▻ Omnibus Tenth Edition
Episode Ten
Episode Summary:-
Who are the audacious couple who stole the 1806 Yquem and bottles of Domaine de la Romanée Conti from Atrio, the great Spanish restaurant? Will we have enough champagne for Christmas? Does vegan food marry with great Bordeaux blends? These are just some of the lively discussions on this month’s Omnibus Ten.
John Stimpfig is happy to report on the winners of the Golden Vines Awards, and the news that the auction accompanying the event raised £1.5 million for the Gerard Basset Foundation, set up to fund diversity and inclusion in wine-education programmes, and broaden the base of wine service and knowledge. Less happy news is the problems the world’s wine industry is facing post-Covid from disrupted supply chains and shortfalls. John looks at the effects, from lack of pickers in New Zealand for the harvest, a paper shortage affecting printing wine labels in the US, bottle shortages in Argentina due to a fire in one of the major bottle factories, and the ongoing lack of drivers. Hopefully, these will be temporary, as wine has endured as part of civilised life for millennia, a fact reinforced by the discovery of the largest complex of ancient wine presses (from the Byzantine period) ever found, covering 75,000 square feet in Yarne, close to Tel Aviv. John is amazed to learn that the wine presses were capable of making around 2 million litres of wine, and analysis is underway to discover more specifics about the wines produced.
John and Sarah are also delighted by the news that there is going to be a fourth “La La” from the Guigal family in the Rhône. The wine will be called La Reynarde and is in honour of Philippe Guigal’s twin sons Charles and Etienne. John talks about how the “La La” single vineyard Côte-Rôties came about and how Philippe hopes to bottle the first vintage in 2022, if the vintage is good enough.
Then, to crime: It has been called “The wine heist of the century,” and it certainly was one of the most brazen. John tells how a couple checked into Atrio, a 2-Michelin-starred restaurant and boutique hotel in Spain, and asked to look round the cellar; they later returned to steal 45 bottles of the world’s most coveted wine, including a bottle of 1806 Château d’Yquem. The owner believes it was carried out to order by some nefarious collector. John explains how wine thefts from restaurants are not uncommon, and Sarah wonders whether these world thefts are related.
Restaurants remain a theme this month. Elin McCoy has just been a senior judge on the World of Fine Wine magazine’s Restaurant Wine List Awards, and she reveals the trends she saw while evaluating many of the world’s most interesting wine lists, also naming some of her favourite winners. One of them was Eleven Madison Park, a 3-Michelin-star restaurant, which now has a totally vegan menu. Elin attended a dinner there to help Verité Winery celebrate its 20th anniversary. Verité is one of Sonoma’s cult wineries, which produces Bordeaux-style blends. How did they match with the vegan food, which is a growing trend? Elin gives her honest opinions, and discusses which wines she believes suit vegan menus best. (Spoiler alert: There are some surprises.)
Finally, Jane Anson returns us to Saint Emilion, where the court case involving Hubert de Boüard has concluded. Jane reports on the outcome of the case, and reads out Hubert’s heart-felt response to being found guilty on one charge. As this case comes to a close, Jane reveals that there is more litigation on the way in Saint Emilion, with Philippe Cuvelier suing the Societéd’Aménagement Foncier et d’Établissement Rural (SAFER) over the decision to award the ownership of Ch Beauséjour Heritiers Duffau-Lagarrosse to Joséphine Duffau-Lagarrosse. Jane rounds out her report with the news that Jean-Guillaume Prats is leaving Ch Lafite to devote himself to his family business and Saskia de Rothschild is taking on the CEO position, alongside her role as Group Chair of the Domaines Barons de Rothschild.
““I love these kind of stories because they just show how important wine has always been to civilisation, in terms of health, culture, tradition and economics” ”
Running Order:-
-
0.00 – 20.01
”The hotel owner José Polo said that this theft was clearly carried out to order on behalf of some nefarious collector”
John Stimpfig discusses:
– Winners of the Golden Vines Awards.
– Discovery of largest ancient wine presses found in Israel.
– Problems in the wine supply chain.
– The new “La La” from the Guigals.
– The wine heist of the century. -
28.02 – 58.26
“There were a lot of natural wine lists and there I thought there was less creativity”– Elin McCoy
– Elin McCoy talks about the World of Fine Wine magazine’s Restaurant Wine List awards, trends emerging and who were the winners.
– Elin discusses matching vegan food and Bordeaux blends after attending the 20th anniversary dinner of Verité Winery at 3-Michelin-star Eleven Madison Park restaurant.
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58.27 – 1.09.00
“Every single appellation in Bordeaux has these wine bodies that govern the rules of what happens in the appellation and certainly by taking a public role in that way you are very clearly putting your head above the parapet”. – Jane Anson
– Jane Anson reports on the verdict of the case brought against Hubert de Boüard over the 2012 Saint Emilion classification.
– The latest lawsuit in Saint Emilion over Ch Beauséjour Heritiers Duffau-Lagarosse.
– Changes at Château Lafite.
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