Château Guiraud fires starting gun with 2016 release
Château Guiraud has taken the unusual step of releasing its Bordeaux 2016 Sauternes and dry white wine ahead of en primeur tasting week, starting 3 April. Guiraud released at 30 euros ex-Bordeaux on Monday 27 March, keeping its release price level with last year.
It is extremely rare for anyone to release this early and Guiraud co-owner Xavier Planty was keen to stress that he still looks forward to welcoming critics and journalists next week.
Planty also said that he valued a ‘sincere’ relationship with consumers and that this played into the estate’s thinking. Some merchants were already offering the in-barrel wine for sale. In the UK, Millesima was offering a case of 12 half-bottles for £184 in bond on 27 March.
Others said that they would hold back. ‘We have not tasted the wine and therefore will not yet promote it,’ said Max Lalondrelle, fine wine buying director at Berry Bros & Rudd. But, he said that the move was a good one overall for Guiraud.
‘It will give a chance for the wine to be promoted on its own, away from the madness of the releases,’ he said. Berry Bros does plan to sell the wine as soon as its team has tasted a sample.
Sauternes and Barsac wines command lower prices in general than the equivalent, top red wine estates Bordeaux’s Left and Right Banks. As a result, Bordeaux’s premier sweet wines have often struggled for recognition during the annual en primeur campaign.
Singer Pink reveals California winery and early love for Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Pink, who’s real name is Alecia Beth Moore, described herself as a big fan of biodynamics and has spent the past four years cultivating an organic vineyard in southern California, after being inspired by visits to leading wineries all over the world.
‘It’s my dirty little secret,’ the Grammy-award-winning singer, songwriter and actress said of her newly finished winery during an interview with wine expert and broadcaster Olly Smith. The pair and producer Richard Hemming MW shared a glass of Pontet-Canet 2010 during an interview at her winery near to Los Olivos just north of Santa Barbara.
After coming off tour in Australia about four years ago, she and her husband set about the vineyard plan, juggling learning about wine inbetween performances.
‘I took online courses. I started at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). I would get off stage and be, like, oh, I have a test. I loved it, especially the [online] videos.’
Pink, or P!nk, has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide, but appears just as happy pruning vines as performing to tens of thousands of people.
‘The first I wanted to do was learn how to prune. So I got my brand new Beck album, I got my earphones and I went out and spent days pruning. It’s my favourite thing to do. Where else do you get eight hours to work with nature?’
Her estate covers 25 acres and includes an eclectic Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Grenache and Grenache Blanc. ‘We are taking out the Malbec,’ she said.
‘We’ve worked with it for three years and it’s not blowing me away. The Cabernet Franc next to it is blowing me away. So we’re replanting. [We also] took out a block of Cabernet Sauvignon that was getting its a** kicked by the wind. We replanted half the bloc and grafted half the bloc to Sauvignon Blanc. So we’ve been working with that for one year and it’s going really, really well.’
The wine is not currently available for sale, but could be in future, she said.
UK ports face standstill after Brexit, warns wine trade
UK ports will be ‘stopped dead’ and wine could be held there for days if a customs deal isn't reached in Brexit negotiations, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has warned as the government prepares to trigger Article 50 this week.
If customs from the EU have to be declared, there will be significant delays at British ports, turning them into ‘lorry parks’, the WSTA warned. Currently, only imports and exports from outside the EU are subject to customs controls.
But, if the UK leaves the customs union as well as the single market following its two years of Brexit talks, the volume of cargo subject to inspection at British ports will more than double, according to the WSTA. Ministers plan to trigger Article 50, marking the start of negotiations, on Wednesday 29 March.
The WSTA also warned of a risk of a resurgence of alcohol smugglers, if it proves difficult to get wine and spirits in and out of the UK.
‘There must be clear and workable mechanisms in place to allow cross-border trade of wine and spirits from the moment we leave the EU,’ said Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA. ‘Anything else will result in huge delays at the ports leading to backlogs and gridlock.’
The UK is the second largest importer of wine by volume, after Germany, and second in value, after the US, according to the WSTA. The majority of wine imports into the UK arrive by boat and are distributed across the country by lorry. On average, the port of Dover alone handles 290 lorries per hour, carrying a range of goods, which works out at one every 12.4 seconds, according to the WSTA.
‘The UK is the most important country in the global wine and spirit trade and criminals will find alternative methods of getting alcohol in,’ said WSTA customs expert, David Richardson. ‘It’s big business for Britain and it’s vital government maintains the free flow of trade between the UK and Europe and reassures industry with an early solution.’
