The Week in Wine Episode 43

Don has a Guinness with the rugby and Olly has a light red wine blend from a small producer in New Zealand (Halite). Don asks if winemaking nations correlate to soccer success and we look at some of the great, best-value Tequilas on the market at the moment.

The news this week revolves around more trade tariffs although some of our stories span: investment interest in Napa; why UK wines never really seem to take off; and a fascinating look at the "Bermuda Triangle of wine" in southeastern Europe.

Other news includes Languedoc winemaker Gérard Bertrand's it-will-only-get-worse outlook for the French wine industry (although there are positives); the first sparkling wine release for Marques de Riscal; climate change threats to viticulture in Chile; Miguel Torres releases his memoirs; and more on what is clearly going to be an early harvest for French winemakers.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 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, Tim.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Good morning, Ollie. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Oh, I'm alright. Yeah, I can't complain. It's a beautiful day. Shortest day of the year here. So, you know, it's all it's it's all it's all heading towards summer from here on in. Yeah, it's sunlit uplands before us. It is, that's exactly it. It's my my inner Pollyanna coming out once more. And just thinking that from here on in, it's all it's all sweetness and life. It's all beer and skittles from here on in.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It can only get better. That's what one of those things about sort of I was talking to my sister who's back in the UK, and that's the thing of seeing people's Instagram feeds and you know, World Cup in America and all of that, and all this sunshine and heat over there while we're wintering down over here, thinking, oh yep. But at least this is a turning point.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Well, it is. Yeah. It is. The only problem I have here is that at least in the northern hemisphere, you have Christmas to break up the misery of winter.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Whereas here you don't really have anything at all to break up the misery of winter.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

You don't have those those couple of weeks of like, yeah, of Christmas and New Year, which tends to Yeah, it takes your mind off the weather. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just you just sort of turn up in January going, um, okay. Right. But at least you're not you're right. At least there's something to break it up, which yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

You break it up and then you know, yeah. So just thinking about the Northern Hemisphere, you turn up in January where it's even colder than it was in December, and and the only thing you've got to keep you warm is your massive, outlandishly huge um credit card bill from Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Exactly. Yeah, you can you can you can nurture that to over the next couple of years. Indeed. Did you have anything good to drink at the weekend?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Um, I didn't do a lot of drinking on the weekend, to be perfectly honest with you, um, which was unusual for me. But um, I I my drinking kind of it it was concentrated on Saturday, which was down here in New Zealand. It was the final of the super rugby competition.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

My my my old team, the hurricanes, were up against the evil chiefs of Waikano. And um dealt to them righteously. It was wonderful. So I went to the I did the old-fashioned thing. I went to the pub and I watched a game in the pub on the television with a bunch of strangers, and it was absolutely wonderful. It reminded me, it really it really did. It reminded me what I loved about pubs in the first place, you know, having intense conversations with complete strangers, you know, and um and just the the merry slap of cash on a on a on the on a a bar top, a wooden bar top. It's a lovely sound. The sound of the sound of somebody hit throwing all their shrapnel onto onto uh onto a mahogany bar top and saying, take it out of that. But it was lovely. So no, basically I just had a few um I had a few Guinnesses and um I had a few whiskies to celebrate at the end once the final whistle went.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Lovely.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

And yeah, that was it really. So I didn't it wasn't there was nothing memorable as such, but it was um a very pleasant evening. And what about yourself?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Um yeah, I was I was actually gonna do talk about a little bit about watching rugby in the pub, which is always a slightly more enjoyable experience than watching football in the pub, I found. Both can be enjoyable, but I always found rugby slightly more so.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Well, it is because it's more concentrated, I think. Um because it's ten minutes shorter as a game, but also there's less time for people to just muck around. Um, in football, you get an awful lot of time waste, and you get people standing on the ball, you know, the foot and the ball wondering who then they invariably pass it sideways to a friend there's and before eventually the ball goes from a what had been originally a marginally promising position, it goes back to their own goalkeeper, and that's the that's the sort of thing that makes me bite my hat with frustration every time I see it happening in a football match. Um, and that doesn't happen so much with rugby where you're pretty much throwing yourself into it from the word goal. Having said that, I um then uh you were going to talk about what wine you had? Yes, sorry. Because I have because I have a theory to um try out on you afterwards, after you tell me what's uh so my my wine of the weekend was, and I as like you I don't have much to drink, but I did have we did open a bottle of halite, which is made by a friend of ours, Haydy, and she's based down towards sorry? I'm just thinking halite, h-a-l-i-t-e. Yes. Isn't that like a chemical salt? Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Exactly. That's the name of the wine. She makes a very she's quite a small, very, very small producer, and she made a light we had a light red wine from 2023, which is a blend of Pinot Noir from the Wild Appa and Syrah from Hawke's Bay. Oh, that was delicious, absolutely delicious.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

One and it's um it's a light red, you say?

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Yes, yeah, yeah. I don't I think it's an extraction thing. I think she must just she must have it on skins for a little while, a couple of weeks only, and then just you know press it off. And it was just absolutely delicious.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Wow, it sounds fantastic. It's a it sounds like a really interesting blend.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Yeah, it was great, it was really good. I think um in subsequent years she's blended Sangiovese from Hawks Bay with Pinot Noir from the Wild Epper, which sounds even more interesting.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

So Pinot and Sangiovese, I I can see as a slightly more natural pairing, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

You're right, yeah, yeah. No, I I do agree with that.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

There was like slightly similar cherry core, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Yeah, but yeah, I think the problem the problem with the Pinot Syrah combo, if there was a problem to be found, and you know, that's only if you're really splitting hairs, but it did make you know how Marty Brupino can get a bit sort of reductive, has it always had a reductive, sort of stinky, slightly stinky edge. Well, that's not that wasn't necessarily helped by Syrah being in the mix. But you know, I don't I didn't mind it at all. It was it was only a very, very minor note on what was other otherwise a very, very delicious wine. You were gonna anyway, you were gonna ask me something.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Yes, I was I've got I've got a theory I want to try out on you. Go on. But basically, the winner of the football world cup that's going on at the moment is going to be a wine-producing nation. Oh. I've been looking at the standings, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, now let's we're gonna have to leave group A out of it altogether because that just ruins my theory because because um South Africa are sitting firmly on the bottom of that group. Oh um, but group B, Canada and Switzerland are doing the job over Bosnia and Herzegovina and Qatar.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Um Group C, Brazil, but then Brazil Brazil does have a wine industry, uh, but um and Morocco at least had a wine industry.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yes, it's got a few producers, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah, um, are lording it over Scotland and Haiti.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Uh USA and Australia top two in group D. Although Germany top Germany topping group E. Netherlands not okay, fair enough. Netherlands not really a uh thing in group.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Japan.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Um group G again, Iran Iran topping that one.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Well, currently, yes, Iran are topping that one. Um you just asked for all the home of Shiraz. Um, but also I would point out that New Zealand are a good chance this afternoon if they can manage to beat Belgium to come back up there.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah, they can't.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Um group H is Spain and Uruguay. Yeah. Um Group I, Norway is on top, but that's only on till that's only on till France play again. Right. Um Group J, it's Argentina and Austria.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Group K, Portugal is handily placed, it's currently in third, but that's only after one result. And um despite and then Croatia lets me down badly in Group L. Uh well on the balance of probability, if you're a wine-producing nation, and I imagine that if Italy had made the finals, which they haven't, I'm sorry to remind all my Italian friends of that. Yeah, you didn't. Again, you're just like you're just like Ireland in that uh in that situation. Yeah, both of us, both of us missed out um disappointingly in the playoffs. But if Italy had been there, I I have no doubt that they would have been somewhere nice as well. Um I think Argentina are doing it nicely, though. They have a beautiful blend of um old vintage with the great Lionel Messi.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

And some of the how long had you been teeing this one up? How long have you been teaing it?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

But um, yeah, no, no, no, that's it. Yeah, mark my words, the winner is going to be a reasonably major wine producer.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Okay, we shall see.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

I would I'm probably I'm willing to put my shirt on that. I'm not I'm not entirely which sure which shirt yes yet, but um I'll find one. I'll find an old one somewhere to put on it. But anyway, yeah, so there you go. That's my theory for the week.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

I like it. How long have you been how long have you been mulling that one?

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Oh, about oh good half an hour at least, that'd say I was I was it literally was I was while I was lining up for this, I was just idly wasting a few minutes and I I I decided I'd have a look and see how the uh how the groups were shaping up, and I noticed, oh, look at that. Another wine market. It's it says a lot when you look at countries in a list in a in a league table, a series of league tables, yeah, at a football tournament, and the first thing you think about is not football but winemaking.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

I think I've been in this business too long.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

I was gonna say also just a reminder for our listeners that you know correlation does not mean causation.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Oh yeah, um um that's that's one of those phrases that people use to sound very clever. What go on? What does it mean in this? What's the context in this one?

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Oh, just only that uh drinking wine does not make you a better football player.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Oh, right, no, no, no. I was just drinking wine makes you an immeasurably worse football player. In fact, um, although let's be honest, it it didn't affect George Best, did it?

SPEAKER_02 10:23

I knew we were gonna get onto George Best.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

But uh yes, he was he was marvelous. So I remember once seeing him interviewed on television by Carolina Hearn in her persona's The Marvelous Mrs. Merton. Yes, and she once said, Do you think if if you hadn't been running around the football field so much, you would have been as thirsty when you came off. Which I thought was a lovely, um, a lovely description of him. Famously thirsty footballer. Anyway, um, yes, so in that case, in this case, you're right, causation is not um necessarily related to cor or equal to correlation.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

But um, anyway, yes, you'll find some wineries. And Messi does like a wine. He's got his own, he's got his own brands.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

He's managed to get himself he's got himself on numerous uh Sunday news roundups for me, which has been he has, yes, hasn't he?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, yeah. He doesn't like to spin it around. Especially for a fellow who's never been quoted in English in his life. He's he makes the news a lot. Rather rather more than you'd expect.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Right. Shall we uh shall we talk about what week in why? Yes, let's let's. Um what do you reckon, Don?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

It's been interesting a week. It's been a funny whole week, really. Any top stories? Well, yeah, the top story is one from a previous week, again. World's best value tequilas. This is the story that just won't be.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Still going.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Still going.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

So what were the top tequila? We didn't talk about this last week, but what like oh, this is best value, so it's gonna have it is it's best value.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

So these are the best value tequilas that you could buy. Um, there were the one thing I liked about the actual tequilas involved is that um yeah looking at the list, uh the actual level of value you're getting. So we we do it on a QPR of quality price ratio, yeah, which is basically aggregated critic score divided by price. So it's points per dollar. And last time we did this, the winner had a points per dollar value, a QPR ratio of 2.76, I think. Yeah. Oh no, totally 3.03. However, this year the top one had a QPR of 5.41.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

Um seriously ahead. I mean, and it's not it's not like we had all 90 point ones that are available at $15 a bottle either. We're talking, for example, the number two tequila was a 95-pointer.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Oh right, yeah, yeah, yes. And all of these was also well, I thought was also really good was they're all between 30 and 40 sort of New Zealand dollars. So you translate that to uh America dollars.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah, there's there's none of them really over $30.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Incredible.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

It is incredible. It is. I mean, the top tequila was $17. Um, like the most exp that does the that now that was the cheapest on the list, but the most expensive was $25 US.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, right. Yeah, $25 US this is.

SPEAKER_00 13:23

Yeah, we're talking about genuine value here, yeah. And it's just that's what tequila does. That it just gives you plenty of just value. It's the the range of value is huge as well. We could have made another list, we could have made a top 50 out of this, and I don't think any of them would have gone above $40 in price.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

And then the nice thing was that although there was a couple of Jose Cuervos in there, um, it was nice that there's there's a rank, there's a real range of brands that I didn't really register.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Indeed, yes, there is Quervo in there because let's be honest, um it's it's not it's not the biggest selling tequila in the world for no reason, yeah. Which means it's it's always got a good consistent level of quality about it, yeah. But it's it's also got the economy of scale that means they can produce it at a at a at a r relatively ridiculously low price um for something that that's that good. But anyway, it was nice to see all mecha in there as well. It's a brand of tequila I haven't seen for a while. That was the tequila story, but um with with with the other stories, um, and well, so the the the second most read story of the week was Burgundy Battered by Hale. Ah, yes, the Sunday roundup.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Which we've covered. There's actually been more on that, but we'll talk about that when we get to the Sunday story this week's Sunday story.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's then the wine tariff story, but um this time there's a story by Blake Gray, our US editor, yeah, about the fact that the tariffs at the bottom of the latest row might actually be a little bit more tariffy and a little bit more sticky than the last lots of tariffs, because on the basis that this one has grounding in law. Yeah, it's it's a response. Because of France's yeah, France's digital services tax, which will overwhelmingly is or is overwhelmingly aimed at US companies, and consequently the US is responding to what it sees as unfair tactics. And so consequently is applying tariffs and has threatened tariffs of up to 100% on French coins if they don't climb down and stop charging those poor, beleaguered companies, you know, the Amazons. These poor, helpless weeds, just trying to make a dime, just trying to do it. These little babes in arms, just yeah, desperately just trying to make a dime in a harsh, cold world. So unless they back down, they're threatening serious tariffs on them. And as I said, the problem with this is that this there's a legitimate grievance behind this one. Yeah, it's it's not a whim, it's not a we think we should have a better balance of trade with this country, so we're going to arbitrarily apply a tariff on all their products. But once again, the problem with tariffs is tariffs are a are a fairly blunt weapon to be wielding, or to be wielded by a government, on the basis that you know it's it's I can't say this often enough. It's not the country who is exporting who pays the tariff. The problem is it is the end consumer in the uh exported to country, so in the other country, the importing country, the destination country, exactly. Yeah. That pays them. Though them and businesses there who end up having to absorb some of the cost while passing the rest on to the customer. So in this case, what you're looking at is you're looking at uh US businesses being unfairly, I would suggest damaged. Um like a lot, an awful lot of small businesses will be like uh extremely damaged by this tariff should it go ahead. But it's it's hard, it's gonna be really hard for people.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

It does seem though that at the moment, certainly at the moment, that what's going on in the Middle East is occupying much more of the American administration's time than potential trade disputes with France.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

Well, yeah, but you would think so, wouldn't you? Yeah. So I I I can only imagine I'm I'm only hoping for wine's sake that the administration will be sufficiently occupied panicking about the Straits of Hormuz being closed again to um necessarily have the bandwidth to deal with this particular tariff as well, because if this happens, it's going to be absolutely disastrous for the new S wine US wine industry.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

I mean, maybe it'll be a little bit better for um some of their domestic producers. I know excuse me, I know um a lot of growers in parts of California, for example, want tariffs, they actively desperately want tariffs because they see it as a chance to make their wines more attractive on the market than those of France or Italy or Spain or Germany or whoever, yeah, and consequently sell more. And and so uh, you know, uh uh there are people who want the tariffs to go ahead, but for for the business, for the industry as a whole, you know, the retail end of things, the import side, the distribution side, even, and for consumers themselves, it's uh it's just another kick in the guts.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

If this uh if this goes ahead.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Well, we should yeah. Any um any favorite stories from the week?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yeah, I did like the one about the Napa investors booking the trend. Um, this is by Kathleen Wilcox. We've done a story a while back about we've done a few stories so far this year about how banks are holding off on you know uh evaluating land in Napa, for example, as being good collateral for a loan. Um and and you know, they're they're advising sort of lesser investment in minories, in developing minories, so forth. But there are people who are still investing in mineries, and that's not all small people either. There are a lot in this story, there are a lot of small people who are investing in their in developing their land, in um increasing their vineyard acreage in Napa, like the one place where things were, you know, the chain had come off the bicycle, as it were.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

And and and even a couple of large companies are doubling down on their investment in Napa. So it's for me, it was um encouraging. It it appealed to my inner Pollyanna um to see that there might be some kind of just yeah, I don't know. That there were people still involved and interested in reinvesting.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

There was another couple of stories I liked as well. I mean uh The Struggle Facing English Wine uh by Harry Hudson, who's uh works in our London office. Nice little um pressy of where uh English wine stands, specifically English sparkling wine. Um and it's it's still in the same place that it has been for years. It's been producing expensive sparkling wines, very good sparkling wines, but very, very expensive, more expensive than champagne. Yeah, and I think that if you're faced with the choice of spending sixty dollars on uh on on an English sparkling wine or fifty dollars on champagne, I think the fifty dollar champagne's probably gonna win out with most consumers.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

It's pretty much champagne every time, I have to admit. And I've had some some of some nice English wines, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Oh, there's some wonderful ones. There's some, you know, don't get me wrong. Yeah, yeah. Um, but like you say, they're too expensive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um I mean, generally, English wines are really, really expensive. Yeah. It's it's you know, um, um saying, oh well, you know, we do a lot to our wine. Well, you know, I don't know, maybe do less, grow more, do less. But uh yeah, anyway, so that was there. And the other one I liked was um Chris Boiling's story on rediscovering wine's magic triangle.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

That was annoying, that was really interesting. That tell tell the readers about that one.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

That was yes, now this was about um you know, usually wine is defined by appellation, kind of, or it has been certain. In Europe. Yes. But but you know, towers don't always respect borders, as the story pointed out. And um it's a story about a kind of slice of central and southeastern Europe going from Lake Balaton in Hungary to right down the Adriatic coast to um Bosnia-Herzegovina and across into northeastern Italy. Right, yeah. And it's where there's a certain there's a huge, deep and impressive wine history. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Really fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

And often with uh native local grape varieties, but though those grape varieties spill over borders, they're known by different names here, different names there. It's and and this was just a I really like the story. It was a lovely story because I felt like I was on a on a travel programme.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I I really enjoyed it too. I thought it was fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Well, it is, and it honestly, if you're interested, if you're even if you haven't necessarily thought of these places, Croatia, you know, Slovenia, um, as necessarily interesting wine regions, the story is just love, it's it's a lovely right, and it's it it genuinely makes you feel like you're on a kind of a cruise down the Adriatic. Um and who wouldn't want that? I know. So yeah, that was that was probably my favourite story of the week, to be honest. If only for it was it was just beautifully written.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Yeah, and I I just love that. I love these sort of off the off the beat, off the beat and track places. We say off the beat and track, these are places that have huge history of winemaking. Um, but yeah, absolutely. So good, so interesting, really enjoyable. Just yeah, really great. Right. Well, um, should we let's maybe have a look at um Yes, turning away from the Pollyanna. Should we look at yes? Um let's finish. I think we should finish. So the the the headline for my Sunday roundup was the headline story was uh an interview with Gerard Bertrand, who's a ex-rugby player, French rugby player, now has a now is a major producer in in the longer doc. But let's probably finish we should probably finish with him because there's been a lot going on uh in wine news this week, and I've really struggled to sort of actually nail down what I was going to talk about. There were more reports of hail damage in uh Burgundy. This is from the same hail that happened two weeks ago. Uh, this time in Saint Aubin. I I read one of the producers in Saint Aubin saying they got hail damage. I was thinking it was on Facebook, which is really weird, but anyway, these things say that more talk of tariffs, which we've touched on. Uh Freshnet made it into Forbes' 100 Best Companies to Work for in Spain list. Um, what else do we have? Somebody'd found a 19th-century bottle of Chateau Monrose in the Margot Barn, and that was going up for auction, I think, in Bordeaux. Organic wines were also on the downturn, uh, which was another one that was potentially interesting, but there was there was there was a bit thin on the ground, that uh thin thin on the ground, the information from that one. Cellar Master Christophe Valto, that was interesting, had left Martel. Now, Martel's the number two cognac producer, and Valto had apparently left. The the indication was that that Martel had wanted to turn him, and this is what happens when you get to large estates as well, in white in wine terms. When you have these winemakers, they kind of become celebrities in their own right. Yeah. And so the estates and the people who run the estates actually promote the profile of the winemaker just as much as the wine or anything else. The winemaker then has to go and do these trips abroad, like sort of sales trips, go, you know, pour your wines, press the flesh, do the thing. And I think they've wanted to do a similar thing with Christophe Valto. And Valto just said, actually, no, I'm quite happy being hanging out in Cognac. Um, thanks, but no thanks. And they parted ways. So that was an interesting one. Another one that didn't I sort of didn't mention in my roundup was there was a tasting, there was a tasting of wines in the Alhambra, which for readers who know is is the old Moorish, massive Moorish castle in Granada, southern Spain. And there was the 500th anniversary of I think it's Charles V turning up at the Alhambra and drinking wine there, which I sort of suspect is a sort of a sly kind of anti-Muslim sort of thing. You know, you know, yeah, it was very important to sort of to show that you properly converted by drinking wine or eating pork or things like that. So I was like, yeah, it was an average story that one because it turned out that although it was the 500th anniversary and they said, Oh, you know, he they drank wines that were that would have been drunk 500 years ago, there was one which was a Chardonnay from down the road. And I thought, well, yeah, maybe 500 years ago they wouldn't have been drinking Chardonnay in Spain. But anyway, moving on, the headlines. Uh France reads for an early harvest. We kind of touched on this last week as well. But this is the news that in Burgundy things are going to be kicking off probably August 20th, 25th, so mid to late August. For the Cremons. And that is early. Yeah. For the Cremons, they reckon mid-August, like August 15th, August 12th. Which is really early. Uh, there was lots of talk about how great this how great this news was for students. Well, you know, even students just even students deserve a summer holiday. And also, yeah, anyway, you know, top up your savings for the start of the academic year by working like a dog in a in a baking hot burgundy vineyard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Well, especially and and speaking of baking hot, oh yeah. I notice I notice literally it is baking hot. I mean, you're talking about 40 plus degrees over there, yeah. Which is, you know, it's it's not just sort of, oh yeah, well, you know, God bless them, that they should be working out there. It's a beautiful time to be out there. It's over 100 degrees Fahrenheit at the moment. Yeah, it's absolutely I see whether the the French authorities are are are restricting out or trying to restrict outdoor gatherings and and reducing and certainly restricting the sale of alcohol at outdoor gatherings.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Yeah, and we're only in late June.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

I was shocked when I read that in the paper this morning. I know. What's going on?

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Ricidulous. That's actually ridiculous. What are you talking about? But should we move on? Well, yes, let's Yeah, before you before the both of us get very grumpy about that kind of thing. I'm still quite annoyed about that.

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Um anyway, but let's get let's carry on, yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Another one was that the Marques de Riscal has launched its first bubbles. Now this surprised me. I always thought, you know, there's these a lot of these high-profile Rioca wineries have their own carver brands, you know, and I thought, oh Marques to, you know, I saw this, thought, well, surely Marques de Riscal has its own carver. Turns out it doesn't. Anyway, they've they've launched their first bubbles. And it unusually for and it's not a carver. So it's it's it's dubbed sublime, which I thought was there's a lot of there's a lot of um French influence in this wine, which I thought didn't necessarily need to happen, but they're they're clearly aiming at a certain segment of the market that sort of identifies very much along the lines of Dom Perignon's sort of luminescent bottles, which for people who who know, they're sort of black labels which glow in the dark. Like I think Dom Perignon's actually has a I mean got like batteries or something and LEDs that make it the label kind of glow. Whereas this one just had sort of like glow in the dark uh ink used on the thing. It had the words fin bulle on the label, which is French for fine bubbles. I thought it's all right, you could probably just, you know, you're Spanish, just be a bit, you know. But it when it but it was made from Sauvignon Blanc in Rueda, which is just down the road. So yeah, I know. There were I have a lot of questions. Yeah. Uh they didn't explicitly say that it was method traditionnelle, which makes me they said it was double natural fermentation and aging on lees, which makes me suspect it's sharmat.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

But um, but yeah, interesting, interesting one. Anyway, that was I thought that was quite newsworthy. Marcus Driscoll launching its own sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. Uh Miguel Torres has published his memoirs. 216-page book, A Life Among the Vineyards. Tremendous.

unknown 30:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

Anything remotely um controversial in it?

SPEAKER_02 30:17

No, no, no, no, nothing at all, from what I could tell.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Oh, well, just what the world needs, another coffee table PR pamphlet.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Yeah, right. That's pretty much it. Um he did pay tribute to his wife, Walthrow Max Mashesek. Mashasek? God, excuse me. If if anyone knows how to pronounce that uh surname, please let me know. Uh apologies for that. And apparently she she'd actually looked after the um after Torres's German exports for a good quarter century.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Well, look, good on him for actually mentioning the wife. Because we you I mean, so often you get these things that how this, you know, this wily gentleman uh with the twinkle in his eye and the urbane manner and a great sense of physicality about him. You know, he crafted these wines, hewed the vineyards himself from the hills and all the rest of it, entirely on his own with no help from anyone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's the normal course of it, isn't it? And um exactly you know, whereas where I've always I've always been a firm believer in the fact that behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Yeah, um you sort of got this, yeah. That that was sort of the impression. The other the other interesting thing about the book was that it it was a good reminder that a lot of these brands, not all, uh but a lot of the brands uh Torres' brands were actually established by his father or were you know predates predate Torres himself. Things like you know, Vignezol, uh Coronas, and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

Even Toro Sanger Toro Fantastic with the little the little black plastic bull hanging from the neck.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Yes, yeah, yeah. So anyway, that's the book Una Vida entre Vinidos, uh A Life Among the Vineyards is published by Plant de Gastro is out in Spanish. And the sort of penultimate story before we get on to the big one is the Mole in Chile, which is the main sort of viticultural region in the country, which is 45% of the country's wines are made there, is gonna be under threat by club from climate change. And they reckon, you know, in 20 years' time things won't be looking great for wine production in Mole, and then actually what will happen is that over that time the production will generally shift further south towards Biobiu and Newble in the south, which is quite interesting. Now, on to the big one. Yes, the wine crisis, this is only the start of the downturn, says Gerard Bertrand, who's the um is a very well-known high-profile Longuedoc. I suppose wine producer, wine negotiant, wine maker, uh Vigneron. Vigneron businessman, you know, basically saying, look, we're only at the start. This is a structural and cyclical crisis, it's going to last between three and five years. Um there was a it was a long, wide-ranging interview with Vitisphere, uh, which came out sort of about just over a week ago. He took in a lot of things, looked at the outdated Evan Law, which is France's law against um alcohol advertising, uh, about climate change. Sort of he talked a lot about how you know we need to have water, water policies and things going on in there. You know, he had a crack at Bordeaux saying, you know, if it's suffering so much, it's because in the space of 20 years, they went from a vineyard area, and I'm quoting here, they went from a vineyard area much more based on white wines to an area that was very, very red. And actually, you know, things are sort of tipping back towards that. What I thought was interesting was he was, although he was very like, you know, we've got to brace ourselves, this is only the beginning of a tough time. He went on to basically say that we need to have a roadmap out of this and we need to have better promotion of French wines, and he singled out Italy as being a good one where, you know, although France and Spain are talking about grubbing up and crisis distillation, Italy's actually apparently planting vines at the moment. And the government's financed quite a few things in Italy. The main thing he said was look, you know, when basically US wines were pulled from the shelves, he said the president of the Italian wine association had a meeting with the two main Canadian liquor boards in Quebec and Ontario.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Okay, so when the wines were when the wines were removed from Canada, Canadian.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Yeah, you know, out of that the big tariff spat, which is interesting, uh interesting in itself. Uh he went over and said, look, how can we help? And they together they sort of created what was Italian wine month, basically. I don't know, I hadn't heard of this. This is really interesting. And and Belchon was saying, as a result, Italian wine sales in Canada are up 40%, while wine sales in French wines in Canada are only up five percent. You know, he this, you know, he's saying, How could we miss this opportunity? We should be doing this. You know, imagine imagine if across our you know top ten major markets you had a French wine month. Yep. You know, I mean it's it's it's a very he's got a point. He's got a he's got a very good point. I mean, the man is you know, he's the he's very well known and very well respected for a reason. And not everyone in the longot likes him, but you know, the it's hard to point anyone in the longer doc can really like likes anyone else without a caveat. Um I think he's right. What I found what I found sort of slightly interesting was you know, he he did say, look, we've got to get together, we've got to shut down our egos and differences and get to work. But all of this was him basically saying, Look, the government needs to give us a hundred million euros. And I was like, Well, isn't it a bit rich for a businessman, a man who is sort of very much about the sort of pioneering entrepreneur spirit, to be basically going cap in hand to government, well not even cap in hand, it's sort of like quite forcibly saying, Hey, the government needs to finance this, when you know there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there with quite a bit of money who could come together themselves to finance this. Indeed. You know what I mean? And so I get his point, but it's sort of it always strikes me a little bit as like, well, you know, you're asking for government money when you know you're a you're a prime sort of dude with a lot of money yourself.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah, I mean, but I mean that the kind of the corporate socialism of agriculture is um you know uh that's everywhere, isn't it? I mean you know I mean the the bizarre thing is is that the majority of farmers tend to be the sort of rugged individualist types who who believe that um you know that unemployment benefits and so forth are are anathema and a terrible thing, and people should work for money, and you know that's what they have to do. And yet at the at the first drop of a subsidy, they're off um you know with their hands out at the government going, hey you, you there, give me money. Um it's quite bizarre. I mean, it's not just I mean, I'm not just talking about France, although to be honest, in France they will dump cow dung on the steps of the Elysee Palace at the drop of a subsidy. But I mean, even places where there aren't subsidies, I mean we see it here in New Zealand all the time. Whenever, you know, there's oh it's been a bit it's been a bit wet, give us money. Oh, it's been too dry, give us money. Yeah, yeah. Um everything and and because it's a it's a strong driver of exports, the government gives them money. Um and it's it's the same everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

It's um so I thought that was gone.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

No, no, no, I was gonna say it's it's it's a there's a weird disconnect there in in agriculture. But I mean, I but to get back to this guy, I mean I I see exactly m uh Bertrand's point.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Yes, um they have been let down badly, but surely the job of promoting French wine is not the French government's no, it's the it's the French wine industry's job, and that is that that is a hard job, and some some do it better than others, and we've talked about this before a little bit that certain certain groups and areas and regions are better at promoting themselves than other sort of regions, so yeah. And long has a few issues within itself, it's generally pretty good. The Rhine has well it's always been relatively good in export markets, so they sort of in in sort of telling its story and things.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Uh and yeah, so I think I think because with with with people like that and even and with Bordeaux and Burgundy, they have strong long-term stories. Whereas with Longwadoc, Longwadoc was kind of in cohate uh for many years, you know. I remember Langwadok wines in the 80s and 90s, and you had no idea where they were from, really. Just said Langwadoc.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Interestingly, you'd no idea what style they were gonna be, really. Yeah, um, you know, so the it was it it took a long time for Longwadoc to actually become Languadoc as it was.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Yes. As it were, yeah, despite despite a very long and storied history throughout these different regions. Indeed. Uh the other thing, the other thing he did say, that the other thing he did mention was that they're gonna try and revive the Sud de France label. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Yes, vaguely, yes.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

So for years they'd been sort of like they'd been um ins and outs in courts and and legal battles over whether or not you could use the Sud de France label in in on a wine bottle, and it was finally quashed. I think we covered it a couple of years ago, yeah. And now they're trying to revive it. So we'll see how that goes.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

I'll just the point of that is just it's slightly idiotic because there are obvious there have to be demarcation issues.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

That was the issue. It was it wasn't actually a place.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Yeah, well, this is it. How do you describe a place that's not a place? Yeah, I mean, it's it's you know, I mean, yeah, southern hemisphere, fine, it's anywhere south of the equator. Yeah, um, you know, Languedoc itself, yes, you can delimit that. Yes, but Sout defense, yeah. Well, how how does that work? I mean, well, it includes your neighbor immediately to the south of you can use the label, but you can't.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

Yeah, but it also includes Provence, it also includes the southern Rhone, you know. You're just like, well, where do you yeah?

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Well, how far up does it go? I mean, you know, yeah, it's effectively anywhere south of the Massif Central, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Pretty much, yeah, which is still quite a large area. Yeah, so they're they're talking about that. I don't know how they're gonna go get around it. I th there was some interesting wording around that one, which is which I thought was. I just bet there was. I bet there was. Yeah, but it was it was a very interesting interview and quite quite wide-ranging, and yeah, it thought it was yeah, there's a lot of a lot of things to to take away from that, which is quite good. But it did he was certainly not he was falling more on my side of the coin than yours, which is to say that you know we're we're only we're only at the only at the start of this and things are only gonna get worse. Sorry, listener.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Lovely, yeah, lovely, lovely. It's just everything's just so full of the joys of spring, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 40:44

It's right, yeah. I know. I know it's so depressing. I know. Uh what have we got to look forward to, if anything?

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Um, well, yeah, we've got no course. Well, yeah, I just I wonder how much we actually have to look forward to. Um we've got a story, we've got a lovely story on Saint Sayre. Oh great, which is about how Saint Sayre's style is changing somewhat as as the climate changes, obviously. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's um it's uh obviously a place with a a sort of an almost continental climate has gonna suffer more obviously than somewhere in a temperate climate. But um yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens, but uh it's it's the story's mostly about what people are doing to ameliorate the uh impact of climate change, yeah, which is in itself is a story because I I do love the fact that we keep reading on these stories on how regions are adjusting to climate change and yet still in the background there's a rather large minority of people going, There's no such thing. Um anyway, even though we're living through it, and we're talking about people who are who I would imagine a lot of them are reasonably cynical towards the idea of certainly human-influenced climate change, um, are actually saying, No, this is actually happening. You know, anyway, yeah, such as life. And we we shall continue with our our best value series. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 42:10

Oh, what have we got? What's happening this week?

SPEAKER_00 42:12

Next it will be Rom.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

Yeah, we've also got some other stories. We've got a good story on bourbon coming up this week. Oh, on a lower proof version of Pappy Van Winkle.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Which yeah, I'm not sure that sits well with me, the very idea of it. Um I want my I want my uh you know, I want my prestige bourbons to be genuinely prestige. I want them to be big, bold, you know, memorable, full of flavour and full of alcohol. Yeah, um, but yeah, anyway, there is a story about it that we shall have to have a look at. Uh yeah, so that's what we've got looking forward to this week.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

Awesome. Well, hopefully there's a bit more upbeat news next week, though.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

Oh Lord, I hope so. I'm not sure we're gonna be able to do that. We keep waiting. We keep having this conversation. Uh yeah, there's just you're you're beating me down. My my my you know naturally sunny disposition is being is being sullied, it's being gradually besmeared with the with the grime of pessimism.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Oh, I feel bad.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

It's it's um, you know, I shall I shall have to go outside and hose myself down soon and re-emerge as that shining beacon, that glowing silvery light of hope at the end of the at the end of the tunnel. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 43:30

Apologies. Apologies to all from me. Apologies to yeah, well, so this should be.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

So this should be. I'll try I'll try and do better next week. And that's and that's a good night and sorry from him, too.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

Anyway, all right, Tom. You have a great week.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

Yeah, you too. All the best. Talk soon. Bye.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

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 winehightersearcher.com.