Friday, July 7th, 2006

The trouble with DuBeouf


There was a time when the third Thursday of each November meant something. People would eagerly go to their local wine stores to try the new Beaujolais Nouveau’s. Hell, major cities had large festivals blocking off streets for the celebrations. Lyon, France has a huge midnight festival where barrels are rolled down the streets for thirsty (gluttons for punishment) partiers.

The whole point of the festival was to let consumer’s enjoy a light, refreshing, easy-drinking wine from that year’s harvest (aka Kool-Aid like juice). Let’s wrap our head around this. If harvest is in early to mid-September, the grapes are crushed, fermented, bottled, and shipped within a 6-8 week period of time. There are styles of beer that can’t even be made that fast. So the point that I am trying to get at is that Beaujolais isn’t made, nor is it meant to be some incredibly complex wine.







The bottles themselves became synonymous with Georges DuBoeuf and his eye popping labels. Personally I think that most of them end up looking like the couches in a 90 year old retiree’s winter home in Miami. Case in point……

France has some pretty strict rules that date back hundreds of years. One of the main rules is that you can only use grapes in a wine that are from that specific area and are labeled as such. Georges DuBeouf has become the Wal-Mart of Beaujolais Nouveau selling 45 out of the 65 million bottles that are sold annually. Well my friends, it seems like those days may be coming to an end.
Georges DuBoeuf has been charged with knowingly mixing bad grapes into his Beaujolais Nouveau in order to add the rest of the good grapes to his higher priced Cru-Beaujolais wines.

Georges Duboeuf, 72, the erstwhile toast of connoisseurs and top chefs, was found guilty of "fraud and attempted fraud concerning the origin and quality of wines" and fined €30,000 ($51,000).
A court in Villefrance-sur-Saone, eastern France, found that his family business had knowingly blended good grapes with bad — a practice forbidden under the "appellation controlee" system — in the equivalent of 300,000 bottles of wine produced from gamay grapes from nine areas of Beaujolais country, north of Lyons.

So this just proves to me that when I tasted the ’04 DuBeouf Nouveau and said that it tasted like dirt and asparagus, I was right!! LOL.




What do they drink?
I am always fascinated with what other beverage industry people drink. I know that I drink it all – wine, beer, tequila – but do you ever wonder what winemakers drink? I mean hello….I know they drink their own wine but what do they have when it’s hotter than holy hell outside and all you really want is a beer? I know that when I was tasting wines all day all I wanted to do was to come home and have a beer. Likewise if my husband has been at beer festivals and events for days on end he just wants a glass of wine. So, I thought it would be cool to introduce you to some fun kids in Oregon I met while I was working harvest and tell you what they drink.


First, meet Josh Bergstrom. He actually went to school to become a brewmaster until at the last minute his parents bought a winery and roped him in to doing that.

Josh loves to kick back with a Guiness on tap and he loves Rogue’s beers as well. One of his fave seasonal brews is Deschutes Juble Ale.

“When you taste wine all year you can stress out your taste buds. Beer is so refreshing. It’s light in alcohol and cleanses your palate” says Bergstrom.

Josh, you could drink Sparks or even Schlitz with a mountain man look like that and I’d still love you!!! I feel like I am the emcee for a charity bachelor auction about now so I’ll try to tone it down.


Who doesn’t admire Rollin Soles, winemaker for Argyle? Rollin’s sparkling wine has the reputation for being the best Sparkling wine made is the U.S. and I tend to agree. And don’t forget about Nuthouse or Reserve Pinot Noir either! Rollin also loves Deschutes and Widmer Hefeweisen but the quote he gives for Foster’s is beyond hysterical.

“And no one drink’s Foster’s in Australia. It’s strictly made for export to the United States”

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Next time you see an ad for Fosters with the tagline “Foster’s…..it’s Australian for beer” feel free to giggle and think of our dear Rollin and his Oyster Crackers!!

Patty Green and her harvest crew prefer Negro Modelo and Sol and says they drink it at lunch for it’s refreshing carbonation. And Mike Etzel of Beaux-Freres prefers Pilsner Urquell.

Well kids, there you have it. Maybe we can make this a repeat kinda thing where when I meet winemakers or brewmasters I’ll ask ‘em what they are drinking.



These guys had some big “Tennis Balls”

Lanson Champagne is the official sponsor for Wimbeldon and likewise, the only Champagne supplier for the event. Apparently a delivery truck showed up to get the wine and transport it to the event. Soon after, the real delivery truck pulled up and people began to realize what was unfolding before them.

According to the BBC, an estimated 300 cases of Lanson Champagne, valued at nearly 90,000 pounds ($165,000), was lifted last Friday by a group of men posing as delivery guys. After their van passed through security without problems (maybe all eyes were on the courts), they loaded up the cargo and took off. It was only after the real delivery van arrived for the Champagne that the heist came to light. Lanson, which makes the official Champagne of Wimbledon 2006, confirmed that a great deal of their special bottling was nicked, but spokespeople for the Champagne house declined to tell Unfiltered more. London's Metropolitan police have ordered them not to make comments to the press, at least until investigators find out who was behind the racket.


Lanson, you just got served!!!! Hahaha! Sorry I had to, it was just too easy. Get it, served??



Andi, I think I just vomited a little!




Wit reader Andi sent me this label which is also a wine from the winery that makes Tiny Bubbles whom we talked about Wednesday. C'mon People, do you want me to gouge my eyes out? Well, meet LeslieLou White Trash White. Look at the label....fine wine my ass. And what does "Special Grape Libations" mean anyway?? Maybe she can try out to be the next Cleavage Creek Model.









Cartoon for the weekend
So, this Friday I thought I’d leave you with a wine cartoon for good measure. The picture is rather small but the case box says New York State Red Wine.



Big weekend coming up. Marc Winstead (the 40 year old virgin- just kidding) is getting married to Sabrina Watts from WV so we all know how wild that could get. It will be a 3 day affair so wish me luck!! Have a great weekend!

Cheers!