The Wine Century Club Celebrates its Second Birthday

A rare shot of the Salinger-like Jeff Grossman taking notes while simultaneously dodging the continued flashes of the paparazzi.

The Wine Century Club celebrated its second birthday March 18th, 2007 in at an undisclosed location in New York City.

This secretive and elite club currently has 211 members from 16 countries worldwide: Australia, Bahamas, Brasil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Georgia, Spain, Sweden, UK and the USA.

Aside from the fact that each of its members have tasted at least 100 different wine grape varieties, very little else is known about them. Rumours abound - especially here - regarding secret rituals, vast holdings of land in the Jura and other less well-known wine regions as well as the stealth promotion of popular grape varieties. This "stealth promotion" appears to benefit members by distracting market attention while they horde the world's Erbaluces, Hondarrabis and other obscure wines at rock bottom prices.

Strange rituals? Vast land holdings? Price-fixing? The club's press releases seem to ask more questions than they answer. No one can be completely sure of the veracity of such allegations, however, we do know what they drank during the party which is spelled out in black-and-white on their website.