Tasting Flight 4/26/06
The French Effect
It was a few years ago that many U.S. patriots renamed French Fries as Freedom Fries and boycotted French wine. Now, economists at Stanford have published a paper on the consequences of that boycott. Overall, there was a 13% fall in French wine sales over the 6 month boycott period, with a fall of 26% at the peak. As if the French needed another reason to whine. (LA Times)
Damaged Goods
Bloomberg has a compelling story today about the destroyed collections of New Orleans. The many fine dining restaurants experienced serious loss in their wine portfolio. And too often, the insurance company ignored or debated the wine collection value. What is most interesting about the story is that often the insurer would collect the damaged wines, sell them to a salvage company, who would then contract with a wine distributor to resell the damaged property in the international market. This seems incredibly dubious to me. (Bloomberg)