Far east diplomacy with a Chinese Cuvée(2)
• There's an old joke that you can earn a small fortune as a winemaker by starting with a large one, but one Champagne producer has inadvertently made close to $1 million by simply undertaking a renovation. As first reported by Agence France-Presse, workers
hired by Francois Lange, head of Les Riceys-based Champagne house Alexandre Bonnet, found themselves showered with gold coins as they dismantled the ceiling in a former grape-drying facility on the winery property. The coins, 497 in all, were minted by the
U.S. Treasury between 1851 and 1928 and are worth approximately $980,000. Lange intends to split the loot with the workers, and is contemplating a special vintage in honor of the found treasure.
• The Spring 2012 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is winding down here in New York and, as always, wine was the beverage of choice among the beautiful people, especially at the shows for the 2012 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation winning designers, Jason Alkire and Julie Haus of Haus Alkire, Sara Beltran, Tim Coppens, Daphne and Vera Correll of CorrellCorrell, Alexa Galler of Eighteenth, Sunhee Hwang of Sunhee and Titania Inglis. Each of the winning aspiring young designers received a $25,000 grant from Ecco Domani Wines to create their own show at Fashion Week, and the popular Italian wine brand seems to have a good eye: Past winners include Alexander Wang, Zac Posen, Rag & Bone and Proenza Schouler.
• World-renowned consulting enologist Michel Rolland is partnering with California winery Montesquieu Wines and the Wine to Water charity organization to help drought-afflicted areas in Ethiopia. Rolland's Bonne Nouvelle 2003 is a Stellenbosch blend of Cabernet,
Merlot and Pinotage; $20 will be donated to Wine to Water for each bottle sold (retail price $39) for the purpose of raising $40,000 to dig four deep bore wells in the Dale region of Southern Ethiopia, where 60 percent of the population does not have access
to clean water. Montesquieu is importing and distributing the wines at no charge, and they can be purchased at www.winetowaterstore.com.
• In March 2011 we found former Penfolds winemaker Daryl Groom donating his time to the Colby Red Wine project, made in partnership with Treasury Wine Estates and sold exclusively at Walgreen's. The wine, sales of which benefit the American Heart
Association, was named for and inspired by Groom's son, Colby, who was born with an atrial septal defect and other heart problems that were corrected with a mechanical heart valve from the St.
Jude Medical Foundation. In celebration of American Heart Month, we're happy to announce that not only did Colby Red outpace its initial goal of raising $100,000 for the American Heart Association (more than $175,000 has been raised to date), but
Groom has announced a new goal of raising $300,000 by the end of this year. And Colby, now 14 years old, is just as active as his father—he told his story at five AHA Heart Balls in 2011 and helped raise an additional $750,000.
• Finally this week, a new charity wine brand made for and by women launched last month, the HandCraft Artisan Collection by third-generation winemaker Cheryl Indelicato. The California Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Petite Sirah are
each priced at $15, and HandCraft will donate $1 for every bottle purchased, up to $100,000, to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
