Tag Archives: wine smuggling

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 214: YellowTail, winery growth, wine smuggling

? Better living through currency hedging: Or, to put it in English, the Australian company that owns YellowTail made more money betting on the price of the Aussie dollar in fiscal 2011 than it did by selling YellowTail. In fact, reports the Australian Financial Review, the company is so concerned about the strong dollar that it's considering a price increase. The Australian dollar was worth about 50 cents U.S. a couple of years ago, but has been at parity for the last year or so. YellowTail sells about two-thirds of its wine in the U.S.

? Damn the recession, full speed ahead: The number of U.S. wineries grew six percent last year, which is kind of hard to believe given how much whining we heard from the wine business during the recession. Nine states that aren't California, Washington and Oregon had more than 100 wineries, reported Wines & Vines magazine as part of its annual study. These included Ohio and Illinois, hardly considered wine country. But, as the magazine noted, "many states are now making excellent wines and have developed regional, if not national, customer followings." Now, if we can only get the magazine to send someone to the DrinkLocalWine conference.

? A life sentence: That will teach you to cheat the Chinese liquor cops. Reports Decanter magazine: A Chinese man has been given a life sentence for illegally importing more than $7 million of fine wine into China. He altered the name, details and price of high-end wines imported from France, Britain and Hong Kong, stating they were cheap alcohol, the court said. It is not clear which wines were imported, although one report said there were large amounts of Chateau Lafite, Latour and other blue-chip wines.