Wine bar chain takes wings

Bars and beer pubs are commonplace in airports. Now, wine bars are vying for flyers' dollars.

Vino Volo, a true wine bar, opened this week at American Airlines' new terminal 8 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Selections are available by the glass or by themed flights, along with a menu of 14 small plates.

The establishment is the fifth in a chain of airport wine bars owned by a San Francisco company that is aiming for 50 establishments over the next several years. Its first opened in 2005 at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC. That was followed by Seattle-Tacoma, Baltimore-Washington and Sacramento airports.

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Microsoft goes into microwine biz

Just when you thought Microsoft had thought of everything in its quest for world domination, a new angle has been found.

Try Blue Monster Reserve wine. Created by the South African winery Stormhoek for Microsoft and its employees, the label will not be commercially available -- at least at first. It is being referred to as a "social object" for geek dinners and people inside the Microsoft ecosystem.

According to the winery's Web site, it and Microsoft "are still working on the final details of how we’re going to get the wine to people who want it."

Right now that means the people who belong to the “Friends of Blue Monster” Facebook group rather than all the 79,000 MS employees in 102 countries.

As the folks at Stormhoek note, "Own-label wine and personalised bottles have become increasingly popular in the corporate world, particularly among investment banks, as gifts to clients and offered to guests of corporate events. The companies hope the corporate vintages will add an air of class and sophistication to their image."

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A young champion from South Africa

If you crave something new to amaze and amuse your friends, the recent South Africa National Young Wine Show (SANYWS) results might offer some helpful suggestions.

The annual event gives SA wineries a chance to showcase their most recent vintages prior to blending and bottling. Thus, winners often are subsumed in blends. However, one of this year's major winners caught my eye because it will be released in its winning state later this year.

Graham Beck Wines’ 2007 Pheasants’ Run Sauvignon Blanc won the prestigious John McDonald Trophy for the Best Sauvignon Blanc.

The victory is no fluke. Beck winemaker Erika Obermeyer (left) won the same tropy for her 2005 vintage at that year's SDANYWS as well as double golds at the 2005 Michelangelo International Wine Awards and Veritas Awards. She twice has been a finalist at the SA Woman Wine Maker of the Year Awards, in 2005 and 2006, with the Graham Beck Wines’ Pheasants’ Run.

According to the winery, "Earlier vintages of this wine were made from grapes grown at a high-quality vineyard in Durbanville, from which the name Pheasants’ Run is derived (the original farm’s name is Fisante Kraal, the Afrikaans phrase for ‘The Gathering of the Pheasants’). The 2007 vintage, however, was made from grapes sourced at Graham Beck Wines’ best coastal vineyard in Firgrove, near Stellenbosch as well as Durbanville and Darling vineyards."

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French wine scandal in the making

There's a scandal percolating in the French wine industry, if a consumer rights group is on target.

According to France's UFC-Que Choisir, one in three of all wines marketed under France's regional appellation system -- from Bordeaux to Cahors, Saint-Emilion or Sancerre -- do not deserve the label.

The French classification system recognizes wines from 470 regions as an "appellation d'origine controlee" (AOC). The system, based on the notion of "terroir" according to which wine-growing areas have specific characters, is being enforced poorly, the consumer group charged on Monday.

"For a number of years, we've seen a steady fall in quality in a number of AOCs, which has completely undermined consumer confidence," Alain Bazot, the association's head, told a news conference.

UFC said one-third of AOC bottles are of sub-standard quality or insufficiently linked to the region. It questioned the impartiality of the AOC award panels made up of local wine professionals. This is particularly troublesome since AOC wines account for 44% of all French wine production.

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