🌊 Time to return the favor

Happy Sunday! The shortest month is behind us! We’ve worked hard to go through all possible sources to bring you only the most interesting of updates. It’s the last week of the month - meaning more interesting finds for you to read about. Read all the way to the end to find out who Rocco is and why his lifestyle is so special.

🍾 Welcome to 248 new readers who joined this week!

INTERESTING THIS WEEK

💃🏽 Lady Gaga creates a performance inspired by Dom Pérignon READ HERE

🥷🏼 Fugitive who masterminded £46.6m wine fraud will return to London for a confiscation hearing READ HERE

📜 Uncorking the mysteries of a 5,000-year-old tavern on the Tigris READ HERE

🌳 Scientists prove a clear link between deforestation and local drop in rainfall READ HERE

🇫🇷 French wine region Bourgogne should no longer be translated to ‘Burgundy’ READ HERE

🚫 Paso Robles winery shut down after operating without an alcohol license for 3 years READ HERE

🏷️ Italy and Ireland clash over cancer warning label for bottles of alcohol READ HERE

UKRAINE’S WINE INDUSTRY RAVAGED BY WAR: WINERIES, VINEYARDS, AND EQUIPMENT DESTROYED

Russia’s invasion has touched every part of Ukraine’s wine economy. Looted wineries, sommeliers turned soldiers, and destroyed warehouses are only part of it, as Sergey Panov reports. Ukrainian sommeliers and winemakers killed: Upper row, left to right: Sergey Kushinsky, Alexei Sukhoruchenko, Pavlo Gumenyuk, Sergey Zolotar, Pavlo Savchuk. Bottom row, left to right: Igor Terekhin, Eduard Kostritsa, Denis Moroz, Denis Galushko. Rest in peace.

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BILLECART-SALMON LAUNCHES CLOS SAINT-HILAIRE 2005

The Clos Saint-Hilaire originates from a single, enclosed one-hectare plot of old vines planted with Pinot Noir in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in 1964. Named after the patron saint of the village where the family House was founded, this site is maintained with the utmost respect for the environment and for biodiversity.

The new 2005 vintage is entirely vinified in oak casks and displays a mesmerizing and expressive charm, bursting with rich and intense flavors. On the palate, one finds hints of puffed buckwheat and liquorice wood, with a generosity that carries the finish towards a delicious chalky minerality. This micro cuvée will pair wonderfully with flounder and Myanmar coffee.

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300 HECTARES OF OLD VINES LOST IN CHILE FIRES

The devastating fires that swept over southern Chile in early February have left 300 hectares of vineyards in cinders, according to official figures released last week. The fires, which have affected over 450,000 hectares of land since 2 February, are still active; therefore the figures released by Chile’s Ministry of Agriculture are liable to future revision. According to the Ministry, the majority of the vineyard damage to date has been in the region of Ñuble, better known as the wine region of Itata, with 291 hectares of vineyards lost.

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PENFOLDS UNVEILS NEW LUXURY RELEASES

Penfolds has unveiled its latest release, including a multi-vintage Chardonnay and the latest releases in its collaboration with Champagne Thiénot, at an event in Paris. The new limited edition Chardonnay is a special blend of five of the best vintages from Yattarna, comprising wine from 2021, 2016, 2014, 2012, and 2011 vintages. Only 2,220 bottles were released with a retail price tag of AU$875 (around US$595 or £495) which will be available worldwide following its global release in April 2023. The wine for Penfolds V was selected and blended by Penfolds chief winemaker, Peter Gago, and Penfolds white winemaker, Kym Schroeter, and aims to epitomize “the finesse, restraint, and character of modern Australian Chardonnay”, Gago said.

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RIVERS HAVE SUSTAINED VINEYARDS FOR CENTURIES, NOW IT’S TIME TO RETURN THE FAVOR

What do Bordeaux, Loire, Mosel, Rhine, Rhône, Douro, Napa, Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Tokaj, and the Wachau all have in common? If you said they are all major wine regions split by rivers or laced with tributaries, pour yourself a glass of wine. It may seem obvious, but wine wouldn’t exist without water. And rivers deliver it. For centuries that has meant soil, sediment, nutrients, warming and cooling influences, and of course, water, all traveling along riverbanks.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), today the United States alone has more than 3 million miles of rivers and streams—and many of those miles have historically made agriculture, including viticulture, possible. But with development, climate change, pollution, and a myriad of other factors, these rivers might be in major trouble.

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ARGENTINA BEGINS HARVEST EARLY, WITH ESTIMATES FOR LOWEST YIELD SINCE 1960

Last week we reported on a similar situation in California, now Argentina. A warm summer and low yields have prompted most of Argentina’s wine regions into an early harvest with picking already underway — including Malbec in some regions. Although quality so far looks good, the National Viticulture Institute is already estimating that this will be the worst harvest in volume since records began in 1960. It estimates a drop of 21% compared to last year’s vintage, which was already a smaller harvest than usual.

Mendoza is the worst affected, with an estimated 23% less than last year. Severe frosts impacted several parts of the country in the late spring, with the worst in early November last year, which prompted the declaration of an agricultural state of emergency. Late frosts were followed by several hail storms, compounding damage to the vineyards.

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SUSTAINABILITY KEY MOTIVATOR FOR AUSTRALIAN WINE CONSUMERS

Sustainable Winegrowing Australia released its Impact Report for the 2021–22 financial year this week, revealing a record growth in membership by Australian grape growers and winemakers. The report revealed a 48% increase in memberships in FY22, bringing the overall collective to over 1,150 vineyards, wineries, and wine businesses, with 45% certified. Sustainable Winegrowing Australia is the national sustainability program for grape growers and winemakers, measuring, reporting, and encouraging best practices in vineyards and wineries.

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BORDEAUX AGREES FUNDING TO PULL OUT VINEYARDS

A finance package expected to total more than €50m and including a portion of state aid has been agreed upon to help the Bordeaux region's wine industry pull up vineyards, as part of efforts to cut overproduction. Bordeaux’s wine bureau, the CIVB, confirmed a financing deal has been agreed upon with the government to help winemakers pull up thousands of hectares of vineyards, as announced at the Salon d’Agriculture show in Paris.

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WINE REGION OF THE WEEK: COLLIO, ITALY

Collio Goriziano (often just Collio) is a wine DOC covering the hills around Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in the far northeast corner of Italy. The area is particularly known for its complex, aromatic Collio Bianco, a white wine whose pronounced aroma and purity of fruit put this district firmly on the Italian wine map in the 1970s and 80s.

The official Collio wine-growing zone curves in a banana-like shape around the international border with Slovenia. This is almost as far east as Italy's wine lands go; only Carso lies further to the east. This area became a permanent part of Italy only when it was annexed in 1918, just after World War I, and during its history has been part of both the Venetian Republic and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a result, the local wines (including those of Collio's neighboring DOCs, Isonzo del Friuli and Colli Orientali del Friuli) show Slavic and Germanic traits as well as Italian.

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INDIGENOUS GRAPE OF THE WEEK: FRIULANO

Friulano (formerly Tocai Friulano and also known as Sauvignonasse or Sauvignon Vert) is a grape variety most famous for its role in the white wines of Friuli, northeastern Italy. These wines, usually varietal, are lively and fruity with notes of citrus, florality, and almond, and often a touch of minerality.

The variety has no known connection with Sauvignon Blanc (or its Sauvignon Gris mutation) although the pair were occasionally confused both in the vineyard and the winery.

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DID YOU KNOW THAT?

🇻🇦 Vatican City leads the world in wine consumption per capita.

📜 The Code of Hammurabi is one of the earliest known writings that depict the code of law in ancient Mesopotamia, with extremely strict punishments for wine fraud.

🍾 Champagne is often nonvintage to maintain a consistent “house” style.

🪛 The first corkscrew was invented in the mid-1800s.

💰 The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold was a 1945 Domaine Romanee-Conti Burgundy sold at Sotheby’s auction in 2018. The collector paid $558,000 for the 750ml bottle.

PREVIOUS EPISODES

S01EP02 - ROCCO

It was 21st of August and 38 degrees ^{100 F} outside, somewhere around noon when Gigi finally decided he wasn’t going to cook today. All the team respectfully agreed as the eldest of the bunch said it so authoritatively. “We’re going on a trip”, he said. How on earth could this be possible you might ask? Well, you see, people here tend to be decisive about their life, they do what they want, how they want, when they want - and there is nothing you could do to change their decisions. As I explain the story further, you will notice this pattern emerge at the place we are about to visit. Read on.

“Grab a bottle of wine for the gentleman”, Gigi yells while packing up some tomatoes he has harvested earlier in the morning. “And don’t forget to bring your swimsuit”, he mumbles to himself. After a quick pack-up, we were ready to embark on this journey.

Squeezed like sardines, in the back of Gigi’s old car without an a/c, we were driving for an hour to reach this beautiful cove in the middle of nothing. Exiting the car you could hear the sea washing these amazingly round white pebbles. “Rocco! Rooooooccoooo!”, Gigi yells from the empty terrace. “Where are you my friend!?”, he continues. As we stood there, time passed and nobody was showing up, so we gazed into the amazing surroundings as this small cottage was the only thing found in the middle of the cove.

“Who is this?”, asked the old bearded gentleman walking out of his room directly onto the terrace. “It’s you, Gigi, oooh my dear friend”, says Rocco. They hugged for 2 minutes straight as Rocco went to explain that he fell asleep while waiting for the guests to arrive. Remember the pattern I was mentioning?

For you to get a better picture, Rocco was an old poet, sailor, and city guy who decided to leave it all and move back to his birth cove. One day he had enough and left everything to come here. And yes, he came alone. How did he survive, in the middle of nothing all by himself? Serving the most amazing seafood for some of the richest people on earth. The amazing thing about Rocco, he didn’t give a fuck about any of this, their money, who they are, all he wanted to do is live, and somehow these people found him and wanted to eat what he had for lunch.

Another amazing thing about him was that he didn’t care about your wishes, timing, coming late, special requests, and any other thing other than the food itself. You come late? No food for you. Do you want to do a business call in the middle of lunch? Oh, you have no idea.

If you were being ignorant, he would leave in the middle of lunch to go sleep or fish, and go for hours on end while you would stand there waiting like an idiot. He didn’t care about money, therefore there was nothing for you to blackmail him with.

As hours went by, and the team was sunbathing on the beach, Gigi, Rocco and I were having lunch - probably the best grouper in my life, he slowly simmered from earlier in the morning. Rocco, completely unaware of his poetic mind, went on telling his story while the 60m luxury yacht sailed into the cove. As we were sitting there, the captain of the boat slowly walked towards us.

“Hello, here we are”, the captain says. “Don’t you see I’m with my friends?”, Rocco answers while annoyed. “I know we are late but my boss will pay, name your price”, the captain continues. Rocco completely ignoring the man continues to tell the story. The interesting thing was you could see this wasn’t intentional, it was the way he is, he didn’t ignore the man, he simply accepted it had nothing to do with him.

Completely unbothered, he stood up to go to his small 3-meter-wide stone cellar to bring some white wine, while the team gathered again. He came back, but empty-handed, and started reciting out the poem he was struck by as he went to get the wine.

TO BE CONTINUED