Divers are recovering bottles of Champagne that have been lying at the bottom of the Baltic Sea for about two centuries, according to European news reports.
About 70 bottles, some of which from the no-longer-operating House of Juglar, lie mostly undamaged in 164 feet of water south of the Aland Islands.
The first bottle was brought to the surface in mid-July.
The cargo was aboard a ship believed to be heading from Copenhagen, Denmark, to St Petersburg, Russia, between 1800 and 1830. Based on assertions made by some historians, it could have been en route to the Russian Imperial Court from France’s King Louis XVI.
Some of the bottles already retrieved had some cracks and a few corks on the bottles had corroded, leaving the possibility open that salt water leaked into some bottles.
The island chain is at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, in the Baltic Sea, and is part of Finland. The islands form an archipelago of more than 6,000 islands.
The trove as discovered in July. At first, because some of the in-tact labels had an anchor on them, it was believed the Champagne had come from Veuve Clicquot. But since then, the source of the bottles has centered on Juglar.
Get your bottle of wine ready. Tomorrow September 2 is #Cabernet Day on a variety of social media websites. Wine Business reports that more than 50 wineries, 600 wine drinkers and 100 restaurants around the world will gather for what is hoped to be the largest online wine tasting held to date. The event is open to anyone using the #Cabernet hashtag in search engines and social network sites. The event runs for a full 24 hours, starting in Australia and moving across the world as it becomes drinking time in various nations. Wineries have been advertising the event to consumers and some have special deals for the event. Wine Library and Cork’d are putting on a special tasting at the Roger Smith Hotel in Manhattan. Full details are available on the Cabernet Day Eventbrite site. The site says that it’s not just Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc and Cab-dominated blends are welcome for this global celebration. We recommend Duckhorn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvigonon, The Luxist Awards winner for best domestic red wine.
Ruinart, one of the oldest champagne houses in the world (since 1729), has released a special wine stopper called The Golden Thread, designed by Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola (pictured above).
The Fil d’Or or Golden Thread was created to encapsulate the same twisting motion used in the opening of ordinary wire cork cages; the part of the bottle top you have to untwist before opening your champagne. What does it do? Nothing. But it looks very pretty and comes attached to a bottle of delicious Blanc de Blanc. This makes a sophisticated and unusual gift now, or at any point up to and including the holidays. We’ve never seen anything like it, and imitations are sure to follow.
The Ruinart Golden Thread bottle stopper is available from Sherry-Lehmann for $69.95 (bottle included). It’s beautiful enough to keep on display when you’re not using and reusing it.
This weekend will see some serious wining and dining at the Newport WineFest 2010 on the waterfront in Newport, Rhode Island. The event takes place on August 20-22, 2010 at the Newport Yachting Center. The event offers wine tastings, gourmet dishes and special spirits events.
Luxury spirits company William Grant and Sons will have a large presence at the event showcasing their Milagro, Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry, Glenfiddich and Balvenie brands. Milagro tequila and Hendrick’s will both have a 35′ x 35′ activation area which will include a tent, bar and lounge areas. Stoli, Sailor Jerry, Glenfiddich and Balvenie will share a 4-sided pavilion where they will sample refreshing summer cocktails and many Scotch variants.
The weekend’s festivities include a grand tasting from 6pm to 11pm on Friday night with a special mixology demo at 10pm. On Saturday the Grand Tasting runs from 5 - 10pm with a 5- 7pm: Grand Cru Tasting featuring high-end variants of Balvenie, Glenfiddich and others. On Sunday there is a chefs and champagne brunch in the morning with another grand tasting from12 - 5pm including a 3:30 pm demo of Milagro’s Freshest Margarita. Tickets are available for individual events or an all-event pass can be picked up at the door for $335.
Morton’s The Steakhouse and the Mondavi family are planning a nationwide wine dinner and charity auction on October 7, 2010 at Charles Krug Winery’s historic Carriage House in Napa Valley to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The gathering will be broadcast simultaneously to 54 Morton’s private dining rooms via satellite.
The evening’s hosts will include Michael Mondavi of Folio Fine Wine Partners, Tim Mondavi and Marcia Mondavi Borger of Continuum Estate, and Peter Mondavi, Sr., Peter Mondavi, Jr. and Marc Mondavi of Charles Krug Winery.
The event will kick off an online auction of the first-ever red wine produced by the extended Mondavi family, Siamo Insieme, which means “We are Together” in Italian. The Mondavi family has collaborated to produce a 27-liter bottle (called a primat); a unique blend of Napa Valley grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, produced and blended by the second and third generation of the Mondavi family especially for this event. This bottle will be auctioned online on Hart Davis Hart Wine Co.’s website October 7, 2010 through October 30, 2010, with 100 percent of the winning auction bid benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Wine prices vary wildly and considering the fact that expensive wine doesn’t always taste better one can’t help but wonder: how are wine prices determined? Who or what decides which will be expensive and which will be a bargain?
When it comes to the world of wine simple questions rarely have simple answers and price points are no exception. Many factors go into determining what the final price tag on a bottle of wine will be. It’s a complicated and varied equation but here are the major players.
The Grapes
The quality of the grapes is one of the biggest factors affecting the final price of the product. Grape varieties with intense, complex flavor usually yield fewer tons per acre and cost quite a bit more than blander grapes bred specifically for volume. Better grapes make better wine and grape prices can range anywhere from $100 per ton to upwards of $6000 or more, which breaks down a cost of $0.50 to over $10 per wine bottle.
Production Costs
Oak barrels for aging cost money (with new ones being more expensive than old ones or those in poor condition) as does storage of the barrels, maintenance and utilities, staff salaries, optional treatments like picking and sorting grapes by hand vs by machine, and packaging (bottles, corks, labels, and boxes). Add another $1 to $5 per bottle.
Chris Cutler is in the redemption business, but is not a Minister, Pastor, Priest or Rabbi. He is in the wine business, being both a viticulturist, and wine proprietor. He is familiar with all aspects of making wine, in his case, the Wines Of Redemption.
At present, he has created Pinot Noir, and Sauvignon Blanc. In addition, he will be introducing his first Cabernet/Syrah for Fall release. But wine is not all he does, though it is a guiding passion. In addition to owning five businesses, he also renovates and restore small, interior spaces. His latest and most lucrative idea combines these talents by creating a new idea — a mobile tasting room for his Wines of Redemption.. This tasting room, the first of its kind anywhere, will be created inside a 26 foot 1968 International Overlander Airstream Trailer, that he recently purchased and has begun renovating.
I asked him about his Wines of Redemption, and his new idea in process about a mobile tasting room.
We at Luxist love to try new things, and that includes exciting wines we’ve never tasted. Meet Cellar Thief, one of the internet’s finest try-this-wine enablers.
Cellar Thief posts three wines at absolute steals four times per week; one a “special occasion” wine, one priced for “everyday” and a third which is exceptionally unusual in some way.
“We [my business partner Gordon and myself] were the geeks at the parties that all of our friends would ask for wine suggestions — so, we decided to expand our social circle, take it online and help wineries figure out how to connect with passionate wine folks,” says Ryan (pictured), one of the original Thiefs.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to buy blindly. Ample descriptions including notes about the winery and food pairings are provided, as well as CellarTracker ratings (CellarTracker averages ratings from various sources). They tell you the retail price, the lowest online price with shipping, and then their price, which for the sale period only is always shockingly low. With the purchase of three or more bottles, shipping on your whole order is just $5. Too good to be true? No — they accomplish this by promising the wineries increased visibility and purchasing in bulk. Get there early, as I’m writing this just after noon and two of today’s three wines have already sold out!
I asked Ryan via email what the name means, and he charmingly answered me in bullet points:
“The obvious: to steal something — heck, if you are going to steal something, it might as well be good and not hurt anybody in the process.
The not-so-obvious, unless you are a total wine geek like me that used to work at wineries and got all geeked out about fermented grape juice: a ‘thief‘ in wine is a long tube that winemakers use to extract wine from a barrel during the fermenting and aging process. They use it to extract a bit of wine to taste to be sure all is going well with the wine.”
Ryan studied Social Entrepreneurship in business school and is passionate about giving back. “We are doing our small part by donating water for every bottle of wine we sell,” he says — humbly omitting that so far that “small part” comes to nearly 400,000 full days of clean water for underserved communities.
You don’t have to join any clubs to participate in these amazing deals, just visit CellarThief.com and start buying the wines Ryan says “will make you giggle with joy.”
When it comes to visiting wine country, there’s the standard booze bus variety-and then there’s the exclusive week-long Tuscany Wine Tour, a Luxist Awards’ nominee in the Best International Summer vacation category.
When you touch down in Florence, Italy, your personal chauffeur will be waiting to whisk you away in a Mercedes to the Piazza Santa Maria Novella hotel where you’ll spend your first night (the boutique resort is actually a small mansion down the street from the Renaissance church of the same name down the street). On day two, you’ll be driven out to the Chianti Classico region for a private tour of the Badia a Coltibuono property, where you’ll savor wine and olive oil before continuing along to another estate, ending the day at the hilltop castle in Siena for an overnight stay.
Wake up the next morning for a red wine tasting in the nearby village of Montalcino and lunch at the Poggio Antico’s Michelin-spangled restaurant; you’ll round out the afternoon with a stop at the hillside town of Montepulciano before heading back to your castle for the night. Days four and five bring more wine tastings, small village sightseeing and overnights at a villa-style hotel. The last day of the trip includes a visit to the medieval village of San Gimignano before returning for one final night in Florence.
The Tuscan Wine Tour sure beats the booze bus, but it’s also more expensive: Trips start at 500 Euros per person, per day, for one couple. For two couples touring together, prices start at 450 Euros, airfare not included.
Vote for the International Summer Vacation destination that you think is the best of breed. The winner will be announced on September 1st.
What could be more festive than a Veuve Clicquot Mini Fridge?
Veuve Clicquot has many a holiday package in store for you this coming season, but in this case, Christmas has come early. This charming little “Le Fridge” case retails for $44 (bottle included) and is available now if you can manage to find one. It’s a gift that keeps on giving; this reusable champagne bottle holder can keep your Clicquot cold for up to two hours. The retro design features a glossy plastic cover in Veuve’s iconic yellow with a silvery handle, and is engraved with the Veuve Cliquot logo in silver.
A bit more about that iconic yellow: did you know why it was chosen? Back in the 1860s, Madame Clicquot wanted to create a special champagne for the British, as their tastes tended to be dryer than the French. To distinguish it from her classic Ponsardin, at the suggestion of a British retailer, Veuve Clicquot darkened the then-white label, but everyone complained that you couldn’t really tell the difference in the dark, or distinguish it from another white-labeled bottle which was dirty after some time in the cellar. So, in the spring of 1876, Madame Clicquot’s business partner Edouard Werle chose the particular yellow you see today; an ingenious move which has led us all to be able to spot Veuve Clicquot from across the room.
Doesn’t all that just make you want to drink some champagne?
Want to get the most bubbles out of your bubbly? Scientists (French scientists of course) have discovered that the best way to keep your sparkling wines effervescent is to pour it in a “beer-like” way. Instead of pouring straight into the glass and waiting for the bubbles to settle before adding more, the best way is to pour the way you would to minimize the head on a beer, by tilting the glass and pouring the liquid down the side of the glass. This way the Champagne keeps its bubbles longer. The flute is also better at holding bubbles than the charming old-fashioned champagne coupes. The French research found that the serving Champagne at lower temperatures helps keep it fizzy.
The Cantina Novelli winery was founded only a decade ago in the history-rich “green heart of Italy,” otherwise known as Umbria, by a young and passionate entrepreneur named Stefano Novelli. Drawing from the support of a large family and memories of his grandfather teaching him to make wine, his vision of a ‘youthful winery directed by a young generation’ finally became reality in the year 2000. “We do not have a long tradition of producing wine,” Novelli says, ” We are a new, modern winery, and we are all young.”
A specific part of his vision, and a success which is helping Cantina Novelli to make a name for itself, is the resurrection of an old and at one time very prestigious grape cultivar called Trebbiano Spoletino. Dating back to the Middle Ages and at one time common in the region immediately surrounding the town of Spoleto, the vine had fallen by the wayside and become all but non-existent until Novelli began a research and viticultural project to bring it back.
I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to sample several wines from the Cantina Novelli winery and found them as a whole absolutely delightful. See my individual review notes for each of the five wines that I sampled after the jump, or check out the winery website for more details.
Brooklyn New York is getting its own custom crush wine-making facility. Brooklyn Winery has been under construction for the past few months. The plant will import grapes from both California and the New York State wine regions and will have customers working on custom barrels or shared community barrels. Wine Business reports that the facility should open next month. It will also offer classes and professional events. Currently the entire New York area only has one similar facility, City Winery.
Resident winemaker Conor McCormack was formerly with the company that started it all, San Francisco’s Crushpad and he will supervise production and instruct amateur winemakers in hands-on sessions. McCormack will also make house wines which will be sold at the wine bar and tasting room. A full barrel costs $5,700 and delivers 300 bottles. The price includes a barrel planning session with McCormack to help you select your varietal and region, and discuss wine style options. After that the potential winemakers learn more by taking part in five private winemaking sessions covering topics like fermentation, pressing, racking, barrel tasting and finally bottling. The bottles are finished with your own custom-designed wine label including the name of your choice. Custom Barrel may be shared by a group of up to 12 people and 1/2 barrels are also available.
The ancient house that rests above Cattier champagne’s cellars in Chigny-Les-Roses, France, is set back about forty feet from Rue Dom Perignon. Finding a street number is difficult - the only obvious identifying mark is the sign on the front fence that says “Chien Méchant.” Not to worry: On a recent visit, a guide gave assurances in a heavy French accent that “the dog is dead.”
The Cattier family, which now produces over one million bottles of champagne per year, purchased the house in the 1960s. Today, its windows are shuttered and it is only used to receive guests on rare occasions. The real prize is buried far below the chalky soil - a vast network of naturally air-conditioned cellars where Cattier’s finest vintages gain their character. In a garage next to the house, a narrow spiral staircase wends its way some 30 meters into the ground. There, the temperature quickly drops from the balmy 25C temperature outside down to a chilly 8C, the still air packed with 90% humidity.
The cellars are about 150 years old, relics of the early days of champagne making. During World War II, they served as part of a vast underground network of shelters throughout the greater Reims area; every few feet, a patch of bricks still bears the burns of candles used to illuminate the long corridors when electricity went out during air raids. These days, the cellars shimmer with the golden bottles of Cattier’s flagship champagne, Armand de Brignac.
Billionaires entertain themselves differently than everyone else, case in point at St Tropez last week when two partying tycoons got into a competition over who could rack up the highest champagne bill. The competitors were Malaysian billionaire Zhen Low, little brother to the more famous Jho Low, and Winston Fisher of the prominent New York real-estate family. The competition to see who could order more £600 bottles of Cristal took place at Les Caves du Roy nightclub and the winning bar tab, belonging to Zhen Low, came out to be a whopping £1.77 million ($2.6 million). That’s a lot of champagne.
And among the guests witnessing the competition and helping Low to celebrate his win was none other than the infamous Paris Hilton who has been spotted all around St. Tropez this summer with her sister Nicky.
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.
Luxist: Tell us why you are buying wine from other Bordeaux winemakers, rather than grapes?
Prince Robert: There’s a great advantage to buying wine, rather than grapes. Buying wine gives us more quality control because we already have a finished product. We are not buying grapes because we would not know how they will evolve. The wines that are purchased for Clarendelle, represents the same grape varietals used for the Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion wines.
Actually, it is not a secret defense weapon in the US Air Force arsenal, but upon approaching it, it does look numinous and otherworldly. It is actually the Peregrine Winery, situated in Gibbstown, New Zealand, on the famous Central Otago Wine Road, a road that takes the oenophile 20 minutes outside Queenstown, NZ on a great tasting trip, beginning with Peregrine.
Before discussing the wine, it is important to mention this architecture’s many awards, the most recent being the
New Zealand Supreme Architectural Award. Judges from UK magazine The Architectural Review like it too, placing it, in 2004, in the top five of its annual emerging architecture awards. The jury described the Winery as “an elegant blade of light [that] contrasts with the rugged and sublime natural landscape. But Chris Kelly, the architect, described the building in a more avian manner: “It was recognized early on that the building would be important in reinforcing the Peregrine wine brand, so the changing roof gradient was inspired by old images freezing the kinetic rotation of a bird in flight. The roof is evocative of the majesty the Peregrine or native falcon has as it glides on the thermal uplifts off the heated land.” However it is interpreted, it is also on DesignCrave’s 2009 list of the Ten Architectural Wonders Of The Wine World, for among other things, its inventive handling of space and light.
If there’s one thing that’s often said about Niagara Falls, besides “wow”, it’s that it’s a pity that such an impressive show by Mother Nature is surrounded by such a dreadfully tacky tourist town.
Yes, you’ve got more than 3,000 tons of water pounding over both water falls, per second, with rainbows floating in the mist. But you’ve also got Tussaud’ Wax Museum, Planet Hollywood and, in summer at least, hordes of sweaty tourists sporting black knee socks and sandals.
The Niagara Parks Commission appears to be engaged in an effort to change this perception, at least among its most easy drive-in market, Torontonians. It recently launched a campaign called “Shake Off the City”, which portrays city dwellers confronting urban blight — graffiti, traffic, stolen bikes — and escaping to the wonders of the Niagara region. This portrayal of their city has evidently annoyed some Toronto-dwellers, although that apparently wasn’t the intention.
The intention was to showcase the “arid side” of the region, as Joel Noden, executive director of the Niagara Parks Commission, told the Toronto Star. I presume he meant the area beyond the big-whoop waterfalls, and leaving aside clumsy urban stereotyping, he’s got a good point. The Niagara Escarpment in Ontario is actually quite lovely — with loads of hiking, the full sweep of Lake Ontario, and, a number of excellent wineries, growing Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling. (The area has a strong reputation for ice wine as well, given the cold winters.)
French champagne house Veuve Clicquot is known for their unique packages, especially their innovative line of cooling boxes. The latest resembles a mini refrigerator. The Veuve Clicquot Fridge was created by graphic and packaging design agency QSLD Paris and has a handle styled to look like an old refrigerator. Packaging News says that the box is made from thermoplastic resin while an interior thermoformed polystyrene wedge keeps the bottle cool for up to two hours. It comes in both the standard Clicquot orangey-yellow and in a soft pink for the rosé Champagne.
The Bodega Seafood, Art & Wine Festival celebrates its 16th year when it gets underway August 28 and 29th. The festival brings revelers to Watts Ranch in the village of Bodega, California for art, music, wine, beer and plenty of seafood. This scenic location in Sonoma County is where Alfred Hitchcock filmed his classic thriller, “The Birds.” More than 30 wineries and 15 micro breweries will pour wine and beer, while 15 restaurants and catering companies will served up barbecued oysters, crab cakes, Key Lime calamari, clam chowder and other delicacies.
A juried art show and sale will feature the work of 100 artists and craftspeople and the festival also has three stages with a variety of musical entertainment, a Wild Wonders Animal Show and other activities for children including rubber duck races. Headline entertainment this year includes saxophonist Jules Broussard (Saturday afternoon) plus Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks (Sunday afternoon). Proceeds from the event support Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, which works in partnership with the California State Parks Foundation to provide environmental stewardship programs, and the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department. Festival hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 28, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, August 29. Tickets purchased in advance are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for children between the ages of 12 and 18, and free for children less than 12 years of age. For additional information, go online to www.winecountryfestivals.com.
Divers are recovering bottles of Champagne that have been lying at the bottom of the Baltic Sea for about two centuries, according to European news reports.
200-Year Old Champagne Lifted From Baltic Shipwreck originally appeared on Luxist on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Fil d’Or or Golden Thread was created to encapsulate the same twisting motion used in the opening of ordinary wire cork cages; the part of the bottle top you have to untwist before opening your champagne. What does it do? Nothing. But it looks very pretty and comes attached to a bottle of delicious Blanc de Blanc. This makes a sophisticated and unusual gift now, or at any point up to and including the holidays. We’ve never seen anything like it, and imitations are sure to follow.
Wine
We at Luxist love to try new things, and that includes exciting wines we’ve never tasted. Meet 
What could be more festive than a 
Brooklyn New York is getting its own custom crush 
Billionaires
