New York Giants Party with Giant Bottle, Giant Celebs(2)
Sausalito wine columnist and high-living embezzler Anderson gained notoriety for infiltrating and incinerating a wine storage facility in 2005, destroying 4.5 million bottles, much of it irreplaceable library vintages from small producers. Many vintners lost their livelihoods after the conflagration, and Anderson's sentence reflects the harshness of his act: 27 years in prison, which likely means life for the 63-year-old. (Already in poor health, he took the sentencing literally lying down, on a court bench.) In California wine country, no wine criminal escapes the long corkscrew of the law.
Photograph of monkey by iStockphoto
• From wine crime on to some literal wine and monkey business, Unfiltered can't resist wine-and-primate pairings. Whether they're lending their likenesses to critter labels or stealing tons of grapes from South African vineyards, we just can't get enough. We're especially into the monkeys of the Eastern Bloc, who appear to be unusually wine savvy. We first noticed it in Russia, then Budapest, and now we get word from Kazakhstan that the monkeys are drinking wine. According to a report by BBC News, zookeepers at Karaganda Zoo, in central Kazakhstan, have been feeding the monkeys a mixture of red wine, hot water, sugar and fruit, in order to ward off respiratory infections during the current cold winter months, during which temperatures have fallen to as low as –40° F. The prophylactic use of wine against illness is an old Russian [human] remedy, so it's no surprise that primates, so closely related to man, would get a dose of the same medicine. And, for the record, chief animal specialist Svetlana Pilyuk notes that pregnant and infant monkeys are not invited to partake of the grog.
Sniffly LOLMonkeys across the Eastern Bloc ask, "I can haz Cabernet?"
Photograph of Shen Dongjun by Suzanne Mustacich
Shen Dongjun achieves another first for the Chinese in Bordeaux.
• Unfiltered was on hand for another first for China in Bordeaux last week. Shen Dongjun, owner of cru bourgeois Château Laulan Ducos, became the first Chinese château owner to take an oath of everlasting devotion to the wines of the Left Bank when he was sworn into the Commanderie du Bontemps of the Médoc, Graves, Sauternes and Barsac. The Commanderie is best-known for two exclusive events, the Fête de la Fleur during Vinexpo and the Ban du Millesime during the futures tastings, and two competitions, the Left Bank Cup wine tasting competition and the Médoc Marathon. Despite the medieval robes, the Commanderie as we know it today has only existed since 1949. Trivia experts will know that "bontemps" refers to the wood bowl used by cellar workers to beat the egg whites used for fining, and the shape is the inspiration for the Commanderie’s caps, with their white tops a nod to the frothy eggs. Shen is following the emerging Chinese business model for Bordeaux: He has taken Laulan Ducos off the Place de Bordeaux and ships the entire stock himself directly to China—his website is now only in Mandarin. And the château serves as a swank storefront for a négociant business, the Laulan Wine Company, with plans to export other Laulan-branded wines to China.
Photograph of Joy Sterling and Mayor Ed Lee by Francis Tsang
• And of course the Chinese aren't the only ones capitalizing on the fast-growing wine market in the Middle Kingdom. California's Iron Horse Vineyards announced the creation of a special Year of the Dragon Chinese Cuvée last month. The vintage 2007 sparkling wine features a red and yellow label with the Chinese character for dragon on the neck and is printed in both English and Chinese. Iron Horse CEO Joy Sterling presented a bottle to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee last week. Sterling told Unfiltered Lee was happy to receive the gift because he "is planning a trip to China this spring and joked that the Iron Horse special cuvée might already be sold out by the time he gets there!" We also heard about a Chilean winery making news in the Chinese market this month, though we doubt they intended to become an Asian success story this way: Via Wines' Chilensis is apparently very close to some vary naughty words in Cantonese that we won't repeat here, outraging some, and reportedly delighting many more, inciting a run on the foul-mouthed wines from the Maule Valley at retail outlets in China and resulting in a 10 percent bump in price. Go figure.
Joy Sterling presents San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee with a bottle of Year of the Dragon Cuvée.
