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Spanish wine magazine, Sibaritas, announced it was temporarily shutting down.  After 18 years editor Jose Penin suspended the publication saying “To keep Sibaritas alive we didn’t want to cut the number of issues, or the content or contributions from our acclaimed writers, so we decided to make this painful decision”.  He added “New technology, reader trends and ways of communicating about wine have pushed us to explore the Internet as an option”.

It is unclear what the future of the magazine will really be.

The infamous Spanish restaurant “El Bulli” will close its doors for two years.  The restaurant behaves more like a research laboratory and it’s head chef more like a mad scientist.  The two year waiting list will most likely get pushed back again.

The restaurant has a limited season: the 2010 season, for example, will run from June 15 to December 20. Bookings for the next year are taken on a single day after the closing of the current season. The average cost of a meal is $450, the restaurant itself has operated at a loss since 2000, with operating profit coming from El Bulli-related books, and lectures from Adrià. As of December 2009 the restaurant employed 42 chefs.

Miguel Torres Jr. of the infamous Torres family in Spain has been made capo de tutti capi (executive president) of the company’s Chilean operations.  This was an excellent opportunity for the 5th generation winemaker to take the bull by the horns, and show what he can do despite the global economy.  The Torres brand is set to perform fantastically with most of their wines under the $40 a bottle price point.

Torres Jr. added: “My family and I are delighted to move to Chile and embark upon a new personal and professional chapter in Curicó. We are lucky to have a great team behind us at Viña Miguel Torres which undoubtedly still have a lot of potential for growth, particularly in export markets”.

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Miguel studied at the Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE) in Barcelona, Spain, considered one of the best business schools in the country. While there, he studied business management and specialized in international marketing. He also attended the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Flagler School of Business in the United States.

Pancho Campo MW has stepped down as director of the Wine Future Rioja conference next month and resigned as president of the Spanish Wine Academy.

Kevin Zraly of New York’s Windows on the World wine school, and a highly respected wine critic and writer, has taken over as chair of the conference, at which Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson MW, and Decanter’s consultant editor Steven Spurrier are due to appear.

Campo’s brother-in-law Rony Bacqué will replace him as president of the academy.

The beleagured Campo (pictured) has been embroiled in a complex battle with authorities in Dubai for the last few weeks, after a Madrid journalist came across a type of arrest warrant or ‘location notice’ for him on the Interpol website.

The warrant relates to a 2002 complaint brought by former business partner Jackie Wartanian to do with a fee paid to singer Enrique Iglesias. At the time Campo ran a sports and music promotion company in Dubai.

It now appears that in June 2003 in Dubai Campo was found guilty in absentia of breach of trust and given a one-year custodial sentence followed by deportation.

Campo vehemently denies knowing anything about the sentence. He told decanter.com the first he heard about it was when it was published in an article in Dubai newspaper The National on 19 September.

Before he left Dubai in February 2003, Campo knew Wartanian had filed a complaint claiming that US$1m had been misused, he said, but his lawyer had told him simply to inform the embassy of his new address, which he did.

‘The case was tried and I was sentenced in my absence without any legal representation,’ Campo told decanter.com.

His lawyer in Dubai told him nothing about the sentence, Campo said, and they have since lost touch. He added that he would not be suing the lawyer because he was ‘in no mood to do anything like that’.

Campo admitted that he had spent two hours in French immigration at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in March, in a ‘routine passport check’, during which the Interpol warrant was mentioned.

‘That was the first idea I had about the Interpol warrant. They kept me for about two hours and then apologised. They advised me to get a lawyer.’

Campo said that he resigned his posts at the Wine Academy, of which he owns 25% with the rest owned by his wife and her family, because he had to ‘focus on clearing his name’.

‘I don’t want any damage done to the Wine Academy. My lawyers in Washington and in Spain are finding out exactly what happened and are confident that they will have resolved the situation by November.’

He also insists that no pressure to resign was put on him by the Rioja Consejo Regulador, which is funding one third of the conference.

The government of Rioja is providing the venue for free.

Campo said, ‘The conference is still 100%. The speakers are all on board and we have just taken on two new sponsors, JF Hillebrand, and Enerterra, a renewable energy company.’

SOURCE

Pancho Campo MW, director of the prestigious Wine Future Rioja conference, is the subject of an arrest warrant on the Interpol website.

Wine Future takes place in Rioja in November, with international wine critics and writers including Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson MW, Oz Clarke, Steven Spurrier and other celebrities of the wine world due to speak.

The warrant, issued in Dubai, relates to an alleged fraud in that country. Campo, 47, and his lawyers, are emphatic that the matter concerns a business deal and is a purely civil matter.

decanter.com understands the charges relate to a court case in Dubai that began in 2002, in which Campo is accused of fraud involving around €600,000.

It is understood he was due to appear in a court in the United Arab Emirates in 2005. When he did not attend the UAE issued a warrant for his arrest.

Between 1999 and 2002 Campo ran a company called Connections Sports and Music (CSM) in Dubai which organised sports and rock music events with stars such as Andre Agassi, Stefan Edberg, Eric Cantona, Pink Floyd, Sting, Enrique Iglesias and Tom Jones.

Campo told decanter.com the complaint, brought by his former business partner Jackie Wartanian, who is now managing director of Center Stage Management (also CSM), is to do with a fee paid to singer Enrique Iglesias.

Campo told decanter.com that he only became aware of the arrest warrant in the last four to six weeks.

‘When I left Dubai to return to Spain in 2002, I informed the Spanish Embassy in Dubai,’ he said.

‘I was never told about the court case. This is a civil matter and should never have become a criminal one. The €600,000 was used to pay Enrique Iglesias.’

Campo and his wife Melissa now run the Barcelona-based Wine Academy, and conferences whose sponsors include the Rioja government, Marqués de Riscal, Riedel, Codorniu, Robert Mondavi Winery and Constellation Europe.

The conferences are regarded as influential. The Wine and Climate Change conference in February 2008 attracted former US Vice-President Al Gore, who spoke by video link.

Alfonso Martinez, Campo’s lawyer, cast doubt on the veracity of the arrest warrant. ‘This can be done by petitioning a judge in Dubai using a lawyer,’ he told decanter.com.

Rafael Ansón, president of the Real Academia Española de Gastronomía, told decanter.com the case was ‘exclusively commercial’ and that they are working towards a solution.

He described the posting of the warrant on the Interpol site as ‘a false interpretation’ of the situation.

He added, ‘the business activities of Pancho Campo in Spain are positive and irreproachable.’

decanter.com has been unable to contact Jackie Wartanian.

SOURCE