Melgab International CC

This is the kind of cross diversification I can relate to! Kerin O'Keefe (decanter.com) writes:

Italian coffee giant Illy has just acquired the 90ha Mastrojanni estate^? in the Montalcino hamlet of Castelnuovo dell'Abate.
 
Founded in 1975 by Gabriele and Antonio Mastrojanni, the estate has 24 ha under vine and an overall production of 80,000 bottles a year.
 
Until now Mastrojanni has been a family-owned firm^?, and is known for its classic Brunellos, particularly its single vineyard^? Brunello, Schiena d'Asino.
 
Managing Director and winemaker^? Andrea Machetti, who is to remain in charge of day-to-day operations under Illy, has been with Mastrojanni since 1992.
 
'The Illy family members obviously love wine and are known for their good taste^?. Though they will make some investments in the business, the house style^? won't change and we will continue to focus on making outstanding Brunello from Sangiovese,' Machetti told decanter.com.
 
The Illy family, based in Trieste, which bought controlling shares in chocolate^? company Domori in 2006 as well as in French tea firm Dammann Frères in 2007, is not new to the wine business.
 
Francesco Illy, one of the four grandchildren of the firm's founder, already owns a young estate in Montalcino, Podere Le Ripi. Riccardo Illy, president of the holding group said, 'Everyone in my family has a passion for wine, and with this acquisition, we have realised one of our dreams.'

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Tags: melgab, wine, brunello, montalcino, illy, italian, south-africa, South Africa

A two tier qualification proposal for Brunello? I can't believe it's come down to this... talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. Richard Woodard (decanter.com) writes:

Italian winemaker^? Angelo Gaja has said that Brunello should operate a two-tier system and allow other varieties other than Sangiovese.
 
As the Brunello grape blending furore continues, the veteran Piedmont producer - who also makes Brunello di Montalcino – has suggested DOC^? Brunello should move on and no longer demand the wine is made from 100% Sangiovese.
 
In an article published this month in Italian newspaper Libero and local Tuscan paper La Nazione, Gaja says that if indeed Brunello producers have been adding other grapes illegally to the wine, then those producers should have been lobbying to get the appellation^? rules changed.

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Tags: melgab, wine, brunello, montalcino, appellation, italy, south-africa, South Africa

Eric Asimov (nytimes.com) writes:

ALL right, class, summer vacation is long gone and school is well under way, but I’m forced to interrupt our curriculum for a quick review session.
 
Why is this? Because it’s come to my attention that a crucial word in the lexicon of Italian wines has fallen by the wayside.
 
That word is aglianico, which, just to be clear, is pronounced ah-lee-YAHN-ee-koh, and which is the name of the leading red grape of southern Italy.
 
Yet the entire category of aglianico wines seems to pass unnoticed by most people, which is a shame because they have so much pleasure to offer.
 
...
 
For years, the aglianico torch was largely carried by two producers, Mastroberardino in Campania, best known for its Radici from the Taurasi zone, and Paternoster in Basilicata, which has long made exemplary aglianicos from the volcanic soils of Mount Vulture (pronounced VOOL-too-reh). Now, dozens of producers export their wines to the United States. Sadly, we couldn’t find wines from some of the top producers, like Paternoster, Antonio Caggiano and Galardi, which makes Terra di Lavoro, as close as an aglianico wine comes to cult status.

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Mastroberardino

Aglianico

Radici Taurasi Riserva DOCG

Tags: melgab, wine, aglianico, campania, italy, south-africa, South Africa

With the credit crunch looming large, 'alternative investments' such as fine wine are becoming increasingly popular. Figures from Berry Bros. & Rudd & Christie's Fine Wine Auction show a combined total of over two and a half million pounds worth of fine wine has been sold by these two companies in the past few weeks.
 
Berrys', the UK's leading independent wine merchant, has witnessed outstanding sales in the last few weeks, selling 1000 cases of 2006 Ch. Lynch Bages and 1000 cases of 2000 Dom Perignon Champagne^?, worth a combined total of one million pounds.
 
Christie's Bordeaux 2000 sale^?, held this week, saw bullish spending with the Ch. Lafite Rothschild 2000 making £10,925 per case^? and a case of Ch. Latour 2000 going for £9,200. Overall, the 'Highlights from a Superlative Millennium Vintage^?: Bordeaux 2000' auction realised a combined total of £1,654,775.
 
Historically great wines from great vintages have appreciated 10-15% per annum, so its no wonder investors are putting their money into alternative funds. And, with wine classed as a 'wasting asset,' any investment is free from capital gains tax.

... goes on to list 'Berry Bros. & Rudd's tips to investing in Fine Wine'. Worth a read.

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Tags: melgab, wine, investment, ROI, auction, south-africa, South Africa

This is a no-brainer. Widespread adoption of this system can't come soon enough. Howard G Goldberg (decanter.com) writes:

Spoilage in wine shipping, which haunts consumers, distributors and merchants, has become easily detectable.
 
California's wine industry has begun using a temperature-sensitive label that for about two years had been confined to the food industry.
 
The small label, programmed to reflect a band of temperatures, goes on bottles and packages. If a shipment stays within desired parameters, a light flashes green^?. If temperatures get too high or low, it flashes yellow.
 
Downloaded into a computer via a manual reader, data show what temperatures occurred and when, thus fixing responsibility for cooked wine.
 
In Napa, WTN Services, which both distributes wine and sells it directly to consumers under a program called Ambrosia, pronounces itself happy with the labels, which are made by an Idaho company called PakSense.
 
Customers pay $20 a box for the labeling, a relatively small insurance premium for expensive wine.
 
In Sonoma, the Schug Carneros Estate^? Winery^? began placing PakSense labels on shipments early this year.

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Tags: melgab, wine, label, technology, spoilage, south-africa, South Africa

In the wake of the recent Brunello scandals, I find it surprising that a such a well established name would step forth with this kind of proposal. Tom Hyland (vinowire.simplicissimus.it) writes:

In an interview published Friday, September 5 in the Italian national daily La Nazione, Franco Biondi-Santi — the "father" of Brunello di Montalcino — has proposed a change in the Rosso^? di Montalcino DOC^?, making it "no longer a 100% Sangiovese but a mix with other varieties cultivated in Montalcino." The proposed change would potentially allow for the addition of just a "few varieties" besides Sangiovese, "in percentages to be studied and established with clarity^?," grapes that "would express the characteristics of the terroir^?." The addition of other grape varieties, said Biondi-Santi, "would help those wineries whose growing sites are not particularly suited for Sangiovese." It would also help those wineries "to find favor with the palate^? of a part of the global market."
 
"This is a possibility that we can exploit," said Biondi-Santi, "not a situation that we must^? be forced to endure. Rosso di Montalcino should not be viewed as a 'little brother' but rather as a 'different twin' of Brunello."

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Tags: melgab, wine, rosso, montalcino, brunello, italian, south-africa, South Africa

After reading about how Nigerians are diversifying away from email scams, it's heartening to know that science is once again to the rescue. Roger Highfield (telegraph.co.uk) writes:

A rare wine merchant has joined forces with nuclear scientists to develop a 21st-century tool for unmasking counterfeit vintage^? wines.
 
The technique developed by French scientists for a British wine expert consists of zapping bottles with beams of charged ions generated by a particle accelerator.
 
The beams of protons are directed at the glass, not the wine, and the telltale spectrum of X rays that results from the bombardment can help scientists to distinguish how old the bottles are and, roughly, where they originate.
 
"We compare the suspect bottles with those that we know come from the chateaux," explained Dr Hervé Guégan, a researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Bordeaux, where the university also took part in the studies.
 
The reason this is a powerful^? check on authenticity is, he explains, because "the chemical composition of glass used to make bottles changed over time and was different from place to place,"

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Tags: melgab, wine, atomic, accelerator, ageing, authentication, south-africa, South Africa

Spain and Portugal are the first countries in our series of wine maps and two of the most exciting in the contemporary wine world.

» View Site (via catavino.net)

Tags: melgab, wine, iberian, map, spain, portugal, south-africa, South Africa

Mathias Wildt (uk.reuters.com) writes:

PROSECCO, Italy (Reuters) - Gianluca Bisol has great expectations for the white sparkling wine^? his family has been making since 1542 in the Valdobbiadene and Conegliano regions north of Venice.
 
A 22nd-generation prosecco producer, he is hoping prosecco's growing international renown will help his fizz gain ground over pricier champagne^?. Prosecco production has grown to 150 million bottles from 5 million a year in 40 years, mainly driven by demand for exports to Germany and the United States.
 
Now its makers aim to increase production to 250 million bottles, moving it closer to the world's leading bubbly. France last year produced a record 339 million bottles of champagne.
 
"Prosecco is softer, easier to drink than champagne," Bisol said. "Add the good price/quality ratio, and prosecco could become the leading world bubbly over the next 30 years."

» Full Story (via luxist.com)

Tags: melgab, wine, italian, prosecco, bisol, italian, south-africa, South Africa

Worthwhile read. Bill Daley (chicagotribune.com) writes:

Chicagoans are thirsty. Whether it's an $8 glass of 2006 Brooks Riesling from Oregon raised in a toast at Webster's Wine Bar in Lincoln Park, a $15 bottle of French rosé^? named the "Pink Criquet" and tossed back on an Oak^? Park porch, or a $2,125 bottle of Gaja's 1978 Italian Barbaresco, sipped respectfully at one of Charlie Trotter's prime tables, folks are reaching for wine.
 
More than a common love for fermented grape juice^? ties these wine drinkers together, yet few recognize it.
 
It's the 45th parallel, an imaginary line encircling the world halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.
 
The 45th parallel is more than an exercise in geography. It symbolizes and connects the increasing globalization of flavors^?, changing climate concerns and the eternal search for good wines at bargain prices.
 
In the world of wine, the 45th parallel is the global equivalent of the Magnificent Mile in terms of quality and cachet. It threads its way through the Bordeaux and Cotes du Rhone regions of France, Italy's Piedmont, the Willamette Valley of Oregon.
 
For Steven Alexander, sommelier^? at Chicago's Spiaggia restaurant, the 45th parallel is a global pathway the savvy wine buyer can exploit. For consumers, he said, they will be able to "look east" along the parallel and find regions producing wines of comparable quality but charging a lot less. Think of such regions as Russia's Black Sea coast, the Balkan country of Croatia, China's isolated Xinjiang province and even the Leelanau peninsula in Michigan.

Goes on to discuss the following sub topics:

• Wine matters here
• New competitors
• Where magic begins
• Nature will solve crisis

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Tags: melgab, climate, wine, 45th parallel, vinography, south-africa, South Africa