Wine in the Season of the Spritz

September 1, 2026 By Mike Veseth in popular culture, wine 2 Comments

Doesn’t it seem like this has been the summer of the spritz? It’s a trend that has been gathering steam for a while and this year it feels like everywhere we look we see spritz, spritz, spritz.

Time for a Hydration Break?

And it really shouldn’t come as a surprise because the spritz boom can be linked to a couple of relevant factors.

Trend #1: Climate change. Summer weather is getting more and more extreme, especially in Europe but here in the U.S., too. We all need to follow the example of the World Cup soccer teams and take hydration breaks more often. But Napa Cab is probably not what you are looking for when the temperature tops 90 degrees.

Trend #2: We like to think of wine as food, best enjoyed at the table, and I still believe that’s true. But, as Eric Asimov has pointed out, the tradition of wine with dinner is rapidly fading away. Wine is now often just a drink, something you have a glass of. And when the heat dome is upon you, you’d probably like that drink to be tall, cool, and refreshing. What you want is a spritz.

Welcome to Aperol World

The most famous such refreshment is, of course, the Aperol Spritz, the bitter-sweet concoction with the unlikely name. Heavily promoted by the Campari company (along with Campari Spritz), the bright orange, instantly recognizable beverage is all over Europe and now featured prominently on drinks menus in the United States, too.

Aperol combines the signature liqueur with sparkling wine, a dash of club soda, and a bit of citrus, all over ice in a large glass. You can think of it as a competitor to wine, and it is to a certain degree, but it is also a wine drink and the Aperol Spritz boom has done no harm to sparkling wine producers.

Spritz Wars Heat Up

The Financial Times reports that the competition among different types of spritz drinks is heating up. This summer, for the first time, U.K. sales of Aperol Spritz have been eclipsed by the Hugo Spritz, which features an elderflower liqueur. Spritz wars. What next?

Aperol is taking this competition to the next level by creating a draft version of the Aperol Spritz. We saw this in a couple of spots in Sicily earlier this year. The spritz is pre-mixed and dispensed like a beer or soda from a 20-litre canister. Easy to make, easy to drink. Now you can enjoy a spritz at the soccer stadium. What could be better?

Spritz can be good and even good for sparkling wine producers, but what about the makers of still wine? Are they left out of the trend? Not necessarily. You can find popular spritz beverages in Europe that let still wines join the party. Here are a few for your consideration.

In Porto, the summer drink of choice is the White Port Spritz, with White Port and tonic water over ice with mint or citrus. It is refreshing and a bit addictive. The drink comes as a surprise to people who have never tried a White Port. Taylor’s makes a canned Chip Dry & Tonic version that goes down easily.

The drink to try in Jerez is Rebujito, which combines Fino Sherry and Sprite over ice with lemon or mint. Gonzalez Byass makes a ready-to-drink version called a Croft Twist that is perfect for your personal hydration needs.

If You Can’t Beat Them …

Clearly that is a lot you can do with white wines when it comes to the spritz, but what about red wine? Some people are shocked when they see ice in a glass of red wine although it is a summer tradition in some regions. What would they say about a red wine spritz?

The thing to say is Kalimotxo (also spelled calimocho). It is a Basque Country beverage that combines equal parts of red wine and Coke over ice. It doesn’t have to be your best red wine, if you know what I mean. I am sure there is a scientific explanation for why this works, but I think it is best to simply enjoy.

Or you could try another Spanish spritz called Tinto de Verano (red wine of summer), which is basically red wine and lemonade or lemon-lime soda (Sprite again) over ice. A friend from Seville told us that in Spain tourists drink Sangria while locals enjoy Tinto de Verano.

Resistance is Futile?

Is everyone a spritz-lover now? A recent New York Times article finds little resistance within the hospitality sector, but it does note this:

Italians have more cause to complain. Global spritz mania means that tourists demand the drinks even in formerly spritzless regions like Sicily, which is a bit like expecting a Creole restaurant in the French Quarter to make you a Rochester garbage plate. In Venice, where the spritz was invented and long seen as a working-class drink, it has been repositioned as a glamorous society accouterment. This historical revisionism irks some locals

I don’t think the wine industry can successfully fight the spritz trend, so I suggest joining up. Don’t think of a spritz as just a substitute for wine. Embrace the opportunity to make it another occasion to enjoy wine. That’s what a local brew pub is doing. They mainly sell their own beer, but they offer a limited selection of wine in single-serve cans, including festive wine spritz drinks from Ramona.

And remember that a spritz needn’t be complicated to work its magic. Ice, wine, something sparkling, maybe some fruit to garnish. The retail market report in the August 2026 issue of Wine Business Monthly speculates that the spritz boom is driving sales growth in at least one market segment. Inexpensive sparkling wine is not a large category (less than one percent by volume and value), but it grew by 40 percent in the most recent year, partly due to “continued affinity for “European Summer” and spritz-inspired cocktails.”

It’s the season of the spritz. Bottoms up!

It’s Not Easy Being Pink

Sue and I have been sampling some interesting Rosé wines from France and this got us to thinking about the challenges and opportunities for pink wines in today’s market. Here is our report. (Click here to read an earlier survey of the Rosé market.)

Anatomy of the Pink Wine Market

It isn’t easy being a pink wine in today’s wine market. Rosé wines have had to fight all sorts of battles to get where they are today. As a category (according to NIQ data reported in the July 2026 issue of Wine Business Monthly) pink wine sales ($1,099 million in the last 52 weeks) lag behind red wine ($8,197 million) and white wine ($7,302 million) in the measured U.S. market.

Pink wine sells at a lower volume than red or white and at a lower average price ($7.42 per bottle equivalent for pink versus $10.66 for red and $8.58 for white wine). Pink wine sales still peak in the summer months (although I suspect this is less a factor than in the past), so the wines are sometimes put into the category of “swimming pool wines.”

Rosé wines also suffer more than most categories from a sort of color curse. Pink can be pretty, often beautiful, so they are generally packaged in ways that accentuate color. This is an advantage, of course, but also a problem because the color varies for all sorts of reasons, and consumers naturally try to draw conclusions from it. All things being equal, the experts tell me, Rosé color is not a reliable indicator of quality or other sensory factors. But if you have enjoyed a deeply tinted Rosé once, you can be forgiven for imagining that other darker wines will taste just as good.

50 Shades of Pink

These days there seems to be a preference for very pale wines, especially from Provence. Some of them are so light in color that you might mistake them for white wines. But light color doesn’t necessarily foreshadow light flavor.

Deeper colors are avoided by some consumers. I wonder if it is a residual White Zin effect? Perhaps once upon a time they tasted one of those inexpensive sweetish White Zinfandel wines and projected these qualities onto the entire category? I find this puzzling because I remember when Tavel Rosé was very popular. It had a deep hue and was more full bodied that most pink wines today. I think it would be a hit if consumers gave it a chance. But I seldom see it on store shelves today.

Certainly some wine drinkers look down their noses at pink wines. There must be a reason, don’t you think?

Many Faces of French Rosé

The French Rosé wines we have been tasting this summer are nothing to look down on. We tried two wines in the $15-$20 price category from Barton & Guestier and two in the $50+ category from Domaines Ott. Taken together they say a lot about the diversity of Rosé wines and how product differentiation can address various problems of being pink.

B&G has celebrated its 300th anniversary and their selections are variations on classic themes. The B&G Rosé d’Anjou from the Loire Valley draws on a garden party theme with its deeper hue and colorful label. We love Rosé d’Anjou, but don’t see much of it on our store shelves. Maybe it is that color curse?

The B&G Côtes de Provence “Tourmaline” presents that classic pale Provence pink, but in a festive limited edition bottle and label featuring artwork by Montreal-based French artist Isaure Atelier. These are wines that match perfectly with the season. They remind us that there is a reason people think of Rosé in seasonal terms.

Then there are the pink wines from Domaines Ott, which show a different side of the pink wine world. These wines are defined by the tension between minerality and salinity more than punchy fruit. That’s a tension we really enjoy because it makes them especially useful with food.

The Domaines Ott 2025 Château de Selle Rosé (AOC Côtes de Provence) paired perfectly with a pasta and pesto dish made with basil from our garden. The Domaines Ott 2025 Château Romassan Rosé (AOC Bandol) was terrific with a Niçoise salad. The wines were distinctive and I am not sure you would have guessed that they are Rosé wines in a blind tasting because they are so unstereotypically savory. Really interesting!

It’s Not Easy, But Do We Have to Make It Hard?

It isn’t easy being pink, I guess, because Rosé wine has all the challenges and complications of wine in general plus the color curse. But maybe it isn’t necessary to make life difficult. If you are looking for the simple, delicious summer wine, it is right there waiting for you. And if you are looking for something more, it’s there too.

In other words. When Pink is all there is to be it makes you wonder why. But why wonder why?

Wine as Liquid Memories: Nederburg Edelkeur 1977

August 4, 2026 By Mike Veseth in South Africa, wine, wine history 2 Comments

One of wine’s superpowers is that it can trigger memories and allow us to share them with others. It’s almost magic. Pull the corks and release the liquid memories.

Sue and I recently celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and pulled two corks to pair with the meal. The first bottle was the Donnafugata Sul Vulcano Etna Bianco DOC to pair with scallops and fresh corn salad. We picked this wine because we first enjoyed it in Sicily, which we visited this year to celebrate 50 years together. This wine helps us think about where we are now and where we are going next.

The dessert wine was from 1977 (as close to 50 years as we could get from our little cellar). It is a Nederburg Edelkeur from South Africa. I received the small bottle as a gift when I spoke at the Nederburg Auction in 2012.

The Edelkeur was still vibrant after 49 years and paired nicely with a bit of orange-scented Cioccolato di Modica IGP from Sicily. This wine helps us remember where we began and how we have evolved over the years. Nice way to celebrate an anniversary, don’t you think?

Here is an excerpt from a 2012 Wine Economist column that tells the story of the Nederburg wine and what makes it (and the memories) so special.

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Excerpt from “Extreme Wine South Africa: Nederburg Edelkeur”

The Wine Economist / October 30, 2012

Wine Gets Personal

This is a personal story for me because my small cellar now holds two half-bottles of Edelkeur from the 1977 and 1979 vintages. They were given to me by Carina Gous, Distell Business Director of Wines, as a token of thanks for giving the keynote address this year at the Nederburg Auction. I’m looking forward to sharing these wines with Sue (and perhaps one or two special friends) on an appropriately special occasion several years in the future.

Edelkeur was the personal vision of an extreme wine person, Günter Brözel, one of South Africa’s most honored winemakers who was Nederburg‘s cellar master for 33 years until his retirement in 1989. Brözel’s extreme idea was to create a Noble (made with Botrytis infected “noble rot” grapes) Late Harvest wine that would express the elegance and power of South African terroir in much the way that German Trockenbeerenauslese, French Sauternes and Hungarian Tokaji represent their respective wine producing regions. The only things that stood in his way were Mother Nature and the South African wine law.

Mother Nature is easy enough to understand. Late harvest wines are tricky to produce because the grapes need to stay on the vines long after the usual harvest and they are subject to damage from birds, mold and other problems. Making a Noble wine is even harder and requires both luck (in the vineyard) and lots of harvest labor. You can’t count on making a noble late harvest wine every year and indeed the first Edelkeur vintage in 1969 was not followed by a second until 1972.

Extreme Wine Law

So Edelkeur required an act of nature to make, but an act of Congress? Well, not literally Congress, but it’s a fact that South African wine laws prior to the 1969 vintage did specifically forbid this kind of wine. The rules permitted (and protected) sweet fortified wines but outlawed the production of natural (unfortified) wines with more than 30 percent residual sugar. Tokaji Eszencia often has as much as 50 percent to 70 percent residual sugar (90 percent in the 2000 vintage!). Brözel was going for an extreme and the law got in his way, so the law had to be changed. And it was.

But not all the laws yielded to Nederburg’s cellar master. The most reliable way to get late harvest grapes (because Mother Nature’s part is reduced) is to harvest them earlier and dry them on racks, concentrating the flavor that way. (Just as the most reliable way to make Ice Wine is to pick unfrozen grapes and then … freeze them!) But Nature’s Law prevailed here and so the grapes for Edelkeur are left to hang exposed to and expressing wild nature before being finally picked and vinified.

A Special Stage

And so finally Brözel was able to make Nederburg Edelkeur but that created another problem: how to distribute the tiny amount of this precious wine that law and nature permit. After some early trial and error, it was decided that a special stage was needed and this became the now-famous Nederburg Auction, where a juried selection of rare South African wines are offered up once a year to the international wine trade. Some of the 1972 vintage was sold at the first Nederburg Auction in 1975 and the link between the auction, Edelkeur and the best of South African wine has been going ever since.

The “first five” founding wineries — Nederburg, Delheim, Groot Constantia, Overgaauw and Simonsig — are now joined by many others, the Auction Selection wines determined through rigorous blind tasting panels. It’s an honor just to be selected for the auction and to have your bottles wear the “Nederburg Auction Selection” ribbon.

The auction today does much more than just allocate one extreme wine. It honors an extreme wine person’s vision and draws international attention to South Africa’s best wines.

Back to the Wine

So what does the wine taste like? Well, I’m not going to open my bottles for several years, but I was able to taste through several vintages of Edelkeur on the first day of the auction and they were memorable and gave a hint of how this wine can age. I don’t rate wines or write reviews, but I found this CellarTracker tasting note for the 1976 vintage that sums up my opinion.

Brown with a bright yellow rim. Fabulous nose – intense citrus, caramel and leather with a very slight flor touch. Amazing attack. Citrussy sweetness. Amazing life. Huge depths of flavour. Great length. Excellent

One of the people I was tasting with that day had this reaction: “They shouldn’t sell these wines; they should hold them back.” She didn’t care about the money, she just knew that the wines would get better and better and that it was a sin to drink wines like the 1979 and the 1977 so young.

She’s right, I suppose, because certainly the wines will continue to develop for many years, but I think she’s wrong, too. Yes, the wines will get better with age, which is why I’m not rushing to pull these corks, but putting some of them up for auction isn’t really about the money or maybe even [just] about the wines themselves. There’s something bigger going on here — defining the identity of South Africa and its wine and honoring the passion of the wine makers — and that’s what makes it really extreme.

“The Swirled Cup” Takes Flight! Nota Bene July 2026

July 28, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Nota Bene, popular culture, wine 3 Comments

Nota Bene is a periodic Wine Economist column that briefly highlights stories that might otherwise escape attention.

The Swirled Cup Takes to the Air

If you are flying on Delta Airlines now through September, check your seatback entertainment system for three episodes of The Swirled Cup, Andrea Robinson’s documentary series about the rise of wine in the last half century and the people who made it happen. The series was inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris, but the stories it tells go far beyond that storied event. Click here to view the series trailer.

Andrea writes that

After several years of filming in vineyards, wineries, kitchens, restaurants, and wine regions around the world, I’m so excited to have the first 3 episodes in the in-flight entertainment/DeltaSync system. The series celebrates wine, food, farming, travel, cultural connection, and, especially, the people who give them meaning. In that vein, you’ll see central voices like Danny Meyer, Kevin Zraly, Bobby Stuckey MS, Piero Antinori, and Laura Catena (to name a few!), as well as the architects of the globally transformative Judgment of Paris tasting in their own words from my one-on-one interviews, top culinarians, and many in the industry’s next generations as well.

I’m incredibly grateful that Delta believed these stories deserved a place among the journeys they help people make every day. If you are flying Delta between now and September (thank you!), I’d love for you to search for The Swirled Cup and see the episodes.

Sue and I plan to tune into The Swirled Cup on our next flight. In the meantime we are watching the trailer and imagining where Andrea’s journey will take us next! Andrea Robinson is a wonderful storyteller and the positive story of wine needs telling. Now more than ever.

Did Wine Win the World Cup?

Let’s start with a question. How did Team Wine do at the recent World Cup? Were we even in the game? It depends on how you look at the situation.

Wine-producing countries did very well, as usual. In fact, they dominated the competition.

Spain versus Argentina was an all-wine final match. France and England played for third place in a sparkling (wine) shootout. Wine won the World Cup big time if you look at it this way.

But was the wine industry able to exploit the opportunities that the World Cup created to sell more glasses and bottles or to make strong impressions on global consumers?

The World Cup is a marketing competition as much as a soccer tournament. We all know about the great success of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing. The producers had a plan and executed perfectly, gaining worldwide attention for their product and apparently creating a headache for TSA as international visitors stuffed their bags with ranch dressing. Gooooooooooooooooal for Hidden Valley Ranch!

Beer had a good World Cup, we are told, at least in some locations. Stories are told about loyal fans of the team from Scotland who drank all the beer in Boston and maybe a bit more.

How did wine do? Was much of an effort made to exploit the opportunity? The only wine-related story I have seen is about David Beckham. He was caught on camera sipping a very large glass of red wine in his luxury box in Miami. The English press called him out for unsportsmanlike conduct. An English soccer legend shouldn’t drink wine at a game! Only a pint of beer will do.

Not exactly an own goal for wine, I guess, but not exactly a hat trick either.

Over a Barrel?

Fast and furious. That’s how the stream of wine business news has been coming this year. Many folks in the industry feel that they are “over a barrel,” victims of forces beyond their control.

Most of the reporting has understandably been focused on vineyards, wineries, distributors, and retail sales. Still, the impacts of market shifts extend much further, affecting all sorts of related products and services. In assessing the situation, it is important to take into account the whole product web.

Barrels are a good example, as the “2026 Barrel Survey Report” (download pdf here) in the July 2026 issue of Wine Business Monthly makes clear. The barrel industry is obviously affected by recent wine market shifts, but in ways that are conditioned by the particular nature of the product and the industry’s institutional structure. Here are some highlights of the WBM report.

Wine production has fallen across world markets and winery margins are increasingly squeezed. It is no surprise, therefore, that demand for wine barrels has decreased and wine producers have sought to reduce costs. The WBM survey shows that 35 percent of responding wineries plan to purchase fewer barrels in 2026 compared with 2025, a substantial increase over the previous two years’ data.
Less wine production means less need for barrels. Then there is the issue of shrinking margins. How do producers economize on barrel expense? You might expect a shift to cheaper barrels, use of less new oak, and longer use of existing barrels (keeping them in service for four years instead of three, for example).
Using a smaller proportion of new barrels both saves money and is in tune with some style shifts seen in the market. And extending the useful life of barrels is happening, too. Interestingly, a movement to cheaper barrels is not a trend seen in the WBM survey. Reports indicate that many wineries are using less oak, but are careful to maintain the quality they desire.
WBM reports that the challenges that barrel producers face are exacerbated by the failure of H&A, an important Bordeaux-based barrel-leasing and financial firm that works with both the wine and spirits industry. H&A would purchase new barrels when clients ordered them, leasing them back to the clients. There was also a buyback program that saw H&A sell used barrels to the spirits industry. H&A had more than one million barrels in its system, according to WBM, with 2000 clients worldwide and $432 million in annual revenue. These are all big numbers.
The sudden simultaneous decline in wine, Cognac, and Bourbon markets threw a monkey wrench in the system leading to H&A’s bankruptcy. Now there is great uncertainty about who will receive payments and when.
Tariffs and the ongoing tariff refund process have also had an impact on the barrel business. Some international firms with domestic cooperages have moved final production of barrels to the U.S. to reduce vulnerability to future levies and increase ability to adapt to local demand.

See the WBM report for more analysis and survey results. There are always useful and informative articles to be found in Wine Business Monthly. The wine industry is fortunate to be served by this fine publication. Required reading.

Resilience! Changing Times Test Oregon Wine

July 21, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Oregon wine, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

“Oregon Wine Industry Shows Signs of Contraction” was the headline that caught my eye on the YourOregonNews.com website. The signs were clear enough and familiar to anyone following the wine industry just about anywhere in the world. The surprise was that it was Oregon.

Oregon has seemed like an unstoppable wine force in recent years. The industry rode the general wine boom starting in the 1970s (when Sue and I made our first visits), and accelerated rapidly in the Sideways era, with its focus on Pinot Noir, Oregon’s signature grape variety.

New wineries opened their doors and new vineyards put down roots. Significantly, wine producers in California, Washington, France, Italy, and elsewhere got into the market. Oregon seemed like the right place at the right time with the right wines. What could go wrong?

Changing Times.

But times have changed and Oregon’s winning streak looks to be over for now. The news article reports that

Oregon’s 2025 winegrape production dropped 25% and acreage harvested dipped 12% from the previous year due to declining sales and exports, particularly to Canada.

Signs of contraction were anticipated as the state adjusted from record years of the early 2020s to more sobering market conditions, according to the 2025 Oregon Vineyard and Winery Census Report.

A survey of winegrape growers found: “About 48% of growers sold grapes below the cost of production, 35% cut yield via farming practice changes and 23% removed vines.”

“Fruit was available and high-quality, but buyers were often hard to find. Growers adapted by selling below costs, cutting yields deliberately, dropping fruit on the ground, and in some cases pulling vines or planning to exit,” stated a report supplement.

Declining U.S. domestic sales and rising production costs were the main source of economic distress, but the collapse of export sales to Canada hit hard, too. Provincial boycotts of U.S. beverage alcohol products caused Canadian exports to fall by 83 percent, according to the report.

No Silver Linings?

“Difficult to find any silver linings in the ‘dark cloud’ news about the Oregon wine industry.” That’s what I wrote when I first posted the news story on social media and the situation sure looks bleak.

Pinot Noir seemed like Oregon’s magic pass for a while, but sales have declined along with almost every other wine category (New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is the exception). Things are so bad (and wine enthusiast budgets so stretched) that the famous International Pinot Noir Celebration was forced to hit the pause button after a successful 35-year run.

So what’s the story? Wine is a risky business and this is the sort of thing that happens when your luck runs out. That’s true enough, but it isn’t why I’ve brought you here today. I want to talk about something that hasn’t changed with the times: Oregon’s strong resilience.

New Directions

No sense sugar-coating the bad news, but it is fair to draw attention to the many efforts that Oregon wine is making to bounce back. White wine sales are holding up better than purchases of reds, for example, and Oregon is best known for its Pinot Noir. What to do? Well, as we learned a couple of years ago when we met with a group of Willamette Valley winemakers, the resilient pivot is obvious: white Pinot Noir. It was delicious. There’s no reason that “blanc de noir” should only apply to sparkling wine. I’ll bet white Pinot sells very well in tasting rooms.

Speaking of sparkling wine, Oregon produces some great examples. Why not draw attention to these wines now? Well, of course, that’s just what resilient Oregon producers of traditional method sparkling wines are doing, banding together under the “Method Oregon” banner. In fact they are hosting an ambitious Method Oregon Grand Tasting Weekend on July 24-26, 2026. More than 50 wineries are working together to connect with thirsty consumers and promote their wines.

Beyond the ABCs

Chardonnay is another Oregon pivot worth noting. Pinot Gris has long been Oregon’s best-known white wine, not Chardonnay as you might expect. Why? Part of the answer is that Oregon Pinot Gris can be really good. Another answer, a wine critic friend suggests, is that the wrong Chardonnay clones were planted in the early days and it has taken a long time to change the vineyards, the wines, and the reputation.

I think the ABC effect is also important. Oregon’s rise overlapped to some extent with the Anything But Chardonnay reaction to a certain buttery style. Many people (Sue and me included) sort of lost interest in Chardonnay.

The current crisis has motivated Oregon producers to focus more intently on their Chardonnay wines and to confront the ABC curse. Sue and I have enjoyed a number of Willamette Valley Chardonnay wines recently and we can see the appeal. The Seven Soils Chardonnay from Rex Hill, for example, was delightful. Sue said that she would be happy to drink it anytime!

We recently received a sample of the Domaine Roy & Fils Iron Filbert Dundee Hills Chardonnay, which forced us to rethink what we thought we knew about Chardonnay in Oregon. This wine, more than most we have sampled, is about place, in this case the Iron Filbert Vineyard. It is a unique expression. Much to think about here. (Domaine Roy & Fils is now owned by Italy’s Frescobaldi family, who seem determined to advance the winery’s vision of Oregon wine.)

Origins of Resilience

The Iron Filbert Vineyard’s name triggered a memory of Oregon resilience. It is possible to argue that the Oregon wine industry owes its early growth in part to a natural disaster. As Benjamin Lewin MW explains in his 2011 book “In Search of Pinot Noir,” Western Oregon was better known for hazelnuts (filberts) than wine grapes until the famous Columbus Day storm of 1962. The storm tore through the fruit and nut orchards, a disaster for the local industry.

Some of the orchards were brought back into production, but many never recovered because the costs were just too high. Some of these distressed orchards were eventually reborn as the early vineyards on which Oregon’s wine industry was built.

A new industry rose out of the wreckage of the old. Oregon wine, it seems is resilient from the ground up.

Simply Irresistable? Sicilia DOC Wines

July 14, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets Leave a comment

Sicily isn’t Italy (you can ask anyone), and Sicilian wine isn’t Italian wine either.

Many Sicilian producers have embraced the Sicilia DOC designation as a simple but effective identity. It’s the kind of idea that other wine regions might consider in today’s crowded marketplace. Here is our report.

Einstein’s Law

Everything should be as simple as possible, Albert Einstein said. But no simpler.

I think Einstein was talking about scientific theories, of course, but the idea applies to wine, too. If you make wine too complicated, it is hard to understand (and harder to sell). But make it too simple and it really isn’t wine anymore. It’s just … what? Alcohol, I guess.

I see Einstein’s Law everywhere in wine these days. On one hand, some wine brands push simplification to the point where it is hard to know what’s in the bottle, where it came from, or even who made it. Consumers buy the brand as much as the wine (maybe more).

On the other hand, many wine regions work to needlessly complicate life. Regional indicators (AVAs in the United States, appellations in Europe) are a sort of collective brand that gives the producers in a region an identity. The problem is that, once an AVA brand is established, we often see pressure for sub-AVAs that might benefit particular producers and sub-regions, but risk undermining the whole by diluting the regional brand.

I authored a tongue-in-cheek “Modest Proposal” for U.S. AVA reform a few years ago, but I don’t think anyone got the message. But some regions in Italy have been working to find the right balance between complication and simplicity. Both the Abruzzo DOC (2010)and Sicilia DOC (2011) appellations were established in an attempt to strengthen the broad regional brand, to simplify choice for consumers without going too far.

Simply Sicilia DOC

It is not easy to get producers to invest in a broad regional designation (Sicilia DOC) when they see their particular interest more closely tied to their own sub-regional brand (Etna DOC, for example). And of course getting consensus on technical and financial issues is harder the larger the group involved.

Maybe this is why the Sicilia DOC took a while to gather speed. My 1999 copy of a Touring Club of Italy wine guide notes that, after several years of negotiation, the much-anticipated Sicilia DOC designation was just about ready. The 2004 edition of the same guide said the same thing. The DOC finally appeared in 2011 and is now an important force.

Sicilia DOC has ridden the ups and downs of the wine market in general, of course, but it benefits now from Sicily’s rising profile, which has spawned a couple of interesting initiatives. Taormina, Sicily, is the recent home of The White Lotus television series, creating what is called The White Lotus Effect for Sicilian wine. Sicilia DOC has worked to take advantage of this association, which has drawn both international visitors and international interest more generally.

Sicily has also benefitted from the post-COVID international travel boom. As a press release explains:

It’s no secret that Sicily has become the “it” destination for American travelers, but that cultural obsession is now officially moving from the suitcase to the wine cellar.

We’re seeing a fascinating “Souvenir Effect” take hold: as Americans return from the island, they aren’t just looking for “Italian wine,” they are hunting for the specific indigenous grapes they discovered on the coast, like Grillo, Lucido, and Nero d’Avola.

Sicily enjoys an embarrassment of riches in terms of regions, grape varieties, and styles of wine. Some producers focus on a particular region or style, but others draw broadly on the resources available. Donnafugata, for example, offers a range of wines ranging the rich Ben Ryé dessert wine from the wind-blown island of Pantelleria in the south-east to the complex minerality of Sul Vulcano Bianco from the slopes of Mount Etna in the north-east. Completely different. Totally Sicilian.

T is for Tasca

Sue and I learned a lot about the diversity of Sicilian wine during our recent trip by enjoying Sicilia DOC wines from Tasca d’Almerita.

In Palermo we discovered Tasca d’Almerita Fondazione Whitaker Mozia, which is made from Grillo grapes grown in a historic vineyard on the low-lying island of Mozia near Trapani on the island’s west coast. We later visited Mozia and its salt flats and recognized how much the unique terroir is reflected in the wine.

We enjoyed a completely different Tasca d’Almerita wine over dinner in Catania. Tasca d’Almerita Nozze d’Oro is made from Inzolia and Sauvignon grape varieties and commemorates a special wedding anniversary (like the one Sue and I are celebrating this month). Memorable wines.

Back home in the U.S. we were pleased to see that Tasca d’Almerita wines are available here, imported by Heritage Collection, part of Trinchero Family Estates. We are currently sampling several of them, including Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali Regaleali Bianco Sicilia DOC 2023, Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali Lamuri Sicilia DOC 2022, and Tasca d’Almerita Tenuta Regaleali Rosso del Conte Sicilia Contea di Sclafani DOC 2018.

The bargain-priced Regaleali Bianco really caught our attention. A blend of native grapes from the west coast of Sicily (plus a little Chardonnay), it is both interesting and delicious. A perfect “souvenir” wine? Of course. Simply irresistable.

Lenz Moser’s Mad Mád Mád Mad Wine World

July 7, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Flying Winemakers, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

A winemaker from Austria making white Cabernet Sauvignon wines in China. It seemed like a crazy idea. But, as we reported here in The Wine Economist a couple of months ago, it really worked. Crazy, but true.

World Wine Ambitions

The winemaker is Lenz Moser and his Chateau Changyu Moser XV wines made us believers. We had to find out more.

Moser is the 15th generation of his family (hence Moser XV above) to make wines in Austria, but he obviously has world wine ambitions. He spent a decade working for Robert Mondavi, for example, and brought what he learned home in terms of making wines to appeal to international markets. He identifies as a consumer and seeks to craft wines that people will enjoy.

One problem with the Chateau Changyu Moser wines is that they are not currently available in the U.S. market (it’s complicated, but I assume that U.S.-China trade issues are part of the story). So we have been focusing on Moser wines in U.S. distribution.

Gruner Pastures?

It is not surprising that an Austrian winemaker would make wine from Austria’s signature grape variety: Gruner Veltliner. Less probable, I suppose, is that Moser would seek to reimagine the wine as he has done with his New Chapter wines. New Chapter aims to leapfrog evolution, producing “tomorrow’s Gruner today,” by which I think is meant to make Gruner more consumer-friendly without sacrificing its essence.

I admit that I don’t drink Gruner often enough to evaluate the “to the future … and beyond” claim, but I can verify that the wine quickly disappeared over lunch with our friend Mary. A good start to our investigation.

Mád Mad Moser

Our friends Lisa and John recently returned from a trip to Budapest, so they were logical guests to help us get to know Lenz Moser’s line of Hungarian wines, three variations on Furmint from the Tokaj region. How much more Hungarian can you get?

The wines are called Mad Moser (or sometimes Mád Moser) because they are made in partnership with the Mad Wine company located in the city of Mád. Mád Mad Moser for sure.

The first wine we sampled was a dry Furmint (labeled Mád Moser) made in a modern style (think stainless steel). It was distinctive and made us think a bit about where Furmint fits into the Central European wine matrix that includes Gruner and Riesling along with other white wines.

The second wine (labeled Mad Moser) was also a dry Furmint, but quite different from the first, having spent eight months in Hungarian oak casks and barrels. It was more complex, nuanced, drinkable. And it paired really well with our dinner of orecchiette with speck and peas.

The contrast between the two dry Furmint wines was striking and I’d enjoy repeating the experiment. I wish the wine labels provided more information to help consumers know what to expect (not everyone is going to be able to open the two wines side-by-side like we did). I admit that there was a lot of information on the back label, but it was in such tiny print as to be useless even in bright light (I can’t imagine trying to read it in a dimly lit restaurant). I guess I will have to try to remember how Mád differs from Mad and which one we preferred (Mad, I think).

We finished with an elegant Mad Moser Tokaji Aszu 2013, a real treat. It was well balanced and paired perfectly with Sue’s Sicilian almond cookies. A great way to end the meal. John and Lisa commented that the wine was much drier than they expected (a good feature, they said).

Tokaji was once celebrated as the King of Wines and the Wine of Kings, but it is under-appreciated today. Maybe Lenz Moser is a bit mad to try to draw our attention to it and its dry Furmint cousins, but we hope he succeeds.

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The title of today’s column was inspired by Stanley Kramer’s 1963 film, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

The Trouble with Gewürztraminer

June 16, 2026 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

The trouble with Tribles, as Star Trek fans all know, is that everyone falls in love with them at first sight. The trouble with Gewürztraminer is very different!

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Sue and I were fortunate to attend a big dinner at Cantina Tramin‘s strikingly beautiful winery a few years ago. Although I can’t really remember what we ate or who we sat with, I know for sure which wine we most enjoyed: Gewürztraminer!

The town of Tramin, in Italy’s Alto Adige region, is thought by many to be the birthplace of the Gewürztraminer grape variety, which is Cantina Tramin’s most-planted grape. The Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer is their signature wine and the wine we returned to again and again at dinner that night.

Cooperative Economics

We’ve written about Cantina Tramin before because it makes such a good wine economics story. Cantina Tramin is a cooperative winery and, like every cooperative I know of, it started life as a defensive effort. Faced with a soft market and low grape prices, growers banded together to make and to sell their own wines and share in the profits (if any). The initial focus was on bulk wine production, but about 50 years ago the bold decision was made to shift from quantity to quality, building a strong brand and earning higher margins. There was no guarantee that this would work and some other cooperatives that have tried it have not succeeded.

Cantina Tramin today is a noteworthy success story. Its 160 grower families farm about 280 hectares of grapes, producing 150,000 cases of wine. If you do the math you will quickly realize that the individual vineyards are tiny, so cooperation mobilizes strength in numbers. The small scale of individual holdings is exploited to highlight terroir. Higher quality grapes are rewarded with higher prices. Although it produces both red and white wines, Cantina Tramin is best known for its white wines, especially Gewürztraminer, for which it is famous in Italy.

The White Shift in Action

As most Wine Economist readers know, wine consumers today seem to be shifting from red wines to white wines, much to the benefit of Alto Adige producers and those in other regions of the Italian northeast such as Friuli and the Veneto. The white shift is especially important to the degree that it compensates somewhat for the general decline in wine consumption. White wines have a larger share of the smaller market pie, so to speak. Smaller share, smaller pie for red wine producers overall.

So this is good news for Cantina Tramin because their Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon, and white blend wines are all very popular. But the situation is more complicated for Gewürztraminer. Or at least that’s the case here in the U.S. market.

Gewürztraminer is well-known in Italy and nearby Austria, for example, and the Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer has a stellar reputation. But Gewürztraminer seems to be a hard sell here in the U.S., even though excellent Gewürztraminer wines are made here (think Anderson Valley, for example). The story is told that the famous Napa winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff endorsed Washington State’s potential as a quality wine producer upon tasting a glass of excellent local Gewürztraminer.

Gewürztraminer & the Riesling Curse

Gewürztraminer has the qualities that wine drinkers today look for. It is crisp, aromatic, delicious. It might not be the next “boom variety,” but it should be more popular than it is, don’t you think? What’s the problem?

I hate to put it this way, but maybe Gewürztraminer has the Riesling Curse. Like Riesling, Gewürztraminer has a name that some people are afraid of getting wrong (Jancis Robinson has written that some people are uncertain if it is Rice-ling or Rees-ling or something else). Gewürztraminer is kind of a long word (see Mark Twain’s essay “The Awful German Language” in this regard) and cautious people are sometimes afraid to try to sound it out, I guess.

A second problem is that, again like Riesling, Gewürztraminer can be made in different styles and consumers may be afraid to make a mistake. Is it sweet or is it dry? How can I tell? Gewürztraminer can even fool you a bit because a sweet aroma can disguise a dry finish. Gewürztraminer is what is sometimes called an “experience good.” You won’t know if you like it until you try it. But it can be hard to get to that first sip.

Maybe Catina Tramin’s stellar line-up of Alto Adige white wines can be an onramp for Gewürztraminer. All the wines we’ve tried have been great. A glass of the Troy Chardonnay might lead to a bottle of the Stoan white blend, which includes a touch of Gewürztraminer along with Chardonnay and other grape varieties. Then, maybe, who knows? Gewürztraminer isn’t that hard to say once you’ve tasted it!

Message in a Wine Glass: How Does That Wine Make You Feel?

June 9, 2026 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 5 Comments

Why do so many people love Champagne (and other sparkling wines, too)? Is it the way they taste? Or is it the way they make you feel? Here are a few thoughts inspired by a message in a wine glass.

Not Necessarily Clear as Glass

As regular Wine Economist readers know, Sue and I have this thing about specialized wine glasses and wine paraphernalia generally. Wine is an everyday drink for us and we try not to take it (and ourselves) too seriously. The purpose of wine is to make life better. Why complicate that?

But it is important to have an open mind, so we experimented for a while with specialized tasting glasses designed by Raj Parr and manufactured by Glasvin. As reported on The Wine Economist, we found them pretty, but a bit awkward. They didn’t really improve our wine experience very much, although, to be fair, they always seemed to delight guests. Maybe it was just us?

Then, a couple of months ago, we started experimenting with a Glasvin product called The Universal , and we surprised ourselves. We really enjoy using it. It’s a drinking glass rather than a tasting glass, of course, which suits our preference. It is super lightweight and pretty to look at. They have become our first-choice glassware for everyday enjoyment (we still rely on our OG INAO tasting glasses for analytical work.)

Hold Me, Touch Me, Taste Me, Feel Me

So here’s the thing. Does the wine taste better in nicer glasses than it does in regular wine glasses? I know that the type and shape of a wine glass is supposed to affect perception, but I have never paid too much attention to that side. I know that the Raj Parr tasting glasses had some effect just because they were designed for you to focus on particular elements rather than just enjoying the wine.

After some thought (and a few more glasses of wine), I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter to me if the glass makes the wine taste better. The point is that using these nicer glasses makes drinking the wine feel better. It elevates our experience (your mileage may vary).

This is not a very important observation on its own, but the idea of tasting versus feeling might be worth considering in a broader context. Wine descriptions often tell consumers how the wine tastes, sometimes in intimidating detail. This is useful information, but is it what buyers want to know? Or would it be better to suggest how the wine might make you feel?

Think about the last time you entered a friend’s home or attended an event where a glass of sparkling wine was quickly put in your hand. How did that make you feel? I’m pretty sure it felt good. How did it taste? You might not be able to remember because the feelings of welcome and relaxation were so strong.

I wonder if the feeling effect explains the success of some celebrity wines? Do you think it just feels good to connect through wine to someone you know, like or admire? Sue and I often remark that we especially enjoy wines with a personal connection, usually to the winemaking family.

Don’t Jump the Shark

If this is true, then I wonder why so many wine producers go out of their way to ignore the feeling effect? Some labels feature tasting notes or technical data suitable for a WSET study guide. Not a lot of feeling there. Now I don’t think you should tell people how they should feel when they drink your wine. But the right language can set an emotional framework that consumers can fill in themselves when they lift the glass.

I think emotion is an obvious part of the wine experience and it seems to me that wine producers don’t always pay enough attention to this in telling their stories. That said, I don’t want to push too hard on this point or some desperate winemaker might start crafting products for specific emotions. Moody Malbec. Silly Sauvignon. Passionate Pinot. Who knows where that might lead?

That’s the message I found in our new wine glasses. I wonder what the corkscrew has to say?

The Battle of Land versus Brand

June 2, 2026 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine markets 4 Comments

In the wine market’s continuing battle of land versus brand, brand has several built-in advantages. Brands are often backed by big business marketing and distribution muscle, for example, and brands are scalable in ways that vineyard- and region-specific wines never can be.

My first wine book, Wine Wars, charted the path of several famous brands, including Blue Nun and Two Buck Chuck. Wine Wars II went deeper into brand land, searching for the keys to brand success. We are living in the Age of Identity and brands offer wine companies the opportunity to craft identities to fit specific market segments (think 19 Crimes, for example).

So brand trumps land, right? Not so fast. Here are three brief reports from the battlefront.

Noble Nobile

Sometimes land trumps brand or maybe it is that land reinforces the brand. The point is illustrated by two Italian wines Sue and I had the pleasure to sample.

Avignonesi Poggetto di Sopra is a relatively rare thing: A vineyard-designated Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. The map on the label shows the particular vineyard rows that were used along with the precise latitude and longitude of the block. The goal, we are told, is to let this particular place tell its story through the wine with as little intervention as possible.

The result is a rather elegant wine that changes and shifts in the glass as you drink and consider it. Sue was impressed, saying that it is just the kind of wine she most enjoys drinking. It paired very well with our homemade prosciutto and arugula pizza (the sauce was made with tomatoes from Sue’s garden).

The Avignonesi brand is famous, of course, but the wine is about the land and I think this elevates the brand rather than competing with it.

Vermentino and Not Vermentino

Tenuta Argenteria is a well-known producer in the Bolgheri region, best known for Bordeaux-blend red wines. They produce a white wine called Scenario, which is both a Vermentino and not a Vermentino.

How is this possible? Is it another “American wine” naming trick? No, the answer is that Scenario is made from 100% Vermentino grapes and if you put that on the label, then customers naturally define it in those terms (grape varieties are a sort of brand in this regard) and set expectations accordingly. They will evaluate the wine from the perspective of their Vermentino experience.

Argentiera wants to have the land be the defining factor, so Scenario is identified only as Bolgheri Bianco DOC (no grape variety is listed). I don’t know about you, but we haven’t tasted a ton of Bolgheri Bianco wines, sowe had to take the wine on its own terms. Isn’t that refreshing?

How did it taste? Savory not fruity, with nice minerality. We usually drink white wines warmer than our friends do, but this one wanted a little more chill. Did it remind us of Vermentino wines like the ones we discovered in Sardinia a few years ago? No, not really. But why should it? After all, only the grape variety is the same. Land, climate, people — all different. Do the red Bolgheri wines, blends of Bordeaux varieties, taste like Napa Cab?

What is American Wine?

An interesting example is the current debate about American appellation wines. This very broad designation was created to allow the blending of wines from different geographical designations. Some wines from New Mexico, for example, carry the American appellation for the very good reason that they include grapes from California and Washington State. Not really New Mexico, but not allowed to use California or Washington designations, either, because they are made outside those states. American wine? OK.

The VARA Zero Dosage American sparkling wine, for example, is made in New Mexico with Chardonnay grapes from Lodi and Arroyo Secco AVAs in California. It’s a fine wine and good value.

Now, however, we learn that the American appellation rules permit wineries to include imported wine in the blend. So they are “American” but not entirely American either. It is an obvious cost-saving and margin-protecting strategy because the world is awash in inexpensive bulk wine.

The California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) is working to try to correct this situation. It is obviously in the interest of CAWG members to keep imported grapes and bulk wine out of “American” wine boxes and bottles (just as it is in the interest of big producers to keep the rules as they are). But there are more than competing interests at stake. It is hard to take wine regulations seriously if “American” means “not necessarily” or “not entirely” American. If that’s the case, why have an American appellation at all?