Gala Rouge rolls out the red carpet

PHOTO BY WILLIAM M. DOWD

As a youngster, I became enamored of the artwork of Henri Toulouse-Latrec and his ilk, those gaudy, active posters of a certain time in Parisian cafe society portrayed in such films as 1952's "Moulin Rouge."

Many years later, my never-flagging interest in the genre was moved to new heights by the addition of Nicole Kidman and some really funky music in the oddball 2001 remake of "Moulin Rouge."

So, it was with great interest I observed the introduction of Gala Rouge, a new wine from Brown-Forman's Bon Vivant Vineyards in France that made its debut in a decidedly unorthdox venue: last fall's International Vintage Poster Fair in New York.

The idea, says Laura Simmons, Gala Rouge brand director, was to avoid being one more data-laden French label in an already overcrowded market by presenting a classic Parisian poster-style face to the consumer world.

Brown-Forman certainly went to the right source for its labels. Jim Salvati, a California painter and designer who works with the Disney and Warner Bros. studios on a regular basis, came up with a 1920s look for an 1890 genre, depicting a flapper -- wearing a red skirt on the pinot noir label, a light amber version on the chardonnay -- on a swing and four different type fonts that, curiously, enhance rather than clash with the design.

The brand name itself is explained in a lighthearted way on the back label of the 2004 vintage debut varietals: "Ga-la Rouge (ga-luh roojz) n. 1. A red carpet event [see charity fundraisers or black tie weddings]. 2. A fun evening of your choosing [see Bunko night or poker club] ... " and so forth.

Beyond the design (the labels are available for sale in poster form), let's get down to some essentials:

• Price: $9.99 retail for 750ml bottles.

• Alcohol by volume: 12.5%

• Availability: Theoretically, as of Jan. 1 the test market phase ended and distribution went national. If it hasn't become available in your market, check the Gala Rouge Web site.

• Tasting Notes: The pinot noir is a fruit-rich wine with berries and woody elements in the nose. Soft tannins help make this a bold yet silky offering with a decent, lingering finish. Enough character to hold up to tomato sauces, grilled meats or woodsy elements such as morels, truffles and the like. The chardonnay presents a softly floral nose, then an initial citrus taste that quickly gives way to those floral notes and a touch of pineapple. Slightly astringent finish. Would pair nicely with lightly sauced foods, salads and wide-ranging tapas dishes that present sweet to salty to savory.

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'05 Bordeaux: Let the hype commence!

How good is the 2005 Bordeaux winemakers will be putting on the market next month?

To hear the French wine mavens tell it, the various ailments plaguing their industry are having no effect on the Bordeaux. In fact, the 2005 vintage is being hailed as one of the great vintages ever.

Anthony Rose, wine writer for The Independent newspaper in London, is among the most vociferous journalists calling for a bit of restraint. He wrote in the April 22 edition:

"Apparently insulated from the crisis engulfing the rest of France (where supply of wine outstrips demand, regulation reigns supreme, and producers find it harder to compete with foreign imports), Bordeaux châteaux set out their stall this month for a first taste of the 2005 vintage from the barrel.

"Such is the lavish wining and dining of the world's trade and press during the week-long tasting that Bordeaux might have a serious case to answer for deliberately fattening the calf. Amid the hype surrounding what some Bordelais are calling the greatest vintage ever, the knives are being sharpened for the killing they expect to make next month when they announce their prices."

This isn't to say it's all hype and hyperbole. Early tasters are saying highly complimentary things about the vintage. Here's a small sampling, beginning with Rose himself:

• "Despite inevitable variations in style, 2005 is likely to go down as a great vintage in line with the most recent classics of 1982, 1990, 1996 and 2000. Investors will cash in, but better news for wine drinkers is that many fine, lesser classified châteaux such as Batailley, Belgrave, Brane Cantenac and Talbot should be relatively affordable, as should good crus bourgeois in the mould of Beaumont, La Tour de By, Phélan-Ségur and Charmail."

• John Hunter of the Belfast Telegraph: "The good news for embattled Bordeaux producers is that the 2005 vintage seems to be the best in years."

• James Suckling of Wine Spectator: "Just how special the 2005 wines in Bordeaux are will be better understood in late March, when the wine world descends on the region to taste the new wines. However, the first indicators of Bordeaux 2005 look very exciting, even if it was only sips from a few vats and barrels."

• Bill Blatch of Vintex, a Bordeaux wholesaler, quoted in Agence France-Presse: "I have never seen a vintage like this one. here's power, 14 percent alcohol, tannins, acidity and fresh fruit."

And then, there is Robert Joseph, noted English wine critic, putting things in his own perspective:

"Come off it, this is the third 'vintage of the century.' Three already, with 2000 and 2003, and we are only in 2006. It's a bit much."

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Aussie grape dumping begins

Tens of thousands of tons of Australian Riverland wine grapes will be dumped on the ground or left to rot on the vine this season.

As I reported back in February, the drastic action was looming because of a national oversupply of grapes that would force down wine prices.

Some South Australian growers have been left with no market for their fruit because some could not get contract renewals with wineries and some had contracts suspended. Industry officials say the region's lost income could hit at least $65 million.

Glenn Arnold, a grower in Loxton who was interviewed by ABC television, said, "We're just trying to survive. Everybody says there's swings and roundabout and you know good times are followed by bad times, bad times are usually followed by good times ... . We've just got to hang in there.

"If we don't we're out, we're gone. And that will happen to some people unfortunately and that's pretty bad."

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Shiny new Trucks on the road to market

Red Truck of Sonoma, CA, is best known for its Red Truck and White Truck blended wines. They may take a back seat for a while as promotion attention is lavished on four new single-varietal wines: 2004 Red Truck Cabernet Sauvignon, 2004 Red Truck Merlot, 2005 White Truck Chardonnay and 2005 White Truck Pinot Grigio.

Red Truck was introduced in 2002 by Fred and Nancy Cline of Cline Cellars, wrapped in an eye-catching label created by local artist Dennis Ziemienski. It was a blend of syrah, petite syrah, cabernet franc, mourvedre and grenache, made by Charlie Tsegeletos. When Wine Business Monthly named it one of the "hottest small brands of 2004," the Clines and Tsegeletos last year added White Truck, a blend of sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, chardonnay and viognier.

Dan Leese and Doug Walker, who purchased a majority interest of the brand from the Clines last year and formed the Axiom Wine Co., are behind the latest expansion of the line.

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Texas cracks down on wine shipping

Texas has, for years, had a law on the books banning ordering wine from any out-of-state location. But, showing some common sense in favor of consumer freedom of choice, it has been operating under a 2001 court-orderd injunction not to enforce the law because of questions about its constitutionality.

That, apparently, has changed. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has been sending out cease-and-desist notices to out-of-state retailers that "were shipping the wine in illegally," according to TABC spokeswoman Carolyn Beck.

The state legislature passed Senate Bill 877 last May, allowing out-of-state wineries to ship wine directly to Texas consumers, but prohibits out-of-state retailers from doing the same thing.

The notices have prompted several members of the Sacramento, CA-based Specialty Wine Retailers Association and three Texas wine consumers to file suit against TABC Administrator Alan Steen. They allege the TABC action violates the U.S. Constitution's commerce clause.

"They basically invited this particular lawsuit by sending out these cease-and-desist orders," says John Hinman, a partner with Hinman & Carmichael LLP in San Francisco and general counsel of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association.

Of course, not all wine retailers are opposed to the TABC stance.

Jim Cubberley, manager of Austin fine wine merchant Lake Travis Wine Trader, told the Austin Business Journal that out-of-state wine retailers have been making sales without adhering to the same regulations he must contend with, such as those that require working through Texas' three-tier system of wine importers, wholesalers and retailers. That system adds about 20 percent more to the cost of his wine, as compared to the products sold by out-of-state wine shops, he says.

"People are able to sidestep the local retailers such as us by purchasing things that we cannot purchase," Cubberley told the Journal. "It's hard to be competitive with the extra hoop that we have to jump through."

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Worried French put wood in wine, not vice versa

The sagging French wine industry often tries to put a good face on its situation despite increased global competition and less than stellar sales.

That now will be a little more difficult to accept since the French government plans to allow vintners to flavor their wine with wood shavings, a technique French winemakers have derided as the work of lesser mortals.

Adding wood chips to wine to increase oak flavor has long been practiced by some winemakers in the U.S., Australia and South America. The idea is to avoid the cost and time involved in aging wines in oak barrels.

"The use of wood shavings is already authorized by the European Community and will soon be entered into national regulation," France's Agriculture Ministry said in a formal statement, an effort to "open up the range of authorized winemaking practices."

Wine purists in France predictably have objected to the move, but others in the industry are all in favor of it. As Roland Feredj, director of the Bordeaux wine council known as CIVB, told the Associated Press:

"It is a remarkable and very realistic advance -- it's practically miraculous. In general, France always wants to give lessons to the rest of the world, and in winemaking we are realizing that the Australians and the Americans also have things to teach us about wine regulations."

The decision comes just a week after the government announced a $108 million bailout to help the national wine industry. More than $14 million of that sum is earmarked to increase exports. The industry has been on the decline in terms of sales and prestige for a half-dozen years, losing the leadership position in numerous countries as other nations' wine industries have grown and improved.

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Breaking the Cornell code

NY70.0809.10.

NY73.0136.17

NY62.0122.01

Mmmmm, that's wine.

Those are the current designations of three wines in the Cornell University grape breeding program that will be named in July.

Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva in New York's Finger Lakes region is the center of creation of new grape hybrids. One of the most successful recent products is the Traminette grape, a superb descendant of Europe's Gewurtztraminer -- gewurtz the German word for spicy, tramin for the northern Italian town that was home to a grape varietal brought to France by Napolean's troops.

The above-mentioned species will get their names in July. Then it is up to winemakers whether they want to use that name on their labels or sell the wines as generic stuff, like Joe's Red Wine. For the most part, winemakers like to use the official names to sell to an increasingly wine-savvy market.

I had the opportunity to try the code-named wines during a visit last weekend with owner/winemaker John Brahm at the Arbor Hill Grapery, a small but very productive winery and specialty foods manufacturer in Naples, N.Y., on the west side of Canandaigua Lake.

Brahm, 63, a Cornell grad who was born and raised in the Finger Lakes, is someone to listen to when he's excited about a grape. His track record for producing award-winning wines is admirable. Among his most recent triumphs were a pair of gold medals in the 2005 New York State New York Wine & Food Classic with a best-of-class Rhine Street White and a 2002 Classic Traminette.

Brahm shared a taste of NY70.0809.10 (SV 18-307 x Steuben), a light-bodied, late-maturing vinifera type wine with an emphatic blueberry nose, finishing with a darker berry flavor and a hint of vegetal notes.

The NY73.0136.17 (NY33277 x Chancellor x Steuben), a mid-season maturer, has a distinct peppery character with moderate tannins and a much more complex structure.

"My biggest decision now is whether to leave these alone, or figure out exactly how I want to blend them," Brahm said. "Sometimes you get it just right on the first try and shouldn't keep fooling with it. I'll have to give that some more thought."

The third coded grape (Couderc 299-35 x Muscat Ottonel), also a mid-season ripener, is a highly-flavored muscat that would be best used in blending or as a dessert wine. It has a banana start and citrus finish that immediately makes one think of pleasing food accompaniments.

Whether any of these three will join Traminette as an emerging star will take several years to determine.

Traminette was the fifth wine grape cultivar to be named by the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, following the release of Cayuga White in 1972, Horizon in 1983, Melody in 1986 and Chardonel in 1991.

It's a late mid-season white wine grape that has shown good productivity, partial resistance to several fungal diseases, and cold hardiness superior to its parent Gewürztraminer. Traminette resulted from the cross of the Gewurtz and the Joannes Seyve 23.416, made in 1965 at the University of Illinois, which abandoned it, then picked up and planted by Cornell in 1968. The first fruit was in 1971 and the original vine was propagated in 1974.

Traminette is considerably hardier than Gewürztraminer and the equal of other similar cultivars such as Seyval, Vidal blanc, Cayuga White and Aurore. Three growers in New York and one each in Georgia, Maryland, Missouri and Michigan tried test-growing it in its infancy, with the best results in New York leading to the spread of its use there, where it ripens in the early October.

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Constellation firmament expands again

Constellation Brands Inc., the world's largest winemaker, is shelling out $1.09 billion to buy Vincor International Inc., the Canadian company.

The purchase is Constellation's ninth since 2000 as it added Robert Mondavi Corp. and the Australian vintner BRL Hardy Ltd. Constellation had made two unsolicited bids and a hostile tender offer for Vincor late last year, all of which were rejected, before agreeing to a friendly takeover.

"We're combining our brands with the scale and distribution and marketing capabilities that the much larger Constellation brings to the party," Vincor CEO Donald Triggs said in a media interview.

Constellation is based in Fairport, near Rochester, NY. Vincor, founded in 1874, is based in Mississaugua, Ontario, but owns wineries in Canada, California, Washington, Australia and New Zealand, turning out such wines as Inniskillin, Toasted Head, Jackson-Trigg and Kim Crawford.

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NY wine center on a very fast track

FROM THIS ...

... TO THIS ...

Photos by William M. Dowd

... IN JUST SEVEN MONTHS,

CANANDAIGUA, NY -- The New York Wine & Culinary Center project has gone from groundbreaking ceremony in August 2005 to under roof and 10 weeks from a projected soft opening.

I toured the facility, on the shores of Canandaigua Lake near Rochester, NY, this weekend and -- confession time -- was amazed at the rapidity of construction.

Walking through construction-dust-coated corridors, offices and public spaces, the impressive upscale Adirondack-style design was unveiled -- from multi-hued, handworked wood wainscoting, stair railings, display shelving and counters to a 36-station kitchen, slate-floored rest rooms and views of the lake, the roughly $7 million project is coming together at a pace that some doubters, me included, have difficulty believing.

The center, noted director Alexa Gifford, will include entrance landscaping geared toward representations of indigenous plants from the region.

"We'll have local flowers and shrubs, grape vines and the like that will set the mood for visitors," she said. "Americans in general are used to pulling into a parking lot that leaves you right up to the door. We'll be guiding people along a path that creates a mood, and then they'll walk into this beautiful facility that will build on that atmosphere."

The center is being financed by $2 million in state funding and the rest from various private funds. The major private backers are Centerra, formerly known as Constellation Brands, the locally-headquartered company that is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of alcoholic beverages; Wegman's Food Markets, a five-state chain based in Rochester, and Rochester Institute of Technology's Hospitality and Service Management School.

The mission of the Center will be to foster knowledge in the wine, agriculture and culinary arts industries across New York State. To do so, the Center will offer hands-on courses in culinary science; interactive exhibits on New York State agriculture, foods and wines; demonstration space; and a live garden outside of the building.

"We have been doing a lot of talking to various businesses and organizations that, understandably, are asking, 'What's in this for me? Aren't you competition?',' said Gifford. "We've been explaining that in no way will we compete with private businesses. We're here to enhance an understanding and support of New York's wonderful food and wine products. They like knowing that, and we're planning to work with schoolkids as well as tourists and businesses."

The 15,000 square-foot facility will include a tasting room with a rotating selection of wines from New York's major regions (Niagara/Lake Erie, Finger Lakes, Hudson Valley and Long Island), a wine and tapas bar for light meals and wine-and-food pairings, a theater-style demonstration kitchen, a training kitchen for hands-on cooking classes, and industrial kitchens for credited culinary classes and corporate training. It also will house the offices of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation.

Agriculture is one of New York's most vital industries, encompassing 25 percent of the state's landscape and generating more than $3.6 billion last year. It has 7.6 million acres of farmland with 36,000 farms and is the nation's third-largest wine-producing state after California and Oregon.

The project marks a major step in increasing the visibility of New York's wine industry to tourism and agribusiness interests. How significant the industry is to the state is shown in a just-released report from MKF Research, a California-based consulting firm analyzing New York's situation.

With 31,000 acres of vineyards, 212 wineries and 1,384 grape farms, New York is the nation's second largest wine producer after California and the third biggest grape grower behind California and Washington.

Wineries, grape producers and related businesses in New York, from liquor stores to makers of bottles, glasses and labels, account for almost 36,000 jobs and a $1.3 billion payroll, the state-funded study reported.

In addition, it said that wine sales alone generate $420 million in sales, but the state industry's multiplier impact on the economy came to $3.4 billion in 2004.

A FEW MORE VIEWS

Photos by William M. Dowd

Alexa Gifford discusses the Center's progress with Jim Trezise, head of the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.

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Washington wine center under way

Wine tourism marches on. As western New York sees construction proceeding at a rapid clip on a center for wine and food near Canandaigua Lake that it hopes will draw tourists, ground has been broken in Washington state for the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center (seen here in architect's drawing).

It's a $9.2 million center, located in Prosser in the Yakima Valley wine region, that its backers foresee as both a destination for tourists and a place for winemakers to gather.

The facility, expected to open in May of next year, will have a 17,500 square-foot building, vineyards, organic gardens and a public park. The main building will have a restaurant, exhibition galleries, a theater, a demonstration kitchen, wine bar and a retail shop.

The center's namesake is the late Walter Clore, regarded as the father of Washington wine. The state is the No. 2 producer of premium wine in the United States, trailing only California.

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Attention, wine-loving manly men

Let the backlash begin.

First it was winemakers unashamedly creating products aimed at the female market. Now, the latest niche is ... men?

Yup. Ray's Station, a California winery, has launched a line of merlots and cabernet sauvignons it says is just for men -- the kind who like to hunt and fish, as Ray's ads portray them; the kind who like manly emblems, like the galloping stallion on the label of "Hearty Red Wines for Men" (about $15 a bottle).

Brian Hilliard, head of marketing for Ray's Station, says they will produce no white wines before their time, or any other time. Whites, the folks at Ray's proclaim, are for women.

So, who exactly in that huge market niche labeled "men" is the target demographic?

Says Hilliard, "These guys, they're married; they've got a couple of kids. Wine is part of their lives, but it's not integrated in a way that they really force themselves to be knowledgeable."

Ray's Station is a six-year-old Sonoma County operation owned by Jackson's Estate Brands. Its production advantage is having a surplus of hillside-grown grapes from Jackson properties in the Alexander, Knights and Bennett valleys of the county.

"We have a lot of plantings and always have an excess of juice," Hilliard told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Cabernet and Merlot in the $11 to $15 category is the hottest in the industry, so we're hitting that point with wines made from 90 percent mountain fruit. We make some money, and the customer gets one heck of a value. It's not a brand that's going away. We can sustain Ray's Station for years to come."

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An ancient land revives love of the grape

A few years back, I hosted a wine tasting at which I supplied the basic lineup but invited guests to bring a bottle along. The catch: It had to be from a country bordering the Mediterranean.

The average person's geographic knowledge being, regrettably, as shaky as it is, many of them were lost once they got past a short list covering Spain, Italy, Greece and France. Some suggested Portugal, then realized that was off base after checking a map. Others automatically excluded a number of countries, assuming no wine would come from predominantly Muslim countries. Still others did their homework.

By the time the evening was over, everyone knew you could find wines from such Mediterranean-bordering lands as Turkey, Slovenia, Greece, Albania, Croatia, Morocco, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria and Egypt.

While most of those countries don’t produce what most people would regard as fine wines, you can find a few gems if you look hard enough.

I regard Slovenian wines, for example, as the Rumanian wine of the 2000s. Just as Rumania was sending us dirt-cheap, big-taste reds from the Premiat winery back then, Slovenia is sending us dirt-cheap, big-taste reds from the Avia winery today.

One of these days Turkish wines may regain the cache they had in bygone eras. Wine grape cultivation is increasing in that bi-continental nation on the eastern end of the Mediterranean, a region that in biblical times was known for its high-quality wine and which some modern researchers believe may well have been where wine originated.

The topic of wine-grape growing and winemaking can be prickly in Turkey, where Christian and Muslim practices sometimes clash.

Of course, when it comes to reality checks, commerce often trumps everything else. Take Wine Istanbul 2006, a trade show that was part of the 5th annual Gourmex Fair that just wrapped up in the Turkish capital of Istanbul.

Among the gourmet products being displayed and sold there to a gaggle of industry insiders will be wine, raki, vodka, whiskey, cognac and beer, according to its organizers. And, to show it's not a passing fancy, the show will offer exhibits of wine production equipments.

One example of the uptick in Turkish wine interest can be seen in a rural area of central Anatolia, about 65 miles north of the capital of Ankara. There along the Kizilirmak river in an area of treeless hills, about 20 of the 40 families in the tiny village of Uyurca grow wine grapes.

When the Ozbek family began planting grapes, "Our neighbors said it was wrong, against Islam, to produce wine. They said our soil would dry up and it would no longer rain or snow. But that was more than 10 years ago," Cengiz Ozbek, 37, said in an interview with IOL, a South African news service. "Then they saw how much money we started to make. Now they, too, are planting vineyards."

Turkey is the No. 4 producer of grapes in the world, but only 2% is used in wine production.

As IOL notes, "Nearly all Turks are nominally Muslim, but the country's secular system keeps religion on a tight rein and has long fostered a tolerant attitude towards alcohol despite the Koran's teaching that it is sinful."

"The old imam here was against the vineyards, but he left and was replaced by a younger, more pragmatic man who says it is a matter for the individual's own conscience," Ozbek said.

Uyurca boasts a mild microclimate and soil ideal for grapes. The villagers now produce about 500 tons of grapes annually, up from just 12 tons in their first harvest in 1996. It sells its entire production to Kavaklidere, Turkey's largest winemaker.

At one time, Christian Greeks and Armenians dominated the Turkish wine industry. When the empire collapsed after World War I, many left Turkey. Kavaklidere was founded by Turkish entrepreneurs in Ankara in 1929 and had the support of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, president and founder of modern Turkey.

Today, Kavaklidere has a production capacity of 18.5 million liters and a 35% share of Turkey's registered wine market. It exports about 20 percent of its total production, mostly to Europe. Its best-selling wines are Kalecik Karasi, Okuzgozu and Narince.

Another major player is Doluca, which got a $15 million upgrade two years ago that resulted in a new winery with the latest winemaking technology. Doluca has an annual production of 10 million bottles, with Villa Doluca and Ozel Kav its leading labels.

The main hassles Turkish wineries are facing today are a large illegal liquor market, which is cutting into domestic sales of alcoholic beverages and an ever-increasing tax burden. Tax on wine has grown by more than 100% since the Justice and Development Party (AKP), an Islamic group, came to power in 2002. Tax on beer has risen by 50% and on raki, the most popular liquor, 26%.

The AKP says it has no plans to outlaw alcohol, insisting it only wants better regulation of the trade.

As to the quality of Turkish wines, the smaller, independent wineries turn out some interesting blends. Kavakladire's mass-market wines are a decent middle-of-the-road product. Noted wine writer Daniel Rogov offers his tasting notes on a fairly broad range of Turkish wines I have found helpful.

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Russian official seeks ban on some wines

Gennady Onishchenko, head of Russia's State Sanitary Service, has proposed a ban on the import of wines from Georgia and Moldova, citing health concerns.

"I request that legal measures be taken to stop imports of wine and wine-making products from Moldova and Georgia and manufactured on the territory of these republics," Onishchenko said in a letter addressed to the head of the Federal Customs Service, according to the RIA Novosti news service.

There is nothing inherently wrong with wines from the two former Soviet Union republics. The problem lies in a growing market for low-quality, unregulated bootlegged wines being sold as high-end Georgian and Moldovan products.

Citing numerous violations of health regulations, Onishchenko suspended health and hygiene permits for wine imports from the two countries effective Monday. The ban will stay in effect, he said, until the violations are eliminated.

Hygiene authorities in Moscow have already suspended wine import permits because 60% of the wine imported from the two countries allegedly fails to meet health safety regulations and is stored without documents indicating that pesticides were used during the wine-making process.

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A hardcore passion for wine

Francis Coppola. Fess Parker. Greg Norman. Madonna. Sting. Olivia Newton-John. Natalie Oliveros. The list of celebrities-turned-vintners, or at least hiring winemakers to produce their signature wines, is growing at a rapid clip.

By the way if you don't know who Greg Norman is but you do know who Natalie Oliveros is, well, we know something about you.

Oliveros (seen here) is better known to her fans as adult video actress Savanna Samson. But to the wine world, she's a serious member of the community because of her Savanna Sogno Uno ("Dream One" in Italian) wine. In fact, she has produced wines for the Vatican.

Oliveros/Samson, 31, is from Watertown in upstate New York. She's the star of "The New Devil in Miss Jones." Her new wine just received a score of 90-91 out of 100 from the phenomenally influential wine guru Robert Parker for her Italian red. On Parker's scale, a score of 90-95 describes "an outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character."

The wine was developed under the hand of Roberto Cipresso, a noted Italian winemaker Oliveros recruited for her project. Her husband, a wine merchant in Italy, introduced her to Cipresso.

"I never wanted to just do gimmick. That would just happen with me being a porn star, me having a photographer shoot the label, how risque could I get on the label — all those things," Samson said in a media interview. "I knew I wanted Roberto to make my wine. I just love his passion."

The wine label is Savanna, with the Sogno Uno its premier item. It's a blend of Tuscan grapes -- 70% Cesanese, 20% Sangiovese, 10% percent Montepulciano.

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Italians claim grape science breakthrough

It might sound like a wild overstatement, but Italian scientists claim to have cracked the life code of the pinot noir grape plant, a breakthrough they say is to change the future of winemaking.

Experts from the San Michele all'Adige Agrarian Institute on Monday unveiled the results of six years of research in which they decoded the plant's genome -- the complex molecular chains that constitute each organism's unique genetic heritage, according to the ANSA news service.

"Today's event is agriculture's equivalent of the first moonwalk," said Riccardo Velasco, head of the team that decoded the DNA sequences. "Agriculture will never be the same again" .

Pinot noir, often known as pinot nero in Italy, is the first fruit and only the second food crop after rice to have its genetic material laid completely bare, ANSA reported.

Francesco Salamini, a former researcher with the Max Planck Institute and a member of the Institute's board, said the advance will lead to benefits for the environment because the information about the plant's gene sets will make it possible to produce new pesticides that protect it better but have less of an impact on the ecosystem.

ANSA said the research shows that the pinot noir genome is spread across 12 chromosomes and is made up of around 500 million bases of DNA. The institute, based in the northern Italian province of Trento, collaborated in the project with the US firm Myriad Genetics Inc., which has taken part in decoding human and rice genomes .

"It's a historic moment," said Mark Skolnick, Myriad's chief scientific officer. "Let's hope that next time we can toast with wine obtained from this research."

Pinot noir is a red grape used by winemakers everywhere. It is somewhat delicate, but is widely considered to produce excellent wines.

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'Co-op' wines emerging in New York

Wineries at both ends of New York are creating what I like to call co-op wine.

Three Finger Lakes wineries have teamed up to create Tierce, a 2004 vintage dry riesling that will be released on May 5 at a dinner at the Red Newt Bistro featuring foods created by that restaurant along with Fox Run Bistro and Madderlake restaurant.

Peter Bell of Fox Run, Johannes Reinhardt of Anthony Road and David Whiting of Red Newt each contributed a portion of riesling wine, made from fruit grown on the slopes of Seneca Lake, to create 100 cases of a single wine. They also chose to use a screw cap closure because, as Bell said, "corks, natural or synthetic, have a tendency to affect the wine's aroma.

Down on Long Island, five winemakers have created Merliance, a 100% merlot blend with two barrels each from Pellegrini Vineyards, Raphael, Sherwood House Vineyards, Shinn Estate Vineyards, and Wolffer Estate Vineyard.

It will be unveiled on April 3 at Craft restaurant in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, also on the New York wine front, Chateau Buffalo is officially open for business.

The husband-wife team of Carl Schmitter and Suzi Maciejewski have created the first winery in Buffalo and Erie County, featuring their own dessert wines along with a selection of New York wines from various regions and many “Pride of New York” agricultural products such as jams and jellies, pickles, maple syrup, mustard, chutneys, etc.

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Yakima Valley appellation split

The Rattlesnake Hills, southeast of Yakima in central Washington, has become the state's ninth federally recognized wine grape-growing region.

The U.S. Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved the Rattlesnake Hills for appellation status, effective March 20. The federal bureau awards appellation status to regions, also known as American Viticultural Areas, to recognize their distinct climate and soil features.

The 68,500-acre region lies within the Yakima Valley appellation, stretching from Union Gap, just south of Yakima, to north of Sunnyside about 45 miles to the east. Its loam soils hold moisture better than some other Washington areas and it historically is slightly warmer than the rest of the Yakima Valley appellation.

Gail Puryear, owner and winemaker at Bonair Winery in Zillah, and his wife, Shirley, were among proponents of the new appelation.

"We can ripen the warmest varieties, the sun-loving varieties like syrah and nebbiolo, but we have micro-climates because of the varying topography," he told the Associated Press. "Riesling does well in the cool micro-climates. We grow everything in between."

Dick Boushey, a Grandview grower who opposed the appellation request, told the AP the issue had become divisive in some corners. Half the 26 parties submitting comments to the government were opposed to the division of the current appellation.

"It just shows I don't really understand what it takes to be an AVA, and I guess I have a little bit less regard for what an AVA is," he said. "Whatever happens, we all need to work together. There probably will be more AVAs in the future, and I think we all want the same thing: to promote the area in any way we can."

If the application met all the criteria to be named an appellation, it just gives the Washington wine industry one more opportunity to market itself, said Robin Pollard, executive director of the Washington Wine Commission, a promotion agency funded by member fees on growers and wineries.

The Chelan area in north-central Washington and the Ancient Lake region near Moses Lake in central Washington have proposals for appellation status pending.

Washington is the No. 2 producer nationally of wine, after California. More than 350 wineries, 350 wine-grape growers and 30,000 vineyard acres support the more than $2.5 billion annual industry.

South Africa short on white wine

The glut of grapes in such major wine-producing areas as Australia and France certainly isn't being echoed in South Africa.

There is what industry analysts call "an acute shortage" of white wine in the Cape region, following last year's devastating drought after a surplus just three years ago.

This season's harvest is slightly better than the previous one, but still insufficient for domestic and export markets, leading to an increase in the already short supply of white wine.

Henk Bruwer, chairman of Wine Cellars South Africa, told SABC News, "We have to satisfy the demands of the local consumers and when you do that you have to make sure that you actually satisfy the trademark you are building, satisfy the palate and taste of the consumers. Don't let consumers down in a wine industry."

Because prices are determined by supply and demand, consumers are likely to have to pay more and wine sellers will have to import more as well.

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U.S.-EU wine agreement signed

Winemakers in the U.S. and European Union got some protection for their practices and labeling Friday when the two entities signed an agreement to facilitate bilateral trade in wine valued at $2.8 billion annually.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the agreement actually was reached back in September after 20 years of negotiations but could not be finalized until the EU’s agricultural ministers granted approval, which came in December 2005.

Among key points:

• The U.S. agrees to curb the use of European geographic names such as "chianti" or "burgundy." Both sides agree to recognize certain names of origin such as Champagne in each other's market, simplifies certification requirements and defines parameters for optional labeling elements of U.S. wines sold in the EU market.

• The EU’s recognizes certain wine-making techniques used by U.S. vintners and a consultative process for accepting new wine-making practices. One of the major differences between U.S. and European vintners, for example, is the common use by Americans of oak chips to achieve a flavor European wine makers achieve by aging their wines in oak barrels.

The Europeans have long objected to the use by some U.S. winemakers of what some cal "semi-generic" labels, insisting they are specific to the regions in which the wines are made. Under Friday’s agreement, however, American wineries currently using them are exempted, something industry analysts speculate will continue to anger many European producers.

"Wine makers on both sides of the Atlantic have the right to be proud of how tradition, climate and expertise combine to create unique tasting experiences,” said Rob Portman, U.S. Trade representative. “This agreement honors these differences."

In 2004, global U.S. wine exports exceeded $736 million, with exports to the European Community more than $487 million, according to the USTR release. Total U.S. imports of wine from other countries in 2004 were nearly $3.4 billion, and U.S. imports from the European Community exceeded $2.3 billion.

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Willy Frank dies at 80

Willy Frank, the outspoken New York winemaker who built on his immigrant father's belief that the Finger Lakes could become a major wine producer, is dead at the age of 80.

Frank died in his sleep during a business trip to Naples, FL., according to his son, Frederick.

Dr. Konstantin Frank, who fled Ukraine during World War II to come to the U.S., was one of the prime movers in planting delicate vinifera grapes. Willy took over in 1984 and moved the project well beyond those humble beginnings to create a successful, highly regarded company,Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars, based on the shores of Keuka Lake.

More than half of New York's 212 wineries grow viniferas, which are rapidly replacing native labrusca and French-American hybrids that long gave the Finger Lakes a reputation for inexpensive, simple wines. Rieslings and gewurtztraminers have emerged as the most successful of the high-end grapes.

In addition to son Frederick, Frank is survived by his wife of 49 years, Margrit, his daughter, Barbara Guior of Summit, N.J., five grandchildren and two sisters.

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