STORY:
Champagne Sellers Looking for Cellars

According to a Reuters story, wineries and importers of high-end bubbly say they are busily working with key customers to fill orders now and predict supplies will start running out as early as summer.

The concern is for wine made by the traditional methode champenoise, in which the product is aged and fermented in its own bottle. Non-vintage wines in that category must age and ferment at least 18 months before sale. Vintage sparkling wine and French champagne must age at least three years and top-of-the-line prestige wines four to seven years.

In the article Joy Sterling at Iron Horse Vineyards of Sonoma County in California says ``We expect to be sold out by July,''. She said the company, produces vintage sparkling wines that are aged four to five years and its sparkling wine orders were already up 100 percent by the end of February.

Iron Horse has been chosen to supply a 1994 vintage sparkling wine for White House millennium celebrations. The special label will show two American eagles with the words: ``inspired by the excitement and promise of the millennium.''

The cuvee will debut in April at a White House dinner for 900 people -- including 40 heads of state -- celebrating NATO's 50th Anniversary. Sterling said Iron Horse will make 100 cases of the special cuvee for the White House, although plans have not been finalized for when and where all of it will be served.

Walt Disney World Resorts, owned by Walt Disney Co., started planning sparkling wine needs at least two years ago -- when it chose a special Iron Horse cuvee to be served at its restaurants in Orlando and on its Walt Disney cruises. The cuvee will have a special label that says ``Millennium Fairy Tale Cuvee,'' flecked with gold ``pixie dust.''

New York's Schieffelin & Somerset Co., importer and marketer of Moet & Chandon champagne, including Dom Perignon, tells a similar story and predicts the supplies will be out by September.

Trade publications have reported increased U.S. demand. For example, Sonoma-based Wine Business Monthly said last month that eastern states are seeing a trend toward ``phenomenal sales'' in champagne and other sparkling wine and most retailers agreed there will likely be shortages in high-end bubblies.

There will also be more than a 19 percent rise in demand for champagne globally from 1998 to 1999 as part of millennium celebrations, Datamonitor Plc reported in December. ``Although some of the vintage champagnes have been bought up, the great majority of consumers have yet to buy their supplies for New Year 1999,'' the British market research group said. ``This increase in demand outstrips all other drinks categories by a long margin and could result in shortages.''

Source: Reuters Story on Builder's On-line

DATE: 3/12/99

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