Blog

The most expensive wines in the world in 2014

500.000$ is the price paid for a bottle of wine. Richembourg is at the top of the priciest but the Italian front is lead by Sassicaia

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Cabernet Sauvignon Screaming Eagle 1992

The most expensive wine ever to be sold is a 6 litre bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon Screaming Eagle  1992 that was sold at a charity auction in 2000 at the astronomical price of 500.000 dollars.
If on the other hand we go and see the list of bottles normally on sale we find in prime position Richebourg Grand Cru Cote de Nuits produced by the late Henri Jayer the Pinot Noir Wizard. Jayer concentrated on the naturalness in producing extraordinary Burgundies with great concentration, small production to be remembered such as this one. The price of 15.887 Dollars is the highest declared by the stores on Wine Searcher. This portal is the most trustworthy source on an international level because here merge the lists of 47,000 wine stores from all over the world. If they say that the average price of a certain labels is the highest, we can be sure that that is so.

Women's wine according to Jancis Robinson

The most famous Master of Wine Jancis Robinson asks <<Do women and men have a different relationship with wine? >> and her answers leave you speachless

Jancis Robinson MW

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini. 

You might be thinking about a woman’s magazine? No, the article appeared in the “Financial Times” the newspaper for bankers, the finance that matters and great entrepreneurs! And it is a milestone. I invite everyone to read it, especially the boys. <<when a man chooses a bottle to serve at home he asks himself – is it expensive enough for my boss/client/friend? A woman instead asks herself – will we enjoy drinking it together?>> It’s so true. It is a truth that is before everyone’s eyes, women are pragmatic. But it is the next part that really surprises <<women have superior tasting abilities to men, performing more precisely and consistently in experiments>> literally women are more capable than men in tasting, they are more careful/accurate and more experimenters.

Markets what a passion! The best food markets in Europe

My list puts Boqueria in Barcelona at the top but the Markthal in Rotterdam is really the most innovative and sensational food temple in Europe

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Markthal in Rotterdam

A place where one can shop and have a cultural adventure. This post starts from the lost of the  TOP 10 food markets in Europe published by the British daily  The Guardian and then picked up by the super up-to-date blog  la Cucina del Corriere della Sera. On the highest step of the podium one finds the Markthall in Rotterdam, a spectacular tunnel with a very coloured ceiling under which are stores, restaurants and food stalls. It is so big that in the tunnel walls homes have been created. A similar location is sensational in a port city that is not very attractive, because of a very serious lifestyle, the modern architecture which is beautiful but sometimes a bit extravagant, the humid climate   …. Merkthall is a foodie temple, a spurt of life that might change the cities profile

In second position we find the Dalston market,   famous for the street food festival in the cool area in London.

Haut Brion – a 500 year story and a great wine

Famous stories and personal anecdotes regarding  Haut Brion, the only  Chateau out of  Medoc to be Premier Cru Classé since 1855

Haut Brion wine

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
The recently found documents date the fame of the wine from the famous chateau as far back as 1521. It is true that in 1660 bottles of Haut Brion were already on Charles II King of England’s table and were considered very innovative “new French claret” because of a maceration technique which enabled the wine to age at length. A story full of great characters and frequent changes in ownership up until 1935 when Haut Brion was acquired by the American Dillon family that still owns it today. Not far from Bordeaux, it is on a flat piece of land of about 51 hectares covered in stones.
At first sight it doesn’t excite but then you taste it and fall in love with it!
My first memory of Haut Brion is very particular and slightly funny. Lets just go back a bit in time, to when I created my estate, in 1998,  when I felt the need to learn, to get up to date on wine, ands so I took part for three consequent  years in some full immersion courses, regarding red wines organized by ARSIA Toscana in the fabled Faculté d’OEnologie  at the Université Segalen Bordeaux 2. The most

gala dinner celebrating 75 years of Dollon property

sought after lessons were those by Professor Yves Glorie the genius who had taught the world the importance of the poliphenolic ripening of the grapes. He had just recovered from an accident where he had broken several bones, and he would sit or stand in odd positions like a contortionist but so that he would suffer less. His direct and ironic way of expressing himself made those lessons so full of information easier to follow. As many other teachers of the faculty he too had as clients high level wineries, among which Haut Brion where we were able to see form the inside the magical world of a Premier Cru Classé.

Sonic Decanter and your wine ages in a quarter of an hour

A cylindrical container that shoots high frequency sonar waves on the bottle of wine, that in 15 minutes seems to be years older. Genial or useless discovery?

Sonic decanter

Seen for you by  Donatella Cinelli Colombini

This device was invented by the American Michael Coyne and will be on sale from June 2015 at 199$. The Sonic Decanter besotted the entire world of wine, who is uncertain whether to judge it the discovery of the century or yet another unnecessary hoax that might even be harmful for your health. There are those like Luciano Ferraro, who turned their noses up, for example with his article <<Decanter with sonar waves, how to ruin a wine>> and those like Drinks business who show more faith and seem to accept Coyne’s version.  <<Sonic decanter betters the taste of wines adding flavour>>.
The procedure is very simple: the uncorked bottle is placed inside the cylinder where some water was previously poured. After 15 minutes the youngish wine produced just months before resembles something produced years before. Markets such as the Canadian or UK where old bottles are preferred might allow for considerable gains, especially in restaurants, transforming low priced wines into bottles that can be marked up on the bill. In truth the UK press have written loads about the Sonic Decanter and in so demonstrating an effective interest.