Race Cars to Run on Côte Rôtie

With more fire dangers, more climate drama and more unease over the impacts of Covid, it’s been a pretty choppy week for news.

Still, there have been some bright spots amid the gloom, too, with an eye-opening move to make biofuel from wine. The has also been an audacious plan to pull off the first ever interplanetary wine delivery, which might put US concumers’ interstate shipping woes into perspective. Read on…

Glou-glou vroom-vroom

Timed to coincide with last weekend’s Le Mans 24-hour car race, French energy giant Total announced next year’s event would be run on biofuel made from the byproducts of winemaking. In a press release, TotalEnergies said the biofuel would be used across next year’s endurance racing championship season, which counts the famous Le Mans race as the highlight of the racing calendar.

“This 100 percent renewable fuel […].will be produced on bioethanol basis,” said the company. The fuel is “made from wine residues from the French agricultural industry, and from ETBE produced at TotalEnergies’ Feyzin refinery near Lyon (France) from feedstock also sourced from by the circular economy. This fuel should allow an immediate reduction of at least 65 percent of the racing cars’ CO2  emissions.”

The “wine residues” include grape marc and lees from wine production which are recovered, industrially distilled and dehydrated before being combined with ETBE (Ethyl Tertio Butyl Ether), an emissions-reducing compound and ethanol byproduct.

“Endurance racing, by its nature, has always served as an excellent research and development platform and it is an important milestone to have the FIA World Endurance Championship switching to 100 percent sustainable fuel,” said head of the motor racing governing body, the FIA, Jean Todt.

According to French wine news website, vitisphere.com, the base marc comes from local wineries. If true, the best source of fuel lies just south of Lyon (and the Feyzin refinery plant) in the nothern Rhône, although Lyon is not far from both the Savoie and Beaujolais regions.

Ardèche winemaker in bid to send wine to Mars

Here’s one for the “ambitious” category: in southern France, Ardèche-based winemaker Raphaël Pommier of Domaine de Cousignac is looking to outdo Pétrus (which, in 2019, sent a case of its grand vin to the International Space Station to age) and get his bottles onto the surfacce of our neighboring planet, Mars.

“Putting wine on Mars seems a bit of a challenge, but it’s very well thought-out,” Pommier assured provincial French news outlet Le Dauphiné Libéré. “It’s first of all to test the effects of atmospheric pressure on the way wine ages because […] there’s a difference in atmospheric pressure of several hundred hectopascals, so that allows the wine to age well.

“Getting on Mars is also, in the modern universe, madness,” he added. “The madness of studying the influence of this atmospheric pressure on the wine. So we’re in the middle of a project to work out how to study the way the wine will behave under the atmospheric pressure, knowing that the pressure on Mars is six hectopascals [0.09 pounds per square inch/psi]. So we’ve got a way to go before we get there, but that’s our project.”

Not much was forthcoming on just how an organic winemaker from a lesser-known French region was going to get distribution to the Martian market. According to reports, Pommier’s first step was to put some bottles in the local Mars observatory.

Nor was there an indication of more nuts-and-bolts matters such as how a cork would be kept on the bottle at such low pressure (possibly the basis for the next Coravin offshoot?). One thing is for sure: it’s no more daft than sending a case of one of the world’s priciest wines into orbit (also, ostensibly, with scientific pretensions). Good luck to him.

Distell witholds dividend ahead of Heineken takeover

Speculation that beer giant Heineken is eyeing a takeover of major South African drinks player Distell was given more fuel this week with the announcement that Distell was withholding is annual dividend until an announcement on the subject was made. Rumours of a takeover have been in the air since May this year.

In a statement released this week, Distell said discussions were still under way and agreement had yet to be reached.

“The Potential Transaction, should it proceed, will be subject to several conditions, one of which relates to Distell not making any distributions, including a dividend declaration, to its shareholders in respect of the financial year ended 30 June 2021. In light of this, the board has taken a decision not to declare a dividend,” it said.

“Shareholders should take note there is no certainty that all the remaining aspects will be successfully resolved and agreed,” it added. As well as a broad portfolio of drinks brands, including cream liqueur Amarula, a whisky portfolio and numerous wine companies such as Nederburg, Drostdy-Hof, Durbanville Hills, Jacobsdal and Fleur du Cap, the Stellenbosch-based company also has major distribution deals across southern Africa.

A decision on the takeover is expected by the end of September.

Supermarket targets home winemakers

Budding garagiste winemakers in the Iberian peninsula this summer, look no further. Spanish division of French supermarket chain Carrefour made the news this week when it emerged the retailer was offering shoppers the possibility to get hold of their own basket press. With a 30-liter capacity and attractively-priced at €152.99 (US$180.46), the “fruit press” sits on a steel base with an oak basket and milled/cast-iron rachet system.

“It is one of the most powerful on the market,” according to Spanish news outlet Economía Digital. “It is a very simple device to use. It can be operated by one person comfortably.”

Although, in the experience of this writer, the word “comfortably” is doing a lot of heavy lifting, no home winemaker should be without a press. We can only applaud Carrefour for taking the lead in such a niche segment of society.

French actor launches rosé

I know what you’re thinking. Yes; another week; another celebrity wine. This week, popular Franco-Spanish actor José Garcia launched his rosé in Paris with the saving grace of having, at the very least, a humorous name, and a somewhat self-deprecatory approach to market.

Labeled “Rosé Garcia” (accompanied with the line “rosé for friends at mates’ rates”), the pink drop goes on sale in the capital at an attractive €7.50 (US$8.90). The wine was produced by Garcia in conjuction with Parisian restaurateur, Luc Sananes, who co-founded the eatery chain Les Niçois (through which the wine is being sold – and is currently out of stock).

“As it’s something that takes after me, we’re not going to do a thing that’s got these price tags… and where they’re found in these special stores,” said Garcia. “It can end up in select locations, but at the same time it’s got to be something for mates. That’s what we’ve done.”

José Garcia rosé is produced under the pan-regional Vin de France title and made from Syrah, Grenache and Caladoc.

Garcia, 55, is best known in France for his break-out role in hit 90s comedy “La Vérité Si Je Mens!” (Would I Lie to You?). English-speaking viewers may, perhaps, have seen him more recently in a minor role in the 2016 film Bastille Day (released as The Take in the USA).

Local industry helps fire-ravaged Provence wineries

A group of local wine industry professionals from all sectors of the wine business have chipped in to help winemakers affected by the wildfires that ravaged the southern French wine region of Provence last week. Coordinated by local wine trade group, Cluster Provence Rosé, and with the help of the regional chamber of commerce and the local winemakers’ union, numerous businesses have volunteered their services.

“Numerous people came forward voluntarily to help the winegrowers affected by the fires which devastated the Massif des Maures [a hilly region to the west of St-Tropez],” the head of Cluster Provence Rosé, Philippe Brel, told vitisphere.com. He cited several examples: “Vinisud Services has offered pipes, Racine a hay tractor for winegrowers who also rear livestock, Brunet Ertia can lend mobile cooling units or send workers to carry out repairs.”

While vitisphere.com noted that the fires had damaged only a “limited number” of wineries and vineyards, some have been completely destroyed by the fires.

“I no longer have a harvesting machine, a backhoe loader, a vineyard loader, a mower. Everything was completely burned,” viticulturist Paul Giraud told AFP after the fire ravaged his domain last week. “The harvest starts in early September, how am I going to do it? I have nothing left. I’m disoriented, devastated – completely devastated.”

“We hope we’re going to be able to help everyone,” Brel told Vitipshere this week.

Provence is not alone in battling wildfires this year. Both Greece and California have been hit by fires, with some wine regions under threat either physically, or from the threat of smoke taint. Israel, Morocco and Algeria have also been hit by wildfires.

2021 Napa Valley harvest under way

High quality but low yields are expected from Napa Valley‘s 2021 harvest, according to the Napa Valley Register, which released a fantastic rundown this week of the region’s AVAs as the grape picking begins. With some vineyards harvesting fruit as early as August 3, so far the region has only got stuck into the white varieties – and mostly Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon at that – with some also harvesting reds for rosé.

“Correspondents from across the valley report high quality but low yields as vines respond to an extended drought,” said the report.

Although the threat of wildfires still hovers over the region – and many areas in California – there are so far no reports of damage or smoke taint to the vineyards and fruit. Napa and Sonoma Counties reportedly remain out of fire danger at this time.