Champagne Is Suffering Its Worst Grape Growing Sseason In Decades

Champagne Suffers Worst Season In Decades -- The Telegraph

Champagne is suffering its worst grape growing season in decades due to an "unprecedented" blight of frost, hail and disease, leading experts to warn that prospects for the coming harvest look increasingly dim.

Weather conditions coupled with the ravages of mildew have made Champagne growers' life hell in recent months; cold snaps, freak hailstorms, unrelenting rain and grape rot are expected to cut yields in the famed appellation by a third.

"This year has been unprecedented," said Dominique Moncomble, director of technical services at the CIVC, the Champagne wine board. "We have been accumulating problems: we are battling the elements and disease."

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My Comment: Hint .... prices are going to go up.

Hitler Wine Bottles?

Italian Hitler Wine Bottles 'Offensive' -- The Telegraph

Wine bottles featuring Adolf Hitler on the label have been called "offensive" after complaints from US tourists in the Italian city of Garda.

Michael Hirsch, a lawyer from Philadelphia, complained to local media after he found a supermarket near his hotel was stocking wine bottles with Hitler in various poses and another bottle featuring an image of Pope John Paul II.

"It is very shocking and startling to us," Mr Hirsch told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. "We would think of it as neo-Nazism It makes you wonder about the sympathies of the local people."

One bottle features Hitler with his arm raised in the Nazi, another is labelled 'Mein Kampf" and another was labelled "Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer" (one people, one empire, one Fuhrer), Mr Hirsch said.

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My Comment: This is not smart wine marketing.

Did Olympic Officials Blow £19,000 On A Bottle Of Cognac?

Did Olympic Officials Blow £19,000 On A Bottle Of Cognac? Receipt Is Posted Online By Man Saying They Spent £44,660 On Lunch -- Daily Mail

* User who posted image claimed to know worker at unnamed restaurant
* 15 officials may have dined at China Tang at London's Dorchester Hotel

A photo circulating online is claiming to show that 15 Olympic Games officials racked up a £44,660 bill for a business lunch - including a staggering £19,000 on one bottle of Hennessy 1853 cognac.

The service charge for the meal - apparently enjoyed at a restaurant in London's exclusive Dorchester Hotel - came to £4962.26 alone.

The partial view of the bill shows relatively modestly-priced dishes - such as portions of spiced chicken for £15 apiece, vegetarian fried rice for £5 and sorbet platters at £7 a time - alongside the costly cognac.

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My Comment: I suspect that it tasted great .... on the Olympic Committee's dime.