Qantas launches 'members only' epiQure wine and food club

In an attempt to woo well-heeled travellers, and certainly keep them away from the newly-competitive Virgin Australia, Qantas is launching a $99-per year wine and food club as an add-on to its existing Frequent Flyer program.

Upon joining, members will receive a "welcome gift" from Qantas worth $130 (seems a fairly safe bet that it will be quaffable), and access to the epiQure website. The membership is also available for 13,000 points. Qantas promises the community will allow members to "discover the Qantas cellar’s diverse collection of wine, dine with globally renowned chefs and be part of a community with a shared appreciation of the finer things in life."Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Neil Perry will host the first epiQure showcase event at Rockpool Bar and Grill in Sydney and Melbourne in July.

Members will earn three points per dollar on purchases of wine and event tickets, and 2,000 bonus points after members buy their first case of wine through Qantas. Delivery of wine is also free to the end of 2012.
There's also the ability to earn four points per dollar at 250 Qantas Frequent Flyer partner restaurants.
Qantas says the epiQure website (which is currently password protected) is designed to "form the centre of a passionate community bringing together wine and food lovers, winemakers, producers, chefs, and industry experts to share knowledge and experiences.""Members will get the first serve of up-and-coming chefs at the top of their game, get the inside scoop on new restaurants and have access to celebrity recipes."

If any other organisation were attempting a paywalled community website, they'd face an uphill battle in getting a critical mass of people enlisted and interacting with each other, but Qantas does already have a memberbase of 7.8 million travellers to mine. Qantas says it has recently launched a “Sommeliers in the Sky” training program for staff to educate cabin crew and lounge staff about the wines they serve.

Read Full Entry

Stars of Early American Winemaking: Where Are They Now?

Welcome to Vintage America, our column on the history — and future — of American wine. Every week Talia Baiocchi, author of the Decanted column on Eater NY, will take a look at winemaking from Virginia to Texas to California, to uncover the people, events, and trends that have made America one of the most dynamic countries in the world of wine.

The story of American winegrowing began just one century after Columbus, when French Huguenot settlers arrived in present day Florida. As myth would have it, when Captain John Hawkins arrived in Florida in 1565 — just a year after the settlers — he found them near starvation, unable to grow food, but relatively successful cultivating wine from abundant wild grapes.

This abundance of vine growth is noted by settlers and early pioneers as a symbol of the promise of America as a sort of Eden, where wine and other products would bring those who settled there everlasting prosperity.

But as the story unfolds, America's wild vine, like Eden's forbidden fruit, wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The native varieties — which hugged trees and grew rampant along the coastline, threatening the sea like a verdant tsunami — would prove largely unsuitable for quality wine.

But America's early settlers persisted. Scuppernong — a grape of the muscadine family (or Vitis rotundifolia) native to the Southern United States and likely responsible for the wine the Huguenots first cultivated—eventually gained notoriety and favor in the states.

But America's fighting chance at serious viticulture came courtesy of its native American hybrids. Most were crossbreeds of failed vinifera plantings and native labrusca vines. The first, Alexander, which was discovered in 1740 just outside Philadelphia, was — as almost all the early American hybrids were — a chance breeding. These early discoveries predated any knowledge of plant hybridization and many of the men and women to stumble across these floral love children were convinced they'd simply found a vinifera variety that had managed to adapt.

Catawba--another accidental hybrid which was originally thought to be Hungarian Tokay--went on to become one of the most important western varieties and the base for some of America's most renowned early wines, not least among them: Nicholas Longworth's Ohio sparkling wines.

Stories of America's accidental hybrids and the rare success of native grapes like Scuppernong built the foundation of modern American winemaking before anyone knew about plant breeding or grafting. Most of them faded into obscurity with Prohibition, some resurfaced after as unlikely foundations for modern winemaking out West, and others continue to be relevant in America's lesser-known winegrowing regions. Below is an abbreviated field guide to some of America's most important early grapes and a look at where they are now.

Read Full Entry

Despite rain, winemaking is okay, for now?

There's nothing like a sweet glass of wine in the summer. "Oh, that's really good."But with all the wet, rainy weather this spring, grapes could be damaged. They run the risk of disease and high acidity, which makes for bad wine.

"What we'd like to do right about now is begin to turn the rain off. Grapes generally like a drier climate, a drier soil," said Glenora Wine Cellar owner Gene Pierce. "A lot of vineyard work isn't being done simply because it's wet and we're worried about long-term damage."

Now this all might make it seem like the grape crop is in bad shape this season. But the winemakers I spoke with say these little clusters are only three days behind where they should be. The only reason it seems bad is because last year, they were two weeks ahead."

"When you look at let's say May 23rd of last year, the vineyards would look a lot different then than they do now. Do we like all this wet weather? No. But overall things are looking very good," said Pierce. "The grapes are progressing along nicely. The problem is the excessive moisture that we have made it very difficult to do any spring farm work," said Lakewood Vineyards manager David Stamp.

Luckily, it's still early. Grape-harvesting peaks in late July and August. And assuming the summer heats up as it should, wine production should be normal. So get your wine openers ready.

Read Full Entry

Madoff's wine fetches $41,530 for Ponzi victims

Every little drop helps. The eclectic wine and spirits collection belonging to imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff fetched $41,530 at an online auction held on Wednesday.

All 59 lots, ranging from fine Bordeaux to the types of small bottles often found in hotel minibars, found buyers, with 54 selling above the highest estimated pre-auction price. The winning bids exceeded the roughly $15,000 to $21,000 the auction run by Morrell & Co Fine Wine Auctions in New York had been expected to raise.

"Proceeds from this auction are going towards compensating Madoff's victims, so we couldn't be happier with the results," auction director Kimberly Janis said in a statement. As expected, the top lot was a case of 1996 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, a Bordeaux, which went for $6,800. It had been expected to go for $3,200 to $3,800.

A case of Veuve Clicquot, yellow label brut, also fared well. It sold for $1,500, above its $240 to $350 pre-auction estimate and roughly triple what it might cost at retail. Meanwhile, a lot of 2-ounce bottles of Bombay Dry Gin, Grand Marnier and Smirnoff Vodka commanded a $300 winning bid, well above the expected $10 to $20.

Storage conditions of the lots is not known. Madoff's wines were seized by the U.S. Marshals Service, which often auctions seized property to benefit crime victims.

An auction last November of Madoff's furniture, monogrammed clothing and other personal effects raised about $2 million. Madoff, 73, is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Andre Grenon)

Read Full Entry

Wine served at royal wedding bags top prize

A wine served at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine has won the gold medal at the International Wine Challenge. The royal couple selected the Rose Brut wine from Chapel Down vineyard in Tenterden, Kent, for their wedding April 29. The drink costs 24.99 pounds per bottle, the Daily Express reported.

Frazer Thompson, chief executive at the vineyard, said: "We are very proud. It makes all the hard work worthwhile. Demand has never been higher and this accolade reinforces the quality of the wine that the team is producing."

"The award will also enhance our export business, especially in the US."The wine won in the ­"sparkling rose" category. The contest was judged by 400 leading wine tasters, with points being awarded for variety, country, region and vintage.

Andrew Parley, the head winemaker, described the wine as a classic that "offers ripe berry and rhubarb ­flavours, and a nose of strawberry and raspberry with a splash of creaminess". Chapel Down is Britain's largest producer of wines, with 500,000 bottles each year.

Read Full Entry