of wine. This is um what we're looking at here. We're we're looking at the top end of wine is doing okay, but the bottom end is just falling, collapsing in on itself really, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and they're saying that even things like the grave, Sentimillion, Pomerol, Fronsac, they're all downtail. 10% year on year. In terms of not my stars. The only the only upshot, the only sort of brightness in the gloom is that dry whites are up 10%. And again, we could spend hours talking about how good Bordeaux white is, and it's delicious. And the other one was crement Cremant de Bordeaux, which I'm I'm yet to be convinced on, but that's up 11%.
SPEAKER_02Are we? Or we're talking about sales figures. Not sales. Yeah. I mean, when you look at that with the with the whites, then the whites and the sparkling, yeah, I mean you get that because that's happening everywhere, isn't it? I mean, white.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, Cabernet is taking its crown off and handing it to Sauvignon Blanc, sort of thing, around the world. Yeah, but but to see Medoc wines and grav wines down 13% and centimillion, pomerol, for God's sake. I mean, those are big numbers, and those are coming out of. I mean, it's not Patreus that's losing that, is it? I mean, it's it's not Chevroblanc. No, it's and it's not Latour, it's the little guys who are really, really going to be struggling with this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um, yeah. Moving on, a little more bad news. Remy Cointro has cut production by 20%.
SPEAKER_02This the issue is never-ending source of gives me.
SPEAKER_01Sorry.
SPEAKER_02Not you, I meant I meant Cognac in general and Remy in particular.
SPEAKER_01I think the the issue here is is whether or not other major houses will follow. So basically again, you get to these sort of these weird setups. So Remy Cointreau has actually actually set up in the 1960s a sort of third party party, I guess, cooperative, which is called Alliance Fine Champagne, which is sort of a wine grower distiller cooperative. So they can like they can have a whole base of like several hundred. I mean, uh back in the day it was about a thousand, but now it's about 750 grape growers and distillers who grow and distill on a cooperative basis for Remy Cointro. And there's obviously all sorts of weird kind of entanglements there, but basically, Remy Cointro has told these people, you know, it's a company it set up originally, uh, that it's gonna it's gonna sort of only it's gonna cut its production by 20%. So it says we're only gonna we're only gonna take 80% of what we took last year, which is a bit of a a bit of a it's not surprising, but it's not great.
SPEAKER_02Um to have it to have it officially confirmed must be a quite a slug to the guts for also relatively late in the season as well.
SPEAKER_01You're sort of you're talking in June with what two or three months off harvest potentially, and things are well on the way. It does come off the back of a relatively positive fiscal announcement for Remy Quantraw, but you can't really help feel sorry for the for the growers who are now left going, well, okay, uh that's not great.
SPEAKER_02The big issue is they've had four years of this as well. I mean, this is yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just one cutout's death by a thousand cuts, and it's the cuts seem to be getting more frequent and deeper.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it follows off on the back of cuts last year in production. And the big issue is gonna be whether or not other major houses are gonna follow suit and whether they're gonna do they're gonna drop their requests and demands. Uh that was the main worry. We shall see that. We'll keep an eye on that. Next one, must as just referring to back what I said earlier, Mouskade harvest is set for mid-August. So yeah. And then it was and literally and again, this is Vitisphere, but they basically said one of the one of the one of the guys they quoted said, uh, no summer holidays this year, then it's like yeah. So yeah, they've he's shown his his holiday plans is going to be harvesting in mid-August. This is true, because it is it is quite astonishing, really, isn't it? How France closes down in August. Yeah, it's a wonderful for me, it's a wonderful thing, but you know, it's the way things should be.
SPEAKER_02But we I love the idea of it. I don't like the inconvenience of it.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So it's impossible. It's impossible to get any kind of news or anything, any information out of France in August.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, there isn't. There's absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_01Same for Madrid, to be honest. Anyway, uh that yeah, so it must get isn't looking late this year, unless you know we've it's the weather, right? So things can always change, but yeah. And then the final story was that the EU has formally dropped Grave Superieur as an appellation. I mean, this is in France they dropped Grave Superior last year, and it's now been ratified by the EU, yeah, which is and everything will go under Grave. Now, should we talk about the stuff that I missed?
SPEAKER_02Well, let's let's yes, let's talk about these these mythical stories that that you didn't. It's a good job, the old performance.
SPEAKER_01It's a good job the old yeah, it's a good job the old performance review thing is is we're sort of midway between that, so that's good. Oh, don't worry, I'm taking notes. It's also somewhat unusual in that I brought up my own misdemeanours here. Uh the the the story that I can't believe that I I sort of must have forgot to put in or something or bypass me was that Marquez de Murieta 2022 wine, Rioca. I suspect it's uh creamer, but I might I might be wrong. Um, has been selected for the VIP or has been chosen. Well they said chosen, but there's these are always partnerships, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um it's it's gonna be in the VIP areas of all the football World Cup games. Nice. So they they Marques de Murieta went out on a big PR push on this one. It's been picked up by a lot of newspapers in Spain. I cannot believe I didn't leave with it. But they're one of these things to leave us.
SPEAKER_02The the good thing about it is at least people will have a decent wine experience then, sure. Yes. I mean, this is this is the good thing about it because it can be very easy for them to just go with whoever's gonna offer them the biggest backhand or the biggest kickback and do and just go with that. But now, listen, while we're on this, is there any mention on who's doing the beer? No, I didn't see any mention on the beer. I can't tell you that's it's usually Budweiser, isn't it? So I mean it's not really beer at all. So um at least people will have something nice to drink. Yeah, I mean in the VIP areas.
SPEAKER_01Maybe uh maybe our listener can get over there, get over to a game or something. But the Marquis to bea, it's it's it's priced at about 30 euros or 30 dollars for a bottle, which is a pretty pretty decent little that's that's a decent, it's a decent drop, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02I mean, especially when you consider this has been given away. Yeah, right, in the VIP area. You don't you don't get charged in the VIP area. You don't have to you don't have to go up to the bar yourself and you know fumble through your change and slap a fistful of shrapnel down on the bar and take it out of that bar first.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, this this one just involves you looking at a chiller and sort of having a ponderous decision about whether you can get away with a certain glass at this hour. Yeah, yes. That was normally the right one. How many bottles can I get through in an hour and a half of a game? Right. The next one that I did I I know I did leave out for a reason is because I've done so many stories about wine and the Pope. I'm gonna be in danger of being being labelled as some sort of Catholic wine writer, which I'm not. Uh it's just that it always fascinates me. The um Chapera 2024 Prieto Piccudo from um Leon has been was one of the wines chosen for a wine dinner. Oh, for a wine dinner, for a dinner with Pope Leo 14th in Madrid recently. So I thought that's quite a nice quite interesting one interesting story, but I was like, well, we've had enough Pope stories recently. Yes, you can have too much of that man sometimes, can't you? And the the other one that I didn't put in, but also because it wasn't quite sort of there wasn't not a lot that was sort of concrete coming out of it, was that yeah. Uh this was a nice one in the sense that apparently Bodegas Bianchi in Argentina is working its way out of a sort of debt restructure and it is on its way to stabilising its financial uh situation, is what they said. So there is one piece of relatively good. I mean, it's still, you know, it's always couched a little bit, but they uh relatively peace, good decent piece of good news. Oh, wow, there you go. And you said there was no good news to be had. Uh what have we got to look forward to, Don?
SPEAKER_02Well, we've got all sorts, I suppose. Um, you know, we're carrying on with our best value series, obviously. We've got uh we've got an interesting story today, actually, about Napa investors who are booking the trend. Um, there's been a lot of talk about people wanting to pull out of Napa or not wanting to invest in Napa, or at least holding off an investment in Napa. And today we talked to some wineries, small and large, who are actually investing investing quite heavily in Napa, mostly while doing different things, though. They are all saying, look, we're not just here to sell $300 cabernets to old men, but they're looking at doing something different. And you know, there's there's all the talk about I I I I can't really say this without making it sound cynical, but they all talk about authenticity, and you know that people are craving an authentic wine experience. Oh my god, even saying that makes me feel about four IQ points dumber. Um sorry, I'm I'm lapsing into PR because it's a handy shorthand for for you know, instead of having to break it down into actually what is an authentic wine experience, but just basically more terroir-driven wines, um, not necessarily just shoehorning in a bunch of cabernet vines and going, that doesn't matter, we can still charge 300 bucks for it. So, you know, that's an interesting story, and it's got some this you know, there's a little bit of good news in there. So we we've we've got we've got other things. We'll also be we may even be running a story about hemp this week. But uh yeah, well, yeah, this is the other green crop that does one.
SPEAKER_01It's this is this THC again. Are we gonna do that?
SPEAKER_02Yes, it is, it is, it is. Of course it is. Um and we're also having a look at a a famous little wine triangle in northern Italy. Oh yes, so so that'll be nice.
SPEAKER_01I don't understand just on the hem on the hem note, I don't understand why wine and it's generally why the wine industry has decided that hemp is its major competitor.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would have said cannabis myself, but there you go.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, but yeah, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's cannabis slash hemp, yeah. Yeah, yeah, well we yeah. I don't know. I mean the the genuinely after all these years, uh the uh is the wine industry finally coming clean and saying, really, people like to get a bit of a buzz and they get it from our product. But yeah, but basically when you're when they're talking about hemp and cannabis being competition, yeah, then you're you're talking about the buzz, aren't you? Yeah, so yeah, yeah. Um it's it's it's interesting. I've always I've always been very impressed with wine that in the kind of health discussions and all the rest of it. I mean, obviously the health discussions are getting more prominent and noticeable now, uh, but um it used to be that you you'd almost think wine didn't have any alcohol in it. Whenever people talked about alcohol harm, they were talking about alcoholic seltzers, they were talking about beers, they were talking about spirits, talking about RTDs. They never really talked about the person that goes out and swills back two bottles of Pinot Grigio of an evening. And yeah, and so wine had successfully managed to kind of fly under the radar a little bit when it came to alcohol harm. It doesn't seem to be it doesn't seem to have that talk of invisibility that it once had.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02So you never know. Plenty to look forward to, that's all I can say. Plenty to look forward to.
SPEAKER_01And it's looks catch up in a week.
SPEAKER_02Yes, let's do that. Yeah, we're gonna week done. Yeah, you too, Ollie. All the best.
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