Wine Book Review: Italy in a Wineglass

Italy in a Wineglass: The Story of Italy Through its Wines by Marc Millon (Melville House Publishing, 2024).

They say that every glass of wine tells a story, so if you get enough of the right wines together, can they tell a really big and complicated story? Can you tell the history of Italy through its wines?

That’s the challenge that drives this very interesting new book by Marc Millon. Sue and I recently returned from a trip to Collio in Italy’s northeast near the border with Slovenia (watch for our first report next week) and Millon’s book kept me engaged during the long trans-Atlantic flights. I am a fan.

Zooming In and Out

The story is organized chronologically because the idea is to tell a history (you’d probably do it by region if wine itself was the point). The chapters follow a set pattern that I call PGP for Particular-General-Particular. Particular, to start off with something concrete, then zoom out to General to make broad points, then focus on Particular again to drive home the point. It’s a very effective way to tell a story.

Millon begins each chapter with a personal vignette that evokes a particular time, place, wine, and usually good food, too. If you’ve been to Italy a few times it’s likely that you will be familiar with some of the places that Millon visits and the experiences he reports. A concrete personal connection is made.

The vignette is chosen to launch us into a more general discussion of a slice of Italy’s rich political, social, and economic history. Millon’s style here is fluid and footnote-free. Not simple in terms of ideas, but not difficult to understand. The history section almost always finds a way to bring the development of Italy’s wines and wine industry into the story.

Finally, Millon zooms in to provide detailed profiles of a few particular wines that he has chosen to illustrate some particular point. If the vignette introduction and the historical centerpiece haven’t hooked you, the stories of the wines surely will. I was interested that a couple of the wines that Millon chooses were also on the list I compiled for my book Around the World in Eighty Wines, and for pretty much the same reasons.

Conflict and Economy

Two noteworthy threads run through the book. The first is war and conflict, which has a big impact on wine, generally not in a good way. This especially hit home for me since we were headed to Friuli, where so many battles have been fought over the years (and indeed, Millon’s chapter on Wars and Wine opens in Cormons).

The second thread is economic change. We learn a lot about changing systems of wine production (feudal, sharecroppers, cooperatives, the “economic miracle,” and more) and how they have affected wine, wine producers, and the wine industry. If Italian wine economics were all you cared about, this would be a good introduction because the key elements are there, set firmly in a broader context.

How does Italy’s history (and its wineglass) conclude? Millon brings his book to a close by surveying the many problems facing Italian wine and wine more generally in a chapter he calls “Back to the Future.” He even offers a few wines to help the reader think through the journey (Gravner’s Ribolla Gialla from Friuli is one of them).

By the last glass, you’ve learned a lot about Italy, Italian wines, and how they are connected. An excellent read! The only thing that would have made it more satisfying is if Delta Airlines offered better wines (preferably fine Italian wines) for its passengers to enjoy while reading Italy in a Wineglass at 38,000 feet!

Chilling Out: The Red & White of Austrian Wines

July 9, 2024 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 5 Comments

Austria’s colors are red and white. Those are the colors of the national flag and the uniforms of the country’s football team, too. You can see them clearly on the bottles of many Austrian wines because a seal atop the bottle continues the red and white theme.

Blessings and Curses

Red and white. That’s Austria and its wines. But what do people think of when they think about Austrian wines? Not the red. Just the white. Riesling, of course, and increasingly Gruner Veltliner. Delicious wines that are Austria’s vinous ambassadors to the world.

That’s the blessing and the curse of “signature” grape varieties. They help define a region or country in a crowded wine market, but they also make it difficult for any other type or style of wine to break out. This is the wine variation of the economic principle of the “Dutch Disease,” which holds that, under some circumstances, great success in any one sector of the economy creates barriers to success elsewhere. Austrian red wines are victims of the Gruner Veltliner’s curse.

Cool Reds

The Austrian Wine organization aims to lift the curse by giving Austrian red wines a strong identity of their own. The theme is “chillable reds,” which is a category of wines that I see mentioned more and more (today’s email includes a note from California’s Ridge Vineyard is promoting its varietal Valdiguie as a “chillable red”).

You can chill any red wine, I suppose, and it is conventional wisdom among wine geeks that most red wines are served too warm (and most white wines too cold). But what makes a red wine particularly suitable to this category? Think light body, low alcohol, fruity, juicy, refreshing. What’s not to like?

Sue and I enjoyed many red wines of this type when we lived in Prague for a couple of summers (back in my professor days). The red wines (from Slovakia, Czechia, and Austria as I recall) were great with a bit of a chill at the end of a warm day.

Austrian’s “chillable red” category is quite diverse, beginning with wines made from the Zweigelt grape variety (which accounts for 45 percent of red vineyard plantings). Other winegrapes to look for include Sankt Laurent, Blaufrankisch (a.k.a. Lemberger here in Washington state), Pinot Noir, and Blau Portugieser. The wines differ in many respects, but share a common thread of light body and good acidity. You would not be a fool to spend the rest of the summer exploring these wines and others like them.

Austrian Wine sent us a couple of wines to sample and they showed the diversity of this category very well. The Sankt Laurent from Christina Wines was light and fresh, with sour cherry and cranberry flavors. Reminded me a bit of Beaujolais, which makes sense because of whole-berry fermentation. A fun wine and only 11% abv.

The second wine was a Pinot Noir “Langenlois” from Weingut Jurtschitsch. Pinot Noir is familiar territory, so it was interesting to see how this wine captured the essence of its cool climate terroir. Here in Washington state this is the type of wine we enjoy chilled down a bit with grilled sockeye salmon because it has structure but without weight. There are lots of situations where that’s just what we are looking for. I have to admit that the “chillable red” category includes some “swimming pool” wines, but they aren’t all so simple.

The Big Chill?

What does chilling do to red wine? I suppose it depends on the wine. I remember tasting one very popular wine with lots of tannins and residual sugar. I needed to chill it way down just to drink it. But with nice wines like those we tasted from Austria I most appreciate how chilling affects the texture and reinforces the juicy appeal.

What does chilling do for Austrian red wines in terms of their market appeal? I think the Austrian producers hope it will help their wines carve out a distinct identity and guide buyers interested in this style of wine to the part of the wine wall where the red and white bottle tops can be found.

Wine in America: An Independence Day Flashback

July 2, 2024 By Mike Veseth in book reviews, wine, wine history Leave a comment

It is an Independence Day tradition here at the Wine Economist to use our national holiday as an opportunity to reflect on wine in America and American wine. This year we take a historical perspective by re-printing a book review from 2020 that offers a fascinating glimpse of changing American attitudes toward wine in general and American wine in particular. Enjoy!

Book Review: Wine & the White House

Wine and the White House: A History by Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. (White House Historical Association).

wh2 President Trump doesn’t drink beverage alcohol and neither does Vice President Pence, and yet wine is a constant at White House state dinners and similar events. What’s served is nice wine, too, according to records found in this rather fascinating new book.

A state dinner for French President Macron on April 24, 2018, for example, included Domaine Serene Chardonnay (Oregon), Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir (Oregon), and Schramsberg Cremant Demi-Sec sparkling wine (California).

Apart from the Prohibition years (when, if there was wine in the White House, it wasn’t served in public settings), wine has always been a White House staple and having your wine served at a state dinner has been the ultimate celebrity endorsement.

Wine and the White House is a big book (more than 400 pages), beautifully produced, generously illustrated, and full of information. It is not a book to read from cover to cover, but rather something to dip into and enjoy. There are wine-driven profiles of each president in one section, an examination of the White House collection of wine glasses, decanters, and other wine paraphernalia, and even surveys of the different wine regions (and some of the producers) that have featured at White House events.

The author, Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., is Chairman of the Board of the White House Historical Association, a perch that gives him access to important source material. He was Assistant to the President under President Reagan, the founding CEO for Politico, and is currently the Publisher and CEO of the Washington Post.

This book was created with a diverse audience in mind. There are sections on wine basics, for example, for history buffs who might not know a lot about wine. And there are other sections to guide wine people who might not have brushed up on their American history in a while. And, of course, there is a lot of material that both wine people and history people will find new and interesting. You can pretty much open any page at random and find something you are happy to look at or read.

The chapters that I like best focus on the wines that presidents served to their guests at state dinners and similar events. There are menus going back to 1877, for example, with relatively complete data (including reproductions of the actual menus) starting with the Eisenhower White House years. I’m interested in these documents because they give a sense of how Americans and their leaders thought about wine in the postwar years and how those attitudes evolved.

f4758b03499942eadac83252f0119173 Fine wine meant European wine in the 1950s. Eisenhower’s guests were only very occasionally served anything else. A typical Eisenhower state dinner started with Dry Sack Sherry, Spain, and then moved on to Chateau Climens Barsac, France, and what is listed as Beaune Greves Burgundy, France. Pol Roger Champagne, France, brought the evening to a close. There were variations, of course, for particular guests. German Rieslings for Chancellor Adenauer and Lafite for Winston Churchill.

The Kennedy years saw the the range of wines broaden (more Rieslings and Soave, for example), but generally within a classic old world frame. Noteworthy: increasing presence of American wine (especially Almaden and Inglenook) and I noted Lancer’s Rosé from Portugal served at a luncheon for the Danish Prime Minister. Inglenook “Pinot Chardonnay” appears several times, a reminder that Chardonnay was still little planted in California in the 1960s and often went by this now-forgotten name on bottle labels.

LBJ’s White House dinners embraced American wine wholeheartedly, a trend that has continued. It is as unusual today for an international wine to be served as it was 70 years ago to see a domestic bottle on the table. The White House wine people were ahead of consumers more generally, especially early on, in their willingness to serve American wines to important guests.

It is also interesting to note that the range of American wines, once the trend got started, rather quickly moved beyond California (although that state’s wines still dominated). White House wine selections make a statement and it seems that this is intentional at least some of the time. Can you guess which president first served Texas wine or Michigan wine? Washington and Oregon have joined California as White House regulars.

Wine and the White House is a book that it would be fun to give or to receive. Pour a glass of fine Madeira (a wine that Jefferson bought by the pipe according to a reproduction of his inventory sheet) and enter this unique world. Wine and history pair very well indeed.

Book Review: Exploring China (and Chinese Wine) One Banquet at a Time

June 25, 2024 By Mike Veseth in book reviews, China wine, popular culture, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

China in Seven Banquets: A Flavorful History by Thomas David DuBois (Reaktion Books, 2024).

It doesn’t always work, but sometimes you can learn something about wine by busting out of the wine box and looking back in to see what people think about wine in a different context.

This practice is always interesting but sometimes disappointing, too. For example, reading Andreas Viestad’s book about the world seen through the lens of a single meal in Rome was full of fun facts and great insights. But it made me sad when his chapter on wine missed all the cultural elements I was looking for and focused almost entirely on wine as alcohol. How sad! But I have to admit that’s how some people see wine. Good to remember that!

I was hopeful, therefore, but also cautious in approaching China in Seven Banquets. I quickly turned to the index when I received my review copy of Professor DuBois’s new book. There were references to wine throughout the book, which came as a pleasant surprise. I couldn’t wait to start reading.

China in Seven Banquets is a fascinating book. DuBois promises to provide scholarly insights without the dry prose or interminable footnotes that might stop you from turning to the next page. He succeeds very well in balancing depth and accessibility.

DuBois takes us through China’s history via the seven banquets promised by the title, but it is not as simple as that. As the book’s summary explains:

From the opulent Eight Treasures feast of ancient times to the Tang dynasty’s legendary “Tail-Burning” banquet, and the extravagant “complete Manchu-Han feast” of the Qing court, these iconic repasts offer glimpses into China’s rich food history. Delving further, the book invites us to partake of lavish banquets immortalized in literature and film, a New Year’s buffet from 1920s Shanghai, a modern delivery menu reflecting the hyperglobal present, and it even offers a peek at the tables of the not-so-distant future.

The text is liberally seasoned with recipes, which give a sense of not just what was prepared, but how, and with what ingredients. (Trigger warning: Sue says that some of the early recipes didn’t exactly make her hungry.) The food is the focus, of course, but not necessarily for its own sake. DuBois links changes in Chinese cuisine to broader themes. You end up learning a lot more about China (and the world) than you thought you would.

I was particularly struck by a short paragraph at the end of a chapter about halfway through the book. At this point, DuBois explains, banquet cuisine has evolved into what you recognize as the “Chinese food” of today as seen on restaurant menus around the world. What is striking, he points out, is that virtually none of these dishes began in China. They are all the results of foreign influences embraced and then shaped by the people of China.

Sue points out that China is far from the only country with a culture or cuisine that is more or less an amalgam of imported influences. Tyler Cowen’s book Creative Destruction traces these effects, and their unintended consequences, through case studies that range from rock and roll to Navajo rugs.

So what about all those references to wine in the index? Well, it seems that wine is a generic term for fermented (as opposed to distilled) beverages. Wine can be made from lots of things. Fruit. Rice. And even grapes (although I remember seeing only one reference specifically to grape wine). Wine is everywhere in Chinese cultural history. Grape wine not so much. Until recently.

I was disappointed, but what could I expect? Grape wine’s surprising 21st-century rise and then sudden recent fall is perhaps too much of a bump in the road to be featured in this account of Chinese cuisine’s long journey. Maybe it is too soon to know how the Chinese wine culture and market will develop in the future.

But then I remembered DuBois’s point about China’s propensity to assimilate foreign culinary influences and make them so much a part of the tapestry of Chinese cuisine that it is impossible to unravel them. Maybe, just maybe that’s what’s going on. If so, wine might have a bright future in China (and on Chinese food delivery menus, too). But don’t be surprised if the result isn’t exactly what you expected.

Thanks to Professor DuBois for a delicious and thought-provoking book. Highly recommended.

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If you are interested in learning more about Chinese drinking culture and how grape wine fits in, consider Li Zhengping, Chinese Wine 3/e (translated by Shanghai Ego — really!), Cambridge University Press, 2011. The Wine Economist review appeared in 2011. Grape wine is only part of the story, of course, but it is discussed in good depth both in terms of history and recent events. I especially appreciate the sections on Chinese drinking culture.

Cantina Tramin: Strength in (Small) Numbers in Alto Adige

June 18, 2024 By Mike Veseth in cooperatives, Italian wine, wine, wine history, wine markets Leave a comment

Your first impression when you arrive at Cantina Tramin is that you’ve entered some sort of space portal. Here in the lush Alto Adige hills, you expect to see a sturdy old building housing Cantina Tramin winery, but it’s not there. Or rather it is there, but it is hidden by a very modern addition that was completed only in 2010. Old and new.

The new Tramin is striking. You feel like you are approaching a space ship when you drive up. And you feel like you are peeking out among the vines when you look out from inside. It is quite an experience.

Quite a Surprise

The wines are quite an experience, too, especially the white wines. Bright, bold, complex. They fit the image of the winery perfectly. The surprise comes when you learn that this sleek, modern winery with its terrific wines is a cooperative, born from crisis more than 100 years ago.

Sue and I have visited the Alto Adige several times and we are always impressed by the great wines we taste and the tiny vineyards we encounter. The vineyards cling to the hills in this region with the valley floor given over in many places to the tree fruit for which the region is well known. There are about 5000 hectares of vineyards and about 5000 winegrowers tending them. Even if math isn’t your strong suit I think you can tell that the average holding is pretty small and the smallest of them are like grape-strewn postage stamps.

1898 and All That

The Cantina Tramin cooperative took flight during a crisis in 1898. The many small growers lacking market power relative to a few large buyers, facing ruinously low prices, and led by Tramin’s parish priest, pledged to work together rather than run a race to the bottom. This is how wine cooperatives spring up. But as anyone who has served on a committee can tell you, it isn’t always easy to make collective enterprises succeed.

Cantina Tramin followed the well-traveled road in its early days, producing bulk wines (mainly red wines from the Schiava grape) and selling them off at low prices to be bottled, marketed, and sold by others. Then in the 1980s came the realization that competition for basic wines in the bulk wine market might not be economically sustainable, especially for a region with such fragmented vineyard ownership.

So the decision was made to radically change the cooperative’s model, moving from quantity to quality, from bulk wine to branded wine, from red to white. It was an expensive decision because it meant replanting by individual cooperative members and cellar investment by the group. The fantastic new winery that opened in 2010 was the crowning touch, but it came after much hard work and investment by the 160 families and their 270 hectares of vines.

Bold DNA

Bold moves seem to be in Cantina Tramin’s institutional DNA. Creating and later expanding the cooperative was a risky decision, albeit one that was more or less forced upon the grower families at the start. Breaking away from the quantity-driven bulk wine model was a big step, too. I am sure there were doubts and second thoughts at the time, but that bet has paid off very well.

You get a sense of the strategic thinking at work here when you look at the winery’s Chardonnay program. Chardonnay does really well here and there is a lot planted, but it wasn’t suited to the kind of buttery Chardonnay that was in fashion 20 years ago. So rather than release a 100% Chardonnay, Tramin created “Stoan” (stone), a blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Pinot Bianco, and Gewurtztraminer. Only some years later, when tastes had changed, did Tramin release “Troy” (trail), a pure Chardonnay that spends a year on the lees.

Big Bets Pay Off

Maybe the biggest bet of all is Tramin’s signature wine, the Nussbaumer Gewurtztraminer. Although it is difficult to know for sure, many think Gewurtz originally hails from this region. It sure does well here, whatever its origin. It is an easy wine to enjoy when done well, as it is at Tramin, but not necessarily an easy wine to sell. There’s the name, which some consumers are afraid to pronounce, and then there are the different styles of Gewurtz that you find, from austerely dry to sweetish and flowery.

The Nussbaumer is more about minerality than flowers. Made from very ripe grapes, which account for the surprisingly high 14.5 percent abv, it is all about balance. The winery’s food pairing recommendations are speck (the delicious smoked prosciutto product this region is known for) and saffron risotto with licorice powder.

Winebow represents Cantina Tramin in the United States and a look at its online catalog shows a surprisingly wide range of wines including other white wines like Pinot Grigio (an important export to the U.S.) and reds, too, including Lagrein, Schiava, and Pinot Noir.

Cantina Tramin is a great success. Could it be a model for other regions? Definitely yes if you are looking for a business model for cooperative success. In terms of organization, Cantina Tramin does everything right, especially in terms of creating strong incentives for winegrower members to produce the best possible grapes and no sacrifice of quality for quantity or collective reputation for individual gain.

It is never easy to get collective agreement for such systems and many cooperatives failed in the past precisely for this reason. One key, we were told, is that Cantina Tramin is not too big so the families know one another and the social contract that binds the members together is as tight as the legal contract. (Not for nothing are Italian cooperatives called cantine socialle). So there is strength in numbers … so long as the numbers are not too big!

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Here are the Cantina Traminb wines we tasted for this report:

Pinot Grigio Classico 2023

Unterebner Pinot Grigio 2022

Stoan Bianco (70% Chardonnay, 20% Sauvignon, 5% Pinot Bianco, 5% Gewurtztraminer) 2022

Troy Chardonnay 2020

Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer 2022

All of the wines were distinctive and delicious. The biggest surprises were the Chardonnay, which was complex with a long finish, and the two Pinot Grigio wines, which set a high standard for wines made from this grape variety.

Second Thoughts on Sustainability?

June 11, 2024 By Mike Veseth in sustainability, wine, wine markets 5 Comments

This is one of those annoying “devil’s advocate” columns. It seems like everyone I meet in the wine business is talking about sustainability and with good reason. Regional sustainability programs have had great success in bringing the industry together. Given all the attention, however, maybe it is no surprise that some people are starting to have second thoughts.

What Does This Mean?

Sue and I were at a meeting of winemakers and regional wine media when one of the most respected people at the table challenged the group. “I don’t know what ‘sustainable’ means,” he proclaimed.

He was trying to make a point. The “S” word gets thrown around so much and in so many contexts that it doesn’t seem to mean anything in particular anymore. It’s almost a belief or an “-ism” (sustainabl-ism?) in practice, whatever its formal definition.

Sustainability certifications like the Sustainable WA program here in Washington, have specific criteria, but the term “sustainable” itself is very flexible, a fact that one of my university students taught me in his senior thesis, which argued that “sustainable development” was a popular goal precisely because it was ambiguous in practice and could be used to justify all sorts of policies.

Sustainability claims are flexible in wine, too. Sue and I can’t forget a Chilean wine we bought a few years ago that claimed to be “sustainably dry-farmed.” Dry-farmed means no irrigation to me. But, doing a little research, I learned that “sustainably dry-farmed” in this particular case meant that they irrigated the vines, but only when they really needed to. So it could have been called “sustainably irrigated” too. That’s crazy!

Unbearable Heaviness?

I still had this conversation on my mind when I opened up the newest issue of the noteworthy Italian wine journal Civiltà del bere (the civilization of drinking). Alessandro Torcoli’s editorial addressed “The unbearable heaviness of sustainability” (L’insostenibile pesantezza della sostenibilità). Sustainable viticulture is critically important to the wine industry, Torcoli argues. But there is so much talk, talk, talk, talk, that it becomes a bit boring and unable to support expectations.

Although Torcoli is weary of long discussions about sustainability, he clearly appreciates its importance. He is concerned that wine’s sustainability conversations are so inwardly focused that they don’t make much of an impact on consumers. “It has never happened in the history of oenology,” he writes, “that there has been such a disconnect between the commitment of companies (because being sustainable involves an enormous bureaucratic, financial, organizational effort…) and consumers.”

Unnecessary Heaviness

It is easy to see how consumers could become confused about what sustainable wine means. Sometmes you only have to pick up the bottle to start to have doubts.

One of Sue’s pet peeves is wineries that broadcast their commitment to sustainability but then undermine the message by using heavy-weight glass bottles. It is not unusual to find bottles that weigh more than the wine itself (750 grams). One recent bottle (a Malbec from Argentina) weighed in at nearly a kilogram on Sue’s digital scale. That’s a lot of weight to haul around and an unnecessary addition to the wine’s carbon footprint. Wine critics are increasingly sensitive to bottle weight. Karen MacNeil will no longer review heavy-weight bottles, for example.

That extra weight just isn’t consistent with a sustainability message at our house. We recently enjoyed Domaine Bousquet’s Virgen Malbec, a USDA certified organic wine (organic grapes in the vineyard plus organic winemaking practices in the cellar). The bottle weighed in at just 402 grams. It is possible to go even lighter.

Theory vs Practice

Surveys say that wine consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable products, but when I tried to find a market link a few years ago, I came away empty-handed. If buyers are really paying more for sustainable wine (and not just giving “aspirational” answers to survey questions), I posited, then sustainably grown grapes should be worth more than conventionally grown grapes. I wasn’t able to find a sustainability premium. This is important for several reasons but perhaps especially because winegrape growers in many parts of the world currently receive economically unsustainable prices for their grapes. A sustainability premium could potentially bring a double benefit.

I couldn’t even verify that the average price of sustainable wine was higher than similar wines because “sustainable” is used in so many ways. There are many certified sustainable programs. Then there are wineries that act sustainably (and say so), but don’t go through certification. Then there is the widespread unregulated common use of the term (see “sustainably dry-farmed” above).

Worn-Out Words?

No wonder Torcoli sighs that “We are (almost) all convinced of the need to think about sustainability, but the word is wearing out.” He’s right. Maybe we need to unpack this term and explain what we are trying to sustain, how, and why. It might be unrealistic to expect a single word to hold all that information and to convey it persuasively to consumers.

A recent Wall Street Journal article, for example, reported that a UK supermarket chain sold more of its private label chocolate bars, despite raising the price, when it made a specific pledge. The cocoa for the bars only comes from sources that do not exploit child or slave labor, which is an issue in the cocoa supply chain. This made the more expensive ethically-sourced chocolate bars different from products that make more general sustainability claims or no claims at all.

According to one study cited in the WSJ article, 80 percent of survey takers said they cared about sustainability, but less than seven percent of them actually paid extra for sustainable products. That’s just one survey and the chocolate bars are just one product, but it gives us sonething to think about, doesn’t it?

So what is to be done? More talk? Torcoli concludes, “But the question remains: how can we sustain the unbearable heaviness of sustainability? Making it more rock or sexier, as the Americans would say? Unfortunately, another conference on the subject is needed.”

The wine industry has come a long way on the sustainability front. Now, what’s the next step? That’s the annoying but inevitable question.

A Tale of Two Wine Regions: Willamette Valley & Virginia

June 4, 2024 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 2 Comments

The best way to sell wine is also the best way to enjoy it: a personal experience with the winemaker, the wine, and the stories that connect the two and form a memorable bond. That’s why winery visits are so powerful.

Not everyone can come to the winery, however, so what’s the next best thing? By happy coincidence Sue and I have recently been involved in two efforts that succeed in different ways.

Willamette Valley: The Winemakers’ Lunch

The Willamette Valley, like many regions, sponsors periodic road shows where winemakers and their wines travel to meet media, the wine trade, and consumers in person. It is sort of an exercise in bringing the mountain to Mohammed, which in this case meant bringing Oregon producers to Seattle. There were walkaround tastings for trade and consumers, individual meetings with distributors, tastings at wine shops, and a media lunch at Matt’s in the Market that we were lucky to attend.

Sue and I were excited about the lunch both because we could taste the wines with food, which is one of our tasting preferences, but also because we could meet the winemakers in a small group setting and get to know them and their stories a little better. As good as the wines were, the people and the stories, especially about their relationships with their farms and their customers, were the best part. I have listed the wineries and wines we tasted at the end of this column.

The wines told stories both expected and new. Every winery brought a Pinot Noir, for example, which was no surprise since that is the Willamette Valley’s signature wine grape variety. Each was distinctive, all were delisious. The big surprise was the Pinot Noir wine from El Fille, which was white, not red, and packaged in a refillable bottle, part of a program to recycle and reuse bottles, not just recycle the glass. The wine was refreshing and, from a market standpoint, a smart development because white wines now outsell red wines globally.

The Willamette Valley is Pinot Noir, but not just Pinot Noir. That was one of the storylines, so each winery also brought something else that they are proud of, starting with Pinot Gris, the most-planted white grape variety, to Dry Riesling and Chardonnay, Trousseau and Gamay Noir. I think you could spend a weekend in the Willamette Valley without ever tasting Pinot Noir and have a great time because the other wines are so interesting.

People ask why this region doesn’t produce more Chardonnay since Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are best friends in France (this question actually came up at the luncheon)? Jancis Robinson and Linda Murphy give an answer in their 2013 book American Wine. The early Chardonnay vineyards were all planted with a Davis clone best suited to a much warmer climate. The wines made from these grapes lacked character and so Pinot Gris, better suited to cool climate conditions, won out. But eventually Dijon clones arrived on the scene and great wines with distinctive character appeared. You could probably spend a weekend tasting nothing but Chardonnay and not regret it!

Virginia: The Governor’s Cup Case

Oregon and Virginia have a few things in common when it comes to wine, but the differences are most important. Both wine industries took root about fifty years ago (this year the Willamette Valley celebrates the 40th anniversary of its AVA) and both were influenced by the international investment they attracted in the early days. The Drouhin family brought a lasting French accent to Oregon, for example, and Italy’s Zonin family’s 1976 investment in Barboursville Vineyards jump-started the modern wine industry in Virginia.

The Virginia wine industry organizes a Governor’s Cup competition each year, and hundreds of wines are entered by the nearly 400 wineries in the state (Oregon boasts nearly 900 wineries). For 2024, the Virginia judges tasted over 750 wines, awarding gold medals to 137 wines from 79 wineries.

A winning wine is named each year and a Governor’s Cup Case of wine created with twelve top wines, six from the Monticello AVA and six from elsewhere in the state. Monticello is like the Willamette Valley in that it is the center of the state’s industry, but a lot is happening elsewhere, too.

This year we were fortunate to be on the media list for a Governor’s Cup Case and to be invited to meet the winemakers via webinars hosted by the skillful Frank Morgan. We’ve met the people, heard the stories, and now we are slowly working our way through the wines.

Vive la Différence!

The obvious difference between the Willamette Valley and Virginia is that Virgina doesn’t really have a signature grape variety. There was one Pinot Noir wine in the case, but Pinot isn’t easy to grow in hot, humid Virginia. CrossKeys Vineyards gets away with it in part because its Shenandoah Valley (near the Blue Ridge mountains) location is friendlier to Pinot than is Monticello, but mainly because they harvest very early and make a sparkling wine.

We are working our way through the Governor’s Cup case (hard work, but someone has to do it) and learning a lot in the process. Matching grape variety to terroir is important everywhere, but perhaps especially so in a hot, humid region. The first white wine we tasted was a Petit Manseng from Paradise Springs Winery in Northern Virginia. The wine was fermented and aged in a concrete egg.

Petit Manseng is a grape variety most closely associated with Jurançon in Southwest France where it makes delicious well-balanced sweet wines. You find it in Virginia and even further south because it retains its acidity in hot weather and the loose bunches of thick-skinned berries can tolerate high humidity better than many grapes. That’s exactly what winemakers need in Virginia. The wine was delicious and very well balanced, enjoyed through the meal and even with Sue’s rhubarb upside-down cake dessert.

The characteristics that make Petit Manseng a good grape variety for Virginia also apply to Petit Verdot. So it is no surprise that most of the red wines in the Governor’s case are either varietal Petit Verdot or include it in the blend. This was true of this year’s winning wine, King Family Vineyards 2019 Meritage, a blend of 48% Merlot, 28% Petit Verdot, 20% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Malbec.

The King Family Meritage was delicious, but not exactly what I was expecting. The Petit Verdot component lifted the wine and made it juicier than most other Meritage blends we have tried. This sort of red blend might be a signature style for Virginia (just as Cabernet/Merlot/Syrah works in Washington). It might not be an accident that there are four red blends featuring Petit Verdot in the Governor’s Cup case and a 100% Petit Verdot wine, too.

We tried the “Traditional Red Blend” from Afton Mountain Vineyards, for example. Although it followed a a slightly different recipe, the Petit Verdot came through clearly. You would not mistake it for a California BDX blend. When it comes to “traditional red blends,” Virginia is creating its own traditions.

Tannat is another wine grape that can stand up to warm contitions. It is famously at home in Madrian in Southeast France. It makes sense that it might work the right spots in Virginia, too. We were therefore excited to try the “L. Scott red blend” from Michael Shaps Wineworks. A Virginia appellation wine (because the different grapes came from specific vineyards in serveral parts of the state), this blend of 50% Tannat and smaller amounts of Merlot, Malbec, and Cabernet was terrific from start to finish. A fantastic example of what is possible in Virginia.

Take-Aways

Virginia and the Willamette Valley are about the same age in terms of their modern wine industries, but it is obvious that the Oregon region has matured more quickly. The Virginia winemakers we met on the webinar acknowledge that they are still experimenting with terroir and grape varieties (and probably in finding their markets, too).

Two things the regions have in common are quality and diversity. Tasting the Virginia Governor’s Cup wines demonstrated the quality of the best wines. The growing emphasis on grape varieties in addition to Pinot Noir shows the diversity of the Willamette Valley’s offerings. The Willamette Valley has embraced diversity by choice. They can grow many types of winegrapes and are exploring the possibilities.

Virginia is exploring new pathways both by choice and be necessity because of climactic conditions. The experiments are on-going and the best results are attention-grabbing. What fun!

Both regions have much to offer wine enthusiasts, with something new around every corner. Can’t wait to see what’s new next year.

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Willamette Valley Vintners’ Lunch wines

Et Fille White Pinot Noir (bottled in Revino refillable bottles)
Sweet Cheeks Estate Dry Riesling & Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
Belle Pente Willamette Valley Pinot Gris & Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
Resonance Découverte Vineyard Chardonnay & Resonance Vineyard Pinot Noir
Hazelfern Trousseau Noir & Three Cedars Vineyard Pinot Noir
Division Gamay Noir “Gala” & Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
Winderlea 2019 Vintage Sparkling Brut & Winderlea Vineyard Pinot Noir

Virginia Governor’s Cup case: Monticello Region

Afton Mountain Vineyards 2019 T: Monticello AVA – 42% Merlot, 29% PetitVerdot, 29% Cabernet Sauvignon
Barboursville Vineyards 2019 Paxxito: Monticello AVA – 50% Moscato, 50% Vidal Blanc
Hark Vineyards 2019 Spark: Earlysville, Monticello AVA – 46% Cabernet Franc, 30% Merlot, 24% Petit Verdot
King Family Vineyards 2019 Meritage: Crozet, Monticello AVA – 48% Merlot, 28% Petit Verdot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 4% Malbec
Michael Shaps Winery 2020 L. Scott: Charlottesville, Monticello AVA – 50% Tannat, 33% Merlot, 17% Malbec
Mountain & Vine Vineyards: Faber, Monticello AVA – 100% Chardonnay

Virginia Governor’s Cup case: Other regions

Bluestone Vineyard 2018 Petit Verdot: Bridgewater, Shenandoah Valley AVA – 100% Petit Verdot
Breaux Vineyards 2019 The Fog Nebbiolo Reserve: Purcellville, Northern Virginia – 100% Nebbiolo
Cave Ridge Vineyards 2019 Fossil Hill Reserve: Mt Jackson, Shenandoah Valley AVA – 60% Cabernet Franc, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Petit Verdot
CrossKeys Vineyards Blanc de Noir: Mt. Crawford, Shenandoah Valley AVA – 100% Pinot Noir
October One Vineyard 2022 Albarino: Leesburg, Northern Virginia – 100% Albarino
Paradise Springs Winery 2022 Petit Manseng: Clifton, Northern Virginia – 100% Petit Manseng

Wine Book Reviews: Getting Serious about Prosecco and Rosé

May 29, 2024 By Mike Veseth in book reviews, wine, wine history 2 Comments

Here are brief reviews of two new books that tell the stories of two previously under-appreciated wines that have come into their own, but the books do so in completely different ways. Prosecco Superiore first, then Rosé from Provence.

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The Story of Prosecco Superiore by Susan H. Gordon is a serious book about a serious wine. The first assertion is not hard to appreciate. Derived from Gordon’s doctoral thesis, the book is thick with the signs of academic research: useful and interesting footnotes, an impressive bibliography, and the sort of price tag that takes the breath away from non-academics (professors and their students are hardened by experience when it comes to the cost of these books).

Gordon has seriously thought about how she wants her readers to understand the story (or stories, I think) of Prosecco Superiore. Thus the traditional “Wines of fill-in-the-place” organization is nowhere to be found. Yes, we learn about grape varieties, climate, geography, production methods, and so forth (a.k.a. the usual suspects of wine books), but interwoven and in the context of other factors, especially the history of the people, the region, and Italy itself.

Gordon is very clear. She wants you to work, not be a passive passenger, so what she’s written is more of a workbook than a simple guide. Are you up for the challenge? Good, then you can begin.

Seriously Prosecco

My second assertion (that Prosecco Superiore is a serious wine) may take more convincing and it might be necessary to pour yourself a glass of the wine at some point just to be sure. Prosecco wines have been one of the great wine market success stories of the 21st century, but most of the attention has been focused on Prosecco DOC wines that come from vineyards on the plains. Less notice is given (perhaps because less wine is produced?) to the Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines that come from hillside vineyards in the zones that were the historical birthplace of Prosecco.

I never turn down a glass of Prosecco DOC because even the relatively simple ones, often with a touch of sweetness, are refreshing. Interestingly, many of the best-selling wines are either distributed by U.S. wine firms (Gallo, for example, has market leader La Marca in its stable) or bottled by Italian wineries as private label wines for U.S. wineries (Cupcake Vineyards Prosecco, for example, or the popular Kirkland Signature wine). The Prosecco Superiore you find is more likely to be made by the winery on the label.

Sue and I have been fortunate to visit the Prosecco Superiore region on several occasions (I’ve given lectures at the famous wine school in Conegliano) and we have come to appreciate the differences between Prosecco and Prosecco Superiore (structure and minerality among other things) and among the DOCG wines from different zones. It has been a fascinating study with an unexpected side-effect: happiness. Prosecco Superiore always makes me smile!

Take a Walk

Gordon’s book covers a lot of territory. The original subtitle, we are told, was “Histories, Geographies, Languages, Topographies, Personalities, and Typologies of Prosecco Superiore.” That’s a lot to think about.

But the organizing principle is easy to grasp and enjoy: let’s take a walk. A walk through history. A walk with Antonio Carpenè, without whom Prosecco would not exist. A walk in the Prosecco hills. A walk through the streets of Conegliano. Walking is good exercise, but more importantly, it is done at a pace that lets you notice and appreciate what you see and hear and think about the connections.

Walking is a good thing and walking with Susan H. Gordon as she (and you) encounter all these people, places, things, ideas, and forces is quite an interesting and worthwhile experience.

Like Prosecco Superiore, this book is a serious undertaking. But, also like Prosecco Superiore, it makes you smile the smile that comes from understanding something more serious than you thought it was.

The Book of Rosé: The Provençal Vineyard That Revolutionized Rosé By Whispering Angel and Château D’Esclans (photos by Martin Bruno and text by Lindsey Tramuta).

Is Rosé a serious wine? I suppose it depends on the Rosé and on the wine drinker, but there was a time when “serious” wine people tended to look down their noses at pink “swimming pool” wines. (Even today there are Rosé wines with swimming pool brand names or label graphics.)

A Hundred Bucks?

That situation has changed and a reason why is the subject of this book, Sacha Lichine and his Chateau d’Esclan wines. Lichine (son of the famous Alexis Lichine, the “Pope of Wine,” who did so much to develop wine market and culture in the United States) embraced the Rosé challenge almost 20 years ago. Working with Bordeaux’s famous Patrick Léon and taking advantage of seriously old vines on the property, Lichine produced a wine called Garrus, which sold for more than $100.

A hundred bucks for a Rosé? He must have been crazy. But the impact was as dramatic as the price. Like Angelo Gaja, who raised prices and expectations in Italy years before, Lichine’s shockingly high price forced buyers to reconsider their prejudices and stimulated growers and other producers to up their game in terms of quality.

Whispering Angel

Old vine Garrus is still the top of the line, but Whispering Angel is perhaps the most popular of the portfolio of Provence Rosé wines on offer by Chateau d’Esclan. My favorite book chapter follows Lichine and colleagues as they set out to market Whispering Angel to a skeptical worldwide market. It is clear that Lichine and team knew who they wanted to drink their wines, where, and on what occasions, with an eye to creating a luxury brand. They then set out purposefully and patiently to achieve this goal. Required reading for wine marketing students.

The Story of Prosecco Superiore demands a lot of its readers. The Book of Rosé is more relaxed. Indeed, it presents itself as a large, heavy, beautifully illustrated coffee-table book with some text woven in. Many will choose to own (or give) it for the photographs alone. But the text, although brief, tells an interesting story that is worth reading.

Two wines, two stories, two ways of telling it. Both worth your attention.

The Big and Hot Guide to Wine 2024

May 21, 2024 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 3 Comments

When you’re hot, you’re hot (and when you’re not, you’re not). That’s the way it is in the wine market today.

One of the most interesting charts at the “State of the Industry” session at this year’s Unified Wine & Grape Symposium was Danny Brager’s analysis of what I call the U.S. wine market’s “Big and Hot” situation.

The gist of the slide was that the market categories that are the biggest are not very hot (indeed, most of them are shrinkingly cold) and that the market categories that are hot and growing are relatively small. Under these circumstances, it is hard to see an “engine” category that might pull the overall market out of its current slump.

It has been a while since we published a Wine Economist “Big and Hot” column, so let’s take a closer look using the NIQ data for the 52 weeks that ended on February 24, 2024, taken from the May 2024 issue of Wine Business Monthly. NIQ captures the big chunk of the U.S. wine market that flows through distribution channels that large wineries depend upon, but doesn’t include everything, especially DTC sales that many small and medium-sized wineries depend upon.

Reference Points

The NIQ data report both volume and value numbers. Total measured sales for the 52-week period were $15.4 billion on 142 million 9-liter case equivalents. That was down 2.9% by value and down 4.2% by volume over the previous year.

The “Big” wines in various categories measured by value are as follows:

Domestic $11.1 billion vs Imported $4.3 billion
Among imports: Italy $1.4 billion, New Zealand $690 million, France $637 million.
Among domestic: California $10.0 billion, Washington $509 million, Oregon $290 million.
By grape variety: Cabernet Sauvignon $3.1 billion, Chardonnay $2.6 billion, Pinot Noir $1.5 billion, Sauvignon Blanc 1.4 billion.
Blends: Red blends $1.9 billion, Rose blends $608 million, White blends $237 million.
By price point (glass): super-premium ($11 to $14.99) $3.7 billion, Premium ($8 to $11.99) $2.5 billion, Popular ($4-$7.99) $2.4 billion.

What’s Big and Hot?

The Big and Hot winners are easy to identify because there are only two Big categories that experienced positive growth during the period under consideration and they are so closely related that they are nearly the same: New Zealand (+2.1% by value) and Sauvignon Blanc (+4.1%)! Indeed, tiny New Zealand accounts for almost half of all U.S. Sauvignon Blanc sales by value.

If you’ve noticed a lot of Costco shopping carts filled with Kim Crawford or Kirkland Signature Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, you are not hallucinating. That’s the Big and Hot effect.

Three-liter boxes are pretty big ($856 million) and growing by 2.4%, but no other “Big” category grew during this period, although some declined by less than the overall market (which is sort of damning with faint praise). Chardonnay sales fell by only 1.9%, for example. A rising tide doesn’t always raise all boats, but this ebb tide seems to be dragging almost everyone out to sea with it.

Hot But Not Big

As Danny Brager noted at the Unified Symposium, the market is growing in smaller, niche categories, not the large segments. Red blends, a Big, are down more than 5%, for example. White blends are up slightly (0.3%), but are a small category by comparison. Two countries have experienced good growth recently, but from a relatively small base:

South Africa 5.5% growth ($37 million)
Portugal 3.4% growth ($53 million)

Two very different categories that experienced growth with substantial sales present something of a puzzle. Luxury glass ($20-$24.99) 0.6% growth ($867 million) beat the market average despite an overage price of $22.24. Chile 2.5% growth ($373 million) did much better in terms of growth, but sits at the other end of the market with average price of $4.93. It is hard to see the thread that connects these two wine segments.

Do these trends drawn from the NIQ data apply to smaller wineries that rely more on wine club and cellar door sales? I would be interested in reader reactions to this question. I am especially interested in the shifts among wine grape varieties and price points. As always, please keep comments short and to the point.

Starbucks and the Wine Market: An Update

Last week’s Wine Economist column compared the current wine market situation with the problems being faced by Starbucks, the super-premium coffee chain. Tighter consumer budgets seem to be cutting into the sales of both wine, which is expensive on a per-serving basis, and Starbucks, which isn’t exactly a low-cost option either.

This week’s Economist newspaper features an article that compares Starbucks problem to that of President Joe Biden. You can evaluate this argument for yourself, but what interests me is the more detailed breakdown of Starbucks’ declining sales, which might be relevant for wine.

Starbucks has at least two types of customers. There are the committed regulars who most often visit in the morning. They load money on their Starbucks app, which they use to order coffee and other Starbucks products. I have read elsewhere that the “float” on the money that has been put on the app but not yet spent is a significant revenue stream for Starbucks, so these are really important customers.

Then there are the “occasional” customers, who more often show up in the afternoon and don’t necessarily use the app. Both the regulars and the occasional customers are important to total sales, just as they are to wine sales. And sales for both groups of consumers are down at Starbucks.

Regular customers are leaving more incomplete orders on the app, the article notes, changing their minds at the last minute. Is it because of unexpected long wait times? Are some of the millions of permutations of the chain’s drinks unavailable? I want what I want when I want it! Or is it because, once they see the total cost of their order, consumers, even regulars, hesitate to hit the order button? Probably some of all three explanations.

The Economist speculates that the decline in occasional customer business is due mainly to tigher economic conditions, because similar reports are coming from McDonald’s, Shake Shack, and other businesses. It will be interesting to see how Starbucks responds to these challenges and if there are any lessons for wine is the results of their efforts.

Starbucks, McDonald’s, and the Global Wine Glut

May 14, 2024 By Mike Veseth in Economic impact, wine, wine markets 3 Comments

Two of the most-read Wine Economist columns of 2023 analyzed theories of the global wine glut. The first focused on demographic theories (generational differences and life-cycle patterns) and the second took aim at economic forces (rising inflation, interest rates, housing costs, consumer and business debt). The first column got more attention. Until now.

A recent OIV report on global wine sales found that consumption measured by volume fell in almost every major consuming country between 2022 and 2023. It really is a global issue. And while there are many factors involved, including rising health concerns, the OIV stressed the economic theory of tighter budgets squeezing consumer choices. Why didn’t the OIV stress demographic trends? I can’t speak for them but it is clear that they are interested in the global problem and not every consuming country has the same demographic pattern as the U.S. Baby boom or lifestyle explanations don’t help us understand the sudden collapse of wine consumption in China, for example, but changing economic circumstances might.

Everyone knows that people are feeling economic strain these days, but can it really be affecting wine sales as much as that? Remember that sales in most countries haven’t collapsed (China being an exception). The volume of consumption has fallen by 2% to 4% in most countries. This is relatively small in percentage, but a big deal to winegrape growers and producers with unsold product.

This is where Starbucks and McDonald’s come in. Both are U.S.-based global firms and both have suffered significant declines, just like wine. I’ve been following the news about both companies recently and I think there are insights that wine producers need to consider.

Starbucks’ share price fell by 15% in a single day recently. Why? The Wall Street Journal published an article about persistently declining sales at the coffee giant. The problem, it noted, was that the company was running out of American customers who are willing to pay $5, $6, $7, or more for a beverage. Starbucks was premiumizing while their customers were belt-tightening. It turns out that many people don’t think they need Starbucks as much as Starbucks maybe needs them. Starbucks’ CEO announced a turnaround plan that seemed to miss the mark and the stock value took a dive.

What is the lesson for wine? Wine is sort of the Starbucks of its own category. Wine is more expensive per serving than other alcoholic beverages. It is a discretionary purchase. Consumers don’t need to buy wine. They don’t need to buy beverage alcohol at all. If only a few percent of them change behavior, you’ve got a Starbucks problem.

McDonald’s might also have lessons for wine. Once upon a time, fast food in general was seen as good value, but rising costs have increased the average drive-thru bill considerably and the volume of traffic has fallen. The McDonald’s CEO recently recognized the economic problem and vowed to restore the value proposition. There are rumors of a $5 hamburger meal, for example. Significantly, McDonald’s stock did not tank upon this announcement.

Perhaps wine needs to reevaluate its value proposition, too. Yes, there are inexpensive wines on the shelf, but are they good value? Consumers don’t seem to think so. Sales volumes have been falling for several years. Significantly, one of the few bright spots in the current market is the premium 3-liter box category ($4+ per bottle equivalent). Apparently many consumers see value here that they don’t find elsewhere on the wine wall.

I am not arguing that health concerns are over-stated or that generational and life-cycle explanations are wrong. But I think that the economic argument about the global wine market is important and wine producers need to take consumer budgets explicitly into account as they move forward. Consumers are feeling the squeeze. How can wine producers address this situation?