Dua Lipa Thinking ‘Bout Argentinian Wine

Do you even have a wine industry until you’ve had a celebrity endorsement?

That’s the big question this week as we trawl through the new wires to find the stories you might have missed. And there has been plenty happening, with the Argentinian wine industry getting a nice little shout-out from a music star. Read on…

Dua Lipa praises Argentinian wine 

International pop star Dua Lipa, currently on the South American leg of her Future Nostalgia tour, seems to have fallen for Argentinian pizza and wine on her stop in the capital Buenos Aires this week. Posting a series of shots on Instagram which included a number of her eating pizza and drinking red wine from a Riedel glass, the UK singer wrote “good food, good wine, good memories, thank you Buenos Aires”.

The star also slipped in a shot of a well-stocked Buenos Aires wine cabinet including a number of Philippe Caraguel sparklers, a Bodega Rocamadre Viñas Viejas, a Bodegas Chacra Barda Pinot Noir, some Pét-Nats (including an Alpamanta Breva Criolla and a Krontiras Afron Aglianico) and a number of Cara Sur wines including a Criolla.

No indication on the wine chosen and enjoyed by the 27 year-old singer but given the range on display in the picture and her comment, we can assume it was an Argentinian wine.

Dua Lipa’s tour continued onto Santiago, Chile, yesterday, with no indication as to whether she got to taste that country’s vinous output, only an Instagram story featuring (predictably, perhaps) a shot of five tumblers of Pisco with the accompanying title “Pisco”.

She performs this evening in Bogota, Colombia.

France passes Spain for wine production

Harvest continues apace in Europe with news outlets in France rejoicing at the news (from the European Union’s Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations, or Copa-Cogeca) that the country looks set to return to its position as the world’s second-largest wine producer in 2022, behind Italy but overtaking Spain.

This follows what looks set to be a bumper 2022 after France’s small, frost-affected 2021 harvest. According to French wine publication La Revue du Vin de France, wine production this year will be up by 16 percent on 2021, with 44 million hectoliters (4,400,000,000 or 4.4 billion liters). In contrast to last year, Spain is set to suffer more than France in 2022 due to the former’s drought conditions impacting yield more severely than its northeastern neighbor.

Italy, France and Spain will produce over 130 million hectoliters of wine (13 billion liters) in 2022. This is up one percent on 2021.

High-end bottles confiscated on Argentinian border

More wine news from Argentina this week where almost 2000 high-end bottles were confiscated at the Brazilian border with a value of 11 million Argentinian Pesos (US$78,000) after border agents found irregularities in documentation and distribution records.

The siezure, by representatives of the Federal Administration of Public Revenue (AFIP), was part of a wider check on businesses, logistics and distribution companies in and around the border town of Bernardo de Irigoyen, in northern Argentina. In all, 40 businesses were subject to spot-checks in a cross-border operation that included Brazilian Federal Revenue officials, members of Argentina’s National Institute of Viticulture (INV) and the Argentinian Federal Police.

Further goods worth 28 million pesos (US$200,000) were seized and six customs and tax violations were issued. According to reports, a survey of business workforce was also carried out on 28 workers, of which one third were not registered by their employers.

As for the impounded wine: no news on the brands in question although most news outlets showed boxes of Tocornal (a Chilean brand by sizeable producer Cono Sur, although not exactly a high-end label in itself).

Bernardo de Irigoyen and its immediate Brazilian neighbors Dionísio Cerqueira and Barracão frequently grace the headlines in this manner. Last year, lawyer Juan María López was shot and killed in Bernardo de Irigoyen in what was believed to be an attack related to wine trafficking across the border.

We also reported on the brazen heist of 800,000 Pesos (US$5600) of wine from a truck in the area last year – see Thieves bag $800,000 of wine in truck heist in northern Argentina (news item #5).

Rioja debuts harvest docu-series

Kicking off havest two weeks earlier than usual, the Spanish wine region of Rioja is also debuting a free-to-view harvest docu-series. Dubbed “The Heart of the Harvest”, the five-episode series offers “a live, behind-the-scenes tour of the craft, culture, tradition, and landscape of Spain’s finest wine region”.

“There’s no place like Rioja during Harvest,” says the website. “That is exactly why we are creating an immersive experience that allows wine lovers everywhere to discover Rioja at harvest time.”

Found online, the series, which debuted 31 August, is currently on episode three (The Winemaker), having so far covered The Grower and The Picker. Still to come: The Consejo (unlikely to feature the minutiae of must weight verification, office work or sterility of wine approval tastings, but it will be interesting to see what angle they take) and The Celebration (which shouldn’t cause the production team any metaphorical headaches).

Rare spirits hit US market

Brentwood Auction house in Vancouver, Washington (just north of Portland, Oregon, for our non-US readers) is running a major sale of top-flight whiskeys – many previously not seen on North American shores – this month. The bottles are the personal collection of The Whiskey Wash owner and founder Nino Kilgore-Marchetti.

The auction covers more than 1200 bottles of “world-class spirits represents many years of careful collecting of the very best whiskeys and other spirits from throughout the world” according to a press release from the auction house. The collection is part of the Whiskey Writer’s Auction Series which is being run in partnership with Benchmark Wine & Spirits of Washington, DC.  

 Highlights of the auction (Chapter Three of the sale began on Thursday and can be found on the Brentwood website) include:

• The Dalmore Astrum 40 Years Old and 45 Year Old Aurora
• Glenfarclas 50 Year Old
• Glenglassaugh 51 Years Old 1963
• Selected vintages of Highland Park Orcadian (1964, 1968, 1970, 1971)
• Bunnahabhain 46 Year Islay Eich Bhana Lir
• Glengoyne 40 Year Highland
• Selected special bottlings of The Macallan 18 and 25 year old
• Selected bottlings of Teeling Vintage Reserve Irish Whiskey
• Selected rare releases of Wild Turkey Bourbon
• John Walker & Sons Odyssey Rare Triple Malt

Normandy vineyard celebrates first harvest

Another addition to our informal series on lesser-known French vineyards comes to you this week from the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy where grapegrower François Lecourt harvested his first grapes in Barneville-Carteret on the Channel coast, across the sea northeast of Jersey.

Lecourt’s one year-old vines (he had wanted to wait until 2023 for his first harvest but was unable to resist) cover 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) and are planted to so-called “Piwi” hybrids (fungus-resistant crossings of American and European vines), Chardonnay and some Pinot Noir. A hedge, to protect from wind damage, surrounds the site.

“This project took a lot of time and funding,” Lecourt told regional newspaper La Presse de la Manche. “Although I was able to acquire seven hectares of land for future growth, as well as 80 percent of the equipment necessary for winemaking, I still lack a cellar and viticultural facilities. Without these and the approval of customs, I cannot yet produce alcohol.”

Lecourt currently has 6000 vines planted in his Muûs (which means “better” in the local dialect) vineyard, with a projected 14,000 to be added. The location of the projected cellar has been identified and he hopes to produce his first commercial wines by 2023.