Unfiltered

Russian oil magnates in Tuscany, crystals in wine bottles and Fred Franzia in court

Posted: September 21, 2005

• If Roman Abramovich is used to anything by now, it's rumors and the resulting hefty price tags. Since the Russian oil magnate, worth roughly $14 billion, acquired Chelsea Football Club in England's Premier League, a familiar pattern has emerged: Once Chelsea is reported to be interested in bringing a soccer star onto the team, the price of said player rises to astronomical levels and Abramovich ends up retaining that player's services no matter the cost. (Most recently, he forked over $44 million for Ghanian midfielder Michael Essien.) Now Abramovich has his sights set on wine, according to Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA), which first reported on this. Last week, Abramovich visited several Italian wineries, including Lungarotti in Umbria and two Tuscan estates: Sassicaia producer Tenuta San Guido and Tenuta dell'Ornellaia. Abramovich wouldn't be the first foreign celebrity to jump into Italian wine, but he certainly could have a much greater impact. According to ANSA, Abramovich is looking for land with enough room for an olive grove as well as a vineyard. Don't be surprised if properties fitting this description suddenly hit the market with asking prices much higher than anyone ever imagined. For a guy who has spent about $500 million of his own just on soccer players, money's probably no object.

• Lonely? Like wine? You may not have to go lookin' for love at the wine bar anymore. A new online dating service called Grapedates.com is up and running for wine lovers looking to connect over the Internet and, eventually, a glass of Merlot. To separate itself from all the other dating sites available, Grapedates includes a forum where wine-swirling singles can let each other know about upcoming wine tastings or dinners. Though the site is too new to tell how satisfied customers are, we'll know for sure that Grapedates was a success if several years from now we meet a kid named Cabernet and his sister Sauvignon.

• It seems reasonable to ask why Bronco Wine Co. CEO Fred Franzia ever bothers to leave the courthouse. After five-years-and-running of litigation against the Napa Valley Vintners over the use of "Napa" in wine brands, Franzia now has another lawsuit to manage. Former production shift supervisors at Bronco facilities in Napa and the Central Valley allege that the company improperly withheld overtime payments and didn't allow them to take a full break. They claim to have sometimes worked shifts of 12-plus hours, seven days a week. Bronco denies any wrongdoing. Unfiltered has no personal knowledge of working conditions at Bronco, but we'd bet that the pace there is, well, a tad hectic. The company's Napa facility has a bottling capacity of 18 million cases per year. And its Charles Shaw label--better known as Two Buck Chuck--totaled 5.5 million cases alone in 2003, according to Impact Databank's 2004 U.S. Wine Market Report, and has continued to sell like hotcakes. It's a wonder anyone on the bottling line even has a chance to breathe.

Crystal cuvée: This Italian red bears enough Swarovski for a few pieces of jewelry.

• Remember the old days, when Chianti, Tuscany's bread-and-butter red, arrived stateside in those lovable straw-covered flasks? Well, times have moved on, but the Italians' flair for dressing up their bottles is evidently still strong, though the latest inspiration seems to have come from Graceland. In time for the holidays, Emilia Romagna producer Umberto Cesari is introducing a star-studded 2001 Sangiovese-Cabernet bottling called Polvere di Stelle. (That's Stardust in English.) The bottle is adorned with around 250 genuine Swarovski crystals which, among other things, spell out the wine's name. With 580 cases made of the wine, that adds up to 1,740,000 crystals, about 450,000 of which will be imported into the United States. (Or 150 cases for those without a calculator handy.) What's inside may not quite match up to the fancy packaging. The wine, which scored 84 points in a recent Wine Spectator tasting, shows simple cherry flavors, lightly grassy character and hints of new wood. But at $99 a bottle, it's guaranteed to be a Christmas dinner conversation piece.

The perfect wine to pair with peanuts?

• And if that doesn't show that wineries will do anything to get attention, maybe this will. Unfiltered was appalled--appalled I tell you--to receive a box from the Mendocino Wine Co. with samples of the new Tusk'n Red (yes, there's an elephant on the label) with peanuts rattling around in the box. Peanuts! Unfiltered appreciates peanuts at the ball game, but work is enough of a circus without being treated like a circus animal. We're also not sure why the elephant is watching a game of bocce, or why the $15 wine (which is from Mendocino) is a hardly-Tuscan-inspired blend of Syrah, Zinfandel and Carignane. Not only that, the back label copy reads like someone tripping on LSD: "Don't stare at the elephant. It's not polite. And it makes him nervous."