Business leaders look to change Oklahoma liquor laws

Oklahoma City business leaders have organized talks between lawmakers and the alcohol industry about changing state law to let grocery stores sell strong beer and wine. Grocery and convenience stores can now sell only low-point beer. Wine, strong beer and liquor must be bought at licensed liquor stores, bars or restaurants.

Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, described Oklahoma's liquor laws as "archaic" and said similar laws in other states already have been changed. "It's an inconvenience to shoppers, but also we see it as a quality-of-life issue," Williams told The Oklahoman. Any major change in Oklahoma liquor laws would likely require a vote of the people because several state alcohol laws are part of the state Constitution.

Liquor stores and distributors who have benefitted from the state's restrictions on where alcohol can be sold have lobbied for years against changing the law. They claim letting grocery stores carry wine and strong beer will harm locally owned businesses that make up Oklahoma's liquor retail and distribution industry.

J.P. Richard, the owner of Cache Road Liquor in Lawton, said he thinks customers are better served by stores that have specialized in liquor sales for decades rather than chain grocery stores that focus on many other projects.

"Everybody's put their heart and soul into this for years and years, and then just to have it taken away by the stroke of a pen — it's just not acceptable," said Richard, the president of the Retail Liquor Association of Oklahoma.

He said he expects another fight over the proposed changes. "I think we're going to have to go and do battle with them again," he said. Richard also said the Oklahoma economy would suffer if grocery stores could sell wine and strong beer because most of the grocers were owned by corporations based in other states.

"Then the money leaves the state, and you get a minimum-wage employee who is now your service agent. That's your expert," Richard said. Williams said the chamber wants local governments to be able to decide whether grocery stores in their communities can sell wine and strong beer. "That way, if there are some parts of the state that don't want it, they wouldn't have to have it," Williams said.

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On Wine: Champagne for the New Year

Champagne is really a little miracle. I'm not talking about the bubbles. Rather, it's a miracle that wine can be made in such a cool northerly climate. Even though Champagne's grapes -- chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier -- are harvested at lower sugars than are grapes used for still wines, the climate of the region is barely warm enough in many years to achieve that degree of ripeness. But those cold temperatures also have a benefit. The resulting high acidity in the grapes makes Champagne fresh and lively. Add bubbles to the mix, and you have a uniquely vivacious wine. No wonder it has become the beverage of celebration.

Also contributing to Champagne's character is the chalky soil profile in most of the region. The soil holds enough water for the vines to survive dry periods, but it also drains well in rainy times, which are common. The chalk also may be the source of the minerality found in the flavor of many Champagnes.

It's a special place, which is why the Champenois bristle when people refer to all sparkling wines as "champagne." Other bubblies have their merit, but true Champagne comes only from the 84,000 acres that make up the Champagne appellation east of Paris.

The landscape there is hilly and beautiful. The hills are crowned by forests; vineyards occupy the middle of the slope, while the towns lie in the valleys. The heart of the growing region is divided into three parts: the Montagne de Reims, dominated by pinot noir; the Cote des Blancs, home of the best chardonnay; and the Vallee de Marne, well-suited to pinot meunier. (A fourth area, the Cote des Bar, is far to the southeast.)

Champagne production and exports are dominated by the big houses, with recognizable names like Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot. But these companies buy most of their grapes, and the average grower farms just five acres. An increasing trend is the so-called grower Champagne, labeled with the term "recoltant manipulant." These bubblies, made by the grape grower, account for about 20 percent of sales. The best ones -- those from Vilmart, Gimmonet, Gaston Chiquet and Doyard -- have real personality, and they're priced competitively with wines from the big producers.

And bubbles aside, Champagne is a wine first.

"We produce wine. Champagne is a wine. It's not only bubbles," says Antoine Malassagne, co-owner of A.R. Lenoble.

The winemaking, especially the blending, is incredibly important.

"Champagne is not just the result of what Mother Nature gives us," says Bruno Paillard, owner of the Champagne house that bears his name. It's the result, he adds, of human investment in the winemaking process.

Blending is particularly important for a winery's non-vintage brut, a blend of vintages that reflects the house style and needs to remain reasonably consistent from year to year. Cyril Brun, part of the winemaking team at Veuve Clicquot, brought out some tank samples from the 2009 vintage -- wines that are very acidic and don't yet have any bubbles -- and talked about what characteristics each grape variety brings to the blend.

"Then it's all about finding the right proportion," he says. Consistency in the non-vintage brut, he adds, "is our No. 1 obsession."

Champagne gets its bubbles during a second fermentation that occurs in the bottle after the blend is made. All Champagne is sold in the same bottle in which it went through that second fermentation; domestic bubbly labeled as "methode champenoise" undergoes the same process.

If you like a richer wine, consider the non-vintage Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut ($45), or the robust non-vintage Bollinger Special Cuvee ($65). For something more delicate, there's the non-vintage Louis Roederer Brut Premier ($43), which displays mineral, fresh citrus and apple notes; the non-vintage Delamotte Brut ($55), with its bright citrus; the slightly yeastier non-vintage Deutz Brut Classic ($41); and the creamy non-vintage Bruno Paillard Premiere Cuvee ($60).

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Constellation Brands to sell some international wine ops

Constellation Brands Inc, the world's No. 1 winemaker, will sell most of its operations in Australia, Britain and South Africa to focus on its most profitable brands and shore up its balance sheet.

Australia's Champ Private Equity, a private equity fund based in Sydney, will pay A$230 mn (USD 230 mn) for 80% of Constellation's businesses in the three countries.The deal, which sent Constellation shares up 1.7%, is the first in a flurry of expected mergers among wine and spirits makers, which are expected to follow the same path as their largely consolidated brewer peers.

Constellation said on Thursday that it will retain a 20% interest in the businesses, whose brands include Hardys in Australia, Fish Hoek in South Africa and Stowells in the United Kingdom. The company is retaining all its brands in New Zealand, South America and continental Europe.

Chief Executive Rob Sands said that despite a large-scale operation and quality wines, the businesses still faced challenging market conditions and were not consistent with the company's new strategy of improving margins by focusing on its more premium labels such as Robert Mondavi, Ravenswood and Clos du Bois.

"The divestiture of these operations comes as no surprise as management has indicated their focus on the most profitable, prominent core brands," said UBS analyst Kaumil Gajrawala. Constellation also owns Svedka vodka and sells Corona beer through a joint venture with Mexico's Grupo Modelo.

Many wine businesses have been struggling as a glut of grapes flooded the market and depressed prices. Swings in supply and demand have often plagued Australia, where a drought in recent years put a cap on an earlier glut.

Aside from the difficulty of growing grapes and the dependency on weather, the hundreds of brands on the market make it hard for wine makers to increase their profits by raising prices, a strategy often used by beer and spirits makers. A surge in the popularity of cocktails in recent years has also boosted sales of drinks like vodka and whiskey.

Mixing drinks

Rival Brown-Forman Corp said on Wednesday it may sell some of its California wines. Such a move could make Brown-Forman, the producer of Jack Daniel's whiskey, a more attractive target for a company like Diageo or Pernod Ricard.

Meanwhile Foster's Group Ltd, the second-biggest wine maker after Constellation, is separating its lucrative beer operations from its struggling wine business. That action is expected to attract bids for both units.

In the most recent quarter, Constellation reported an operating loss of USD 3 mn in the Australia and Europe wine segment. Higher taxes on alcoholic beverages and consolidation of distributors in Britain have also weighed on results in recent quarters.

The transaction with Champ, which values the entire business at A$290 mn, includes virtually all of Constellation's Australian, UK and South African brands, wineries, facilities and vineyards, as well as its 50% stake in UK wholesaler Matthew Clark.

Constellation expects the deal to close by the end of January and will use the proceeds to pay down debt. It expects the deal to be neutral to earnings for fiscal 2011 and neutral to slightly dilutive for fiscal 2012.

Constellation was advised by Rothschild, which is also advising Brown-Forman. Champ currently has investments in Manassen Foods, Healthcare Australia and Golding Contractors. Constellation shares were up 37 cents at $22.35 on the New York Stock Exchange. They touched a 52-week high of USD 22.42 on December 16.

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Top winemaker selling Australian, British unit

Constellation Brands Inc. said Thursday it is selling 80 percent of its Australian and British wine business to an Australian private equity firm for about $230 million, losing its distinction as the world's biggest wine company.

The seller of Robert Mondavi wine, Svedka vodka and Corona beer will retain a 20 percent stake, and the deal with Sydney-based Champ Private Equity is expected to be completed by the end of January. Based in Victor, N.Y., Constellation Brands bought Australian vintner BRL Hardy Ltd. for $1.1 billion in a 2003 deal that made it the world's largest wine business. It jumped further ahead of longtime wine leader E.& J. Gallo Winery of Modesto, Calif., when it bought Robert Mondavi Corp. for $1.3 billion.

Offloading its Australian-British unit will drop the company to No. 2 behind Gallo in both volume and sales of wine. But it will remain the biggest seller by volume of premium-category wines priced between $5 and $15 a bottle, spokeswoman Angie Blackwell said. Constellation Brands' shares rose 33 cents, or 1.5 percent, to close at $22.31 Thursday after touching a 52-week high of $22.43 earlier in the session. The stock has climbed 38 percent this year.

The sale includes virtually all of Constellation Brands' Australian, British and South African brands, wineries and vineyards, plus its 50 percent partnership in British wholesaler Matthew Clark. The transaction values the entire business at $290 million. The division being sold "has significant scale but continues to be faced with challenging market conditions" and no longer fits with Constellation Brands' strategy, CEO Robert Sands said in a statement.

UBS analyst Kaumil Gajrawala was upbeat about the deal. With the British and Australian business operating at breakeven to slightly profitable levels, the sale improves Constellation Brands' prospects for margin and revenue growth, he said in a note to clients. With the net proceeds expected to be funneled into paying down debt, Moody's Investors Service raised the company's ratings outlook to positive from stable, saying the sale of foreign assets would create a smaller but more profitable business with less risk.

In 2008, Constellation Brands began an overhaul of operations to counter a sales slowdown in Australia and Britain. Since then, it has been shaken by a wine glut in Australia and heightened private-label competition, falling prices and duty increases in Britain, where it's been a leading marketer of wine. Its main Australian wine brands are Hardys, Banrock Station, Leasingham and Chateau Reynella. Its non-U.S. wine portfolio also contains wines from core markets in New Zealand and Canada.

In its fiscal year ending in February, Constellation Brands posted $930 million in wine revenue in Australia, Europe and New Zealand -- the bulk of it coming from its Australian and British operations. Its overall annual sales fell to $3.65 billion from $3.77 billion in the previous year. In recent years, the company has shifted focus toward higher-priced wines and spirits, selling off some of its lower-price brands after a two-decade acquisition spree. It also has consolidated divisions, cutting its work force to 6,000 people from 8,200 in 2008.

Constellation Brands draws more than 90 percent of its revenue from wine, most of it moderately priced. Among its 100-plus brands are Clos du Bois, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, Blackstone and Ravenswood. It also sells liquors such as Black Velvet Canadian whiskey and, through a wholesale joint venture, imports beers including Negra Modelo from Mexico, Tsingtao from China and St. Pauli Girl from Germany.

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Report: Brown-Forman seeks buyer for wine assets

A spokesman for Brown-Forman Corp. declined to comment on a report today in the Wall Street Journal that the Kentucky-based alcoholic beverage giant is selling all or part of its wine holdings, which include Hopland-based Fetzer and Bonterra, Sonoma-Cutrer near Windsor and five other brands. Citing sources who know about plan, the publication said Brown-Forman hired Rothschild to sell the assets at auction, with an expected take of a couple hundred million dollars.

The wine business has been a challenging play for beverage businesses with lower costs of goods sold, according to Sean Maher, a St. Helena-based wine mergers and acquisitions expert involved with a number of significant deals this year, including Diageo’s $269 million sale-leaseback of North Coast vineyards and winery facilities. “Spirits people always have struggled with wine assets, because it takes so much to get $1 in sales,” he said.

Brown-Forman started its wine group in 1991 after the acquisition of Jekel in Monterey County. A year later the company acquired Fetzer Vineyards and Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards in 1999-2000. Today the company has eight wine brands.

At the end of its fiscal quarter in April, Brown-Forman reported that depletions for the Fetzer Vineyards brand decreased 5 percent from fiscal 2009 to 2.16 million cases. Meanwhile, depletions of super-premium price tier Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards and certified-organic Bonterra Vineyards were among super-premium-price wine and spirits brands increased 2 percent.

Other drinks companies are divesting of some wine assets. Australia-based Foster’s Group has been seeking to “demerge” its wine group, now called Treasury Wine Estates. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Constellation Brands is courting a buyer for brands outside the U.S.

Brown-Forman has a longstanding sales and marketing agreement with Korbel Champagne Cellars of Russian River Valley. Any move to sell wine operations is not expected to affect that relationship, according to a Korbel spokeswoman.

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Wine and Spirits / Bring on the bubbly

For tens of millions of people the world over, the beverage most often associated with New Year's Eve is champagne. This makes perfect sense, as no other wine has ever been as closely associated with the celebration of pleasant and hopeful events.

Despite the love many have for champagne, there are several things about this superb wine that are not well known. There are, for example, many kinds of sparkling wines, but only those from the region of France surrounding the cities of Reims and Epernay can be labeled as "champagne." Some of the best known sparkling wines are Spanish Cava, German Sekt and Italian Prosecco, but none of these can be called champagne. The name is so closely guarded, the producers of wine in the French-speaking village of Champagne, Switzerland are forbidden to put the name of their town on their bottles. Nor is it widely known that only three grapes can be used to produce champagne: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

The white Chardonnay grape grows vigorously in the Champagne region, where it's considered the king of white grapes. With its relatively high acidity, Chardonnay adds liveliness in its youth and depth as the wine matures. The grape traditionally yields citrus, apple and peach aromas and flavors and sometimes notes of kiwi, guava and pineapple. As the wines mature, they also take on notes of cantaloupe. Although most champagne is blended with the other two permitted grapes, some are made entirely from Chardonnay and these are known as "blanc de blancs.

Pinot Noir, the black grape from which the great Burgundy wines are made, is more difficult to grow but is well worth the effort, as it provides the structure and depth of the wines of Champagne. Not as tannic as Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah, the Pinot Noir grape provides the aromas and flavors of red fruits like cherries, raspberries, strawberries and red currants, and sometimes adds a spicy and light herbal note to the wines into which it is blended.

Pinot Meunier is probably the least known of the trio, but is no less important. Sometimes known simply as Meunier and in some villages as Black Riesling, the grape adds body and richness to champagne as well as a distinct mineral note. A spicy grape, rich in red currant, plum and cherry flavors and aromas, Pinot Meunier can also add charming notes of freshly baked bread. When a champagne is made entirely from Pinot Noir, or a blend of Pinot Noir and Meunier, the wine is known as a "blanc de noir" (literally a white wine made from black grapes; the color is clear because the skins of grapes that pass on color are removed immediately after the grapes are crushed ).

There are also grapes known as "Champagne grapes" (the more formal name of which is Corinth ), but these are most definitely not used in making champagne. Instead, they are usually dried and served as raisins.

As to when to drink champagne, there's no need to restrict oneself to Sylvester (what Israelis call New Year's Eve ), for the bubbly beverage goes as well with breakfast as with lunch, as well as an aperitif with most dinner dishes. From the humble hamburger to the sumptuous lobster Thermidor, champagne is always in order.

Following are reviews of several recently tasted champagnes now available locally, including a collection from the Moet & Chandon and others from equally respected champagne houses.

Champagnes for Sylvester

Moet & Chandon, Brut Champagne, Grand Vintage, 2000: Light golden in color, opening with aromas and flavors of yeasty white bread and going on to show citrus and apple fruits, supported nicely by hints of ginger, creme patissiere and stony minerals. A blend of 50% Chardonnay, 34% Pinot Noir, 16% Pinot Munier, lingering long and comfortably on the palate. Drink now-2022. NIS 380. Score 94.

Moet & Chandon, Brut Rose, Grand Vintage, 2004: Rose petal pink toward salmon colored, the traditional blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier (41%, 39%, 20% ), showing medium, perhaps medium- to full-bodied, with aromas and flavors of blueberries, blackberres and cherries supported nicely by notes of mocha and white and black pepper. A good mousse, sharp and well-focused bubbles, and an enchanting mineral note that rises on the long finish. Drinking beautifully now, but don't hesitate to cellar through 2020. NIS 420. Score 92.

Moet & Chandon, Brut, Grand Vintage, Champagne, 2003: Straw gold in color, with fine, concentrated bubbles that go on and on, a blend of 43% Pinot Meunier, 29% Pinot Noir and 29% Chardonnay. Medium- to full-bodied with fine concentration, showing a tempting array of citrus, peach, apricot and citrus pith aromas and flavors. Long and generous. Drink now-2018. NIS 380. Score 91.

Moet & Chandon, Brut Rose, Grand Vintage, Champagne, 2003: Pale straw in color, with a light yeasty note that runs through. A full-bodied blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay (48%, 30% and 22% ). Finely focused bubbles, showing a berry, cherry and citrus personality but lacking the complexity one hopes for in a fine rose champagne. Drink now-2013. NIS 420. Score 89.

Billecart-Salmon, Cuvee Nicolas Francois Billecart, Champagne, 1998: A blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, those partly oak-aged. Light gold with an orange tint; on the opening nose hints of spring flowers and anise, yielding to aromas and flavors of summer fruits, orange and pears. A long mousse, finely focused bubbles and a remarkably long, near-creamy and elegant finish. Drink now-2025. NIS 840. Score 94.

Billecart-Salmon, Brut Reserve, Champagne, n.v.: Light golden straw in color, with a long mousse and long-lingering fine, concentrated bubbles; a blend of 50% Pinot Munier, 30% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. Opens with gentle aromas of spring flowers, pink grapefruit and rye, going on to show a rich mineral layer that highlights notes of pears and cantaloupe melon. Medium-bodied, floating comfortably on the palate and lingering nicely. NIS 414. Score 90.

Pol Roger, Brut Rose, Champagne, 1993: Pink toward orange-salmon in color, this medium- to full-bodied champagne is as rich and extracted as one could desire. Plenty of toasted bread and coffee flavors, offset beautifully by abundant but not exaggerated aromas and flavors of red berries and cherries. Drinking beautifully now, but will hold nicely for four to six years longer. NIS 640. Score 93.

Ruinart, Brut Rose Champagne, n.v.: Light- to medium-bodied, with a long mousse and sharp, well-focused bubbles. On the nose and palate lightly toasted wheat kernels, cherries, wild berries and citrus, complemented nicely by a note of freshly peeled tree bark. Long and generous. NIS 510. Score 92.

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Bottle of wine with your snags?

Butcher John Carnibella is not just handy slicing up a side of beef, he's also pretty good at nurturing a grapevine and turning its fruit into a half-decent bottle of plonk. He's raved about his wine - cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay - to customers in his Melbourne butcher shop for years, but has never been able to sell them a bottle except from his cellar door at Loch, in Victoria's southeast.

But under new liquor laws that come into force in Victoria on January 1, Mr Carnibella will be able to sell 1.5 litres of wine, or two bottles, to customers at his shop in Bentleigh to accompany their purchase of topside, silverside or half a dozen sausages.

Along with butchers, bed and breakfast operators, hairdressers and florists will be able to apply for permission to sell wine with their goods and services, but the wine must come from just one designated vineyard. They won't be able to supply a range of wines from multiple vineyards. "It's terrific for us - I can sell my own product in my own butcher shop," Mr Carnibella said.

"It will make life a lot easier. I'll be able to complement the beef with a red, all sorts of things. People come in to buy a roast, and I can offer a nice bottle of wine to go with it."

Mr Carnibella's Lochview Winery produces around 5000 bottles a year.

Boutique winemaker Robyn Schmidt, who with her husband Owen produces 15,000 bottles at their 15-acre Lyre Bird Hill Winery at Koonwarra, southeast of Melbourne, welcomes the initiative.

"We're always looking for extra outlets, particularly in local regional businesses - we always try to network and support each other," she said.

"It sounds like a great opportunity."

A spokesperson for the Director of Liquor Licensing said businesses such as butchers and florists, where the supply of liquor is only a small part of their services, won't have to hold a liquor licence, but they will have to meet certain criteria.

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Raising our glasses to a drink with Key

It could be his self-deprecating humour, his apparent fine dress-sense or the fact that he has a holiday home in Hawaii. Whatever the reasons, it seems most New Zealanders would rather share a glass of wine with Prime Minister John Key than discuss the finer points of All Black selection policies with coach Graham Henry.

An independent study, The Mud House Wine Survey, looked at New Zealanders' attitudes towards drinking wine and who they'd like to consume it with this New Year's Eve. It found that more than a third, or 36 per cent, of men surveyed wanted to have a glass of wine with the Prime Minister.

Nearly a third (28 per cent) of women also ranked Mr Key as top choice of drinking buddy but he was tied with actress Robyn Malcolm, who played Cheryl West in Outrageous Fortune for the last time this year.

All Blacks coach Graham Henry, who was pipped at last week's rugby awards for top coach by Gordon Tietjens, was the next popular choice with the men with 13 per cent.

Behind Malcolm was TV3 defector and comedienne Jaquie Brown as the next most popular women's choice with 11 per cent.

The survey showed that despite New Zealand's reputation as a rugby, racing and beer nation, seven out of 10 people also liked red or white wine.

It said more than a third (36 per cent) of men would rather drink red wine compared with less than a quarter (24 per cent) of women.

Half of women (50 per cent) preferred white wine compared with men, with a third (31 per cent) saying they enjoyed white.

Meanwhile, nearly half of the respondents (46 per cent) agreed choice of wine can make or break a meal.

New Zealanders are parochial when it comes to choice, with two-thirds (66 per cent) saying they prefer to buy New Zealand wines over international brands.

The most popular wine variety was sauvignon blanc, with 42 per cent listing it as the drink of choice.

This was followed by chardonnay, merlot and pinot noir. Riesling was edged out only slightly ahead of pinot gris and cabernet sauvignon as the least-popular wine.

STARS AND TYPES

Who's hot

* John Key (right)
* Robyn Malcolm
* Graham Henry
* Jaquie Brown

What's hot

* Sauvignon Blanc - 42 per cent
* Chardonnay - 30 per cent
* Merlot - 28 per cent
* Pinot Noir - 27 per cent
* Pinot Gris - 25 per cent
* Cabernet Sauvignon - 25 per cent
* Riesling - 24 per cent

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Heat up cold nights with mulled wine

They do it all night in Scandinavia. They do it in public in Eastern Europe. In Germany, there’s a hard-core twist I’ve seen only in steamy YouTube videos. Making mulled wine is something of an art in Europe during the holidays. Each culture has its own variant, though the basic principle is the same. Heat wine – usually red – with a mix of spices, sugar and fruit, ladle into mugs.In some countries, it’s served with aesthetic flair, and some cases evenflare. The Nordic version, known as glogg, is blended the day before to get the flavours mingling and calls for a floating garnish of raisins and blanched almond slices. In Germany, there’s an extreme ritual called Feuerzangenbowle, in which a rum-soaked sugar cone is set ablaze and drips into the simmering wine. At the glorious outdoor Prague Christmas Market, you can sip svarene vino when you need it most, while shopping in the cold air.

One thing I love about mulled wine is you don’t even have to drink alcohol to enjoy the stuff. The aroma is half the pleasure, like a fresh-cut spruce or mom’s holiday baking.

Problem is, concoctions that tend to pass for mulled wine on this continent can be ghastly. Bad wine, the wrong spice combination or too much sugar can put a person off mulled wine for life. But the biggest culprit, in my experience, is heat – namely too much. The key is to warm the wine until it starts to give off steam. Once that happens, immediately turn down the element to the lowest setting and keep the pan at a bare simmer for 20 or 25 minutes. Never allow the mixture to boil or it will take on a cooked-prune-like flavour.

Technically, any wine is fair game, but it’s critical it be something you enjoy drinking at room temperature. Hot plonk is still plonk. I generally prefer European reds, such as Côtes du Rhône from France, tempranillo from Spain or montepulciano d’Abruzzo from Italy, because European wines tend to be higher in acid than most wines from the New World, and heat can soften the acidity on the palate. They also tend to be lighter in colour. Inky mulled wine is not appealing.

Recipes vary but common ingredients include cloves, cinnamon, star anise and citrus (though berries are often used as a garnish). I like cardamom best of all, either ground or in the form of whole pods. It’s an underappreciated spice, I think, with an attractively fresh fragrance. Gluhwein, the version popular in Germany, Austria and Alsace, France, often contains vanilla pods. But I’m not much of a fan: It gives the drink a cloying Starbucks note I don’t enjoy.

The drink goes by many local names, as you’ll discover travelling through Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Italy, among other places. But it’s the Scandinavian version that may have the most familiar name here, glogg. That region also boasts the most heartwarming recipe, which usually calls for a good splash of spirit, usually in the form of akvavit or vodka. Those bottles sold at Ikea, by the way, are non-alcoholic and must be spiked with spirit. You can also find flavour concentrates designed to be reconstituted with red wine.

Don’tbother with prepared products: You can create a better-tasting blend more cheaply with spices from the pantry. If the spices have been sitting around for ages, take a smart cue from Cook’s Illustrated magazine and toast them briefly in a non-stick skillet to unlock more flavour. The magazine also recommends simmering the brew for a full hour, though I’ve had good results in less than 25 minutes.

Powdered spices dissolve neatly into the wine, but there’s no need to grind whole cloves, star anise or cinnamon. Cheesecloth tied into a sack with butcher’s twine works nicely, as will a strainer. Alternatively, you can stud the peel of a whole orange or lemon with cloves to keep them out of your mug.

Like the Scandinavians, you can make mulled wine ahead of time and gently reheat when guests arrive. Until Ikea comes up with a glogg-scented candle, mulled wine may be the easiest way to get your home smelling like the holidays.

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Is It Time for Fine Wine?

For those clients who want to have their investments and drink them, too, wine futures could merit some consideration. The Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Investables Index, which tracks the price movements of the 100 most sought-after fine wines with active secondary markets, is up close to 40% year to date. Wine-auction results are making headlines: an imperial-size bottle of Cheval Blanc 1947, a rare Bordeaux, sold for $304,375 in mid-November -- setting a world record for a single bottle at auction, according to Christie's.

Wine futures are purchases of the leading Bordeaux vintages still in barrels and not yet bottled. Tristen Beamon, general manager and Bordeaux buyer at importer and retailer Wine Exchange in Orange, Calif., says that after the grapes are harvested and fermented, the wine is stored in barrels. Wine producers invite leading wine critics and retailers to taste the wine at its early stage, usually in April.

The world’s top critics give the vintage a score as an early indication of its quality, and final scores are assigned when the wine is bottled. For example, a particular wine might receive a score in the range of 94–97 when in the barrel, with 100 being the top score.

Producers use that range score to price the wine for future delivery, hence the term: wine futures. The wine is sold in multiple tranches. If a tranche sells well, the producer will raise the price of subsequent tranches. Wine retailers then resell their allocations to retail customers who wait for delivery. “Customers who are buying the 2009 futures won’t see their wine until the end of 2011 and perhaps early 2012,” says Mike Osborn, founder of online wine retailer Wine.com.

Futures prices can move quickly. Osborn says that clients who purchased 2009’s first tranche in the late spring and early summer of 2010 have seen the value of their wines increase by 20 to 25% already. Some clients sell their wines at auction as soon as they receive them, says Osborn, but others store the bottles in anticipation of future price increases.

Possible Downsides: There are several risks. A vineyard can experience a natural disaster, such as an earthquake or floods. Also, the wine might spoil or the bottles can be damaged in transit. In addition, if a wine merchant doesn’t deliver the goods as promised, the buyer is left holding an expensive but worthless sales receipt.

There’s also the risk of wine fraud, in which a counterfeit label for a top vintage is placed on a lower-quality wine, highlighting the need to work with reputable merchants. David Diesslin, CFP, with Diesslin & Associates Inc. Financial Advisors in Ft. Worth, Texas, has been collecting wine for years and buys futures periodically.

It’s been a profitable hobby: He estimates that his average bottle cost is about one-tenth of its current market value. Diesslin recommends using a credit card for purchases to protect deposits against vendor problems. It’s also important to be aware of the wine’s history, he says. Of course, wine investments don’t come with guaranteed payoffs.

Kent Smetters, president of Veritat Advisors in Philadelphia and a professor at the Wharton School, studied wine prices through year-end 2006. “We basically found that except for first-growth French wine, investments in wine did not really produce a high enough return to justify their risk and in particular they were not a low-beta asset,” he explained.

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Pennsylvania Wine Vending Machine Has Kafka-esque Security Measures

Can you believe that, in the 21st century, a place filled with household lasers, instant worldwide communication and Daft Punk’s amazing new Tron album, you cannot buy wine in a grocery store in Pennsylvania? Liquor can only be bought from state-owned and controlled stores.

But there’s a technological workaround – although it seems as much in the spirit (ahem) of the law as is the Sabbath mode available on some kitchen appliances. It uses vending machines, which are legal, and it goes like this:

Each machine is connected to a state employee in Harrisburg, via video-camera. A customer chooses their wine, swipes their ID, puffs into a breathalyzer and faces the camera. The state employee checks that the ID matches the person and, if they’re not already intoxicated, the person is allowed to buy the wine (the machine vends only wine right now).

What next? Backscatter nude-o-grams to make sure you’re not already carry another bottle? Oh, and as if this wasn’t bad enough, the first store with the machine, Giant Eagle in Robinson, only keeps it switched on until 9PM.

Clearly these laws aren’t meant to protect the people. Rather, a state monopoly on booze is a clear money-spinner for the local government. Still, the workaround is admirable, in a hi-tech, convoluted fashion, which is exactly the kind of workaround we like. Of course, this machine will never come close to the sublime ale-dispenser that is Wired.com’s Beer Robot.

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Billionaire Resnick's Fiji Water Buys Vineyard, Turning From Water to Wine

Billionaire Stewart Resnick’s Fiji Water LLC will acquire Justin Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles, California, for an undisclosed price, adding upscale wine to his investments in bottled water and pomegranate juice.

Justin, which makes about 50,000 cases of wine a year, was founded in 1981 by former investment banker Justin Baldwin and his wife, Deborah. The 160-acre property includes a hotel and a restaurant.

“It’s actually a perfect match,” said John Cochran, president of Fiji Water, in an interview. “The Justin folks have done an exceptional job of building a great business, primarily based on fantastic products. And despite all the success that they’ve had, there’s still a great opportunity, given consumer demand for the product, to carefully grow that consumer presence and distribution.”

The acquisition is one of eight this year for California wineries, twice as many as last year and the most since 2007, when eight purchases were completed before the recession, according to the San Francisco-based Wine Institute.

“There will be more deals like this, without question,” said Jack Daniels, co-founder of Wilson Daniels Ltd., a wine marketing firm in St. Helena.

Before the recession, the market was flooded with bottles priced from $25 to $100 as existing wineries ramped up production and new entrants came to the market, Daniels said. Now many are sitting on excess inventories as middle-class consumers cut back purchases of pricey wine and opt for bottles below $20.

‘Excellent Reputation’

Justin, which sells wines ranging from a $15 sauvignon blanc to a $62 cabernet sauvignon blend called Isosceles, has “an excellent reputation and are perceived as a high-quality producer,” Daniels said. “But there’s a lot of those wineries out there today.”

What makes the deal for Justin unusual is that the company doesn’t appear to be in trouble, unlike many other purchases this year, said Vic Motto, co-founder and chief executive officer of Global Wine Partners LLC, an investment bank in St. Helena, California.

“It’s an outlier,” Motto said. Since the economic slump, expanding wineries have been reluctant to sell for a discount, and those that have are in distressed situations, he said. “Those wineries that were highly leveraged were squeezed as sales went down. They just couldn’t sustain that.”

Troubled Assets

This year’s wine deals included purchases of troubled assets. In June, Sutter Home Winery paid $6.5 million for the real estate of former Havens Wine Cellars, which was liquidated last year. Last month, Foley Family Wines picked up Eos Winery in Paso Robles, which was in receivership.

Jeff Menashe, chairman of Demeter Advisory Group LLC, the San Francisco firm that worked on the Justin deal, wouldn’t say how much the winery sold for. He said it was comparable to five other sales in the past two years that involved growing luxury wineries in California.

Among those was Diageo Plc’s $105 million purchase of Rosenblum Cellars, a 200,000-case property in Alameda, a 2008 transaction that Demeter worked on. Another was the 2009 sale of Kosta Browne, a 10,500-case winery in Sonoma County specializing in pinot noir, to Vincraft Group, for about $40 million, according to the Wine Institute.

During the recession, consumers drank less in restaurants, hurting producers who relied on sales of bottles that cost more than $10. California wholesale wine sales were unchanged in 2009 from the previous year, and the value of retail sales dropped 3 percent to $17.9 billion, the Wine Institute said.

Best Year Ever

The situation is different with Justin, Baldwin said.

“We’re finishing up the best year we’ve ever had,” he said. Part of the reason he decided to sell is for financial planning, Baldwin said. He was also concerned that to “build off of what we’ve developed in our 30-year history,” they wouldn’t have “the financial wherewithal” to do that on their own.

“It’s not a distressed asset,” Fiji’s Cochran said.

Resnick is no stranger to the world of agriculture. He and his wife are the biggest growers of citrus, pomegranate, almonds and pistachios in the U.S. His Roll International Corp. owns Fiji Water, the bottled water shipped from the remote South Pacific island; POM Wonderful pomegranate juice; Teleflora, the flower delivery service; and Suterra, an environmentally friendly pesticide.

The Resnicks had been looking to buy a winery for years and never found a match until they were introduced to the Baldwins by Demeter, according to Cochran.

“They’ve done such a nice job of building up a business, most of the things you look at are such a train wreck,” Cochran said. “Stewart’s been buying businesses for 40 years, and it’s rare that he’s looked at one that got better as the process went on, not worse.”

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Wine 'outperforming oil and gold'

According to the Bordeaux Index, a monthly report on the state of the fine wine market, bottles of white and red outperformed gold and oil. Wine prices jumped 5 per cent, year-on-year, bettering rises in the price of oil, which was up three per cent, and gold – up to two per cent. The rise has been attributed to an increased interest in China for fine wines over the past 12 months.

In the past year record auction prices have been set for bottles of wine. Last month £147,020 was paid for a bottle of 1869 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild at a sale in Hong Kong. Performing well has been Lafite and Mouton Rothschild 2008 which saw an increase after it was confirmed that Chinese artwork would feature on labels. Gary Boom, the founder and Managing Director of Bordeaux Index, said: “Once more, the key dynamic has been continued demand from the Asian market.

“Chinese buyers in particular have developed a taste for fine wine – and with alternative investment classes such as gold and shares limping through to the end of the year, it’s hard not to give any forecast other than for growth to continue into the New Year.”

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Italy group fights AIDS with wine: 'wine for life'

Italy's quality wine producers are selling their finest vintages to help fight AIDS in Africa, fermenting the Latin proverb "In Vino Veritas," (In wine there is truth), into "In Vino Caritas" (In wine there is charity).

"It's all about love, taking the love that we receive from nature, in the form of wine, and giving it back to the earth, in the form of helping our needy brothers and sisters in Africa," said Luca Sanjust, owner of the Petrolo winery in Tuscany. Italy group fights AIDS with wine: 'wine for life' Petrolo, a high-quality boutique winery that produces only about 70,000 bottles a year, is just one of the Italian producers sending a life line to Africa through their vines.

The project that links Tuscany's idyllic rolling hills with some of the world's most blighted areas was started seven years ago by Rome's Sant' Egidio Community, which has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. As part of the programme, more than 120 of Italy's finest vineyards put a sticker on some of best bottles reading "Wine for Life - this bottle helps fight AIDS in Africa".

Some two million bottles have borne the stickers in the past eight years. Fifty euro cents of the price goes to Sant' Egidio to finance their programme called DREAM -- an acronym for Drug Resource Enhancement Against AIDS and Malnutrition -- to administer antiretroviral treatment.

DREAM centres have opened in Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroun. "This is about life, it is not about business," said Sanjust, 51, whose wines for the project include his Galatrona and Torrione labels, contributing tens of thousands of euros to the programme each year.

"Wine to us is sacred. Life is sacred. I think the people who are doing this work in Africa are living saints," Sanjust said at a recent benefit and wine auction for the programme.

PEACE MOVEMENT

Founded by students in Rome in 1968, Sant' Egidio has a long history of work in Africa. In 1992 it negotiated an end to the civil war in Mozambique after other diplomatic attempts failed.

The DREAM project gets about 250,000 euros ($329,700) a year from its Wine for Life initiative. The rest comes from charities, institutions, private donations and corporations.

Their clinics currently treat some 98,000 AIDS patients, including 59,000 for HIV and AIDS. Nearly 12,000 children been born healthy from HIV positive mothers thanks to the programme of antiretroviral drugs.

Sant' Egidio runs 31 centres with 18 laboratories in Africa and has helped with the professional formation of some 3,600 local doctors and clinical workers.

Some 500 professionals from the developed world, many of them doctors, go to Africa on their own time and money to help, a practice that helps keep costs under control.

Another well known Italian winery that takes part in the dream program is Zenato, which produces, among other delights, Amarone Valpolicella DOC, which this year was rated 36 in the Top 100 list in the U.S. wine magazine Wine Spectator.

"Land is a gift of God and the earth. Our ties to the earth and our vines can make us great and bring a smile to children," said Nadia Zenato, vice president of the family-own winery based in the hills west of Verona near Lake Garda.

"We want to do good for the those who are less fortunate than us. That's our family philosophy," said Zenato, 38, who runs the company with her mother and brother. "It's in our blood. It's in our vines," she said.

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