Tesco spruces up 'Finest' line & Pernod Ricard launch 'Fast Fast Wine'
HEADLINES 🗞
Tesco has revamped its Finest wine labels in order to make them look more premium as part of a wider redesign of the range.
The price of vineyard land in Etna has shot up compared to the rest of Sicily. One hectare of land in Sicily costs around €20,000 to €25,000 on average, while 1ha on Etna costs between €150,000 and €250,000 – so ten times more.
Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates to buy DAOU Vineyards, based in Paso Robles, California, for $900 million!👀
Pernod launches fast food-focused wine range. Dubbed Greasy Fingers, the new launch features two ‘bold new wines’, crafted specifically to cut through greasy food and provide the perfect match for gourmet fast food such as fries and burgers.🍔🍷
PUBLISHING
Debut to the 5th edition of the Oxford Companion 📖
According to Jancis Robinson, speaking to Seven Fifty Daily, the new edition to the Oxford Companion to Wine is 25% longer than the original published in 1994 (which went on to become one of the Oxford University Press’s top sellers, second only to the dictionary!🥳).
The aim was to give the book a “more global, less Anglocentric, perspective in content and tone”.
Coverage of the wine world has been expanded to include more regions in northern latitudes, Africa, and the U.S. Many regions and grape varieties make their debut in this edition too.
Formerly, Australia and California were covered by a single person but now, these countries/states are split between specialists covering specific regions. Over 100 new contributors have helped bring the 5th edition to life.
EL NIÑO IS HERE
A slow harvest for the ‘heartbreak’ grape
Pam Strayer updates us from California, warning that the 2023 harvest for Pinot Noir “was unlike any previous vintage”.
What happened?
Some producers harvested as late as they could to avoid the Autumn rain. The El Niño pattern means the rain is likely to worsen throughout the season.
For others, the grapes simply weren’t ready by the end of October.
A cool spring meant some vineyards were only at 19 or 20 or 21 Brix well into autumn and the concern is that sugars won’t fully ripen in some parts.
Looking at the bigger picture, the demand for Pinot Noir, and wine more generally, is low. Wine consumption has fallen pretty dramatically in California and the industry is experiencing an oversupply across most varieties right now.
Nevertheless, it could be a great year for those who prefer a cool vintage style. The extra hang time will help to develop and ripen flavour, phenolics and anthocyanins.
LEGACY
The guy who raised the status of Sangiovese 🍇
A producer who swam against the tide and put everything into restoring the forgotten glory of Tuscany’s leading varietal.
Anthony Rose talks to Paolo de Marchi about the legacy of Cepparello (Isole e Olena).
In 1980, while other producers were mostly blending Sangiovese with Bordeaux varieties (riding the Parker wave), Paolo made one of the first pure Sangioveses.
Paolo started running the family estate, Isole e Olena, in 1976 at the age of 25.
By the mid 1980s, he was on a mission to improve the quality and reputation of Sangiovese.
He achieved this through replanting with better clones (using massal selection), working with different soil types and increasing the number of vines per hectare (Sangiovese is notoriously vigorous so competition helps temper this appetite).
In what turned out to be a stroke of luck, there was a powerful hailstorm in 1982. Yields dropped but quality jumped and 1982 was a commercial success, “showing that part of the way forward was to lower yields”.
The appellation rules of the period didn’t allow 100 percent Sangiovese, so Paolo had to market the wine under the generic Vino de Tavola designation, adding the name Cepparello.
Another bold move for an Italian producer was to bottle under screwcap for certain markets. Does Cepparello age better under screwcap? “Yes, it does”, quotes Paolo, “even if the tannins might take longer to come around”.
Isole e Olena has since been bought by the EPI Group (Charles Heidsieck, Biondi-Santi) but Paolo remains in charge of the 2023 vintage.
And that’s a wrap! 👋