Author Archives: Mike Veseth

Tenuta Licinia: In Praise of Philosophers & their Wines

May 22, 2025 By in Italian wine, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

If you flip to the back of my 2017 book Around the World in Eighty Wines, you’ll find a list of the wines from my global adventures. I didn’t want to just list them alphabetically or sort by price or critic rating. Organizing them by country of origin didn’t seem right, either. So I invented categories that would link wines with similar characteristics.

The Joy of Lists

The first category, “Wines of the People,” includes Two Buck Chuck, Mateus Rosé, Mouton Cadet Rouge, and Four Cousins Sweet Rosé from South Africa, among others. These are very different wines united by their popular appeal and market success. Do you see the connection?

Next up is “Noble Wines,” and it starts with Chateau Petrus and continues with Henschke’s “Hill of Grace” from Australia and several others. You can probably think of the wines that you’d add to the Noble list. I admit the lists are totally subjective. I’d probably include different wines today. That’s part of the joy of wine (and of lists).

One of my favorite groups is called “Philosopher Wines.” Sometimes we encounter wines that demand more attention than others and provoke a certain amount of introspection, too. You don’t drink them so much as contemplate them. And we are sad when the glass is finally empty.

Philosopher vs Philosopher’s

These are the “Philosopher Wines” and just reading the list (which starts with a 100-year-old Tawny from Seppeltsfield in Australia and ends with Methode Ancienne Cabernet Sauvignon from Springfield Estate in South Africa) gives me a special feeling.

I don’t plan to revise or update my 80-wine journey but, if I were to update the list, I think I’d have to add a new category. In addition to “Philosopher Wines” I’d have “Philosopher’s Wine,” wines made by philosophers. I’ll bet there are more than a few (didn’t  Warren Winiarski of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars study  political philosophy at the University of Chicago before he went down the wine rabbit hole?).

This thought is provoked by an online tasting of Tenuta Licinia wines that Sue and I took part in a few weeks ago. Tenuta Licinia is a small (6.5 hectares of vineyards) winery in a part of Tuscany that doesn’t get too much attention.  This particular area near Lucignano had a long history of wine that faded in the 20th Century. Now it is coming back.

A Certain Idea of Wine

The project started about 50 years ago as the personal mission of Jacques de Liedekerke, a prominent Belgian attorney. He recognized the potential of certain vineyard plots in the region and, over 20 years, slowly brought them back to life.  His vineyards and his mission eventually passed to his grandson, James Marshall, who, like Winiarski, has followed a path from the serious study of philosophy to the serious study of viticulture and enology.

Talking with Marshall via Zoom reminded me (in a good way, I want to point out) of any number of conversations I have had with philosophers during my academic years. There were thoughtful pauses and occasional clouds of self-doubt mixed with sure statements of principle and intent.

Marshall has for sure a certain idea of wine (to paraphrase Charles De Gaulle), which is based on particular sites with their aspects and soil profiles and particular grape varieties and getting the combinations just right. Winemakers, like philosophers, need to have strong principles that they constantly question, I guess.

Marshall has a number of provocative ideas about wine and one that I like a lot is that his wines should be so good that they appeal to novices, people who don’t know much about wine or don’t have much experience with it. This struck me as odd at first because we normally think of novices as having simple tastes that need to be developed over time to appreciate the best wine.

The Magic Words

But then he said the magic words, Chateau d’Yquem. D’Yquem is widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest wines (indeed, it is often named the world’s best). Yet, Marshall noted, it is immediately appealing to both experts and rookies. His goal isn’t to make a Tuscan d’Yquem, but to make wines as delicious and appealing in their own ways as d’Yquem is in its way.

We were lucky to receive four wines to sample. The Tenuta Licinia Montepolli (named for the vineyard) is an IGT Toscana blend of Merlot and Petit Verdot that was elegant and delicious. The IGT Toscana Sasso di Fato, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, was complex, elegant, and memorable. One of the best wines of the year so far. Both wines were light and bright and refreshing, but serious at their core.

Sue and I agreed that the wines did not especially remind us of their component grape varieties. They tasted like … well, I guess they tasted of the place more than the grape and, if this is true, it reflects Marshall’s intent and his attention to detail.

The Petit Verdot Question

We also received half bottles of varietal Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese and we are working on a sampling strategy for them. But the wine that I would love to taste is the 100% Petit Verdot Sasso di Licinia because Marshall brought it up so often in the Zoom interview.

He really doesn’t like the Petit Verdot, he said a couple of times. Wrong grape, wrong place. Subsoils not exactly right. Not what he wants to do. But it is really good with the local Tuscan steak and in fact a neighborhood restaurant wants him to put some in bag-in-box for by-the-glass sales, which makes sense. Marshall really doesn’t like the idea of bag-in-box any more than he likes the Petit Verdot itself, but the wine is really nice with the steak. That’s a fact. So maybe he should do it.

And so on, around and around. Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s kind of fun to turn it over in your mind and see where you come out. Oh, philosophers, you are so interesting! And some of you make really good wine. I’d love to hear from other philosopher winemakers in the comments section.

Don Melchor & Chile’s Good Value Curse

May 20, 2025 By in Chilean wines, economic crisis, trade wars, wine, wine markets 4 Comments

Sue and I have been looking for the right excuse to open a bottle of Don Melchor, the famous Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon that was named 2024 Wine of the Year by Wine Spectator magazine. Finally, we decided that the act of pulling the cork was excuse enough, and we enjoyed the wine with a nice steak.

Don Melchor is the flagship winery of Concha y Toro, one of the world’s most respected wine producers. The wine was world class, balanced and elegant, and paired perfectly with a dry-aged steak. I admit that I don’t really know what it means to be “wine of the year,” but this wine (and everyone who helped make it) deserves whatever recognition they receive. Bravo!

Message in a Bottle?

You would think that the year’s top wine could be the wine with the highest score, but if you pay attention to these things, you have already noticed that, while all the highlighted wines have high scores, the final rankings are not simply by the numbers.

Sometimes, it seems to me, the people who put together Top 10 or Top 100 lists (and not just Wine Spectator) want to send a message. Sometimes it is to highlight particular regions or to balance Old World and New World recognition. In 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, for example, a Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Columbia Crest was Wine Spectator’s top wine. It was an excellent wine (a friend opened a bottle for us last year), but I think it was chosen in part to send a message that excellent wines didn’t have to cost a fortune (the release price of the Columbia Crest was just $27) or come from Bordeaux or Napa, either.

In the same way, I suspect that the Don Melchor was chosen at least in part to draw attention to Chile’s excellent wines and the fact that they can command high prices. (The Don Melchor we enjoyed was an editorial sample, but the local Total Wine has it in stock for $140.)  Chilean wines have long been filed under “good value,” which is much better than a “bad value” label that some other regions have earned. But I think many producers see good value as a barrier to their quest for higher status. The Wine Spectator award helped in this regard, and the Don Melchor wine has the quality to make the label stick, if you know what I mean.

The Good Value Curse

You can see the good value curse in the numbers. U.S. wine market data in the most recent issue of Wine Business Monthly put the average bottle-equivalent price for Chilean wine at $5.04 for the previous 12 months, lower than the import average of $9.66 and even lower than Australia’s $5.49.

Not surprisingly, measured U.S. sales of Chilean wine are down with the rest of the market, falling 3.6% by volume and 0.3% by value. (These declines are actually less than the overall market’s decline.)

Chile is more dependent on export markets than most other major producing countries, so wine market contractions in the U.S., U.K., and perhaps especially China have been a major blow. Factor in the uncertainty caused by the Trump tariffs and the list of Chilean wine’s challenges grows.

It is, therefore shocking, but perhaps not surprising to see this graph from the OIV database, which shows that the vineyard area in Chile has quite suddenly declined back to levels last seen at the turn of the century. Wine grapes are unprofitable, especially in the O’Higgins region, according to a Department of Agriculture report. Growers are shifting to cherries, citrus, and other crops with better prospects and margins.

Quality and Diversity

Sue and I have sampled many Chilean wines and we have been impressed by both the surprising diversity of wine types and styles and the steady rise in quality. The challenge, or perhaps one of the challenges, is to bring the best of Chile’s wine into sharper focus for consumers who confront a dazzling array of wine choices. Not an easy task, especially in this market environment.

Don Melchor has a role to play here as a sort of beacon to draw consumers closer to the world of quality Chilean wines.

Wine & the Trump Tariffs: A Cloudy Crystal Ball

May 13, 2025 By in economic crisis, Economic impact, trade policy, trade wars, wine, wine markets Leave a comment

I’ve received emails asking me to write about the Trump tariff regime (and other policies) and how they will affect the wine industry. I have resisted so far because there is not enough information on which to base an argument or opinion. There is lots of speculation, but not yet much solid fact.

Beyond Speculation?

“Wine and the Age of Uncertainty” was the title of my remarks at the State of the Industry session at this year’s Unified Wine & Grape Symposium (which I previewed on The Wine Economist a few weeks before the event). Uncertainty is a constant factor in agriculture in general and wine in particular, I argued, but 2025 is different because there are so many unknowns to consider.

I illustrated this point with the slide above. Looking narrowly at the trade situation, there are lots of questions that need answers in order to get beyond speculation. I highlighted a few of the most important ones in red. None of the questions had firm answers back in January and they still don’t today.

So uncertainty prevails in the realm of “known unknowns,” which are the things that you know you don’t know. And that doesn’t even consider the bigger domain of  “unknown unknowns,” which are the things you don’t know you don’t know (but should).

They say that what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but what you don’t know you don’t know can bite you in the butt.

The View from Abroad

How are foreign producers reacting to this unstable trade environment? No surprise, considering all the unknowns, there is no single dominant strategy. A common tactic, both in wine and more generally, has been to get as many products into the country as possible before full tariffs kick in. This will keep the distribution pipeline going at least for a while. It is not a permanent solution, but no one knows what the next step in trade policy might be. Maybe the tariffs will disappear as quickly as they appeared? An import surge buys time even if it comes at a cost.

Sue and I were in Spain last month and we encountered two very different reactions from producers there. Some accepted the fact of tariffs, but were relieved that they would be 10% instead of the 120% rates previously threatened. We can live with 10%, they said, and they are working out the appropriate business model for these circumstances.  The wine industry has lots of problems (see below) and a 10% U.S. tariff is not the most serious of them. Ten percent is the new zero, as some have said, and many accept that so long as they can be sure that that’s what will prevail.

But not everyone agrees with this sentiment. We talked to one producer who said his firm was walking away from the U.S. market. Ten percent, 100 percent, 20 percent, what next? The uncertainty is simply too great to justify long-term investment. There are other markets where the risk-reward equation has a better balance.

Zero-Sum Solution?

Several European producers asked if the tariffs were benefiting U.S. wine producers. That’s a natural question if you think about tariffs and trade as a zero-sum game, where my loss is your gain. But in fact wine seems to be a negative-sum game at the moment as the global industry adjusts to a new normal. Demographic shifts do not favor alcoholic beverages generally. Neither do health concerns.

Economic uncertainty is undermining demand for many categories of luxury goods (and wine, for most people, is more affordable luxury than basic necessity). The threat of tariffs only serves to make the situation worse by raising costs and shrinking the already narrow distribution channel.

One way to think about the situation is in terms of what I call “pie economics.” What’s happening to the market pie? Is it growing or shrinking? What’s happening to your share of the pie? Is it getting bigger or smaller?

When markets are growing, distribution issues are often less important. The growing pie can make up for any small cut in your share. But when the pie is shrinking, the dominant strategy is to focus on share. That’s when zero-sum thinking kicks in. But in the case of tariffs, it is really a negative-sum game because higher import costs can sometimes shrink the pie so much that no one is better off.

The wine market pie was already shrinking, of course, so tariffs just make things worse. How it will turn out, and if anyone will be a winner, is still not clear.

So, wine and tariffs? My crystal ball’s all steamed up. Can’t see a thing. How about yours?

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Some say that economics is the “science of unintended consequences” and a recent Financial Times article bears this out in the case of the Trump tariffs. One of the potential winners of the current trade war, according to the article, might be Vinarchy, which was created when Australia’s Accolade Wines merged with Pernod Ricard’s wine operations to create te world’s second largest specialist wine producer.

Vinarchy’s brands will be subject to tariffs on U.S. sales like everyone else, which is not good news. But the anti-American wine sentiment that the Trump tariffs have stirred up might create opportunities, too. They see openings for Jacob’s Creek in Canada, for example, and Campo Viejo in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, for example,  as consumers look for alternatives to California wine.

Crisis and Change: Rethinking California Wine

April 29, 2025 By in book reviews, wine 1 Comment

Elaine Chukan Brown, The Wines of California (Académie du Vin Library, 2025).

California wine has a long history of facing what feel like insurmountable challenges. It also has a long history of people coming together to problem solve, innovate, and succeed once again. Honest examination of pressures on the industry can reveal ways the people of California might plan its future. (p. 303)

Elaine Chukan Brown’s terrific new book has just been released. It is not just a good book but an important one. It presents us with an opportunity both to think in new ways about the wines of California and to reconsider what we think about wine books in general.

The Wines of California does not present a static picture of California and its wine. It is all about change, and the overarching theme is resilience in the face of persistent challenges.

Some have written that what makes this book different is its attention to history and it is easy to see where that comes from. The first chapter, for example, focuses on California’s indigenous peoples for the very good reason that they are central to the state’s wine origin story. Grape vines were planted and grape wine was made for use in the Spanish missions. The indigenous peoples were both the intended consumers of the wine (sacramental wine) and the labor that was employed to produce it.

The book’s first section traces the history of California wine through Prohibition and its aftermath, the rise of industrial agriculture, and on to the present day. It is California wine in context like never before. The middle section analyzes California’s regions and its 154 AVAs along with a curated sample of wine producers. Gosh, I wish I knew as much as any of the AVAs as Elaine Chuckan Brown seems to know about all of them!

“What we’re facing” is the title of the final section of the book and it is noteworthy in its focus on the current wine industry crisis, which affects California and the world, too. Here all the interdisciplinary threads that you’ve been following are brought together in a discussion of how a resilient industry responds to what is its biggest challenge in a long time. If you want to understand the current wine crisis clearly but beyond bullet-point depth, this is what you want to read.

In this regard The Wines of California reminds me of another recent book, One Thousand Vines: A New Way to Understand Wine by Pascaline LePeltier. Both books challenge the reader to see connections beyond the obvious ones and to understand the complex dynamics that shape the wine industry and the liquid in our glasses.

Considering these two books together made me think of something that Ian Fleming supposedly said. Once is happenstance, according to Fleming, twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action! Is something going on in the world of the idea of wine? Are we in the second stage of a revolution in terms of how we understand wine?

Congratulations to Elaine Chukan Brown on a masterful contribution to the new wine literature. Wine book readers, be alert. Enemy action seems to be quietly mobilizing.

Wine Economist Flashback: Stumbling into Sherry in Madrid

April 14, 2025 By in Spain, The Next Big Thing, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

Sue and I are traveling in Spain and one of our goals is to learn more about what’s happening in the Sherry industry. It is our first visit to Andalucia, but not our first exposure to the world of Sherry wines. I thought you might be interested in this “Flashback” column from 2017 that reports on our very successful search for Sherry in Madrid. This flasback might especially timely given a recent Financial Times article on “How Sherry Got Chic Again.”

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Can Sherry Be the Next Big Thing?

The Wine Economist / May 16, 2017

tioCan Sherry be the “Next Big Thing” in wine? I know what you are thinking. Sherry? C’mon! That’ll never catch fire in a big way. And you may be right, but give me a chance to make my case before you close the door on the Sherry cabinet.

One of the things that Sue and I wanted to do during our recent visit to Spain was learn more about Sherry. But the itinerary seemed to work against that. No time to jet south to Jerez de la Frontera in Andaluca, Sherry’s home. We would have to piece together our education in other wine regions. With a little luck and some helpful friends, we managed quite well.

Stumbling on Sherry in Madrid

Madrid is a long way from Jerez, but we found Sherry all around us, suggesting just how much it is a part of Spanish culture. Walking the aisles of the historic San Miguel market near the Plaza Mayor, for example, we stumbled upon a market stall called The Sherry Corner where dozens of different wines were offered by the glass at bargain prices. We had fun trying new Sherry wines and revisiting old favorites.

sherrycorner

The Sherry Corner offers a fun self-guided audio tour of Sherry wines. For €30 you get six glasses of different Sherries in a special carrier, coupons for six matching tapas from various market stalls, and an audio program available in six languages. It is quite a bargain when you do the math and it lets you both get to know the wines, experiment with pairings, and take advantage of the amazing tapas on offer at the market.

We found a completely different experience at the restaurant Zahara de Osborne in the Plaza Santa Ana, which was close by our hotel. The restaurant is owned by the Osborne wine group that is famous for its Sherry wines (you can see the Osborne bull staring down from hilltops all around Spain).

The idea of the restaurant was to bring the food and culture of Andaluca to Madrid. We challenged our waiter to create that experience for us and he did a great job choosing the dishes and helping us with pairings. Gosh, the Fino was delicious with a delicately fried whole fish!

Indigenous Sherry Culture

Not that Madrid does not have its own indigenous Sherry culture. There are Sherry bars in several parts of the city. Friends guided us to one called La Venencia, where the Sherry is served en rama, fresh and unfiltered, right from the barrel, which is a style I like a lot. My university colleague Harry uses La Venencia as his office when he is in Madrid (which is a lot) and he made introductions to José and Gabriel who worked the bar that day.

La Venencia has as much depth and character as the wines that are served there.  If you have any pre-conceptions, you must check them at the door and accept the bar for what it is, which is true of Sherry wines, too. And then, well, it is a complete pleasure. Sherry really isn’t like anything else you will ever drink and La Venencia is just the same.

I have seldom been anywhere that was so totally itself and I will always associate that strong impression with the dry Manzanilla Sherry wines we enjoyed at La Venecia.osborne

A Little Help from our Friends

We got a little help from friends at Osborne and Gonzalez Byass wineries in our quest to learn more about Sherry. Santiago Salinas arranged for a tasting of Rare Old Sherries when we visited Osborne’s Montecilla winery in Rioja. These were wines for philosophers and poets. It is stunning to discover what great Sherries can become with time. We were inspired by Santiago’s passion for the wines and, of course, by the wines themselves.

Our visit to Finca Constancia near Toledo was organized around a rather extravagant seminar and tasting of Gonzalez Byass wines ranging from their signature Fino, Tio Pepe, on to a special Tio Pepe en rama bottling, and then carefully and thoroughly all the way through the line-up to the sweet, concentrated Pedro Xeménez.

Marina Garcia, our guide on this Sherry tour, was not afraid to draw out the complexities of the wines, which is great. As I told my audience at the General Assembly, sometimes complicated things need to be understood in complicated ways. Our favorite? We discovered the Palo Cortado Sherry style and it made us think. I love it when a wine does that.

Sherry doesn’t have to complicated … or sweet either, for that matter, although many people put the wines in that category. A chilled bottle of very dry fino or Manzanilla is pretty pure pleasure and will change many minds. But you’ve got to try it yourself to be persuaded and that’s a  challenge.constancia

Sherry’s Moment?

If you look at the fundamentals, it is easy to conclude that this could be Sherry’s moment. The wines are great and well-priced. They come in a range of styles that variously make great aperitifs, pair well with food, or help unleash that inner poet. Apparently Sherry works really well as a cocktail base, too. Gotta check that out.

Tourism in Spain is on the rise and Spain’s tapas culture cuisine, which matches up so well with dry Sherry, is increasingly popular. Sherry, as much as any wine I know, is a product of time and place, and wears its authenticity proudly.  Authentic, affordable, food-friendly. Aren’t these the things that wine drinkers are looking for today?

Sherry’s burden is its reputation as that sweet old wine that grandma drinks. There is so much more to Sherry for those who pull the cork. If enough curious wine drinkers pull enough corks, perhaps Sherry’s “Next Big Thing” potential can be realized!

Is Sherry going to be the next big thing? Probably not. But it doesn’t have to be. It is a timeless wine waiting to be re-discovered by a new generation of wine drinkers.

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Thanks to everyone who helped us with our Sherry research. Special thanks to Susana, Mauricio, Marina, Santiago, George, Cesar, Greg, Harry, Jensen, Gabriel, and José. Thanks to Sue for these photos of the big Tio Pepe sign in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, the menu at The Sherry Corner, the rare old Osborne Sherries, and the many hues of the Gonzalez Byass Sherry wines.

Wine Books: 20 years of Chateau Feely, 30 Years of Gourmand Book Awards

April 1, 2025 By in book reviews, wine, wine awards 3 Comments

Today’s column celebrates two anniversaries: 20 years of Chateau Feely and 30 years of the Gourmand  Awards. What connects these two events? Wine books, of course, and the stories they tell us about wine and about life.

Grape Expectations: 20 Years of Chateau Feely

Caro Feely, Grape Expectations: A Family’s Vineyard Adventure in France. (First book in the Vineyard Series of books about Chateau Feely).

This is the 20th anniversary of Chateau Feely, a small organic and biodynamic winery in South West France. Caro Feely writes that

“We bought our vineyard in South West France in 2005 following our dream to create great wines on fine terroir. Now, with the wisdom of many years of winegrowing we celebrate not a misty dream but years of hard work and the inspiration of working with nature and nurturing this farm back to the full health and flavour of a living biodynamic soil. In our risky endeavour we have felt a lot: sometimes fear, sometimes pain but mostly great joy and fulfillment.”

I haven’t visited Chateau Feely, but like many people, I have shared the Feely family’s journey through Caro’s four Vineyard Series books, starting with Grape Expectations, and progressing through Saving Our Skins, Vineyard Confessions, and Cultivating Change. When Grape Expectations first appeared I wrote that

Caro Feely is an economist and a dreamer and so there was bound to be a bit of cognitive dissonance when she and her husband Sean and their two daughters pulled up stakes in Dublin and moved to Saussignac to grow grapes, make wine, and live the dream instead of just dreaming it.

Cognitive dissonance? Yes, that’s the stress that you feel when you try to believe two contradictory things at the same time and there cannot be two thoughts that are much more in contradiction than the idea of taking over a dilapidated house and run down vineyard and cellar and making great wine and the notion that you will be able to pay the bills and support a family in the process.

I’m not quite sure if Feely’s 2012 book Grape Expectations was written as a creative outlet, a cheap form of therapy or to generate an additional revenue stream, but it is a delightful book that I recommend to all my friends. Feely tells her family’s story and the book could be placed on a shelf along with Under the Tuscan Sun or A Year in Provence because of its ability to give all of us a peek at expat daily life in a suitably romantic setting,

But while there’s enough romance in Feely’s book to make it attractive to someone looking for an escape, it is the reality of her situation that appeals most to me. Besides telling a good story about her family’s experiences, she also teaches us a great deal about the arts and craft of winegrowing and the economics of the wine business, with its peculiar challenges and opportunities.

Grape Expectations is one of my favorite wine books because it weaves all the natural, technical, social, business, and personal elements of wine into a compelling (and true!) story. The four volumes of Feely’s Vineyard Series provide a rare opportunity to experience the hardships and triumphs of winegrowing from the relative comfort of your armchair. Highly recommended.

30 Years of the Gourmand Awards

Edouard Cointreau founded the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in 1995. Over the last 30 years they have expanded in several dimensions snf now seek to honor the best food, wine, and drinks books, printed or digital, as well as food television.

It is truly a global celebration. More than 221 countries have been represented, which is more than the United Nations (193 member states) and the same as FIFA, the world soccer governing body (221 member associations).

Edouard writes, “We reward now all food and drinks content, in print or digital, paid or free, private or public, trade publishers or self published, big or small, with an equal chance for everyone.”

The 30th anniversary celebration takes place from June 18-22, 2025, at the historic Palace of Marques de Pombal in Oeiras, Portugal. It should be quite a party!

Gourmand is inspired by the Olympics. Wine and food books are organized by nation of origin and earn the equivalents of bronze, silver, and gold awards. Edouard reports that “For the past 30 years, we have rewarded the best drinks books. Wine books 59%, spirits 24% beer 6%, coffee 5%, tea 3%, others 3%. English 37%, French 22%, Spanish 12%, others 29%.” There has been a gradual decline in wine books over the years, he notes, as interest in other beverages has increased.

The decrease in wine books is notable in the U.S. and U.K., but interest is stronger in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Brazil. It is an interesting coincidence that an excellent Portuguese translation of one of my books was recently published in Brazil and that my colleagues Cynthia Howson and Pierre Ly recently published a Spanish translation of their book about adventures on the wine trail in China.

Edouard breaks down the awards by the numbers:

  • We have over 220 countries and regions participating every year since 2019.  Founded 30 years ago, in 1995, it took us 12 years to reach 100 participating countries, 20 years to reach 200. Our number of countries and regions is slightly higher than the Olympics, because everyone eats, and not everyone can afford to have a sports team. The maximum number is around 250. There are 193 countries in the United Nations.
  • We now have a balance of origins for participating books between continents. North America plus Western Europe are equal to Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America. By languages, participating books are in English 41%, French 12%, Spanish 12%, other languages 36%.
  •  Traditional trade publishers have decreased to 70%, with independently published rising to 20% and corporations a surprising 10%.
  •  Internet now has quality food and drink books available free for downloads. They are screened by the Gourmand Awards for the best since 2016. They have their own separate parallel categories in the Gourmand Awards.
  • Today the top free publications are published 66% by public institutions, 19% by NGOs, and 15% by private interests.
  • United Nations and other big international organizations such as FAO, WFP, UNESCO, EU, CIRAD, OIV, have many food or drink publications, while local, or regional governments issue a large quantity of single titles more difficult to find.
  • For 20 years, women authors of food books have been stable over 60%,with men authors under 40%. It is the opposite for drink books, with men authors slowly decreasing at 75%, women rising at 25%.
  • For drinks books, on our lists, wine books are decreasing, now at 59%. All other drink books are up, with alcohol spirits books at 24%, beer at 6%, coffee at 5%, tea at 3%, others at 3%.
  • Food and drink culture is becoming global. It is not polarized. It is a gigantic puzzle where each piece is important and has its part.

Congratulations to this year’s winners. And thanks to Edouard Cointreau for three decades of hard work promoting wine books and supporting publishers and authors (like me).

Wine Goes to the Circus: Stags’ Leap Winery & Cirque du Soleil

March 25, 2025 By in brands, popular culture, wine 2 Comments


New consumers and new occasions are on every winery’s wish list these days. You can sit around and wait for things to happen or you can go out and try to help people discover wine and find a reason to drink it. You might not think that a circus performance is the obvious occasion for a glass of wine (or that the families that attend such events are obvious potential customers), but old thinking won’t necessarily solve the problem.

That’s how Sue and I ended up at a performance of Cirque du Soleil’s  KOOZA traveling show enjoying Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley’s Stags’ Leap Winery, the show’s official wine  partner.

Follow the Crowds?

Whoever said the only places to enjoy a glass of wine are the restaurants, bars, and your dinner table at home? Wine should go where people go. Follow the money, Deep Throat said. Follow the crowds is good wine advice today. And pour them a glass of wine.

And so wine has slowly and now suddenly started to appear in places you might not expect, including sports events and entertainment venues of all sorts, including Cirque du Soleil.

I know that wine is no stranger at sports competitions from watching Formula 1 auto racing over the years. Ferrari Trento has been the official podium sparkling wine sponsor for several years, for example, before being replaced by LVMH’s Moët & Chandon last year. But is F1 and wine an isolated case?

AI Intern Report

I asked my artificial intelligence intern if wine and sports linkups were very common and it quickly came up with an interesting list, starting with the partnership between Concha y Toro’s Cassillero del Diablo brand and the Manchester United Football Club (a.k.a. the Red Devils). United is having a poor season, so stadium fans may especially appreciate a glass of Chilean red.

Australia’s Hardy’s wine brand sponsors English Cricket, my intern noted, a relationship that might get awkward during The Ashes test matches. And Trivento is the official wine sponsor of English Premiership Rugby. Wine and sports seem to be a perfect pairing in Britain.

So it is obvious that many international wineries already see sports as a way to connect with sports fans around the world. What about U.S. wineries? Well, yes, my AI intern, replied. U.S. wineries are quite active in this arena and the connection is not as contrived as you might think. Many famous NBA and NFL players are known wine lovers, for example. Some even have their own wine brands.  Examples  of American wine and sports connections? My intern reports …

  • Jackson Family Wines has partnered with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).
  • Copper Cane Wines & Spirits: Partnered with five Major League Baseball teams, including the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, and Atlanta Braves. Copper Cane is also linked to several National Hockey League teams.
  • Gallo is the official wine partner of the National Football League.
  • Argentina’s Trivento is the wine partner of Major League Soccer.
  • Nobilo Winery: Official wine sponsor of the U.S. National Pickleball Club.

Wine Goes to the Circus

Stags’ Leap Winery, part of Treasury Wine Estates’ California winery collection, is official sponsor of Cirque du Soleil’s “big top” shows all over the world. Clearly Cirque du Soleil benefits from its association with a famous wine brand. And wine in general and Stags’ Leap Winery in particular benefit from the opportunity for face time (and lip time) with an audience that comes to be surprised, amazed, and delighted. That’s how people think of Cirque du Soleil and that’s how we’d like them to think about wine, don’t you think?

Sue and I were particularly pleased to receive an invitation to attend a performance of KOOZA under the big top in Redmond, Washington (we were Stags’ Leap Winery’s guests ) because we remember the program’s creator, David Shiner, so well from his Seattle theater days.  He worked with fellow clown Bill Irwin on the Tony-winning “Fool Moon.”

We had a wonderful time. We were surprised, amazed, and delighted by the show and very happy both to sip our Cabernet Sauvignon and to watch other audience members enjoying perhaps their first taste of “circus wine.”  The wine-circus partnership impressed us as subtle and classy, as you might expect. Circus goers were no doubt surprised to have the opportunity to enjoy such high-quality wines at an entertainment event.

We had high hopes for this partnership and the experience exceeded our expectations. Cirque du Soleil provides a first-class experience from start to finish; partnering with a first-class wine brand makes sense for both parties. We came away with even better feelings toward both Cirque du Soleil and Stags’ Leap Winery. Can’t wait for the circus (and the circus wine) be come back to town.

Wine Film Review: Eden (and its discontents)

March 11, 2025 By in popular culture, wine 1 Comment

Eden. Christopher McGilvray, director. Isiah Flores, cinematographer. View the trailer here.

Here’s the thing about wine. Geeky people like me spend a lot of time (and money) learning about it, thinking about it, talking about it, and even drinking it. But the point of wine isn’t wine. It is something more.

Sue and I are reminded of this every year when we host a group of friends for Open That Bottle Night. Everyone brings a bottle of wine, a story about the wine, and some food. We celebrate the wines and enjoy the food and stories, but we learned early on that the wines aren’t the point: It is the sharing that is the point and what we learn about ourselves and each other in the process.

This was especially obvious during the COVID pandemic when our celebration was shifted to Zoom. We were all a bit hesitant to log on because we couldn’t be together physically, eat the same foods, or taste the same wines. But, to our surprise, it was a remarkably satisfying experience because the power of sharing overwhelmed the physical barriers.

Some wine films disappoint because they don’t get past the first hurdle. They start and stop at wine. Sue and I joke about the many “four seasons in the vineyard” films we’ve seen. Beautiful. Empty.

Not (Just) Wine

But the best wine films understand. Take Sideways, for example. When Miles soliloquizes about wine — Pinot Noir, of course, and Merlot, too — he’s not really talking about wine. People, with their strengths and vulnerabilities, and relationships, good and bad. These are his concerns analyzed through the medium of fermented grape juice.

Eden, which premiered about this time last year. understands very well that wine is not just about wine. It began as a documentary about Mount Eden Vineyards, a historic winery high in the Santa Cruz Mountains overlooking Silicon Valley. The original idea was to film for a year and edit for a year, telling the story of the great wines and a unique winery. But then, gradually, I suspect, and then suddenly, the focus changed and it became about the people more than the wine. And because time changes things, the people began to change, too, and so the story evolved.

Seven-Year Itch

And so, the two-year project stretched to seven years. Seven years! As a result, a few times during the film it was difficult to figure out where in the chronology we were. The film is beautiful, of course, and it tells an engaging story. But it’s not (just) about the vineyards and the wines.

What is the story? The easy way to explain is that it is about the complexities and difficulties of generational transition. What happens when the generation that built a winery and created a legacy wants to pass it along to the next generation? This is an important problem in the world of wine because there are many wineries these days struggling to figure out the transition.

Sometimes, the older generation needs to hand off to the next but just can’t or won’t let go. In other cases, the younger generation has their own dreams to follow and is not interested in inherited legacies.

Not My Eden

You know the problem. It may be Eden to you, but it’s not my Eden. The fact that the wine business has hit a rough patch just now makes everything more complicated.

Eden thoughtfully probes the evolution of the behind-the-scenes family dynamics at Eden Mountain Vineyards, making it an unexpectedly personal and revealing film. Just as the story seems to be gliding toward a soft landing, a surprise twist shakes things up. The tensions are not resolved after all and we are left to wonder what we think we’ve learned and what we think we know. I won’t be a spoiler here. You’ll need to view the film (widely available on streaming services) to see what I mean.

Some wines are meant to be gulped down and others — I call them “philosophers’ wines” — invite contemplation or introspection. Eden is the wine film for you when you are willing to channel your inner philosopher.

The Three Faces of the American Wine Dilemma

February 25, 2025 By in economic crisis, Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, wine, wine markets 8 Comments

We live in a time when problems we face are complicated but many of the answers proposed to address them are very simple.  I am suspicious of simple answers to complicated questions, both in general (this was the theme of my 2005 book Globaloney) and when it comes to the American wine industry.

Draining America’s Wine Lake

Wine Economist readers already know about the American wine industry’s general over-supply problem.  Despite several short harvests in a row in California, wine inventories remain very high and prices are falling. As Jeff Bitter pointed out at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium last month, many thousands of acres of wine grape vines have been removed and more grubbing up is necessary before supply has been downsized to balance with demand. Similar adjustments are taking place throughout the world of wine.

I was interested to learn from Jeff that California’s Central Valley is perhaps closer to equilibrium than, say, the Central Coast. This is in part because growers in the valley can more effectively switch to alternative crops, which cushions the blow of vine removal. Indeed, many large growers already farm multiple types of crops, so the switch is a change of ratio and proportion, not a move into a new line of business.

Some growers would like to “furlough” their vineyards, to pause production until the market has stabilized. But, at least in some areas, this is made difficult because of water use regulations. Water rights can be withdrawn if the land is not actively farmed for several years. So in some areas, where alternative crops are not feasible and water rights are tightly controlled, vineyard removals or furloughs are hard to manage. No wonder there are reports of some vineyards simply abandoned! (I have also heard of one vineyard that was offered at a zero-dollar lease to anyone who would keep production going and, therefore, keep water rights safe.)

Unemployment: Cyclical, Structural, Frictional

The wine market situation is complicated in other ways, too. Both Glenn Proctor and Danny Brager talked about the problem at the Unified in terms of structural versus cyclical adjustments and this got me to thinking about the way economists explain unemployment as the interaction of three forces. I will explain briefly since I think these concepts apply to wine, too.

Cyclical unemployment is caused by cycles in the economy. Workers lose their jobs as firms scale back during a recession, for example, and gain them back (or get other jobs) when economic growth returns. Macroeconomic stimulus (tax cuts, interest rate reductions) are tools of choice to address cyclical unemployment.

Structural unemployment is joblessness due to changes in the essential structure of the economy. Changing patterns of trade, environmental shifts, and technological change are some of the causes of structural unemployment. Some newspaper employees, for example, suffer structural unemployment as demand shifts from physical to digital platforms for information, entertainment, and advertising. One of the concerns about artificial intelligence technology is that it might contribute to structural unemployment.

It is significant that policies designed to address cyclical unemployment such as interest rate cuts will do little to correct (and could even accelerate) structural unemployment problems.

Finally there is frictional unemployment, which is joblessness caused by inefficiencies in the labor market, as happens when there are jobs available in one city and jobless workers in another city, but information inefficiencies, high transaction costs, and other barriers prevent them from productive connection. The current housing market, with higher mortgage interest rates and historically high prices, is one source of frictional unemployment, for example. Job market policies tailored to either address cyclical or structural unemployment problems may have little impact on frictional unemployment. There aren’t many easy answers to complicated questions.

The American Wine Dilemma

These concepts apply to the wine industry in America and other countries today. The wine market has long been subject to medium-term (7- to 10-year) cycles, for example, although “wild card” events such as the COVID pandemic have distorted the pattern. Some wine industry folks have never seen the bottom of the wine cycle before. The fact that the previous “boom” part of the cycle was characterized by a ratchet-up of wine prices (premiumization) makes the down cycle more difficult to predict.

There are also structural changes at work. Demographic transition (baby boomer rise and fall) is part of the situation, but so is the structural shift in attitudes and behavior towards beverage alcohol generally.  There also seems to be a structural shift in consumer preferences away from red wines toward white wines. It is hard to predict how and when these structural forces might run their course and when or whether they might reverse.

Finally, there are frictional concerns that take many forms around the world, but here in the United States are perhaps most apparent in wine distribution and retailing. Wine distribution pipelines have narrowed in recent years. I have written that every industry organizes itself around its most important inefficiency (or “bottleneck,” if you know what I mean). Distribution is wine’s bottleneck, not growing grapes or making wine. The fact that this bottleneck has narrowed is significant and could well reshape the industry broadly.

The Age of Uncertainty

If you are looking for a simple answer to the dilemma of American wine, you are not going to find it here. The point, as stated above, is that complicated questions seldom have simple answers. Complexity leads to uncertainty because each of the cyclical, structural, and frictional forces is difficult to predict and their dynamic interaction is sometimes best modeled by chaos theory

So, as I wrote here a few weeks ago, we have entered the Age of Uncertainty. In economics, uncertainty equals risk and risk discourages investment, innovation, and growth. Not what the wine industry needs at this moment. But understanding uncertainty and risk is better than charging ahead in ignorance.

The Wine Economist 1000

February 18, 2025 By in Shameless Self-Promotion, wine 10 Comments

The Wine Economist first appeared on May 29, 2007, with a report called “Bottling the 2005 at Fielding Hills Winery,” which compared the volunteer bottling line to Adam Smith’s famous pin factory. Incredibly, The Wine Economist is still publishing its weekly newsletter after all these years and last week’s post was the 1000th in the series.

The  Wine Economist has averaged about 1000 words per column or 50,000 words per year, which is roughly equivalent to about two full-length books every three years.

The book comparison is relevant because we have often used the weekly columns to work out ideas that eventually reappeared in the five wine business books that we have written over this time span.

The original idea was simply to take advantage of the blog format to work out ideas in public and get feedback from a broad group including consumers, industry professionals, and other academics. This worked better than I might have expected.

It would be fair to say that I didn’t know what I was doing when I started down this path. For example, I used to say that The Wine Economist wasn’t a blog because its articles are too long and it only appears about once a week. Hardly what you’d expect from a traditional web-log (a.k.a. blog). But then it received the Gourmand International award for Best Wine Blog, so I guess that is what it is.

In the same way, I used to say that I am not a wine writer, just an economist who writes about the wine business. But then one of my books received the Gourmand international award for Best Wine Writing.  I don’t know what to say.

Looking ahead, there is a lot of work left to be done and Sue and I are looking forward to more adventures and the opportunity to meet and get to know interesting people. The wine world is always growing, shifting, changing. We are excited to see where the next 100, 500, or maybe 1000 Wine Economist articles take us.

Cheers to our readers. And thanks!