Small is Beautiful: Bulichella’s Distinctive Tuscan Coast Wines

This is not an easy time to be an Italian winemaker. There is climate change to deal with, of course, and the global fall in wine (and alcohol in general) consumption. Add to this the dramatic 28 percent decline in shipments of Italian wine to the U.S. market that has been reported recently by the Unione Italiana Vini. U.S. consumers love Italian wines, which is why they are the biggest import category, but the combination of tariffs, unfavorable exchange rate movements, and pre-tariff stock-building have taken their toll.

The headwinds are the same for all wine producers. Small wineries may lack economies of scale and scope, but small can be beautiful in a crisis. A small winery doesn’t have to push vast numbers of bottles and cases through the distribution pipeline to balance its books. They need the right customers to find them in just the right number to balance the books. It’s a problem and the current economic environment doesn’t help, but it is a human-scale problem.

Italian by Design

This is one of the lessons we have taken away from our recent discovery of Bulichella, a wine estate in Suvereto on the Tuscan coast between Grosseto and Livorno. The Suvereto appellation may not be large or famous like many others in Tuscany, but it boasts DOCG status, so its quality is recognized.

Sue and I were surprised to be invited to a Zoom tasting of Bulichella wines with the winemaker Nico Miyakawa because this didn’t seem the moment to take Italian wines to the U.S. market. But I guess we were thinking big wine. So we listened, sipped, and learned.

Bulichella is a project that Hideyuki Miyakawa began in 1983, first in partnership with friends and eventually as a family project of his own. Miyakawa is Japanese by birth and, I guess you could say, Italian by nature. He was a cofounder of ItalDesign, the famous automotive design practice. ItalDesign achievements include cars for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, DeLorean, Volkswagen, Maserati, Lotus, BMW, and Audi. The designs, both limited-output and mass-market, have helped define the modern auto era.

The Labels Tell a Story

So it is not entirely surprising that Miyakawa brought a certain style to Bulichella (named for the locality within the Suvereto appellation), which continues today with his grandson Nico Miyakawa. Sue and I found ourselves attracted to two very different ideas of design when we sat down to try the wines.

The labels, which were created by members of the Miyakawa family, are very personal and can almost be read like parables. The label of the Coldipietrerosse — a Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot blend — shows the winery, organic farm and vineyards, the sea, and the island of Elba in the background. All the pieces seem to fit together naturally, without tension or conflict.

The label for Rubino, a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot, and Cabernet, shows a family of wild boar in the vineyard. Are they the Miyakawa family? That’s my guess, especially when I look at the label for Tuscanio, a 100 percent Vermentino wine. Two generations of wild boar look down on the vineyards and territory. What are they thinking? What should we think?

The thing that is hardest to make out on the Bulichella labels shown here is the name of the winery! Bulichella, Suvereto, Tuscany is printed in teeny tiny type. The story is the brand, not the winery name. An interesting design choice, don’t you think?

Designed by Nature

So there seems to have been much thought given to how nature and family fit together at Bulichella. Would this design influence the wines themselves? The only way to answer the question was to pull corks.

We started with Rubino. At about 15,000 bottles per year, it is the winery’s flagship and largest production wine. The wine was fresh, elegant, and restrained. The heavy hand of a winemaker was nowhere to be found. The finished wine didn’t really taste like its components (we would not have guessed Sangiovese), so what did it taste like? The place? The terroir? Hard to tell, since we’ve never been there.

Tuscanio, the Vermentino wine, confirmed our suspicions. It was different from any Vermentino we have ever tried. Nothing like Sardinia. Could we sense the rocks and the sea that define Bulichella’s domain? Yes, that’s how it seemed to us. And the wine didn’t just hold up as time passed, but it seemed to become more and more like itself.

This prepared us pretty well for the limited production Coldipietrerosso, which is named for the hill with the red rocks that you see on the labels. Seamless, elegant, refined. Not quite like anything else.

Small is Beautiful

Before you ask, you won’t find these wines in the United States. Not yet, at any rate. Nico and company are looking for the right distributor partners to bring their wines to America. They don’t need a big mass-market pipeline because they couldn’t possibly fill it. And the wines are so particular to place that they are best seen as hand-sells.

So the tariffs and the falling dollar are problems, but not the most important challenge. Find the right people to drink the wines, to distribute the wines, to import the wines. That’s the human-scale problem these wines were designed for. Small really is beautiful sometimes, don’t you think?

Uncorking the Hidden Diversity of the Sparkling Wine Category

October 28, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Chile, wine, wine markets 3 Comments

The sparkling wine category has been one of the wine market’s winners of the last 20 years. Although sparkling wine sales are struggling right now along with the rest of the wine market, bubbles are much more of a thing than they were in years past.

Much of this success is driven by Italy’s Prosecco, which in many ways redefined sparkling wine. If you think of bubbles as French and expensive, saved for ritual consumption at serious celebrations, then Prosecco is a revelation. Bubbles can be fun and suitable for all occasions, both serious and frivolous. Hard to resist!

More to Sparkling Wine

But there is much more to sparkling wine than the European Big Three: Champagne, Prosecco, and Cava. There are dozens of other sparkling wines in France, Italy, and Spain and around the world. Sparkling wine production is diverse both geographically and in terms of wine grape varieties used and methods employed.

It is a shame, really, that all these very different sparkling wines from so many places tend to be lumped all together in the “sparkling wine” section of the wine wall. They all look pretty much the same as you stare at them. What’s the difference? A lot! It’s time to uncork the diversity of sparkling wine today and appreciate what an opportunity it is to explore the world of bubbles.

Here are a few examples of sparkling wines that we have enjoyed. What ties them together? Bubbles, of course, but they were all also both delicious and surprising. Feel free to use the comments section below to tell us about your own recent discoveries.

Enchanting New Mexico

Most people don’t think of New Mexico when they think about wine, so they are surprised to learn that the state has a small but active wine industry and positively shocked to learn that wine was first produced in 1629, nearly 400 years ago.

New Mexico is especially know for sparkling wine because of the Gruet Winery, which was founded in 1984 by members of the Gruet family, producers of sparkling wine in a place called Champagne (you might have heard of it!).

Sue and I were recently introduced to wines from the Vara Winery & Distillery in Albuquerque. Our first taste was the Vara New Mexico Sparkling Brut 2023, which was made by winemaker Laurent Gruet using the traditional method and a unique blend of grapes: 72% Chenin Blanc 18% Listan Prieto 10% Pinot Meunier. Listan Prieto? It is a very old Iberian grape variety that came to Mexico (and then New Mexico) early on. It goes by many names, but you might know it as the Mission grape. It is just my imagination, I know, but I think it gives the wine both flavor and a sense of history.

The wine was declicous and distinctive. Many of the Vara wines are made with grapes from California and Washington State because New Mexico just doesn’t grow enough grapes to meet the demands of local wineries.

Bubbles from Wine’s Birthplace

Sparkling wines from Georgia and Armenia? Probably not the first thing you think of. Georgia is better know for its traditional still qvervi wines and Armenia is better knows for its excellent brandy. But the sparkling wines are there and worth seeking out.

We’ve recently sampled Pet-Nat sparkling wines from Georgia’s Mtsvane Estate. The sparkling Saperavi was stunningly beautiful and delicious. It is joined by a Pet-Nat blend of 70% Chinuri and 30% Goruli Mtsvane.

Meanwhile Armenia’s wine industry is returning to its roots, as has been documented recently in the film SOMM: Cup of Salvation. We have been serving Keush sparkling wines made with indigenous grapes including Areni and Voskehat to our surprised and delighted friends.

Shiraz and Grenache?

We are always interested in trying sparkling wines made with unexpected grape varieties. There was a memorable sparkling Riesling at our very first Open That Bottle Night dinner, for example. And a visit to Rockford winery in the Barossa Valley gave us an opportunity to try a sparkling Shiraz so good it has achieved cult status among wine lovers Down Under.

The latest addition to our growing list is a Cava Brut Rosé from Dibon made from Garnacha grapes. Garnacha (a.k.a. Grenache) is such a versatile wine grape, so it is great to taste a sparkling version.

Southern Comfort

Have you tried many sparkling wines from Southern Hemisphere producers? There are lots of sparkling wines produced south of the equator, but you might have not find them on your local store shelves.

The French have clearly known about the Southern Hemisphere’s potential for a long time. Chandon Argentina was founded in 1956 and Chandon Australia was established in the Yarra Valley in 1986. The wines are made in the same way using the pretty much the same grape varieties that Chandon uses in France, California, and China, but have their own personality.

Cool climate Tasmania is a natural fit for sparkling wine production and a wine we sampled a couple of years ago from House Arras was one of the most distinctive and delicous sparkling wines we have had in a long time.

Chile has such a tremendous range of terroirs that it makes sense that it would produce sparkling wine, too, but I don’t remember drinking one … until now! We recently received a traditional method Carmen Brut Nature from the Limari Valley. Very excited to pop the cork.

I’ll finish this intentionally incomplete survey with Brazil. Most people don’t associate Brazil with wine, much less sparkling wine, but that’s a mistake. Brazil attracted immigrants from many wine-producing countries (Portugal, Italy, Germany, and more) and they brought both a love of wine and the ability to make it with them when they arrived.

The second Brazilian wine we ever tried was a Prosecco-style sparkling wine made by the Aurora winery, Brazil’s largest wine cooperative. It was as refreshing as it was surprising. (The first Brazilian wine was a Marcus James Zinfandel, which was for several years a a popular brand of wines sourced from Brazil.)

If you are interested in trying a Brazilian sparkling wine, look for a brand called Bom Dia (that’s good day in Portuguese). Bom Dia Brazilian Bubbles are canned sparkling wines and, although they have only been on the market since 2024, they are already getting attention. The brand has been nominated for Wine Enthusiast’s Innovator of the Year award.

>><<<

I have only scratched the surface of the world of sparkling wine. Looking for a project for the holiday season? See how many different and interesting sparkling wines you can find and pull some corks. You won’t regret it.

Designer Wine Glasses (and their Discontents)

October 21, 2025 By Mike Veseth in wine 5 Comments

Today’s Wine Economist column is inspired by sample wine glasses we received from the folks at Glasvin. Glasvin makes all sorts of hand-blown glassware, but the particular products they sent us were designed by Raj Parr, the famous sommelier, author, and winemaker. Our experience with these wine glasses has made us think a bit about what we want in and what we think about wine glasses generally. Here’s the story.

One Glass to Rule Them All?

The Raj glass was designed to be the one glass you need for wine. There are several universal glass designs on the market, some of them created by wine celebrities. We tried the glass when it arrived a couple of years ago and had mixed emotions about it. It was light and delicate, a thing of beauty: largish bowl, shortish stem, sort of like a tall snifter. Click here to see a video about the Raj glass.

Here’s what Glasvin said about the design:

- Designed to taste and drink all wines – young and old, sparkling, white, pink, red and orange – objectively and expressively.
- Designed to have a wide, snifter-like bowl that tapers to a narrow rim, for the purest expression of the vine.
- The unique shape brings a wine’s aromas and texture into focus as they travel through the bowl.
- The narrow rim drops the wine perfectly on the tip of the tongue. With a shorter stem (1.5”) and lower center of gravity, the RAJ Glass will stay upright, so you can move around the cellar, your kitchen while cooking, or get comfortable at home.

Interesting for wine tasting, we decided, but not what we wanted from wine drinking because it seemed to draw our attention more to the glass than the wine. And the short stem wasn’t always easy for us to grasp. We set them aside in the glass cabinet and have rarely used them. We liked the idea of these elegant glasses but, as the video explains, they just weren’t designed with us in mind.

A Daily Drinker?

Then earlier this summer we received a set of the new Parr glasses (shown below), which are part of the Glasvin GV Home collection. Still light and beautiful, these glasses are meant for daily use by a broader audience than the Raj glasses.

The Glasvin design literature had this description:

- Designed in collaboration with Raj Parr
- Part of the GV Home collection, Glasvin’s durable, elevated glassware line.
- A universal bowl that highlights aroma, texture, and balance
- Slightly thicker glass for increased durability
- Handblown, lead-free, dishwasher safe

The Raj and Parr glasses are much alike to the casual observer, with largish bowl and narrow rim to concentrate aromas, but the Parr’s stem is a bit longer, which makes it easier to pick up and hold. Sue and I enjoyed using these, but still felt like they somehow drew our attention away from the wines as much as they enhanced them. They come out of the cabinet occasionally these days (mainly for white wines for some reason), but they haven’t become our daily drinkers.

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum

Is the problem the glasses? Or is it us? To try to find out the answer to this question we invited two seasoned Wine Economist research assistants to lunch and had them try out the glasses throughout the meal. Their reaction was completely different. They loved the jewel-like qualities of the light glasses and thought they enjoyed the wine experience.

I found an informative video on the Glasvin website where Raj Parr explains exactly what he wanted to create with the Parr glass. You can view it here along with more information about the glass series. You and I might not be looking for the same things in a wine glass as Raj Parr, but no doubt it is useful to have someone so focused and passionate doing this work.

I guess wine glasses, like many things in the wine space, are a matter of taste and we should welcome a diversity of options. To each his (or her) own! Sue and I seem to use different types of glasses in different situations. Sometimes we break out the INAO tasting glasses, for example, and sometimes (pizza night!) we use simple juice glasses to drink our Costco-sourced Portuguese Red Blend wine.

Barriers to Entry

A problem with wine glasses, however, is that sometimes they can be one more barrier to entry for new consumers. Wine already has many disadvantages for anyone starting out. It usually comes in inconveniently large packaging that often requires special equipment (corkscrew) to access. There is a lot of waste (cork, capsule, bottle) that isn’t always easy to recycle. You are supposed to drink it at certain temperatures with certain foods.

And then there are the glasses. You need specialized glasses that you hold in a certain way and taste in a prescribed pattern. Yes, I know that it is all part of the mystery and romance of wine and I actually love the rituals as much as anyone. But I don’t blame the young person we met recently who, when faced with all these complications, just turned and walked away.

So two cheers for designer wine glasses like the Raj and the Parr that elevate the wine experience for the enthusiasts who like them. In fact, we seem to have added the Parr glasses to our regular rotation for white wines and Sue commented a couple of days ago that they were kind of growing on her.

But give a cheer, too, for rustic juice glasses (and other simple drinking vessels) that give pleasure to many and might present one less barrier to wine newbies.

Wine Industry Uncertainty 2025 Update

October 14, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Economic impact, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

Nine months ago today, The Wine Economist published its annual column that, inspired by the upcoming Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, looks ahead to the future. The theme was sort of anti-climactic at the time, but it seems pretty much on the mark at this point: the future of wine is always uncertain, but 2025 is special. There are more unknowns and even unknown unknowns than ever before.

Frozen by Doubt

That’s a problem because fear, uncertainty, and doubt tend to freeze businesses in their tracks. It’s hard to know what to do, so the tendency is to wait until the smoke clears. The air is still far from clear both for the wine market generally (see this recent Wine Economist report) and for key international variables.

Many predicted that the dramatic increase in tariffs would lead to higher retail prices and this has happened to a certain extent. However, many firms have delayed raising prices until they know for sure what the tariff rates will be and which products and countries will be exempt. U.S. tariff policy has changed course several times and there is no assurance that the tariffs in place on the day you sign a contract will be the same ones in force when the shipment arrives and payment is due.

The Pasta War?

There was a surge in wine imports prior to tariffs coming into force. Now it seems to be wait and see because the situation could change yet again. Just last week, for example, we learned about the 107% “pasta war” tariffs that the U.S. threatens to impose on Barilla and some other Italian pasta makers. Thirteen Italian producers are accused of “dumping” pasta in the U.S. market and will be subject to a 92% pasta tariff on top of the existing 15% “reciprocol” tariff. The Financial Times reports that the import taxes will go into effect in January, so you might want to stock up.

Wine. Pasta. What next? I have no idea.

November is an important month in this regard because that’s when the Supreme Court hears arguments on whether the tariffs that apply to wine were legally imposed. Sectoral tariffs (steel, aluminum) may be legal, but general tariffs such as those that apply to wine may have been incorrectly applied, with unclear consequences. For what it is worth, the Economist newspaper’s AI-powered SCOTUSbot predicts that the broad tariffs (including wine) will stick.

In the meantime retaliation against U.S. products in foreign markets continues. The loss of much of the Canadian market for U.S. wine is especially damaging as Canada was the #1 export market. Wine’s problems mirror in a small way the situation of much of U.S. agriculture, which is heavily focused on exports. There is talk of $10 billion in federal aid to farmers to offset some of the negative effects, but I don’t know if any of this is earmarked for winegrape producers.

Dollar Dilemma

Uncertainty permeates other economic variables. The dollar has fallen this year, for example, when many thought it would rise. The logic (see below) was that tariffs would increase inflation and force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. The inflation has been less than expected so far, but the economy seems to be weakening. The Fed is now lowering interest rates, accepting the risk of higher inflation in order to reduce the chances of slower or negative growth.

Inflation or unemployment? That’s a lot to worry about. But there’s more. But what will happen in the future if, as the Treasury Secretary has suggested, the U.S. does “whatever it takes” to support Argentina’s economy and its tenuous debt situation? I don’t have an answer to that question. More uncertainty!

The list of uncertain factors goes on and on. Here’s the original article from earlier this year.

>>><<<

2025: Wine & the Age of Uncertainty

The Wine Economist / January 14, 2025

The Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, North America’s largest wine industry meeting and trade show, is only a few weeks away. I will be in Sacramento to moderate the State of the Industry session, which features an impressive lineup of wine industry experts:

Jeff Bitter, Allied Grape Growers
Glenn Proctor, The Ciatti Company
Stephen Rannekleiv, Rabobank
Danny Brager, Brager Beverage Alcohol Consulting

The panelists have decades of experience in the wine industry, which informs their analysis of current problems and future prospects. It is a tremendous opportunity to hear what the experts are thinking now and to talk about it with the other attendees.

There are many other sessions at the Unified covering all sorts of topics in winegrowing, winemaking, marketing, and business operations. I am particularly interested in the Thursday general session on Crafting a Positive Narrative: Promoting Wine in the Face of Challenges, which will be moderated by New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov. One of the biggest challenges, of course, is the rising anti-alcohol movement. Telling wine’s positive story is as difficult as it is important in the current environment.

There is something for everyone at the Unified (click here to view the complete program and click here to read the speaker bios). Sue especially appreciates the big trade show where more than 900 exhibitors will highlight what’s new in the wine industry from the biggest machines, smartest technology, and best products and services from vineyard to cellar to bottling line all the way to market.

Always the Age of Uncertainty?

I always start the State of the Industry session with a few remarks to set the stage and this year I have chosen a theme, the Age of Uncertainty. This is a time of great change in the wine industry and change makes people nervous.

Age of Uncertainty? I know what you are thinking. It is always the Age of Uncertainty in the wine business. Growing grapes is risky, making wine is risky, and selling wine is risky. There is no part of the wine business that does not have an uncertain component. Wine is a global business, too, and while global markets create opportunities they also introduce additional layers of risk.

I specialize in international and global wine markets, so I am especially concerned with how international economic policies add more layers of uncertainty to wine business today. We have been told to expect high tariffs (on wine and just about everything else) in 2025. Depending upon how they are structured, and how our trading partners react to them, tariffs can have a number of direct and indirect effects. There’s a lot at stake and the final outcome is difficult to predict.

Indeed, the International Monetary Fund recently identified the threat of tariffs as a major global economic concern. The possibility of tariffs has driven up long-term borrowing costs around the world, according to the IMF, which will release its new report on the global economy later this week.

And this week’s Economist newspaper highlights uncertainty about tariffs and other policies as a main cause of global instability.

It is easy to see why uncertainty has spread. Will Donald Trump deport millions of people? Nobody knows. But if he succeeds inflation could jump as employers lose workers. The story is similar for tariffs, which would also increase prices. At the same time, potential Chinese counter-measures in a trade war, such as a devaluation of the yuan, could prompt a global deflationary shock.

The rising perceived risk, according to the Economist, helps explain falling bond prices, rising mortgage interest rates, and many other current trends. They say that what you don’t know won’t hurt you, but uncertainty clearly has a cost.

Not by Wine Alone

I know many people who think a tariff on imported wine would benefit American growers and producers and others who strongly oppose the idea. But it is important to remember that we aren’t talking about tariffs just on wine. Although it is hard to know right now (that uncertainty thing), it looks like the new administration will impose tariffs on most imported products from many or most of our trading partners, with the highest tax rates on China, Mexico, and Canada, the countries with whom we trade the most.

Border taxes on such a long list of imports have different effects than a tax on a specific product category like wine. That’s part of the uncertainty problem. U.S. producers may gain from protection from imports but lose from higher costs for imported supplies, equipment, and technology. Labor costs, interest costs, and insurance costs would all likely be pushed higher by rising inflation.

And U.S. tariffs aren’t the end of the story. How will other countries react? Will European nations retaliate with tariffs on U.S. wine? Probably not. I think they’d focus on spirits, not wine. Would Canada target U.S. wine? Yes, I think they might and that’s a problem because Canada is a good market for U.S. wine exports.

The Dollar Also Rises

President Trump favors a falling dollar value on foreign exchange markets because that would reinforce his trade policy by discouraging imports and promoting exports. But tariffs tend to push the dollar higher as we have seen since the election results were announced. The dollar’s value rises when it sounds like tariffs will be used as a blunt weapon to keep out imports. The dollar falls, however, when the rhetoric suggests tariffs as targeted strategic tools to gain specific concessions. Which way will tariff policy lean in 2025? I don’t know, do you?

How are tariffs and the dollar related? Here’s one way. Tariffs tend to increase inflation, which forces the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher than they otherwise would be. This attracts foreign capital that boosts the dollar’s value, making imports cheaper in dollar terms and U.S. exports less competitive abroad.

Immigrant policies are the third element of the Age of Uncertainty for wine in my analysis. It is too soon to know how border controls and deportations might affect labor both generally and in industries such as agriculture and construction that are most exposed. So wine’s Age of Uncertainty is a complicated matter. What’s the bottom line? I’m saving that for the State of the Industry session.

Galbraith’s Uncertainty Principle

Why did I choose this theme for my remarks? The idea was inspired by an old book that strikes me as still relevant today. The Age of Uncertainty is the title of a 1977 BBC/KCTS television series and an accompanying book by the distinguished Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith. The book and videos, which survey two hundred years of economic history and the history of economics, were timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

People tend to remember Galbraith as the sophisticated author, public intellectual, and Harvard professor that he became, but his personal story is more complicated. He grew up on his family’s small Ontario farm and seemed set for a farming career, graduating from Ontario Agricultural College in 1931. But the 1930s were not the best of times for farming and Galbraith soon found himself doing PhD studies in agricultural economics at the University of California and then working for the U.S. federal government’s Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA) trying to prop up farm prices.

I don’t think that wine is mentioned even once in Galbraith’s book, but his agricultural background and experiences are easy to trace. The world has changed a lot in the almost 50 years since The Age of Uncertainty first appeared (and nearly 250 years since Wealth of Nations), but American winegrowers and agriculture generally can certainly relate to Galbraith’s story and the concerns he expressed in this book.

Three Cheers for Saperavi and Georgia’s Wine Market Miracle

October 7, 2025 By Mike Veseth in emerging wine regions, wine, wine markets 5 Comments

This column is inspired by a recent birthday celebration dinner that featured three very different Saperavi wines from Georgia.

>>><<<

Mariam invited us to a dinner celebrating her husband Todd’s birthday and we accepted with enthusiasm, offering to bring some Georgian wines with us. Mariam is originally from Georgia, so her dinners often feature dishes you’d find at a Georgian supra feast. Sue and I were happy to share Georgian wines, but we had a selfish hidden motive. We wanted to see what our fellow guests would think about the wines.

The guest list was diverse in terms of wine experience. Mariam and Todd knew Georgian wines very well, of course. Several guests were knowledgable wine enthusiasts, but had never tasted Georgian wines. Saperavi? Is that a grape or a region or a brand? And the rest were novices, intrigued by the opportunity, and willing to try something new.

Three Faces of Saperavi

Sue and I brought three Georgian wines we had received as samples. The sparkling Mtsvane Estate Pet Nat Saperavi Rosé was beautiful in the glass and delicious on the palate, with nice acidity and great balance. Everyone enjoyed this wine, but Todd’s reaction was the most memorable. One taste and he knew where he’d had that wine before. At their wedding in Georgia. It was not just a special wine but also a memory of a special day. And, of course, it was a completely different idea of Saperavi. A great beginning.

The other two wines we brought to the party were alike (both were Saperavi wines), but also different. We wondered what our friends would think of them. One, the Dugladze Saperavi Qvevri, was made in the traditional Georgian way, fermented and agerd in qvevri clay vessels buried in the ground with only the lip of the vessel in view. This is a very old way of making wine which has been rediscovered and put into use around the world in different forms.

The final wine, a Schuchmann Saperavi, is a modern take on Georgian wine, fermented and aged in stainless steel to preserve aromas and fruit. Sue and I visited the Schuchmann winery when we were in Georgia for a wine tourism conference several years ago. We were confident that this wine would please the guests. But how would it compare to the other wines?

Of course the wines paired well with Mariam’s Georgian-style feast. What was surprising was the reaction to the wines. As Sue noted the next day, everyone embraced the wines and enjoyed them (which doesn’t always happen with unfamiliar wines or even familiar ones), but in different ways. One novice was fascinated by the Dugladze and Schuchmann wines because they were the same but also so different. She tasted them again and again.

Sue appreciated the qvevri wines, but was drawn to the clean stainless steel Saperavi best. What nice fruit and balance! Who wouldn’t enjoy this wine? I was drawn to the qvevri wine as often happened when we were in Georgia. I find a certain energy in some of these wines that really appeals to me.

Georgia’s Wine Market Miracle

Conclusions? The sample size, both in terms of drinkers and wines, is too small to allow much generalization, but it is hard not to be impressed with these wines and Georgia’s progress.

Saperavi may be Georgia’s best known wine grape variety, but it is certainly not the only one or even, depending upon whom you ask, the best. Saperavi is to Georgia what Malbec is to Argentina, the relatively easy-to-pronounce signature grape variety that is both an advantage in breaking into new markets and a liability because it can over-shadow other options like a delicious semi-sweet red Kartuli Marani Kindzmarauli and a dry white Akido Kisi.

To Saperavi and Beyond

We had an opportunity to taste both these wines a week after the birthday party gathering. Todd’s brother missed the party because he was fishing in Ketchikan and we were invited back to share the Coho salmon he caught there. What a treat!

White wines are actually more popular in Georgia than red wines (and are gaining share on reds in the overall market here in the U.S.). And sweetish reds are a large market segment here, too, even if they don’t get a lot of publicity. Lots of potential for Georgian wines.

The Kisi was a perfect match for the Coho baked under a layer of caramelized sweet onions. The Kindzmarauli was juicy and grapey and paired nicely with everything, but was is “semi-sweet?” As we know from our Riesling tastings, sweetness is very subjective, but Sue says that this wine is so well-balanced that she’d call it off-dry, not semi-sweet. In any case it was a hit with both Mariam (it reminded her of her Georgian home) and Todd (it was the taste of the first wine he was served on his first trip to Georgia).

Random Walk in Tbilisi?

You are unlikely to stumble upon Georgian wines like these on a random walk through your upscale supermarket’s wine aisle, but imports of Georgian wine have been growing in recent years. I searched the inventory of my local Total Wine & More store, for example, and I was surprised to find 37 different Georgia wine SKUs. That is sort of a miracle when you think about it. Red, white, and qvevri amber. Dry and semi-sweet. Easy to pronounce Saperavi and more challenging grape variety, region, and style names, too.

How does Georgia compare to other “Cradle of Wine” countries in terms of their Total Wine footprint. Armenia, which has been making great strides recently, has only two wines on my local Total Wine shelf, both made with the Areni grape variety which is easy to pronounce and also makes delicious wines. I could not find any wines from Turkey, which also has a very long wine history.

Three cheers for Saperavi, Georgia, and its wine market miracle. And best wishes for success navigating the uncertain waters ahead.

>><<<

I mentioned Turkey in the article above for three reasons. First, because, of course, it shares a place in wine history with Georgia and Armenia. Second, because Sue and I have a little experience with Turkish wines and appreciate their potential in the U.S. market. The third reason is that I have been reading a review copy of Mehtap Emmie Turan’s book Turkish Wine: Past, Present, and Future of Viticulture in Turkiye. The book examines the land, the grapes, and the wines as you would expect, but I especially appreciate the attention to history, culture, politics, and business challenges. It made me realize that, while Turkey and Georgia are different in very important ways, they also share certain challenges. Perhaps Georgia’s success will inspire the Turkish wine sector. Fingers crossed.

“Globalization versus Terroir” after 20 Years

September 23, 2025 By Mike Veseth in globalization, Shameless Self-Promotion, wine markets 3 Comments

“Globalization versus Terroir” is the title of my first published essay on wine economics. It appeared as a chapter in my 2005 book Globaloney: Unraveling the Myths of Globalization, which was the third in a four-volume series analyzing globalization and its discontents. (See list of books below.)

The wine world has changed a lot in 20 years and my thinking about the wine economy has changed, too, so I thought it would be interesting to re-read that first essay and see what I think about what I thought then. Here is a brief report.

Globalization versus Globaloney

The book Globaloney was conceived as a collection of case studies of how globalization was playing out in different industries. I had noticed that much of what we were told about globalization was based on a few vivid stories from specific industries, boldly generalized to global dimensions. So globalization is McDonaldization, for example, or Coca-Cola-ization. Globalization was almost always a bad thing and almost always centered in the United States.

I was suspicious that something as complicated as the global economy could be understood in such a simple way. And I knew from previous research that the search for counterexamples would be interesting. An earlier book, Selling Globalization, had argued against the prevailing wisdom that globalization was unstoppable. Global economics is built on global finance, I argued, and finance is fragile by nature. Critics doubted this conclusion until the Asian Financial Crisis and then the Global Financial Crisis. And then they didn’t doubt so much.

What’s really true about globalization? And what’s just “globaloney?” That’s what I was trying to figure out.

Globalization versus Terroir

I would like to say that everything I know about terroir I learned from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, which is almost true. It is probably hard to imagine Smith, an austere Scot, sniffing, swirling, and droning on about vineyards and microclimates, but he did develop both knowledge of and appreciation for fine wine in his mature years and recognized the importance of what we call terroir.

Significantly, because after all he was Adam Smith, he noted the economic value of terroir, real or imagined, in establishing a winery’s or a region’s reputation. There was money in terroir then as there is today.

How does globalization affect wine terroir? Is it a McDonaldization situation, where the incentive to expand globally leads to homogenized products? Does the global mean the death of the local when it comes to wine?

I argued that while wine is a global industry, there really are not many truly global wine firms or dominant regions. Even Gallo, the largest wine producer in the world, has only a tiny share of total output and sales. Most wine-producing countries drink mostly their own products (a significant home-court advantage), limiting global effects.

Up the Wine Ladder

The impact of globalization on terroir seemed to me to depend on which step of the wine ladder you consider. At the bottom, basic commodity wine, there isn’t much terroir to lose (because that’s not what consumers are looking for). But globalization has had a big positive impact in raising the standard of quality of these wines by spreading winemaking knowledge and techniques and forcing bad local wines to compete with better wines from other regions.

The situation might be different at the top of the wine staircase. Winner-take-all global markets have the power to push the price of the best wines to stratospheric levels that Adam Smith could not have predicted. Great terroir wines are traded or collected, but not necessarily opened and enjoyed. A shame!

I also cited the Parkerization argument, which was very popular when the book was written. The growing global market put more power in the hands (and palates) of famous critics like Robert Parker, providing a powerful incentive for upwardly mobile winemakers to make at least one high-scoring “Parker wine.” If the top wines are all trying to please one critic, then won’t they all start to taste the same? That’s an unexpected globalization consequence for sure.

What about the wines in the middle, the ones that are neither commodities nor investment-grade icons? That’s the interesting question! I thought that product differentiation would be the key here because undifferentiated wines would sink toward the commodity bottom. Successful differentiation would allow for higher prices and margins. Looking back at this part of the essay I can see indicators of the premiumization trend that would gather force only a few years later.

Land versus Brand

What’s the secret to differentiation? Here’s where I made a mistake. Because I framed the chapter as globalization versus terroir, I naturally look to an increased emphasis on terroir as the key. So I was very hopeful about how things would turn out.

But, of course, terroir isn’t the only strategy. I should have paid more attention to branding as a strategic response to premiumization forces in the middle market tiers. I just wasn’t thinking land versus brand at this point. But I got there eventually (with the help of many wine people), which led to The Wine Economist and the five wine business books, starting with Wine Wars.

><<<

Here are the books in my globalization series.

Globaloney2.0PBK.indd

Globaloney 2.0: The Crash of 2008 and the Future of Globalization (2010).

41ti9pfnxil-_ac_us218_

Globaloney: Unraveling the Myths of Globalization (2005).

51gpxtgvxyl-_ac_us218_

The New York Times Twentieth Century in Review: the Rise of the Global Economy (2002).

41bnj4ymx-l-_ac_us218_

Selling Globalization: The Myth of the Global Economy (1998).

How Will We Know (When the Wine Market Finally Turns Around)?

September 16, 2025 By Mike Veseth in economic crisis, popular culture, Supply and Demand, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

If only wine were as simple as love.

How Can You Tell?

How can you tell if someone really loves you? The answer is simple, according to Betty Everett’s 1964 hit tune “The Shoop Shoop Song.”

Does he love me, I want to know
How can I tell if he loves me so
Is it in his eyes, oh no you’ll be deceived
Is it in his eyes, oh no you’ll make believe
If you want to know, if he loves you so
It’s in his kiss
That’s where it is, oh yeah

The truth about love is not reliably revealed by objective observable indicators such as hugs, smiles, or longing looks. It is too easy to fool yourself into thinking these mean more than they do. No, it is the subjective emotional response that matters. I’s in his kiss.

The message must resonate with a lot of people because the song has been covered by many artists, including Cher, Aretha Franklin, and Linda Ronstadt and the Muppets.

Love and Wine: Both Mysterious

The Shoop Shoop Song comes to mind because a friend writes that he is trying to figure out how he will know when the U.S. wine market finally turns up. Turning points, where momentum shifts decisively from one direction to another, are devilishly difficult to call in the economy in general and financial markets in particular. Making even a single correct turning point call can be enough to make a fortune or a career.

Everyone is hoping for a turning point in the wine business. Bad news has dominated the industry landscape for the last several years to such an extent that we’ve had to invent a few creative new categories of “good news” to justify hope. For a while the good news was that wine sales weren’t falling in all categories (hey, Sauvignon Blanc is still selling OK). But now even Sauvignon Blanc is struggling a bit, so that kind of good news is harder to swallow.

This is Good News?

Last year at this time the good news was that the bad news was getting worse at a slower rate. (You might want to read that again slowly.) Wine sales were falling but at just, say, five percent instead of seven percent. Slower decline isn’t the same as an increase, but maybe it’s a step in that direction. That was the hope.

Now the focus for many is on hitting the bottom in the hope that what follows will be a bounce (because markets often overshoot and then rebound when they change direction), a turning point. It will be difficult to know when that happens because of the complicated nature of the wine business.

The turning point, when it comes, is likely to be different for wines at different price points and from different countries. And it will be different depending upon where we take the market’s pulse: retail sales, wholesale inventories, producer shipments, bulk wine balance, winegrape demand and prices, or international trade flows. All of these indicators might never show a green light all at once. How will we know? And how can we avoid fooling ourselves as the Shoop Shoop Song warns?

Another Missed Turn!

Chances are that most of us will zoom right past the turning point without realizing what we’ve done. The only thing harder than spotting a turning point in real time is realizing when it has already happened. Here are a couple of charts from the OIV’s April 2025 global wine market report that show what I mean.

When did global wine consumption make the turn toward fewer bottles sold? Not many of us realized that’s what was happening during the global financial crisis, but here (above) are the OIV data. Since then we have had ups and downs (and regional variations, of course) that disguised a worldwide downward trend that only became obvious in the wake of the COVID pandemic. I didn’t call it at the time. Did you?

The global wine production graph above shows a situation that is even harder to forecast just because the dips are often followed by peaks, so it is always dangerous to forecast further decline. The current dip looks bigger than most of the others. Will the peak be bigger, too? If so, when will it show up?

That’s Where It Is!

Which brings us back to The Shoop Shoop Song because it applies a version of the Sherlock Holmes method to the question of love. Holmes advised to systematically eliminate all the logical possibilities and whatever is left, no matter how unlikely, must be the answer. It must be his kiss, the song explains, because nothing else is a sure-fire answer.

When it comes to calling the wine industry’s eventual turn, data won’t necessarily be the best guide (although I will sure be watching it closely). It may be that subjective, emotional factors (it’s in his kiss) will be the best we can do. Will we know when our feelings for wine are reciprocated? Fingers crossed we don’t have to wait too much longer to find out.

Trading Places in Rioja? White Wines Rising in Red Wine Regions

September 9, 2025 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 2 Comments

Will white wines replace red as the defining wine of the Rioja region? No, probably not. A recent Decanter tasting of more than 700 wines included only about 150 white wines. That’s many fewer than the red wines, of course, but probably more than you expected, given the dominant identity of Rioja wine.

Look for more and more white wines from Rioja as well as other areas where red wines have previously taken center stage. Here’s the story.

>>><<<

“Is White Wine the New Red?” That’s the question we asked here at the Wine Economist last fall. OIV data cited in that article suggested that white wine sales were overtaking red wine sales both globally and also in key markets. Why? micro-level data suggested that the global trend was playing out differently in different markets.

White Wine’s Rising Market Share

Recent U.S. wine market data (as reported in the current issue of Wine Business Monthly) suggests that a relative persistence in white wine’s momentum. Total U.S. wine sales (by value) declined 4.8 percent in the most recent 52 report weeks, for example, but white wine’s decline was just 2.5 percent versus a 6.4 percent fall for red wine and a 6.8 percent decline for pink wine.

The market pie has shrunk, but white’s share has increased by value. (Cold comfort for white wine producers, I know.)

Although Cabernet Sauvignon outsold Chardonnay by dollar value in the same reporting period because of its higher average price, Chardonnay’s 28.3 million case total sale was bigger that Cabernet Sauvignon’s 25.9 million, reversing a persistent trend. Overall white wine sold 72.9 million cases versus about 68 million for red.

Adjusting to the White Wine Trend

Sales data are backed up by anectdotal evidence from France (white wine now replacing rosé in supermarkets, which previously crowded out red wine sales) and even China, where white wine has long suffered from an overwhelming preference for red. Although people are buying less wine, more of what they do buy is white.

These trends have lots of implications. I suspect that many vineyard owners are thinking about grafting over their red wine vines to white wines, for example, and wineries are busy revising their product mix. Just makes sense. Sue and I know one winery that producing nothing but red wines for years, but now has a nice lineup of white wines, which sell out quickly.

At the regional level, the shift to white wines can conflict with existing signature wines or regional identities. Jancis Robinson, for example, recently asked if “Is it too late to save Sauternes?” More and more producers are switching from the lucious (but hard to sell) sweet wines to market-friendly dry blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

The White Also Rises in Rioja

Times are hard in Spain’s Rioja region, as The Independent recently reported, burdened with a surplus of wine even before the implemention of U.S. tariffs. Rioja makes both red and white wine, but red has for decades been the defining color of Rioja. That historic strength is a liability in today’s marklet environment.

So some Rioja producers are giving more attention to their white wines, which are undiscovered territory to many wine drinkers but well worth exploring. The most-planted white grape variety in Rioja (and in Spain generally) is Viura, also known as Macabeo. You might know Macabeo from its role in Cava, the famous Spanish sparkling wine. It makes fine still wines in Rioja and could be a reason for white wine lovers to revisit this region.

Indeed, Rioja’s Viura wines are having a moment. White Rioja can be young and fresh, aged and oppulent, and even fashionably orange. If your idea of Spanish white wine was Verdejo from Rueda or Albarino from Rias Baixas, maybe it is time to take a closer look.

Discovering Viura

It’s not your fault if you haven’t heard of Viura. I am not sure we tasted Viura even when we were in the Rioja region. Rueda white wines were more commonly served, as I recall.

The Rioja region has been so focused on its red wine identity that planting new white grape vines was forbidden between 1992 and 2003, except for Viura, which was banned until 2007! Much of the Viura made today comes from old pre-1992 vines.

We were fortunate to recveive two excellent examples of these white Rioja wines, both attractively priced in the $15 to $20 range. The CVNE Monopole Rioja Blanco Seco 2024 was fresh and flavorful, with some complexity developing as the wine warmed up in the glass. It wasn’t a copycat of anything else and went very well with Sue’s fresh cherry tomato and white bean ragu with fried haloumi cheese. Easy to enjoy and appreciate.

The Ontañón Viura 2021 was an example of the more oppulent style, showing the effect of lees contact and some time in American oak. A delicate balance of richness and freshness that showed the versatility of this type of wine. It was terrific paired with a salad of garden tomatoes and Dungeness crab. I wonder how Viura would respond to even more time on the lees? We are looking forward to finding out!

As noted before, I think these were our first Viura wines but I don’t think they will be our last. The movement to white wines in red wine regions like Rioja is both a defensive move in the light of changing market conditions and a creative opportunity for producers who embrace the challenge. Congratulations to the creative producers of Rioja Blanca wines like these.

The rise of white wines in regions best knows for their reds will no doubt creaste some problems for producers but also opportunities as seen in Rioja. Adventurous consumers will discover (or rediscover) the declicious white wines that have been hiding in plain sight all along.

The Wine & S’mores Challenge 2025

August 26, 2025 By Mike Veseth in The Next Big Thing, wine, wine research 5 Comments

Sue and I don’t really need an excuse to make s’mores. What could be better, especially on a warm summer evening, than Hershey’s milk chocolate and a toasted marshmallow wedged between crispy graham crackers? So when August 10 rolled around (National S’mores Day, but you probably already knew that), we were all set.

What Could Be Better?

What could be better than s’mores? Well, how about wine and s’mores? It is not a ridiculous idea and we are always on the lookout for unexploited wine-tasting occasions. So I asked my AI intern to scour the internet for wine and s’mores pairings and it turns out there are lots of interesting ideas.

Even better, my intern explained that there is more than one kind of s’mores. Yes, the Hershey’s milk chocolate bar is the classic, but you can make variations on the classic using other kinds of chocolate bars. The internet even suggested different wine pairings for different chocolate s’mores variants.

And so we established the Wine & S’mores Challenge 2025. Each night we would pit classic s’mores against a challenger made with chocolate bars from Alter Eco foods, which has been promoting National S’mores Day. We’d see if we liked the classic or the challenger better and try out wine pairings, too. A bit complicated (did anyone say “rabbit hole”?) but a lot of fun, too. Here are some preliminary results.

First Challenge: Inconclusive

Our first challenge test was a mixed success. We set the classic s’mores against a challenger made with Alter Eco Classic Blackout, which is 85 percent cacao (!). The internet suggested pairing this with an old vine Zinfandel. We chose the Husch Mendocino Old Vines Zin from the cellar.

The s’mores comparison was interesting. Milk vs dark chocolate was an interesting contrast. Sue preferred the classic Hershey’s, but was not mad at the Classic Blackout. But the wine pairing didn’t work. The Husch Zin was great with dinner, but got wiped out by the s’mores. Maybe that 85 percent dark chocolate was just too bitter? Or maybe the internet recommendation was based on one of those sweetish jammy supermarket Zinfandels. (The Husch Zin is dry and elegant). In any case, the result was interesting enough to justify further experimentation.

Second Challenge: Plausible Success

The second challenge was classic s’mores versus dark chocolate and raspberry paired with a Cabernet Franc. Interesting! Our challenger s’mores was made with Alter Eco Raspberry Creme (70 percent cacao chocolate). Our wine choice was a Paradise Springs Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, Cabernet Franc (a Virginia Governor’s Cup award-winning wine).

The Paradise Springs Cab Franc was a great choice for this. It was delicious with dinner and held up to the s’mores. I think it even enhanced the chocolate-raspberry s’mores. But, as Sue noted, the raspberry got lost a bit surrounded as it was by chocolate, marshmallow, etc. So this was not completely successful, but very interesting because the result was unexpected by us.

Freewheeling Experiments

We decided to break away from the internet’s s’mores pairing list and see if we could come up with something spontaneously. Here are the wines and chocolates we mixed and matched for our experiments. Which combinations do you think worked best? Which were doomed from the start?

Alter Eco chocolates: dark chocolate with burnt caramel, dark chocolate with brown butter, dark chocolate with creme brulee, dark chocolate raspberry, and classic blackout 85 percent.

The wines: Lions de Suduiraut Sauternes (a Costco purchase), Valdespino Contrabandista Amontillado sherry, Kopke Ruby Port.

We don’t have final results to report because there are so many permutations to test (don’t you just love homework like this?). We need to consider the original Hershey’s s’mores versus each challenger plus the various possible wine pairings. So we don’t have conclusions as much as tentative observations. Here is what we think so far.

The OG is the OG. Sue enjoyed the experiments and kept coming up with new pairings to try. But she never found anything she liked better than the OG original Hershey’s s’mores. A classic. That milk chocolate taste nicely balances the other ingredients. And Hershey’s squares melt a lot better than more “serious” chocolate, which is a plus.

Fun to Experiment. But it is really interesting to experiment. The brown butter and burnt caramel s’mores were delicious, for example, sort of like more intense versions of the original. The classic blackout s’mores was challenging, but memorable.

Sweet Meets Sweet. We liked the sweeter wines for pairing. The old rule of thumb in pairing is that the wine needs to be sweeter than the dessert for pairing. The Zinfandel we started with was overwhelmed by the sweetness of the marshmallow. The Cab Franc just about held its own. The Sauternes was a good match for the brown butter and burnt caramel s’mores, although Sue thought that the wine might have been better on its own or with a cheese course.

And the Winner Is … What’s the most popular wine pairing so far? I would have to say it was the OG Hershey’s s’mores and the Alter Eco Brown Butter s’mores paired with the Valdespino Amontillado. The sherry is so opulent and both goes with and stands up to the s’mores, which are sort of variations on a luscious theme. Great together, but each is excellent on its own, too.

Endless Possibilities. There is a lot more work to do on this project because the chocolates, s’mores combinations, and wine pairings are nearly endless. Many thanks to the people at Alter Eco for putting us on this interesting wine pairing path.

Rediscovering the Diversity of Tuscany’s Wines with San Felice

August 19, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine tourism 1 Comment

Sometimes it takes a special event to nudge you to take another look at a familiar winery or wine region. That’s what recently happened to us with the wines of Tuscany in general and San Felice in particular.

A Tuscan Wine Giro

Our old friend Peter and new friend Gina are newlyweds planning their first visit to Italy. They’ve booked a house near Montalcino for a week. Did we have any tips? Yes, of course, we love talking about Italy and Italian wine, so we met over Sunday lunch on the patio. Brianna, Peter’s daughter, also joined us.

We decided to feature San Felice wines because they have wineries in several Tuscan zones (San Felice in Chianti Classico, Belle’Aja in Bolgheri, and Campogiovanni in Montalcino) and so can represent the diversity of the region’s wines very well. As a bonus, the Campogiovanni winery would be easy for Peter and Gina to visit during their stay.

The lunch and wine pairings were great. We began with In Avane Chardonnay Toscano IGT just to show that even a familiar international grape variety can have a distinctive Tuscan twist. Then we moved on to the Bell’Aja Bolgheri Bianco, which is a white blend built around Vermentino, a grape variety our friends hadn’t tasted before. Although many people equate Tuscany with red wines, the white options are there and delicious.

The Red and the White

Red wines? It was time to compare and contrast two interestingly different styles: the Borgo Chianti Classico (a blend of Sangiovese and Pugnitello) and the Campogiovanni Brunello di Montalcino (Sangiovese all the way). The wines were very different and showed just how much there was to explore within the San Felice range and, by extension, within Tuscany, too.

The lunch was a success and we can’t wait for Peter and Gina to get back from their trip and tell us all about their new discoveries. In the meantime, Sue and I have rediscovered another of the San Felice wines. Our garden is producing eggplant and tomatoes right now, so our variation on pasta alla Norma was on the menu a few days after the lunch. The wine we picked was the San Felice Pugnitello Toscana IGT and it was a perfect match. Pugnitello is an ancient Tuscan grape variety that San Felice has worked hard to revive as a varietal wine and as part of the Chianti Classico mix. We really loved the depth and bright acidity of the single-varietal wine, which was perfect to cut through the richness of the pasta sauce.

You know, these San Felice wines are all really excellent, Sue noted as we were finishing the last of the Pugnitello. Delicious, distinctive, not a single false note. I’m glad we had an excuse to rediscover them and share them with special friends.

Generational Thinking at San Felice

The rediscovery of San Felice’s wine gave me an excuse to look more deeply into San Felice, the wine company. Like the famous Antinori winery, San Felice can trace its origins back hundreds of years. Unlike Antinori, however, it is not family-owned. For more than 50 years Società Agricola San Felice S.p.A. has been part of the Allianz Group, a multinational insurance and financial services company headquartered in Germany.

Many people (including me) agree with Piero Antinori that the wine business is well-suited to family ownership because long-term generational thinking has advantages over quarterly-statement thinking in the wine world. This is perhaps why a disproportionate number of winery firms, including many of the largest and most famous, are in family hands.

But family ownership is neither necessary nor sufficient for success in wine. Sue and I have visited many cooperatives, for example, that seem to think in terms of generations (the generations of their grower family members), some after suffering the disastrous consequences of short-term strategies.

And there are some financial firms, like Allianz, that have married the generation thinking of their businesses (products like pensions and life insurance, for example) to the generational requirements of the wine game. Allianz is not the only firm of its type in global wine. The financial giant AXA Millésimes, for example, owns chateaux in Bordeaux and wineries in Portugal, Hungary, and the United States. TIAA, the company that administers my university retirement fund, is one of the largest vineyard owners in Napa Valley. The long-term thinking required for pension investment is remarkably consistent with the generational thinking that is one key to success in wine.

Looking more deeply, I am impressed with how Allianz has invested in and developed San Felice both in terms of the vineyards and wines that impressed us so much, but also now the development of tourism and hospitality programs such as Borgo San Felice Resort.

Cheers to Peter and Gina. I hope they enjoyed their Tuscan adventure. I know they will enjoy the wines they discover there. Thanks for helping us rediscover the wines, too.