Weekly Wrap – 1/5/2011

I’ve decided to do a weekly wrap on Sunday’s….just stuff that has tickled my fancy during the week…. wine news that interests me, wine blogs I’ve read, maybe some music I’ve listened to….it could go anywhere so bear with me.

That master of wine satire is at it again and I’m 97 points on that…..James Suckling’s new piece in Decanter…talk about how awesome he is, plug’s his friends and the wineries attending his next tasting event in Tuscany….yeah that’s it…..the ones he is charging a rumored €10,000 to take part ……. guests will be paying €1600 to attend….more an advertorial than anything else.

Tom Maresca takes him to task at Tom’s Wine Line as does Tyler Colman over at  Dr Vino ….. he’s a dodgy bastard that’s for sure….. but his mum still loves him.

Way to go Mrs Suckling!

Way to go Mrs Suckling!

That bubbly Death Star….the grand house of Moët & Chandon has decided to slash the dosage of their small batch offering…. Brut Imperial from 12 g/L to 9 g/L with Chef de Cave, Benoît Gouez saying they will gradually dial it back to around 6-7 g/L over time to allow punters to adjust……massive style change….personally I’d rather drink larks vomit but there you go…..a nice little write up on the subject over at Ed McCarthy’s column at Wine Review Online.

Moët & Chandon Chef de Cave and his state of the art dosage test equipment

Moët & Chandon Chef de Cave and his state of the art dosage test equipment

Here’s something I can sink my teeth into….former 2-star Michelin Sommelier, Brad Hickey plans on producing an amphora aged Nero d’Avola out of McLaren Vale…..must make a trip down to McLackers and have a chat to him about his project…. Brad Hickey….. also on the amphora front….Mike Weersing from Pyramid Valley near Waikari in New Zealand has been posting some photo’s on Facebook of his new clay fermenting vessels….I’m over there in a couple of weeks and will try to catch up with him to post some photos.

Italy has three new DOCG’s…… Montecucco Sangiovese DOCG, Canellino di Frascati DOCG and Frascati Superiore DOCG…. besides the fact that Superiore and Frascati shouldn’t really be used in the same instance does Frascati really need two DOCG’s???

There’s a handy wee map of the Italian DOCG’s.

And finally…..RIP Oddbins in the U.K. ……very sad as doors finally close on what once was a great retail chain.

No comments yet.