Police hunt for $5m of missing Aussie Wines

A collection of some of Australia's greatest wines worth an estimated five million dollars has gone missing in the country.

Police in the Hunter region have appealed to the public for information after failing to find the A$5m stash of missing Australian wines. Full details of the wines were not released, but police said the haul was made up of dozens of individual wine collections. Bottles include some of Australia’s best-known wine names, such as Penfolds Grange and Henschke.

Police said the wines were being held by Wine Investment Services Pty Ltd until 2013, when the firm collapsed into receivership. Some of the firm’s assets were seized, but ‘inquiries revealed a number of wine collections were not surrendered’, police said. In March 2016, detectives from the State Crime Command’s Fraud and Cybercrime Squad launched an operation named ‘Strike Force Farrington’ to investigate the missing wine. Officers raided a warehouse in Newcastle on 31 May and seized documents and electronic devices, police said.

‘As investigations continue, detectives are appealing for assistance from the public to locate the wine collections.’ Police added, ‘In particular, they would like to speak with anyone who may have purchased, or has been approached to purchase, collectable or vintage wines, including Penfolds Grange, varieties of Henschke, Torbreck, and Chris Ringland/Three Rivers.’

Heavy hail ravages Beaujolais

Local officials have called for parts of Beaujolais to be declared a disaster zone after fierce hail storms severely damaged several vineards in the area.

Only one month after a first episode of hail, northern Beaujolais was hit by another violent hail storm and lot of rain on the evening of Friday 24 June. Mélina Condy, from regional wine body Inter-Beaujolais, said ‘3,000 hectares or 20% of the vineyard’ was at least partially damaged. Effects are feared worse than last month’s storm, because of violent winds and 80mm of rain accompanying the hail.

The crus of Beaujolais, the best part of Beaujolais, are situated in the north.

Fleurie, one of them, is believed to have suffered most. ‘70% to 80% of the vineyards are totally destroyed by the hail,’ said Frédéric Miguet, mayor of Fleurie. There was also a landslide that has spread soil on the roads and potentially disrupted vineyard terroirs. Moulin-à-Vent was hit hard, too. Thibault Liger-Belair, the biodynamic winemaker, estimated that he lost 75% of his 2016 harvest.

He sprayed valerian and arnica just after the hail and said that he hoped the pruning system used in Beaujolais (a short pruning) to lessen the impact on 2017. Others crus hit by this violent hailstorm included Morgon, although the Côte de Py was only moderately affected overall. All vineyards in Chiroubles have now been damaged by hail in the past month, at least to some extent.

Chablis Price rise after Bad Weather

Wine lovers will be paying more for Chablis in the next couple of years, after bad weather has already cut the 2016 harvest by as much as 50%, according to one expert.

There will be a major Chablis shortfall following what will be one of the Chardonnay-producing region’s most reduced harvests in living memory, according to Louis Moreau, owner of the highly regarded eponymous domaine and vice president of the Chablis Commission at the Burgundy wine bureau (BIVB). Speaking at a ‘Pure Chablis’ lunch at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire on Friday (1 July), Moreau said that the Chablis 2016 vintage will be up to 50% smaller than average.

It is difficult to quantify the subsequent supply deficit, but it seems inevitable that prices will rise, he said. ‘There’s no question that 2016 has been difficult and challenging so far with frost, rain, hail and mildew. I can’t recall a vintage like it. Certainly, we have seen nothing like it in the last 40-50 years.’ Moreau added, ‘I hope we have a good vintage from now until October. But whatever happens it can’t undo what has already occurred. Last month, in June, we had the equivalent of six months rain.’ This came hard on the heels of a massive hailstorm on 13 May which hit 400 hectares of vineyards in Chablis. ‘Fortunately, 2015 and 2014 provided good quantity and good quality so we have reasonably healthy stock levels.

‘But with just 20m bottles from 2016, things are going to be very, very tough and it will have an inevitable impact on prices.

‘There’s no question that there will be a ‘gestion de crise’ [crisis strategy], which will require us to manage our existing stocks very carefully to spread them out over the next two years.’

Professor invents Infinite wine Machine

An American professor has developed a miniature machine capable of continuously producing wine.

Professor Daniel Attinger is now working with a team of scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne in Switzerland to develop the non-stop wine machine. His ‘micro winery on a chip’ is capable of continuously producing wine at a rate of one millilitre per hour, according to the university. But, Attinger’s miniature device isn’t intended for home use.

It is being developed to help winemakers control fermentation in the cellar. ‘Let’s say a winemaker in the Lavaux region of Switzerland finds that a certain type of yeast or a certain fermentation temperature leads to an overly bitter wine,’ said Attinger. ‘We could quickly test alternatives.’ Inspiration for the device came from concerns about how winemakers will deal with climate change, said Attinger, who is a wine-loving professor at Iowa State University in the US and a specialist in multi-phase micro-fluidics.

‘Climate change is having an impact on the quality of grape crops around the world,’ he said. ‘Due to the heat, some crops ripen too quickly, the harvest takes place sooner and the wines end up with a higher alcohol content or a different taste. We need to find ways to analyse and adapt how the wine is made.’