Category: Articles

Judging for Women in Business 2020 – The Stevie® Awards

I’m delighted to be Judge, and on the “Media Awards Committee” in this year’s for Women in Business 2020 – The Stevie® Awards, which are the world’s premier business awards. Stevie Award judges include the world’s most respected executives, entrepreneurs, innovators, and business educators.

Judging of the 2020 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business will be conducted by more than 200 members of seven judging committees through September. Jurors’ average scores will determine Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award placements.

I’m in the process of judging, and I’m quite impressed by the level of applicants and their accomplishments!

 

2020 Stevie Awards: https://stevieawards.com/women/media-awards-judging-committee

Glenmorangie releases a single malt designed to be paired with cake

Glenmorangie is celebrating the joy of a ‘cake moment’ with its latest release. The sweet and indulgent single malt, Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake is inspired by memories of baking, birthdays and more, with flavours of honey, vanilla and the fruit notes.  The idea for the spirit began with Dr Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s director of whisky creation, thinking back on how some of his happiest memories involved cake. He experimented by finishing Glenmorangie in wine casks from the Tokaji region of Hungary, which lent their sweet honeyed notes to the smooth and fruity whisky.

Dr Bill said: “Like so many of us, some of my favourite memories come from cake, whether it be helping my granny in her kitchen, or the pineapple birthday cake my daughter surprised me with one year. By finishing whisky in Tokaji wine casks, I’ve captured the joy of those indulgent cake moments in Glenmorangie A Tale of Cake. The liquid is a rich copper, but the taste is pure technicolour – luscious, sweet and complex with multi-layered bursts of honey, white chocolate and fruits with a hint of mint.”

The whisky is finished in Tokaj wine casks, which is intended to help it develop flavours of honey, white chocolate and fruit. Glenmorangie has partnered with famed baker Dominique Ansel and bartender Jeremy Le Blanche to create a cocktail and cake pairing to mark the Scotch’s launch.

The cocktails will be made with a range of Glenmorangie whiskies including  The Original, The Lasanta and The Quinta Ruban.

The ‘CakeTail’ pairings will be available at Ansel’s bakery in New York, but the pair will also create recipes that whisky fans can make at home, which will be shared on Glenmorangie’s social channels.

Glenmorangie website: https://www.glenmorangie.com/en-gb

 

Pouilly-Fuissé gets 22 premier cru vineyards

The French National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) has officially recognized 22 premier cru ‘climats’ within the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation.

The AOP Pouilly-Fuissé will become the first appellation within Burgundy’s Mâconnais sub-region to benefit from premier cru vineyards.

The 22 new premier crus account for a total of 194ha of land planted to vine, corresponding to circa 24% of Pouilly-Fuissé’s total vineyard area (800ha), spread over the four communes of the appellation: Chaintré, Fuissé, Solutré-Pouilly and Vergisson.

A proposal for the recognition of these climats as premier crus was first submitted to the INAO 10 years ago. Since then, the INAO has been working in partnership with the Organization for the Defense and Management (ODG) of the Pouilly-Fuissé appellation to assess the worthiness of these ‘terroirs’.

The 22 new premier crus, commune by commune

Chaintré:

  • Le Clos de Monsieur Noly
  • Les Chevrières
  • Aux Quarts
  • Le Clos Reyssier

Fuissé:

  • Le Clos
  • Les Brulés
  • Les Ménétrières
  • Les Reisses
  • Les Vignes Blanches
  • Les Perrières
  • Vers Cras

Solutré-Pouilly:

  • La Frérie
  • Le Clos de Solutré
  • Au Vignerais
  • En Servy
  • Aux Bouthières
  • Aux Chailloux
  • Pouilly
  • Vers Cras

Vergisson:

  • Les Crays
  • La Maréchaude
  • Sur la Roche
  • En France

#wine #bourgogne #burgundy #pouillyfuisse #Mâconnais

ZACHYS ANNOUNCES WORLD RECORD-BREAKING DEBUT EUROPEAN AUCTION OF WINES FROM THE CELLAR OF ENOTECA PINCHORRI TOTALLING £3.2 MILLION

After decades of auctions in New York and Hong Kong, the world’s leading wine auction house, Zachys, hosted its first European auction in London via livestream, on 12 September 2020. In a great success by any measure, the auction was sold out and realized £3,153,952. The wines and aquavit in the auction were from the legendary cellar of three-Michelin-star Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence, Italy. The sale included Coche-Dury, Rouget, Dujac, Ramonet, Leflaive, Jayer, Liger-Belair, DRC, the First Growths, Pétrus back to the 1920s, Le Pin, Yquem back to the 1920s, Masseto, Ornellaia, Krug, Chave, an amazing collection of Italian aquavit in beautiful hand-blown Murano glass, all curated by the restaurant’s owner Giorgio Pinchiorri. The auction was live-streamed from Zachys’ home office in New York, by Zachys President Jeff Zacharia and Head of Auction Sales Charles Antin, while bidders logged in from home, along with intimate get-togethers in Stockholm, Geneva, Beijing and at Cabotte Wine Bar and Restaurant in London. Bidders from 20 countries, including the UK, US, UAE, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Switzerland, Sweden and Monaco, all vied to take home a piece of vinous history. The 864-lot auction featured 2,507 large formats including nebuchadnezzars, methuselahs, jeroboams, magnums and was 100% sold. 26% of the auction, or 226 of the lots, set new World Records, and an astonishing 55% of the lots set European Records, despite this being Zachys first auction in the UK. The top World Records include:

• A single magnum of 1979 Jayer Richebourg for £47,120

• A single magnum of 1990 Roumier Musigny for £47,120

• A single imperial of 2009 Pétrus for £42,160

• A single bottle of 1985 Jayer Richebourg for £34,720

• A single methuselah of 1981 DRC RSV for £29,760 Zachys sold over £115 million worth of wine at auction and retail in 2019.

In March 2020, as Covid-19 forced bidders to stay at home, Zachys quickly transformed into a digital business and was the first major auction house to offer its live auctions fully online, allowing clients to bid from anywhere globally. Despite COVID-19, Zachys has had its busiest first half-year ever, overreaching projections with over £34 million in year-to-date auction sales. Since the start of the pandemic, all live auctions have taken place through Zachys’ “Studio Sales” live-streamed, sometimes with over 150 people in the “virtual room,” watching the auctioneer from New York. Zachys even carried out a Hong Kong sale on EST, which took place 10pm-4am. Zachys’ global team hosts now-famous bidding parties, where potential buyers in Beijing, Shanghai, Stockholm, London, Hong Kong, or elsewhere can get together in small groups, enjoy a glass of Burgundy, some fine dining, and bid in real-time. The “Studio Sales” have made Zachys auctions more accessible as bidders are no longer required to attend in person. Zachys has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Napa, Washington DC, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Stockholm and Paris. London, the historic centre of wine buying and trading worldwide, was the obvious choice for Zachys’ new European hub. Zachys’ presence in the UK capital is a key piece in a global expansion strategy that ensures the company’s global clientele will receive the same level of service regardless of time zone. Christy Erickson, Head of Europe, Zachys said: “We’re delighted with the results of our European debut. We were coming into the auction against a backdrop of global uncertainty due to the ongoing pandemic, but since wine auction sales in 2020 thus far have exceeded our January projections, we decided to forge ahead. And we’re glad we did: this auction shows that the fine-wine auction industry is still booming, and our buyers’ appetite for quality shows no sign of slowing. We’re thrilled to have set a 226 World Records and achieve over double our pre-auction estimate for this collection. We can now look forward to three more sales in New York and Hong Kong in September, three auctions in New York in October, and then we’re back in November for our second sale in London.’’ In addition to its upcoming auctions in New York and Hong Kong, Zachys will follow up the London auction with a multi-vendor sale in the city in November 2020. Visit the auction calendar here: http://www.zachys.com/auctions.

THE CHAMPAGNE 2020 HARVEST REPORT “SPLENDIDE!”

2020 completes an exceptional trilogy for the harvest: as in 2018 and 2019, the weather conditions have offered a very high-quality harvest, which is one of the requirements to make a great wine. The beginning of the year was particularly wet with the dampest February on record. Heat and drought set in mid-March and the vines were 16 days ahead on a 10-year average; it will not lose this edge, even registering an exceptionally fast maturation process the week before the harvesting.

While last year’s temperature record was broken (42.9°C), this year it was the driest July in history. Due to the drought, the grapes are of a lighter weight than average but in excellent sanitary condition. The musts are well balanced, fruity, with a beautiful freshness and a great aromatic expression; the alcoholic degree lies between 10 and 10.5% vol.

The year 2020 is, of course, characterized by the health safety measures linked to the Covid-19 epidemic, which had to be put in place for the 120.000 seasonal workers recruited in vineyards or pressing centres.

Given the maximum yield limited to 8,000 kg/ha, the harvest was carried out, individually, a little faster than usual but spread over a normal period of about three weeks, given the heterogeneity of maturation between vintages and grape varieties. The tasting of berries and seeds and the analysis of the sugar content present in the grapes allow each winemaker to adapt the beginning of his harvest and optimize his grape picking circuit, plot by plot, at optimum maturity.

With the superb trilogy 2018, 2019, 2020, Champagne should have in a few years blends and, probably, exceptional vintages, all living up to the celebrations of the event that the whole world is waiting for: the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.

French Version

′′2020 complète en effet une trilogie exceptionnelle : comme en 2018 et en 2019, les conditions météorologiques ont offert une récolte de très grande qualité, première des conditions pour élaborer un grand vin. Le début de l’année a été particulièrement arrosé avec le mois de février le plus humide jamais enregistré. Chaleur et sécheresse s’installent dès la mi-mars et la vigne débourre avec 16 jours d’avance sur la moyenne décennale ; elle ne perdra plus cette avance, enregistrant même une dynamique de maturation exceptionnellement rapide la semaine précédant le ban des vendanges.

Alors que l’an passé, le record de température avait été battu (42,9°C), cette année, c’est le mois de juillet le plus sec de l’histoire qui a été enregistré. En raison de la sécheresse, les grappes sont d’un poids inférieur à la moyenne mais dans un excellent état sanitaire. Les moûts sont équilibrés, fruités, présentent une belle fraîcheur et une grande expression aromatique ; le degré alcoolique se situe entre 10 et 10,5% vol.

L’année 2020 se singularise bien sûr par les mesures de sécurité sanitaires liées à l’épidémie de Covid-19 qui ont dû être mises en place pour les quelque 120 000 saisonniers recrutés dans les vignes ou les centres de pressurage.

Compte tenu du rendement maximum limité à 8 000 kg/ha, la récolte a été effectuée, à titre individuel, un peu plus rapidement que d’habitude mais s’est étalée sur une durée normale d’environ trois semaines, compte tenu de l’hétérogénéité de maturation entre crus et entre cépages. La dégustation de baies et de pépins et l’analyse du taux de sucre présent dans les raisins permettent à chaque vigneron d’adapter le début de sa vendange et d’optimiser son circuit de cueillette du raisin, parcelle par parcelle, à maturité optimale.

Avec la superbe trilogie 2018, 2019, 2020, la Champagne devrait disposer dans quelques années d’assemblages et, probablement, de millésimes exceptionnels, à la hauteur des célébrations de l’événement que le monde entier attend : la fin de la pandémie Covid-19 ′′.

Source : Comité Champagne