In the wine market’s continuing battle of land versus brand, brand has several built-in advantages. Brands are often backed by big business marketing and distribution muscle, for example, and brands are scalable in ways that vineyard- and region-specific wines never can be.
My first wine book, Wine Wars, charted the path of several famous brands, including Blue Nun and Two Buck Chuck. Wine Wars II went deeper into brand land, searching for the keys to brand success. We are living in the Age of Identity and brands offer wine companies the opportunity to craft identities to fit specific market segments (think 19 Crimes, for example).
So brand trumps land, right? Not so fast. Here are three brief reports from the battlefront.
Noble Nobile
Sometimes land trumps brand or maybe it is that land reinforces the brand. The point is illustrated by two Italian wines Sue and I had the pleasure to sample.
Avignonesi Poggetto di Sopra is a relatively rare thing: A vineyard-designated Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The map on the label shows the particular vineyard rows that were used along with the precise latitude and longitude of the block. The goal, we are told, is to let this particular place tell its story through the wine with as little intervention as possible.
The result is a rather elegant wine that changes and shifts in the glass as you drink and consider it. Sue was impressed, saying that it is just the kind of wine she most enjoys drinking. It paired very well with our homemade prosciutto and arugula pizza (the sauce was made with tomatoes from Sue’s garden).
The Avignonesi brand is famous, of course, but the wine is about the land and I think this elevates the brand rather than competing with it.
Vermentino and Not Vermentino
Tenuta Argenteria is a well-known producer in the Bolgheri region, best known for Bordeaux-blend red wines. They produce a white wine called Scenario, which is both a Vermentino and not a Vermentino.
How is this possible? Is it another “American wine” naming trick? No, the answer is that Scenario is made from 100% Vermentino grapes and if you put that on the label, then customers naturally define it in those terms (grape varieties are a sort of brand in this regard) and set expectations accordingly. They will evaluate the wine from the perspective of their Vermentino experience.
Argentiera wants to have the land be the defining factor, so Scenario is identified only as Bolgheri Bianco DOC (no grape variety is listed). I don’t know about you, but we haven’t tasted a ton of Bolgheri Bianco wines, sowe had to take the wine on its own terms. Isn’t that refreshing?
How did it taste? Savory not fruity, with nice minerality. We usually drink white wines warmer than our friends do, but this one wanted a little more chill. Did it remind us of Vermentino wines like the ones we discovered in Sardinia a few years ago? No, not really. But why should it? After all, only the grape variety is the same. Land, climate, people — all different. Do the red Bolgheri wines, blends of Bordeaux varieties, taste like Napa Cab?
What is American Wine?
An interesting example is the current debate about American appellation wines. This very broad designation was created to allow the blending of wines from different geographical designations. Some wines from New Mexico, for example, carry the American appellation for the very good reason that they include grapes from California and Washington State. Not really New Mexico, but not allowed to use California or Washington designations, either, because they are made outside those states. American wine? OK.
The VARA Zero Dosage American sparkling wine, for example, is made in New Mexico with Chardonnay grapes from Lodi and Arroyo Secco AVAs in California. It’s a fine wine and good value.
Now, however, we learn that the American appellation rules permit wineries to include imported wine in the blend. So they are “American” but not entirely American either. It is an obvious cost-saving and margin-protecting strategy because the world is awash in inexpensive bulk wine.
The California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) is working to try to correct this situation. It is obviously in the interest of CAWG members to keep imported grapes and bulk wine out of “American” wine boxes and bottles (just as it is in the interest of big producers to keep the rules as they are). But there are more than competing interests at stake. It is hard to take wine regulations seriously if “American” means “not necessarily” or “not entirely” American. If that’s the case, why have an American appellation at all?
Five Buck Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon?
Eventually, however, Rex Hill was acquired by A to Z Winery when it found itself in sudden need of production facilities. And then A to Z (and Rex Hill) joined Erath Winery as part of Ste Michelle Wine Estates and its Sycamore Partners, which acquired SMWE in 2021. Sycamore Partners sold the Washington assets of SMWE in 2025, but retains the trio of Oregon wineries.
The folks at 
Canadian Boycott Bites
Sicily is part of Italy (it is Italy’s largest region), but Sicilians aren’t Italians. They are Sicilians. You can ask anyone and you’ll get the same answer. The history and culture are different. Even the language is different. Sicilian isn’t an Italian dialect; it is a different language. And the wines are different, too. There are commonalities, to be sure, but the differences are impossible to ignore.
Marsala seems to be used in cooking these days more than as a beverage. I have never understood what the fuss was about back in the day. Maybe we’ve only tasted industrial Marsala? This was a chance to find out.
We discovered a wine called Cerasuolo di Abruzzo when we visited that region a few years ago and loved it right away. I guess we assumed that Sicily’s Cerasuolo di Vittoria (from the Vittori region in the south of the island) would be a crisp pink wine like its Abruzzo namesake. Wrong. It is a deep red wine with great acidity made by a blend of Nero d’Avola, Sicily’s most-planted red grape, and Frappato. Completely different, but we fell in love with it after tasting a sample from the COS Winery.
Sue and I have just returned from a trip to Sicily. We went as tourists — Sicily is one of the few regions of Italy we haven’t visited until now — but you can be sure that wine was always on our minds.
Breganze and Bibbona. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. These are not necessarily the first things that come to mind when you think about wines from Italy. But, to paraphrase Walt Whitman, Italian wine is large; it contains multitudes. Embrace stereotypes at your peril.
What types of wine do you think of when you think of Tuscany and the Veneto? Sangiovese-based wines are the Tuscan stereotype and you might imagine Amarone, for example, if you think of Veneto red wines. It would seem that, if you want to honor local terroir, you would necessarily reach for those well-known grape varieties.
Value and affordability are hot-button terms in today’s economy. It seems like the cost of just about everything is going up, including especially the price of gasoline. No wonder consumers are looking for relief, searching for value.
Recently Sue and I have been introduced to the wines of 
To find out we gathered a chimera sort of tasting group. Zari and Greg are experienced wine enthusiasts whom we have worked with before, but their experience with Chinese wines was limited to a few disappointing glasses during a visit to Beijing a few years ago.
Recently, Sue and I had a virtual meet-up with a group of winemakers who want to raise New Jersey’s profile on the U.S. wine industry scene and are working together to make that goal happen. Winemakers tend to be very competitive, so finding a group of them who want to play the team game is noteworthy.
A small group of these wineries formed the 
I am always excited to receive the annual “Review of the Industry” issue of