2014 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Château de la Botinière

2014 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Château de la Botinière, Vallet

Part of the Castel stable the 2014 was an attractive Muscadet in an apèro style – crisp and mineral with the balance of the 2014 vintage.  Equally it worked well with a simple prawn salad. 

decanter.com: 'China's supreme court suspends Castel trademark fine'

wine future Hong Kong: Daniel Li of Caves Maître (4th from left) 

with Pancho Campo – far right

Potentially good news for Castel and other companies trading in China:

China's supreme court has suspended a CNY34m (US$5.6m) fine levied on French wine group Castel over a trademark dispute with a local producer in the country.
Read more at http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/584807/china-s-supreme-court-suspends-castel-trademark-fine#JqJhwXmRu3vVqOjP.99

China's supreme court has suspended a CNY34m (US$5.6m) fine levied on French wine group Castel over a trademark dispute with a local producer in the country.
Read more at http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/584807/china-s-supreme-court-suspends-castel-trademark-fine#JqJhwXmRu3vVqOjP.99

'China's supreme court has suspended a CNY34m (US$5.6m) fine levied on French wine group Castel over a trademark dispute with a local producer in the country.
Read rest here.  

Caves Maître, which was a major sponsor of Pancho Campo's wine future conference held in Hong Kong in November 2011, registered the Castel trademark in China and has previously won the court battles arising. See here. Also some background on Jim's Loire here and here.

Entrance to wine future with Caves Maître logo prominent

China's supreme court has suspended a CNY34m (US$5.6m) fine levied on French wine group Castel over a trademark dispute with a local producer in the country.
Read more at http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/584807/china-s-supreme-court-suspends-castel-trademark-fine#JqJhwXmRu3vVqOjP.99

China's supreme court has suspended a CNY34m (US$5.6m) fine levied on French wine group Castel over a trademark dispute with a local producer in the country.
Read more at http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/584807/china-s-supreme-court-suspends-castel-trademark-fine#JqJhwXmRu3vVqOjP.99

WineFuture HK: CavesMaître France (The Chinese Castel) – the exclusive sponsor for the Grand Tastings

Pancho Campo MW@the start of his Grand Tasting dwarfed by CavesMaître France logo

Daniel Li and his company, CavesMaître France, had the exclusivity for the three Grand Tastings held during WineFuture Hong Kong 2011 – this ensuring maximum exposure as well as a place for Danieol Li on the top table for Robert Parker's Magical 20 tasting. There appear to be no other sponsors' names or logos on view. The three tastings featured Campo, Jancis Robinson MW and Robert Parker. The backdrop for all three tastings was dominated by the CavesMaître logo along with their Chinese symbols – 卡斯特 – meaning Castel. Li and his company own the trademark Castel in China. Quite why CaveMaître has appended France to its name is unclear. Certainly the company's European name appears to be at considerable variance with their Chinese one.

   Jancis Robinson MW presenting her Grand Tasting with CavesMaître above her

Presentation@the end of Robinson's tasting: 卡斯特 (Castel) dominating
 

Similar for Robert Parker with 卡斯特 (Castel) dominating

In contrast to the Grand Tastings the CavesMaître logo was much more discreet for the other events such as the panels or the press conferences where it was one of a number of other logos.

Press conference: Jancis Robinson MW, Pancho Campo MW and Francis Ford Coppola

A number of sponsors' names displayed 

Tim Atkin MW – panel with Steven Spurrier, Michel Rolland, Michel Bettane and Randall Grahm

CavesMaître logo is evident but one of a number of sponsors including ARAEX 

   

Given the prominence of the 卡斯特 (Castel) CavesMaître France logo for the Grand Tastings did not Pancho Campo MW owe a duty of care to both Jancis Robinson MW and Robert Parker to check out such a prominent sponsor before giving them the exclusivity for the Grand Tastings?

 Robert Parker greeting Daniel Li of 卡斯特 (Castel) CavesMaître France at the Magical 20 Grand Tasting
 

What did Pancho Campo MW know about Li and his company and what did he tell Parker?

  

“Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into Poncho!”

Photo credits: many thanks to WineFuture Hong Kong 2011: www.winefuture.hk

**

The Drinks Business has declared the Pancho Campo MW and the 'Miller Circus' as one of their 10 ten stories of 2011. It's in at No 8. http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2011/12/top-10-drinks-stories-of-2011/9/

'8. Campo in the dock

As the year draws to a close, a scandal currently holds the wine industry in thrall.

The Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) announced in December that it was opening an investigation into the conduct of Pancho Campo MW following allegations the president and founder of The Wine Academy of Spain charged Spanish wineries up to €40,000 for a visit from Jay Miller of The Wine Advocate.'

Castel reported to have bought Patriarche (a leading Burgundy négoce)

In the cellars of Patriarche

Castel, based in Bordeaux and the former owner of Oddbins, is reported to have bought Patriarche, family owned (Boisseaux) and leading Burgundy négoce based in Beaune. The deal is thought to be between 75-85 million euros with the Boisseaux family keeping the châteaux of Meursault and Marsannay as well as the Athénaeum in Beaune.

Castel is also now one of the leading négociant companies in the Loire with a vast bottling and storage plant at La Chapelle-Heulin.

Castel's site@La Chapelle Heulin under construction

Read more here.

Salon des Vins de Loire to become bi-annual?

The near deserted stand of Castel Frères – Marcel Sautejeau and Friedrich: Salon 2009

The annual Salon des Vins de Loire may be held only every two years if cost cutting measures being considered by Interloire are approved. The first Salon des Vins de Loire was held in 1987 and the Loire is the only French wine region to hold an annual fair. Apparently it was the négoce who proposed cutting the budget for the Salon and to make it biannual. Looking at the photo of the virtually deserted Castel stand I can see why Castel may be wondering whether this is money well spent. However, in contrast, the Lacheteau stand (Grands Chais de France) was busy and many of the most popular growers stands are crowded with visitors.

I have been to the Salon every year since 1990 and find it a very well organised, professional and friendly show. Although I'm never able to get to see and taste with as many producers as I would like, I would certainly be very sad to see the Salon become biannual. I suspect also that commercially it would be a mistake. Many buyers come to the Salon to taste the latest vintage because the majority of the Loire's production is sold young. Buyers come to taste the latest vintage of Sancerre, Muscadet, Touraine Sauvignon, etc.

There is also a lot of pressure on the wine trade calendar. If the Salon des Vins de Loire stops for one year, will something else take its place and will visitors then return to the Salon the following year?

I gather from Charles Sydney, who lives in the Loire and is the leading courtier for Loire wines in the UK, that one plan is to run the Salon in the same year as Vinisud, so that they can be held in the same week and run transport connections between the two fairs. That assumes that buyers can afford to be away for a whole week and that the person who is responsible for buying Loire also buys the south of France. Another option being considered apparently is to hold the Salon in alternate years to Vinexpo and have a big communal Loire stand at Vinexpo. Being selfish that certainly wouldn't suit me as it is my firm principle to stay as far away as possible from the hell of Vinexpo.

Inauguration of Castel's bottling plant@La Chapelle-Heulin

Photo taken in September 2008 of the construction

Ouest-France reports on the official opening of Castel's enormous bottling plant at La Chapelle-Heulin, which is the largest in Europe, on Friday 27th November. The plant has been in operation since June. The whole site is now fenced and gated off.

See my October 2008 posting of the construction work.

Castel's monumental factory

(24 September 2008)

Plan of the site – old vendangeoir in left hand corner

Some pictures of the construction of Castel's monumental wine factory at La Chapelle Heulin in the Pays Nantais. Overshadowing the old vendangeoir of Marcel Sautejeau, the new building, which will include warehousing and bottling, covers some 4.5 ha. The Loire has never seen its like before. The Castel Group bought two Loire négociants, Friedrich and Sautejeau-Beauquin, in 2007.

I trust Castel runs this operation better than it did the UK Oddbins wine merchant retail chain. Castel recently sold Oddbins after reporting losses of £8.6 million last year.