Winebits 208: Winery sales, old bottles, underage drinking

? Recession forcing winery sales? That's the question the Wine Spectator looks at, and the answer is yes, kind of. "It ?s far from a fire sale, but wineries in California are changing hands while others are quietly taking on new partners. The surge of deals follows two years of slow business activity ?the struggling economy meant plenty of wineries were struggling but no one wanted to rise to their financial rescue." Now that the wine business can see an end to the slowdown, the story says, deep-pocket investors — the story cites Fiji Water and Boissett Family Estates — are buying brands that the investors thinks are good values. Also going on, but with much less publicity: Well-known wineries are taking on partners to shore up the books after four years of slow business.

? Oldest Charles Krug bottle: A search for the oldest Charles Krug-Peter Mondavi Winery bottle of wine in existence hasn't found much yet. Krug, which is owned by the Peter Mondavi family, was founded in 1861, and the winery is looking for a really old bottle as part of its 150th birthday celebration. So far, though, no bottle much older than the 1940s has turned up. To complicate matters, there don't appear to be any records existing from before the 1950s, making it harder to track old wine.

? The French failure? NPR ran a story that said underage drinking in France was increasing, despite the country's long history of alcohol use. This is not supposed to happen in countries like France, according to people like me, where drinking is accepted and not taboo, like it is in the U.S. Then, in practically the next sentence, the story explains that the French have recently tightened their drinking laws, as well as setting a new minimum age. Is this how bad journalism has become, that a cranky ex-newspaperman has to lecture a media outlet like NPR on a wine blog? If the French have changed their laws and made drinking more difficult, like here in the U.S., why should we be surprised that binge drinking and underage drinking are going on? And it's a crappy headline, too. Harrumph.