Wine Drinking in America

November 3, 2026 By in popular culture, wine Leave a comment

I have been re-reading Richard Brautigan’s essays (he calls it a novel) in a book called Trout Fishing in America (1967) and it’s got me thinking (about wine, of course), which is always dangerous. What does trout fishing have to do with wine drinking? Let me make a list.

It’s Not About the Fish

The first thing to understand about trout fishing is that it isn’t always about the trout. That makes it something like wine drinking, which isn’t always about the wine. Some people fish to catch the trout and eat it, but many fishers are looking for something else and will even release their catch because the catching is enough.

What are they looking for if not the fish? Maybe it is the fellowship of being with other fishers. Or the solitude of being alone with nature. Maybe it is the excitement that comes from a test of luck or skill.

Cheap or Dear?

Trout fishing in America can be a cheap pastime or as expensive as you want it to be. On the cheap end, a stick, some line, a hook, and bait (got worm?) can get the lake fishing job done. Some fishing spots will even rent gear (and maybe a rowboat, too) at reasonable cost. But the sky is the limit for an enthusiastic fisher with lots of credit card headroom. Rods, reels, lures, flies — they can all cost as much as you want to pay. And then there are the additional optional costs of boats, guides, and fishing lodge rentals. I have a friend who bought riverside property in Montana to get access to a particularly choice fishing stream. Do people who spend more have more fun or get more satisfaction? Try not to think about that question as you consider how much you have spent collecting wine.

Spectator Sport

There is not much interest, as far as I can tell, in watching other people drink wine. Or am I missing something? Drinking wine, yes. Watching someone else drink wine, not so much. I can’t find any streaming channels that focus on wine drinking, although there are some shows in that vein. (This makes wine different from food because there are several popular television shows that essentially watch the host eat food.) You would think that watching fishing would be as unpopular as watching wine drinking, but you would be wrong. There are in fact several streaming services and video series devoted to watching people fish, often in competition with each other. Some of the videos are instructional, however, and not simply entertaining. The World Fishing Network (WFN) tops my list, but there are others.

Maybe the difference is that wine is very readily available and so there’s no reason to watch it;  you can do it yourself if you want to. Trout fishing, on the other hand, requires a lake or stream where trout are present, so playing an online trout fishing simulations such as Fishing Planet or watching a video program is the next best thing.

What’s the Point?

If it seems like I am rambling here it is because that is the spirit of Brautigan’s book. Although the title is Trout Fishing in America, I am still not entirely sure what it is about. It’s the people, I suppose. If I had to pick an answer I would say it is about the people and how trout fishing fits into their lives. That’s probably the same with wine. I’ve noticed that wine tasting events often reveal more about the people involved than about the wines.

Wine actually appears several times in Trout Fishing in America, but generally not always in a good way. Some of the characters enjoy cheap fortified wines, which is fine. But one decides to share a shot with a freshly caught trout, which does not end well for the poor trout. Wine is good with trout, but apparently it is not good for trout. Good to know.

The thing about a book called Wine Drinking in America is that it would have to explain why there’s less of it than there used to be and why that happened. Trout fishing seems to be timeless. You’d think wine drinking would be the same.

Book Review: Wine’s Global History

October 20, 2026 By in book reviews, globalization, wine, wine history 3 Comments

Kathleen Burk, Wine: A Global History (Basic Books, 2026).

Kathleen Burk has written a big book (almost 600 pages) on an even bigger topic, the global history of wine. It is an impressive achievement that will please casual readers and reward detailed study. It is sure to become a standard reference for wine students of all stripes.

World Wine Web

The fact that this is not just a history of wine, but a global history is significant because it shapes how the book is organized and how its stories are told.

The story begins at the beginning, in Georgia’s cradle of wine, and extends from there as the wine world expanded. There are chapters on wine in Ancient Greece and Classical Rome followed by discussions of the growing European wine trade, with special focus on the Venetians, the Genoese, and the Dutch. A special feature is a chapter on the complicated relationship between Islam and wine.

The narrative moves on, examining key wine producing countries and regions. France gets two chapters, presumably because of its importance in the global story of wine, and the United States gets two chapters as well, because it is now the world’s leading wine consumer. Italy and Spain share a chapter. Germany has no chapter of its own, although it is obviously discussed in the historical surveys.

The global theme continues with a chapter on China and another that combines Japan, Korea, and Singapore. We trace the global expansion of wine through the Spanish Empire and then the Dutch and British Empires, before examining the impact of the Soviet empire on its wine-producing members (which takes us back to Georgia).

The book concludes with a chapter on The Contemporary World, which I found a bit disappointing. I suspect the problem is that I am very focused on the current crisis in the global wine industry while Burk, the history professor, takes a longer view of things.

Trade-Offs and Compromises

I’m impressed with how Burk has navigated the compromises and trade-offs inherent in addressing a big topic like this. I learned about the difficulties from personal experience a few  years ago when I was given literally everything published in the New York Times during the 20th century and asked to edit the stories, editorials, photos, cartoons, and the rest into a history of the global economy.

The first problem, I learned was to know the facts. That was the easy part. Then I had to decide what to put into the book and what to leave out. That was hard because you can rewrite history easily simply by choosing to put this in and leave that out. But you can’t include everything. That’s just a fact.

I am impressed by Burk’s mastery of this topic (not a surprise, to be fair, since she is an emerita professor of history at University College London) and her skill in navigating the trade-off traps. I found her treatment of the topics I don’t know much about to be just right, full of information and insights wrapped into interesting stories. Reading material where I am very knowledgeable, however, was a different experience. I couldn’t help but ask why this and not that?

Forest vs Trees

I found the chapter on China the most interesting. I thought I knew something about the history of wine in China, but there was so much more to learn than I imagined. The same is true of the wine and Islam chapter. I’m going to go back to read these again because they are so interesting.

It is easy to experience the Forest versus the Trees effect in a book like this. The details are so interesting; how do they fit together? I think there are several important themes here. Perhaps the most important one is the tension between quantity and quality. If you break this down, it turns into a question about what wine should be and who it is for. Those are good questions to ponder, book in hand, with a nice glass of wine to sip, don’t you think?

Highly recommended.

Wine Book Reviews: Maps, Menus, and Much, Much More

October 6, 2026 By in book reviews, climate change, globalization, wine Leave a comment

Brief reviews of two very different new wine books.

The World Atlas of Wine (9th edition) by Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson, and Julia Harding. Mitchell Beazley.

The 9th edition of The World Atlas of Wine is released today and it is an event worth celebrating. Much has changed in the wine world since 2019, when the 8th edition appeared. The new edition works hard to catch up and to look ahead, too, since the changes made now must remain relevant for the next few years.

The first duty of an atlas is to supply useful, interesting maps. Hugh Johnson, the founding author of this project, reports that it was often challenging to find any sort of maps for some wine regions back when he was creating the first (1971) atlas edition. But he did it and things have gotten better and better map-wise in the following years.

Julia Harding has taken over the map side of the project and has delivered an impressive collection of 240 detailed maps (18 of them new to this edition). That’s 240 maps within the book’s 432 pages! Add in the many photos and illustrations and you get a sense of the density of the visual information included here.

The maps might be what draws you into The World Atlas of Wine, but the text will hold you tight. Jancis Robinson and her talented team of regional specialists have thoroughly revised both the introductory material and each entry, too. The revisions are thoughtful, timely, and perhaps more thorough than you might imagine given the vast scope of this project.

If I have to single out one element for particular praise it must be climate change. Climate change shows up in its own introductory section along with a graph showing rising temperature trends and a map projecting changes in the geographic range of suitable Chardonnay vineyards. It shows up in expanded coverage of English and Welsh wine, where the effect of climate change is clear, and in a new section on Northern Europe that maps vineyards in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.

Climate change analysis is also seamlessly integrated into many of the individual country sections. You might not buy the book for its climate change coverage, but you can’t really avoid learning about and appreciating the importance of the topic.

The World Atlas of Wine is a vital reference for anyone interested in wine … or the world! The 9th edition invites and rewards detailed study. I can’t wait (although I will have to) to see what stories the 10th edition will have to tell.

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Wine & Dine at Home: Easy Recipes & Perfect Pairings by Charlotte Kristensen. Mitchell Beazley.

New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov recently asked “Have we forgotten wine’s place at the table?” and it is a timely question. Although we tend to think in the European way of wine and food as natural partners, that link is breaking down. It’s a problem for wine in general since it affects sales and a particular problem with what you might call “culinary wines” that really need food to show their potential.

Charlotte Kristensen’s new book Wine & Dine at Home wants to give readers the tools they need to discover or re-discover the magic of food with wine and wine with food. The book is organized in three parts called Discover, Pair, and Curate. I’d call them Theory, Practice, and Party.

Theory presents some principles for food and wine pairing. Brief sections explore Wine & Salt, Wine & Acidity, Wine & Fat, and so forth. Which wines work (and don’t work) with which properties. It gets a little complicated at times (most foods don’t have just one property, for example), but I like the way it encourages readers to think carefully about the properties of the foods and how they match or don’t match with wines.

The second section, which is the one that jumps out at you when you pick up the book, puts the theory into practice with 50 recipes and wine pairings. That’w where the “easy recipes & perfect pairings” subtitles come in.

Sue and I found that our attention was naturally drawn to the colorful recipe section, which takes up nearly half of the book. It was good to see specific pairing suggestions, but we had mixed reactions. Some pairings were very innovative and thought-provoking (although a few called for wines or ingredients that might be hard to get). Other combinations were almost clichés: Napa Cab and steak, Malbec and smash burger. Still we found a lot of ideas to inspire home experiments, probably starting with a tomato, bean, and squid stew paired with Barbera.

The final section suggests themed food/wine menus. I especially like the suggestion for a sort of tapas party. Lots of ideas here.

This book obviously isn’t going to reverse the growing gap between wine as food and wine as drink, but it might help. And the wine industry needs all the help it can get right now!

Wine Economist Mike Veseth to Keynote 2027 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium

September 29, 2026 By in Shameless Self-Promotion, Unified Wine & Grape Symposium 1 Comment

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 14, 2026 — As the wine industry navigates changing consumer demand, shifting global markets and continued economic pressures, Mike Veseth will take the stage as keynote speaker at the 2027 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, offering his full outlook after years of shaping the conversation as moderator of the popular State of the Industry general session.

Veseh, an economist and author, will present on Jan. 26, Unified’s opening day, offering a wide-angle look at the economic forces reshaping the global wine trade and what they signal for the years ahead.

Drawing on decades of tracking wine markets across major producing and consuming countries, Veseth will connect global trends to practical, on-the-ground implications for winegrape growers, wineries and other industry businesses. The stand-alone keynote presentation will be followed by an audience Q&A, giving attendees an opportunity to dig deeper into the issues shaping the industry’s future.

“Mike has helped Unified audiences make sense of this industry for many years, but this allows us to hear from him in a different way,” said Natalie Collins, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers and member of the Unified Symposium LLC Managing Committee. “He has a unique ability to connect what’s happening around the world to what it means for the people growing grapes, making wine and running businesses here at home.”

Veseth has become a familiar presence at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium through his role moderating the State of the Industry general session. As editor of The Wine Economist, he follows wine markets and industry trends around the world, bringing an economist’s perspective to the business, culture and changing dynamics of wine.

A professor emeritus of International Political Economy at the University of Puget Sound, Veseth has written more than a dozen books, including “Wine Wars,” “Around the World in Eighty Wines” and “Wine Wars II: The Global Battle for the Soul of Wine.” He is a frequent speaker at wine industry conferences in the United States and internationally.

“The global wine industry is going through an important period of change, and many of the forces affecting wine today extend well beyond any single region or market. I’m looking forward to exploring the bigger picture with the Unified audience, considering what the trends may be telling us and discussing what they could mean for the industry in the years ahead,” Veseth said.

The Keynote Speaker Luncheon will take place on Tuesday, January 26, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Seats are limited and require separate registration. Attendees are encouraged to register early.

The 2027 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium will be held January 26–28 at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in Sacramento. The trade show will be open January 27–28.

Registration and Housing will open on Tuesday, October 20 at 9 a.m. PDT. For more information, visit unifiedsymposium.org.

About Unified Wine & Grape Symposium

Held each January, the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium helps industry professionals from the United States and around the world start the year informed and prepared. From bringing together the industry’s broadest range of products and services to providing educational sessions under one roof, the Unified Symposium provides the insights, solutions and connections needed to navigate challenges, identify opportunities and make informed business decisions for the year ahead. Built by the industry, for the industry, the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium has been hosted by the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) and the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) for more than 30 years. For more information, visit unifiedsymposium.org.

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This press release originally published on the Unified Symposium website.

What’s Up with Wine? The Sky’s the Limit. Nota Bene September 2026

September 22, 2026 By in Nota Bene, wine, wine auctions, wine festivals 2 Comments

Nota Bene is a periodic Wine Economist column that briefly highlights stories that might otherwise escape attention. This month we focus on good news stories about wine and wine markets. This isn’t an attempt to paper over the industry’s troubles and challenges. It is important to be realistic, but it doesn’t hurt to highlight good news when we can. Hope you agree.

Wine is in the Air

Things are pretty turbulent in the air travel industry and one of the most important strategies right now is what wine people would call premiumization. If you are designing seating configurations and setting fares in a K-shaped economy, you are likely to offer fewer cut-rate seats at the back of the plane and more super-premium seats at the front. Low fares in back fill the plane, but high fares up front are where the profit comes from.

Increasingly the competition is about not just routes and seats, but the travel experience itself, so all sorts of amenities come into play. Higher fares get more amenities, while the lowest fares get very few (no carry-on bags, for example, no advanced seat reservations). Is everything an up-sell? Seems like it sometimes.

So where is the good news for the wine industry? Well, the Wall Street Journal reports that “The One Place Where Wine Still Rules: 30,000 Feet in the Air.”   Many airlines are upgrading their wine service as part of their premiumization strategy. More and better wine for travelers, the WSJ reports, which benefits the wine industry directly and positions wine as part of the premium experience and lifestyle.

An industry friend points out that this is a good time for airlines to adopt a wine strategy simply because there is a lot of good wine on the market at good prices.

How far can this trend go? Don’t expect to see magnums of d’Yquem in economy class any time soon! But things are really cooking at the extreme front of the plane. Delta One passengers, for example, can choose among very nice wines in the air, but the wine situation is even better on the ground! Delta One passengers gain access to Delta One Lounges, like the one at JFK airport we were fortunate to be able to visit recently.

Wine was almost literally everywhere, at the main bars, at smaller wine bars scattered around the lounge, and in the bistro restaurant. If Delta One defines an aspirational lifestyle to some folks, wine is clearly at the center. Wheels up, bottoms up.

Washington Wine Picnic

Selling wine isn’t always a picnic, as they say, but picnics can be a good way to sell (and celebrate) wine.

If you want to see hundreds of happy people enjoying wine and each other, you might want to stroll the beautiful grounds of Chateau Ste Michelle during the annual Auction of Washington Wines Winemaker Picnic. That’s what Sue and I did last month and it was an uplifting experience.

The Auction of Washington Wines is a dress-up affair that raises a lot of money for good causes. I’d say that it is serious fun, with emphasis on the fun part. But the event raised serious money, too, more than $4 million this year. Outstanding!

The Winemaker Picnic, which happens the evening before the auction, is more casual and maybe even more fun. Guests are invited to

Join us for our largest wine and culinary event on the beautiful grounds of Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. More than 100 talented winemakers are on hand to show off the best of WA Wine. Through tasting bars, themed vintner stations, and specialty areas like the popular sparkling wine/rosé bar, you’ll find your perfect pour. Indulge in delicious bites from top Seattle eateries featuring a variety of upscale picnic food while surrounded by the beauty of our state’s founding winery. Get in on the fun with games or bid on future release wines at the live auction. 

The idea is to stroll the grounds, meeting old friends and new, trying new wines and returning to favorites, nibbling on delicious food, bidding on wine packages, and playing games. We didn’t see anyone having a bad time.

The industry friends we talked with were well aware of the market problems (a lot of Washington vineyard acres have been removed in the past couple of years), but they were glad to be surrounded by so many wine-loving guests and did everything they could to make them happy.

Even the venue itself had a special meaning this year. Chateau Ste Michelle has been through its share of difficult times recently, but it now looks set to move ahead under new ownership of the Wyckoff family.

“Ste. Michelle has been the long-term driving force behind Washington’s wine industry,” said Court Wyckoff, CEO of Wyckoff Farms and Coventry Vale Winery. “As partners since the early 1980’s, we deeply believe in Ste. Michelle Wine Estates’ outstanding portfolio of iconic Northwest wine brands. We look forward to working with the Ste. Michelle team to build on its leadership, invest in winemaking quality, and champion Washington’s wine grape growers and Washington wine to consumers across the country.”

That’s really good news for Washington wine. A final bit of good news: demographics. There were plenty of us boomers at the picnic, but there were also many younger people, too, and that is no accident. There was a special “30 and under” ticket program to entice younger guests. It was great to feel that the world of wine is growing again.

There are probably events like the Winemakers Picnic in your area. Check them out and see if your findings are the same as ours.

Wine and Chocolate

There is always wine on the table here at Wine Economist World Headquarters and when some chocolate shows up, we like to have a little fun with pairings. This is often a winter activity just because chocolate and fortified wines go together so well. But that’s not the whole story.

Maculan, the famous Veneto wine producer, makes some very interesting sweetish wines and we decided to try pairing the lightest and brightest of them, the Maculan Dindarello,  with a new line of chocolates from Portland, Oregon’s Wildwood Chocolate.

Dindarello is a Moscato Giallo Passito, the grapes dried on long ropes hung from the rafters for a month after harvest. Aromatic and intense, but light on its feet, if you know what I mean. Our chocolates come from the Wildwood Woodland Collection of personal-sized chocolate bars that invite deeper exploration into the botanical world that defines the brand.

We started our project with two chocolate bar varieties, Orange Confit & Cherry and Yuzu & Roasted Brown Rice. Our hypothesis was that the orange confit of the first bar and the yuzu of the second would link up with the aromas and flavors of the wine. It was a good theory, but how would it work in practice? Would the wine improve the chocolate? Would the chocolate improve the wine? Or would the flavors clash? Only one way to find out.

The results were quite interesting. I liked the orange confit pairing a lot because I think it brought out nuances in the wine. Sue preferred the yuzu and brown rice because (this was a surprise) the texture and slight saltiness of the brown rice really worked. Everyone liked a special pairing that combined slightly salty butter crackers with a jam that Sue made with Cape gooseberries from her garden.

We are continuing our experiments with the Wildwood chocolates. Tawny Port and a Bolgheri red blend both worked in different ways. What next? Wine is supposed to be fun and this tasting was a great way to end the meal.

Drinking Alone (and its Discontents)

September 15, 2026 By in new normal, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

Robert Putnam’s 2000 best-selling book Bowling Alone painted a dark picture of modern society. Putnam saw Americans as less and less connected to social institutions and to each other. The stark image of the lone bowler is difficult to forget.

A quarter century later, the image still seems relevant, especially since the world has been filled with smartphones and their addictive apps in the interval. Now that bowler is probably standing alone in a crowd, head down, shoulders hunched in today’s ubiquitous posture, doom-scrolling to oblivion.

From Bowling Balls to Pizza Pies

A powerful social trend like this will affect all manner of things, but I have only recently begun to really appreciate how it is impacting wine (and how some wine businesses are reacting).

It started with a supermarket ad. One of our local stores advertises “$5 Friday” specials each week and a couple of recent offers involved wine. Five dollar wine? Yes, I have seen that before. But the deal was five 200ml mini-cartons of Barefoot wine for five dollars. Five for five. It’s a good deal, but why the small packages?

The answer came in a recent Wall Street Journal article about pizza. The pizza business has been suffering recently and not because pizza is too expensive (although some of it is not cheap). Think about how many servings are in one of those big ten buck Costco deli pizzas.

No, the problem is that a pizza almost demands to be shared and sharing means getting together, agreeing or compromising about the type of pizza, and maybe not getting exactly what you want. Sharing is great if you value the social aspect of pizza, but it is a pain if you want what you want when you want it and don’t want to compromise.

Domino’s Domino

Is this a big pizza problem? Well, it is problem enough, according to the Wall Street Journal, for market leader Domino’s to release a “bowling alone” version of pizza they call the Domino. It’s a rectangular-shaped single serving packaged in a box shaped like the company’s playful logo. Pizza just for you. You don’t have to share. Everyone gets what they want.

“The percentage of consumers eating alone has been steadily growing in the U.S., with 43% of food-service meals eaten solo in the 12 months ended in June, according to market-research firm Circana, according to the WSJ report.

Single Sips and Slices

The Domino pizza is portable, too, which is another market desire, although the producer doesn’t recommend eating while driving.

Which brings me back to those 200ml Barefoot packages, which were featured on the cover of  Wine Business Monthly back in June 2026. Like the Domino, they provide a generous single serving if you are drinking alone. And everyone can choose the wine (or not wine) that they like if you are in a group. Sharing? Compromises? Not a problem. And great portability although, like the Domino, not recommended for the driver.

The Wine Business Monthly report suggests that Barefoot is far from alone in recognizing that changing consumer behavior has altered the wine landscape, opening new wine occasions even as some traditional wine opportunities fade a bit. The 200ml tetra package, like the Domino box, seems ideal for this moment. There is nothing new in small wine bottles and Domino’s already makes a small-size pizza. But they both decided to innovate size and package to send a message to a particular consumer segment.

Is drinking alone a good thing? No more than eating alone is a good thing. But it is here and we all see it around us. So it makes sense to adapt to the reality even if we simultaneously resist the bowling alone trend and try to foster community and conviviality.

Costco and Global Wine Revisited

September 9, 2026 By in Costco, wine, wine history 1 Comment

Sue and I recently visited our local Costco warehouse store and paused to peruse the wine aisle. We were frankly amazed at the selection we found there. It isn’t just that the prices were very good (that’s not news at Costco, where customers pay an annual membership fee). The surprise was that we found several wines from boutique producers that we would not expect to see at Costco or, to be honest, at any retail store.

It’s a sign of the times. Just about everyone is struggling to sell wine these days and Costco is obviously able to take advantage of the situation to stock some iconic wine brands and to source nice wines for its Kirkland Signature program. The situation isn’t entirely new (see below) and Costco isn’t the only seller taking advantage of the surplus, but it still feels like a newsworthy moment.

Our interest in Costco wine goes way back to the early days of The Wine Economist. This “flashback” column from August 22, 2007 was our first look at the phenomenon. 2007? Wow, that’s a long time ago. Take a look and see if you think the analysis holds up today.

(Inflation note: Three dollars in 2007 is equivalent to about $5 in 2026 after adjusting for rising prices in general.)

Costco and Global Wine

The Wine Economist / August 22, 2007

Costco is the largest wine retailer in the United States and I think it is worth thinking about the Costco model and what it has to say about the globalization of wine.

Costco’s approach to selling wine is different from most other U.S. retailers, such as supermarket chains. Most supermarkets offer a surprisingly large selection of wine. The Metropolitan Market (an upscale grocery store in my neighborhood) has more than 1500 different wines on its shelves. The Tacoma Boys farm store down the road has more than 3300 different wines – an incredible selection. A typical Costco store has a rolling inventory of only about 100-120 wines at any given time. Selection is obviously much narrower at Costco, so value and quantity sales are the key. If you’ve shopped for wine at Costco, you already know that you can spend as little as about $5 for a bottle of wine and as much as … well, as much as you want, really. I have seen Dom Pérignon on the Costco rack as well as a Heitz Cellars Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon a few years ago.

One way that Costco reflects wine globalization is obvious: they bring global wines to the American market by offering products from France, Italy, Spain, Chile, South Africa, Germany, Portugal, Australia, and New Zealand (those are the countries that I can remember from my last visit – I haven’t tried to make a complete accounting).

Costco distributes the wines of the world to America and America apparently snaps them up. A good example is  a 2006 Kirkland Signature Central Otago (New Zealand) Pinot Noir that I found on my most recent Costco expedition. Pinot Noir is hot these days (the Sideways fad continues) and Central Otago Pinots have developed something of a cult following. So it is very interesting to find this wine in a warehouse store, where volume sales are key.

The Kirkland Signature label first appeared in 2003. The wines are relatively small lots (around 2000 cases each — large for many wineries but small for Costco — according to a 2006 Costco report) specially created by chosen winemakers. The wines are scattered out among the warehouse stores and when they are gone they’re gone. New wine releases are staggered throughout the year so that serious (or curious) buyers have reason to check back frequently to see what’s new.

I found an Oregon Pinot Noir a few years ago and went to the trouble of tracking down the maker. This isn’t always necessary any more — some Kirkland Signature wines, like the Marquis-Phillips made Shiraz we had on Monday, proudly list the winemakers. The Oregon Pinot’s maker was the same company responsible for the A-to-Z brand. A-to-Z are negociants who own no vineyards. Negociants typically purchase wine from other makers and blend, age and market it. A-to-Z is known as a great value brand and so a good potential Costco supplier. Interestingly, the Costco Pinot had the same price as the A-to-Z Pinot in my local store.

Now we can begin to appreciate why Costco is so successful as a wine retailer. Their list of wines is not large compared to other retailers, but they provide a rolling selection of pretty interesting and sometimes unexpected wines (at good prices, but that goes without saying). Costco buyers suspect that it must be a good value to get on the Costco shelves and know that any particular wine might not still be there next week or next month. Better run back and buy more now if you want it. So people keep coming back.

There is another aspect to Costco’s wine story that interests me and that is its house brand, Kirkland Signature wine. Kirkland Signature wines reflect the complex nature of wine globalization in ways that you might not suspect.

There are basically three models for wine marketing in the world today that correspond to the three largest import markets for wine: the U.S., Germany and Great Britain.

The U.S. model is built around brands owned by wine companies. Winemakers big and small seek to establish a brand or reputation that will help them sell their wines to consumers who need a trustworthy indicator of value and/or quality. Building reputation is complex and brands are part of the process, but not the whole story, of course. Americans typically look to brands for quality/value information when shopping in general and so it is natural that wine brands are so important here. Because there are lots of market segments for wine and many competing brands within each segment, American retailers stock a lot of wine.

Then there is the German model, which is all about low prices. The average “bottle” of German wine is sold in a discount store, often with a house brand name, and costs about a Euro per liter. I put “bottle” in quotes because sometimes it comes in a juice-box type container. Decent quality for less is what the German market seeks and the discount chain’s reputation for value seals the deal.

Finally there is the British model. Britain is by most accounts the most important wine import market in the world and the key players there are the supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Because this market is so important to wine exporters, you can find wine from every nook and cranny of the global market in British stores. But because this huge selection can be confusing to consumers (especially French wines) and discourage them from making a purchase, the stores themselves (not the wine producers) have launched their own brands, like the Tesco’s Finest Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon or, for example. Or the Sainsbury’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, which offers a limited range of global wines under the store’s own label. The Tesco brand gives consumers confidence to try an unfamiliar foreign wine (a Central Otago Pinot?) that they might otherwise avoid. Tesco and Sainsbury’s don’t make the wine, of course. They contract with local winemakers to supply the product. The stores add value to the bottle by lending it their reputation through the store brand label. And, of course, they use their efficient distribution system to get the bottles into consumer shopping baskets.

Now a quick field guide to globalization and the U.S. wine market. You can find the American wine marketing system in your local supermarket: dozens of different brand-name wines in all the major price segments.

You can find the German wine marketing system at Trader Joe’s, where people who would never spend three dollars for a bottle of wine at Albertsons (how could it be any good?) confidently pay as little as two bucks for a bottle of Charles Shaw (how could it be bad?).

I think that Costco’s innovation is to bring the British wine market system to the United States. Costco’s wine aisle reminds me of Tesco’s in Britain. And the Kirkland Signature line reminds me of Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s house brands. Even the labels bear a family resemblance if you compare the Costco Marlborough Sauvignon shown here with the similar Sainsbury’s wine above. (Interestingly, they are both priced at about $9 per bottle.)

Bottom wine. Costco is a success in the wine business because it sells global wines to Americans using the British wine market system. That’s globalization!

Wine in the Season of the Spritz

September 1, 2026 By in popular culture, wine 2 Comments

Doesn’t it seem like this has been the summer of the spritz? It’s a trend that has been gathering steam for a while and this year it feels like everywhere we look we see spritz, spritz, spritz.

Time for a Hydration Break?

And it really shouldn’t come as a surprise because the spritz boom can be linked to a couple of relevant factors.

Trend #1: Climate change. Summer weather is getting more and more extreme, especially in Europe but here in the U.S., too. We all need to follow the example of the World Cup soccer teams and take hydration breaks more often. But Napa Cab is probably not what you are looking for when the temperature tops 90 degrees.

Trend #2: We like to think of wine as food, best enjoyed at the table, and I still believe that’s true. But, as Eric Asimov has pointed out, the tradition of wine with dinner is rapidly fading away. Wine is now often just a drink, something you have a glass of. And when the heat dome is upon you, you’d probably like that drink to be tall, cool, and refreshing. What you want is a spritz.

Welcome to Aperol World

The most famous such refreshment is, of course, the Aperol Spritz, the bitter-sweet concoction with the unlikely name. Heavily promoted by the Campari company (along with Campari Spritz), the bright orange, instantly recognizable beverage is all over Europe and now featured prominently on drinks menus in the United States, too.

Aperol combines the signature liqueur with sparkling wine, a dash of club soda, and a bit of citrus, all over ice in a large glass. You can think of it as a competitor to wine, and it is to a certain degree, but it is also a wine drink and the Aperol Spritz boom has done no harm to sparkling wine producers.

Spritz Wars Heat Up

The Financial Times reports that the competition among different types of spritz drinks is heating up. This summer, for the first time, U.K. sales of Aperol Spritz have been eclipsed by the Hugo Spritz, which features an elderflower liqueur. Spritz wars. What next?

Aperol is taking this competition to the next level by creating a draft version of the Aperol Spritz. We saw this in a couple of spots in Sicily earlier this year. The spritz is pre-mixed and dispensed like a beer or soda from a 20-litre canister. Easy to make, easy to drink. Now you can enjoy a spritz at the soccer stadium. What could be better?

Spritz can be good and even good for sparkling wine producers, but what about the makers of still wine? Are they left out of the trend? Not necessarily. You can find popular spritz beverages in Europe that let still wines join the party. Here are a few for your consideration.

In Porto, the summer drink of choice is the White Port Spritz, with White Port and tonic water over ice with mint or citrus. It is refreshing and a bit addictive. The drink comes as a surprise to people who have never tried a White Port. Taylor’s makes a canned Chip Dry & Tonic version that goes down easily.

The drink to try in Jerez is Rebujito, which combines Fino Sherry and Sprite over ice with lemon or mint. Gonzalez Byass makes a ready-to-drink version called a Croft Twist that is perfect for your personal hydration needs.

If You Can’t Beat Them …

Clearly that is a lot you can do with white wines when it comes to the spritz, but what about red wine? Some people are shocked when they see ice in a glass of red wine although it is a summer tradition in some regions. What would they say about a red wine spritz?

The thing to say is Kalimotxo (also spelled calimocho). It is a Basque Country beverage that combines equal parts of red wine and Coke over ice. It doesn’t have to be your best red wine, if you know what I mean. I am sure there is a scientific explanation for why this works, but I think it is best to simply enjoy.

Or you could try another Spanish spritz called Tinto de Verano (red wine of summer), which is basically red wine and lemonade or lemon-lime soda (Sprite again) over ice. A friend from Seville told us that in Spain tourists drink Sangria while locals enjoy Tinto de Verano.

Resistance is Futile?

Is everyone a spritz-lover now? A recent New York Times article finds little resistance within the hospitality sector, but it does note this:

Italians have more cause to complain. Global spritz mania means that tourists demand the drinks even in formerly spritzless regions like Sicily, which is a bit like expecting a Creole restaurant in the French Quarter to make you a Rochester garbage plate. In Venice, where the spritz was invented and long seen as a working-class drink, it has been repositioned as a glamorous society accouterment. This historical revisionism irks some locals

I don’t think the wine industry can successfully fight the spritz trend, so I suggest joining up. Don’t think of a spritz as just a substitute for wine. Embrace the opportunity to make it another occasion to enjoy wine. That’s what a local brew pub is doing. They mainly sell their own beer, but they offer a limited selection of wine in single-serve cans, including festive wine spritz drinks from Ramona.

And remember that a spritz needn’t be complicated to work its magic. Ice, wine, something sparkling, maybe some fruit to garnish. The retail market report in the August 2026 issue of Wine Business Monthly speculates that the spritz boom is driving sales growth in at least one market segment. Inexpensive sparkling wine is not a large category (less than one percent by volume and value), but it grew by 40 percent in the most recent year, partly due to “continued affinity for “European Summer” and spritz-inspired cocktails.”

It’s the season of the spritz. Bottoms up!

Wine Book Review: Impossible Place Meets Improbable People

August 25, 2026 By in book reviews, New Zealand, Wine Competitions 1 Comment

Forged in Fire: An Impossible Place meets Improbable People by Michael F. Spratt. Available from Amazon.com. and Mary Egan Publishing.

Michael and Ann Spratt planted their first vines on Waiheke Island in 2000, and so the unlikely story of Destiny Bay Wine began. They didn’t really come to New Zealand to make wine, but one thing led to another the way things sometimes do. And so they began.

Inexperienced (in terms of winegrowing) Americans growing red Bordeaux grapes and making wine on a hilly little island near Auckland, New Zealand. What could go wrong?

People, Places, Things

Sue and I visited Waiheke Island in early 2004. We were in New Zealand doing research for the global wine chapter of my book Globaloney. We took the ferry from Auckland to the island and toured a bit. I remember visiting one winery and being surprised and impressed by the wines. Add accidental and unexpected to improbable and impossible.

The Spratts were not the first to make wine on Waiheke Island, but it must have been a struggle to get recognition at first, especially given the wine world’s focus on Marlborough and Central Otago. Michael Cooper mentions Destiny Bay and the Spratts in the 2008 edition of his Wine Atlas of New Zealand, but he doesn’t have much to say one way or another. Early days.

The Judgement at Cape Mentelle

But there was a lot to say a few years later, in 2017, when a Destiny Bay wine won what is known as The Judgement at Cape Mentelle, a blind-tasting of the best Bordeaux-type wines from Australia, France, the United States, and elsewhere. Destiny Bay, from that little island near Auckland, was the top wine! A signal achievement and clear recognition.

Forged in Fire is the story of how those first vines turned into a world-class vineyard and outstanding wines. Actually, that’s wrong. The book  is not a story, but a collection of stories. Some of the stories are personal and family. Some are technical, presenting sort of mini seminars on how things are done and how they should be done to make the best wine the best way. Other stories give a sense of the business side of wine.

The Stories Unfold in Four Acts

The stories are divided into four acts, each of which has several chapters or scenes.

  • Act I: The Anomaly. An impossible place meets improbable people.
  • Act II: The Doctrine. Standards, stewardship and the price of perfection.
  • Act III: The Crucible. Seasons of heartbreak, hardship, redemption and triumph.
  • Act IV: The Legacy. Protecting the planet, celebrating patrons and a glimpse into the future.

Spratt has so many stories to share that they don’t all neatly fit into the narrative structure of the book, so the final third of the volume is made up of stories saved from “the cutting room floor.” I guess you’d call them additional material for the “director’s cut.”

There is nothing easy about overcoming the many challenges winegrowers face and building a successful business and fulfilling life. I appreciate it when the protagonists have the talent, determination, and patience to write books that give us a peek behind the curtain. Caro Feely’s books about Chateau Feely in France are my favorite in this genre. Now I can add Michael Spratt’s Forged in Fire to that bookshelf.

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The Wine Economist reviewed an earlier book by this author,  Michael F. Spatt and Mark L. Feldman, Grape-a-hol: How Big Business is Subverting Artisan Winemaking and the Future of Fine Wine.

It’s Not Easy Being Pink

August 18, 2026 By in wine, wine markets 4 Comments

Sue and I have been sampling some interesting Rosé wines from France and this got us to thinking about the challenges and opportunities for pink wines in today’s market. Here is our report. (Click here to read an earlier survey of the Rosé market.)

Anatomy of the Pink Wine Market

It isn’t easy being a pink wine in today’s wine market. Rosé wines have had to fight all sorts of battles to get where they are today. As a category (according to NIQ data reported in the July 2026 issue of Wine Business Monthly) pink wine sales ($1,099 million in the last 52 weeks) lag behind red wine ($8,197 million) and white wine ($7,302 million) in the measured U.S. market.

Pink wine sells at a lower volume than red or white and at a lower average price ($7.42 per bottle equivalent for pink versus $10.66 for red and $8.58 for white wine). Pink wine sales still peak in the summer months (although I suspect this is less a factor than in the past), so the wines are sometimes put into the category of “swimming pool wines.”

Rosé wines also suffer more than most categories from a sort of color curse. Pink can be pretty, often beautiful, so they are generally packaged in ways that accentuate color. This is an advantage, of course, but also a problem because the color varies for all sorts of reasons, and consumers naturally try to draw conclusions from it. All things being equal, the experts tell me, Rosé color is not a reliable indicator of quality or other sensory factors. But if you have enjoyed a deeply tinted Rosé once, you can be forgiven for imagining that other darker wines will taste just as good.

50 Shades of Pink

These days there seems to be a preference for very pale wines, especially from Provence. Some of them are so light in color that you might mistake them for white wines. But light color doesn’t necessarily foreshadow light flavor.

Deeper colors are avoided by some consumers. I wonder if it is a residual White Zin effect? Perhaps once upon a time they tasted one of those inexpensive sweetish White Zinfandel wines and projected these qualities onto the entire category? I find this puzzling because I remember when Tavel Rosé was very popular.  It had a deep hue and was more full bodied that most pink wines today. I think it would be a hit if consumers gave it a chance. But I seldom see it on store shelves today.

Certainly some wine drinkers look down their noses at pink wines. There must be a reason, don’t you think?

Many Faces of French Rosé

The French Rosé wines we have been tasting this summer are nothing to look down on. We tried two wines in the $15-$20 price category from Barton & Guestier and two in the $50+ category from Domaines Ott. Taken together they say a lot about the diversity of Rosé wines and how product differentiation can address various problems of being pink.

B&G has celebrated its 300th anniversary and their selections are variations on classic themes. The B&G Rosé d’Anjou from the Loire Valley draws on a garden party theme with its deeper hue and colorful label. We love Rosé d’Anjou, but don’t see much of it on our store shelves. Maybe it is that color curse?

The B&G Côtes de Provence “Tourmaline”  presents that classic pale Provence pink, but in a festive limited edition bottle and label featuring artwork by Montreal-based French artist Isaure Atelier. These are wines that match perfectly with the season. They remind us that there is a reason people think of Rosé in seasonal terms.

Then there are the pink wines from Domaines Ott, which show a different side of the pink wine world. These wines are defined by the tension between minerality and salinity more than punchy fruit. That’s a tension we really enjoy because it makes them especially useful with food.

The Domaines Ott 2025 Château de Selle Rosé (AOC Côtes de Provence) paired perfectly with a pasta and pesto dish made with basil from our garden. The Domaines Ott  2025 Château Romassan Rosé (AOC Bandol)  was terrific with a Niçoise salad. The wines were distinctive and I am not sure you would have guessed that they are Rosé wines in a blind tasting because they are so unstereotypically savory. Really interesting!

It’s Not Easy, But Do We Have to Make It Hard?

It isn’t easy being pink, I guess, because Rosé wine has all the challenges and complications of wine in general plus the color curse. But maybe it isn’t necessary to make life difficult. If you are looking for the simple, delicious summer wine, it is right there waiting for you. And if you are looking for something more, it’s there too.

In other words. When Pink is all there is to be it makes you wonder why. But why wonder why?