Wine, Adapting to Climate Change, & the Peter Parker Principle

January 14, 2020 By Mike Veseth in climate change, wine 5 Comments

before The Red Mountain AVA is Washington’s smallest, warmest, and maybe its most distinctive wine-growing region. The warm part has been advantage for most of Red Mountain’s history. But not any more, according to Gaye McNutt and Benjamin Smith, owners of Cadence Winery and the Cara Mia Vineyard.

Too Darn Hot

Climate change has had a variety of effects that condition Smith’s ability to make the elegant wines he prefers. Earlier harvest, potentially higher alcohol levels, sunburned fruit, tough tannins — none of these impacts is desirable. Working with vineyard manager Dick Boushey, McNutt and Smith considered many alternatives and found each potential solution problematic in one way or another.

Then they hit upon an insight — to transform the vineyard in the image above to the emerging vineyard you see below.

after

The result is the first vineyard in Washington State specifically designed to mitigate the effects of climate change by doubling the row density of the vineyard. First planted in 2004 at three feet between vines and eight feet between rows the vineyard is now spaced at four feet between rows.

This tighter spacing provides up to two hours additional morning and afternoon shading of adjacent rows thereby cooling the fruit, reducing the effects of high heat, and ultimately producing more elegant, lower alcohol wines even in hotter vintages.

All around the world winegrowers are facing up to the challenges that climate change presents and, because wine people are creative by nature, they are finding ways to adapt through innovative viticultural techniques. Cadence is a model of how this can be done.

The Cadence solution is not inexpensive, of course, but it promises to allow them to continue to make excellent wines and even has benefits as an opportunity to add additional clonal selections to the mix.

Peter Parker Principle

A 2000 case winery like Cadence is to be commended for setting an example of innovation to mitigate the effects of climate change. Larger wineries can do the same, but the Peter Parker Principle (familiar to all Spider-Man enthusiasts) holds them to a higher standard. With great power comes great responsibility.

Many large wineries have risen to the Peter Parker challenge. Familia Torres and Jackson Family Wines, for example, have taken the lead in forming a global wine alliance to fight climate change, the International Alliance for Climate Action. Adrian Bridge of Port producer Taylor Fladgate was instrumental in creating the Porto Protocol and the global conference on climate change and wine that Sue I and attended last year.

Many wineries embrace their social and environmental responsibilities by becoming benefit corporations (B Corps for short). Certified B Corps commit to a social and environmental responsibility agenda and agree to transparent assessment of their activities. Are you familiar with B Corps? A number of large businesses have taken this step including Patagonia Works, which has a B Impact Score of 151.2 on a scale of 0-200 (the minimum score for B Corps certification is 80 — an “ordinary” business might score about 50 points). The craft beer producer New Belgium Brewing is also a B Corp (B Impact score 136.5).

It is easy to be a B Corp skeptic because it seems so unlikely that a business really would elevate people and planet to the same level as profit in its priority list. And I am sure that some are more committed than others. But a number of my former university students have become practitioners of and advocates for the B Corp program and they have persuaded me to take it seriously (Steve, Russ, Portland, Douglas, and Colleen — I’m talking about you).

Many wineries are entering the B Corp economy. Oregon’s A to Z Wineworks became the first certified winery B Corp in 2014 and is now joined by a growing international community including Symington Family Estates in Portugal and Fetzer Vineyards in Calfiornia. Fetzer, with about 2.5 million case production, is the largest B Corp winery in the world.

The Symington Family’s sustainability program, Mission 2025, is especially ambitious and includes a recently announced €1 million Impact Fund. The primary use of the funds will be for community well-being and health, environmental protection and conservation and cultural heritage and education in the Duoro and Alto Alentejo regions where the company has vineyards.

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Mapping the Road at Fetzer

Fetzer has doubled-down on the Peter Parker Principle. Fetzer and its Bonterra brand have long been known as environmental stewards and activists. Chilean leader Concha y Toro’s 2011 acquisition has given Fetzer greater scale and even deeper commitment to corporate social responsibility.

Fetzer’s 2017-2018 “Peter Parker” report, Mapping the Road, makes good reading because the range of activities and commitments is very impressive. As the report says,

Fetzer Vineyards understands that transforming the future requires not just small, incremental steps toward sustainability, but rather an ambitious framework—like regenerative development—applied to every part of its business. With the knowledge that the road will not always be easy, Fetzer Vineyards is poised to continue taking bold steps toward its vision of a regenerative, net positive company, and to be part of the movement to redefine what responsible business is all about.

One thing that I admire is that Fetzer is willing to “own” its supply chain. Many environmentally ambitious firms limit their universe of concern to their own operations, which is both practical and understandable. But wine’s supply chain is long and complex and progress in the vineyard and cellar alone is commendable, but not enough. Major players like Fetzer need to take responsibility for the whole chain. It’s the Peter Parker thing to do.

And, increasingly, they are. Congratulations to Cadence, Symington, Fetzer, and others for their leadership.

Wine and the Dry January Syndrome

January 7, 2020 By Mike Veseth in alcohol, health, wine 4 Comments

It is easy to dismiss Dry January (going alcohol-free for the first month of the year) along with Veganuary as typical well-intended New Year resolutions on lists that might also include pledges to quit smoking, keep a daily diary, make better use of that gym membership, and spend less time fiddling with your phone.

Resolutions are an optimistic impulse. They signal that we think we still have the ability to improve, which is important. There is also an element of penance in some resolutions. Had too much food, drink, fun, etc. over the holidays (and maybe spent too much money, too). Time to settle up.

A Toast to Your Health?

But there is more to Dry January and similar impulses these days. Health has risen in the hierarchy of needs for a growing segment of the population especially, we are told, younger people, and reducing consumption of beverage alcohol (wine, beer, spirits) is part of that movement. Young people in many countries now start drinking later than previous generations and then choose to drink less once they begin.

Slavea Chankova, health-care correspondent for the Economist newspaper, recently identified the health-driven pivot away from alcohol consumption as one of the key trends for 2020 and beyond. Drinking is going out of style, she argues. She notes that …

Big alcohol companies can see the writing on the keg. They are expanding their low- and no-alcohol offerings of beer, wine and spirits. Innovation in such drinks is booming. Many are now indistinguishable in taste from the real thing. Nearly 50 of Heineken’s brands, for example, have an alcohol-free version. In most Western countries such alternatives are still a novelty, but sales are growing fast. In Germany and the Netherlands, both early adopters, they make up about 10% of beer sales.

It’s Complicated

baxter Wine’s relationship to health is complicated and can be confusing. It seems like there are new studies every week, often with contradictory conclusions. A new book, Wine and Health: making sense of the new science and what it means for wine lovers by Richard Baxter M.D. surveys and analyzes the scientific data and makes the case for moderate wine consumption as part of a healthy, happy life. It’s an interesting and useful book that I recommend highly.

If you accept the premise that wine can be part of a healthy life, there is still the question whether people actually behave this way. An article in the Economist newspaper’s October 19, 2019 edition argues that “Alcohol firms promote moderate drinking, but it would ruin them.” The article cites research based on a study (see reference below) of British consumers in 2013 and concludes that the beverage alcohol industry in Britain is heavily dependent on unhealthy behaviors by their customers.

Drink, Drank, Drunk?

The study found that 25% of the British population consume hazardous (average 24 drink units per week) or dangerous (average 73 units per week) levels of alcohol. Together they drink 78% of total alcohol and account for 68% of revenues. Moderate drinkers (average 4 units per week within a range of 1 to 14) are 59% of the adult population, but drink just 23% of alcohol and generate 32% of revenues. (Non drinkers make up 16% of the British population according to the report.)

If all alcohol drinkers consumed at healthy moderate levels, the study concludes, the demand for beverage alcohol would fall dramatically. The data reported by the Economist does not break out wine from beer and spirits. I could be wrong, but I doubt that wine is as dependent on binge drinking and excessive consumption as beer or spirits, at least in the U.S.

Studies of the U.S. wine market, however, show that consumption is similarly concentrated in a relatively small proportion of the population. These frequent wine drinkers (who consume wine several times a month or more) are key to wine market success.

No Wine = 56% in U.S.

Wine drinkers are a minority in the U.S. A 2014 Wine Market Council study found that 35% of U.S. adults drank no alcohol and another 21% consumed alcohol, but not wine. High-frequency wine drinkers made up just 15% of the adult population. An even smaller group — 30% of the 15% of high-frequency wine drinkers — accounted for 90% of spending on $20+ wine and 40% of all purchases of $10-$20 wine.

Dry January and related health concerns are something that the U.S. wine industry needs to take seriously since its consumer base is so relatively narrow. If the small group of high-frequency wine drinkers reduces consumption for reasons of health, it will make a difference.

Obviously the point is not to promote high levels of alcohol consumption like those found in the British study, but to encourage healthy consumption patterns of wine as an element of a sustainable lifestyle, much as Wine in Moderation has done is many countries. Health is important and wine needs to address the concerns.

This isn’t the answer to the problems facing wine today, but it might be part of a strategy to make wine more relevant and appealing to today’s evolving consumer base.

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Sources for the Economist article: “Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis” by D. Nutt et al., The Lancet; “How dependent is the alcohol industry on heavy drinking in England?” by A. Bhattacharya et al., Addiction; Centre for Responsive Politics; NHS.

2019 Wine Economist Top Ten

December 17, 2019 By Mike Veseth in Shameless Self-Promotion, wine 2 Comments

251626 This is the time of the year to look back on 2019 and ahead to 2020. Here at Wine Economist world headquarters our contribution to the first part of this exercise involves probing the data provided by WordPress, our internet host, and seeing which weekly columns got the most attention. It’s one way to gauge what’s on readers’ minds.

The most-viewed column by far this year was Outlaw Wine? 19 Crimes Succeeds by Breaking All the Wine Marketing Rules, which first appeared in 2018. 19 Crimes is a phenomenon and, as I wrote in the column, it breaks convention in many ways and perhaps because of that it appeals to a wine market demographic that is otherwise hard to reach. Are there lessons to be learned from the 19 Crimes success story? Obviously a lot of people want to find out.

The Top Ten list is drawn from columns first published in 2019. Here they are from #1 to #10. Take a look at the titles. Do you think they have anything in common (my answer follows)?

1. Six Things to Do With Surplus Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes

2. Global Rosé Market Q&A.

3. Two Cheers for Canned Wine

4. Anatomy of the Rising Import Threat to U.S. Wine

5. Global Wine Market: Storm Clouds Gathering?

6. The Beginning of the End of the Old World Appellation System?

7. Is Sustainable Winegrowing Sustainable?

8. Which Wine? Navigating the Retail Wine Wall’s Fluid Map

9. What’s Really in your Glass? Transparency, Accountability & Wine

10. Global Wine’s Lost Decade

Interesting list, don’t you think? Several of the columns establish a problem — slack demand for wine in many markets and emerging over-supply, especially of Cabernet Sauvignon here in the U.S. What to do?

Most of the rest of the columns look for answers. There are some growing segments and categories even in a stagnant overall market. What’s hot? Who’s buying? What? Why? The columns on Rosé and wine in cans got extra attention because those were two growing markets in 2019.

I wonder what will be hot in 2020?

The Wine Economist will take a break for a couple of weeks and return in the new year with more analysis of global wine market trends. Sue and I wish all our readers health and happiness. See you in 2020!

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gifts Since this column is filed under “Shameless Self-Promotion” I would be remiss if I didn’t remind readers that wine books make great gifts: Wine Wars, Extreme Wine, Money, Taste, and Wine: It’s Complicated, and Around the World in Eighty Wines.

Note: Many Wine Economist columns are republished in Italian by Civilta del Bere, a leading Italian journal of wine and culture. Grazie mille!

Air Provence: Provence Rosé Takes Flight

December 12, 2019 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine exports, wine markets Leave a comment

airp2 The list of regions around the world that make good Rosé wine is very long because Rosé is a style of wine, not a wine grape variety. But the word-association game answer is easy: Rosé? Provence.

And although my friends in California and the Languedoc and other places that have nice Rosé hate it when I say this, if you are talking Rosé here in the United States the conversation begins with Provence.

#1 Export Market: USA

The wine producers in Provence are understandably happy with this situation because they have come to depend on the U.S. market to drink up their Rosé wine exports. According to data provided by the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence (CIVP), the U.S. was Provence’s #1 export market in 2018, happily emptying 26.3 million bottles of Provençal wine, 98% of which was Rosé.

Rosé is one of the hot segments of the U.S. wine market and the Rosé from Provence is very strong. But it would be a mistake for the Provençal producers to become complacent about their signature wine’s position in its most important export market.

This is especially true given that the overall U.S. wine market seems to be reaching a plateau and that the current trade war environment is not friendly to Rosé wines from France that have less that 14% abv and so are subject to the recently implemented 25% tariff. And then there is the threat of more tariffs in 2020. Yikes!

Now Boarding: Air Provence

So the Provençial producers have organized an ambitious trade event called Air Provence that is scheduled for April 6 – 7, 2020 to keep their wines on U.S. radars and deepen market penetration. Incredibly, given their success in the U.S. market, they have even more to share. The program offers wine trade members an intense immersion in the region and its wines, with 200 producers and more than a thousand wines on offer in addition to dinners, masterclasses, and so on. The event website summarizes the program like this:

The very first edition of AIR PROVENCE, organized by the Provence Wine Council for Côtes de Provence estates, invites you to take off on a unique immersive journey at the heart of the leading rosé wines appellation. For two days, experience a business class trip to meet producers and wine merchants, discover terroirs and landscapes, and taste wines as well as Provence art de vivre.

I’m interested in Air Provence in the context of the recent discussions about generic wine promotion in the U.S. We often focus on consumer-facing strategies (the “Got Milk?” approach), but there are many places in the product chain where leverage can be applied, either as a substitute for or complement to other tactics. The Provence producers are working to get the attention of trade actors (importers, buyers, etc.) who can become active partners in selling their wines.

Provence Rosé wines are hot, but the trade wars are creating turbulence and headwinds for the wine market generally and for French wines in particular. Provence Rosé producers are smart to be proactive, using programs like Air Provence to build on their successful market foundation at this moment of uncertainty. I wish them good fortune, but as Bette Davis said in All About Eve, better fasten your seat belts!

What Can We Learn from the Wine in Moderation Movement?

December 10, 2019 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 10 Comments

paul-giamatti-drinking-a-001 Some say that it is time for the wine industry to take the initiative to change perceptions through a generic promotion program. The “Got Milk?” campaign made people think about milk a bit differently. Maybe a similar initiative could shift the needle on wine?

One concern, as I wrote last week, is that as memorable as “Got Milk?” was, it didn’t prevent milk’s ultimate marketplace decline. Maybe “Got Wine?” isn’t the answer. But what would a better approach look like?

Wine in Moderation

I think there are lessons to be learned by studying the Wine in Moderation movement that began in Europe a decade ago and has now spread to many corners of the wine world.

new_branding_slideshow Wine in Moderation was founded in 2008 at a time when the European wine industry faced a growing threat. It wasn’t just that wine demand was falling — that had been going on for a couple of decades. And it wasn’t just the global financial crisis, either, although that didn’t help. It was rising anti-alcohol sentiments and policies that threatened wine both as an economic activity and also as an integral part of European culture.

I asked George Sandeman, President of the Wine in Moderation Association, to explain WiM’s objectives and the lessons they have learned.

Although a message of “moderation” seemed to be well aligned with the way wines are presented on a day to day basis, focusing quality rather than quantity, we encountered difficulty in waking up the wine sector to the cold wind blowing from Geneva.

Initially there was no recognition of the social responsibility attributed to the “wine sector” (“leave it to beer and spirits!”). At best it was a reluctance to accept the fact that wine needed to be part of the social responsibility which the category required, and at worst we were sleepwalking into the same treatment as tobacco.

The traditional culture of wine was frequently overridden by need to compete in new market environments … Add to this a powerful health lobby working to demonize wine …

So the first two lessons are that the wine industry needs to wake up to sector-wide issues. And the positive story of wine doesn’t tell itself. Someone has to do it.

What wine needed, the group’s founders proposed, was an organization that would help its members tell the counter-story of wine’s benefits when consumed in moderation, and would lean against the wind of damaging anti-alcohol regulations. This was no easy task, Sandeman notes. “The concept of ‘moderation’ is not a simple concept to communicate, varies with different cultures and viewpoints, and is difficult to translate for non-English speaking countries …”

Strength in Numbers

Wine in Moderation has evolved in the 10+ years since it was founded (you can read about its progress here). As its efforts have gained traction, it has moved from a tight European policy focus to an approach that is broader in both geography and strategy. The map of Wine in Moderation activities is now global and its focus is shifting to education of professionals. Although there are Wine in Moderation activities in the U.S. I suspect that the impact is somewhat limited by the lack of a national coordinating organization, a role played, for example, by Vinos de Chile, Unioni Italiani Vini, ACIBEV, and FEV in Chile, Italy, Portugal, and Spain respectively.

Seventeen national organization plus several global wine companies (Pernod Ricard, Möet Hennesy, Sogrape), and a host of other groups including WSET and the Institute of the Masters of Wine now support and implement Wine in Moderation programs around the world.

So the third lesson is that there is strength in numbers. It is important to work together on several levels to address important issues.

I first learned about Wine in Moderation from George Sandeman and Susana Garcia Dolla when I was speaking at ACIBEV meetings in Porto a few years ago. Since then I have noted the group’s participation at national and international meetings, always presenting a message of wine in a cultural context.

Wine in Moderation announced a major rebranding in November 2019 with the theme of Choose – Share – Care, which the leaders hope will carry the organization forward into even more ambitious professional and consumer programs in its next decade.

CHOOSE to make informed choices; choose the best wine for you to enjoy, choose whether or not to drink.
SHARE wine with friends & family, pair with good food and water. Drink slowly and take the time to fully appreciate.
CARE about the wine you serve, care about yourself and about others. Avoid excess and enjoy your wine in moderation!

Increased focus on wine tourism is another element of future work. Wine in Moderation’s association with the United Nations World Tourism Organization is one step along the path to providing wineries and regional groups with more tools to shape perceptions and develop the wine tourism experience.

Strike the Right Chord

Two things about Wine in Moderation are especially relevant to the current U.S. concerns. First, while I will admit that Choose-Share-Care does not have that “Got Milk?” punch, the message is one that I think might strike a chord with some of the groups that wine is currently failing to engage. Health, community, and culture is a strong positive message and one that resonates with young the old alike.

And the way of getting the message out is relevant too. One thing that impresses me about Wine in Moderation (another lesson?) is its multi-layer approach. Here’s how it works:

The international coordination is provided by a not-for-profit international association, the WiM Association.
In each country, there are one or more WiM national coordinators that support the planning, coordination, implementation and accountability of the programme in their respective countries.
WiM supporters join the programme at national level. They actively support a wine culture that inspires well-being and healthy lifestyles and contributes in the prevention and reduction of alcohol related harm.
Leading wine companies further support the efforts made at international and national level setting the example with their leadership in social responsibility and high contributions. These leading companies are the Wine in Moderation Ambassadors.

Wine in Moderation movement members are given the tools they need to spread the word, which is a model that could work here in the U.S. Leadership is needed, of course, but it seems to me that our many regional wine associations and wine companies, too, would benefit from bringing a coordinated message into their diverse communications programs.

I can imagine a program with a general message agreed at a high level, but implemented with creative local twists and turns by the dozens of regional wine associations around the U.S. Such a plan would share the creative energy (and cost) while leveraging wine’s broad and diverse base.

Work together? Is that realistic? Well, what’s the alternative? In Europe, as George Sandeman said, the alternative was being regulated like tobacco. The alternative here in the U.S might be a gradual (and then sudden) wine market bust.

This Changes Everything?

Everyone would like to find a silver bullet that would change everything for wine — in a positive way. But silver bullets are hard to come by and they show up in unexpected places. Do you remember the impact of the 60 Minutes “French Paradox” broadcast? Or the Sideways boost for Pinot Noir? (BTW Miles’ “dump bucket” scene from Sideways is definitely not an example of moderate wine consumption!)

Wine in Moderation has moved the needle in its target regions according to its most recent report. Worth further study, don’t think?

Got Wine? Is It Time for a Generic Wine Promotion Campaign?

December 3, 2019 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 4 Comments

I’ve had several conversations recently that circled back to the idea that the wine industry should invest in a generic promotion campaign. You know what I mean. Not “Got Milk?” (maybe the most celebrated generic promotion of all time), but something along the lines of “Got Wine?” or “Got California Wine?” depending on who’s talking.

“Got Wine?” is too copy-cat to work, of course. You can come up with something better if you give it some thought. But you get the idea.

Subsidy Wars?

One argument for generic promotion of wine is based on the realization that wine isn’t connecting with new, younger consumers the way we hoped or expected. If we want consumers to have a particular image of wine (or of the wine-drinker identity), maybe we should be more proactive in shaping perceptions. Laissez-faire isn’t working so well. Let’s do something.

A second argument, which would support “Got California Wine?” or “Got American Wine?” is provoked by the subsidies the European Union is giving to its member states to promote their wines in the U.S. market.

Years ago the EU used to support prices and winegrower incomes directly, but buying up surplus grapes and wine (we called the result the European Wine Lake). Now the EU has changed tactics and supports the modernization of wine production and the promotion of exports. Basically, they want the wines to be marketable and if the EU market won’t buy it all (and it won’t), then exports are promoted to avoid re-filling the dreaded lake.

This is a better approach from an economic standpoint, but you cannot blame American producers for thinking that it creates an uneven playing field. It might be better, many argue, to get the EU to stop subsidizing wine export promotion. But that would be complicated and take time. In the short run, the argument goes, generic promotion of U.S. wines might even things up a little.

Milk is All Over

Talking about wine promotion got me thinking about milk. That “Got Milk?” promotion ran for 25 years and attracted lots of attention. All sorts of celebrities posed with milk mustaches (aka moo-staches) to draw attention to milk and its broad appeal. Everyone enjoys milk — that was the message. The Whoopi Goldberg ad was my favorite.

But, memorable as these advertisements are, they were fighting a losing battle. Increasingly, American consumers don’t follow the “Got Milk?” path.

milk I first realized this a few years ago when I heard wine economics guru Karl Storchmann talk about trends in various consumer beverages. He examined Google data about searches for wine, tea, coffee, milk, and water and concluded that while water was rocking it, milk was fading fast. “Milk is all over,” Karl said at the time (here is a pdf of his study).

Karl wasn’t wrong. Dean Foods, America’s largest milk producer, filed for bankruptcy in November 2019. Milk sales fell for 4 years in a row as Americans shifted to plant-based cow-milk alternatives, including oat milk and especially almond milk.

Wine vs Milk?

Got Milk? Yes. Always. But increasingly it doesn’t come from a cow.

When you think about it, what happened to milk is a little bit like what seems to be happening to wine. There are lots of new products available that compete with wine including craft beer, craft spirits, and alcoholic sparkling water. Some of these products are popular in part because they have less alcohol than wine, addressing a health concern in the same way that almond milk avoids a health problem for some dairy-intolerant consumers.

Is wine all over? I don’t think so. But the industry is obviously not as healthy as we’d like it to be.

So what should wine do? A generic campaign is fine, but it matters a lot who it is aimed at, what it says, and how it is organized. And someone has to pay for it. A “Got Wine?” style consumer-focused campaign isn’t the only option.

Sue and I recently attended a promotional event for Italian wine that was aimed at trade — importers, distributors, sommeliers, journalists, and various “influencers” — but not consumers themselves (there was no consumer tasting). The product chain for wine is long and complex and there are several points where promotion can be effective.

Come back next week for thoughts on some of the issues that a “Got Wine?” push needs to take into account. In the meantime, I have discovered that there already is a GOT Wine — GOT stands for Game of Thrones!

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The chart comparing Google search term data for wine, milk, etc. is taken from Karl Storchmann, “Wine Economics.” Journal of Wine Economics 7:1 (2012), p. 3.

The video above is the very first “Got Milk?” commercial.

Thanksgiving Flashback: Black Friday Wine

November 26, 2019 By Mike Veseth in Flashback Friday, wine 4 Comments

beaujolais-nouveau-e1477026349777 Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States and it is a time for remembering and being grateful. I am grateful for friends and family and for all the wonderful wine choices we have today. As for remembering, here is an abridged version of a Thanksgiving Wine Economist column from 2009.

The Black Friday Wine?

I called Beaujolais Nouveau a “Black Friday wine” back in 2009 because good sales were critical for producers and distributors who wanted to finish the year profitably “in the black.” Success was certainly not guaranteed back then, with the global financial crisis still casting its dark shadow over wine sales.

A lot has changed in 10 years. The economic crisis has passed, for example, but the current trade war, with its 25% tariff on French still wines below 14% abv has come at a bad time for Nouveau. Some of it arrived on U.S. shores just in time to pay the extra tax. Yikes! The Georges DuBoeuf we found at the local market is listed at 13.8% abv, just below the 14% abv line where the tariff would disappear.

Indications are that suppliers are absorbing some of the additional cost in order to preserve their market. That makes sense since the selling window for Nouveau is relative narrow. No one is very interested in old (last year’s) Nouveau.

The DuBoeuf’s price — $10.99 — is about the same as last year, suggesting slimmer margins somewhere along the product chain in an effort to keep price down. Will this be a Black Friday? Too soon to be sure.

Here’s a blast from the 2009 past. Happy Thanksgiving!

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(November 23, 2009) Although the United States is not the only country to set aside a day for giving thanks, we like to think of Thanksgiving as our distinctive holiday. It was conceived as a day for deep reflection, but Thanksgiving has evolved into a long weekend of over-consumption and discount shopping. Some of my friends really prefer to celebrate Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when the holiday shopping season formally begins and retailers find out if they will be “in the black” for the year based upon early sales data.

If you plan an Old Time giving-thanks Thanksgiving, then Nouveau is not for you. If wine were literature, my friend Patrick points out, Nouveau would be the trashy paperback novel you read at the beach. Nothing wrong in that — everyone needs an escape once in a while.

The grapes for Nouveau are picked in late September or thereabouts and the only thing that prevents instant sale is the necessity of fermentation and the mechanics of distribution. It’s still a bit sweet when it’s bottled and sometimes a bit fizzy, too, when it arrives with great fanfare on the third Thursday in November (a week before Turkey Day). Best served cold (like revenge!) it is the ultimate cash flow wine.

Black Friday Wine?

Nouveau is not very sophisticated, so why do the French, who otherwise are known to guard their terroirist image, bother with it? The Beaujolias producers make very nice ordinary (non-nouveau) wines; character complexity, you can have it all and for a surprisingly low price.

Ah, but that’s the problem. Sitting close to prestigious Burgundy, the Beaujolais cannot command high prices for their wines, good as they are, so they must try to make money through turnover more than markup. They churn out millions of bottles of Nouveau to pay the bills.

At the peak of the bubble in 1992 about half of all wines made in Beaujolais were Nouveau. The proportion remains high even today. Ironically, Nouveau often sells at prices as high as Beaujolais’ more serious wines because it is marketed so well. So it is hard to see why you’d want to buy it instead of the region’s other wines. It’s easy, on the other hand, to see why you’d want to sell it.

Beaujolais Nouveau, it seems, is France’s Black Friday wine! If the makers can sell their Nouveau, then maybe the bottom line for the year will be in the black. If the Nouveau market fails, well that red stain on the floor won’t be just spilled wine.

Nouveau is therefore generally marketed around the world with more than the usual urgency (just as those Black Friday sales seem a little desperate at times) — and not just because young wines hit their “best by” date pretty quickly. This year things are even more stressful than usual, as you might imagine, with the economic crisis still on everyone’s minds and 10+ percent unemployment here in the United States.

An American Wine?

Beaujolais Nouveau sounds like the perfect wine for American consumers brought up on 2-liter jugs of fizzy-sweet Mountain Dew and Diet Coke. If you were kinda cynical, you would think Nouveau was an American wine … made in USA.

And it is, in a way. Although the wine obviously comes from France (and there is actually a long tradition of simple and fun early-release new wines in France and elsewhere), I think it is fair to say that the Nouveau phenomenon is an American invention.

W.J. Deutsch & Sons, the American distributors, really put Beaujolias in general and Nouveau in particular on the U.S. wine market map when they became exclusive distributors for Georges Duboeuf some years ago. They took this simple wine and made it a marketing event. To paraphrase an old Vulcan proverb, only Nixon could go to China and only the brilliant Deutsch family could sell Nouveau!

In fact they were so successful that they partnered with another family firm — the Casella family from Australia — and created a second wine phenomenon tailored to American tastes: Yellow Tail!

So although Nouveau is an American wine of sorts and might be perfectly crafted for this American holiday as we actually celebrate it on Friday, I’m going to pass this year (on Thursday, at least) and see if I can nurse some thoughtful reflection from my holiday glass instead. Cheers, everyone! And thanks.

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2019 update: I passed on Nouveau back in 2009, but I will try some of the 2019 vintage over the holiday weekend this year. Hmmm. I wonder if I can find it in a can?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

What’s Up with Italian Wine in the U.S. Market?

November 19, 2019 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine exports 2 Comments

doc Italian wine has a lot going for it in the U.S. market. Wines from Italy are by far the largest category of imported wines. Recent Nielsen figures (reported in Wine Business Monthly) show almost $1.2 billion in 52-week sales of Italian wines in the channels that Nielsen surveys — that is almost a third of all spending on wine imports and far more than #2 Australia ($720 million) and #3 New Zealand ($496 million). France is #4 at $462 million.

Tariffs? Que Bello? Pazzo!

Italy has benefited from the hot market for sparkling wines in general and Prosecco in particular. And it gained an unexpected advantage over its European neighbors due to the peculiarities of the recently-imposed U.S. tariffs on European wines. Imports of many wines from France, Germany, Spain, and the U.K. are subject to a 25% tax. What’s the tax on Italian wine imports? Zero. Zippo. Niente. Que bello!

(See Suzanne Mustacich’s excellent Wine Spectator article on the wine trade war for more details.)

How did Italy dodge the tariff bullet? I don’t think there is an official explanation or obvious economic rationale. Pazzo! Must be politics, don’t you think? Maybe it has something to do with the high-level Trump administration officials with Italian-sounding names? Or maybe Italy’s not so closely associated with subsidies to Airbus, which provoked the WTO rulings and subsequent tariffs. Strange, but good for Italian producers trying to get their foot in the U.S. door (or working to open the door a little wider).

It would be a mistake to take these advantages for granted and the Italians are working hard to consolidate their market base and move forward. Or at least that’s what we think after attending the Seattle stop on the “Simply Italian Great Wines US Tour 2019.” We spent the day attending seminars sponsored by the European Union and wine region groups and meeting producers (many of whom were seeking local distribution) at a walk-around tasting.

[Two favorites from the walk-around tasting were Societa Agricola Sturm from Collio — fantastic Ribolla Gialla — and Cannonau di Sardegna from Sardina’s Cantina Giampietro Puggioni.]

Out of the Shadow

The Seattle event reminded us of how much we love the wines of Italy. But it also highlighted some of the challenges that Italy faces.

Italy is a complex mosaic of wine regions, styles, and brands. Although an amazing array of Italian wines can be found in the U.S. market, there are a few names that dominate the conversation: Chianti, for example, and Prosecco. It is easy for other wines from other regions to be over-shadowed. Sue and I saw the shadow effect when we stopped at a nearby Total Wine, which has a big selection of Italian wines. We were looking for wines from Friuli and we found just a hand-full — mainly Pinot Grigio. The big regions crowd out the smaller ones on store shelves.

This is the challenge facing Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG, for example. Vino Nobile is a small and distinctive appellation located about 65 km south-east of Siena. The four wines we tasted at the seminar were terrific and made me think about this region as a sort of Tuscan Stags Leap District — one of my favorite U.S. wine appellations.

But excellent wines are not necessarily enough when you need to compete with famous Chianti Classico. You need to get glasses in consumer hands and give the wine and region a distinct identity. Tourism (and not simply wine tourism) is one way to do this. Come for the history, food, and culture and learn about the wonderful wines. This seems to be part of Vino Nobile’s strategy to get out from under the shadow of its more famous neighbor and to tell a distinctive story about the region and the wines.

Italians love to drink sparkling wines and they make some terrific ones. And although my friends in Conegliano hate to hear me say it, it is a shame that the only Italian sparkler that most Americans can name is Prosecco.

I wish they’d give more attention to Francicorta DOCG, which faces a similar challenge to Vino Nobile. Franciacorta is often said to be the “Champagne” of Italy. It is made using the classic method from mainly but not exclusively the traditional Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes . The comparison to Champagne is understandable and the wines stand up well compared to their French cousins.

But it is not always helpful to think of Franciacorta this way because if you want Champagne you want Champagne and not necessarily something else. Franciacorta needs to more clearly develop a distinctly Italian identity that positions it apart from French wines and also Prosecco. The two Franciacorta DOCG wines were tasted were delicious — and I don’t think the skilled presenter ever called them Italy’s Champagne. I know producers are working hard to build their market category because the current interest in sparkling wines presents a great opportunity.

A Grape or a Region?

One of the sessions focused on DOC Pinot Grigo delle Venezie. Pinot Grigio is one of white wine’s big success stories in the U.S. market. Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris is the second largest selling white wine category in the U.S. market, according to Nielsen figures, far behind #1 Chardonnay but well ahead of #3 Sauvignon Blanc.

Some of the Italians I have met like to imagine that all the Pinot Grigio sold in the U.S. comes from Italy — and Italy might have dominated this category a few years ago — but now Pinot Grigio is grown just about everywhere. I made risotto a few nights ago with a nice little Pinot Grigio from Washington state. That is the problem with the “signature wine grape variety” strategy. The category may start associated with a particular place, but often the place fades and it is just about the grape and then it is anyone’s game.

Italian producers hope to stake a territorial claim to the Pinot Grigio market with DOC Pinot Grigio delle Venezie — Pinot Grigio from a specific region subject to DOC rules and regulations. The consorzio logo above is meant to establish the identity. Italy first — can you miss the green-white-red stripes? And then Venice and Venezie as symbolized by the stylized prow of a Venetian gondola. Italy, Venice, Gondolas. Get it? That’s Pinot Grigio.

It is easy to be a little skeptical about the effort to re-brand Pinot Grigio this way since Americans generally know little about DOC and DOCG designations, but in this case there is reason for cautious optimism because many of the DOC Pinot Grigio wines have big marketing and distribution muscle behind them. The list of wines that were tasted in Seattle, for example, includes DOC wines from Lumina by Ruffino (Constellation Brands), Prophecy by Cantine di Mezzacorona (Gallo), Montresor (Total Wine & More), and Cupcake (The Wine Group).

Pinot Grigio won’t stop being a grape variety that could come from anywhere, but with some effort it can also be a regional wine of Italy once again.

Italian wine makers are luckier than most. They face challenges, some of which are the product of their own success, but there is a tremendous reservoir of good will and affection for Italy and its wines. The struggle for market attention is therefore not easy but still possible. The Seattle event has inspired us to look more closely at the Italian wine mosaic and to try to appreciate a bit more its many shapes, colors, and styles.

What’s Really in your Glass? Transparency, Accountability & Wine

November 12, 2019 By Mike Veseth in Uncategorized 3 Comments

stella Are you the sort of person who looks at every new garment to see where it’s made (and of what material) and studies the nutritional information on the back labels of the groceries that you buy? Me, too, although I don’t claim to be consistent in these investigations and I am sure that I miss a lot.

FDA Meets TTB

Many people take an intense interest in the products they buy, especially food and drink since they go into our bodies. Calories per serving, along with sodium, carbohydrates, and protein, are important to many people.

It is interesting – and maybe a problem – that wine and other alcoholic beverages are for the most part exempt from nutritional reporting. Wine labels must tell consumers alcohol by volume and warn them of health dangers, but not display ingredients, calories, or other factors that are required for juices, sodas, milk, and other beverages.

This label from a bottle of Stella Rosa wine is an exception to the current rule — calories, carbs, and so forth are clearly listed. Why? As I understand it the reason is that because Stella’s alcohol is just 5% abv (below a 7% regulatory threshold) it is regulated by the FDA as food (nutritional facts) as well as by the TTB as alcohol (government health warning). (Note that the product is described as “partially fermented grape must!”)

Label of the Future?

I am not sure that anyone buys Stella Rosa because of the nutrition information (it is one of the hottest wine brands today), but maybe the lack of such information is already affecting sales of wines in some market spaces. Consumers purchase a lot of different products and they don’t really need to buy anything that doesn’t take responsibility and own its list of ingredients and nutritional profile.

I believe that wine, beer, and spirits will eventually be required to list their ingredients and nutritional data. I wonder what would happen if wine were to take a voluntary step and be more transparent now as a way to shape the narrative? I know there are some who think transparency would backfire – consumers would turn away if they knew what a bottle of wine really contains or how many calories are in a serving a Chardonnay. But look at Stella’s sales …

White Claw, the ridiculously popular alcoholic seltzer product, has a nutrition label, too, and it is clear that it uses this to its advantage by exactly hitting the critical “100 calories per serving” number.

Limiting Label Clutter

There are several areas where wine could improve its transparency and I’ve been learning how technology can help. QR codes have the potential to lead consumers to sites where they can satisfy their thirst for more information, for example. I think everyone has a QR code reader on their smartphone, although I am not sure how many people use it.

The Treasury Wine brand 19 Crimes has had success with its special augmented reality app that consumers focus on the labels to animate the 19 criminals, so we know that consumers will use apps to get more content about wine in some cases. Perhaps this is a way to be more transparent and accountable without filling the back label with even more boilerplate.

Giving consumers access to useful information doesn’t have to be very intrusive. For example, Italian DOCG wines and South African Integrity & Sustainability Certified wines feature simple codes that allow individual bottles to be traced back to the producer.

Ferret Out the Fakes

Blockchain technology has the potential to improve transparency and accountability in ways that can be important to the wine industry in the long run. People always think of Bitcoin when I mention blockchain, but it is important to understand that Bitcoin is an application of blockchain, not the technology itself.

It is an oversimplification, but I like to compare blockchain to those tracking codes we use for package delivery. Everyone who touches the package scans in information, which is attached to the package record you view on line. You can see where the package is at any particular moment and — hopefully — track it down if there is a mistake. Airlines use this technology now to track checked bags and I am always relieved to know that my suitcase full of wine is safely in the hold of my jet as we take off.

The difference with blockchain is that it isn’t just about location. All sorts of information can be attached to the record, which can be analyzed in many ways.

Thus a simple but very useful application of blockchain is to verify the authenticity and provenance of the sort of fine wines that are sold at auction — and to help ferret out the many fakes. A company called Everledger, for example, developed a system to use blockchain to verify the provenance and authenticity of diamonds and colored gem stones and is applying it to wine as the video above shows.

To Authenticity … and Beyond!

Everledger and others who are working in this space use blockchain and other sophisticated technologies to assure the authenticity of wine and other applications in wine are sure to be found because the blockchain blocks can record many types of information.

In response to the Porto Protocol and other initiatives, for example, many wine companies are working to reduce their environmental impact. Blockchain technology can collect this information all along the wine product chain, potentially allowing interested consumers to quickly assess the climate change impacts of their wine choices.

And that’s just the start. I have argued that wine companies need to own their supply chains when it comes to climate change and sustainability. Many companies focus on their own actions plus those of their grape suppliers. But wine’s product chains are pretty long in this day of efficient bulk wine shipments and Made-in-China glass.

This Changes Everything?

I can imagine a blockchain ledger that tracks useful information all along wine’s complex product chain and programs that would allow consumers and others to analyze and evaluate it. And, of course, wine is just one product where such a system would be welcome.

I’m not saying the blockchain and other technologies will change everything, but I will say this: transparency and accountability are only going to become more important in wine as consumer expectations evolve and wine is held to the same standard as other consumer goods.

We might think wine is special — and it is in many ways — but we shouldn’t assume that it is immune to the forces that are making transparency, accountability, and technology more important every day.

Wine Book Launch Today: Discover Hungarian Wine

November 7, 2019 By Mike Veseth in emerging wine regions, wine 1 Comment

Our good friends, Charine Tan and Matthew Horkey of Exotic Wine Travel, are launching their fourth wine book today: Discover Hungarian Wine: A Visitor-Friendly Guide, available for pre-order via their Kickstarter website.

Sue and I have crossed paths with Matt and Charine in typically exotic places — Tbilisi, Georgia; Iasi, Romania; Carcassonne, France — and we have come to value their judgement and to admire their creativity, energy, and commitment. They bring these qualities to their wine guides, which are written to help independent travelers (and travel dreamers, too) get the most out of their experiences.

Hungary is a great choice for their latest book. Hungarian wines were once celebrated as among the best in the world. Then a perfect storm of crises changed everything. Phylloxera, war, depression, war, communism, post-communism struggles, and emergence into an increasingly competitive wine world. It is amazing that Hungarian wine survived. But it did.

More and more visitors are coming to Hungary (many on those ridiculously popular river cruises) to discover the culture, history, music, and food of this unique land. And they are discovering the wines, too. But this is unknown territory for most visitors (and most wine consumers generally), so they need a sympathetic guide to get the most out of their experiences and that’s where Matt and Charine come in.

“The book will offer practical information that help visitors to learn about Hungarian wine, shop for Hungarian wine, enjoy Hungarian wine, and most of all, feel empowered to explore Hungarian wine,” said Matthew Horkey.

“The Exotic Wine Travel’s guidebooks are always written and designed with one goal in mind: to help wine lovers and travelers save time and money by helping them to skip or shorten the trial-and-error process of finding the wines they like. We always aim to produce a guidebook that we wished we had when we first visited a wine country,” said Charine Tan.

A book launch is like a grape harvest — it sets in motion the process that eventually fills our glass with delight. Looking forward to a great Hungarian wine vintage from Matt and Charine. Cheers!