Tag Archives: wine investing

Winebits 770: Wine smuggling, Utah, “affordable” wine

cartoon: Criminal bribing policemanThis week’s wine news: The Chinese bust another wine smuggling ring, plus Utah’s liquor laws and “affordable” French wine

• $51 million: Chinese authorities reportedly broke up a French wine smuggling operation worth more than US$51 million. The story in the link looks to be an English-language adaptation of a Chinese-language news report, so how much of the story is accurate is anyone’s guess. It doesn’t identify most of those arrested or detail the wines. I mention it here given the blog’s interest in wine crime, and the fact that the smugglers were apparently caught because they listed a legitimate importer on the wine labels. When the police checked with the importer on the label, the importer denied any knowledge of the wines. One would think smugglers would be a bit more cagey than that.

• Bring it on, Utah: What do you do if you’re a bar in Utah and need a liquor license? Wait. And then wait some more. Utah, as regular readers know, always makes the WC smile with its tangle of liquor laws, and this story is no exception. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the state’s liquor authority had 11 applications for one available license in the entire state, but didn’t even give the one out. The reason? Ask the state legislature, said the liquor board chairman. No, I don’t understand it, either.

• “Affordable”? I don’t quite understand what this story is talking about, and I’m especially confused by the headline. It’s ostensibly about investing in fine wine, and there’s a chart that shows the popularity of Burgundies costing as much as $1,000: “In the year to date, the region has generated an aggregate return of 25.3%, putting it comfortably ahead of all major financial benchmarks.” So what does that have to do with affordable? Or has wine just reached a level that I can’t even begin to comprehend?

Winebits 426: Stupid wine headline edition

headlines
Some people do know how to write headlines.

Because a cranky ex-newspaperman still gets a kick out of silly headlines.

? I’m a teetotaler: The latest Centers for Disease Control edict about drinking, that women who want to get pregnant and aren’t on birth control should not drink, surprised even me, and I didn’t think the Neo-Prohibitionists could surprise me any more. Check out this headline: “Millions of women risk exposing unborn children to alcohol.” That would stop me from drinking, and I can’t get pregnant. The problem, though, is that you’re telling someone not to do something because it might affect something that might happen to them years in the future. Which is neither practical nor good medicine. But it is very scary, which was probably the point.

? Drink the damn wine: Each year, people much smarter than the Wine Curmudgeon tell us that we’re not smart enough because we didn’t buy the correct wines. And it doesn’t even mean we’re drinking the wrong ones, despite this effort: “10 wines you should have bought a year ago.” We didn’t buy the right ones to invest in, and I kept slapping my head as I read it. How could I not buy the 2006 Opus One, which appreciated in value 35.9 percent to almost $4,200 a bottle? No wonder I’m still working for a living.

? They just don’t like each other: In “Bull Durham,” Kevin Costner’s character teaches Tim Robbins’ character how to talk in cliches. I still laugh when I see it, because it’s spot on. As is this headline, if you’re looking for cliches: “The battle between Big Beer and craft brewers is getting ugly.” No kidding? You mean they really don’t like each other? (Another phrase that used to make us groan on the copy desk when we had had to edit it out.) I think, as the story details, that the relationship between Big Beer and craft beer is past ugly when they start cursing at each other on Twitter.