Prince Robert of Luxembourg, the 42 year old managing director of Domaine Clarence Dillon, oversees, and owns along with his family, two of the most prestigious Premier Grand Cru estates in Bordeaux: Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion. The Prince sat down with Luxist to discuss his strategy to expand his family's business by producing a more affordable wine on a larger scale. His newest creation is "Clarendelle", which he hopes will be the first super premium-branded Bordeaux wine.

Named in honor of his maternal great-grandfather, Clarence Dillon, a New York banker who bought Chateau Haut-Brion in 1935, Clarendelle is offered at a lower price point than the wines produced by the Prince's well known estates—$15 to $25 a bottle compared to well over $300 a bottle for Chateau Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. Domaine Clarence Dillon is able to accomplish that by buying wine from dozens of other Bordeaux winemakers and blending it together. Only a small portion of the wine comes from the Domaine Clarence Dillon estates.

Continue reading Chateau Haut-Brion's Prince Robert of Luxembourg's Latest Venture.

By Carrie Coolidge | Source :: www.luxist.com

New York City has its own urban winery with a vineyard. The Queens County Farm Museum Winery opened in May in the Floral Park neighborhood of Queens, New York. Wines and Vines reports that the Queens County Farm Museum is a working historical farm located on 47 acres. Its history dates back to 1697 and it is New York City's largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland and the only working historical farm in the City. It's also the longest continuously farmed site in New York State. The site includes farm buildings, a greenhouse complex, livestock, farm vehicles. planting fields, an orchard and an herb garden. It is open for tours and also hold events including the Dinner on the Farm series.

The vineyard project has been years in the making. Back in 2004 the first phase of the project began with the planting of Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc grapes. Gary Mitchell, the farm museum's vineyard manager, did some training in the University of California, Davis's famous oenological program to learn how to grow the grapes and later pulled out the Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon leaving about 1.5 acres of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Grapes at the farm museum are sent to the Premium Wine Group in Mattituck for processing. This spring saw the release of a 2006 and 2007 Merlot, a 2007 and 2008 Chardonnay, and a 2006 Adriance, a premium red wine blend named for the Dutch family that first farmed the museum's land. Prices range from $21 to $29 a bottle. You can only get this wine at the winery shop at the museum. Eventually Mitchell would like to plant more acres to grow this unique enterprise.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

Does expensive wine really taste better? Yes, no, and sometimes.

Yes.
Many of the most expensive wines command a high market price because they belong to a popular or rare vintage, come from a winery with an outstanding reputation, and/or are genuinely very good and enjoyed by the majority of people. But expensive wines are also often preferred for another reason: a study by the California Institute of Technology found that people appreciate the same wine more when they think it’s expensive. Brain scans found that drinking wine with a high price sends extra blood and oxygen to the pleasure centers of the brain, meaning that price can influence flavor in a very real way.

No.
Things are different when the price of the wine isn’t factored in. Another set of research found that in blind tastings where the prices weren’t known to test subjects the difference between wine price and overall rating was “small and negative,” meaning that most people didn’t get more enjoyment from expensive wines unless they knew they were expensive. When all things were equal the cheap wine tasted just as good as the pricey stuff. One exception was trained wine experts, who tended to prefer expensive wines even when they didn’t know the cost.

Sometimes.
Expensive, cheap, when it comes to wine there are no rules and both have the potential to be very good. Whether you opt for expensive or not is more about personal preference, the individual wine, and having an open mind when it comes to stereotypes in the industry.

What do you think?

By Rigel Celeste | Source :: www.luxist.com

Christie’s Great Estates is offering a rare opportunity to own an established and award-winning vineyard on the east coast of the United States. Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton, Rhode Island, celebrating its 35th anniversary, is being offered for $10.5 million by Christie’s affiliate Lila Delman Real Estate in Newport. Recognized as a pioneer in the New England wine industry, Sakonnet is located in the heart of a burgeoning wine-growing region producing wines under the Southeastern New England viticultural appellation. The property consists of 170 acres of which approximately 37 acres are planted in vines producing an average of 8,000 to 9,000 cases of “Estate Grown” wine annually.

The wines have received national and international acclaim winning numerous medals, including “Best of Show” for a Gewurztraminer at the 2004 Monterey International Wine Competition. Boston Magazine also named Sakonnet “Best Winery in New England” for 2006. The vineyard was founded in 1975 on the well-researched premise that the microclimate and soil conditions found along the Southeastern New England coast closely resemble some of the great wine regions of the world, particularly, the maritime climates of northern France. A residential component contiguous to the vineyard property is located on a plateau of open fields, laced with stone fences that slope gently down to Watson Reservoir.

By Jared Paul Stern | Source :: www.luxist.com

Enjoy the privilege of bringing your own wine and Champagne to a growing list of exceptional London restaurants which otherwise prohibit BYO or normally charge a hefty corkage fee.

BYO Wine Club is for wine lovers who enjoy dining out in style with their own special bottles. Members pay no or substantially reduced corkage charges — typically between £5 and £15 per bottle — at many of London’s best venues, including top Michelin-rated restaurants, trendy newcomers and neighbourhood favourites.

There’s no denying that the rare wine market is huge in Hong Kong. Spectrum Wine Auctions is set to capitalize on that with an auction this summer that puts them in two places at once. The wine auction specialists will offer 575 lots in its next fine and rare wine live auction simultaneously on Friday, June 25 at Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California, at 6 p.m. PDT, and on Saturday, June 26 at the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong, at 9 a.m. HKT. Bidders will have the opportunity to bid live, via fax and telephone, and via the internet in real time at www.spectrumwine.com. Small bites and various wines will be offered throughout the session and attendance is open to the public and is free of charge.

The June auction features abundance of 100-point Parker wines and has an estimate of $3.5 million. Highlights include 12 bottles of 1978 Romanée Conti estimated at $150,000. Also up for bid will be more highlights from the collection of Aubrey McClendon including 1982 and 1986 Château Mouton Rothschild, 1996 and 2003 Château Lafite Rothschild, and 1997 and 2001 Harlan, other fine properties for sale include Château Haut Brion from 1945-2006, Château Latour spanning 1928-2006, a full cadre of Domaine de la Romanée Conti from 1953-2005, and Screaming Eagle from 1995-2007. A Nebuchadnezzar (15L) of 2005 Château d’Yquem in original presentation wood case, numbered #28 out of 100 is estimated at $17,500.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

Following a trend we saw with the Naples auction earlier this year, Auction Napa Valley was also back up, bringing in a total of $8.51 million. Last year’s recession-dimmed sale brought in $5.7 million, a huge dip after 2008′s $10.4 million haul. This was the annual event’s 30th year and marked a return to the original format of a daytime auction rather than a more formal evening affair.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that one of the hottest items up for bid was a lot of eight magnums of wine plus a private dinner and cellar consultation from Ann Colgin and her husband, Joe Wender, of Colgin Cellars that sold for $250,000. Egged on by the auctioneers, Fritz Hatton and David Reynolds the two vintners quadrupled the lot selling all four slots for a $1 million total. The Fund a Need campaign raised more than $1 million for children’s health and wellness programs in Napa County with donations small and large from many of the event’s participants.

“I think the auction week might be a metaphor for the economy and the wine industry. It had been unseasonably rainy in the days leading up to the event, with dark clouds looming overhead. But the spirit of the attendees gathering to raise money for charity and celebrate with wine could not be dampened. When it was time to get to the bidding, the sun came out-bidders were happy to be here and were generous,” said Bruce Cakebread, president of the NVV’s board of directors.

The event took place at Meadowood Napa Valley and was followed by a post-auction dinner with selections from some of America’s top female chefs including Suzanne Goin of Lucques, Los Angeles; Suzanne Tracht of Jar, Los Angeles; Carrie Nahabedian of Naha, Chicago; Gina DePalma of Babbo, New York; Elizabeth Pruitt of Tartine, San Francisco; and Melissa Perello of Frances, San Francisco. The party continued on into the night with a performance by 1980s girl band The Bangles.

The world of wine auctions may not be completely back to normal yet but this event did show that the old enthusiasm is still there. Planning has already begun for Auction Napa Valley 2011.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

As incomes rise, Chinese urbanites are developing a thirst for a vintage drop. While this means unlimited marketing potential for foreign wineries selling to China and growth opportunities for China-based wineries, the current lack of expertise in the drink of the gods means many businesses and consumers are easy pickings for scam artists.

The latest trick: a few rogue Chinese wine brokers have been selling wine futures for bottles of Bordeaux that will never be delivered.

“There’s a huge interest in the 2009 Bordeaux from China,” as Sam Gleave, Hong Kong sales director for Bordeaux Index, tells AFP. “In an unregulated and uneducated market, there was always potential for rogue trading in en-primeur. Unfortunately, it seems as if that potential has been realised.”

To educate consumers, Bordeaux’s exhibition in the France Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai aims to enlighten and entice China’s aspiring wine cognoscenti.

While Bordeaux has played down the effects of the scams, with Thomas Jullien of the Bordeaux Wine Council calling press reports of wine fraud in China “exaggerated,” the issue highlights why it is necessary to educate consumers in China when introducing a new brand or product.

The French pavilion at Shanghai’s World Expo, which continues through October, offers continuous wine tastings throughout the day. Pavilion architect Jacques Ferrier even installed an interactive wall of wine bottles in the pavilion’s construction, with bottles slowly disappearing as each bottle is drunk.

All that effort, given the huge upside for the wine market in China, is definitely worth it.

Bordeaux’s sales of wine to China doubled to 20 million bottles from 2008 to 2009. Judging by the willingness of consumers to buy into Bordeaux futures, that interest will only rise.

Source :: Brandchannel

The rise of the screwcap and plastic stoppers for wine bottles has continue but not without some grumbles from the the French. The Telegraph reports that France’s cork federation is going on the offensive with a poster campaign that features wine and champagne bottles with outlandish alternative stoppers like a plastic duck and the slogan: “Always imitated, never equaled.”

The federation also points to a recent poll that says that almost nine out of ten French people prefer the traditional stopper. Real cork remains associated with quality wine, well-preserved aromas and long conservation despite the fact that many critics say the screwcap is, and should be, the new standard for ease of use and preventing the dreaded cork taint. Even the emperor of wine, Robert Parker has said that he thinks that only great wines that are meant to age for years will be cork topped in the future.

One advantage of cork production is the green factor. Cork topper production produces less carbon emissions than the production of plastic and screw tops. More importantly the cork industry supports the cork oak forests of Portugal and Spain which are a home for wildlife.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com