Moldova gets first ‘wine airport’

 ‘Wines of Moldova’ will appear on the front of their national airport, which was previously known as Chisinau International Airport.

The choices for the new name were a selection of references to Moldovan culture, including classical musician, Euga Doga and Moldova’s first female pilot, Olga Culic. Fictional fairy tale characters Pacala and Tandala were also amongst the choices.

Wines of Moldova hope this will send the message to tourists and visitors that Moldova is a ‘country of wine.’ The vote was carried out on website by diez.md and over 8,000 people participated in it.

International varieties grown in Moldova include: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. Rkatsiteli and Aligoté, more commonly found in eastern European wine regions, are also planted. Indigenous varieties include Feteasca Alba, Feteasca Nelba and Rare Neagra.

The Moldovan wine industry has suffered from conflicts with Russia in the past, including bans on Moldovan wines being imported to Russia. The EU then relaxed trade rules with Moldova, as a riposte to the Russian bans.

67 million bottles are now exported worldwide, according to Wines of Moldova. A Moldovan sweet wine won a Platinum award in the 2017 Decanter World Wine Awards, and can be bought for £8.

Charles Banks sentenced to four years

Ex-Screaming Eagle owner and winery investor Charles Banks has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for wire fraud.

Banks was indicted after advising retired NBA star Tim Duncan, a long term financial client, to invest $13million in Gameday Entertainment, a sport merchandise company partially owned by Banks. Duncan received no return on his investment. He pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in April 2017, after initially denying any wrongdoing.

Banks must also pay $7.5 million in restitution to Duncan. The scam was discovered when going through finances for Duncan’s, an ex-San Antonio Spurs player, divorce settlement.

‘He earned my trust as my financial adviser and friend, so I felt comfortable moving forward without replacing the checks and balances as he moved on to running his own thing,’ Duncan said in a statement, reported San-Antonio Express News. ‘Unfortunately, I was wrong about that decision.’ In his own statement, Banks said to Duncan ‘Tim, I’m sorry.’

Banks bought Screaming Eagle winery in Napa in 2006, then left in 2009 and set up Terroir Capital, which owns wineries included Qupé in Santa Maria in California, Trinity Hill in New Zealand and Fable Mountain Vineyards in South Africa. Terroir Capital are not involved with the case with Duncan.

Banks ‘stepped back’ as CEO of Terroir Captial after entering his plea, and chief operating officer Kevin McGee took over.

China takes new steps towards quality wine production, creating an ‘estate wine’ trademark

Sixteen wineries in China are set to be granted an ‘estate wine’ trademark, as part of government efforts to establish official quality standards for those producing wines from their own vineyards.

A professional trade committee, organised by China Alcoholic Drinks Association (CADA), has approved a first batch of 16 wineries (see list below) from Beijing, Hebei, Xinjiang and Ningxia to carry the quality trademark, after a series of audits and tasting assessments.

These producers are currently at the final stage of the process and are highly likely to be approved to carry the designated ‘estate wine’ trademark in July, according to CADA. The move marks China’s first steps towards an official regulation system for quality wine production.

To qualify for the ‘estate wine’ trademark, producers need to have full control over their vineyards, and produce and bottle their wines on site. The yield limit for these estate wines is at 1000kg of grapes per mu (approximately 94-115 hectolitres per hectare depending on white or red wines), according to CADA.

The current yield limit is significantly higher than that of top wine producing regions in the world, such as Bordeaux and Burgundy. The yield limit for Bordeaux AOC is less than 58hl/ha. The yield limit serves more as a wider national standard, according to Chinese wine authority Professor Li Demei. The majority of quality Chinese wine regions have an average yield far lower than the limit, he added.

China has so far issued several geographical indication (GI) marks to domestic wine producing regions, including Helan Mountain, in the east of Ningxia. Unlike rigorous EU appellation laws, the Chinese GI regulations ‘had little actual effect in the market because it is far less forceful than the trademark law,’ said Chinese wine authority Professor Li Demei.

By encouraging quality producers to apply for the estate wine trademark, which is owned and endorsed by CADA, the association aims to ‘protect the reputation of Chinese estate wine producers in domestic and overseas market’, said officials.

Cheers!