Tag: wine theft

Vol 2 No. 20…wine tidbits

Here are just a few things TB has observed since the last missive:

BPA’s – no longer a health hazard in wine due to the amount you would have to consume to have a negative health effect, this from the FDA. BUT TB advises those of you who drink from box wine encased in plastic to observe expiration dates, they are there for a reason, and if you see a lot of boxes with them, find another wine merchant as it shows their lack of inventory control and attention to wine products.

Corks – a lab has been able to isolate different phenol’s in corks. IF they can nail this down and why not? They did it with gene’s afterall. It would then be possible for a winemaker to isolate and use corks that would enhance the taste of their wine but also to make that taste more consistent in both the same and subsequent vintages.

Wine Theft – Having lived for nearly 30 years in the S.F. Bay Area, I have visited many of the wine shops around San Francisco, and weeded out the ones that did not meet my expectations. The main one I eliminated was Premier Cru in Oakland, but on the basis of snobbery prior to their arrest on multiple criminal charges that has not been adjudicated yet, but a lot of customer money was lost and will not likely be recovered – they better watch their backs though because one group they preyed on was Chinese wine buyers of Bordeaux futures and California wines for export to China…one never knows.

One I respected was Beltramo’s in Palo Alto, which sadly is going out of business after more than 50 years. Just before the last day theives broke in and stole $55,000 worth of wine in a case similar to last year’s French Laundry winery (not the same perps as they were caught and the wine recovered although the condition will only be known by tasting it). Foe their closing sale the owners had brought their library wines out and put them on display making the theft a ‘piece of cake’. Let’s hope they catch them and throw the proverbial book at them!

WTSO – in No. 19 I talked about www.winetillsoldout.com. I have now made two purchase from them. I wrote to customer service on both issues. The first was on the retail price shown first. I asked this because I was seeing prices well below that. It was explained that they use the one provided by the winery at time of release, but also list the ‘best’ online price, so you can compare. This satisfied me fully! The second was on a delivery problem that I won’t mention because they handled it ethically and I don’t want anyone to get the idea and try to get wine for free. I will only say it was a slipup that they stood up for and offered me a full refund or more of the same order. That was very responsible and I don’t know many online companies that would do the same. The point is: if you have a complaint write to them immediately. I was amazed at how fast they responded allowing us to resolve the problem to my, the customer’s satisfaction.

Meiomi Pinot Noir – originally, it was an extremely good value and available at Costco and other retailers who stocked it after tasting it and noting the quality. I wasn’t aware of this but it was owned by the Wagner family who makes Caymus, Conundrum, and other brands. This is from the Wine Spectator and is shocking but not surprising to me:

“Aiming to become an even bigger player in the California wine business, Joe Wagner has agreed to sell his Meiomi brand to Constellation Brands for $315 million. The 33-year-old Wagner told Shanken News Daily that he’s selling Meiomi—one of the U.S. wine market’s hottest brands—because the deal will give him the liquidity necessary to become a much larger landowner. Wagner says he hopes to amass 2,000-3,000 acres of California vineyards over the next five years.

“Constellation is paying a hefty price for Meiomi. Wagner told SND, a sister publication of Wine Spectator, that the deal price was roughly a 24 times multiple against the brand’s present and future earnings.

In striking the deal, Constellation adds a brand whose recent performance has been nothing short of astonishing. Wagner developed Meiomi in 2006 while he was a winemaker at Caymus, which is headed by his father, Chuck, and the wine was released in 2009. In 2010, the brand sold 90,000 cases. Last year, the California wine brand won Impact “Hot Brand” honors after advancing by 41 percent to 550,000 cases and was named Wine Brand Of The Year by Impact sister publication Market Watch magazine. Wagner told SND that Meiomi, which retails for around $25 a 750-ml., is on pace to sell more than 700,000 cases in 2015.

In other words, it went from a limited production wine to a mega under Constellation which nobody even heard of (unless you were a wino who drank Wild Irish Rose), and only gained ‘credibility’ by buying the Mondavi brand then going on a shopping spree which has made them one of the top three wine companies in the world. Wagner noted that “no vineyards were included in the sale.” It’s cheaper now…and now YOU, the consumer know why. What next? Boost production to 1 million cases to compete with Fred Franzia’s ‘Two Buck Chuck’? For those not aware his company is Bronco Wines, which owns 40,000 acres of vineyards in California, and bottles as Charles Shaw (an interesting story in itself), and is sold almost (?) exclusively through Trader Joe’s. For the record, Franzia is a convicted felon for using inferior grapes and bottling them as varietals. He didn’t go to jail but instead paid a several million dollar fine (the prosecutor said not sending him to prison like the others involved was the biggest mistake of his career…why didn’t he? Franzia convinced him that the town where it is located, Ceres, Ca., would suffer economic disaster without him). Oh, and about those 40k acres: the longest rows of any winery. Why? So the ‘tractor’, not hand pickers, doesn’t have to waste time turning around, but note you get unripe grapes, stems, and an occasional poor rodent in the mix, but hey at $2.99 or so, who cares? Not the people, mostly seniors, that drink it. There have been efforts made to elect him to the California Winemakers Hall of Fame, which will lose all credibility if it does and shame those who deserve it. Franzia is not a winemaker, but he isa a marketing genius whose only  claim to fame is getting rich…but isn’t that what Constellation Brands as done off Mondavi’s reputation? Wonder what’s in the Woodbridge these days?

Last week I attended a telecast with the Wagner Family at Total Wines, discussing their brands followed by a tasting of their full line, sans Meiomi obviously and all were great.

Sorry for the rant, but TB is about people with passion who make REAL contributions to the wine industry and are not in it merely to enrich themselves or use their fortunes to bid up Napa Valley land (and other places..including Bordeaux), to make small lots of wine with a flying winemaker, get a 90 point rating and sell it at absurd prices due to the small volume. That is wine snobbery at its worst. Not saying these wines aren’t good, just ridiculously priced!

If you are still with TB…thanks for reading…I know I feel better now!

TB

Vol. 1 No.25…oh where have you been???

A huge mea culpa…even a mea maxima culpa from Trader Bill on this beautiful (snowing in Minneapolis) Thanksgiving Day. May a pox be on the stores like WalMart that feel the need to be open on this day that should reserved for family and friends.

This could be a huge season for internet sales as not only are many stores posting their sale items today – some with free shipping – Amazon has hired 100,000 (not a typo) part-time employees for the weekend (at least). That number alone is a large company, right?

Now to the reasons TB hasn’t updated the blog in a month: how could he have writers cramp…er…block…after that 4,200 mile journey to visit wineries in New York, Vermont, and Ontario Canada (sorting through the ones on the way, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania will take some time and possibly another trip as only wineries that make vines from vitis vinifera vines are what we are about (i.e. no fruit wines, but will consider some who use cold weather grapes like the Marquette).

So besides having work and personal things to tend to, I read two incredible books, the first on the wine warehouse fire at Mare Island, where I was stationed. That book turned out to be much more: a history of winemaking in California from a very interesting perspective of the author! More than that it reveals the dark, sordid side of the wine industry. Highly recommended: Tangled Vines by Francis Dinkelspiel (available on Amazon Prime in hardbound OR as I would recommend, a Kindle edition).

The second book was given to me by Meagan Frank at her family’s winery in the Finger Lakes region of New York; Finger Lakes Wine and the Legacy of Dr. Konstantin Frank, by Tom Russ. I couldn’t put it down as it is rare that one reads a book on a family history that is objectively written, i.e. warts and all. Dr. Konstantin Frank was the East Coast version of the great Andre Tchelistchieff, and might have been as well or better known were it not for two things.

First, the obvious: he was in New York state where he immigrated to from Germany/Russia (the Ukraine), also like Tchelistchieff. They became good friends and collaborated from time to time. Both had even more impact on the business by training promising young people who later became winemakers on their own thanks to the recommendations provided to these students who excelled in the view of these experts.

TB had the privilege of meeting Tchelistchieff in San Francisco back in 1981 at a Bordeaux wine tasting he and Anthony Dias Blue held – illustrating how primitive the California wine industry was even at that time. Fifteen years after Robert Mondavi, followed by Alice Waters and Julia Child, piqued the interest in California wines, only 30 people were present! For Andre the list of protege’s is long because of the rapid growth of the California wine industry, while the most memorable name associated with Dr. Frank is Kevin Zraly who went on to start the Windows on the World Wine Course and School, and at a very young age of 25 and became wine director of the famous Windows on the World restaurant that sadly disappeared with the twin towers in 2001.

The second is that Dr. Frank was a genius…however he was opposed to American wine grapes (correctly as they are not wine grapes unless you consider Welch’s wine, yet even today most of the grapes in New York are of the Concord variety…it takes a lot of grapes to meet the needs of Welch’s.  Furthermore, he was violently opposed to French hybrids, and crusaded against them as they could cause disease. This theory was refuted by science but even then he continued to preach against them openly,  thus alienating some recognized East Coast winemakers. Part of this flaw was the need to be in total control at all times, making him a great teacher but not allowing those who stayed on, including one of his sons and later the other. Finally, he was forced to let go of control of the winery and today it remains in the family with grandson Fred Frank as president, and now his daughter Meaghan learning the business (she gave me a private tasting and I found her both charming and knowledgeable).

Here is a link to the complete book, but you should consider buying it:    Dr. Konstantin Frank

Ok, TB so that is what you were doing, but that is no excuse. Besides personal issues noted above, reading the Finger Lakes book threw me for a loop. I had intended to begin with Long Island wineries (don’t turn up your nose!), both North and South Fork, then proceed to the Hudson River, then the Finger Lakes which have many different microclimes and soil conditions. From there to Ontario and the great ice wine producers, and again making some surprisingly good wines. Due to the book, I feel I have to begin with Dr. Frank’s winery and the Finger lakes, then Long Island, and finally the Canadian wines. So watch for blog updates and if you are still with TB, click on follow so you will know when there is an update (nothing is worse than going to a blog or website that has not been updated, right? Right! Unless what the blogger says is a waste of your time. TB will do his best to keep them interesting…and shorter than this one!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, friends and readers!

Trader Bill

©Copyright 2015 TBOW, all rights reserved.

Vol. 1 No. 3 …French Laundry update; Wine ‘Investment’ Clubs

According to the Napa Valley Register and other sources, most of the wine stolen from the French Laundry on Christmas Day was recovered in…of all places…Greensboro, North Carolina? Don’t have the details on how, or why it was there, OR how they located it. Those of you who have had property stolen know the frustration of having the property held pending trial – which in this case may or may not occur since they have no suspects in custody, or even identified. So where is the wine now? In the ‘safest’ place the authorities could find: the French Laundry’s OWN wine cellar. Wait…wasn’t that where it was stolen from? Worse, they cannot sell it until the investigation is complete. (Why does the evidence have to be held when there are so many ways of authenticating evidence today…and it is not ‘unknown’ for evidence to disappear even while in police custody (aren’t you shocked?)

Unanswered:

First and foremost: was the wine damaged? How was it cared for after the theft and AFTER the police recovered it? Would you buy the wine if you were dining there? Not TB, no way! Keller most likely would have done better had he been able to collect the insurance and buy more wine like it!

Next item on the agenda: According to the January 23, 2015 issue of Financial Advisor magazine, “more than half a dozen firms peddling wine investments, in the U.K. alone went belly up last year. “Why have there been so many flops?” There are lots of reasons…the article cites one fund, The Wine Trust, in the U.S., where investors put their money for eight years, but here’s the rub (at least to TB): they have $15-20 million in assets. When something goes wrong what can they do? Sell? To whom?

Another fund, Belgium-based, had wine assets worth 102 million Euros ($115 million in today’s market – $125 million according to the article which illustrates yet another risk: currency – at the end of 2012, then someone questioned their valuation methods! Like a fire in a theater, investors headed for that small ‘doorway’, and the fund could not meet ‘net redemptions’ (a not uncommon problem of any mutual fund – stocks, bonds, options, etc.

Besides ‘questionable’ appraisal methods (remember they use last price at auction…and there could be just one fool…or there could be trading among several holders…it happens in small stocks…and especially penny stocks, so why not wine? This is not to imply that the fund managers are dishonest (talking about wine), but they wouldn’t know why the price was being bid up if the ‘group’ consisted of several high-profile members.

Why would they do that? Why would a known billionaire and expert on wine have created counterfeit bottles and attested to their authenticity? Why did Cruse, a famous French wine negociant (not to be confused with a California firm with the same name), would risk, and eventually destroy the firm’s long-established  reputation by bottling cheaper wine as Pouilly-Fuisse? They were eventually charged, convicted and heavily fined. There have been several scandals, the worst being when methanol was put in Italian wine, killing six and injuring at least 30. The point is that wine prices are especially susceptible to scandal. To TB it is like people who don’t trust the U.S. Dollar, so they are investing in Bitcoins!

Back to investment clubs and the FA article. They discuss a 2009 bottle of Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte which rose by 143 percent between June 2010 and December of the same year! Meanwhile, French first-growth wines rose by 345 percent between 2005 and 2011 before falling 41 percent through November 2014. Let TB clarify this for you: that 41% decline is off the 345% which would reduce the gain to 203% – which means you had better have gotten in very early! Conversely, to get back to the high would require a 70% increase (something even stock investors fail to understand!).

But the real catalyst for price escalation was the Chinese, who shifted their attention from first growth Bordeaux to premier cru Burgundy, causing a reversal of fortune. Worse yet, the Chinese government cracked down on bribes of public officials (TB is SHOCKED), thus slashing demand. Recall TB’s comments in the first blog, citing Red Obsession, which stated that all of the great wine would be bought by the Chinese? TB’s response was: the same was said in 1988 – the year before the Japanese economy imploded and hasn’t recovered since then. Even diamonds aren’t forever, right Mr. Bond?

So TB will close with the same advice that he began this blog with: drink what you like, and buy what you like…not what some industry-anointed expert says you should…you will be happier and you will have more money in your pocket.

Until next time: don’t ‘stay thirsty my friends’ – drink up! This ain’t no library! (said by the bartender at an enlisted men’s club when TB was in the Navy).

TB

©Copyright 2015 TBOW, all rights reserved.

 

 

Vol. 1, No. 1…a new beginning…

“Wine is the answer. What was the Question?” – Anon

Trader Bill is a news junkie…before it was all about financial and political matters…this blog, however, will be entirely wine and travel related to wine.

The blog will be published every other Monday (hopefully).

Here is a nice kickoff story… well, interesting anyway:

On Christmas Day, some creep(s) crept into the cellar at the three-star Michelin, French Laundry, owned by the famous Thomas Keller (also Per Se in NYC). The restaurant was closed for remodeling and these guys knew what they were looking for: la creme de la creme. They only took the highest valued wines: Screaming Eagle, Domaine Romanee Conti (DRC), and other prized wines. The Napa County Sheriff’s Office put a value of $15,000 on it…low ball! Keller estimated it at $300,000. One bottle was reportedly worth $16,000 (let’s make this clear: to TB, no wine is worth that price…TB’s just sayin’). TB counts 77 bottles (that’s an average of $3,900 from the list provided on his blog by Keller…wonder why they didn’t fill up the last case? (Correcting as originally I thought there were 57 bottles but then found more on the list and forgot to remove the comment on 3 more bottles, mea culpa). Think this is rare? Try googling ‘wine theft’ and you will be amazed at the number…but should you be? It’s big and easy money!

Most, if not all, of these bottles have serial numbers so Keller and wine experts say they will be hard to sell. Hard to sell? Pullease…how many art thefts have we read of that are never seen again? Imagine owning some Picasso and not being able to show it to any for fear it would be reported to the authorities. Now with a bottle of wine from some well-heeled collector…or perhaps a wealthy Chinese…there are a lot of them out there and they are craving these names as they have been ‘speculated’ out of view.

According to the wine documentary, Red Obsession, Bordeaux futures of the top crus are purchased in the futures market (see TB can’t get away from his other blog), and when delivered stored in warehouses where they may be ‘flipped’ several times and it is not uncommon for the ‘owners’ (brief as that may be) to never even see them, let alone drink them!

Let’s say the wine is released in the futures market by the estate at $500. The buyer can then sell that for say $700, then to another for $900…in what could be a daisy chain, which succeeds in elevating the price worldwide. What a scam!…and you wondered why TB said that ‘no wine is worth that’. TB can’t even imagine what Trader Vic Bergeron would have said, after he picked himself up off the floor!

So to TB, those serial numbers aren’t worth the ‘label’ they are printed on. Besides, if they do recover them, who could attest to how they were stored? As for poor Keller, he posted the story first – on his Facebook page. Sadly, some of the responses mocked him which is really a cheap shot at one of the finest restaurants in the world…TB can attest to that having lunched there…although we did go to Burger King afterwards to sate our appetites due to the size of the portions. (For the record, TB favors Bistro Jeanty, just down the street in Yountville from the ‘Laundry’ and Keller’s bistro Bouchon…Philippe, no need to thank me for the plug…you have the bistro that people search for when they travel in France…but can never find!)

This brings us to another issue: celebrity wine auctions. While they serve worthy causes, they are merely places for the wealthy to ‘see and be seen’, and as for the bottles, TB has seen some with more than one sticker on it from the Napa Valley Wine Auction. By the way, at the auction, it is not uncommon for one winery owner to bid up another’s and then for that owner to return the favor…hey, it’s good advertising…not cheap, but good, just like the wine.

TB started buying Bordeaux in 1973 in Los Angeles. He had been buying California wines (note one of his 1969 Mondavi cabs, still had a price tag on it of $4.95!). The impetus was seeing Bordeaux priced at $20-30. This down from significantly higher prices just a year earlier. Why? Because there were a couple of scandals…one where some Italian winemakers were putting in ‘additives’, some of which turned out to be poisonous and resulted in a few deaths. As for French wines, a highly-respected wine negociant, Cruse, created a frenzy with the hot, Pouilly Fuisse, by selling bottles with ‘vin ordinaire’ inside and thus causing them to sell for as much as five times more than they really were worth. What is remarkable about this is Cruse was a well-respected broker. Furthermore, the family was in the process of trying to sell the brand, so they ended up ‘killing the goose that laid the golden egg’ – and they didn’t even get the foie gras!

Moving right along, counterfeiting of labels has occurred…hey if they are willing to do twenties, why wouldn’t they do it with wine that can cost several times more? One of the counterfeiters was a very respected wine collector who used his reputation to peddle the wine at auction to unsuspecting buyers. He even counterfeited some of the famous Jefferson wines…guess he figured that even if they tasted it they wouldn’t know if it was the real thing since the taste would have changed so much, right? For this reason, the restaurants…some at least…have taken to breaking the bottles so they cannot be reused, but how would you know if your prized bottle wasn’t ‘refilled’ and sold at auction?

Well, since I am approaching 1,000 words, it is about time to go but TB wishes to make one point: he abhors wine snobbery. Wine is food, wine is agriculture, and made to be enjoyed with food…of course it is also great on the side…especially with good friends. This point was made to TB decades ago by legendary Napa Valley vintner, Joe Heitz, at a delightful brunch on the deck his home and winery with some of his family…but that’s another story…after all, there are a ‘million stories in the Naked City and this is just one of them.’

a sante!

Trader Bill

©Copyright 2015 TBOW, all rights reserved.