DrinkedIn Trends

Many of the world's greatest winemakers could be found Thursday night in New York's Times Square. They had not gathered to grab a show at the recently reopened theaters of Broadway. Rather, they came to lift glasses and toast being together again. After skipping 2020, the New York Wine Experience returned to the Marriott Marquis Times Square, celebrating the event's 40th anniversary. The three-day event kicked off with the first of two Grand Tastings, as 210 wineries poured some of the world's most coveted wines for consumers, all of them rated 90 points or higher by Wine Spectator’s editors.

The unspoken toast as glasses of Champagne were raised? We're back.

"It's so good to be here in person, to see everyone together," said Italian wine icon Piero Antinori, who presented his 1997 Solaia as a Wine Star during the weekend's seminars. Over the past 19 months, many vintners have struggled to travel and meet with longtime clients and potential new ones. They've learned to host virtual tastings. They've also learned that there is no substitute for giving someone a fist bump and telling wine lovers face-to-face what makes their wine unique.

There was electricity in the air as attendees headed into two ballrooms. There were also new procedures to navigate, with a strict COVID vaccine mandate in place for large events.

Seasoned Italian chef Hillary Sterling’s Ci Siamo is now open in New York. Backed by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, the restaurant debuted Oct. 12 at Manhattan West, a new development project adjacent to Hudson Yards. The Italian name translates to “here we are” or “we’ve arrived,” which the team notes is particularly fitting for New York’s post-pandemic revival.

Sterling, who previously worked at Vic's, the Beatrice Inn and A Voce, is focusing on classic dishes including homemade pastas as well as smaller bites like gnocco fritto and entrées from a wood-burning oven like whole trout with pine nuts and raisins.

“Her cooking is just incredible because it is so simply delicious,” said beverage director Robin Wright, who most recently served as a sommelier at Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Daniel. Wright worked closely with USHG's Jenni Guizio to build Ci Siamo’s wine list, now at 400-plus selections and growing.

About 75 percent of the list is Italian, covering 20 regions around the boot. The remainder of the list hails from other major international winegrowing regions, including a strong collection of grower Champagnes “marked up as little as possible.” Overall, the list highlights smaller family-owned wineries, female winemakers and winemakers practicing mostly organic, biodynamic and sustainable practices.

While there are a few exceptions from top-notch producers, the Italian side of the bottle list is heavily skewed toward native grape varieties. So is the by-the-glass program, with more than 20 selections. “It might look kind of niche, but really it's just honest. It’s the varieties of Italy that people don’t know because they were drinking Sauvignon Blanc from Northern Italy or Chardonnay from Piedmont,” Wright said. “So instead of having those wines, we want to focus on having Greco and Fiano and Prié Blanc from Valle d’Aosta, for example.”

Sotheby's is going to France. The longtime auctioneer, one of the leading players in collectible wine and spirits sales, announced it will soon open new offices in Beaune and Bordeaux to meet European demand and increase efficiency. The French offices will be the fourth major wine hub for the auction house, which already hosts sales in London, New York and Hong Kong.

"We believe there is a significant opportunity to grow our business in continental Europe by hosting sales in France, with inventory stored in Beaune and Bordeaux," Jamie Ritchie, worldwide head of Sotheby’s wine, told Wine Spectator. "There is a large community of wine lovers and collectors in France, Benelux, Scandinavia, Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain that would like greater access to global markets when selling wines and equally will appreciate a wider selection of wines to buy."

The new location will open later this fall. For Ritchie, the move simply makes sense. He says that 85 percent of the wines Sotheby's sells come from France, and the company has a strong presence there, with about 130 employees to help support this new chapter. Amayès Aouli, a former executive at J.P. Morgan, will become the head of auction sales for the region.

From 1970 to 2014, Bordeaux wines claimed over 60 percent of Sotheby's auction sales, says Ritchie. Recently, Burgundy has seen a sharp increase, growing from 26 percent of Sotheby's sales in 2014 to 50 percent in 2019 (a record-shattering bottle of DRC might've helped). However, Bordeaux sales have declined from 60 percent to 26 percent in that same time period. Ritchie credits Burgundy's rising prices and the introduction and growth of spirits in their auctions (1 percent of sales in 2016 to 19 percent in 2020).

Having Burgundy and Bordeaux auction sites should also smooth some logistical headaches. "If wines are located within continental Europe and they will achieve the same price as New York, Hong Kong and London, it will be faster and more efficient with the least regulation and shipping to offer them in France," Ritchie said. "We also believe that clients around the world will want to store wines with us in Beaune and Bordeaux."

In 2019, a paper published in The Lancet made headlines when researchers questioned wine's protective effects against heart disease and instead found that any level of alcohol consumption increased blood pressure and the possibility of heart attack or stroke.

But two London-based professors recently took a deeper dive into those claims, and found that the Lancet study is based on "unsound methodology."

The 2019 research, conducted by a team at Oxford, enrolled over 500,000 adults from 10 different areas of China and recorded alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease incidence over the course of 10 years. Researchers used a type of genetic epidemiological analysis, known as Mendelian randomization, to examine the data. Genetic epidemiology looks not just at who gets sick, but at genetic factors, to try and understand what role genes play and what role environmental factors play (in this case alcohol consumption).

Multiple studies have found a J-shaped relationship between alcohol and stroke risk. Non-drinkers faced a slightly higher risk of heart attack and stroke, heavy drinkers faced a much higher risk that increased with each drink, and moderate drinkers fell at the bottom of the J—they faced the lowest risk.

But the authors of the 2019 study wrote that in their genetic epidemiological analysis using Mendelian randomization, they saw a linear association. The risk of cardiovascular disease rose with each sip of alcohol the subjects consumed. The study was touted by many as evidence that no level of drinking was safe. "Claims that wine and beer have magical protective effects were not borne out,” said lead author Richard Peto, in a statement released when the research was published.

Should wine lovers have the right to buy wine from retailers in other states? The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it won’t decide—at least not in this session—declining to hear Sarasota Wine Market v. Schmitt. A Supreme Court decision on the case, which challenged Missouri’s law prohibiting out-of-state wine retailers from shipping orders to consumers in Missouri, could have potentially reshaped the U.S. wine sales landscape.

Sarasota is one of several recent challenges to laws prohibiting out-of-state retailer direct shipping. In this particular case, a Florida wine store, Sarasota Wine Market, and Missouri consumers sought to overturn Missouri’s law as unconstitutional, in violation of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which forbids states from discriminating against or interfering with interstate commerce.

This past February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled against Sarasota’s plaintiffs, determining that Missouri’s out-of-state direct-shipping ban was protected under the 21st Amendment. (The Supreme Court has held that states’ rights granted by the 21st Amendment can preempt the Commerce Clause, for laws enacted to discourage excessive drinking or create an orderly alcohol market.)

Attorneys Alex Tanford and Robert Epstein, who previously worked on Sarasota in the 6th and 8th circuits (and were also lawyers on the landmark Granholm v. Heald decision in 2005), appealed the 8th Circuit decision, filing a petition for writ of certiorari (cert) in June with the Supreme Court.

“[Missouri's law] is not saved by the 21st Amendment because the ban advances no state interest that could not be served by nondiscriminatory alternatives,” the petition states, referencing several past Supreme Court rulings to demonstrate that the 21st Amendment can, in fact, be limited by the Commerce Clause. This includes Granholm and 2019’s Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Russell F. Thomas.

The restaurant industry in the U.S. and around the world has suffered a shock over the past year and a half, with the pandemic presenting unprecedented challenges to operators across the business. Within that context, few people are better positioned to weigh in on the future of restaurants than chef José Andrés, whose ThinkFoodGroup has 30 restaurants worldwide, and who is known as a thoughtful, influential and, above all, generous leader in the business.

Andrés addressed this past week's 45th Annual Impact Marketing Seminar via a video discussion with Wine Spectator's Thomas Matthews titled "Post Pandemic: The Future of the Restaurant Industry." He began by recounting his sense of wonder when he first visited the U.S. as a member of the Spanish Navy in 1990, and his subsequent time as a cook in New York.

"New York was like a university for me," said Andrés. "I felt like I had an entire encyclopedia of cooking right in my palm." That experience in New York's melting pot was important, he continued, because culinary culture "connects us with other worlds," broadens our horizons and, ultimately, brings people closer together. It also set Andrés on his path to building the formidable restaurant business that ThinkFoodGroup has become today.

That business—along with others around the world—was thrown into doubt by the pandemic. But Andrés hailed how restaurateurs and chefs answered the challenge, with many operators generously donating their time to feed those on the front lines and those in need even as their own restaurants remained closed. "We can feel very proud of how our industry responded," he said, recognizing not only those efforts but also the creativity of restaurateurs in keeping their businesses alive by pivoting to takeout and recreating the restaurant experience for the home.

Turning to the future, Andrés is hopeful that the worst is behind us, and the restaurant industry is headed in the right direction again. He's optimistic enough that he's even continued to open new restaurants, introducing an all-day casual spot, Café by the River, in Chicago's West Loop neighborhood in June, followed by a new branch of Jaleo, in the city's River North neighborhood a month later. ThinkFoodGroup plans to open three additional venues by year's end.

After more than a year and a half, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the Wine Spectator Grand Award winner in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., will resume service Oct. 7. The news comes at the end of the six-month chefs-in-residence program showcasing everything from upscale Chilean cuisine to more casual menus with barbecue and wood-fired pizza.

The team describes this opening as Blue Hill 2.0, meaning the restaurant won’t be the exact same concept as it was pre-pandemic. “Cooking and farming became more interesting, and more complicated," chef-owner Dan Barber said in a statement shared on Instagram. “It changed the way our team thinks about food and focused our thinking about Blue Hill restaurant and the culture we want to create.”

The operation will take a larger focus on education, dedicating an estimated 25 percent of its efforts to workshops, teaching, learning and researching. The wine side of the restaurant is expected to follow the same route.

Wine director Hannah Williams is looking forward to the return of a physical wine list, rather than the QR code that was given to guests during the pandemic to minimize contact. This inspired her to lean even further into the tangible aspect and publish a book featuring the wine selections, titled This Is Not a Wine List.

“Blue Hill, the experience, it's so narrative based. Everything is a story about a seed breeder, or a farmer or a fisherman or woman,” Williams told Wine Spectator. “Why should wine be any different in this context?”

Brad Pitt and the Perrin family have new partners. Angelina Jolie has sold her 50 percent stake in Château Miraval to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group, for an undisclosed sum. That makes the drinks group partners with Jolie's ex-husband on the Provençal rosé winery.

Miraval has been a blockbuster since the Hollywood power couple bought the estate in 2012 and partnered with the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel to release their first wines in 2013. Sales rose 17.4 percent to just under 150,000 cases in the U.S. market last year, according to Impact Databank, a sister publication of Wine Spectator. The then-couple paid an estimated $60 million for the estate. Analysts estimate it to be worth $162 million today.

Jolie filed for divorce in 2016. Business has continued as usual at the winery and the company introduced a Champagne in 2020. There have been numerous reports that Jolie wished to sell, however.

Tenute del Mondo now adds the 50 percent interest in Miraval to its existing holdings. The company owns Argentina's Achával-Ferrer and Spain's Arínzano, and is also co-owner (with the Frescobaldi family) of Italian icons Masseto, Ornellaia, Luce and Castelgiocondo. Stoli Group CEO Damian McKinney said the company has long admired the Miraval brand, adding, "We are thrilled to have a position alongside Brad Pitt as curators of their extraordinary vintages."

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The worst-case scenario was a 50 percent tariff on bottled wine. That’s what most insiders in the Australian wine industry were thinking in fall 2020 after tensions spiked between the Chinese and Australian governments over the origins of COVID-19 and Australia’s ban on Huawei’s 5G network. Once again, it looked like the wine community was about to become collateral damage in a political dispute.

But when Chinese authorities announced a tariff of 218 percent? It was mind-boggling. “The tariffs were much higher than anyone anticipated,” admitted Rachel Triggs, general manager of corporate affairs and regulation for Wine Australia.

The trade fight was the latest blow to international winemakers working to build a market in China. Since Chinese Premier Li Peng praised the health benefits of wine during the National People’s Congress in 1996, the country’s growing economy and consumer population have attracted wineries from around the globe trying to gain a foothold. With 52 million wine drinkers and a total population of 1.44 billion, the growth potential is enormous.

But so is the risk: Beijing’s government is not afraid to actively intervene in the economy, cracking down on wine-loving, free-spending government officials and business leaders. Celebrities are its latest target, including an actor who owns five Bordeaux châteaus. Wines from Australia, the United States and France have all been caught up in international disputes that have nothing to do with grapes. A decade ago, China was projected to be the world’s second-biggest wine market by 2020. Instead it’s sixth, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, an intergovernmental agency based in France.

With all these challenges, is China still worth it?

As the NBA season kicks off next week, Brooklyn Nets assistant coach and kosher vintner Amar'e Stoudemire is setting high expectations for the games ahead. The former All-Star with the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks says he now analyzes the game differently and had to learn a lot about how to manage players. It's the same learning experience that took him from enjoying wine on his rooftop in New York to managing his own kosher wine brands from Israel and California. In the latest episode of Straight Talk with Wine Spectator, Stoudemire took a break from training camp and spoke with Wine Spectator news editor Mitch Frank about his wine-related travels, building the Stoudemire Wines legacy and why the NBA is a wine powerhouse.

Stoudemire had always enjoyed tasting wine throughout his early years in the NBA, but it wasn't until he signed with the Knicks in the summer of 2010 that a passion took hold. He spent time traveling tasting wines in Italy, Greece and France, and spent two weeks at Bordeaux's Chanel Château luxury lodging at Château Canon in St.-Emillion, owned by the family behind Chanel and Château Rauzan-Ségla. Back home in New York, Stoudemire would host rooftop parties with his favorite wines. Eventually, a friend inspired him to create his own wine label.

"It was just a thought then it became something more," Stoudemire said. "Then I moved to Israel and met with Tulip Winery and that's when it became something serious."

After Stoudemire moved to Jerusalem in 2015, he explored the wine region of Upper Galilee, where Tulip is based, and made his winemaking debut in 2018 with three Israeli Cabernets and red blends.

"I went through different blends with Tulip and wanted to create a perfect blend that fit my palate," Stoudemire said. "I want to build a brand that's everlasting and could stand the test of time so my children can inherit it." He also felt that the kosher wine space did not have the best selection and he wanted to change that paradigm.

After going virtual in 2020, the Sonoma County Wine Auction took in $1.7 million in a downsized, in-person event over the Sept. 16–18 weekend. One of the top charity auctions in California wine country, the auction has raised $39 million since its inception. "It's great to see everyone in person instead of a computer screen," Michael Haney, Sonoma County Vintners Foundation executive director, told the crowd of 200 people under the tent at La Crema Estate at Saralee's Vineyard.

The virtual 2020 auction raised $1.17 million. This year’s event brought in more, but was still well below the auction’s high of $6.1 million in 2019.

The live auction's top lot sold for $140,000 and was purchased by George and Pamela Hamel Jr. of Sonoma Valley's Hamel Wines. A second attendee later matched the bid for a total of $280,000. The lot included a five-night stay at Jackson Family's Tuscan estate, Tenuta di Arceno, dinner in a private apartment overlooking Siena's Piazza del Campo, with a front-row view of the historic horse race Il Palio di Siena, as well as 5 magnums of Vérité.

"It's an iconic event, and [my wife] loves horses," Hamel said, adding that more important are the charities benefiting from the auction. "The gap between haves and have-nots has gotten wide. It's important to level the playing field."

Other top lots included Bubbles Galore, which sold for $48,000 and included a two-night stay at Domaine Les Crayeres, a luxury hotel in Reims, France, tastings and luncheons at Krug, Dom Pérignon and Ruinart, dinner at Michelin 3-star l'Assiette Champenoise, as well as 6 jeroboams (3-liter bottles) of Champagne and Hamel Family Wines. A Montana Western Adventure lot sold for $37,000 and included a three-night stay for four people at Ranch at Rock Creek, wine dinners, Western-style activities and a case of Foley Family Wines, including Chalk Hill, Ferrari-Carano and Lancaster.

Earlier this year, charity wine auctions were optimistic about weathering the pandemic this fall. While the Delta variant has made their efforts more challenging, many are finding ways to raise funds for worthy causes. In Napa Valley, the Harvest Stomp wine auction hit its highest total ever, raising $2.7 million for the Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG) and Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation, surpassing 2019's $2.32 million.

Harvest Stomp hosted 400 guests at Round Pond Estate's Pole Barn for its 14th annual live auction on Aug. 28, with proof of vaccination or negative COVID-19 test result required. The event had mobile rapid-test vans and observed Centers for Disease Control safety protocols.

According to NVG program director Emily Hegarty, they centered most of the live auction lots around experiences rather than bottles, since people have been unable to get out during the pandemic. The auction raised $1.2 million in live bids, with "The Judgment of Napa" as the top-selling lot of the night at $350,000. The experience includes a side-by-side tasting of all five 1982 Bordeaux first-growths and five 2002 Napa icons hosted by NVG president and Opus One winemaker Michael Silacci and NVG board member and Massican winemaker Dan Petroski. The Bordeaux wines were Lafite Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion, Mouton-Rothschild, while the Napa reds were Araujo Estate, Colgin, Harlan Estate, Joseph Phelps and Opus One. The winning bidders will also enjoy a VIP dinner at Best of Award of Excellence winner Press Restaurant in St. Helena, paired with 2012 Cabernets from Dalla Valle, Larkmead, Rudd and Spottswoode.

Another lot that grabbed attention was a week-long trip through Australian wine country with Silacci. The lot, which sold for $320,000, takes four guests to Hunter Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Margaret River, Adelaide and Coonawarra to taste and discuss the local Sémillon, Pinot Noir and Cabernet wines.

The auction also included surprise lots. One included 45 magnums from Staglin Family Vineyards, Paul Hobbs, Lewis Cellars and more. It sold for $42,000.

Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Canlis in Seattle welcomed a new team member this month: Linda Milagros Violago, the first woman to run the wine program since the restaurant opened in 1950. Violago succeeds Nelson Daquip, who departed in June 2021 to move to Los Angeles, where he has taken a sommelier position at Best of Award of Excellence winner Osteria Mozza.

“The culture and how things are run here and how we interact with each other at all levels is really unique,” Violago said. “I’m excited about that.” Before joining Canlis, Violago worked in well-known restaurants like Catbird Seat in Nashville, Tenn., Grand Award winner Geranium in Copenhagen and the now-closed Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago.

The hire follows an extensive international search that started in January and also included the April hire of Canlis’ first female executive chef, Aisha Ibrahim. True to Canlis’ signature creative style, Violago says the application process wasn’t a traditional one. She was given two tasks by co-owner brothers Mark and Brian Canlis: Write a headline and first paragraph of a news story announcing her own appointment, and submit a video of, as Mark put it, “60 seconds of you doing something wholeheartedly that is very clear you are not very good at.” Excited and endeared by the request, Violago sent a video of herself baking bread. “I thought, ‘This is going to be a fun ride. Even if I don’t get the gig, this is gonna be great,’” she recalls. Once pandemic-related travel restrictions allowed, she visited Canlis and was selected soon after.

“I really like her as a person. I really trust and respect who she is, who she’s hoping to become,” Mark said. “I find that when we surround ourselves professionally with people that we admire personally, you end up with something special … It’s a bonus to me that she happens to be a remarkably talented expert in wine.”

Mark is excited to see how Violago will impact Canlis’ wine program as part of a wider effort to move the restaurant forward post-pandemic. “It’s just Canlis’ way to keep rethinking what we do,” he said, noting that the 2,400-label count may decrease in the process. “I want our wine list to be more representative of who we are as people, of the kinds of wines that we like to drink, of the kinds of food that we’re eating, of the way that we’re eating and drinking.”

For the past 25 years, Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute has provided an educational foundation to its students while helping bolster the industry with its new trailblazers. The institute kicked off its 25th academic year with a virtual conversation with Wine Spectator Napa bureau chief and senior editor Kim Marcus, moderated by Wine Business Institute executive director Ray Johnson, discussing the past, present and future of wine, along with some advice for its bourgeoning industry leaders.

“California is still at the dawn of what it can achieve,” said Marcus, discussing challenges and opportunities for the wine industry. “The story of the last 30 or 40 years is about quality, which has been spurred by better winemaking and viticulture and adaptation.”

Winemaking and viticulture aside, Marcus says that California wine’s biggest successes are in the business and hospitality side of the industry. “The rest of the world is consolidating, while wine continues to expand. So people want to learn more,” said Marcus.

This is where Sonoma State’s Wine Business Institute plays a role. Since its founding in 1996, the institute has awarded 270 wine MBAs, among other professional degrees and certifications. It has also provided significant and pioneering research that has informed the industry. In 2018, The Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation anchored the financing of the Wine Spectator Learning Center, making a $3 million gift to help create a 15,000-square-foot building designed as an education and industry nucleus, including advanced-technology classrooms, student commons, meeting rooms and more.

Marcus recalled his early days as a journalist for the St. Helena Star in Napa Valley, at a time when grapes were growing in popularity, but other crops were still part of the local agricultural mix. “Anywhere you went, it was egalitarian and an inexpensive way to get to know wine,” he said. Fast-forwarding to today, he believes one of the potential threats is a need to appeal to younger demographics and to educate them. “We should be careful. If you want to get younger people introduced to wine, we need to give them opportunities to enjoy wines without the elevated price levels.”