LONDON - Prince Charles' income grew last year, while his carbon footprint shrank. The eco-friendly prince even has an Aston Martin that runs on biodiesel made from wine.
An annual review of Charles' accounts released Monday said the prince made more than 16 million pounds ($32 million) from property and investments between April 1, 2007, and March 31 this year, 7 percent more than in 2006-2007. Charles paid 3.4 million pounds in tax, 5,000 pounds less than the year before.
The prince's office said greater use of green energy and fewer plane and car journeys helped Charles cut the amount of carbon dioxide he produced by 18 percent to 3,081 tons.
Charles has promised to reduce his emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 percent between 2007 and 2012.
The report said Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, traveled 37,000 miles on official duties and overseas travel accounted for the largest chunk of the prince's carbon footprint.
For domestic travel, the prince's Jaguars, Audi and Range Rover now run entirely on biodiesel made from used cooking oil, and his 38-year-old Aston Martin is fueled by bioethanol from surplus wine.
The prince has also installed wood-chip stoves at his country homes — the Highgrove estate, where he farms organically, and Birkhall in Scotland — and energy-efficient boilers at his Clarence House residence in London.
"I hope it shows a good picture," said royal aide Sir Michael Peat. "I really do believe that the contribution their royal highnesses make to national life continues to develop and broaden."
The 59-year-old heir to the throne receives private income from properties of The Duchy of Cornwall, the 136,000-acre estate established in 1337 by King Edward II to provide income for his heir.
Charles' official spending, including money spent on charitable work and official duties, was 10.4 million pounds. His personal spending, which includes the salaries of 30 full-time staff, was 2.2 million pounds, down from 2.6 million pounds.
Rioja had a banner year in 2006, selling 261 million liters (about 30 million cases) of vino worldwide – an all time record for the Spanish wine region. And starting this year, Rioja will have nine new grapes to play with. Indeed, three non-indigenous white grapes, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Verdejo, can now be planted in the region, along with three indigenous Spanish (but heretofore unplanted in Rioja) white grapes, Maturana Blanca, Tempranillo Blanc and Torrontes, and three indigenous Spanish (but again heretofore unplanted in Rioja) red grapes, Maturana Tinta, Maturano and Monastrell. The native grapes can be used to make single-variety wines; but the non-native grapes may only be blended – in a minority proportion – with native grapes.
QRW contributor Michael Broadbent, who turned 80 on May 2, has retired from the board of Christie’s, after 40 years of service with the London-based auctioneer. Appointed head of Christie’s new wine department in 1967, Broadbent single-handedly created the modern-day wine auction, becoming in the process the world’s foremost expert on old and rare wines. He also managed along the way to produce two seminal wine references, Michael Broadbent’s Guidance in the Technique of Tasting (John Harvey, 1963) and The Great Vintage Wine Book (Alfred A. Knopf, 1980, and twice updated).
Castello Banfi, the well-known property in Tuscany’s Montalcino region, experienced an unusual harvest last February, when paleontologists digging on the estate uncovered the skeleton of a 33-foot-long prehistoric whale. The beast dates back five million years to the Pliocene era, at which time all of Tuscany was an ocean.
Saint-Emilion’s 2006 classification has been suspended by the Bordeaux Administrative Tribunal. The classification had been challenged in court by three châteaux – Villemaurine, Cadet Bon and Guadet-Saint-Julien – that were demoted from Grande Cru Classé to mere Grand Cru. They claimed the findings were tainted because the classification jury included two wine brokers and a lawyer who each did business with various Saint-Emilion châteaux, and therefore could not be objective. They also pointed out that of the 95 wines classified, only seven had actually been inspected by the jury. Unlike other Bordeaux regions, Saint-Emilion revisits its classifications every ten years. The next such reappraisal is set for 2016. The much ballyhooed 2003 classification of Médoc’s cru bourgeois vineyards has also been thrown out by the Bordeaux courts. This was hardly unexpected. The classification, whose selection committee included many châteaux owners with evident conflicts, had been questioned from the beginning.
Domaine Clarence Dillon, the owner of Bordeaux’s storied Châteaux Haut Brion and La Mission-Haut Brion, is dropping one of its labels. Starting with the 2006 vintage, the Pessac-Léognan Grand Cru Château La Tour Haut Brion will no longer be bottled as such, and its wine will go instead into other Dillon brands. A 12.4-acre property adjacent to La Mission-Haut Brion, La Tour Haut Brion produces about 4,800 gallons of red wine annually.
Fans of Château d’Yquem can now say “Super size me” and really mean it. Starting with the 2005 vintage, Sauternes’ greatest wine will be available for the first time ever in 15-liter nebuchadnezzar bottles. However, only 120 such large-formats are being bottled. Fifty of these will go to the British merchant Bordeaux Wine Investors, 50 to the American importer Bordeaux Wine Locators, and 20 will stay at the Château as part of its library collection. The retail price per bottle is estimated at $20,000-$25,000, with delivery sometime in 2009.
Visitors to the ex-Souverain winery in Geyserville, California will soon be able to have a swimmingly good time. New owner Francis Ford Coppola is building two public swimming pools on the site, along with 31 poolside cabanas swimmers can rent. He is also expanding the property’s indoor restaurant, while adding an outdoor eatery, four bocce courts and a bandshell-cum-ampitheatre replete with dance floor. The winery is getting a new name, too, and henceforth will be called “Rosso & Bianco.”
Michel Rolland, who consults with over 100 wine producers in 12 countries, is reducing his work load. The controversial wine guru announced recently that he would be dropping 20 of his Bordeaux clients, among them Châteaux Kirwan, Malescot-Saint-Exupéry and Fieuzal. Rolland’s wife and business partner, Dany, said the decisions were based on two things: the fact that her husband is turning 60 this year and wants to slow down; and the realization that the châteaux being dropped are doing well and no longer need assistance.
U.S. consumers purchased a record 300 million cases of wine in 2006, prompting wine industry analyst Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates to note that, “Wine is finally entering the mainstream of American life.” What a brilliant observation.
It appears that plans to build a super highway through Bordeaux’s Margaux appellation have been scrapped. But Spain’s Ribera del Duero region, home to Vega Sicilia and a host of other top-flight wineries, may not be so lucky. Plans appear to be going forward to widen Spanish highway N-122, which abuts some of the region’s best vineyards. If this happens, say local vintners, 247 prime vineyard acres will be destroyed, and the local microclimate will be dramatically altered. However, there is some good news coming out of Ribera del Duero. The appellation will soon be upgraded from DO (Denominacion de Origen) status to DOCa (Denominacion de Origen Calificada). This official, higher-quality designation is held by only two other Spanish wine regions: Rioja and Priorat.
From the Los Angeles Times (March 28, 2007) comes this novel way to rescue corky wines. Wad up a square-foot of Saran Wrap, stuff it into a large glass pitcher, pour the offending wine over the wrap into the pitcher, and then swish the liquid around for about ten minutes. The polyethylene in the wrap will absorb all of the taint-producing agent – a compound called trichloranisole (TCA) – and return the wine to a drinkable state, says the Times.
The Burgundy producer Maison Jean-Claude Boisset is bottling half of its 2005 Le Chambertin production – 25 cases – with screwcaps. This is the first Grand Cru Burgundy to be so packaged. Boisset will also offer some of its 2005 Beaune Bressandes Premier Cru with screwcaps.
Gary Farrell, who sold his eponymous California winery to Allied Domecq in 2004, is partnering with investment banker and vineyard owner, Bill Hambrecht, on a new Russian River winery that will focus on small-lot Pinot Noir production. The yet-to-be-named venture will produce about 6,000 cases of wine annually.
Establishments J. P. Moueix, the owners of Pomerol’s legendary Château Pétrus, have purchased a one-third stake in Dubois-Challon, the company that owns Château Ausone’s next-door neighbor, the Saint-Emilion First Growth Château Belair.
The 2007 grape harvest in Argentina’s Mendoza Valley was severely reduced by a series of hail storms that began last December and continued right into February.
There’s continuing good news about the health benefits of wine. Men who drink at least a half-glass of wine a day live an average of four years longer than teetotalers, according to a 40-year study of 1,373 subjects living in the Dutch town of Zutphen. A State University of New York at Stony Brook study claims that drinking three glasses of red wine a day cuts the risk of colorectal cancer by 68 percent. And scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health say that men with hypertension are 30 percent less likely to have a heart attack if they drink one or two glasses of wine a day.
U.S. sales of Italian wines surpassed $1 billion for the first time ever last year. In all, Americans purchased 22 million cases of Italian wine in 2006, bringing Italy’s share of the U.S. market to 32.4 percent.
Hubert de Bouard, owner of the Saint-Emilion First Growth Château L’Angelus, is the new regional chief of INAO (Institut National des Appellations d’Origine), the government bureau that regulates French wine. As such, de Bouard will supervise three sizable regions: Bordeaux, Bergerac and Lot et Garonne.
Napa’s Duckhorn Wine Company denies that it’s about to be sold. Rumors that it was on the block surfaced last March, after the company announced it was hiring Credit Suisse Securities to help it with “long-term strategic options.” But Duckhorn President Alex Ryan told the St. Helena Star that Credit Suisse had been brought in to advise the company’s board on the best ways of continuing to grow, and that “Currently, we don’t have a buyer and our company is not for sale.” Sounds like “famous last words” to us.
Seniors who drink moderate amounts of wine (six to 13 glasses a week) are likely to have lower Medicare expenses than non-drinkers, according to a study published last fall in Health Care Financing Review, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources journal.
South African wine may be at a crossroads of sorts. Over production, falling prices and diminished demand has put a severe crimp in wine sales, and some 30 Cape estates are reportedly up for sale. Stay tuned.
Here’s one from the “Wine, women and sarong” department. A Melbourne, Australia microbiologist cum artist, Gary Cass, has created a woman’s dress made of cellulose slime skimmed off the top of red wine vinegar. However, the dress has to be sprayed on and must be kept wet at all times or the cellulose fibers will break up and fall off. “This is art – it is not meant to be practical,” Cass told MSNBC. “It is meant to be a provocative object, to spark debate about future fashion.” And we thought clothing made from hemp was off the wall!
Champagne Protects Brain Cells From Injury, Study Finds
French bubbly abounds with organic compounds that helped protect mice neurons in lab tests
Jacob Gaffney
Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2007
For those who include wine as part of their healthy-living regimen, there's yet another reason to celebrate--with Champagne, even. According to research published in the April 18 issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Champagne may help protect the brain against injuries incurred during a stroke and other ailments, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
According to the report, which is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Reading in England and the Università degli studi di Cagliari, located in Monserrato, Italy, drinking Champagne responsibly may benefit one's health because previous research has shown the sparkling wine contains high amounts of polyphenols.
"There has been much recent interest in the potential of plant-derived polyphenols to protect against neuronal injury," wrote the study's authors. In previous research, they said, regular, moderate consumption of red wine has also been shown to help slow down premature aging and improve circulation.
Polyphenols are known antioxidants, which are believed to help prevent cell death due to oxidative stress. Though polyphenols are found in greater abundance in red wines, mainly due to longer exposure to the grape seeds and skins during the winemaking process, past studies have found Champagne to contain high amounts of other types of phenolic compounds, such as tyrosol and caffeic acid.
In order to test if the polyphenols found in Champagne are similarly beneficial to those in red wines, the scientists prepared extracts from blanc de blancs Champagnes (made with Chardonnay only) and blanc de noir Champagnes (made exclusively from Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier). After confirming that the extracts contained measurable levels of the aforementioned polyphenols, the scientist prepared several samples of cortical neuron cells from mice.
Some of the cells were left alone to serve as a control group, while the others were pretreated with the Champagne extracts. Once the nerve cells were observed to be firing, the scientists simulated a stroke by exposing the cells to a compound called peroxynitrite, a reactive compound formed in the brain during inflammatory conditions.
The scientists monitored the way the brain cells reacted to the presence of the peroxynitrite, and found that "pretreatment with Champagne wine extracts resulted in significant protection against neurotoxicity." The blanc de noir extract offered the greater protection because of the red-wine component, the authors wrote, though they pointed out that the amounts of polyphenols in Champagne vary greatly from "variety, vintage and a wide range of environmental factors."
The scientists believe the Champagne extracts protected neuron cells in several ways, noting that in the sample with the highest concentration of sparkling wine, brain-cell function was completely restored over time. The researchers added that caffeic acid and tyrosol may help to regulate the cells' response to injury with their anti-inflammatory properties. The compounds also act as cellular-level mops, essentially cleaning up and removing harmful chemicals from the body.
The scientists also wrote that there is evidence that dietary polyphenols can cross the "blood-brain barrier," which would suggest that the above molecular behavior has the potential to act in the same way, within the human central nervous system, if consumed.
"At this stage it is too early to say whether drinking Champagne may have a beneficial effect on brain aging," said Spencer, as it remains to be seen if the wine would have a similar effect on human brain cells as it did on those of mice. "However, we are about to begin a new human investigation where we will attempt to address this. Hopefully we will be able to shed more light on the potential beneficial effects of Champagne on human health in the future," he said.
Wine Spectator Online: Wine & Healthy Living
