World Wine Crisis Part Three Reply: David Schildknecht's Observations on a Post on Jaime Goode's Blog

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From: David Schildknecht

To: Gerry Dawes
Sent: Tue, Nov 10, 2009 12:35 pm
Subject: Re: Jaime Goode on the Future of Wine

See World Wine Crisis Part Three on Gerry Dawes's Spain

Thanks for making me aware of what Jamie wrote on this topic, Gerry. I think I'll drop him a line (or rather, the following lines) about it.

“I don't think the future of the wine industry will be determined top-down by the famous people who currently 'lead' the wine industry. Instead, I think it will come from an under-the-radar movement of dedicated winegrowers who are prepared to understand the vineyards they work with and make interesting, authentic, characterful wines ... not because they want to make money, but because they have to. These new great wines are made by people who see winegrowing as their vocation. Their focus starts in the vineyard and they work as naturally as possible. Typically, they prefer large oak to small, old oak to new, and concrete to stainless steel.” - - Jamie Goode's Wine Blog.

David Schildknecht (a personal message):

Many, perhaps most of the important changes in the wine industry come down to individual growers, but I doubt in predictable ways. Furthermore, today's "under-the-radar" vintner is tomorrow's superstar. In the 21st Century, insider secrets or tips can only stay that way if the grower's circle of customers (whether private or trade) is determined to keep the secret and succeeds. And in that case, by definition, waves aren't being made in the entire industry.

Whenever somebody poses this sort of (in my estimation) false vinous dilemma - and it happens continuously - I try to consider some actual cases. Take the following example from Germany.

Helmut Dönnhoff was under even the German radar in the 1970s and began to attract a German following in the 1980s. The 1988s were still sold 90% to private customers, with 1989 being the first vintage when a significant amount of wine traveled abroad (to the U.S.). Helmut's devotion was to a dream of fidelity to the Middle Nahe's great vineyards, and to the vision of wine and the traditions of an earlier generation, whose members were his mentors. His international reputation built steadily over the past 20 years, but that ascent was inseparable from and unthinkable without the contemporaneous renaissance of interest in Riesling within German, or without the fact that Helmut cultivated a continuous tradition with dry wines, which from the 1980s on constituted the only sort that any self-respecting German would be caught drinking.

Erni Loosen staged a coup at his father's commercially ailing but still internationally-known winery in 1987 and had to figure out how to prop up a collapsing market for the wines from an enormous domaine. He immediately started making headlines and showing his face abroad, which is where the market for residually sweet Mosel wine then resided - there was practically no market in Germany for Rieslings of that sort, and there still is little. Erni proved himself to be a consumate back-slapper and promoter as well as a savvy businessman; a conspicuous leader of a worldwide revival in Mosel Riesling's reputation; and eventually a flying winemaker and conference organizer who has helped to put Washington State on the world's wine map. Along the way, he also learned to craft dry Mosel Riesling according to the demands of the German market and to models influenced from abroad (especially Austria).

You could hardly pick more dramatic contrasts of commercially-driven versus tradition-driven; of being a spokesperson for one's wines versus letting one's wines speak for one; of crafting wines to fit a style versus letting a style emerge out of the conscientious plying of one's craft; of top-down management of a business versus solely managing the vines and letting the rest take care of itself. Yet, at the end of the day, nobody is going to deny that these are two of Germany's top Riesling producers and two of the wine world's super-stars.

Helmut is never going to have the kind of commercial influence an Erni Loosen does, because Helmut's not wired for the p.r. and conference-attending (much less -organizing) role. He is a star despite himself. Still, I never imagined I'd witness him holding court internationally as he has (including at Loosen's and Ste-Michelle's Washington conference). Erni for his part is never going to have the profound influence on other growers of a Dönnhoff, because the talents exhibited in Loosen wines aren't quite on the same order of magnitude and, more importantly, those talents don't reside in a single person (partner Bernard Schug is as much responsible). Does one of these figures or types represent the future of wine and the other not? I really doubt that.

You could compare Draper with Mondavi; Gaja or Rivetti with Giacosa or Bartola Moscarello; Henri Jayer with Bize-Leroy; F. X. Pichler with Leo Alzinger; Kracher with Szepsy; Chave (Sr.) with Chapoutier; Wilhem Haag with Willi Schaefer ... . From today's global perspective, they're all stars, and they will all go down in the history of late 20th wine growing as among the individuals most influential on the perception and practice of viticulture and wine. Depending on the observer's own personality, he or she probably gravitates or is more sympathetic toward one or the other of these extreme types, whether in the search for wine to put on the table or for personal heroes to enshrine in the imagination. But puffing-up personal preferences into purported sea changes or waves of the future is a stale and tiresome art.

I'll leave you with one more thought, prompted by a correspondence I had last week (during a cold snap and break in his harvest) with Klaus-Peter Keller. The subject was selectivity versus block picking and their relationship to evolving wine styles, which led him to write this:

"When my father made his first wines in the '80s and '90s, he had to impress people with his wines, because nobody knew us [or believed in the potential of the Wonnegau region]. That's why they were concentrated and massive [dick]; thinned and selectively harvested like crazy [toll im Weinberg vor- und ausgelesen] but for that reason also (according to my current taste) a bit affected [aufgesetzt]: interplay [Spiel] and elegance were missing. Nevertheless, that phase was critical for our business [Betrieb]. Then too, it's important to be open to criticism - and in that respect you helped us during those times as well (when your not coming to visit got me to thinking). And in the meantime we can afford to make our wines exactly the way we want to."

Sometimes, in other words, both the grower and his wines might have to get up on a soapbox and speak a bit loudly, self-importantly, and with slogans to get market attention so that the next generation can unplug the amps, [try to] tune out the stardom, and "simply" grow the best possible wine. But I don't need to offer you examples of the countless occasions when things work out the other way around: when one generation labors a lifetime to quietly build a great wine reputation but the style of the next generation is to turn that into an internationally successful brand with an amplified band.

Stars of all sorts will be with us always, but I wouldn't try reading the future in them.

David Schildknecht



Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

World Wine Crisis Series (Five): Roots of the Crisis in Spain, A Victor de la Serna Report in 2007 in Meininger's Wine Business International

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June 12, 2007 

Spanish Eyes Seeing Red by Victor de la Serna
(For full article click on link.  Italics and red highlighting are mine.--GD)

"For a long time, the received truth about Spain was that, despite having the world’s largest vineyard surface, its production was much smaller than that of France’s or Italy’s, due to much lower yields in a markedly drier climate. This has now changed spectacularly. The vineyard surface has shrunk since 1990 by about 100,000 hectares to just under 1.2 million, which is still far above that of France or Italy. More importantly, though, viticultural changes have increased yields exponentially, and production has crept much closer to French and Italian levels.

(Brilliant, comply with EU regulations and cut vineyard surface while increasing yields by switching to high-production clones.--GD)

During the drought years of 1994 and 1995, Spain produced, respectively, 20.995 and 20.876 million hectolitres, or about 16 hectolitres per hectare. Even in a more clement vintage such as 1996, which produced 32,675 hl, the average yield was just 24 hl/ha. But in 2006 production reached an estimated 43.448 million hl – no longer very far from the 50.000 million hl figures usually recorded by the French and the Italians – with average yields of 36 hl/ha.

The main reason for the increase in production has been the European Union-funded vineyard re-structuring scheme, started in 2000, of which Spain has been the main beneficiary. More than 140,000 ha have been replanted to date, generally to high production clones in trellised vineyards with drip irrigation, and yields of up to 100 hl/ha are not uncommon in these vineyards.

In 2004, the secretary of the Cava regulatory council, Gabriel Giró, raised the first protest against a “well-intentioned, but ill-advised” scheme that had contributed to a glut in grapes for the Spanish sparkling wine. In that year production had suddenly reached 360 million kg, 100 million kg above the average of the previous decade, due to the many new, high-yield vineyards just entering production. . .

. . . Against that backdrop, the continued reduction in consumption is even more devastating. The latest data by the Agriculture Ministry indicate that in 2006 the drop was the steepest in 16 years . . . The per capita consumption figure (in Spain) broke a new negative record. . . The figures are much lower than in the other major wine producing countries of Europe. Since 1987, when per capita consumption was 47 litres, consumption in Spain has almost halved. In both France and Portugal, Spain’s next-door neighbours, locals drink twice as much wine per capita as the Spaniards.
 
No serious research has yet been conducted on the causes of such a comparatively low rate of wine consumption in a traditional Mediterranean wine-producing nation, though Spanish authors have drawn comparisons with Greece, where wine’s flagging popularity is possibly caused by the dismal quality of wine produced over the past several decades. . .

(Has anyone done a study on whether the slavish production of copycat Parkerista-style wines with jammy, overripe fruit, low acid levels, high alcohol and enough new oak to build a chalet have anything to do with the turn-off in Spanish wine drinking habits? --Gerry Dawes.)

. . . While retail sales remained almost unchanged (–0.8%), this has translated into a precipitous drop of ontrade sales (–8.3% last year) as restaurant customers developed a fear of alcohol controls and the possible loss of their drivers’ licenses.

(So the wine industry, both in Spain and elsewhere, sees the impact of alcohol controls on the road and their answer is the keep wratching up alcohol levels in wines until many wines top 15% and they can't seem to grasp a relationship between high octane and falling sales!!!!--GD)

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

World Wine Crisis (Four): Articles in This Continuing Series La Rioja

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Las ventas del vino de Rioja caen un 17% en Septiembre - Mercados del Vino y de la Distribución 10 Nov. 2009

Sales of Rioja wines down 17% in September, 21% in the Spanish national market; exports down 11% for the year.



About Gerry Dawe

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

World Wine Crisis (Three): Jaime Goode's Blog "I would say that Winefuture is about the old wine industry".

 

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Very Interesting post about WineFuture-Rioja 2009 by Jamie Goode on his Blog

"The much talked-about 'Wine Future' conference is taking place in Spain later this week. I'm not going (although I probably would have gone had I been invited, even if it was out of morbid curiousity).

There's a glittering speaker list, and it will draw a significant crowd of important people, but I feel lukewarm to the whole idea.

I don't think the future of the wine industry will be determined top-down by the famous people who currently 'lead' the wine industry.

Instead, I think it will come from an under-the-radar movement of dedicated winegrowers who are prepared to understand the vineyards they work with and make interesting, authentic, characterful wines.

Very few of these winegrowers would be at all interested in a conference like this. They make wine not because they want to make money, but because they have to. These new great wines are made by people who see winegrowing as their vocation. Their focus starts in the vineyard and they work as naturally as possible. Typically, they prefer large oak to small, old oak to new, and concrete to stainless steel.

Instead, I think it will come from an under-the-radar movement of dedicated winegrowers who are prepared to understand the vineyards they work with and make interesting, authentic, characterful wines.

Very few of these winegrowers would be at all interested in a conference like this. They make wine not because they want to make money, but because they have to. These new great wines are made by people who see winegrowing as their vocation. Their focus starts in the vineyard and they work as naturally as possible. Typically, they prefer large oak to small, old oak to new, and concrete to stainless steel.

If I am allowed to be provocative, I would say that Winefuture is about the old wine industry. The new wine industry will emerge from the corpse of the old industry. The secret revolution is underway."

 

With answers from Jim Budd, my self and a wine grower named Fabius.   

At 5:07 PM,  Jim Budd said... 

 

Justin is quite right to highlight the questions that hang over Pancho Campo MW and his Wine Academy of Spain. For more than a month I have been asking him a series of question about his conviction for fraud in Dubai, how he got out before the trial and whether any of the money (640,000€) involved in the conviction was used to set up The Wine Academy of Spain. Campo left Dubai in 2003 and set up the Academy the same year. To date I have had no response to my questions. Pancho Campo was due to speak at the recent European Wine Bloggers Conference but failed to show. Avoiding answering legitimate questions? No-one appears to know whether The Wine Academy of Spain, the owner and organiser of WineFuture Rioja09 was funded, wholly or in part, on the proceeds of fraud. The distinguished speakers and sponsors appear not to care. Various posting can be found on Jim's Loire including this one: http://jimsloire.blogspot.com/2009/10/pancho-campo-mw-essence.html  

 

 At 5:28 PM,  Gerry Dawes said... 

 

More frightening while this WF-Rioja 09 conference is going on (it reminds me of elephants coming home to the graveyard) is the questions of thousands of tons of grapes left on the ground this year, the growers in tractor brigades rolling into provincial capitals to protest low grape prices, Diageo's dumping of cru classe Bordeaux, Constellation's reported selling off of a 164-year old Australian vineyard where a complex of small apartments is planned, etc.    This conference purports to enlighten attendees on how to "market" wines in this climate is really like Nero fiddling while Rome burns. And there are several potential performers in this affair auditioning for the role of Nero.    (I also highly recommend that you watch the Zev Robinson trailer for his film, Bobal & Other Wine Stories, which is really a Grapes of Wrath saga about the struggles of Bobal grape growers in Utiel-Requena. [See the Zeb Robinson article on my blog for a link to the trailer.)  

 

At 6:42 PM,  Fabius said... 

 

As a (very) small producer of quality wines made from our own grapes grown in our own vineyard, what our great leaders say or do at WF is of absolutely no significance to us. The wine industry today is in a huge mess (of said leaders' own making, I might add) what with oversupply and falling consumption in most markets. Anyway, we are focussed on quality, terroir, etc and our niche market, even though tiny for the big boys, is enormous for us. We are passionate about what we do and are going to do it no matter what!!!

 About the author

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

World Wine Crisis Series (Two) Update: US Bordeaux prices at risk of 'bloodbath', experts say - Stayed tuned for what is going on in Spain

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Nov. 27, 2009

 Dan Berger on NapaValleyRegister.com

Diageo abandoning Bordeaux

   
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From an article by Suzanne Mustacich (AFP) November 8, 2009


"US importer Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines (DC&E), a subsidiary of the British drinks giant Diageo, has abandoned Bordeaux wine after 35 years, aggressively liquidating its warehouse stock on an already shaky market.


Speaking to AFP, a source within DC&E, who asked to remain anonymous, blamed "enormous stocks" of unsold Bordeaux for their exodus. "It's all about making money. The margins are getting thinner each year and Americans are trading down.""


Stayed tuned for emerging information on how the global wine crisis is affecting Spain, Spanish wines, Spanish bodegas and Spanish grape growers.  

And have a look at this:

La Bobal Y Other Stories About Wine: A Film by Zev Robinson (With a modern-day Grapes of Wrath social commentary)

About the author

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

The José María Pemán Award 2009: To all those brave Spanish wine journalists who have reported (not!) WineFuture-Rioja 2009 and on the Pancho Campo-Robert Parker affair.

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Casa Pepe, Dispeñaperros, Photo by Gerry Dawes, copyright 2008.
 
The José María Pemán Award 2009
 

To all those brave Spanish wine journalists who have remained silent on the Pancho Campo affair and WineFuture-Rioja 2009.  Like the Spanish National Anthem, if you had any lyrics at all (a majority had none), they were reminiscent of those of José María Pemán during the Spanish Civil War.  (Pemán was commissioned to write new lyrics for the Marcha Real, which Franco reestablished as Spain's national anthem in 1939. His lyrics remained in use until 1978.--Wikipedia)

 

With special mention to the Federation of Spanish Wine Journalists, over a month after Decanter.com broke the Campo Interpol story (and subsequently published a follow-up story), threw their full support behind Campo and WineFuture-Rioja 2009 and offered their members free admission to the nearly 800 Euro per person event.

And a very special mention to the speakers at WineFuture-Rioja 2009, who have steadfastly maintained their support for the event, except for Jorge Ordoñez*, one of Robert M. Parker, Jr.'s most favored importers of Spanish wines to the United States.  (*It is rumoured that Ordoñez may have to miss the event because of jury duty in the United States.)

 

Robin Kelley O'Conner, a speaker at WineFutures-Rioja 2009, at Casa Pepe, el puerto de Despeñaperros, carretera de Andalucia Km 243, en Venta de Cárdenas (Cuidad Real), Castilla-La Mancha.  
Photo by Gerry Dawes copyright 2008. 
   

(José María Pemán y Pemartín (Cadiz, 8 May 1897 - 19 July 1981) was a Spanish journalist, poet, novelist, essayist, and right-wing intellectual.  Pemán was one of the few prominent intellectuals to support Francisco Franco and the Falangist movement. This ensured his professional success during and after the Civil War, but damaged his international reputation.--Wikipedia)

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television series  
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

♠

Culinary Institute of America-Greystone (Napa Valley) 2009 Worlds of Flavor Conference November 12–14, 2009

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Sold Out!

12th Annual Worlds of Flavor

International Conference & Festival

Frontiers of Flavor:

World Street Food, World Comfort Food

Discovering the Fast Casual, Slow Savory, and "Big Value" Culinary Traditions

of Asia, the Mediterranean, and Latin America

Full Schedule of Events

This influential annual three-day forum on world cuisines is one of the American foodservice industry's premier events. Each November, the Worlds of Flavor Conference showcases the gold standards of world cuisines that are reshaping American menus.

The 12th Annual Worlds of Flavor Conference presented an in-depth exploration of two overlapping, hot culinary trends: world street food and world comfort food. Reflecting the intersection of recessionary budget and cost-cutting pressures, the continuing world cuisines juggernaut, and the ongoing embrace of a 24/7 culture of informal, casual food and dining, these concepts increasingly define how we as Americans now want to eat.

"Frontiers of Flavor: World Street Food, World Comfort Food," gathered top culinary talent from the Mediterranean, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Presenters included more than 60 culinary experts, from street food vendors, hawker chefs, tapas and meze specialists, and barbecue masters to fine dining chefs who have been inspired by world street foods and comfort foods, mothers of chefs, legends of live fire and claypot cooking, as well as cookbook authors, street food chroniclers, and more.

Highlighted regions and food cultures included Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, India, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, Persia, Mexico, the Caribbean, Peru, Brazil, and culinary hot spots across the United States.

The three-day event was a sauce-slopping, noodle-slurping, chaat-sampling, kabob-nibbling, tamale-savoring, tapas-grazing epic tour of the best of world street food and world comfort food!

Spanish Tapas Wow California

Gerry Dawes moderated one general session, three panels on Spanish and Catalan Cuisine and appeared in the final general session as a commentator. 

Profiles of the participants, photos and some recipes for the Spanish sections of the Worlds of Flavor Conference will follow.

Friday, November 13

10:30 AM General Session VI

What’s Next in Spain: Fast, Slow, and Casual Flavors
Introduction: Jim Poris
Moderator: Gerry Dawes
Presenters: Paco Roncero, Albert Asín, Daniel Olivella, Seamus Mullen
With a live video feed from the outdoor live fire kitchen previewing lunch with Mai Pham (Vietnamese food) and Suvir Saran (Indian food).

CIA-Greystone (Napa Valley) Worlds of Flavor Conference 2009 General Session VI:   
What's Next in Spain: Fast, Slow and Casual Flavors. 

Jim Poris (Sr. Editor, Food Arts), 
Gerry Dawes (Food Arts, General Session Moderator), 
Daniel Olivella (B-44 &amp Barlata); 
Chef Paco Roncero (Casino de Madrid, Estado Puro; consultant, Hoteles NH), 
Seamus Mullen (Chef-partner, Boqueria NYC & Boqueria Soho), 
Javier Alonso (Paco Roncero's sous chef),
and Albert Asin (Pinotxo, La Boqueria, Barcelona).  
Photo by Terrence McCarthy, TMC Photography©2009.



(For a full screen slide show, click on image in lower right corner, go to Picasa, click on slide show, then F11.)

Seminar IV A (2:45 PM—3:45 PM)

Williams Center for Flavor Discovery
The Spanish Kitchen, 2010: Casual Menus—and Compelling Flavor Dynamics— from Madrid to New York
Moderator: Gerry Dawes
Presenters: Paco Roncero, Seamus Mullen
Sponsored by Foods from Spain

Chef Paco Roncero, Chef Casino de Madrid, Chef-partner Estado Puro; consultant, Hoteles NH,
cooking at CIA-Worlds of Flavor.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009.

 
Seamus Mullen, Chef-partner, Boqueria NYC & Boqueria Soho,  

cooking at CIA-Worlds of Flavor.>  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009.

(Check out my friend, Chef Seamus Mullen of New York's Boqueria restaurants, in his reports on the Iron Chef competition, in which he was one of the final three chefs left (out of ten) competing for the title. I found out Sunday night that Seamus was eliminated, but he made it to the final three and he did it suffering the whole time from a severely herniated disk, for which he was sometimes in a wheelchair and for which he was operated on after the competition, and from rheumatoid arthritis. In some of the episodes, you could see the pain in his face!  Iron Chef, indeed.)

Saturday, November 14
Seminar I (8:45 AM—9:45 AM)

Ecolab Theater

Spanish Casual, from Traditional to Modern: Tapas, Bocadillos, Cocas, and More

Moderator/Presenter: Gerry Dawes

Presenters: Paco Roncero, Seamus Mullen, Albert Asin

Sponsored by Foods from Spain

Albert Asín (Pinotxo, La Boquería, Barcelona). Photos by Gerry Dawes©2009.

Albert Asín cooking lobster rice at Pinotxo, La Boquería, Barcelona
(CIA-WOF Video)

Seminar I (3:30 PM—4:30 PM)

Ecolab Theater

Fresh from Barcelona: Tapas, Cava, and the Flavors of Catalonia
Moderator: Gerry Dawes 
Presenters: Albert Asin, Jesús Bernad, Daniel Olivella

Sponsored by Catalonia, the Gateway to the Mediterranean by Prodeca

Santi Mas de Xaxas (Director, Gastronomic +34 y coordinador del equipo Catalan-Español); 
Rosalba Arrufat (Prodeca), Albert Asin Pinotxo (La Boquería, Barcelona), 
Fernando Bienert (Director General, Prodeca), Jesus Bernard (Escritor de vinos).  
Photo by Gerry Dawes©2009.

4:45 PM General Session XVIII: Town Hall

World Flavors…On a Stick, In a Bowl, On the Run…A Game Changer?

Moderator: Greg Drescher
Presenter: Jonathan Gold
Panelists: Rick Bayless, Roy Choi, Gerry Dawes, John T. Edge, Susan Feniger, Mark Furstenberg, Jonathan Gold, Jessica Harris, Anissa Helou, Diane Kochilas, Maricel Presilla, Jim Poris, Ruth Reichl, K.F. Seetoh, Suvir Saran

 

See Related Worlds of Flavor Articles About Spain:
  
Spanish Wine & Food Pairing: Possibilities Are Limitless

Iconic Dishes on the Wine Roads of Spain

Spain’s Innovative Vangaurdia Cuisine vs. Traditional Down-Home Cooking

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

 Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television 
serieson wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com

Dubai: Third-World Justice or The New York of the Middle East? And What Does Dubai Have to Do with WineFuture-Rioja 2009?

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What does Dubai have to do with Spain and especially Spanish wine or food, including the upcoming WineFuture-Rioja 2009 conference whose (recently "resigned") Director  is Pancho Campo, President (also recently "resigned') of the Wine Academy,  the official organizer of the event?

And what does all this have to do with Pancho Campo, Robert M. Parker, Jr., Jancis Robinson, Kevin Zraly, Steven Spurrier, Gary Vaynerchuk and Jorge Ordoñez, all of whose pictures adorn this poster announcement for WineFuture-Rioja 2009?

Well, a lot lately.  Read on.

Spanish promoter’s arrest sought 

by Charlie Hamilton, The National (newspaper), Dubai

"A warrant has been posted on the Interpol website for the arrest of a Spanish concert promoter who was convicted in Dubai in 2003 of breach of trust after a falling-out with his business partner.

Francisco Campo, 48, was convicted in his absence following a wrangle with the former partner, Jackie Wartanian.

According to court documents, Campo was charged with breach of trust on June 5, 2002, found guilty on June 1, 2003, and sentenced to one year in jail followed by deportation. The case revolved around a €600,000 (Dh3.2m) claim that Ms Wartanian had brought against Campo over fraudulent business dealings. Ms Wartanian’s lawyer, Amna Jallaf, said a civil case had also been filed against Campo."

* * * * * 

According to Campo and his lawyers, the charges--including his being convicted and sentenced to a year in jail and deportation--are false and Dubai is a place where third-world Arab justice is meted out to unsuspecting Westerners:
 
From an article on Decanter.com: "Alfonso Martinez, Campo's lawyer, cast doubt on the veracity of the arrest warrant. 'This can be done by petitioning a judge in Dubai using a lawyer."

And Campo, who was recently named a Master of Wine, wrote this in a letter to his fellow MWs: 

"I was not aware also that there are hundreds of cases such as this in Dubai that are constantly being exposed by British and American media about people who carried out business in this part of the world and have been issued Interpol notices."

* * * * *

GD: I am very confused by all this and I don't know whom to believe, especially when I read reports such as these:

Vicente Cacho, the Spanish Consul in the United Arab Emirates, says that ‘Pancho Campo left his Chilean passport at a Dubai court as proof he wasn't going to flee the country and then did so with a Spanish passport’.  -- Jim Budd, Jim's Loire.

From: Jackie Wartanian

Date: September 9, 2009 1:47:49 AM GMT+04:00
To: xxxxxxxx
Cc: xxxxxx
Subject: RE: The National

Yes I am out of town and just saw your email. The statement you are saying is wrong. It is not alleged, it is all facts, but you are welcome to contact my lawyer who is cc’d in this email. I am not the only one who has gone to court with him. If you want the true facts please contact (my lawyer [whose name and phone number followed]).

Kind regards,  Jackie Wartanian

* * * * *

And this, again from Jim Budd, who originally broke the story on Decanter.com, on his Jim's Loire website, which has extensive information on the Pancho Campo case:  

"Certainly he (Pancho Campo) has continued to have support from people like Jancis Robinson MW, Steven Spurrier and Robert Joseph, as well as Siobhan Turner, executive director of the Institute of Masters of Wine."

Two weeks after Campo was forced to resign (on October 1) as Director of WineFutures-Rioja 2009, Kevin Zraly of the Windows on the World Wine Course school was named to succeed Campo.  

After all this evidence had come out, six weeks later, new "Technical Director" Kevin Zraly had this to say in an  interview published on the Wine Academy website that many suspect was done by Campo himself:

"That there will be more WineFutures! Pancho Campo has done a tremendous job in bringing all segments of the market together to discuss how we can all move forward in the distribution of wines throughout the world. The logistics of putting a first time event like this together were enormous and I congratulate Pancho and his team for having the foresight and energy to organize this event."

 * * * * *  

Then there are those who see Dubai in a different light:

"I have to admit that I viewed my first trip to Dubai with some reservations but now feel that I have actually been professionally negligent in taking so long to visit this rapidly developing Emirate.

As someone who tries to keep his finger on the pulse of the world of restaurants I had made a mental note each time I read that one five-star Dubai hotel had poached a top European chef to be their executive chef or another had lured chefs from further afield to open outposts in a similar manner to that practised by Las Vegas hotels. But I had so far failed to appreciate just what a brave new world Dubai has become." - - From an  article by Nick Lander, Jancis Robinson's husband on Jancis Robinson.com

Report in Departures Magazine on Dubai in 2006 (Departures is the American Express magazine for Platinum card [and higher] holders):

Dubai's Big Boom
 
Built on sand, oil, and gold-plated everything, a new Xanadu is rising in the Middle East. SOPHY ROBERTS reports from the land of caviar facials and indoor ski slopes.
I am standing on the "H" of the helipad at the top of the Burj al Arab, the Dubai hotel that billows like a sail plump with wind on a manmade island in the Persian Gulf. For many observers of this desert boomtown—and it does seem as if all eyes are on Dubai—the Burj is the emblem of the city's freewheeling spirit, a kind of go-go giddiness that is not altogether shared by the United Arab Emirates' less liberal states. Dubai, unlike Abu Dhabi and the five other emirates, "has always been a wide-open place, ever since it was a smuggling center for gold," says Christopher Dickey, a Newsweek correspondent who lived here in 1987 and returns frequently.

In the November-December 2009 issue of Departures Culture Watch Section, there is a multi-page article on the United Arab Emirates featuring Dubai:  A Connoisseur's Guide to the New Middle East. 
 

Of coincidental interest concerning Kevin Zraly and Dubai is this really quite glowing article about  Zraly in The New York Times. The banner My Dubai Diary advertisement running next to the article on Zraly has nothing to do with him, but it has really quite a prescient, you-can't make-this-stuff-up, irony to it.

 * * * * *

Personally, I don't know what the real story is about Dubai justice, nor do I know for sure that Pancho Campo is guilty of defrauding Jackie Wartanian of nearly $1,000,000, but what I do know is--guilty or not of what he has been accused of and sentenced to a year in jail for--Pancho Campo through his lawyer, Alfonso Martínez, threatened me, a journalist who has been writing in glowing terms about Spain and its food and wines, as well as La Rioja, for more than 30 years and was awarded Spain's Premio Nacional de Gastronómia in 2003.

I was told that "we don't want to have to go to the American Embassy nor the Spanish Embassy*, nor get into litigation with you . . ." and was told by Martínez, "I am coming to New York next week and I want to sit down with you and see if we can come to an 'amicable compromise.'  (All of this came in a phone call on September 2, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. (New York time), 00:30 (after midnight Spanish time).  (*What the Hell were they going to do by going to the "embassies," tell them that I had passed information that Campo was being sought by Interpol for fraud involved nearly $1,000,000!!?)

The phone call was followed by an e-mail to a third-party address, the same e-mail addresss to which I had sent to Kevin Zraly the information I had received from Spain about Pancho Campo's troubles in Dubai, his subsequent detention in Paris and at the Hotel Miguel Angel in Madrid (where, at both the latter places, he was detained and questioned about the Dubai affair-Interpol notice).

In addition to threatening me, there is evidence (yes, we have it!) on attempts to coerce, threaten or make offers that could be construed as attempted inducements to other journalists, including Decanter's Jim Budd, after he had written the first article on Campo's arrest warrant in Decanter on September 4 and before a second article on the affair was published.  

Budd was offered a speaking engagement at Vinoble 2010, which, in theory, will also be run by Campo and his Wine Academy--a speaking engagement for Budd would entail at the very least a flight from London, accommodations in a top hotel in Jerez and, it goes without saying, a nice honorarium.  

Jim Budd declined.  In fact, Budd says that he refuses to have anything to do with Vinoble 2010 (he is an expert on Loire Valley sweet wines, among others) until he gets some answers to some pointed questions to Campo, which he has posted as The questions Pancho Campo MW won’t answer on his Jim's Loire website. 

In his post, "Pancho, You can run but you can't hide," Jim Budd wrote, "I'm sure that the presentation and tasting would have been worthwhile and interesting but I, for one, am going to have nothing to do with Vinoble until Pancho provides detailed answers to the questions I have been asking."

Related link: Background to the Pancho Campo-Kevin Zraly-Robert Parker Wine Futures Rioja Affair 2009

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand prize in 2009 and received the Association of Food Journalists 2009 Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television
series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com