We’re getting ready to enter 2024, which means it’s a great time to look back at the past 12 months and its most exciting moments for wine, gin and more. So put a bookmark in your copy of José Andrés' graphic novel, jump into your favorite wine-themed wintertime wear and maybe even pop a celeb-led fizzy beverage, because we’re rolling out the red carpet for our top 15 wine and culture items of 2023. Click through on each headline to get the full stories, and sign up for our Unfiltered newsletter for the latest wine and culture updates in 2024!
15. Worth the Wait? 15th-Century Wine Ship Resurrection Remains Years Away
From Roman merchants to 17th-century English warships to World War I steamers, shipwrecks can reward adventurous spirits with some fascinating wine finds. One such prime example is "the Newport Ship," a massive 15th-century wine-trading vessel capable of carrying up to 18,000 cases of wine and rediscovered in South Wales in 2002 during excavations for construction of Newport's Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre.
The Newport Ship's recovery has taken longer than anticipated, but the Newport Museum and Heritage Service, responsible for preserving the ship, announced this year that it has moved a step closer to putting the vessel back together.
“The ship was extremely well-made from thousands of primarily oak timbers, which were extensively tarred during and after construction, helping to ensure the vessel’s preservation,” Newport Medieval Ship Project curator Dr. Toby Jones told Wine Spectator via email. What’s the status of the preservation effort? And why the delay?
Posted Feb. 7
14. Unearthing a Showpiece Winery of Ancient Rome's Elite
As archaeologists well know , there were some perks to being emperor in ancient Rome: authority over a mighty empire, vast riches, the right to distribute free grain and, apparently, your own private winery. A paper published this year offered new insight into an exceptionally royal Roman winemaking complex dating to the 3rd century A.D.
In their paper, researchers Emlyn Dodd of the British School at Rome, Macquarie University and University of London and Giuliana Galli and Riccardo Frontoni of the Italian Ministry of Culture explain that in 2017, archaeologists uncovered a winery at the Villa of the Quintilii near Rome, a ruined manse with imperial connections and very impressive décor.
While the layout is typical, the site stands out for its “colored and decorative architecture,” Dodd explained to Wine Spectator via email. “It is the only ancient winery (or production facility for any commodity really) so far known that possesses this extreme degree of theatricality and luxury.” In short, this is a special and very rare site …
Posted April 17
13. Folly Follows Flood in Paso Robles Wine Country
A series of heavy rains and floods in California were national news at the start of this year, with at least 19 deaths and damages expected, at that time, to exceed $30 billion. Luckily, most vineyards and wineries were predicted to escape the floods largely unscathed.
Across the Golden State, hundreds if not thousands of roads suffered washouts, and state and county repair crews worked heroically to address them. But the washout that occurred on Adelaida Road in Paso Robles on Jan. 9 became something of a local celebrity, thanks to a large white pickup truck unceremoniously cemented in place there. Someone decided to test their luck against the seemingly clear “Road Closed” sign and attempted, quite unsuccessfully, to ford the fresh concrete slurry.
According to multiple local winemakers, the driver allegedly abandoned the truck, and by the time the rather large fly in the ointment had been discovered, the concrete had hardened to the point where the truck couldn’t simply be towed back out. Later on, once the rains cleared, the local winemaking community gathered at the site to celebrate the road’s reopening.
Posted Jan. 17
12. Au Naturel Wine: Halle Berry's Wellness Routine
The last time we checked in with Academy Award–winning actress Halle Berry, back in 2007, she was among the stars who’d been spotted in retro Boone’s Farm T-shirts, and her wine dedication hasn’t waned. More recently, Berry told Harper's Bazaar that red wine was an important part of her healthy lifestyle, and most recently, she shed the Boone’s Farm shirt to enjoy a glass of wine on her balcony, au naturel.
Berry’s nude wine appreciation photo, captioned “i do what i wanna do. happy Saturday,” quickly gained more than 1 million combined likes on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). The titillating portrait attracted “wine lovers” from far and wide, but for Berry, wine isn’t just what she wanna do; it’s also part of her health and wellness routine.
Posted April 11
11. Belgium Cancels Champagne of Beers
It turns out that Belgian authorities are really certain of one thing: Miller High Life is not Champagne. On April 17, according to a joint statement issued by the General Administration of Belgian Customs and France’s Comité Champagne, a literal ton of Miller High Life beer was destroyed—98 cases, to be precise—after being deemed to have infringed on Champagne’s Protected Designation of Origin, or PDO.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because authorities in Champagne (and in other wine regions) are ardent defenders of their name’s honor, and in the E.U., it’s illegal to use the name of a PDO unless you belong to said PDO. In other words, it ain't Champagne if it wasn't made in Champagne.
Here in the United States, Miller High Life enjoys the very American privilege of calling itself whatever the hell it wants, including “the Champagne of Beers,” which it has for more than 100 years. But those iconic cans and bottles aren’t welcome across the pond. (If you’re curious, according to the Comité Champagne, the United States is joined by just three other countries—Argentina, Kazakhstan and Russia—in refusing to honor Europe’s protected designations.) Yet, in the case of these cans, a mystery remains …
Posted April 27
10. ’Dinner with the President’ Spills New and Old Tales of White House Wines
You can’t get past the first page of author Alex Prud’homme’s Dinner with the President, released in 2023, without stumbling across a glass of wine. This book brings us tableside with 26 U.S. presidents in total, from President George Washington’s fondness for Madeira to President Thomas Jefferson’s wine cave to conductor Leonard Bernstein’s thoughts on attending White House dinners hosted by President Dwight Eisenhower vs. those of President John Kennedy (one of them served wine, cigarettes and bonhomie; the other did not).
A chapter on President Richard Nixon includes his infamous stealth Margaux self-servings and a firsthand account from winemaker Hugh Davies of his family’s Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs landing on the international stage, courtesy of Barbara Walters, when Nixon brought it on his famous visit to China.
More recent wine-friendly administrations—including those of Presidents Ronald Reagan, President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama—all get substantial attention. And for the pairing-minded on next year’s President’s Day weekend, Prud’homme highlights Vermont’s Plymouth Cheese, the family creamery where President Calvin Coolidge grew up. And these are just a few of the presidential moments in Prud’homme’s book!
Posted Feb. 17
9. Protesting French Winegrowers Take Out Their Anger on Cava
It was a Spanish wine lover’s nightmare. For three hours on Oct. 19, an angry mob of winegrowers from the southwest of France blocked the A9 highway near the town of Le Boulou just across the border from Spain. They lit tires ablaze to stop traffic so it could be searched. They were hunting for trucks carrying Spanish wine.
Two tanker trunks carrying red wine were emptied, their liquid cargo spurting onto the asphalt. Then a tractor trailer carrying pallets of Freixenet Cava was opened up, and the contents smashed and thrown onto the ground, bubbles fizzing out as the liquid streamed into a ditch on the side of the road. Another truck transporting tomatoes was emptied, the cargo splattered onto the road.
The protesters were railing against Spanish wine, arguing that while they are dealing with difficult economic conditions, France imported more than 650 million cases of Spanish wine in 2022. (It’s not clear why the tomatoes met such violent scorn.) Local authorities counted 380 participants in the riot …
Posted Oct. 30
8. Brad Pitt's Fleur de Miraval Champagne Introduces Lower-Priced Little Sister
After a decade of fruitful partnership building the Côtes de Provence–based Miraval brand (which now includes Fleur de Miraval Champagne and a skincare line called Le Domaine), Brad Pitt and Famille Perrin decided to enter the spirits industry in 2023 with The Gardiner, a gin many years in the making.
But that wasn’t the only development from Pitt and vintner Marc Perrin in the past year. This holiday season Champagne lovers can enjoy a new star-powered sparkling rosé from the team: the Brut Rosé Champagne Petite Fleur NV (93 points, $110). It’s the new release from Fleur de Miraval, a project launched in 2020 by Pitt, Perrin and Rodolphe Péters of Champagne’s Pierre Péters.
Petite Fleur is a sister label to Fleur de Miraval’s original bottling, the Brut Rosé Champagne Exclusivement ER3 (95, $350). Available for a third of the cost, Petite Fleur still keeps quality high. Learn more about this star-studded sparkler!
Posted Oct. 9
7. Perpetrators of Massive Wine Fraud Sentenced to House Arrest in France
In January, Bordeaux's tribunal handed down sentences for five wine professionals found guilty in the largest wine fraud case in recent memory. Tribunal president Marie-Elisabeth Boulnois passed out ankle bracelets for the worst infractions, on top of heavy fines all around. But both defendants and plaintiffs are claiming that justice has not been served.
The elaborate multimillion-dollar fraud involved trucking hundreds of thousands of cases worth of cheap Spanish bulk wine north to France, changing the official paperwork to reflect a French origin, and bottling it and selling it as more valuable Bordeaux appellations, including Margaux and Médoc.
Jean-Sebastien Laflèche, owner of négoce Defivin in St.-Loubès, and Michel Gilin, formerly in sales at major cooperative Celliers Vinicoles du Blayais (CVB), received the harshest sentences, "due to the seriousness of the acts, the nature of the facts, their durations, the quantities involved and previous convictions," said Boulnois. How long are their sentences?
Posted Feb. 16
6. Spree of 6-Figure Wine Cellar Heists Puts Somms and Retailers on High Alert
This spate of robberies began in Norway in early November 2022, when thieves broke into Park 29 restaurant in Oslo, owned by Fridtjof Bade. They took 264 bottles representing Barolo, Bordeaux, Burgundy and Côte-Rôtie, while bypassing a selection of top Champagnes, suggesting to Bade that they knew what they'd come for. Had they checked out the wine list in advance? The perpetrators apparently left no trace, and Bade says the wines, valued at $120,000 to $200,000, are nigh impossible to replace.
Along the Norwegian coast, hotel-restaurant Tollboden, owned by Fredensborg Hospitality, was robbed twice in November 2022, according to sommelier Francesco Marzola, who works for Fredensborg. "We had, unfortunately, two break-ins at our cellar in Kragerø, in Norway, the past few weeks," wrote Marzola on his Facebook page. "Several bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti as well as Mugnier, Château Mouton-Rothschild and Palmer have been taken away!"
Meanwhile, in Spain, the restaurant Coque de Madrid was relieved of 132 bottles of high-end wines around the same time. Thieves used a neighboring shuttered pharmacy to gain access on a day when the restaurant was closed. Owned by the Sandoval family, some of the stolen wines had belonged to the current generation's grandfather, with vintages going back to 1925. The stolen wines were worth quite a sum …
Posted Feb. 14
5. $1.7 Million El Atrio Wine Heist Pair Gets 4 Years in Prison
The wine-thieving lovebirds responsible for the $1.7 million heist at El Atrio restaurant in Cáceres, Spain, received their sentences for aggravated robbery in a Spanish court earlier this month: 4 years in prison and an $800,000 fine.
It took nine months for Interpol and law enforcement in five countries to track down the culprits, Priscila Lara Guevara, 29, and Constantín Dumitru, 47. Guevara received a four-year prison sentence and Dumitru is looking at four-plus years behind bars.
The heist took place in October 2021. Guevara checked in using a false Swiss passport, carrying only a backpack. Dumitru joined her for dinner at 8 p.m. While the perpetrators have been caught and sentenced, the stolen wines remain missing.
Posted March 28
4. No, You Can't Park a Plane in a Sonoma Chardonnay Vineyard
Here's something you don't see every day: a Cessna 172 airplane hoisted out of a Sonoma vineyard. On Aug. 19, after his engine failed, pilot William Tomkovic of Healdsburg made an emergency landing in Russian River Valley's El Diablo Vineyard, one of California's best Chardonnay vineyards and a source for top wines from Kosta Browne, Arista and Ram’s Gate. El Diablo is located just 2 miles away from Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport.
While you might not think of vineyards as runways, this isn't the first time planes have landed among grapes. In 2005, a Cessna crash landed in a vineyard row belonging to Jaeger Vineyards, taking out 12 vines.
In this most recent incident, the pilot was uninjured and the Cessna was relatively unscathed. The vines weren’t as lucky.
Posted Sept. 15
3. Emma Watson's Family Brews
This past summer, English actress and activist Emma Watson and her brother, Alex, launched a gin brand, Renais, made with grapes from her family’s French wine estate. Wait, you didn’t know about the Watson family's Burgundy domaine, where the Harry Potter and Little Women star spent summers tending Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines?
“I was clearly a Burgundian soul who had the misfortune to be born in England,” says Chris Watson, father of Emma and Alex, and founder of Domaine Watson in Chablis.
Emma and Alex credit their time spent working the vineyards at Domaine Watson as their inspiration to create Renais. Domaine Watson’s grapes are in fact directly incorporated into Renais gin, in the form of pomace distilled to create the base spirit. But this is far from the only ingredient used for the new spirit.
Posted Aug. 7
2. Photo Shows Taylor Swift with Gaslighter Wine—Sparking a Fan Frenzy
On Nov. 29, the day Spotify announced that Taylor Swift was the streaming service’s top global artist of 2023, music producer Jack Antonoff posted on his Instagram Stories a photo of the pop phenomenon to celebrate the release of her new single, a vault track from her 2022 album, Midnights. Next to Swift was a matte black bottle of wine.
“‘You’re Losing Me’ is out today. A very special track from the Midnight Sessions that’s finally streaming!” Antonoff wrote. “Written and recorded at home on 12/5/21 right after Taylor ate these raisins.”
Swift’s fanbase (“Swifties”)—collectively addicted to decoding Easter eggs dropped by the musician in music videos, concerts and social media posts—leapt to decipher what the wine was, and what it could mean. It turns out it was a bottle of Gaslighter Rosé (we rated the debut 2020 vintage 88 points in a blind tasting) from fellow country music sensations The Chicks. Released in early 2022, Gaslighter rosé is produced by Sonoma’s Gundlach Bundschu family using Pinot Noir grapes. So why did the photo set Swift’s fans aflutter?
Posted Dec. 1
1. Counterfeit Lafite, Penfolds Seized in $150 Million Fake Wine Bust
Here it is, a strong contender for wine crime of the year! Whether it’s a meticulously recreated bottle of an ultra-rare Burgundy, an obvious knockoff Chât-O LaFake or bulk plonk bottled as classified Bordeaux, fraud might be wine crime’s favorite pastime.
In 2023, one such affront came from China’s Fujian province, where a law-enforcement task force raided warehouses in the Longhai district of Zhangzhou, uncovering a massive counterfeiting operation. More than 40,000 bottles of falsely labeled wine as well as packaging and labeling equipment were discovered; authorities estimated the fake wine’s “street value” to be more than $150 million.
The raid was conducted by the Fujian Market Supervision Bureau, with local public security bureaus, as part of its "Iron Fist" crackdown on counterfeit and illegal foods and drinks. Authorities revealed that among the faked products seized were counterfeit bottles of Bordeaux's Château Lafite Rothschild and Australia's Penfolds; both brands are enormously popular in China (and equally as popular among counterfeiters). That’s not to mention the food safety dangers of these counterfeit wines …
Posted Jan. 30
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