Tag: Food

Should the label on a bottle of Pinot or Pilsner match what’s on a can of soda? Alcoholic beverages are regulated by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), not the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They’re subject to different regulations than most foods and drinks. But now TTB has proposed that new labels should get a more serious look, which has many wondering what it could mean for winemakers.

Some vintners have resisted labeling requirements, which they say would put an unreasonable economic and logistical burden on producers and risk alienating consumers with potentially confusing and misleading information. But others think greater transparency would help wine. “I want to know what I’m drinking and I want that to be on the label,” says Pascaline Lepeltier, sommelier and co-owner of the restaurant Chambers and partner at Chëpìka, a Finger Lakes wine project.

A bottle of Fanta must include nutrition facts, including the recommended serving size, and a complete ingredients list, but a bottle of Lambrusco passes regulatory muster by listing its percent alcohol by volume—and even that requirement isn’t as strict as many consumers might assume. If a wine contains sulfites (a common, if occasionally controversial, preservation agent) at a level of 10 or more parts per million, FD&C Yellow No. 5 or cochineal extract (both of which are dyes used almost exclusively in spirits), the label must also disclose those facts.

Current TTB regulations allow, but do not require, winemakers to list ingredients. If winemakers choose to do so, they must follow a tight set of naming rules and include all ingredients. Likewise, winemakers may voluntarily disclose nutritional information. TTB currently allows the use of many additives for “treatment of wine and juice.” Some of these, such as egg whites (for fining), tartaric acid (to achieve balance when acid in grapes is too low) and sulfur dioxide (to preserve the finished wine) are familiar to passionate consumers. Others, such as dimethyl dicarbonate (DMDC), a sterilizing agent, and polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (PVPP), a clarifying agent, are less well-known and can be controversial among winemakers.

All of this may soon change, though substantive new regulation is by no means guaranteed. In response to an executive order by President Biden, the Treasury Department conducted research and released a report, “Competition in the Markets for Beer, Wine, and Spirits,” in February 2022. That report asserted that TTB should “prioritize labeling rules that protect consumers and public health, while reducing or eliminating any regulatory requirements that create compliance costs and can be barriers to new entrants or burdens to small businesses.” It also observed that “regulatory proposals that could serve public health and foster competition by providing information to consumers, such as mandatory allergen, nutrition, and ingredient labeling proposals, have not been implemented.”

In short, the report espouses a belief that more robust labeling requirements may increase competition by making the market more transparent while protecting public health. This view directly contradicts the arguments of many opponents of increased regulation, who hypothesize that the costs of complying with labeling regulations will unfairly impact small producers.

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Responding to the report, TTB has announced potential rulemaking on three separate labeling issues: ingredients, major allergens and statements of alcohol and nutritional content. At this time, no actual proposals are on the table. At various stages in the process, the public (including both industry players and consumers) will be invited to comment. It’s important to note that TTB has taken similar steps many times before. Over the past several decades, occasional tweaks have been made to labeling regulations, but the agency has never gone so far as to require ingredient or nutritional labeling on wine.

Do increased labeling regulations, particularly around ingredients, truly stand to serve the interests of consumers, winemakers, and the industry at large? Many winemakers hope that greater transparency will help wine drinkers make more informed choices. On the other hand, some in the industry fear that transparency about ingredients and additives, many of which have unfamiliar and perhaps even scary names, could turn off potential consumers. They also worry about the costs of annual analysis and labeling; since wine differs from vintage to vintage, labels would have to constantly change in order to remain accurate. Ingredient and nutritional analysis can be costly, especially when it must be done year after year for each individual bottling a winemaker produces.

Maria Rivero González, CEO of RGNY, a Long Island producer, told Wine Spectator that she thinks customers would appreciate ingredient labeling, and that “we as producers should be able to say what we use in our wines.” She worries, however, about the possibility that “sometimes consumers don’t have enough information to discern if an ingredient is good or bad. Producers can be transparent about ingredients but still sell a bad wine.”

Lepeltier says she “100 percent” wants to see ingredient labeling requirements. She stresses the need for labels to include not only ingredients but also additives and what are often termed “technological agents” or “treating materials.” The sommelier dismisses the argument that ingredient analysis is cost-prohibitive, pointing out that winemakers already conduct their own extensive analyses at harvest and for export to foreign markets that require it. And then there’s the regulatory and economic burden currently placed on producers who wish to earn organic, biodynamic, or sustainable certifications.

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But when it comes to nutritional labeling, Lepeltier is unconvinced. She feels it’s specious to focus on wine’s calorie count (which for dry wines derives from the alcohol molecule itself, not sugar, and is essentially standard across the board) without considering wine’s other nutritional aspects: namely, the potential health benefits of wine’s non-alcohol components, especially polyphenols, which are still incompletely understood. Moreover, such nutritional labeling opens the door to potentially disingenuous claims of “low-calorie” or “low-sugar” wine by brands marketing an inferior product to health-conscious consumers. A poorly farmed, additive-heavy, low-alcohol wine, for instance, could appear to be “better” (that is, less caloric) than a sustainably farmed, well-made wine with a normal amount of alcohol.

Adam Lee, who co-founded Siduri and now makes Pinot Noir under the Clarice label, opposes the idea of increased labeling requirements. “Some will say that means that I support hiding what is in a wine from the public, but nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. Lee points out that unlike most packaged foods, wine changes every vintage. “That means that the label would have to change from year to year.” And TTB and authorities in multiple states need to approve many, though not all, changes to a label—and processing times, while currently modest, can vary, creating potential logistical puzzles.

“What if a winemaker decides a few days before bottling that the wine would be better with a tartaric acid addition? It is too late to put that on the label, so the winemaker has to either make a poorer quality wine and be legal or choose to make a better wine but break the law.”

He has another concern. “Ingredient labels are actually additive labels.” He points out that yeast would be listed as an ingredient even when it is filtered out of the final wine. If a wine is naturally high in acid, which some consumers might like, tartaric acid wouldn’t appear on the label (even though it’s present in the wine) because a vintner wouldn’t need to add any.

Is there a label rule that would inform consumers accurately? There will undoubtedly be a lot of public comment before TTB finds one.

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Fort Worth darling Tim Love, known for bold takes on Southwestern cuisine at his signature Lonesome Dove Western Bistro and elsewhere, has opened a New York–style Italian joint in the Stockyards, the lively Western entertainment district where visitors can shop, dine and witness a cattle drive all in an afternoon.

Caterina’s doubles down on Love’s commitment to Italian food, following the 2019 opening of Gemelle, which leans Italian but makes room for pizzas topped with pickled jalapeños, rabbit-rattlesnake sausage and other distinctly Texas fare. No rattlesnake to be found at Caterina’s, where the compact menu is strictly Italian—the name Caterina means “pure,” according to the restaurant’s website. Dishes include classics such as beef carpaccio Piedmontese, cacio e pepe, rigatoni alla vodka, linguine alle vongole and veal chop parmesan.

Likewise, the streamlined wine list hews to established regions and names from Italy, with the bulk of offerings comprised of reds from Piedmont (Ceretto, Bruno Giacosa and Paolo Scavino make appearances) and Tuscany (Sassicaia, Tignanello and Ornellaia compete with a number of Brunellos for diners’ attention). That said, there are some nice surprises from Sardinia, Friuli, the Veneto and beyond. Eleven by-the-glass offerings join a thoughtful cocktail menu, perfect for before-dinner libations or a quick drink at the bar, which is open to walk-ins.

Blake DeWater, the general manager at Love’s restaurant Queenies, in nearby Denton, designed the wine program in collaboration with Love and Caterina’s general manager Fausto Belloli, who grew up in northern Italy. DeWater described the list to Wine Spectator as “eclectic, stylish and refined selections that complement the flavors of Caterina’s timeless cuisine.” He’s glad to “pay tribute to the culture [of Italy] by helping create a list that is not only dominated by Italian selections, but completely free of the ‘usual suspects’ from Sonoma and Napa that, due to their familiarity, can sometimes overshadow amazing Italian wines on a small list.”

The absence of Napa Cabernet isn’t the only thing that sets Caterina’s apart. The restaurant has generated buzz for its traditionalist house policies: Staff wear crisp white dress shirts, bow ties and red vests, and jackets are required for gentlemen diners. In order to preserve the Sinatra-infused, intimate atmosphere, guests are required to (gasp!) place their cell phones in a pouch, provided upon arrival by the server, for the duration of the meal. Those seeking an Instagram-worthy selfie or a place to text during the meal may wish to look elsewhere. But for anyone craving an uninterrupted, genuine taste of old-school Little Italy—increasingly hard to find, even in New York City—Caterina’s is worth seeking out.—K.M.

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Maialino Alums Open Gus’s Chop House in Brooklyn

For years, wine professional James O’Brien worked at Danny Meyer and Union Square Hospitality Group’s Maialino at its original, now-closed Wine Spectator Restaurant Award–winning location, eventually becoming a manager. In summer 2017, O’Brien co-founded a restaurant of his own with fellow Maialino alumnus, chef Chris McDade: Popina, a Southern Italy–focused establishment in Brooklyn’s Columbia Street Waterfront District. This past August, O’Brien and McDade premiered their next concept in Carroll Gardens, Gus’s Chop House, where wine and meat are the stars.

“When the space came up, we really jumped on it,” O’Brien told Wine Spectator via email. “It was important for [the former owner] to pass the restaurant onto people who were neighborhood-centric, because he was there for a while and built a great community.”

The meat-friendly, 300-wine program is largely seasonal, as are Gus’s by-the-glass and cocktail lists. France is central, with plenty from the Rhône Valley and Bordeaux, and there’s even more from California, Chile, South Africa, Italy, Spain and Germany, among other regions. Fans of Burgundy can enjoy bottles from domaines like Mugneret-Gibourg and Roulot, while a selection of grower Champagnes include names like Jacques Selosse. Still, the list offers many value wines, with more than 110 bottles priced less than $100.

“The ethos behind the list is like [that at] Popina: producers doing the right thing,” O’Brien explained. “I think of the producers more as farmers versus winemakers, people who are making the right decisions in the vineyard and making wines with little intervention.” O’Brien notes that the wine list will evolve over time, influenced by local preferences and wider movements in the wine market.

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McDade weaves multiple influences into Gus’s menu: traditional chop-house dining, European cuisine and regional produce. “Everyone has their idea of what a steak or side of potatoes should taste like,” the chef said. “It’s our job to deliver the nostalgia while considering how we might do a dish in a different way or with ingredients that might be unexpected. Restraint plays a large role in our process.” The results are dishes like hash browns and smoked trout roe, mackerel with peanuts, caraflex cabbage in a soubise and chicken with French onion jus. There are, of course, cuts of lamb, pork and beef to choose from, including a pork porterhouse and a dry-aged New York strip.

Inspired by bistros and chop houses in Europe, Gus’s team has worked with local designers and artisans to conceive the restaurant’s interior, from the cherry-wood bartop to the weighty tables. Outdoor seating will be available on the restaurant’s deck in the future. Guests can also expect wine events; before opening officially, the restaurant hosted a dinner spotlighting Jean-Louis Chave’s wines, and there are plans for similar dinners going forward.

“We”re creating the restaurant we want to eat at, and we hope others feel the same way,” said O’Brien. “The food is simple, but delicious. The wine list has something for everyone. And the vibe is fun.”—C.D.

Longtime California vintner Fred Franzia, the co-founder of Bronco Wine Co. best-known for his Charles Shaw brand, aka “Two Buck Chuck,” passed away Sept. 13 at age 79. He will be remembered as a larger-than-life character who expanded the reach of California wine with budget bottlings that offered consistent quality.

Franzia founded Bronco Wine Co. with his brother and cousin in 1973, shortly after his family sold their Franzia wine brand to the Coca-Cola Company. Bronco is well-known for its budget line of Charles Shaw wines, known affectionately as “Two Buck Chuck” and sold almost exclusively at Trader Joe’s grocery stores. The Franzias operated Bronco in Modesto, Calif., with a wine lineup primarily sourced from bulk wine in California’s Central Valley. Franzia was also the nephew-in-law of Ernest Gallo.

Over the years Franzia developed a reputation for brash dealmaking and acerbic remarks, renowned for verbally sparring with the likes of Robert Mondavi and Sam Sebastiani. He built Bronco into one of the largest wine producers in the U.S. with a brazen attitude and no-holds-barred business practices, closely watching grape price trends so he could find value and pass it along to customers. He liked nothing more than buying excess wine from top producers and blending it into his value-priced bottlings.

In a 2006 article, Wine Spectator labeled Fred the “Bad Boy of California Wine” for his mantra that fine wine was overrated and overpriced. He held a disdain for high-end wine.

Bronco was originally set up as a négociant, sourcing bulk wine and also distributing other brands. But opportunity knocked in the 1980s, as Bronco began buying foreclosed vineyards and selling much of the fruit to other producers. In 1990, Bronco lost the distribution rights to Benziger’s Glen Ellen wine brand, after which Bronco laid off 175 employees. Franzia stated of losing Glen Ellen, “those were the worst business dealings we ever had, building up that brand without building up Bronco. From that point on we wanted brands that we owned because you couldn’t trust people.”

Franzia followed up on that: Bronco acquired numerous budget wine brands in the 1990s. However, his greatest success may have been acquiring the Charles Shaw name in 1995 for a mere $25,000. What had been a failed Napa Valley winery, he built into a $1.99-a-bottle empire ($2.99 outside California), arguably creating a new market segment for ultra-budget wines, and streamlining distribution exclusively through the Trader Joe’s grocery chain as an additional cost-saving measure. Franzia famously retorted when asked how he made wine cheaper than a bottle of water, “They’re overcharging for the water. Don’t you get it?”

Franzia’s brashness extended to his wine labeling practices as well. In 1993, he was indicted by a federal grand jury for selling bottles of wine labeled Zinfandel but containing cheaper varieties. He also fought the Napa Valley Vintners over a 2000 California law requiring wines labeled with the word “Napa” to contain at least 75 percent Napa Valley fruit. He tried to skirt it by purchasing brands that had Napa in their names. Franzia lost in court but some of his brands were grandfathered in, allowed to keep “Napa” on their labels despite having no Napa fruit inside the bottle.

Despite his intense image, Franzia also had a charitable side. He made substantial donations to the American Vineyard Foundation, which funded viticulture research, and helped endow a faculty position for viticulture at California State University, Fresno. He is survived by his five children, Renata, Roma, Joseph, Carlo and Giovanna; 14 grandchildren; his brother, Joseph; and his sisters, Joellen and Catherine.

Wine investment funds are having a moment—again. After the collapse of several such funds a decade ago, triggered by the abrupt Chinese retreat from the luxury wine market, they are again coming on strong. While their methods differ, all wine funds project a common message: It’s smart to augment your traditional portfolio of stocks and bonds with an alternative investment in ageworthy wine.

“You are looking for a low-volatility asset that is uncorrelated to the rest of the economy, and that’s what wine is,” said Tom Gearing, co-founder of London-based wine investment firm Cult Wine. Case in point: When the stock market plunged during the 2008 financial crisis, investment-grade wine prices barely budged. So far in 2022, wine is again ignoring stocks: The Liv-ex 1000, a composite of the most widely traded investment-grade wines, is up 8.6 percent, while the S&P 500 is down 16 percent, as of Sept. 1.

Fine wine, so goes the argument as framed by the funds, is not only an alternative asset but a “wasting asset.” That is, soon after a highly praised vintage hits the market, bottles start to be consumed, often well before they reach their ideal drinking window. As their count diminishes, the remaining bottles inevitably rise in price. Only once they have reached peak maturity does the upward price pressure relent. Long before that point, an alert wine investment firm will have sold the wine you invested in at a profit—and taken its cut.

But wine is not as straightforward an investment as shares in a company or government bonds. Investors should do their research and understand how the funds work and how much they will pay in fees. Is this sort of liquid investment such a good idea?

An American push

Wine investment funds were once more popular in Europe than in the U.S, primarily due to tax and storage in bond rules, but that’s changing. Taking advantage of a fairly steady multiyear upswing in prices of collectible wines, two U.S.-based wine investment funds have launched successfully since 2019, while London-based Cult, aiming to penetrate the North American market, opened sales offices in New York and Toronto in 2021.

In all, more than half a dozen wine investment funds on both sides of the pond are currently targeting customers to invest in wine for eventual profit, pleasure, or both. At least, that’s the plan.

The hardest charging of the new funds is San Francisco–based Vinovest. Barely three years old, Vinovest claims to have already snagged 11,000 investors and to hold almost half a million bottles of wine purchased for them. Last spring, during en primeur season in Bordeaux, Vinovest tried to grab notice by hosting a webinar at top Pomerol property Vieux Château Certain.

Vinovest’s founder, Anthony Zhang, already a serial startup entrepreneur at age 27, is a relative newcomer to the wine business. “I saw the rise of people moving to alternative investments as a key tailwind,” Zhang told Wine Spectator. “I looked at art, classic cars, handbags, but it was wine and whiskey that really stood out to me.”

Zhang claims that his fund’s “average users are in their thirties, not their fifties,” and he believes that at least some of this cohort is looking for shortcuts to getting into wine. “Say goodbye to rigorous research … we do the hard work for you,” states Vinovest’s website homepage. At the bottom of the homepage, a crawl appears to announce new customers in real time: “A client from Texas just deposited $85,000 … a client from New Jersey just deposited $20,000, a client from the United Kingdom just deposited $9,896 ….” But the crawl simply repeats, month after month, with no new clients popping up.

New Vinovest customers, advised by a “team of world-class sommeliers,” can purchase a personal wine portfolio for as little as $1,000. The fund charges an annual fee for authentication, storage, insurance and “active management” ranging from 2.85 percent to 2.50 percent depending on the amount invested. Additional fees include a 3 percent penalty for asking Vinovest to sell your wine within three years of purchase.

Vinovest says it sources its necessarily high volumes of client wines from “wineries, global wine exchanges and merchants.” What happens when clients want to sell their wine? In a Q and A, the fund tells investors that “we will sell your wines to the highest price buyer in our network. This process typically takes two to three weeks.”

But the fine print in its terms and conditions is less reassuring: “You may, at any time, ask that we liquidate your portfolio. However, Vinovest is under no obligation to do so … [and] is not required to purchase your wine from you or to find a third-party purchaser should you wish to sell any of your wine.” Asked about ease of selling wine held by his firm, Zhang said, “If you stick to the plan then you shouldn’t have a problem selling it.”

What is that plan? According to the fund’s website, “Vinovest investors typically hold their wine for five to 10 years.”

Buying shares of wine

The other recently established U.S. fund, Virginia-based Vint, boasts a unique concept: It offers only SEC-registered series of shares in mini-wine portfolios—about three dozen since its 2019 start-up (a few collectible whiskey series have also been offered).

As at Vinovest, investors can spend as little as $1,000 to buy shares in a Vint series. An early offering of a 10-case vertical of Château Lafite Rothschild covering vintages 2010 to 2019 was priced at $120 per share. The full offering of 1,210 shares reportedly sold out in 55 minutes. A 3-bottle unit of Domaine Leroy’s Richebourg 2015, valued at $70,000 and priced at $100 per share, also quickly sold out.

As for selling your stake in Vint, you can’t. You must wait for the fund to cash out any portfolio you may own shares in. Vint projects, for example, that the Lafite series will be sold between 2023 and 2027, the Richebourg trio between 2025 to 2027. The proceeds, minus Vint’s “sourcing” fees of up to 10 percent (in lieu of annual fees), will then be returned to shareholders.

Last July, Vint executed its first successful cash-out, selling a fifth of a collection of 284 bottles called Champagne Stars. Held for just over a year, the bubbly had increased in value by a per annum rate of almost 22 percent, according to the fund.

Like Vinovest’s Zhang, Vint’s founder, former banker Nicholas King, is a newcomer to the wine business. “I looked out there at the wine investment world, and it seemed opaque, inefficient and largely inaccessible,” said King. “You could send $25,000 to some guy at a fund in the U.K. and might not even know what wines you were getting.”

More investment than beverage

Both Vinovest and Vint, among other funds, seek wines from vineyard regions worldwide on behalf of clients. One that does not is London-based Wine Investment Fund, which claims to be the “first independent wine investment fund seeking to generate above-average returns from a professional investment in wine.” Founded in 2003, this London-based fund restricts its portfolio to selected vintages of just Bordeaux first-growths and “super-seconds”—360 wines in all.

“For us, it’s all about ‘risk screens,’” said fund co-founder Andrew della Casa. While some funds buy en primeur, when wines are still in barrel, della Casa won’t do that. “If you look at price volatility in a wine’s first four years,” he explained, “it can be quite high—too high for us. Our catalog is framed by risk aversion. For that reason, we also don’t look at any property that produces less than 15,000 to 20,000 cases annually. Buying stuff is easy, but selling is tricky. So we need to focus on wines with a deep secondary market—wines such as Latour 2000 or 2005.”

Della Casa acknowledges that “superb” wines do come out of other wine regions. But he believes that because emerging regions are still growing, their value could shift more over time. Bordeaux’s top estates are less volatile, guaranteeing a more reliable return.

The minimum investment by private investors in della Casa’s fund is £10,000 ($11,700). There’s a “subscription fee” of 5 percent, an annual management fee of 1.5 percent and a performance fee, similar to what hedge funds charge, of “20 percent of net returns above the high watermark.”

Strictly speaking, only firms such as della Casa’s or Vint, in which clients own shares rather than individual wines, may be called wine funds. Others, such as Cult and Vinovest, which do hold individual wines owned by clients, might best be called wine investment platforms.

It’s normal to cast a cold eye on the fees that every wine fund takes. But, as Justin Gibbs, co-founder of Liv-ex, sees it, those fees can be justified: “I can invest the money in my pension fund myself, of course,” Gibbs said. “But there’s still a role for a fund manager who is spending full time studying the market and making clever decisions. The same applies to wine fund managers.”

Funds like these are focused on returns, rather than consumption. If you have used a fund to buy specific bottles outright, they can be delivered to you to be enjoyed at your own table. But if the wine has been in a European bond warehouse, brace yourself for add-on duties, taxes and shipping.

Sad fact for U.S. investors: Unlike their U.K. counterparts, they cannot sell a wasting asset, such as fine wine, free of capital gains tax. Also worth remembering: While wine investment funds may hold firm during financial market downturns, they will not, unlike a vast array of stock and bonds, pay dividends or interest.

If an investment wine is to be eventually sold, buyers will want assurance of impeccable storage. Wine funds provide that service. The British have long had a network of climate-controlled bonded warehouses where wine hibernates free of duties and taxes until it is released to an owner. “Any wine investment company worthy of its soul will be using bonded storage in the U.K.,” said Martin Pruszynski, a wine advisor at London-based fund WineCap. “It’s the guarantee that wine has only and ever been stored properly. When a wine has left bond, it can never go back in.”

Would-be wine investors need to watch out for fraud. In June, the FBI arrested a British man for allegedly orchestrating a scheme that swindled over $13 million from more than 150 victims in multiple states. Perpetrated primarily by cold calling elderly victims, the scammers allegedly promised big profits on wine that, once purchased, would be held on behalf of clients in a bonded U.K. warehouse.

Given the long bull market in wine prices, it shouldn’t be a surprise that no major wine fund has floundered. Should rough times come, however, the tide could turn: Instead of investors clamoring to put money into the funds, there could be a rush to take money out. As the Vint platform says, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

One sign that the good times are not perpetual: Liv-ex’s bid-to-offer ratio dropped from January to June from 1.8 to 0.8, meaning that more merchants now want to sell wine rather than buy it. Another sign of potential market-cooling winds to come: The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index declined for the first time in over two years, dipping 0.3 percent, and the Fine Wine 50, tracking prices of the Bordeaux first-growths, declined 0.9 percent. “Rising inflation and fears of recession are undoubtedly setting the scene for a testing autumn and winter period,” Liv-ex’s Katherine Hewitt told Wine Spectator.

Wine as asset class

It’s no secret that a wide range of sought-after wines, especially from Bordeaux and Burgundy, are now unaffordable to wine lovers of moderate means. Even those who can afford to pay for those wines may forego them in favor of bottles that can satisfy for far less. Does the marketing of wine investment funds contribute to the upward spiral of prices? Are they turning wines made with love and dedication into pure commodities, like pork bellies?

The owners of RareWine Invest, a wine investment and brokerage firm based in Denmark, claim the opposite. In an essay on its website, titled “The Wine Investor vs. the Wine Romantic,” they argue that, “In the pursuit of stability and returns, the wine investor contributes to fewer wines being lost as a result of incorrect handling” and to “ensuring that more wines are drunk only when they are ready to drink …. Without the wine investor, more wines would perish, and the supply of mature wines would be smaller and the prices thus also higher.”

But there’s another truth held by many a wine lover. It’s summed up by Rob McMillan, founder of the Wine Division at Silicon Valley Bank. “I do get the investment side of wine,” he told Wine Spectator. “And I know people will say that certain wine prices have gone up more than, say, Apple stock. Personally, I just look at wine as what I drink with friends.”

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Auction of Washington Wines (AWW) celebrated its 35th year by raising $4 million for Seattle Children’s Hospital, the Washington State University Viticulture and Enology program and industry grant partner Vital Wines, which is “dedicated to ensuring vineyard and winery workers are recognized, valued, and have access to healthcare and other important resources.” After going virtual for two years, most events—including the gala auction, winemaker picnic and barrel auction, and Toast!, a celebration of longtime and up-and-coming Washington wine industry leaders—were held in person on the grounds of Chateau Ste. Michelle.

“For our 35th annual gala, we had the added bonus of being able to gather again in one large tent, and the energy in the room was palpable,” Laura Kleinhofs, AWW associate director, told Wine Spectator. This year’s festivities, which were held the second week of August, brought AWW’s cumulative fundraising total to over $59 million.

The live auction gala raised more than $1.03 million. The top lot, which sold for $250,000, was “Best of Bordeaux,” a five-night trip to some of the region’s best wineries with DeLille Cellars founding winemaker Chris Upchurch. The next highest-selling lot, “Antinori Classico,” also combined luxury travel and wine, offering two trips to the Antinori family vineyards in Tuscany to “discover the roots of Col Solare,” the Red Mountain winemaking partnership between Antinori and Chateau Ste. Michelle.

Another experiential lot included VIP winery tours at Melka Estates and Quintessa. As in other recent auctions, large-format bottles proved popular in the wine-only lots, one of which included 10 double magnums of Cayuse wines and sold for $12,000.

A whimsical, wine-related lot generated some of the most frenzied bidding of the evening: Numbers 00002 through 00006 of the newly designed Washington Wine license plates, which were recently approved after three years of lobbying and won’t be available to the public until November, garnered $35,000.

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Located in New York’s Greenwich Village, the One Fifth Avenue skyscraper has been home to several memorable Manhattan restaurants, starting with the original One Fifth, a destination for both the building’s co-op residents and local and visiting celebrities. (Keith and Brian McNally worked there before becoming famous restaurateurs in their own right.) Later, there was a 1990s seafood reincarnation from the team behind Gotham Bar & Grill, followed by the Batali & Bastianach–owned Otto Enoteca e Pizzeria, which closed in 2020.

On Aug. 9, chef-restaurateur Marc Forgione revived the One Fifth Avenue restaurant space as One Fifth, a collaboration between Forgione and Apres Cru Hospitality (co-founded by Master Sommeliers Dustin Wilson and Sabato Sagaria with Eric Engler). Forgione already runs Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence winner Restaurant Marc Forgione, Award of Excellence winner Peasant and its adjoining wine bar, but One Fifth is the first opening under Forgione’s new Respect Hospitality group.

“It’s been a dream of my family to open up a restaurant that can showcase the way the Forgiones eat when we all get together,” Forgione told Wine Spectator via email. “Huge antipasti platters being shared, conversations around a big table, lots of wine.”

Using ingredients from the nearby Union Square Greenmarket, Forgione and executive chef Robert Zwirz offer a different take on Italian cuisine from Peasant’s focus on a wood-fired grill, with dishes like smashed burrata with peach, Hamachi crudo, Snowdance Farm chicken piccata, prime hanger steak with green tomatoes and house-made pastas, which join desserts from chef Jami Callao. The menu features a section devoted to pinsa (an oval style of pizza developed in Rome), which Forgione’s father, chef Larry Forgione, helped put together.

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Wilson and Sagaria oversee One Fifth’s wine program. The list—interspersed with helpful information on wineries, regions and varieties—features about 350 labels and is focused on Italy, offering everything from Barolos to Amarones to Chiantis to Sicilian reds. California also plays a key role here, with picks like Sonoma Chardonnay, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and Santa Ynez Syrah, and there is a lengthy selection of Champagne and other sparkling wines. Across the list are noteworthy verticals from leading wineries like Biondi-Santi, Heitz and Silver Oak, to name just a few.

While the program spotlights leading wineries with older vintages, there are also many bottles priced less than $100, helping create a more approachable and lively experience for guests. There are plans to grow the list over time, with continued focus on well-known producers, as well as newer names in Italy and California. One Fifth also offers an extensive by-the-glass list with its own reserve wine section, along with special, rarer bottles poured at the bar. The restaurant will host wine and amaro tastings and wine dinners in the future.

Alongside One Fifth’s wines, Jeff Bell, owner of East Village cocktail bar Please Don’t Tell (the speakeasy-style bar famously located behind the phone booth in Crif Dogs, and another Apres Cru partner), has created a variety of Italian-influenced drinks, including the Gran Torino, a mixture of Sazerac rye, Barolo Chinato and Ratafia di Andorno cherry liqueur.

The team at Brooklyn-based 71 Collective kept history in mind when designing One Fifth, restoring the space’s 1970s terrazzo floors and its revolving door, while mixing traditional Italian elements with Art Deco features. The restaurant’s host stand was built from a 200-year-old butcher’s block, and 19th-century chandeliers light the 145-seat dining room. Guests can also sit at the 50-seat bar.

“As a born and raised New Yorker, raised in the restaurant industry, I have so much respect for storied spaces,” said Forgione. “The One Fifth bar, in particular, has always been such a communal place for the neighborhood, and I can’t wait to give that back.”

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Barcelona Wine Bar Comes to Cambridge, Mass.

With 18 Best of Award of Excellence–winning locations, Barcelona Wine Bar has helped popularize Spanish cuisine and wines throughout the United States. On Aug. 15, a 19th location premiered in historic university town Cambridge, Mass., not far from Cambridge Common and the Harvard University Museum of Natural History, making it the third Barcelona Wine Bar in Greater Boston.

Like its sibling locations, the Cambridge restaurant focuses on small plates, inspired by Spanish and Mediterranean cuisines. There is a sizeable selection of cheese and charcuterie, featuring jamón serrano, Sobrasada, aged Manchego and much more. These join the many seasonal tapas prepared by executive chef Jose Ochoa, who has been with the Barcelona Wine Bar group since 2016, including grilled octopus with salsa verde, tuna crudo with pickled shallots, fried okra, pork belly with piquillo puree and spiced beef empanadas. Larger dishes include roasted branzino, lamb fideos, chicken pimientos and several paellas, with several desserts available as well.

Alongside this menu is a 400-label wine list, overseen by Barcelona Wine Bar group beverage director Emily Nevin-Giannini, working with the group’s VP of creative, Gretchen Thomas. Spain forms the core of the program, which spotlights many of the country’s leading wineries: Rioja’s Marqués de Murrieta, R. López De Heredia and La Rioja Alta; Ribera del Duero’s Bodegas Emilio Moro, and Priorat’s Clos Mogador, to name a few. Guests can sample much of Spain’s bounty from the by-the-glass list of 50 wines, along with 3-ounce pours of Sherries in a range of styles and selected wine flights. There’s plenty beyond Spain on the bottle list—with wines from Argentina, California, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Uruguay—with a focus on smaller, family-owned wineries and an emphasis on value, with many selections under $50 a bottle.

“I am thrilled to have opened a restaurant in Cambridge,” Nevin-Giannini told Wine Spectator via email. “Boston is dear to my heart. I lived [there] for five years during the beginning of my sommelier career with Barcelona Wine Bar.”

The new Barcelona Wine Bar’s design takes inspiration from the Ramblas area of its namesake city, with visual references to Harvard University’s classrooms and to midcentury design, particularly the work of Danish furniture designer Poul Cadovius. The 117-seat dining room centers on a U-shaped bar, with art throughout; guests can also enjoy dinner outside on the streetside patio.

“Cambridge is a tight community,” said Barcelona Wine Bar culinary director Emilio Garcia. “I’m excited to see how we can grow here as one of the neighborhood staples. [It] feels great to be neighbors with some of my oldest chef friends in Cambridge.”

On the afternoon of Aug. 14, a violent storm and small tornado hit the French town of Bédarrides, with 120 mph wind gusts and large hailstones inflicting damage in vineyards along the eastern side of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. According to reports from local vignerons, the primary impact was felt in La Crau, the famed vineyard on a plateau in the southeast of the appellation, considered by many to be Châteauneuf’s finest parcel. Well-known wineries, including Vieux Télégraphe, Château La Nerthe, Château de Nalys, Domaine La Boutinière and Guillaume Gonnet, among others, source fruit from this lieu-dit for their top cuvées.

“We estimate that we have lost today between 70 percent to 90 percent of the grapes in our Vieux Télégraphe plots,” Daniel Brunier, the fifth generation to run his family’s estate, told Wine Spectator. Brunier describes the vineyard—where his family has grown grapes since 1890—as “completely shredded; not a leaf is left. Only a few partially bruised grapes remain attached to the vine.” As a result, Vieux Télégraphe Blanc 2022 will not be produced, he reports, adding it’s still too early to tell if any Vieux Télégraphe Rouge 2022 can be made.

“The grapes themselves are destroyed and so are the leaves,” said Kelly Gonnet, who owns and operates Guillaume Gonnet with her third-generation winemaking husband. “It was so violent, and we can see many trees have been split and uprooted around the village. The good news is that none of the vines in La Crau were uprooted and they should make a full recovery for the next vintage. The vineyards on this plateau are over 100 years old and it would’ve been heartbreaking if they were permanently damaged.”

Others reported that significant hailstorms pummeled the neighboring village of Courthézon and damaged surrounding vineyards, many of which lie within the Châteauneuf appellation. Some have estimated that 25 percent of Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s vineyards were affected, though the growers Wine Spectator spoke with said that the full extent of how much fruit was lost will not be known until harvest. No site was as severely impacted as La Crau, they say.

“On the other side of Châteauneuf, at Château Maucoil, we did not even have any hail,” said Benoit Lavau of Maison Lavau, which farms vineyards across the Southern Rhône. “The storm was very localized.”

Described as a “tornade Americaine” by the French newspaper, Le Dauphiné Libéré, for its resemblance to weather phenomenons more commonly seen in the U.S. South and Midwest, it was a highly unusual weather event.

“We can say without hesitation that this was the first time that such an event occurred here in living memory,” Brunier explained. “We have been affected by hail in the past, particularly [in] 1963 and 1964, but absolutely nothing comparable to what happened on Aug. 14.”

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This was the latest freak weather occurrence in a season filled with evidence of a changing climate; Europe has experienced a summer marked by extreme drought, heat waves and forest fires. Two days after the wind and hail ripped through, on Aug. 16, record-breaking thunderstorms in Paris triggered destructive flash flooding; two days after that, heavy rain and hurricane-force winds over 136 mph left eight dead in France and Italy.

In spite of the damage and lingering uncertainty, Southern Rhône vignerons remain optimistic about the overall 2022 vintage. “It was a real shock to lose so many grapes to this natural disaster, but we are extremely grateful no one was hurt and the remaining grapes are in excellent condition,” said Gonnet. “We are hoping to see a vintage that is very nice in quality, obviously smaller in quantity.”

Brunier, too, is looking on the bright side, grateful that the Mistral winds have been “blowing intensely ever since the tornado,” so the ripe fruit that survived will be dry and rot-free. “The quality of the fruit is superb, and continuing to mature in other plots that historically ripen later, as well as our vineyards in Gigondas, where we produce Domaine les Pallières, and in Ventoux, where we produce red and white Pigeoulet as well as Mégaphone.”

“Luckily, our profession is one of passion,” said Brunier, “which enables us to see the positive side.”

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The 24th annual V Foundation Wine Celebration brought over 450 wine lovers to Nickel & Nickel winery in Oakville, Calif., on Aug. 6 and raised nearly $6.5 million for cancer research. The auction was one of several events in a weekend celebrating the legacy of Jim Valvano, the basketball player, coach and ESPN broadcaster known as Jimmy V, who died of cancer in 1993. Since 1999, the auction has raised more than $137 million to support the V Foundation’s total of more than $290 million in research grants awarded nationwide.

“Jim Valvano’s legacy impels us to ‘never give up,’ and courage was definitely the theme this year,” said Wine Celebration founder Julie Maples, in a statement.

All of this year’s 25 live-auction lots included wine, and many of the top lots featured large-format bottles. The top lot was a methuselah, or 6-liter bottle, of Screaming Eagle 1992. The bottle, which sold for $270,000, was donated by Screaming Eagle founder Jean Phillips in memory of Ron Kuhn, the founder of Pillar Rock and a longtime supporter of the Wine Celebration. Only two such bottles were produced from the 1992 vintage.

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Other auction highlights included “The Royal Treatment at Wimbledon,” which featured magnums of Nickel & Nickel Branding Iron and CC Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon in addition to Wimbledon tickets, luxury Oxfordshire lodging and lunch with Sarah, Duchess of York. Another lot included a melchior, or 18-liter bottle, of Kathryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon 2008.

In addition to the auction, the weekend included a gala dinner, the Answer for Cancer Symposium and the Rock the V party at The Estate Yountville. The weekend was hosted by former Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and former NFL defensive end Devon Still. Of note this year was the Title IX luncheon, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the landmark civil rights law and featured four elite female athletes—including Kikkan Randall, an Olympic champion in cross-country skiing—who are also cancer survivors.

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The Russian River Valley and Joe Rochioli Jr. are inseparably connected. Raised on his family’s farm on Westside Road in Healdsburg, Rochioli never left, save for college and the Army. He was the patriarch of the region, an integral citizen of the city of Healdsburg, and a proud, hardworking farmer who helped earn the Russian River Valley a reputation as a world-class site for Pinot Noir. Rochioli died late yesterday at age 88.

According to his son Tom, Rochioli suffered a stroke in September 2020 and had been in and out of the hospital since. “He fought hard,” said Tom. “He was a tough guy.”

When the Rochioli family started making wine under their namesake label in 1987, they carved out their own style and proved quickly to be one of the top Pinot Noir producers in California. Part of their success lies in the designated blocks within their namesake vineyard: East Block, West Block, Three Corners, River Block, Little Hill and Sweetwater. They were believed to be one of the first in the valley to divide their vineyard into parcels for specific bottlings.

Of 128 acres, 64 are devoted to Pinot Noir. About 50 percent of the estate grapes are used to make Rochioli wines, and the rest are sold to other wineries, including Williams Selyem and Gary Farrell, whose Rochioli bottlings are consistently in high demand among collectors. Today, there’s a waiting list for producers hoping to purchase Rochioli Pinot Noir.

Joe Rochioli Jr. grew up a small-town sports star. When he entered high school, he was already 6-feet tall and weighed 160 pounds. His linebacker build came from daily farm labor. His father, Joe Sr., was primarily in the hops business, but also farmed beans, as well as 50 acres of grapevines. Rochioli worked on the farm every day before and after school.

Before leaving for college at California Polytechnic State University, Rochioli organized the first Future Farmer Fair in Healdsburg, which is still held today. He majored in animal science but took all the agricultural electives he could. In 1957, he was drafted into the Army, where he helped conduct research on radiated foods and vitamin deficiencies. After leaving the service in 1959, Rochioli returned home to work on the family ranch and played semi-pro baseball for the Healdsburg Prune Packers.

Rochioli took over the grapegrowing from his father and wanted to expand the ranch’s varieties. He talked his father into planting Sauvignon Blanc. He visited UC Davis and chose budwood from one particular favored row and returned home to plant 10 acres on the estate. All the vines at UC Davis were soon removed, and Rochioli was never able to obtain more. The clone planted at Rochioli Vineyard is a mystery, but frequently produces a highly rated wine and favorite among fans of the winery.

“We planted Sauvignon Blanc and French Colombard in 1959 and spaced the rows 14 feet so we could plant two rows of string beans in between,” Rochioli told Wine Spectator in 2017. “They grew pretty well and we irrigated the beans and the grapes at the same time. We gave up on beans in 1964.”

Rochioli then begged his father to plant Pinot Noir, but before he could say yes or no, Joe Sr. died. Rochioli pulled out all the remaining vines that weren’t Sauvignon Blanc and planted Pinot Noir. “My dad passed away in 1966 and I’d been trying to get him to put some varietals in because I had been reading books when I got out of college,” said Rochioli. “I was really interested in grapes. They intrigued me. I read about French Burgundies. I couldn’t find any [Pinot Noir] budwood and a friend told me about a guy south of St. Helena who had French clones. So, I started planting in 1968.”

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He sold his first crop to newcomer Davis Bynum, whose 1973 bottling was among the first to carry the words “Russian River” on the label, though the appellation would not become an approved AVA for another 10 years.

Rochioli was a humble, proud farmer, committed to his land, usually waking at 4 a.m., working 10-hour days, six days a week. Among his many talents was being one of the first and most proficient field budders. Before the 1970s, grafting was done in nurseries, but Rochioli led the trend of “field grafts” to meet demand. Stories tell of him grafting 500 vines per day at multiple properties in the county.

Rochioli was also one of the first to pull leaves to reduce vigor and a leader in lowering vineyard yields for better quality grapes. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Copia Wine Grower of the Year Award. “Everybody is doing what I started,” he said unabashedly. “I was one of the first ones to pull leaves and I did it for Sauvignon Blanc. First one to thin. I did that for Pinot Noir. Now everybody is doing and making pretty good wines.”

His son Tom now runs the family estate. Joe Jr. is survived by his wife, five children, and about 900,000 vines planted on 128 acres, because it’s all about the vineyards for Rochioli, and always has been.

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Víctor Urrutia has been closely following the wildfires raging across different parts of Spain this summer. He has to—he’s the co-owner, with his sister María, of estates in five Spanish wine regions, including the historic CVNE (Compania Vinicola del Norte de España) winery in Rioja.

As Europe has experienced one of its hottest summers on record, Spain has grappled with dozens of wildfires throughout the country. The northeastern wine-producing region of Navarra was stricken in June. In recent weeks regions on the western border with Portugal and to the south have been battling blazes, including Galicia in the northwest, down to Castilla y León and Extremadura, as well as parts of Andalucia, in the south.

“I checked with Agroseguro (an organization that manages agricultural insurance in Spain) and a lot of [wineries] haven’t declared their fires yet,” said Urrutia. Wildfires recently blazed through his Virgen del Galir property in the Valdeorras region of Galicia. “So far [Agroseguro has had claims] in Valdeorras, Ribera Sacra and Monterrei—those three in Galicia—and Navarra. According to them, the hardest hit to date has been Navarra.”

Urrutia reports that wildfires have consumed more than 12,000 acres in Valdeorras, although the vast majority of it was forests. He lost 12 of Virgen del Galir’s 98 acres to the flames.

“We’re still assessing [the damage], because the thing about these fires is that they’re extremely fast. And we don’t have a lot of experience with them.”

Unfortunately, vintners across Europe are gaining experience fast. Wildfires have scorched or come close to wine regions in Spain, Portugal, France and Greece so far this summer. And even those who have been spared smoke and flames are dealing with a more widespread threat: the heat. July has brought temperatures over 100° F for multiple days with little relief across the continent. London hit 104° F on its hottest day.

For vintners, that has meant trying to keep vines healthy and grapes growing. Many worry that yields will be down dramatically this year, after several small harvests in recent years. And hanging over everything is the concern that this is the new normal as the climate shifts.

Heat and smoke in Bordeaux

“Climate change—we’re living it,” said Bruno Samie, director of viticulture consultancy at the Gironde Chamber of Agriculture in Bordeaux. “Over the last seven months, we find a water deficit of [3 inches] and average temperatures nearly 2° C higher.”

The team at the Chamber of Agriculture has been comparing data between 1991 and 2021 with the first seven months of 2022. Their numbers also revealed that low temperatures in 2022 are 1.24° C higher than the previous 30-year average, and high temperatures are 2.44° C higher.

The high temperatures combined with the drought could limit the yields for the 2022 harvest in Bordeaux if the situation doesn’t change. In fact, if anything sets 2022 apart from recent years, it’s the combination of high temperatures and low rainfall. “We’ve already lived through temperatures over [104° F], but so early and with so little water in the year, that’s rare,” said Samie.

Other French regions are facing similar conditions. “The drought has evolved dramatically,” said Jean-Christophe Payan, after visiting the Ardèche and Rhône Valley. Payan is an agro-engineer specializing in water management and water stress for the French Institute of Vine and Wine (IFV). “The soils have the same water level that are usual at the end of August.”

The good news is that vines are Mediterranean plants. “In terms of water stress, vines are adapted to and formatted for drought,” said Samie. But the vintners’ goal is not just the survival of the vines but the production of ripe, healthy grapes into wine. The heat makes that far more challenging.

During this most recent heat wave, experts reported that vines were stopping vegetative growth, leaves were drying out, the plants were suffering some defoliation and loss of volume in the berries. “All of that accumulates,” said Samie. Vines that grew rapidly during a warm spring are now slowing. In Bordeaux, the vegetative cycle was more than two weeks in advance of the average cycle, but the drought has caused the vines to slow down, and now the vegetative cycle is about a week in advance.

The worst-hit vineyards are those planted on deep sand or gravel soils with little water retention or those planted with young vines that lack sufficiently developed root systems. “They’re going to have worries either in quantity or quality or both,” said Samie. “For most of the older vineyards in Bordeaux, where the root system will look for water wherever it is, there’s no major problem.”

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Then there are the fires. In the Bordeaux region, there were two massive wildfires, finally brought under control by 2,000 fire fighters after destroying 52,000 acres of woodlands. The Landiras wildfire, which charred 34,000 acres, borders the Sauternes and Graves regions, but did not advance into the vineyards. For much of the time the flames were burning, winds were generally blowing from the northeast, pushing smoke away from vineyards.

Is there a risk of smoke taint? “I don’t think so,” said Gilles de Revel, a professor of enology at Bordeaux’s multidisciplinary Science Institute of Vine and Wine (ISVV). “We will know when we analyze the wine, but the risk is very slight, even zero.” Although the wind did shift in the direction of the vineyards toward the end of the blazes, it was very high in the sky and could be smelled on only a few occasions.

Until now, smoke taint has not been a topic of concern in the region, but for more than a year now, Revel has argued that that needs to change. Zones like the Médoc and Graves are close to forests, making them higher risk than, say, St.-Emilion.

Fires across Spain

According to the Spanish government, nearly 193,000 acres of land had burned, as of July 17, and several blazes have continued to rage.

Looking ahead to recovery, Urrutia points out that vineyards are natural firebreaks. “In our case, the fire actually jumped the narrow, lower part of the Galir River—it was extraordinary. The fire is all-consuming, but in spite of that, the vineyard can act as protection against the fire.” He adds that due to the rapid speed of the fire, his team believes that with a lot of work, and with time, the damaged parts of the vineyard can be restored.

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The growing season in Valdeorras was going well when the fires started. Most parts of vineyards were experiencing veraison, the onset of grape ripening marked by a change in color of the grapes. Regarding the possibility of smoke taint in finished wines from 2022, Urrutia can only speculate. “There’s really no way of knowing at this point. One advantage we have is that we always vinify every plot separately, so we’ll do that, and then we’ll see.”

While Urrutia is optimistic about recovering the impacted vineyards with time, the destruction of surrounding forest could impact biodiversity and microclimate. “And in the short-term, there’s a risk of erosion, as well as not ever recovering the forest.”

Rainfall in Spain since October 2021 is 25 percent lower than normal, according to the National Security Department, and the temperatures have been consistently hot, peaking at 114° F on July 16. Lightning strikes and human negligence have contributed to the wildfires, but arson is suspected as the cause of at least some of the fires.

95° F in Portugal—at night

Portugal had already been experiencing one of the driest agricultural years in memory when the summer heat wave arrived. To add insult to injury, thousands of acres of forest have been consumed by wildfires in multiple regions, sometimes bordering vineyards and cellars.

Winter and spring brought little to no rain. Water reserves both in reservoirs and in the soils dropped to historic lows, and many crops were compromised. Precipitation was smaller than half that of an average year and one-third of that of 2021. Vineyard irrigation is often forbidden by local regulations, and grape yields are already looking far lower than the usual, mostly due either to severe sunburn or the formation of small bunches, since the plants concentrate their energy reserves in their survival, rather than their reproduction.

In the middle of July, temperatures were recorded around 120° F in Pinhão (the heart of Douro Valley), but worse than that, the overnight low was 95° F. This extreme weather lasted for more than a week, causing the vines to shut down growth to protect themselves. Cellular growth stopped, and the veraison process was delayed.

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Temperatures have dropped since, with day temperatures at a more typical high of 100° F and nighttime lows below 70° F, allowing the vines to return to their steady progress toward harvest.

Luís Duarte, owner of Luis Duarte Vinhos and chief winemaker of Herdade dos Grous in Baixo Alentejo, reported that his expectations for the harvest are still optimistic, but the crop will be small, mostly because of the small bunches. Small grape clusters usually produce very concentrated wines, so hopes for a qualitatively great year are still alive.

Luís Louro of Herdade do Monte Branco in Central Alentejo reported that some vines are showing water stress, but it depends a lot on different soils’ ability to retain water. Vines in clays and more fertile soils are looking healthy at this point. The concern is a great deal of heterogeneity, in the vineyard, and often in the same plant, with some bunches pre-veraison and others already showing their red colors.

Traveling north, Sandra Tavares da Silva of Wine & Soul in the Douro reported a similar situation, with a delayed ripening process. Old vineyards are dealing with the heat in a better shape, and the slow maturation allowed by the recent drop in temperatures and increased night humidity may result in very balanced wines.

In Palmela, south of Lisbon, some varieties were suffering from sunburn, according to Filipe Cardoso of Quinta do Piloto. Then a wildfire broke out around Piloto’s vineyards and wine cellars, close to the town of Palmela. The vineyards proved to be a firebreak, but the hot winds destroyed most of the grapes. Cardoso, his staff and local firemen worked tirelessly to save his cellars from the flames. In a Moscatel block that lost most of its production, the remaining grapes will be vinified separately and Cardoso plans to donate proceeds from sales to the fire station.

The fires have also brought unwelcome memories. In 2017, Portugal suffered from its most devastating wildfires in recent history, with 116 people killed. Unfortunately, many worry that the rising temperatures and shrinking rainfall will bring similar tragedies in years to come.