Latitudes
43 10' 00''
VINTAGES IN PERIL?
There are concerns in the Ontario wine industry that the Vintages program may soon be no more. The Liberal government announced their budget this week and there was no announcement extending the program, which ends this year. The three-year, $10-million program was launched in 2007 and gives a 30 per cent return to a winery for each bottle of VQA vintages sold at an LCBO outlet. Before the program started, VQA vintages from 15 Ontario wineries could be found on LCBO shelves. That number has risen to more than 50. "This program is probably the most successful program the Ontario government has ever launched for VQA wine producers," Norman Beal, chairman of the Wine Council of Ontario and president and CEO of Peninsula Ridge Estates in Beamsville (43 10' 00''), told the
Niagara Falls Review." (MBT)
35° 37′ 37″N
THE WINE LINE
The Wine Line is now running in Paso Robles, California (35° 37′ 37″N) wine country. Jason Westfall and his partner Ricky Fernandez started the service using Dodge Sprinter vans that stop at about 20 local wineries every 40 minutes, allowing passengers to stop and stay at as long as they like at as many tasting rooms they want. Service runs between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays and costs US $39.95 per person. Passengers are picked up at their homes or hotels. They have averaged six to eight people a day since launching on February 20. (MBT)
51° 30' N
NEW FACE OF CHAMPAGNE
Scarlett Johansson was named ambassador for champagne house Moet & Chandon at a gala film evening in London, England (51° 30' N) this week. Halfway through the Tribute to Cinema party at the Big Sky studio, the actress made history by becoming the first celebrity face of champagne, something she said was an honour. Moet's President Frédéric Cumenal said she was the obvious choice, calling her an icon of celebration who lives life to the fullest on screen and off. (MBT)
49° 15' 0 N
PLAYHOUSE WINE FEST GOING ON NOW!
The 31st annual Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival in Vancouver, British Columbia (49° 15' 0 N) is going on right now, March 23 through Sunday, March 29. The festival will feature 183 wineries from 15 countries serving more than 1,700 wines at 61 events and a Global Focus on Pinots. The heart of the festival, the International Festival Tasting Room at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, will host four regional tasting stations, set up by Wine Australia, Wines of Germany, Alsace Wines and the Vinho Verde Commission. There will also be a B.C. region in the tasting room showcasing the province's wines and offering an opportunity to meet the people behind the wine. For more information visit www.playhousewinefest.com (MBT)
51°05' N
NEW CALGARY WINE CLUB
Shelley Alexander and a few friends in Calgary, Alberta (51°05'N) have started a wine event that has taken off in popularity. On April 4 they will get together at Mile One Tavern downtown, which has brought in new wines and changed its menu for the event. Dividing into teams of six with fun names like Twisted Vine, each team will enter to win draws taking place throughout the night for at least $2,500 worth of wine. The wine comes from the participants, each of whom must give a bottle costing $20 or more as a registration fee. This social event has become so popular that Alexander says they had 150 people register in one month and then had to turn people away, and other venues downtown have already said they would like to host the event in the future. Alexander says with the high level of interest shown, they hope to do it three times a year and do it with larger groups. (MBT)
48° 40' 60 N
BORDEAUX BOYCOTT
Farr Vintners, traditionally one of the biggest UK buyers of en primeur, has threatened to boycott next week’s tastings in Bordeaux, France (48° 40' 60 N) if the majority of the chateaux don’t have the prices of their 2008 vintage. Farr chairman Stephen Browett says between the strengthening of the euro against the pound and the economic recession, it is difficult for people to afford the wines. Browett admits the 2008 vintage looks good, comparable in quality to the 2001, but says he would rather not stock an unsellable wine. He adds that this is not an idle threat. (MBT)
30 00 S
WINERY RECEIVES ROYAL VISIT
The Prince of Wales visited a winery in Chile (30 00 S) recently on a fact-finding mission. Prince Charles and his wife, Duchess of Cornwall Camilla Parker-Bowles, met with biodynamic winery Viñedos Emiliana's general manager, Rafael Guilisasti, and agricultural manager José Guilisasti, to discuss the winery's sustainable and organic farming practices. Their Royal Highnesses are meeting with many of Chile's leaders in the field of organic agriculture on their first trip to the country at the request of the British government. (MBT)
43° 75' N
RIVER RUNS RED
French wine militants have attacked their third winery in as many weeks. During the night of March 10, vats at Les Vignerons des Garrigues in Nimes (43° 75' N) containing the equivalent of 1.2 million bottles of red, white, and rose were emptied and seeped into a nearby river. The vats were marked with the letters "CRAV," an abbreviation for Le Comite Regional d'Action Vitocole. CRAV opposes merchants who bring in foreign wines and has been known to hijack foreign wine tankers and even use explosives. Police are currently searching for members of the group. (Signy Gerrard)
43° 25' N
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Former Police frontman Sting hopes you get his message in a bottle. He is marketing wine made at his estate in Tuscany, Italy (43° 25' N). About 30,000 bottles of the red wine, a sangiovese-based blend, will be on sale in September, mostly in the United States and Britain. Sting bought the sixteenth century villa, called Il Palagio, in 1997 and has turned it into an organic farm on which he also produces honey, olive oil, fruit, vegetables and salami. (MBT)
44° 6' N
MARINO MIRACLE
Every year the town of Marino, Italy (44° 6' N) hosts the Sagra dell'Uva. The festival commemorates the safe return of Admiral Marcantonio Colonna and his 250 sailors after defeating the Ottoman Turks at the battle of Lepanto in 1571. The pinnacle of the festival is the moment when the fountain in the centre of town begins to flow with sparkling wine. This year, however, the fountain continued to flow with water and the wine began to flow from taps in houses around the square. At first laughingly regarded as a miracle," it was quickly identified as a simple error of plumbing. The pipes carrying the wine had been connected to the houses instead of the fountain. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, locals quickly filled bottles and containers with the off-dry bubbly and, perhaps for the first time in human history, toasted a plumber's mistake. (DSW)
34° 6' N
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING V 2.0
The tiny town of Los Olivos, California (34°6' N), in the heart of Santa Barbara wine country, has suffered an invasion over the last 10 years - an invasion some might welcome with open arms. With a population of just slightly more than 1,000, Los Olivos is home to at least 16 wine tasting rooms. Though this may sound like a kind of El Dorado to the non-resident wine lover, many of the citizens of Los Olivos are saying enough is enough. "We virtually don't have a community anymore," says Dr. Shelly Lane, who initiated a petition asking the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission to limit the number of tasting rooms. "There are buses that park with their motors idling in front of people's homes and driveways. People wander around the streets carrying open containers of wine. It's a free-for-all. We need a plan."
(Drew Stirling Williams)
44° 58' N
WINE APPRECIATION BEARS FRUIT
One of the few funds in the world devoted to collecting valuable wine is making money for its 23 investors. The Fine Wine Appreciation Fund based, in Twin Cities, Minnesota (44° 58' N), closed at the onset of the economic meltdown last October. The fund is expected to grow based on performance of wines during past recessions and the limited supply, rising demand, and increasing scarcity in the wine industry. Chairman and CEO Michael R. Wigley and President and Treasurer Brian J. Jackson both believe their fund closed in less than a year and is doing
so well because it is an ideal risk-diversification vehicle for any portfolio. For more information visit the Bacchus Partners website. (Mary Beth Tucker)
