Marc Braes has now won the Le Grand Prix du Cépage 3 years in a row and is currently on 1,111 grape varieties. He is also the only Millenary Member (members who have tasted at least one thousand grape varieties).
Please take a moment to clap 1,111 times for Marc!
We now have six Hexavin members!
Michael J. Mangahas was the first with 622 grapes. Dan Traucki followed with 603.
And this month, we added four more: Thomas J. Reagan, Jr. at 666, and Jim Breed, Patricia Faust Breed, and Tim Faust at 601.
Yes, just in time for Halloween, Tom has drunk the number of the beast! However, I’m not sure if Patricia and Tim have sold their souls to the devil!
It has been a chaotic year, but The Wine Century Club is still going strong. Rumors of its demise are a gross exaggeration.
If you have not received your certificate or a reply to any concern, please contact me directly at steve@winecentury.com.
Thank you,
John Watson of Michigan is looking for a society of grape lovers on Decanter’s website: Is there a society for grape lovers?
Hopefully he’ll be a member soon!
If you’ve been concerned about the glacial pace that certificates are being sent out, please take note that more have been sent out this week.
As of July 4, 2017 we currently have:
Total Members 1,740
US 1,420
Canada 80
UK 62
Australia 25
The Netherlands 16
Germany 14
Finland 13
Hong Kong 12
Sweden 12
Brazil 9
Norway 9
Spain 9
France 8
Greece 8
Switzerland 7
Denmark 5
Italy 5
Belgium 2
Hungary 2
Ireland 2
Mexico 2
Poland 2
Portugal 2
Turkey 2
UAE 2
Bahamas 1
Bulgaria 1
Czech Republic 1
Estonia 1
India 1
Macau 1
Georgia 1
Romania 1
Russia 1
Taiwan 1
Regular (100) 1,556
Doppel (200) 118
Trebble (300) 39
Quattro (400) 18
Pentavini (500) 7
Hexavin (600) 2
Men 1,137
Women 603
Here’s an excellent article on the club by John Stimpfig in Decanter: The Grape Crusaders: Wine Century Club
The perfect actionwear for epic tastings or working off your weingut.
The Wine Century Club T Shirt Back
Now available at www.delongwine.com
The competition is heating up. I have word from past champion Tom Reagan Jr. that he is at 600.
The Wine Century Club now has 1,378 members worldwide. Stacked end to end (and assuming an average height of 5ft 6in) we now are collectively taller than Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia.
An inspirational article by über member Dan Traucki published in the May 2013 Great Wine News.
Newly minted Treble Centurian Randy Cepuch recently held a tannat tasting for some friends.
“There were 20 of us, and I think it’s safe to say the favorite bottles were the Pisano RPF, the Pisano Reserve, the Chateau O’Brien (source of the first Tannat I’d ever tasted) and all three of the French entries – although one lawyer in the group noted that maybe drinkers should worry a bit when the largest type on the bottle could be interpreted as scary disclosure: “May die!”
It sounded like a fun tasting but no word as of yet as how everyone’s tongues survived the onslaught of tannins!
The book photographed next to a man for scale
Wine Grapes, the new and amazing tome by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding and José Vouillamoz has been adopted as our Bible, Talmud, Quran, Book of Mormon etc.
It will be used as the authoritative word in resolving deputes about synonyms, clones etc. No more arguments like:
“Brunello is an independent grape variety!”
“I believe that it’s actually Sangiovese.”
“How would you know? Do you know more than wine makers in Montalcino??!!!!”
If you don’t have a copy yet, check out the official site: Winegrapes.org for the best deal on it worldwide.
