Six thousand bottles of 2012 Miraval rosé, the wine produced by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, with Rhône producer Famille Perrin, sold out within five hours of going on sale on Château Miraval’s Web site. A blend of Syrah, Grenache and Cinsault, the rosé was available in six-bottle cases for $139. Read more about the Pitt-Jolie-Perrin project >>>
Marchesi Antinori, producer of the super Tuscan wines Solaia and Tignanello, has opened a state-of-the-art facility in Bargino, Italy, called The Marchesi Antinori Chianti Classico Cellar. The new attraction enables the public to learn about the Antinori’s 625 years of winemaking history as well as to experience their winemaking process. Open daily from 10 am–4 pm, the space boasts a winery, auditorium, bookshop, museum, wine store and tasting room. The restaurant is slated to open sometime within the next few weeks.
Sonoma, California-based winery Gundlach Bundschu celebrated its 155th anniversary on March 12. The state’s oldest continuously run family-owned winery, Gundlach Bundschu was founded in 1858 and is currently operated by members of the family’s sixth generation. The estate focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which are planted on a sustainably farmed 175-acre plot on the southwest slope of the Mayacamas Mountains.
Pernod Ricard USA has plans to release a small-batch Canadian whisky, Pike Creek, starting in April. Aged in American oak Bourbon barrels and finished in vintage Port barrels, the whisky will sell for $32/750 ml in select U.S. markets, including Colorado, Georgia, New York, New Hampshire and Texas.
E. & J. Gallo’s Shellback Caribbean Rum is going on a six-city U.S. mixology tour dubbed “All Hands on Deck.” Beginning in Dallas on March 13, the promotion will feature a Shellback cocktail workshop directed by mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim. Other stops on the tour include San Francisco (April 10), Miami (May 2), Chicago (June 25), New York City (July 9) and Los Angeles (August 16).
Actor Danny Glover has partnered with South African producer KWV as ambassador for the company’s new line of wines called African Passion. The wines were developed to benefit the TransAfrica Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based African human rights advocacy organization. African Passion features seven wines—including Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and a Cabernet-Merlot blend—which were made from Western Cape fruit and were produced in KWV’s cellar in Paarl. The wines retail for $10/750 ml, and 10% of the proceeds will be donated to the TransAfrica Forum.
JCB by Jean-Charles Boisset announced that it will expand its collection of tasting rooms to include locations in Santa Rosa, Sonoma, New York City and Irvine. Until now, tasting of the entire portfolio could only be experienced at the JCB Tasting Room in Healdsburg, California, but beginning in April, JCB’s new Santa Rosa location will offer visitors the opportunity to enjoy the wines where they are crafted, plus get a guided tasting in the barrel room. Guests can also blend and bottle their own Pinot Noir. To complement the JCB Winery in Santa Rosa and JCB Lounge in St. Helena, the winery will also open JCB Cellars in Sonoma this spring, an appointment-only bubble lounge featuring a selection of JCB’s Cremants de Bourgogne in the historic cellars of the Buena Vista Winery. In addition, private JCB tasting lounges within Gaggenau showrooms in New York City and Irvine, California, are due to open in late summer/early fall 2013.