Vilafonte, a winery in South Africa, is trying to perfect a cigar that will pair well with Bordeaux blends. The cigars they are making are lighter in style (which I prefer) so as not to overwhelm. Decanter is calling it a world first for wine, but I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who have found cigars that they like to enjoy with red wines. Still, it sounds like a blast to dabble in crafting cigars in-house. Color me jealous.
Bouquet: the Wine Game is getting some press as a hot wine geek party game. I certainly like the idea of melding trivial pursuit with a monopoly like game board covered with wine labels, but after looking at some of the questions, well, I don’t think I’d do very well. Here’s an example:
Question: What year was the first varietal-labeled Chardonnay out for sale in the USA? Answer: In 1936-a Pinot Chardonnay from Earnest Wente in Livermore, California, USA.
Or this:
Question: Is Louis M. Martini in Napa Valley related to the Vermouth family of the same name?
Answer: No.
I would have gotten 1 wrong for sure, might have gotten 2 correct, but I’m left wondering: who cares? Are these really the types of wine questions that stir wine geek’s souls?
Pot is (and apparently has been for some time) California’s number 1 cash crop. From the LA Times:
California is responsible for more than a third of the cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion that exceeds the value of the state’s grapes, vegetables and hay combined — and marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen states…
Cannabis sativa: A true growth industry.
Apparently wine investing provides sizable returns when accounting for the low beta (thats a measure of risk for you non-finance types). The article linked above points out a very real risk that the economists who conducted the study didn;t account for however: holding risk. In other words, the probability that you’ll haul off and drink your investment! Money quote:
It is one thing to buy a fine wine and cellar it with the intention of auctioning it off at a later date. It’s another thing altogether to successfully walk by it year after year without giving in to the temptation to uncork it.
And here’s the meat of the findings:
The holy grail for investors is an asset that delivers healthy annual returns, but doesn’t have a great deal of associated risk.
The authors found that wine investments have almost no correlation with the market as a whole, yet have high returns. The average annual return for those who invested in Bordeaux was between 7.5 percent and 9.5 percent higher than would have been predicted by factors that account for risk.
