Winebits 471: The not quite New Year’s edition

This week’s wine news: More Chinese fake booze, plus soaring Napa land prices and good news for ice wine drinkers

• Fake booze: The Chinese just can’t seem to get a break when it comes to alcohol fraud. This time, reports thedrinksbusiness.com. Police in two provinces broke up counterfeiting rings earlier this year, one specializing in the fabled Chinese spirit baijiu, while the other filled empty bottles with cheap bulk wines and sold them as big name wines costing as much as RMB 3,000 (about US$431). The magazine says the fake wine had “convincing labels and caps.” Note to Chinese wine drinkers (as well those in the U.S. who buy this stuff): I write about wine, and I can’t get most of the wines they’re selling you. What does that say about the wines’ provenance?

• Real estate boom: Want to buy an acre of prime vineyard land in California’s Napa Valley? Then be prepared to pony up as much as $5 million, reports Lew Perdue at Wine Industry Insight. The chart that details these prices is as depressing as it is fascinating – even some Sonoma vineyard land is approaching Napa prices, something that has never really happened before. In other words, as land prices rise, more and more of the best California wine will be priced out of the reach of most wine consumers, and could even pressure prices upward for the wine we can afford to drink.

• Ice wine: Warm winters in the U.S., Canada, and Europe over the past decade have drastically cut the quality and quantity of ice wine, which is so sweet and amazing that it can be worth what it costs – $60 or more for a half bottle. The good news is that it has been cold enough in Michigan this year so that a couple of wineries will make ice wine this vintage, what one winemaker calls a rarity that always sells out. One of the great moments in my teaching career came when I let a Cordon Bleu class taste ice wine; they loved me forever.