Wine Spectator October 15, 2016

Visit www.winespectator.com/101516 to find links to all of the following resources. Free resources for all our WineSpectator.com readers: VOTE IN THE 2016 VIDEO CONTEST! Original short wine videos have been pouring into Wine Spectator’s 10th annual Video Contest. (Entry deadline is Monday, Sept. 5.) On Sept. 12, we’ll post the finalists so you can vote for your favorite. The first-place winner will receive a pair of tickets to our spectacular Wine Experience weekend. The top video will be revealed on Sept. 20. In the meantime, check out the entry guidelines and previous years’ finalists at www.winespectator.com/videocontest2016. THE WINE WORLD, UNFILTERED Love wine and spirits? Love pop culture? Get the scoop on how drinks intersect with movies, TV, music, sports, politics and more, in our weekly web column and its companion e-mail newsletter. Sign…

People go to Israel for many reasons—its ancient history, its religious traditions, its vibrant culture. To that long list, it’s time to add another appeal: its wines. Israel has been making wine for millennia; its modern industry began in 1882, when Baron Edmund de Rothschild of France created Carmel Winery. Carmel is still in business and in recent decades many more wineries have bloomed in the desert. To catch up on the country’s progress, we sent managing editor Kim Marcus to explore its wineries and vineyards. It was his fourth trip to the country, and he found much to praise. Israeli vintners are exploring new terroirs, recuperating ancient grapes and employing the latest technologies to make delicious reds and whites, in both kosher and non-kosher styles. If you have the chance to explore…

READERS WEIGH IN ON SHELF-TALKERS Wine Spectator readers respond to Marvin R. Shanken’s challenge to wine retailers to ensure that shelf-talkers aid consumers by being accurate and credible (Editor’s Letter, Sept. 30). Thank you for calling out this questionable yet all too common business practice. It’s understandable that there are going to be occasional tag errors, but some retailers have such large quantities of errant tags that the credibility and integrity of the seller should be questioned. William Rasche Dublin, Ohio I don’t disagree that some retailers can be shady with misleading shelf-talkers. But in fairness, many retailers stock the younger vintages, which Wine Spectator is slow to rate. I do appreciate a historical ratings trajectory when the current vintage is “not yet rated.” Costco is a great example: They plainly list Wine Spectator ratings…

In the early hours of June 24, the mobile phones of executives at BI began buzzing with e-mail alerts. BI is a London-based wine merchant, known until recently as Bordeaux Index, and the messages signaled heavy trading on its Internet platform. “The [Brexit] referendum results had come in, and the guys in Hong Kong were trading, bang, bang, bang, £100,000, £100,000,” recalled BI head of marketing Giles Cooper. The traders were buying Bordeaux first-growths. By midday, BI had done £1 million in trade. The trigger for the trading was Brexit, the United Kingdom’s historic vote to leave the European Union. The referendum results sparked a massive decline in the value of the British pound, and within moments, wine held by U.K. merchants was a lot cheaper for customers abroad. The Brexit vote…

French Vintners Lash Out at Importer of Cheap Foreign Wine Just before midnight on July 19, approximately 30 masked people attacked a winery facility in France’s Languedoc region, wreaking havoc in a matter of minutes. The group ransacked the offices of Sudvin, a subsidiary of the Vinadeis wine cooperative, whose operations include importing inexpensive bulk wine from Spain. The vandals destroyed furniture and threw burning tires into offices. Who were these people? A video obtained by local TV showed a masked man speaking to the camera, claiming to be a member of the Comité Regionale d’Action Viticole (CRAV), a shadowy organization of vignerons that for more than a decade has protested globalization’s impact on French wine. The man complained that local winemakers’ vats are full of unsold wine, blaming the problem on wine…

Napa County residents packed a local courtroom on July 15 for a rather arcane hearing on rules for qualifying voter initiatives for election ballots. Spectators spilled out into the hallway, with some wearing buttons that read “Save the Watershed.” They were there to support the Water, Forest and Oak Woodland Protection Initiative of 2016, a proposal to tighten county rules on land development and tree removal near local watersheds. For 10 weeks earlier this year, volunteers supporting the measure gathered signatures in front of grocery stores and libraries to put it on the ballot this November. But county officials ruled that the proposal had not been presented properly. Despite the large courthouse crowd, the judge agreed. The initiative’s supporters have vowed to appeal this decision. Their efforts highlight a growing tension in…