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

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

If only wine were as simple as love.

How Can You Tell?

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

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

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

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

Love and Wine: Both Mysterious

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

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

This is Good News?

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

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

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

Another Missed Turn!

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

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

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

That’s Where It Is!

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

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

Searching for Italy’s Wines: A Stanley Tucci Flashback

July 8, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, popular culture, wine 4 Comments

The first season of Stanley Tucci’s new travel and food series, “Tucci in Italy,” is running this summer on the National Geographic network. Click on the image above to view the series trailer.

Sue and I can’t get enough of Italy, so we’ve been tuning in regularly for this just as we did a few years ago for his CNN series “Searching for Italy.” We enjoy the shows (it is fun to count the number of times Tucci says “wow” in each episode) and the many memories they inspire, but we have a gripe.

Where’s the wine?

Italy is nothing if not a country of wine. Wine is everywhere, but different in each particular place. The land, the food, the wine, the people, it all goes together. You can even tell the history of Italy through its wines, as one celebrated author has done.

But wine rarely makes an appearance in Tucci’s reports. In Alto Adige, for example, he mentions the wine is very good (it is!) but not much more. We were watching the episode on Lazio a few weeks ago and just about melted down. At one point he visited the Frascati region (a good sign) and mentioned that they make wine (go on, go on). But that was about it. Oh, there’s wine here, too. Sigh.

Toward the end of the same episode Tucci dined with a winemaking family in another part of the region and asked about how they came to make wine. A good start. And you could see that there was a different kind of wine in each glass. What about that? But that was all. If there was more discussion about wine at that lunch it was left on the cutting room floor. A missed opportunity for sure.

Not everyone sees the situation the way that I do. I was surprised to read a recent article accusing Tucci of over-hyping wine experiences in his shows and making wine tourism problems worse! One of the issues seems to be his interest in the Florentine wine windows. Maybe I need to revisit Tucci’s old series because I think there needs to be more wine, not less.

Bringing Wine to the Table

Why does this matter? Well, the wine industry in general and Italian wine sales in the U.S. market in particular could use a little boost these days. It wouldn’t hurt if wine were highlighted a little bit in a popular television show, especially one about Italy. Wine is already on the table. Doesn’t it make sense to talk about it?

Stanley Tucci isn’t alone in missing obvious opportunities to bring wine into the food and travel frame, as we were reminded recently while watching the Croatia episode of the insanely popular Netflix series “Somebody Feed Phil.” There was wine on the table most of the time and Phil cven commented on how good it was at least twice. But the next step (to say something more specific and therefore useful) was never taken.

To be fair, Phil might have gotten the message. The most recent season features a visit to Georgia (the country, not the U.S. state) and the episode begins with Phil in a vineyard harvesting grapes. He visits the Teliani Valley winery, learns about Georgian wine history, and appreciates the famous Qvervi wines. I think he gets it! (Sue and I visited Teliani Valley in 2016 and had our own “ah ha!” moment as we reported in this Wine Economist column.)

This isn’t the first time I have complained about this situation. Here is a Wine Economist flashback column from 2021 that bemoans wine’s absence in Tucci’s earlier CNN series.

I think Tucci could do a lot with (and for) wine in his television series. Let’s hope the message gets through.

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Memo to CNN: Searching for Italian Wine?

The Wine Economist / March 9, 2021

Dear CNN,

Sue and I have been watching the CNN original series “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.” Tucci visits six Italian regions, talks with the people, enjoys the food, and tells some stories. Maybe it is because of the pandemic, but there is something very satisfying about following Tucci on his journey. You might want to check it out.

Tucci starts his Giro d’Italia in Naples and then moves on to Rome, Bologna, Milan, Tuscany, and Sicily. The title suggests that he is “Searching for Italy.” Will he find it? Not if he thinks that Italy is a single thing with a single cuisine, because that Italy has never existed. But if he is willing to accept that Italy is its regions — and I am sure he is — then he’ll be fine and so will we.

Searching for Italian Wine

The chapter on Italy in my book Around the World in Eighty Wines is a Tucci-esque search for Italian wine. My quest to find one wine that can represent all of Italy’s wines comes tantalizingly close to success at one point, but ultimately I realize that Italian wine is impossible. There are only the wines of Italy’s regions. No wonder the Italian wine map is perhaps the most complicated in the world.

So it seems to me that Searching for Italian Wine would make a great series for the same reasons that Tucci’s program is so popular. But what would a program about Italy’s wines be like? Walking though beautiful vineyards is great and makes good video, but you can only do that so often before it gets a bit old. Ditto for visiting cellars, inspecting barrels and tanks, and wondering at the majesty of shiny new pneumatic presses and speedy bottling lines.

Watching wine being made isn’t as interesting as watching food being made for some reason (perhaps because it takes so long) and in any case Tucci’s producers seem to realize that there’s a limit to how many times they can show onions being diced or pasta being rolled and cut. So instead they show the hustle and bustle of markets — that never gets old to me — and focus on real people, who they are, what they do, and how they define and are defined by the local products and food. That’s a model that works every time, if you don’t lose sight of your goal.

Searching for Italy and Its Wines

This leads me to my main point, which is that Tucci’s Searching for Italy could be the perfect Italian wine show if it just brought wine more fully into the frame (note: I write this before the Tuscany episode has been aired). Wine shows up all the time in Searching for Italy, but it is just something the people drink with the food, never an important element of the story. Wine in Italy is so much more.

The Bologna episode is a case in point. Yes, the Prosciutto, Mortadella, and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese are amazing. We were fortunate to enjoy them almost every day when I taught at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Bologna Center a few years ago. Our apartment was on a little alley called Via Pescherie Vecchie in the heart of the heart of the famous central market area. It is an inescapable element of the city’s life so naturally it was on Tucci’s Bologna itinerary. Here’s a video of a visit to this street to give you a sense of the place.

So what do you drink with these intensely local products? Well, wine of course, but there is a particular local wine that we think is magical. It is called Pignoletto and it is so local that I doubt you will easily find it anywhere else. As I wrote ten years ago after a return visit to our old neighborhood …

Pignoletto is a dry white wine grown only in the hills outside of Bologna. “Lively, crisp, aromatic” is how Jancis Robinson describes it in her Guide to Wine Grapes. Pignoletto is distinctly Bolognese — grown there, made there and I think that every last drop of it is consumed there, too, since it goes so well with the rich local cuisine (almost as if they evolved together … which I guess they did). It would be hard to beat the simple meal of salumi, cheese and bread that we had with a bottle of Pignoletto frizzante at Tamburini‘s wine bar in the Bologna central market.

The food and this wine evolved together in Bologna. No wonder they are such a perfect match. And they say something about the importance of place in a footloose world, don’t you think? It would have been easy to include this wine (and some others, too) in the Bologna episode, CNN, and your viewers would have thanked you for opening this door to Italian wine, food, and culture.

Dear CNN: Who Ya Gonna Call?

So, CNN, you are probably wondering who can help you take Searching for Italy to the next level by adding the magic of wine to the mix? Well, our team here at The Wine Economist stands ready to lend a hand (and pull a few corks) and we have no end of ideas for season 2 in the Veneto, Friuli, Alto Adige, Piemonte, Liguria, Sardinia — and that’s just getting started! Let’s take that Italian map and search for Italy and Italian wine in every corner.

Italy is a mosaic of people, places, wine, food … and wine, too. Let’s work together to tell the story of Italian wine in context, one beautiful region at a time.

Sincerely,

The Wine Economist team

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

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

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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 Mike Veseth 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.

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.

We Don’t Talk About Abruzzo … But We Should!

March 29, 2022 By Mike Veseth in emerging wine regions, Italian wine, popular culture, wine 1 Comment

The thing about Bruno, a character in the Disney film Encanto, is that everyone talks about not talking about him. Or at least that’s the gist of the wildly popular song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.”

The Abruzzo Syndrome

For a long time this situation kind of applied to Abruzzo, the under-appreciated Italian region you reach by flying to Rome and driving east over the Apennine mountains to the Adriatic. My well-worn 1998 Knopf Guide to Italy, for example, devotes more than 500 colorful pages to tourist Italy, but gives poor Abruzzo precisely 2 pages of text.

The Abruzzo syndrome, as illustrated by the Knopf guide treatment, is that the Itay is full of the best of the best of tourist sights and attractions. Abruzzo’s natural beauty and modest charm is undeniable, but it struggles for the spotlight that is focused elsewhere.

Sue and I can appreciate this situation from our experience living in Bologna some years ago. For the most part foreign visitors only knew Bologna from changing trains at the station or attending conferences at the big convention center outside of town. Bologna was a place you passed through on your way to somewhere else. Abruzzo’s location makes it ever less of a destination point.

Abruzzo Wine Syndrome

The Abruzzo syndrome plagued the region’s wines, too. Take the usually-generous Burton Anderson’s Wine Atlas of Italy, for example. Anderson gives 3 pages out of 300 to Abruzzo in my 1990 edition of this classic volume, disappointed by what he saw as a lack of interest in quality.

… the growing of grapes in abundance as just another fruit crop still offers more attractive prospects than does the making of premium wine. The shame of it is that the Abruzzi’s sunny hills could make outstanding wines, not only from the native Montepulciano but from many other noble vines.

A few producers stubbornly swam against the tide — Anderson cites Edoardo Valentini in particular — but it was a difficult task given the region’s lack-luster reputation. Abruzzo’s reputation was nothing much to talk about even though the potential was clear.

Abruzzo Fast Forward

Fast forward to 2022. Sue and I hadn’t talked much about Abruzzo over the years, but an unexpected invitation to visit later this year was enough to make us circle back to see how Abruzzo has changed and it is clear that the region is getting some of the respect it was previously denied.

Travel and Leisure magazine, for example, named Abruzzo to its list of the 50 best places to travel in 2022. Abruzzo has changed, as the article suggests, but perhaps travelers have changed, too, and now appreciate local charm and character more than before. Here’s an excerpt from the article.

Stretching from the heart of the Apennines to the Adriatic Sea on the peninsula’s southeastern side, Abruzzo, Italy has long been one of the country’s most overlooked destinations despite its unspoiled villages, picturesque Trabocchi Coast, and stunning natural escapes. Over the past few years, however, it has gone from a sleepy underdog to an ambitious harbinger of slow travel, sustainable gastronomy, and conscious hospitality.

Reality vs Reputation

Reality has moved faster than reputation on the wine front, too. Abruzzo is still noteworthy for the quantity of wine it produces. Abruzzo ranked #5 among Italian wine regions in 2020 for volume of production. Veneto and Apulia topped the table followed by Emili-Romagna and Sicily. Abruzzo was followed by Piedmonte and Tuscany. But quantity is no longer the only game in town.

My battered copy of Slow Wine Guide 2014, for example, highlighted the growing number of premium producers who were able to meet the guide’s high standards.

It is a mistake to speak about the Abruzzo as an emerging winegrowing region. Consistent quality has now become more general, no longer the prerogative of a handful of historic cellars plowing the furrow of tradition, but also a characteristic of the work of both small wineries and large cooperatives. … All in all, the Abruzzo wine world is in good health, working the land more sustainably than in the past and affording consumer enjoyment with very reasonably priced labels.

Clearly Abruzzo has turned a corner, a fact underlined by the evaluation I found in my copy of the Gambero Rosso 2019 guide to Italian wines. “Abruzzo’s wine industry is in many ways a kind of microcosm of the nation as a whole,” the analysis begins, “… leaving behind an age in which it was dominated by large quantities of generic bulk wine used outside of the region.”

Slowly Then Suddenly

The wines today (and the people who make them) are a better reflection of the remarkable diversity found within the region. “And they won’t cost you an arm and a leg either,” the report suggests, “(it’s not a coincidence that once again a number of Tre Bicchieri come at a price that would allow for daily consumption).”

Slowly — and then suddenly — Abruzzo is a topic of conversation. Just last week, for example, the region was highlighted in two news stories. The Drinks Business reported that Italy’s National Wine Committee and Agricultural Ministry agreed to consolidate the central Italian region’s wines under a single IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica), Terre d’Abruzzo. IGT wines are an important category where innovation is encouraged and the new designation will raise Abruzzo’s visibility. The hope is that Terre d’Abruzzo IGT will do for Abruzzo was “Terre Siciliane” did for Sicilian wine identity when the designation was introduced a few years ago.

Meanwhile, New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov featured two indigenous Abruzzo wine grape varieties in his column on “Ten Grapes Worth Knowing Better.” Pecorino and Trebbiano d”Abruzzese — and recommended Abruzzo producers — made the list of wines worth discovering.

So apparently we are talking about Abruzzo now for the quality, value, and character of its wines. And it is good to keep the conversation going because it will take some time for Abruzzo’s reputation to catch up to reality. And it will not be easy to get attention in the crowded market for Italian wines, where famous names abound.

Wine on the Nile: Wine Goes to the Movies (and TV)

March 15, 2022 By Mike Veseth in popular culture, wine, wine education, wine markets 2 Comments

One of my pet peeves is wine’s lack of impact in popular culture. Celebrity chefs get lots of traction — even fictional cartoon rodent chefs (have you seen the Disney film Ratatouille?). Celebrity winemakers? Not so much.

Wine shouldn’t try to simply imitate food, of course, Watching Michel Rolland micro-oxygenate a tank of Merlot will never be as much fun as watching Julia Child throw together a pot of Boeuf Bourguignon. If we want to reach potential newbie wine drinkers, I think wine needs to go where they are and to connect in as many ways as possible.

Wine is so often an afterthought. I bemoaned the fact that wine had no particular pride of place in Stanley Tucci’s hit television series Searching for Italy, for example. A wasted opportunity for sure!

Bordeaux on the Nile?

So I am pleased to see the efforts that Bordeaux producer Chateau Malartic-Lagravière, which is working very hard to position its fine wine where it can be seen and appreciated by a diverse audience. The white wine, for example, appears in the second season of the Netflix series Emily in Paris. And the red wine is featured in the recently released big-budget 20th Century Studio version of Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile.

Why Death on the Nile? A press release suggests that the Bonnie family that owns the Chateau connects with the film’s chief protagonist, fellow Belgian countryman Hercule Poirot. Perhaps. But I have to think the luxury setting in which the film’s action unfolds is an appealing frame for a luxury Bordeaux wine.

Consumers need a nudge to put wine on their minds and I congratulate Chateau Malartic-Lagravière for taking the initiative. Product placement, however, is just one element of a potential initiative to connect wine culture with the interests and lifestyles of today’s consumers.

Wine First, Please!

Sue and I have been impressed for the early efforts of a group producing a public television series called Wine First, for example. The idea, I think, is that when most people go to a restaurant they pick their meals first and then choose a wine. But when YOU dine out, I’ll bet, at least some of you study the wine list first, choose the wine you want, and they pick food to go with it. Wine First.

The series format takes a wine first approach. The hosts visit a wine region (the Mosel, for example), stopping at three wineries to choose wines that captures the essence of each place — plus a regional food ingredient. A local restaurant chef is then challenged to prepare dishes that will highlight the wines — the wines are the star. The local wine producers evaluate the imaginative pairings that result and render a wine first verdict. Sue and I really enjoyed the programs and hope the multinational series comes back for a second season.

So far so good. But there is a lot more work to be done to get wine more clearly on the radar of the next consumer generation. In the meantime, remember that it is not telling the world how wine tastes (or is made) that will be the key to future growth. What’s important is how it makes you feel.

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I thought you might enjoy viewing the trailer for Death on the Nile.

Wine and the Trouble with Halloween

October 26, 2021 By Mike Veseth in popular culture, wine, wine markets 3 Comments

Everyone knows that wine consumption is at least in part occasion-driven. Although some of my friends insist that they don’t really need a reason to pop a cork, for many consumers the act of drinking is closely tied to occasions of one sort or another.

Thus, for example, wine sales here in the US typically peak during November and December when a series of holiday occasions roll by starting with Thanksgiving and ending around New Year. Wine sales and festive occasions are a perfect pairing.

The Trouble with Halloween?

But what about Halloween? The spooky holiday that we celebrate on October 31 is a favorite festive occasion for lots of people who decorate, dress-up, and generally go a bit wild. Over on the food side of the aisle, Halloween is really embraced with lots of special products and offerings. Take a look at the listings for the Food Network this week and you will see many variations on the Halloween theme.

It would be great if wine could jump on the Halloween bandwagon somehow. It has been done, of course. I vaguely remember Dracula-themed Romanian wines showing up on some grocery shelves this time of the year, but not a lot more. And then there is Hallowine, a spiced sweet apple wine from Wisconsin that I found on the internet. That’s the spirit! But you have to admit that Halloween is for the most part a missed opportunity for wine.

The trouble with Halloween is what to drink with it — and what sort of hook would draw consumers into enjoying wine as part of this unique occasion? I really haven’t thought of this before now and I admit that my first thought was Aperol Spritz. The color is seasonally festive and a bit of bitterness is very nice. Yes, I think an Aperol Spritz would work for adult Trick or Treat.

Halloween Haunts the Beer Aisle

I may not be giving the potential Halloween market much thought, but it is clear that some others are thinking hard about it. We recently received samples of two fruit-flavored Hefeweizen beers from German producer Schõfferhofer, for example (a Passion Fruit version is also available). The Pomegranate beer is blood red and the Grapefruit beer — a 50-50 blend of fruit juice and hefeweizen — is pumpkin orange — or at least that’s how I would describe them at Halloween. The sweet/tart fruity flavors are strong and I admit reminded me a bit of the puckery trick or treat candies (think Starburst or Twizzlers) that we also received.

A beer to sip while you munch through the inevitable surplus of trick-or-treat candy left-over after the kids have gone home? Interesting idea — and good response to an under-served occasion. I wonder what would happen if you mixed the two beers together in a sort of witches brew? I’ll bet the color would be great — a little like an Aperol Spritz!

So how was the beer? Well, it certainly delivered on the sweet/tart promise. I liked the Grapefruit better than the Pomegranate. Sue wasn’t keen on either one — not really a fruit drink and not really beer, she said. Kinda a Franken-brew, I guess. But fun for Halloween and food for thought when it comes to addressing this under-served occasion.

The Devil Made Me Do It

Concha y Toro, the important Chilean wine producer, has also taken aim at the Halloween market this year with promotions for its popular Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenere. Google translates Casillero del Diablo as “Devil’s Locker,” but I prefer Devil’s Den because it has a nice haunted house feeling to it.

The wines are good and, at about $12 per bottle, have a price point that drives a stake through the heart of the market (I’m trying to get into the Halloween spirit here). The popular Chilean-born actor Pedro Pascal stars in a commercial you might have seen for the wines that features a suitably devilish twist. I admit that I don’t really understand the video, but it is hard not to like the wines and to enjoy their warmth during the Halloween season.

But What Really Scares Me …

I appreciate the creative leveraging of the Devil’s Den theme, but I think Concha y Toro can tell an even scarier story for Halloween. Ghosts and goblins are frightening, for sure, but do you know what scares me even more? Climate change! And that’s where CyT is a sort of wine industry ghost-buster.

Concha y Toro recently became the wine world’s largest Certified B Corp, an indication of its commitment to a set of values and practices that embraces the environmental cause. Each of CyT’s operations in Chile, Argentina, and the U.S. is now a Certified B Corp. Outstanding.

Fetzer Vineyards, the California producer that is an important part of the CyT family, was recently re-certified with an even higher score, making it one of the highest-rated Certified B Corps of its size. A very high score for environmental efforts is noteworthy.

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So can we make Halloween into a wine occasion on the scale of Thanksgiving and New Year? Maybe not, but I think there is a creative challenge here to find ways to bring wine more directly into the spooky picture. Trick or treat?

Memo to CNN: Searching for Italian Wine?

March 9, 2021 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, popular culture, wine, wine tourism 12 Comments

Dear CNN,

Searching for Italian Wine

Searching for Italy and Its Wines

Pignoletto is a dry white wine grown only in the hills outside of Bologna. “Lively, crisp, aromatic” is how Jancis Robinson describes it in her Guide to Wine Grapes. Pignoletto is distinctly Bolognese — grown there, made there and I think that every last drop of it is consumed there, too, since it goes so well with the rich local cuisine (almost as if they evolved together … which I guess they did). It would be hard to beat the simple meal of salumi, cheese and bread that we had with a bottle of Pignoletto frizzante at Tamburini‘s wine bar in the Bologna central market.

Dear CNN: Who Ya Gonna Call?

Italy is a mosaic of people, places, wine, food … and wine, too. Let’s work together to tell the story of Italian wine in context, one beautiful region at a time.

Sincerely,

The Wine Economist team

Wine and the Dry January Syndrome

December 22, 2020 By Mike Veseth in alcohol, coronavirus, popular culture, wine, wine markets Leave a comment

January is just around the corner and that means Dry January, the month when many people pause to assess their alcohol consumption. If a lot of people have been indulging as much during the covid pandemic as their social media feeds suggest, Dry January could be particularly traumatic this time around.

Not Just January Any More

But it is a mistake to think of the interest in low- and no-alcohol beverages as being strictly seasonal. The marketing gurus at Heineken beer haven’t invested a fortune promoting Heineken 0.0 because they are looking for a short-term January sales bump. There are lots of reasons for consumers to seek out alcohol-free alternatives and the beer industry, always on the lookout for growing market niches in a fairly stagnant category, has responded with gusto.

If you don’t believe this, take a trip to the beer aisle of your local upscale supermarket. You might be surprised by the number of low/no abv products you find there and the range of styles. When I first explored this question in a Wine Economist column earlier this year I was impressed by a number of German products that had real beer flavor without the abv that usually goes with it.

My favorite among the half-dozen products I tried was Dry Hopped Clausthaler. It ticked the boxes for me: single serving container, affordable price, and it tasted so authentic that I didn’t miss the alcohol. Very impressive. I’ve got some in the fridge now.

Another appealing product that I stumbled upon is All Out non-alcoholic stout by Athletic Brewing Company. It’s an oatmeal stout and it tastes like an oatmeal stout — very satisfying. Because it is non-alcoholic, the usual nutritional information is provided on the can. Ingredients: Water, malt, oats, wheat, hops, yeast. 90 calories per can. If you like oatmeal stout, you’ll like this, too.

Beer makers have an advantage over wine producers in that they can produce many different batches of beer over the course of the year. Winemakers generally have one shot and that’s it. So seasonal beer products are available and for the winter months Clausthauler made a non-alcoholic holiday beer, Santa Clausthaler (Santa Claus-thaler — get it?) shown above dressed in miniature Santa hats. It is a 50-50 blend of their non-alcoholic beer with a cranberry cinnamon drink. Interesting! Kinda reminds me of mulled wine.

Fear of Missing Out

My earlier column on Dry January worried that wine was missing out on the low/no abv beverage trend. I know there are good wine products out there, but I don’t see the same investment in this category that the beer industry has made. Every bar or restaurant that I visited (when such visits were possible) had a non-alcoholic beer option available. None had non-alcoholic wine.

So what I am looking for? Single serving container is important. Affordability is important, too. And a non-alcoholic wine needs to remind me of wine as much as the best of these non-alcoholic beers remind me of beer.

A new product that seems like a step in the right direction is called H2/Heart Sonoma Soft Seltzer, which comes in Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Rosé flavors. Although the target is non-alcoholic seltzer, not wine, these carbonated drinks contain de-alcoholized wine and grape juice, too.

Sue and I received samples of the sparkling Pinot and Rosé flavors. Sue thought that the Pinot tasted like Black Cherry soda and didn’t see it as a wine substitute at all. The Rosé tasted like sparkling raspberry lemonade to me and, while I can’t say it especially reminded me of Rosé wine, I think I would be happy with this sparkler in my glass at some future post-covid holiday party. Festive, refreshing, enjoyable.

So clearly some people are hard at work bringing wine to the low/no abv party and that’s a good thing because I think this market niche is only going to grow. I’d like to think that wine can play in this arena because I suspect there are many people like me who sometimes want a high-quality low/no abv option, but would like to stick with wine.

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That’s it for 2020. The Wine Economist will be back in 2021. Happy Holidays to all.