A cultural wrong just got righted in California bars and restaurants. Argentine wine faces the choppy waters of hyperinflation and devaluation. You can get paid for that strip of vineyard land you’re not using. One very rich French family sells an old faithful standby of a wine to another very rich French family. These are the stories we’re following this week.
So Ruby um I feel like January is practically over now but I never asked you what you did for New Year’s how was your New Year’s Eve um I’m scared that you’re saying that January is almost over because it’s it’s not but um my New Year’s Eve was really great thanks for
Asking I went to my friend’s house on the upper west side and we made homemade pizzas drank a lot of champagne and played board games through midnight it was a good time how was yours oh nice um mine was good I went to a friend’s party and she happened to have a karaoke
Machine so I said to everyone I am going to leave before the karaoke starts and then I had too much champagne and I sang some karaoke that’s how it always goes well funny that you should bring that up because as we were researching the wine news this week this story kept
Popping up and I really don’t want to think about it but I couldn’t help but click the link and read in Horror oh dear I think I know which one you’re talking about this this story some bloke in Ireland went on a crazy Guinness binge on New Year’s he sure did he drank
81 pints of Guinness between December 29th and 31st I mean the alcohol aside Guinness is so filling like how did his stomach not explode I’m thinking of like money Python’s meaning of life I don’t know if you’ve seen that probably too young to have seen that but there’s this scene in
A restaurant where this waiter goes and finally yeah a wafer thin mint just a wafer thin mint and then the guy explodes because it’s he can’t he can’t take anymore I have not seen it unfortunately but um I will check it out they do say that Guinness is one of the
Most nutritious beers out there with a lot of antioxidants vitamins minerals supposed to be a good source of iron so maybe he just didn’t eat for those two days I mean he did consume 177,000 calories so maybe a bit too much nutrition I don’t know you know they
Used to recommend that nursing mothers drink Guinness and I think my mother actually drank Guinness while she was nursing interesting side note all this Guinness drinking has me thinking of the Guinness Book of World Records and I’m sorry if you hear my dog in the background but I just popped up Guinness
Book of World records’s website and I am not seeing any record listed for the most beers consumed in a two-day period so I think this guy has a lock on this he’s he’s a shoe in for the Guinness of all guinnesses well I’ll tell you one
Record this guy is not going to break world’s oldest and healthiest person now of course if he’ drunk 81 pints of wine different story ah well folks we will not be drinking 81 pints of beer or wine during this episode but we will be talking about a
Cultural wrong that just got writed in California bars and restaurants we will also dip our toes in the chili Argentine Waters of hyperinflation and devaluation we will tell you how you can get paid for that strip of Vineyard land that you’re not using and we will talk
About two very rich French families and one Old Faithful standby of a wine this is the fortop I am your host Katherine Cole joined by Ruby wolovich we are technically a two-top today but we’ve got four piping hot news stories for you all right Catherine our top story is
One of and I quote bizarre and blatant cultural insensitivity but first let’s start with a beverage quiz since Nick isn’t here um Katherine have you heard of Soju and Shu yeah you know it’s funny that you ask this Ruby because we were talking about lower alcohol Spirits just
Last week in episode 135 and if I remember correctly from my days writing about spirits which was gosh more than two decades ago Soju is actually low enough in alcohol to qualify as a fortified wine essentially so kind of interesting loophole restaurants that don’t want to pay for a hard liquor
License can serve cocktails made from Soju with their beer and wine license yeah I actually had a Soju cocktail this weekend kind of randomly I wasn’t expecting it and it was really delicious so what’s the difference between Soju and Shu okay racking my brains again
Here uh Soju is Korean as I remember and shu is Japanese and the alcohol content in Soju tends to be lower and again it’s been two decades since I wrote about spirits so that’s about all I can remember well okay thank you to the internet I can tell you a little bit
More so yes both indeed are lower alcohol than the distilled spirits that we’re used to Soju from Korea is typically 20 to 25% ABV and Shu tends to be in the 25 to 35% range right and so to compare that your standard vodka Jin whiskey tequila yada yada that’s
Typically 40 to 45% ABV so definitely those Spirits are lower in alcohol right so Soju and Shu can both be distilled from a variety of Base ingredients including rice barley and sweet potato maybe this is the new sweet potato fries I don’t know distilled sweet potato
Fries I’m in all right I’m catching up with you here I’ve pulled up some information on Shu and Soju and I am remembering now yes they can be distilled from a variety of Base ingredients that are similar but the two use different types of yeasts Japanese Shu producers rely on a specific rice
Mold called Koji and if you are a saki fan you know that term while the better sojus from Korea get their fermentation started off with the ambient yeast found on this grain cake called nuruk okay so they’re similar spirits but they’re not identical cousins not twins kind of like eyebrows
Totally so uh Ruby we pulled up an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle this week maybe you can read a little bit from it for sure this piece is by Esther Mobley former four toop guest from episode 94 she writes for the past 25 years many bottles of Shu a
Japanese liquor had to be incorrectly labeled as Soju a Korean liquor in order to be sold in restaurants with a beer and wine license that’s right the Japanese products were required to be labeled as a completely different product from a completely different country okay so this is what I alluded
To earlier when California restaur figured out that they could make cocktails out of these low alcohol by volume spirits and thus avoid paying for a liquor license because they could make cocktails just using their wine and beer license this opportunity opened up to import more Soju and Shu but whatever
Lazy knucklehead bureaucrat sorry if you’re listening bureaucrat wrote WR up the laws they only used the Korean term Soju in writing up the California law so the Japanese producers all had to change their labels in order to comply and as a result we all lost the distinction and the nuances between two completely
Different classes of beverages from two completely different nations all right team I think our homework for this week is to taste a Soju and a Shu maybe side by side yes I love that assignment I’m super in and now for a lesson in economics Argentina has the second largest economy
In South America but its currency has been super volatile for some seven decades with periods of severe inflation and hyperinflation so as much as we all love Argentinian wine this has made International Trade tricky that’s right so Argentina voted in its first Libertarian president Javier m in
December and funny thing given that he’s a Libertarian he got right to work doing some regulating yeah he’s been regulating away and thanks to a recent piece by Amanda Barnes in drinks business we know all about it Amanda is a fantastic writer about South American wines and she points out that when Malay
Took office he immediately devalued the Argentine peso by 50% wow which made any Argentinian exporting products like wine happen because of course if you devalue your currency against other currencies it makes your exports more competitive in the global market so mle devalued the Argentine peso in part to shrink the
Argentine trade deficit that is increase exports and decrease Imports but then sounds like the Malay government caught on to just how delicious Argentine wine is because he’s just announced a new export duty of 8% or is it 15% I’m seeing two articles with two different export duties well that’s the problem
With these stories about the Argentine economy I mean it’s so all over the place that I lost the plot along time ago I feel like I just read in September that Argentina had removed its wine export duties back then but now it seems to have added export duties back onto
Wine interesting well Katherine are Argentinian wines any good heck yeah they’re delicious I mean at least the ones I have tried and as of now generally speaking they are a screaming deal for the quality so I guess I see what Malay is doing Argentine wine is actually very well priced right now so
If he devalues the peso and makes it weaker against other currencies to encourage exports that will make Argentinian wine even cheaper for us like crazy cheap so that export Duty will maybe balance things out I guess just if you’re a wine maker in Argentina I’m really sorry that you have to deal
With this yeah I’m sorry to all of our friends in Argentina who are making delicious high elevation wines that you have to deal with this crazy economy I guess our friends our listeners who are wine buyers keep keep buying Argentinian wine support our Compadres down south and let’s keep that wine economy going
Yeah I’m definitely going to get a bottle this Week okay this is a public service announcement to our Vineyard owner friends and thanks to winebusiness.com for alerting us to this key January 11th announcement from the USDA yeah it’s it’s not often that I get excited about an official press release from a US government agency but this was
A good one um it seems that the USDA has reopened signups for its continuous conservation Reserve program so basically what we’re saying here is that the Biden Administration will pay you Bank Vineyard donors for just not farming or developing your buffer zones okay so according to usda.gov and the
Farm Farm Service Agency in exchange for a yearly rental payment Farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production for 10 to 15 years the long-term goal of this program is to reestablish valuable land cover to help improve water quality prevent soil erosion and reduce loss of wildlife
Habitat yeah and so if you have riparian buffers Prairie strips grass waterways and wetlands any of those things you can actually receive an additional 20% incentive wow so you know the alcohol industry may not be so hot right now but the not planting things on your property
Industry is as good as it’s ever been yeah this kind of reminds me of an article I read like two years ago maybe two or three years ago that NASA was looking for people for like this study they just wanted you to sleep in a bed
And um I don’t know it sounds like a good deal and I would take it yeah I mean yeah I’m in all right for our last story Ruby you know those brands that just kind of make you breathe a sigh of relief when you see them like okay this is going to make
Me sound like a bit of a food snob but like if I’m on a road trip and I’m in some random place and I see that they have a Whole Foods I’m like oh thank goodness I can get my organic vegetables mhm yeah I’m the same way with Trader
Joe’s I know what I like there it’s a a sigh of relief and the occasional don’t judge me uh Taco Bell ah taco hell but it could be it could be Taco Heaven depending on where you are in the United States yes with a Crunch Wrap Supreme anything is
Possible well okay so for me as a wine person I if I’m in some random you know restaurant and I’m looking at the wine list I feel like William Fel sh that’s f v re sh is one of those because it’s pretty widely distributed throughout the
United States and it’s just one of those what you see is what you get kind of wines wizzywig as we would say in the in the design world you just it will not surprise you it will just consistently deliver Stone Cold minerally acidic racy textbook chardonnay from burgundy’s
Coldest uh Village or Village I should say now it’s not cheap but you know a basic William FV sh is usually maybe $30 to $40 retail and it’s just really quite good sorry if you hear my heat clicking on in the background I’m just putting it
Out there um okay so our final wine news story of this week is that one ridiculously Rich French family just sold William fev to another absurdly Rich French family this was reported in a number of wine news outlets this week right Ruby so if we see a story reported
In numerous Outlets we just assume it must be news and so yeah that previous owner was the Peno family whose investment firm group art to um art I’m going to try and do terrible French accents for this whole news story um they they own chatau lur in Bordeaux
Chatau G in condu in the northern ran they own araho in the Napa Valley and a number of other high-profile Estates in addition to other businesses oh and side note they also control christe’s the auction house which is interesting because Christies sells a lot of Chateau
Lur anyway way I digress yes the new owners are the Rothchilds now this family has been wealthy and Powerful for so long that I’m sure we all know the name but within the wine world it’s important to know that there are two branches of the family both of which
Started with famous Bordeaux Estates the baron Philipe D Rothchild brand owns Chateau muton Rothchild in Bordeaux as well as a number of other wine Estates including 50% of Opus One in the Napa Valley that’s right but it’s a different branch The Chateau LEF Ros Shield see
I’m GNA try or actually root shield in my terrible French accent it’s that side of the family we’re talking about here and the actual name of the company is domain Baron de or just dbr leit at any rate these reshufflings of wineries between Rich families are just fun to observe yeah it
Looks like the Artemis group has been jumping around a bit lately they acquired champagne on in October of 2022 they turned around and sold it in October 2023 so it sounds like the Pino family is a little hot and cold on wine in general as an investment so is this
Sale good or bad for fans of William fev you know I think I’m going to say it’s a good thing because Artemis group is this holding company you know I mentioned they own the Christy’s auction house or they control the Christy’s auction house and they’re also invested in a number of
Other different industries that are not wine yeah it looks like they own tech company IES a French football club Puma the sporting goods company art galleries yeah and I’m sure the root Shields or Ross Childs however you want to say it are invested in a lot of other things as
Well but dbr lefit portfolio consists entirely of Wineries and they are focused on wine and saskia D rild who runs it is very much focused on organic farming and sustainable practices so I’m I’m feeling positive for my for my William Fe shle all right saskia keep bringing us
That dependable William fev sh please yes and I have not seen it in Trader Joe so sorry to say all right thread that needle um and actually I sorry because I’m a language nerd random aside FV uh translates from the French as fever so the next time you have a fever just run
To your nearest French restaurant grab that bottle of William fev from the nearest ice bucket and put it on your forehead reliable in more ways than one totally and now it is time for our dessert course what do you have for us for dessert Ruby well I like to think
I’m a bit of a Trends Setter and I’ve noticed this now on uh Tik Tok and Instagram a bit but I do have to say I’ve been doing it for over a year now these uh Jam Jar cocktails are you familiar with this idea no but I’m
Intrigued tell me more it’s a little bit of a spirit so I like Jin and a little scoop of jam with some ice and you shake it and then you add it into a glass with some Seltzer maybe it’s it’s a nice easy cocktail oh my gosh that sounds
Delicious and so smart what’s your gin of choice My Gin of choice that’s what I was just going to tell you about is this really amazing gin it’s called Empress gin I will I will make sure to add a picture to our Instagram this week so you can see because it’s a beautiful
Indigo violet purple color in the bottle and it’s really beautiful for cocktails and what’s really fun is that when you add an a to the alcohol so a squeeze of lemon or whatever um the drink turns hot pink and uh it’s a really fun little party trick when you’re home making
Cocktails o I love that nice yeah I think you need to make uh an Instagram reel or something for us Ruby cuz I got to see this a little Jam Jar cocktail reel yeah I can do that well that is it for today’s podcast I am your executive producer Katherine
Cole and I’m media and design manager Ruby wolovich and Nick tul is our producer he is not with us today keln King is our sound supervisor and the composer and performer of our fantastic theme music please visit our website the fortop.com Stars five stars every every rating feeds the algorithm and helps new
Listeners find the four top that’s right signing out from the ice cold city of Portland Oregon in the wamit valley this is Katherine Cole and from Breezy Brooklyn this is Ruby wovi signing out stay safe out there and thanks for listening Bye-bye