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Latest Wine News and Updates
While wine production is one of the oldest industries in the world, the amount of new, innovative products and scientific breakthroughs in the wine world is nothing short of breathtaking. Let’s take a look at some of the latest news from the field.
Everyone agrees that fake wine is a big problem for the wine industry. There are many tools employed by winemakers to protect the identity of their wines, but the quest for the perfect solution is still ongoing. After 15 years of intensive research, the French INAO (The National Institute of origin and quality), together with the College of Veterinary Medicine at Auburn University in the US announced the successful results of the initial trials of dogs being able to sniff fake wines. As part of the Canine Performance Sciences program, dogs had been trained to identify wines that don’t match the original wine. The training is a very involved process requiring the dog to spend about 2 years at the winery memorizing the original flavor profile of the wines. Once trained, the dogs can easily distinguish the original bottles from the fakes, the same as working dogs who identify illegal substances at customs in airports. The training process is intense and costs about $50K per dog, so this solution is not for every winery. Nevertheless, according to INAO, it will take about 7 years to satisfy all the requests for the dogs received to date.
There are plenty of wine lovers who crave massive, tannin-loaded wines. Such wines are often quite expensive as they require a long aging time in the oak barrels which are costly. What if the oak flavor can be concentrated in the grape itself while it is growing? Impossible, you say? Scientists from UC Davis in California think otherwise. Instead of using the traditional rootstock, UC Davis scientists managed to graft Cabernet Sauvignon vines onto the french Limousin oak rootstock, and after about 7 years of experimentation it seems that resulting wines demonstrate much higher tannin concentration than the wines obtained from the same clone of Cabernet Sauvignon but not grafted on the oak rootstock. Obtaining the same level of tannins would require about 6 months of age for the wines in the control group. Once the research is complete, it will result in significant savings for the wine producers which [hopefully] will be passed on to wine lovers. We should expect to find the first wines based on the results of this research by approximately 2028.
Many wine lovers live with a simple motto – coffee in the morning, wine in the evening. The next news I would like to share with you will, in a way, be related to both beverages. How so? Everyone knows Nespresso, a French company that mastered the simplicity of the perfect cup of espresso at any time with the help of a tiny coffee capsule. Working on a special (very sizeable) grant from French LVMH conglomerate, Nespresso just announced a brand-new machine called – maybe you guessed it – Winepresso. Nespresso scientists found a way to convert the content of the wine bottle to the dry form which is encapsulated in the tiny wine capsule, literally identical to the coffee one. Now, with a push of a button, a perfect glass of your favorite beverage is in your hand at any moment. Based on the opinion of the expert panel, the Winepresso-produced wine is practically identical to the original wine, which is a pretty amazing achievement in itself. The initial set of capsules available upon commercial availability of Winepresso will include two Bordeaux reds, one red from Burgundy, and 3 whites from Loire. It is also known that Nespresso is actively involved in conversations with a few of the famous wineries in Napa Valley. The capsules will be sold in the 5-packs (to be identical to the standard 5 glasses in the bottle of wine). Winepresso machines are expected to appear at select retailers such as Williams-Sonoma and Bloomingdales in time for Christmas shopping. The prices for the capsules and the machines had not been disclosed yet. If successful, you can only imagine how successful this product will be from point of view of sustainability and reduction of the carbon footprint.
Open any news source today, and you are guaranteed to read about ChatGPT, artificial intelligence (AI) software. ChatGPT writes poems, articles, and marketing materials, conducts market research and lots more. It appears that the wine world is starting also to embrace ChatGPT in a variety of ways, many of them quite unexpected. Champagne Piper Heidsieck just announced that they will start a new line of non-vintage Champagne, called Piper Heidsiek AI, where ChatGPT will play the role of the Chef de Cave, responsible for blending the final wines. After the initial offering, both Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs will be produced. While it is an interesting announcement in itself, I’m concerned with the impact of the ChatGPT on all areas of human lives, now including even wine production. Well, we will see how this story will unfold.
That’s all the latest news I have for you, my friends. Until the next time – cheers!
Latest Wine News and Updates
Of course, it would be too much to say that wine is in the center of everyone’s attention – but it is a beloved beverage for hundreds of millions, and some tens of millions are involved in wine industry one way or the other, so the wine news definitely gathers some attention.
From time to time, I share in this blog some of the interesting tidbits of what’s going on in the wine world, so here is the latest round of newsworthy happenings around the globe.
When you hear Chateau d’Yquem, what do you think of first? Of course, the quintessential Sauternes, the magical elixir not even produced in all the years. But – do you know that Chateau d’Yquem also produces dry white wine? It is called “Y”, and it is a tasty blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Last month, Chateau d’Yquem announced that they will be expanding their portfolio and adding … wait for it … a red wine which will be called Y Not. It appears that 5 years ago, Chateau d’Yquem replaced some of their Sauvignon Blanc plantings with the Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, and now it is ready to produce the first vintage. The 2019 Y Not will be released in 2022. The price had not been disclosed at the moment, but considering the total production of 300 cases, you can imagine that it will not be inexpensive.
We are not done with Chateau d’Yquem yet. It leaked to the press that venerable Harlan Estate from Napa Valley, one of the topmost cult wine producers in the USA, enlisted the help of Chateau d’Yquem to start production of the dessert wine! The wine will be produced from the late harvest Cabernet Sauvignon. It is expected that the wine will be aged for at least 2 years in the mix of old and new French oak barriques, and probably 1 year in the bottle. The wine will be called Sweet Baby Harlan, and the 2020 vintage will be offered to the mailing list members at one 375 ml bottle per customer with the starting price of $1,100. Considering the tiny production, this wine will be impossible to get for a while.
Our next news is really bazaar. It’s been reported in The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Massachusetts that a number of Market Basket supermarkets experienced a little mayhem in the bottled juice section of the stores – the juice bottles (narrowed down to the grape juice bottles only after the few incidents) started to blow up at random, covering customers in sweet and sticky liquid. The culprit was traced to the popular brand of grape juice – Welch’s. Welch’s recalled all of the grape juice bottles sold in Massachusetts supermarket and opened the investigation into the incident. Based on the initial analysis, it appears that the yeast was added to the bottles at the final steps of the production, and as you know, the combination of yeast and sugar is how the wine is made, so blown up bottles come at no surprise. Apparently, some of the customers who managed to get the unexploded bottle to the homes were pleasantly surprised with the bubbly version of the popular grape juice, and some are even planning to start a petition to Welch’s to make this new type of grape juice a new product, possibly using some reinforced bottles.
It is not a secret that Australian winemakers are always eager and willing to step away from traditions and try the pioneering technologies, no matter how unorthodox they are. A simple example is a so-called screw cap, also known as Stelvin, which was developed in the late 1960s, and Yalumba winery in Australia become one of the early adopters introducing new bottle closure in 1973. Now another Australian wine producer, Penfolds, maker of the legendary Grange, decided to step in with a brand new solution for reducing the carbon footprint of the wine, which the wine industry is constantly grilled for. With the help of scientists at The University of Adelaide, Penfolds developed a brand new plastic bottle that is completely safe for storing the wine. Not only it is lightweight, but it is also made from the recycled materials and – get this – biodegradable. The bottle is guaranteed to fully disintegrate in 5 years’ time. The only culprit? The bottle will disintegrate in 5 years no matter what, so it will not be any time soon that we will see Penfolds Grange offered in this form of packaging. But for all the regular wines, which should be consumed as they are acquired, this will be a perfect vessel. Just don’t “leave and forget” such a bottle in your cellar – or you will remember it for a long time…
While the wine industry is squarely rooted in traditions, it is never shy to enlist the latest technology to help to advance its cause – helping people to enjoy their life a little bit more. Knowing when to open the bottle of wine to ensure the best possible experience is one of the most difficult problems of any oenophile, whether he or she is a Master Sommelier or an occasional drinker consuming two bottles of wine a year. Some of the most technologically advanced companies in the wine industry, world-famous specialty glass producer, Riedel, and Coravin Wine Systems, maker of the popular wine dispensing solution, teamed up to create a product which they called Smart Bottle. Seemingly indistinguishable from the regular glass bottle, the Smart Bottle is equipped with the array of sensors which constantly monitor the state of the wine inside the bottle, and will inform the owner when the bottle reached the ideal consumption phase via embedded Wi-Fi transmitter directly to the owner’s phone. While working on the design of the Smart Bottle, both companies filed about 25 patents. Apparently all leading wine producers in the world – DRC, Petrus, Chateau Latour, Screaming Eagle, Sine Qua Non and many, many others already lined up to get the Smart Bottle as soon as it will be released. An important and attractive feature of the Smart Bottle is the ability for producers to set up the proper aging profile specific to their particular wine, as it is clear that ideal indications, let’s say for DRC and Sine Qua Non will be quite different. Riedel and Coravin reported that they are finishing field trials and the production is slated to start in 2021.
That’s all the latest news I have for you, my friends. Until the next time – cheers!
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