The Week in Wine Episode 46

Don has a delicious Douro red from Niepoort to discuss before we talk about the top story this week: an impressive selection of best value California wines that cover a range of regions, varieties, styles and labels. We also discuss stories on Brittany's nascent wine industry, how weight-loss drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy, etc.) are affecting wine consumption, appreciation and sales, the South African wine scene and a great couple of podcast interviews with grape DNA guru José Vouillamoz.

Olly talks about the recent controversy surrounding the Michelin ratings in Burgundy, with (as Jamie Goode recently pointed out) Arnaud-Lachaux asking to be removed from the ratings after only getting one "grape". Sour grapes? There's also a quick look at the fires in Burgundy (including a Mercedes garage that caught fire over the road from vines in Nuits-Saint-Georges).

Heatwaves could mean the Bordeaux harvest is even smaller than last year; a Champagne enologist finds spoilage yeast Brettanomyces in 75% of base wines; Argentina's exports are on the up but Uco Valley winegrowers are struggling to make any money from their endeavors.

There's also a deep-dive on a neighborly dispute involving one of the world's greatest private collectors of wine – himself a controversial figure. Michel-Jack Chasseuil has a huge collection worth $50 million of top-end wine (think, DRC, Petrus, Screaming Eagle, Penfolds' Grange, Harlan, etc.) housed in his four cellars in rural France, but he keeps getting in arguments over boundaries and access roads which see the local police regularly called to the tiny, 7-house hamlet of Fonfolet to diffuse the situation. Chasseuil is also controversial in that he refuses to drink his collection, which also includes wine from Hitler's cellar and a bottle taken from the wreck of the Titanic.

Finally, there's a story about a home-build company in New Zealand that has named its prospective house designs after local wineries and wine brands.

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_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 winehightensearcher.com. Good morning, Tom.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Good morning, Ollie. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. It's sunny outside. How are you? Uh it's sunny outside, but it's also very, very cold where I am. I'm sitting here huddled on top of a heater. Um, which is uh it's a it's a very strange feeling. I I don't think I've been this cold for oh years, years.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

In the in the subtropical climbs of Auckland, you generally have it pretty pretty mild over there, even on the coldest of days. Well, we do.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

I mean, we've had a frost so far this month. Goodness me. Well, I say a frost, there was some crunchy white grass outside, so I'm I'm counting that as a frost. Yeah, it's been it's been surprisingly cold, but it's been an excuse to uh explore some um some big reds.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

No, I was gonna ask.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Go on, what have we had? I had a wonderful wine this weekend. I had a Kneeport Redoma Tinta. Oh. Which is it's a red wine from the duro, but it's yeah, and it's it's Kneeport, but it's not port. Yes. It's Neport.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

As in the producer, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Well, no, no, no, but I'm just saying it's a it's Neeport the producer, but it's also Neport, as in not port. Um it is I see. I thought I'd done a really cool joke there, but I clearly haven't. No, no, you did, you did.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

It fooled me c entirely. And I yeah, I I didn't get the di I didn't pick up on the uh dialect.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

So it's it's a blend of all the tintas and toregas you could possibly imagine. Yes, um, and it's just it was perfect, absolutely perfect. We uh we had roast lamb for dinner on Saturday night. Oh, stop it. We had a bottle of this with it, you know, proper big winter feed, and it was a proper big winter wine, absolutely glorious, and you know, remarkably affordable. It was yes, it was not it was not ridiculously expensive. Um I found it in a wonderful little I was away for the weekend and I I was delighted to discover that there's a brilliant little wine shop, which oh unforgivably I've forgotten the name of in the place where I was staying. And um it was oh lord, it was brilliant. It was a great place to go in. It's it it's it was one of those wine shops where the owner almost resents selling you the wine because he loves it more than you do. It was one of those shops, and it was it was brilliant. I had to um I had to kind of negotiate with him for him to let go of the w the bottle and let me walk out of this shop with it. Anyway, so uh what have you been drinking over the week in a doorhouse?

SPEAKER_01 2:59

I didn't drink I had nothing memorable this weekend other than uh endless coffees, really. It's been yeah. Oh me this win. So we could we could move on and get quickly into the nitty-gritty of what was going on last week, Don.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Well, to be honest, there was only one story in town last week for our readers, and I bet you can't guess what that was.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Hang on, hang on, hang on. Best value Californian wines.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Absolutely, of course it was, by country mile. Um our readers, our readers love them as we do, are nothing if not predictable. And this was, yeah, it was obviously it was always going to be a big story because it's California, yeah. Um and it's best value wines, and surprisingly, for the best value wines from California, yeah. What got me was it wasn't all just you know Sonoma Pinot and um Chardonnay, there were some like big cabernets in there.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

There's all sorts in there, wasn't there? It was such actually quite a quite a lovely selection of different wines. You've got a Russian River Valley Pinot, there was uh there's a bunch of sort of Rhone-style wines, lots of Syrah and Grenache and Petite Surra sort of thing. I mean, well, Petit Surra is not really Rhone, but you know what I mean. It's all sort of knocking around in there. It's and a and a little and a decent Santa Barbara Chardonnay as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

So you know, it was really good. I mean, it's I mean, it just goes to show. I mean, we're probably as guilty of it as anyone, but reducing California wine down to oh it's Napa and it's cabinet, yeah, um is just yeah, it's dumb. It's dumb, and I apologize for doing it. I promise to be better and not kind of be so reductive in future about California wines because there are so many good wine regions that produce really interesting, idiosyncratic, you know, and dare I say, terroir-driven wines. Yeah, yeah. Um the Central Coast, for God's sake, that everybody dismisses. Yeah, brilliant. I know oh, give me a load of Zinfandel any day of the week.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

And also, I think the thing about those large bulk wine zones, and we've we've said this before, is that there's quite a bit of experimentation available in them just because of their size. Of course. It's wonderful labels, the language of yes, great.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

What a great label. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll just love it. Harvey and Harriet from St. Louis Obispo County. What a great, I'll just love it. I want to meet Harvey and Harriet now. Yeah, I want to know more about them. I want it, I want them to tell me their story. It's it's brilliant. There's just such lovely, there's it's such an old-fashioned pairing that that I want to know more. You know, Marietta Sellers, for God's sake. It's um naughty Marietta, as it were, from various musical theatre back in the day, I suppose. Yeah, you know, and a nice Pax GSM, you know, it's always good to see.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Fantastic. I love that I love those PAX labels. I love that sort of European monastery style calligraphy.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Yeah, uh it's beautiful. Um I do appreciate a nice bit of calligraphy myself.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yeah, that was very nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

That was what first attracted me to um Jim Barry's Armas Arrah. Armas Saras. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got that beautiful old kind of Celtic illumination style on it. It's a very Book of Kells looking.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

It's um what else was what else was big last week, Don? Other than California Valley.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Well, with a couple of stories that um I wasn't expecting to do well, uh one of them I was expecting to do better, but the story about French wine's new North Star, which was about the celebration of Brittany wines or Breton wines, I should say. That hit a chord with uh a surprising number of people.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah, well, I mean it was a good story and it's an interesting one.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

It is. This is the thing. It's um it was something that I was thinking, is it gonna be you know, is are people going to care? It's Brittany, you know. I mean, it's not exactly where the new Burgundy or anything we're talking about. But um it's surprisingly enough, people just love it.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

I mean, I I love the idea. There's a guy there, Lauron Husay, you know, um they'd go his grandparents would go fishing for cod back in the day. Yeah, yeah. But this guy grew up in a creppery of good. Could you get a pancake shop? Could you get more bread on? Yeah. It's these little details that make the story.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Um, but you know, he he planted his vineyard in 2023, certified organic, biggest vineyard in Brittany now. You know, it's um a wonderful story and and and about a wonderful restoration of the idea of what the very idea of wine, even in Brittany, because it was for many years it wasn't considered for um viticulture. I mean it was it was it was not allowed. You weren't allowed to grow grapes there, um, according to the French government. But then a reorganization of wine laws around Europe as part of the European Union's various ongoing, never-ending, grinding, tiny, meaningless reforms. Um because it's it's a constant attempt to justify their own existence. Uh so that they that made it legal again. So um, but yeah, it's it's wonderful. It's nice what they're um what they're growing, you know, they're growing Albarino there, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, I mean that's one of the interesting things about it though, is is you need to have I think there's a because of the identity thing, you need to have a grape. And and the problem with with being in France and trying to build a a wine zone from scratch in France is that any grape you choose that's and you want to be, I guess, nationalistic for what for want of a better phrase. Uh any grape you choose is going to immediately lend comparisons to somewhere else. Like if you go for Chenin Blanc, you're gonna get compared to the Loire. If you pick Chardonnay, you'll always get picked, you'll always get pinged for Burgundy, you know? But the Sauvignon Blanc, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

This is the problem because they are probably I mean they're growing Pinot Noir, they're growing Chardonnay, yeah. They're growing Chenon Blanc, they're growing Sauvignon, you know. That that's interesting. But Alberinho is one that makes sense though, Alberinho. I like that. Which uh a newcomer to Brittany, uh an Argentinian gentleman called Lucas Pister, yeah, he's growing Alberino. Yeah, and it it makes perfect sense when you think of where Alberino's home base is, which is tracks, as they say.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, it tracks.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Which is, you know, effectively it's the next one now down. It's that bit that that corner that sticks out into the Atlantic of a large country. Um a large grape-growing country, in fact.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

They could have gone for Honda, they could have gone for Honda Bizouri or what is it, Belcher. Honda Rabbi Belta.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Well, yeah. Honda Abysuri though, Honda Abizuri always just reminds me that it makes me feel like somebody it's a name for a motorcycle. It's not really a great variety, is it? I mean, it's it's either that or it's it's somebody somebody who plays you know midfield for Spain. Apologies, apologies to our Basque listener. Well, well, indeed, yes. But um until until such time as um Basque Independence comes, um he'll be playing for under Abizuri, we'll be playing for Spain.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, for Spain, yeah, yeah, yeah. For Spain, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

But anyway, yeah, so that was um that was the sort of surprise package for me this week.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

What was the disappointing one? What was one that you thought was gonna get more readership that didn't?

SPEAKER_02 10:34

I thought it was gonna go a lot better, and it was a story by Lisa Zimmerman about weight loss, and it was about weight loss, how weight loss pills are hitting wine. Now it did get good readership, it's the third big most read story of the week.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

So you know, we're not gonna, but not not what you were expecting.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

But I was expecting it to go really huge because it's an almost irresistible pairing there, really, of weight loss and wine drinking.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Which um and when we talk about what's coming up in the week, we've got an absolutely irresistible headline coming up later on, but we'll talk about that later.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

But yeah, I thought it was gonna go probably I thought it was gonna take off. I thought it was probably gonna be the story of the week. But um sadly it didn't. But um I mean, you know, it is what it is. So something's there's always something that's the biggest most read story of the week.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Is it that you should is it that we should have had a Zempik or Wagovy in the headline?

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Well, maybe we should have, yeah, but I I didn't want to pick on any particular one. No, yeah, no, it's uh GLP one um simulators effectively, which isn't really a great way of describing them either, but it's anyway. Um but 18% of Americans are taking these drugs. It can reduce your appetite for not just food but also for wine. It can also they can also affect some people by making wines taste a bit different.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Oh, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

And so and so consequently not quite as good. I mean, these things do happen. I myself lost my palate almost entirely when I got COVID. Right. Um thankfully it's come back mostly, but yeah, still not quite where it was. It's it's quite interesting. What I found was really interesting was that uh Rob McMillan from the Silicon Valley Bank is quoted in it, and he shared that he's been taking GLP ones for some time now. Oh wow. He he also as he got so involved in a project he forgot to drink wine for two weeks. Frankly, I think that's unforgivable, Rob.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I don't actually believe him.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

We need we need a bit more commitment from our from our our representatives of Silicon Valley Bank, surely.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

And any particular favourites in terms of stories from last week, Don?

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Favorites in terms of stuff. I think to be honest, I I I think that the Brittany one was probably my favourite. Right. Um because it was nicely written and it was um it was it was really interesting. Yeah, anyway. What I did like well sorry, what I was gonna say, what I did like as well was um we had a story from Jamie Gustafson, who's one of our staffers here at Wine Searcher, yeah, who works in our London office, about South African wine and how it's facing up to various sort of climate-related struggles and so forth. And that was a really interesting story. We seem to do a little bit about South Africa recently, but um it seems to be pushing itself forward a little bit more, South Africa as a wine-producing nation. And I think it's a great thing. Most South African wines I've tried have been excellent. In recent times, anyway. I mean, I I I do vividly remember the KWV wines and the old cape selections from various people back in the day. Even independent wineries who who who were still going back in those days and uh reduced themselves to you know making faceless wines have have come come out of that and and made some old-fashioned wines but brilliant. So, like some of the Naderburg wines are absolutely fantastic, especially in comparison to what they were. But so anyway, yeah, so that was a nice story as well. I like that. And but I'll tell you what I'll tell you what I found interesting, and we because we didn't talk about the first half of it, but we had the second part this week of the wine grape DNA detective as part of our wine voices series.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Ah, yes, José Voyamos, yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

There's an instant interview with Jose Vuyamos.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

And uh it's been I mean, I've listened, I've gone back and listened to the first one again and listened to them together. It's a fascinating chat between Suzanne Mustacic um from the Jane Anson wine podcast and Jose, who's uh based in Switzerland. I think he is Swiss, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01 14:48

Yeah, with an with a surname like Voyamos, you'd you'd be pretty you'd be hard pushed to find him from anywhere else. Yeah, definitely Swiss.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Well, true. So it's interesting. He talks quite a bit about um Swiss varieties in there and um and some very interesting there's a very interesting part where he goes into speaking about the um antecedent grapes of like the parent grapes of Merlot.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Um yeah, it's surprising. There's some fairly esoteric stuff in there, but if you love grapes at all, if you if you're into the minutiae of of grapes, it's fascinating, genuinely fascinating, and I really loved it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that was um fascinating blow. That was my pick of the picks of the week. Let's get on to your weekly roundup because there's some bits that aren't really in it but that need to be discussed a little bit. And yeah, well, there are.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

I mean, we'd we I talked a bit about the heat wave threatening the Bordo Harvest, which is relatively sort of well known now, but or getting more better known. And and once again, we're looking as could well be that if things continue, the 2026 Bordo harvest will be even smaller than last year's, and yet last year's was pretty pretty small. It's the smallest since 1991, which I think was small due to um frost or hail, I can't remember which. I think it was that they got a pretty pretty rough time. I think it was frost in uh 1991. What was interesting though is that in the interim, there's been wildfires in Burgundy, quite a few over the last week plus 10 days, over the last 10 days, there have been assorted wildfires across the cote d'or. Most of them, to be fair and to be honest, haven't actually been close to vineyards. There were, however, a couple in Nuit Saint-Georges. So there was a fire in Nuit Saint-Georges at the end of last week, which in a very typically Burgundian way started in the in the Mercedes dealership in northern Louis Saint-Georges. Of course it did.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Because there won't there's not going to be a Toyota dealership there, is there?

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Oh no, no, no, it's gonna be Mercedes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean we laughed, but um it looked pretty horrific, and that's you know, that's a whole business that's that's gone up in smoke, as it were. But that was very close to the and it's village level vines, so it's very literally over the road from vines, and that's the Autouilleau uh Village Level Rue Saint-Georges vineyard. And then there were there was more there were more fires up in the hills, just just literally up the hill from that, sort of in the northern Rue Saint-Georges zone. Not sure, I don't think any vines have been hit just yet, but there could be some smoke taint issues going into this year. We'll see. It's hopefully for them, it's pretty there'll be enough time for it to sort of wash off and and um and develop without any more worries. And there was a small fire in Volnay, apparently. Oh, wow. Yeah. And the other big news or the other sort of thing that I touched on as well, which has sort of developed uh over the weekend, was the the Michelin publication of its Burgundy reviews. And we we've talked about this, we talked about this sort of in the office over the last few days. But it's quite controversial in that it's only given three grapes to the likes of Cecile Tromblay, Dugapuy, Roumier, Romney Conti. What a surprise. LeRoy and Auvernay, which is, yep, we know, Coche Dury, of course, uh, Boulay and uh Hubert Lamy. But if you think about it, it's people that only got one grape, Pierre-Yves Collin, Armand Rousseau, Claude de Tart, and then Arnaud Lachot. Georges de Vaugh! I mean, how do Bachelet? I mean, these are big caviar. And I think the big the the and I think Jamie Good pointed this out at the weekend. Arnaud Lachaux have asked to be removed from the Michelin guide, gets saying that they haven't they haven't let anyone from Michelin taste their wines since 2020. That's six years ago. And they said, no, can you please remove us? Now there's I I have strong feelings about this. I'm kind of of the opinion that, well, the a wine, and we've talked about this in with with regard to Revue de l'Arne de France as well. If your wines get rated, you're just gonna have to lump it. Sorry. I mean, we might disagree with what we expect are the top domains of Burgundy, but the nature of wine rating and tasting is that it's a personal opinion and this is gonna happen. And and it should happen, and it's a good for wine that we disagree over who gets three grapes or one grape or two grapes. Uh I I can I can wax lyrical about this or talk for a long time about this, but yeah, it's been very interesting, shall we say?

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Well, I'm not surprised. I mean, I can I can yeah, look, I can see where people perhaps don't want their wines being. I find it a little bit. I mean, I I think it's a little bit precious. Oh, it's hugely precious, to be honest. It it it annoys me slightly because we've got the um we get a similar situation here, right? So we'll get a winery will contact us. One contact one just contacted me over the weekend and said, I want these prices removed from your site because they're too cheap, they're not the prices, and it's affecting our overall average price, and it's making us look too cheap, and we don't want to be seen as that. Which is that's a that's a pretty ballsy way to uh attitude in a time of uh massive cost of living, ongoing cost of living crisis for the past five years across the world. Yes, but um but it's the problem is they're living in a in cloud cuckoo land because these prices exist, they're genuine prices that somebody's selling them for. That's what makes it a lot of people. We can't control that. We can't control that. And we and nor we are not going to falsify things and uh and effectively fix the price of something for somebody by ignoring these. And it's it's the same with with scores. We are we often get people contacting us to say, oh well, you know, you haven't put in this score, you know, you put in this score here that's a 92, but you've completely forgotten about Joe Bloggs at the you know the the the the middle of nowhere, you know, county fair who gave it 93. And you you've not counted that. No, because we we we only count certain the big name critics, but but it's yeah, uh I'll just I'll find it odd. I'm still finding it odd just looking at that list of um wineries though that got awarded grapes. Yeah, and but then my thing is like it just I can't see Lisure Bel Air on there anywhere, and I'm going no how how could they possibly not be included?

SPEAKER_01 21:41

But my argument is well, that's that's a good thing. We should be talking about these things and so on. My issue with Michelin would be some of their criteria, but it's the same as the judging criteria they have effectively for people like you know, the Santa Emilion Grand Cru classe thing. It's like are they looking at uh overtime the the the Consistency of the winery. And it's like, well, if you're doing that sort of thing, how can anyone who's just even going to start up new? How are they ever going to break in?

unknown 22:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

You know? And it's, I think that's that'll be the same thing they'll say about you know Arnaud Lachau will be well, well, you know, you've you've only really upped your reputation in the last 10 years. For me, 10 years is a long time. But for them it's not.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

And you just Yeah, but I mean if you're gonna do it, if you're gonna do it that way, you just you you go back and you say to I don't know, let's just take a random name like Patreuse, and you go, 50 years ago you were weren't all that great. Yeah. So why should we just look at the last 50 years of your production?

SPEAKER_01 22:37

And then we get to another issue, which is like if you say like you imagine orijaye when he starts out, well, you know, he's he's never gonna get three grapes, is he? No. And and of course, so the thing is that these people only their only their reputation only suddenly arrives once they're dead. And now you know you can't get an origea wine for love nor money. The man's long gone. Yeah, and you know, he's sort of we've committed this kind of hagiography, and you're like, well, actually, no, there's a whole bunch, a whole fleet, new gen, we've had three generations of winemakers come through since then. Indeed. Can't we can't we at least just look at some something fresher? But no, well, no, no, it has to be safe and it has to be the same old things, which is and which and which is why in many cases um wine is where it is today, because there's little or no innovation. Yeah, we get this sort of ossification, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Yeah, it is exactly. It's an ossification, a calcification, if you like. Everything's just becomes sclerotic, it never changes, it can't move. It's just this rigidly encased in tradition and hide bundled. Oh no, no, I'm going off, I'm going off on one again. Quick, well, that's what you're doing here.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Let's go. For the love of God. So, yeah, heat wave threatens Border Harvest. We've talked about that already a little bit. It's gonna get difficult uh for some producers in in Bordeaux. It's rough generally in France. It's been pretty, pretty warm these last these last month or so. Uh spoiler yeast found in Champagne. So this is a really interesting story. Again, through both of these are pretty much through Vidisphere, which is the Bretanomyces has been found, and this is anecdotal, this isn't peer-reviewed scientific, but technicalologist Nicolas Francois in Champagne has found in across a hundred base wines. So these are wines before they go into bottle to be turned to become champagne with secondary ferment. These are base wines, so low alcohol, about nine to ten percent alcohol, relatively low pH, so very fresh, generally not the kind of wines you'd you'd expect to find any kind of contamination in. Contamination I put in inverted commas here. But he found 75%, i.e. 75 out of 100 samples of base wines had brett in them. Now they weren't, it wasn't Brett that you could taste, as far as I'm aware. They weren't sensorial, but there was the Brett microbe in them, the Brett yeast, which is very interesting. It will confirm for what uh what a lot of other people have thought it's a very interesting discussion about faults of Brett and white wines, all sorts. There's so many things you can talk about here. But it is obviously that Brett is everywhere, pretty much. As somebody replied to my one of my comments on social media. Of course, we all know Brett's everywhere. It's like, well, no, but it's a very interesting, it poses a bunch of interesting problems in terms of it.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

It raises the um it raises the question, the old, you know, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody hears it. But if you if you've got Brett and you can't sense it, yeah, does it does it matter?

SPEAKER_01 25:34

No, it doesn't matter. Yeah, although that's what I would have thought. Yes, and this is and that this is the part of the problem is that winemakers are trained to send to s to be sensitized to it much more than your average person for obvious reasons. Like you don't, you don't want because eventually once bread gets too much, it will actually affect how your wine smells and tastes. So winemakers tend to be more sensitive to it, and which leads to a lot of winemakers belittling wines when the majority of us, I mean, I I'm trained winemaker, I I know where my bread sensitivity sort of sits. Whereas the majority of people will not will not pick it up and will not mind so much. So it's a very interesting one. Next up, Argentina's exports are on the up. So that's some good news for Argentina at last, which is nice. So you all got the regulation has worked. Steady, steady, steady. Let's let's hold with withhold judgment on that one. But certainly over the last six months, uh wine exports have gone up 15% in Argentina, uh, which is you know good news. Yeah, except that this was then undercut by the fact that they've recent there's recently been a meeting in the Yuco Valley in in Mendoza, in the wider Mendoza, in which the Rural Confederation, which is an organization, rural confederation organization, has pointed out that basically wine growers in that in the Yuco Valley are running a loss. They can't produce scrapes that in a way that's going to get them a decent remuneration. Yeah. In other words, you know, it costs more to produce scrapes than it does than than the the price they're getting. Than the price they're getting for them. Exactly. Uh I think that's that's pretty that's there's this is a conversation that's been happening in Bordeaux as well recently. It's relatively relatively global.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

But Uco Valley is a a well thought of area.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

You know, it's not it's yeah, it is. It's uh it's a sort of place where you'd be expecting to pay more for your for wine from there.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It's not just sort of generic Mendoza. And yeah, like you say, it has a decent name to itself. So it's almost it almost exists outside of Mendoza in terms of like you know how it's perceived, I think. So it's uh yeah, it's a little bit of a warning warning bell there.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Yes, indeed. That that well, coupled with the fact that the um turning back to the increased export story, um, that was mostly bulk wine, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yes, there were sort of it varied depending on which stats you this is the problem with doing these export stories, and I I do them because they are of interest, but generally you can you can find a stat that will tell you one way one thing or the other. So on on the month alone, bottled wine, so for June versus June, 26 to 25, bottled wine exports are up 13%, with bulk wine just up over six percent. But yeah, you're right. When you look at the overall last six months, it is a bulk wine thing being bulk wines are up, whereas bottled wine is is not quite so much up.

SPEAKER_02 28:31

And then if you but if you if you look at that and then look at the Uko Valley story, it could be trying times ahead for Uko Valley producers.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Yes, definitely. Yeah, yeah. It's it's that this is part of this forms part of that whole global thing where it's like, yeah, it is getting harder and harder given the cost of living, given the cost of production, and all the and the fact that all of the inputs like diesel, like uh agrochemicals, fertilizer, all of those things have gone up in in price, but we still want to pay X for our wine. And also we're not generally I'm gonna talk when I say we, talking generally, we're not making more money. Like by and large, wages are pretty stagnant and haven't gone up greatly. Yep. And so, you know, you're asked a public you've got a public which doesn't have any more money than it did 10 years ago, and you've got wine producers who don't have any more money than they did 10 years ago, and also are finding that it's costing them more every year to produce wines, and you know, we're still stuck in a price situation which is 10 years old. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Anyway, anyway, moving on. This is moving on. Now, this is this is the story I want to get to. Yes. Because this is possibly one of my favourite stories in the history of wine news. Really? Absolutely love this story. Lay it out for us, Solly.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Okay, so let's lay that there's a there's a lot of layers to the story. This is Wine Collectors Village Feud hits the headlines. And this was just this is something that's popped up on my in marks the other day. It was like a West a story from West France saying, once again, police have been called to the residence of and what do they call I think they said he was the world's greatest wine collector or the the man with the the greatest private wine collection in the world. I mean it's worth they reckon up to between 60 and 7, between 60 and 50 million dollars. It's got he's got 50,000 bottles of wines and spirits in there. He's got he's got a bottle of spirits from that was on the Titanic. He's got also he's got uh he's got one of the wines that was in Adolf Hitler's cellar. He's got all these crazy, got a huge collection of patruse, of everything, everything you want. He's got it. And he's got it's in four underground cellars in this tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere in France. It's sort of in the west, western sort of side of France. His name is Michel, Michel Jacques Chasseuil. He's quite the figure, so he's one of these big collectors. He used to work for Dasso. So basically, I mean he's private enterprise enterprise, but basically state-funded. In other words, you know, Dasso makes missiles and and aeroplanes. It's a bit like if he worked with Boeing or McDonnell Douglas. So he made his money in there, he's got this massive private wine collection. Lots of people are very interested in him. He's been visited by Albert of Monaco, for instance, flew in in private jet to this tiny little anyway, and and came in to see him. And he gets visitors all the time in limousines coming to this tiny hamlet in the middle of nowhere. And there's two things. First of all, his wine collection, he doesn't touch. Okay. Like that's not strictly true. Like I've seen interviews of him where he's actually opened wines or had wines open with people. But by and large, he is pretty on the record as being no, I don't open these wines. These wines, it's like a it's as it is. All these bottles are untouched and will remain untouched. God, what a waste. Right. So there's that. And the second thing is, and this is the main part of the story, is that there has been a 30-year-long spat between him and a couple of his neighbours. One of which, one of which, as far as I'm aware, is his brother-in-law. Oh, even better. And so this is once and and West France's story was like literally started the story saying the gendarme don't bother, so the French police don't bother typing in the address into their GPS system anymore. They know exactly where they need to go. And so every time they get called out, they're just like, oh, we're off to Fontfolet again. Like, what's was it this time? And there was one, there was one altercation, I think last year, where somebody threatened another one with uh with a chainsaw. I think this octagonarian connection. So Chasse himself is 86. He yeah, he's clearly quite uh quite a character. You look at some of these videos, yeah. And he I yeah, there's an altercation involving a chainsaw. Uh he's he just writes apparently endless letters to I mean for people who are aware of what's the word, neighborly disputes. This is exactly on brand. He writes letters in triplicate, sends them out to whoever, calls himself the king of Fonfollet, which is this this tiny little hamlet, after some people used to use that derogatively towards him and said, Oh, you've they called him the king of Fonfollet or Wah Ch. And so he adopted that, and then that's how he signs off his letters now. And it's just tensions are high. As somebody said, they're going mental, an unnamed source at the town hall told the newspaper. It's only by luck that no one settled this with a few swings of a spade, which I thought was quite macabre. Um, yeah, it's uh yeah, he's got a screaming eagle, Haaland, Penfold's Grange, he's got an ultra-rare and somebody pointed out like he's got an ultra-rare methusalum of 1994 Romani Conti, that's worth which they reckon is worth $100,000. I reckon it's probably worth a little bit more. But it's like, don't you feel sad that you're not gonna ever open this or drink this? And he said, Oh, you know, 99 other people will drink this. It's it's not because one person doesn't open a bottle that it's gonna cause a massive issue. And you're like, Yeah, I get it, but come on, it's just and as I think it was to Aubert de Vilain said, uh, what did he say? Despite my admiration and respect for him, I cannot subscribe to what he is doing, and and basically dubbed his cellar a catacomb.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

True. It's I can see that point of view, and it is really, it just becomes a sort of an endless museum, doesn't it? Of of of bottles frozen in asper frozen in amber almost. Yeah. Um instead of actually releasing the living liquid inside and enjoying it. Dear God. It just sits there. Makes me want to cry.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

That's yeah, there's there's so many, there's so many things I could say. I mean, it's sort of it deterns it there's it becomes almost becomes a fetish, you know. These these wines have become a fetish of themselves. And it's also like what's it it's also I I've I likened it, what popped into my head was was shredding as wine. You know, the but these wines all have this immense value up until the moment when they're opened, and and when and that's the moment they immediately lose all that value, that value's gone.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

You know, well that's true, but I mean the they also they only keep their value as long as there's the hope that uh what's inside is even remotely drinkable, surely. Um they must start to lose the because they stop becoming wine after that, they simply become very old bottles.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. At some point they'll be, yeah. But it's very interesting. Yeah, and uh you know, he was at the receiving end of a break-in in 2014, in which so there's somebody turned up at his doorstep posing as a sort of courier saying, 'Oh, can you sign for these bottles?' And as he as he sort of opened the door, a bunch of guys with all sort of uh balaclavas on all just charged in. They even threatened to cut off his fingers with a meat cleaver. And still he didn't give them the key to the sellers. Uh it's just quite something. And he was prepared, he was prepared to lose his fingers.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Like that's uh that's a man who's uh yeah, he's clearly got a I think fetish is uh is a good word here. He's clearly become s seriously attached to those wines, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Yeah, so there's I mean there's there's the the it's it's all that wonderful thing, there's stories within stories, there's so many things going on. Because like so another there's another aged collector, Francois Audouze, who will be familiar to some people, who's who lives in the south of France and and regularly does these dinners where he opens very, very old bottles of wine, to the skepticism and joy of other people, you know. And some people are like, oh, these are just dead, and other people are like, no, no, no, these, you know, these are old wines, you know, 1918 and bottles from eight from the 19th century. And O'Dooz has also criticized him, saying, Look, this is a this is just an ossery, you know, a place where where old bones are kept.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Come on, you've got to get open these wines. So there's that, there's that thing. The chassis is trying to charge, reportedly charging 500 euros to visit the cellar. He's 85. He gets guests by helicopter, limousine, Porsche, and Lamborghini. Oh god, there's there's uh and then with uh within that sort of thing, the wine collector versus the wine drinker versus the the opulence and the wealth and the or the potential wealth of this collection. And and again, you know, there's there's multiple contradictions. Like Romani Conti, despite Oba de Vilaine, who's no longer Romani Conti, but despite Oba de Vilaine's protestations, they still gave him an allocation, they still let him buy wines.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Yeah, well, they're they they're in the business of selling wine, they're not necessarily in the business of um promoting the consumption of said wine.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

They've got to make a living, you know.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Well, this is true, they do have to make a living.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

And then within that, you've got this domestic, or not domestic, neighborhood dispute, neighborly dispute, which is sort of fascinating. And it's and it's quite obviously quite high high-tempered, shall we say? Well, indeed. And finally And finally, um, a New Zealand house build company is has caused a few eyebrows to go up after it uh collection of its house designs after well-known wineries and brands, which is high less. So you can get the the four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 176 square metre Villa Maria. Oh, I don't know. I think I might prefer to thoughtfully designed three-bedroom Cloudy Bay. Ripon, classic on the outside, contemporary within, pairs bic and adobo cladding with premium inclusions, including vaulted ceilings, Bosch appliances, stone bench tops, tile showers, ducted heating, and cooling.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Can you please explain to me what else you'd sort of shower you'd have? I mean, it's uh you know what, wood panelled? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh wallpapered? Wallpaper. Wall-papered shower.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Anyway, uh yeah, so this is a story about a a uh a home-built company in New Zealand, South Ireland, who's just decided to name all of its houses after wineries. And New Zealand wineries at that. Uh, although there are a couple which are named, I think one of them's named Marlborough, and one of them's named Mission Estate, Black Estate, Wither Hills, the Ned, Quartz Reef, Destiny, but you know, it'd be interesting to see whether anyone gets the pip with this in terms of intellectual property. But so far.

SPEAKER_02 39:37

Well, that's that's the thing, isn't it? I mean, well, are they are they giving a kickback to the wineries? Yeah, I mean you get you you get, I don't know, five hundred bucks for every house we sell. Um, or every house we build, at least.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Or not I mean the problem with this is though, if if no one does anything like this, what happens if you decide to call your you know, if you have a range of toilets, which you decide to name after wineries or or wine brands?

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Well, that's a very good point. That's a very good point. You were like to have I can't imagine, you know, Mission Estate being too happy with the Mission Estate long drop or whatever. I mean it's a the screaming eagle B-Day. I mean streaming eagle, I think, surely.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

Oh god.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

If you're pardon the pardon the image.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

On that note, shall we move on to what to look forward to this week, though?

SPEAKER_02 40:27

Yes, let's go. And now I did say I that I had a a story with a uh uh some real pulling power in the headline that we do, and it's um a story we just put out today, and it's about an Oregon-based winemaker who's fighting a few of his own personal battles, but he's uh putting his efforts into it by producing Pinot War. And it's the story's called Fighting Cancer and Depression with Pen on War. Oh wow. Um, so this doesn't get people through. It's um it's a it's a lovely story. It's a story about Chase Renton.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Um he's based in Oregon's Dundee Hills, of course, and quite a well-known figure, isn't he, Chase Renton? I would have thought.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

He is, yes. He makes wine with NBA stars from Channing Fry from the Cleveland Cavs. As of you know, he's he's clearly quite a driven man, and he he he he flings himself into his work and then discovers that he's got cancer and quite an aggressive form of cancer. Um he's just he's had three months of intense chemo and he's been cancer free, dealing with a lot of trauma, it affected his mental health. Yeah, it's just it's just how the wine helped um bring him back from you know some fairly dark places. It's a brilliant story. Um, it's by W. Blake Gray, our US editor.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

It's an indefatigable indefatigable US editor.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Absolutely indeed. So, yeah, so that's a brilliant story. I'd advise everybody to read that. It's uplifting and um informative at the same time. Um other than that, we've also got our um Values Values series that continues. We're getting towards the big stuff now. Yeah, um um off the top of my head, that's all I can remember from this week, which is um it's been a very busy weekend for me, I have to say.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

So yeah, no, that way that's absolutely absolutely fair. Absolutely fair. Cool. Well, let's uh let's review what's coming up next week. How about that?

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

Have a great week, John. Uh yeah, and uh we'll catch up next week. Take care, mate. Brilliant. Thank you. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

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 wineheadsearcher.com.