From Marcel Merz, at 14. December 2011 17:45
By Antonio Casado at El Mundo in Spain
Over the last week social networks have been full of photos of two personalities from the world of wine, Jay Miller and Pancho Campo MW. Our paths crossed some years back, and I hope that this brief (or not so brief) recollection will help shed some light on the polemic that has swept across the internet recently. This is how it all began.
From Nadia Schmidli, at 14. December 2011 16:34
by David Furer – As harvest finishes in the Pacific northwest, vintners are pondering a season of opposites.
While 2011 has been the coldest harvest in living memory for Washington, Oregon had one of the longest growing seasons ever.
Lower sugar levels were a given in both states, but while Washington’s yields were down, in Oregon – which saw more rain – yields were the highest on record.
Much of eastern Washington’s vineyards had frost on 27 October and again on 2 November adding to the coldest harvest period for 70 years ‘and the second really nasty year in a row,’ said Paul Beveridge of Washington’s Wilridge Winery.
He added, ‘I may be making pink Nebbiolo this year’ – a reference to the severe dilution of the grapes.
From Peter Niederhauser, at 14. December 2011 16:22
by Adam Lechmere – A new survey shows it is the smallest and largest New Zealand wineries that have shown the most 
growth in 2011 – while the country’s UK chief is calling on wineries to be ‘more confident’ on pricing.
While wineries across the spectrum have improved their profitability during the past financial year, those at the smaller and larger ends of the earning spectrum, earning below NZ$1m and above NZ$10m in revenue, have improved profitability by the greatest amount, the survey from Deloitte shows.
Vintage 2011, released this week by Deloitte and New Zealand Winegrowers, tracks the results of survey respondents accounting for nearly a third of the industry’s export sales revenue for the 2011 financial year.
Deloitte partner Paul Munro said, ‘These movements are positive, and certainly are cause for optimism that the industry is showing signs of a turnaround from the declining profitability exhibited over recent years. But there is some way to go before it could be considered a full recovery.’
The most profitable category in this year’s survey was the wineries earning less than NZ$1m in revenue, with an average profit of 17.4%. Part of this improvement was likely to be due to the reduction in costs from selling grapes rather than processing them for sale.
From Sigi Hiss, at 14. December 2011 16:19
by Jane Anson in Bordeaux – The artist for the label of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2009
is British sculptor Anish Kapoor,
Anish Kapoor, who was born in Mumbai, India, and is now a British citizen, is one of the world’s leading sculptors and artists.He won the Turner Prize in 1991, was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2003, Commander of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2003 and won the Japanese leading arts prize, the Praemium Imperiale, in 2011. Among his recent commissions is a sculpture for the London Olympic Games next summer.
Mouton’s owner Baroness Philippine de Rothschild told Decanter.com Kapoor is a friend, and commissioning him is a continuation of her desire to ensure the world’s leading artists produce labels for Mouton.
‘Anish is both a good friend and enormously talented, as well as being recognised the world over for his talent, and the choice seems absolutely relevant to us at Mouton.
From Nadia Schmidli, at 14. December 2011 10:34
by Adam Lechmere – Robert Parker has called Pancho Campo a ‘lightning rod’ for controversy as he announced a ‘totally 
transparent’ legal investigation into the series of accusations of cash for tasting that have dominated the wine headlines for the past weeks.
Parker: ‘appalled’
Parker, publisher of the Wine Advocate, said he ‘remains appalled’ by the ‘lynch mob rush to judgment’ of bloggers, including award-winning Decanter writer Jim Budd on his blog Jim’s Loire.
Budd, followed by other bloggers, including vinography as well as senior Spanish commentators such as Jose Penin, has since the summer alleged that Jay Miller’s representative Pancho Campo of the Wine Academy of Spain was effectively charging wineries, via their consejos reguladores, for access.
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