Another Celebrity Wine and Italy’s Newest Appellation

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| Reese Witherspoon is broadening her foray into wine with a new rosé, just in time for summer.

Well, what a week it has been, with seizures, walkouts and rollouts all hitting the headlines.

In the biggest story of the week, a renowned Napa winemaker walked off the job over the quality of the reds released from the smoky 2020 vintage, while French authorities were busy seizing the wine assets of a Russian businessman as part of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. On top of all this, we had an update on the release of the 2018 Barolos.

However, here are some stories your might have missed in such a hectic week.

Reese Witherspoon launches book club rosé

Everyone else is doing it, so why not join them? US film star Reese Witherspoon announced this week she was joining the likes of Post Malone, Jon Bon Jovi and Kylie Minogue and launching her own rosé wine. This one comes with a difference, however, as the bottle ties in with Witherspoon’s Book Club (which operates under her Hello Sunshine company) and a portion of the profits will go to promote literacy foundations in the US.

The rosé is produced by Simi Winery in California (itself owned by drinks behemoth Constellation Brands), which partnered with Witherspoon for her inaugural wine release in November last year (a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon).

The rosé falls under the Editor’s Collection range and is produced from Sonoma County fruit (91 percent Pinot Noir, seven percent Chardonnay and one percent Merlot with the remaining one percent split between Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc).

According to celebrity magazine People the rosé was developed by Simi’s female-led winemaking team and “the heroines of Reese’s Book Club”.

Abruzzo gets IGT and “Superiore” status

The central Italian wine region of Abruzzo is set to get its own IGT title (IGP under European legislation), while four subregions will be allowed to append the title “Superiore” and “Riserva” to qualifying wines, it emerged this week. The moves were approved by Italy’s National Wine Committee and the Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MIPAAF) in Milan on Friday.

According to news wire ANSA, the move had been tabled in 2019 but was officially presented by political and wine trade representatives from the Abruzzo region. Abruzzo will now join the likes of neighbors Marche, Lazio in having an IGT/IGP title directly linked with its regional name.

Until now (much like southern regional neighbor, Molise) Abruzzo’s IGT/IGPs covered wines made in certain provinces but there was no IGT/IGP for the whole region.

Also approved this week was the possibile addition of the Riserva and Superiore titles to select Abruzzo IGT/IGPs (Colline Pescaresi, Terre de L’Aquila and Terre di Chieti) and Superiore to the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Colline Teramane DOCG (which already boasts a Riserva).

Restaurant stops hunt for Romanée-Conti thieves

Five months on from the brazen theft of wines from upmarket Spanish hotel and two Michelin-star restaurant Atrio, the hotel’s owners have announced they will drop the hunt for the thieves and file an insurance claim. Over €1 million ($1.1 m) worth of wine was lifted from the hotel in the early hours of morning of 27 October 2021, after a couple staying at the hotel distracted the receptionist and took off with the wine.

The haul included a number of 19th Century and early 20th Century Château d’Yquem, including an 1806 bottle that contained added Swarovski crystals to fill a gap created when the original bottle cracked. The thieves also got away with 38 bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Montrachet as well as magnums of other top white Burgundy.

After five months of investigation by Spain’s Organised and Violent Crime Unit, the wines remain unreturned (given the almost-impossibility of their re-sale on the secondary market, the wines are believed to have been stolen to order). According to press agency Europa Press, the hotel’s owners José Polo and Toño Pérez have therefore decided to file with the insurers.

“They [thieves] have caused us a great deal of pain and I am going to give myself a day of mourning, but life goes on and we will continue to tell our story and now even the robbery will be part of Atrio’s history,” said José Polo.

With a wine list boasting 3400 entries, Atrio, in the city of Cáceres, in western Spain’s Extremadura region, is Spain’s top wine restaurant – and one of the best wine restaurants in Europe, if not the world.

Burgundy bumps research budget

The Burgundy Wine Trade Body, the BIVB, announced this week it is bumping its scientific research budget by over 50 percent in order to progress the region’s fight against climate change. According to local newspaper Les Echos, the BIVB’s research budget was pegged at €2.2 million this year, up from €1.4 million in 2021.

The additional spend will, among other things, reportedly allow the organisation to hire a further two permanent staff in the research department. As reported last year, trials are under way to examine the viability of alternative varieties and, potentially, look at reviving autochthonous (albeit rare) varieties such as César and Roublot from the cooler-climate Yonne (the home of Chablis).

A main focus of the research department is clearly the less glamous (but no less pressing) subject of expanding rootstock options for growers in the region. Rootstock trials have the potential to develop new rootstocks that will help favor certain aspects of vine physiology –  a move that could help the retention of the the already established local varieties (predominantly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) in the face of a changing climate.

“The production capacity of our vineyard in the face of frost, hail, drought and vine diseases is now, more than ever, our main goal,” said  Albéric Bichot, president of the Federation of Merchants and Winemakers of Greater Burgundy.

Developing new rootstock will not happen immediately, however. According to Philippe Gervais, the head of the technical and quality division of the BIVB in Beaune, the process will take “between 10 and 15 years.

The region is also collaborating with researchers in other French wine areas.

Rains in Languedoc but Rhône still facing drought

With the Langeudoc’s Hérault department logging just five millimeters of rain and posting an 80 percent rainfall deficit in January (according to regional news outlet France Bleu), things were looking worrisome for farmers in the south of France. The situation in the following weeks had barely improved and spilled over into the vineyards come March with viticulturists in the area showing furrowed brows at the start of the growing season.

Sighs of relief, then, with the deluge logged in the Aude and Hérault at the start of the week. From famine to feast:

“In 48 hours, the soil went from exceptionnally dry, with drought levels similar those in a regular July, to record levels of moisture,” said French wine news outlet, Vitisphere.com which added that, while the water levels would help kick-start growth in the vineyards, rain would still be required further down the track.

“The water’s going to help root vegetative growth and evapotranspiration but the vines wont be able to hold out through to summer if there isn’t sufficient rainfall in April and May,” agricultural meteorologist Serge Zaka told the publication.

A situation that only serves to highlight the plight of growers in the southern Rhône and the neighboring Gard (in the eastern Langeudoc/western Rhône) which had experienced a similar lack of rainfall. Rain was forecast for Avignon at the end of the week although no updates were available prior to publication.

Asti producers demand compensation for Russian losses

As the ramifications of the latest round of EU trade sanctions against Russia (see last week’s news roundup) start to take hold, producers in Italy are weighing up the potential costs. Italy is the largest exporter of wines to Russia in the EU (France and Spain are second and third) and, according to market research company Nomisma, wine exports to the Russian Federation were worth around €345 million (US$382 million) in 2021.

Asti and Prosecco are set to be the hardest-hit by the sanctions (and the wider conflict in Ukraine). According to regional news outlet Quotidiano Piemontese, the two sparkling wine regions account for around half of the country’s export value to Russia. National broadsheet La Repubblica also said last weekend that both Russia and Ukraine accounted for a quarter of all Asti exports.

Cue a half-plaintiff, half-beligerent cry from Asti.

“The wineries concerned must be compensated for the economic losses caused by the decisions of the EU Council,” the head of the Asti agricultural union, Mariagrazia Baravalle, told Quotidiano Piemontese on Tuesday.

“We are nonetheless optimistic we will find new consumers and fans of our wines at an international level to replace the Russian ones,” she added. Asti’s wine exports hit €7 billion (US$7.7 billion) in 2021.