Independence Day Flashback: Have Some Madeira?

Today is the day we raise a glass to celebrate American independence and our friends and neighbors sometimes ask what wine is appropriate for this occasion. There are many possibilities. Sparkling wines are traditional for celebrations and pair well with picnic fare. We often favor Zinfandel because America is a nation of immigrants and, while the Zin grape is not native to the United States, it has found its home here. Or perhaps a wine made from the Norton grape, a hybrid first grown in Richmond, Virginia, about 100 years ago? Tough to choose!

Today’s special Flashback Wine Economist column makes the case for Madeira, perhaps the most American wine of them all even though it isn’t produced in the United States. Why Madeira? Read on. And happy Independence Day to all.

Have Some Madeira?

Wine Economist (November 13, 2018)

It is in a way the most American of wines, even though it comes from a Portuguese island off the African coast. When it came time to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, this is the wine that filled the Founding Fathers’ glasses.

Workers at the Liberty Hall Museum in New Jersey recently discovered three cases of the stuff dating from 1796 — too young to be the wine that Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams raised for their toast, but old enough that they might have sipped it a few years later.

Oh, Madeira!

Madeira (because you have already guessed the name of the wine I’m talking about) has a glorious history here in the United States. Once upon a time, you could find it prominently displayed on the top shelf of any reputable drinks shop, it was that popular. But when I went looking for a bottle at my local upscale supermarket I had to go deep into the corner where the fortified and dessert wines are kept and then stoop down to the bottom shelf.

O, Madeira. How far you have fallen!

But looks can deceive and Madeira is alive and well even if it’s not as prominent as it was in 1776. Madeira was America’s wine back then in part because America didn’t make much wine of its own and imported wine often suffered badly on the long sea trip from Europe to North America.

Live Long and Prosper

Madeira’s secret was (and is) its unique production process, where the wine is both heated and oxidized. The wines used to be conditioned by sending the barrels on round-trip ocean voyages in hot cargo holds. The movement of the ship and the heat below deck did the job very well.

Now it’s done shore-side in the lodges. The wines start with high acidity (the island soils are part of that) and end up both fresh and nearly invincible. A bottle of Madeira has a very long half-life after it has been uncorked. You’ll certainly drink it up before it goes off.

There’s not a lot of Madeira wine produced, which is one reason you don’t see oceans of it in the shops. Vineyard land is not plentiful on Madeira — about 500 hectares in total cling to the steep mountainsides. Just enough to provide raw materials to eight producers. 1928

France is the number one market for Madeira wine, where it is a popular aperitif (France is the top market for Port wines, too, for the same reason). Tourists visiting Madeira enjoy enough of the wine there to make it the number two market followed by Germany, the UK, Japan, and the United States. U.S. demand has been slowly ratcheting up in recent years, now accounting for about seven percent of total production.

You Don’t Know What You’re Missing

Sue and I traveled to Madeira about a year ago and learned a lot by visiting Blandy’s and Justino’s, two of the most important producers. We were fortunate to be invited to refresh our memories last month at a seminar and trade tasting in Seattle. We tasted the range of Madeira wine types including the one pictured here from 1928. Here are some impressions from that experience.

If you haven’t tasted Madeira in a while, you need to get to work. Chances are you’ve forgotten the balance and lifting acidity that characterize the wines. These aren’t sticky sweet fruitcake wines, (although there is such a thing as a Madeira cake, which is meant to be eaten with a glass of Madeira.)

You can make Madeira as simple or complicated as you like — it is up to you. By far the majority of the wines are sweet or semi-sweet 3-year-old blends. Sweetish or drier — those are your basic choices. Drier Madeira, like Fino sherry, is pretty versatile and might surprise you.

Only small amounts of aged Madeira is made from white grape varieties like the Sercial in the photo and these wines have very distinctive characteristics that anyone who wants to take a deeper dive would appreciate. Because the wines basically last forever once opened, you can pull the cork on several different ones and enjoy the kind of comparative tasting that we experienced in Seattle without being anxious about finishing up the bottles before they go off. On-trade readers take note!

Madeira was once the Big Thing in American wine. Is it The Next Big Thing today? No — can’t be. There’s not enough of it to go around. But it is a unique wine of time and place that deserves a closer look.

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Special thanks to Bartholomew Broadbent for his help with this column.

The Hedgehog & the Fox: Discovering the Wines of Lugana DOC & Garda DOC

June 27, 2023 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets, wine tourism Leave a comment

Today’s Wine Economist is inspired by Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” The fox knows many things, Berlin wrote, drawing on an ancient Greek parable, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

People are like that, don’t you think? And there are wine regions like that too. The Lugana DOC on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy, for example, reminds me of the hedgehog, with its clear focus on one important wine. The Garda DOC, on the other hand, is home to many different ideas of wine. It is the fox.

Please read our report below and see if you agree — and which wine critter you find more appealing.

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Lake Garda in the Italian north is one of Europe’s great summer playgrounds. No wonder visitors flock there from all over Italy and from Germany and Switzerland too. There is something for everyone. The lake itself for watersports, of course, along with beaches and campgrounds, theme parks, and more. The local economy benefits from the region’s understandable popularity and so does the local wine industry. I’ll bet both were hit hard when covid restrictions put a lid on tourism. They seem to be booming now.

The Lake Effect is Strong

Wine, not theme parks, was the focus when Sue and I joined a group of journalists from Germany and Denmark for a tour co-hosted by the Lugana DOC and Garda DOC consortia. The fact that the program embraced two overlapping but very different wine regions made this an unusual adventure.

Burton Anderson acknowledged the impact of Garda tourism on the Lugana wine industry in his classic 1990 guide The Wine Atlas of Italy,

Its success has been attributed to the fact that it is white and comes from the well-frequented Garda resort of Sirmione, but the real point in its favor is its graceful personality that appeals to both novices and to people who take wine seriously.

The wines are shaped by the combination of the Turbiana grape variety, also known as Trebbiano di Lugana, plus the beneficial lake effects, and the subtle variations in vineyard geology that result from glacial activity that made this region fairly flat but far from homogeneous. The Lugana DOC wines, as I wrote a few weeks ago, balance salinity against minerality in ways that please and provoke further investigation.

A Visit to Cantina Ottella

Although restricted to just one grape variety, we found tremendous variety in the Lugana DOC wines. A memorable visit to Cantina Ottella opened our eyes to the possibilities. Ottella is a project of the Montresor family, who have been making wine here for four generations. Michele Montresor showed us the winery with its fantastic modern art collection and then we began with the wines. Picked early, the Turbiana grape variety makes sparkling wines that are justifiably popular. Picked a little later, in September, the Lugana DOC wine showed the salinity and minerality that defines it so clearly.

The next wine caught our attention. Le Creete is harvested later, in October, from old vines from a single vineyard. It was complex and even more interesting than the wine before. The Riserva was elegant, with well-integrated oak. An amphora wine dedicated to Michele’s father Ludovico came next. Stunning in its complexity. Then, finally, a Lugana DOC from the 2007 vintage, to show that Lugana can age elegantly and develop gracefully. Quite an experience. And proof, if we needed it, that Anderson was right when he said that these Lugana wines have what it takes to interest experienced wine enthusiasts even as they delight beginners.

Foxy, but in a Good Way

Cantina Ottella is famous for its Lugana wines, but they also produce wines with grapes from their vineyards in other local appellations. The evening before our visit, for example, we ordered one of their Garda DOC red wines called Campo Sireso with dinner. It was a blend of Corvina Veronese, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Garda wine zone. The wine was fantastic and caught our attention.

The “fox” Garda wine zone is very different from Lugana’s “hedgehog.” Approved grape varieties for Garda include both native grapes (Cortese, Trebbiano, and Garganega whites and Corvina and Marzemino reds, for example) and international varieties, too (Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc whites and Cabernet and Merlot among others on the red side).

This means, of course, that Garda has something for everyone who comes to visit Lake Garda in the summer months and the existence of red wines is perhaps especially appealing to visitors from Northern Europe who might have a particular preference for red wines.

But Garda’s fox-like character also means that it has more trouble defining its identity in export markets, which is a shame since the wines can be very good indeed.

Sue and I were fortunate to be able to visit several wine producers who have adopted different market strategies. Come back in two weeks for these “hedgehog” and “fox” case studies. In the meantime, next week’s Wine Economist will feature a special “Independence Day” flashback column.

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Many thanks to the Lugana DOC and Garda DOC consortia for hosting us for this visit. Thanks, as well, to the wineries on our brief tour who generously gave us their time, knowledge, and very good wines! The winery list includes La Moretti, Ottella, Azienda Zenato, Cascina Maddalena, Ca” Maiol, Borgo la Cuccio, Colli Morenici, Bulgarini, and Perla del Garda. If you see wines from any of these producers on a shop shelf or wine list, please give them a try. You won’t regret it.

Wine Book Review: Challenging Change in the Wine World and Beyond

June 20, 2023 By Mike Veseth in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Caro Feely, Cultivating Change: Regenerating Land and Love in the Age of Climate Crisis (2023).

They say that time changes things. But sometimes you have to change them yourself. I think of this saying, which I originally heard attributed to Nelson Mandela, whenever I read Caro Feely’s books.

Time and Change

South Africa-born Feely along with her husband Sean and their daughters made the audacious choice to leave their lives in Ireland and move to Saussignac in Southwest France, purchase vineyards, and begin the continuing adventure that is Chateau Feely. The move was all about change. New country. New language. New culture. New business. New joys and triumphs. New tensions and lots of stress.

Caro Feely has documented her changing world in a series of books starting with Grape Expectations in 2012 and continuing through the “vineyard series” to Saving our Skins (2014) and Glass Half Full (2017). Cultivating Change can be read on its own or as a continuation of the vineyard series.

Like Feely’s previous books, Cultivating Change works on several levels at once through her very personal account of life at Chateau Feely (some parts are so personal that I feel like I am reading her diary). Readers come to understand that it is hard to unravel the threads of life — family, business, community, nature. I was originally attracted to Feely’s books by their analysis of the business side of a family winery in France. And then I got caught up in the challenge they undertook to move from conventional to organic and now biodynamic viticulture. These threads are strong, but only part of the story.

Time Has Come Today

Time is a central theme in Cultivating Change. Time’s accelerating pace affects everything. Friends and family grow older and sometimes grow apart. The daughters are suddenly grown up or nearly so. Time changes things and fast time creates a sudden urgency that pulls at all of the book’s threads. Sometimes you have to change things yourself, as the saying goes, and Caro Feely finds herself compelled to take action, a fact that is complicated by the covid pandemic.

Readers will find the account of the impact of climate change on wine growing at Chateau Feely particularly interesting. The urgent need for change to fight change has spurred Feely to become an activist, so we learn of her expanding role as an advocate for progressive vineyard practices.

Feely needs allies to help cultivate the changes she seeks and fight those she opposes, so we sense her anger and disappointment when she discovers some obvious alliances breaking down. More than once in the book we encounter wine sellers who have the potential to educate consumers about winegrowing and advocate for progressive practices who just don’t seem to take the matter seriously.

I thought of these scenes from the book when I was following up on a reference from Giovanna Prandini, the founder of Perla del Garda winery. Her note led me to an importer and wine subscription program here in the Seattle area called Iola Wines. Iola Wines, which focuses on women winemakers and environmentally progressive wineries, would seem to be the sort of ally that Caro Feely might want. I was a little surprised (and then not so surprised) to find the “small world” fact that Chateau Feely wines are part of the Iola wine program.

One final change to note. The wine world is changing and so is the world of books. Cultivating Change is the first of Feely’s books to be self-published. Once upon a time, self-publication was thought of as the “vanity press” for books that no “real” publisher would touch. But those days have gone, especially in the world of wine books, as more and more important authors choose a disintermediation strategy and go DtC.

It’s a new set of challenges for Caro Feely and I am not sure where she finds the time for everything she already does, but I am glad she still makes time for her books. Interesting. Informative. Inspiring. Highly recommended.

Pogo’s Dilemma and the Future of Prosecco Superiore

June 13, 2023 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

Pogo’s Dilemma is the theme of this week’s Wine Economist. Pogo’s Dilemma? It is a reference to Walt Kelly’s famous cartoon where the character Pogo reflects, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Sometimes life is like that, or at least it seems that way to me for the successful winegrowers in the Prosecco Superiore region.

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As last week’s Wine Economist explained, the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG region in north-east Italy is a remarkable success story. The historic home of Prosecco in Italy (and the source of some of the finest wines today), Prosecco Superiore DOCG is in an enviable situation. Nearly every hectare of available vineyard land is planted, yields are pretty much at the maximum, and the wines sell out at attractive prices. There are not many wine regions that can compare.

By the Numbers

Here is the story by the numbers. Prosecco Superiore DOCG had 8,683 bearing hectares of grape vines in 2022, which produced a total of about 103 million bottles of wine and €634 million in revenue for the 2127 producers and growers (including seven cooperatives).

Italy is the top market for Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines, accounting for about 60 percent of sales. The top five export markets are the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the United States (Canada is next at #6).

You might be surprised to see the U.S. below Switzerland and Austria on this list. The U.S. sometimes seems to be awash with Prosecco. You see it everywhere on store shelves and restaurant lists. Surely the U.S. drinks more Prosecco than the export numbers suggest?

Prosecco vs Prosecco

Well, yes, Americans are great fans of Prosecco, but only about 3 million bottles of it are Prosecco Superiore DOCG from the Conegliano Valdobbiadene region. The rest is from the much larger Prosecco DOC zone or, like the big-selling Kirkland Signature Prosecco, from the Asolo Prosecco region. These wines can be very good and are generally less expensive. They pretty much dominate the U.S. market with many of the top-selling brands either distributed by U.S. wine companies (think Gallo’s La Marca brand) or sold under their labels. There is a Cupcake Prosecco, for example, a Barefoot Bubbly Prosecco, and now even a Prosecco from NBA star James Harden.

Prosecco DOC is ubiquitous in the U.S. market, but Prosecco Superiore DOCG can be hard to find. You really have to look for it. But the effort is worthwhile. I have organized comparative tastings of different Prosecco wines a couple of times and the Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines always make people smile and ask for more.

Prosecco DOC and DOCG wines are made with the same grape variety, Glera, using the same production techniques. The DOCG zone’s terroirs account for the wine’s distinctive qualities. It maybe isn’t a surprise that consumers who understand the difference between the wines are following the premiumization path toward Prosecco Superiore DOCG. Interestingly, producers told me, as Prosecco Superiore markets mature consumers tend to shift from the Extra Dry style that is so popular with Prosecco DOC wines to Brut and even Extra Brut Prosecco Superiore.

A Good Life (and its Discontents)

Life is good in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene region, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plans to move ahead. The goal is not so much to sell more wine (yields are maxed out) but to increase margins on the wine and generate new revenue sources through expanded wine tourism offerings. Wine tourism suffers a bit today from limited infrastructure and the nearby presence of Venice. Venice doesn’t give up her tourists once they arrive at the lagoon (day-tripping to the wine country doesn’t really happen), which makes an emphasis on destination wine tourist facilities critical.

Raising margins means raising prices and this is never easy, even for a wine like Prosecco Superiore, which seems undervalued for the quality it delivers. One part of the problem is competition, which tends to discourage price increases. The Prosecco Superiore producers compete with each other in every market, of course, and compete with other Italian sparkling wine producers for the key domestic market. Here in the U.S., sparkling wines from around the world compete with each other for room on wine shelves and space on restaurant wine lists.

The biggest competition for Prosecco Superiore wines here in America and perhaps in other export markets, too, are the generally less expensive Prosecco DOC wines. These wines are popular, heavily promoted by importers, and have consumer-pleasing quality. Prosecco Superiore’s efforts to increase price are limited, in other words, by the good value that Prosecco wines represent. And, of course, most U.S. consumers don’t really get the DOC vs DOCG thing. Prosecco is Prosecco to them.

When is Prosecco Not Prosecco?

This is where Pogo’s Dilemma (we have met the enemy and he is us) comes in. Many producers of Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines are also producers of Prosecco DOC wines (made with grapes from the DOC zone, not the DOCG zone). So, in effect, they are their own biggest competition when it comes to price increases. The better the DOC wines, the harder it is to boost DOCG prices.

The Moretti Polegato family, for example, owns Villa Sandi, a top Prosecco Superiore DOCG producer. Their wine was featured on the by-the-glass list at a top Verona restaurant we visited. But the family also owns La Gioiosa, whose DOC wines are often found on supermarket shelves. The family strategy seems to be to continue to raise the quality of all the wines rather than thinking about one versus the other and seize other opportunities that make sense, too.

For example, you can enjoy a glass of Prosecco at the Villa Sandi wine bar at the Venice airport, or have an excellent meal and perhaps spend the night at Locanda Sandi in Valdobbiadene. The Pogo effect isn’t really a problem in this case.

Smaller producers and those who focus exclusively on DOCG wines must consider different strategies. the family-run Vincenzo Toffoli, for example, produces 250,000 bottles including both Prosecco DOCG and DOC wines from their 20 hectares of vines. Although 95 percent of the wine is sparkling, the family is also exploring the region’s still wine heritage, including sweet passito wines, a delicious dry passito red Colli di Conegliano Refrontolo DOCG, and a ripasso Marzemino Veneto IGT.

The wines of Col Vetoraz are as spectacular as the tasting room view of the steep Valdobbiadene vineyards. Great wine, just don’t call it Prosecco. Prosecco, according to Col Vetoraz and several other producers, has degenerated into a generic term, defined by the big producers on the plains, which doesn’t capture the special quality of their wines. So they’ve banished Prosecco from their labels and literature. The wines they make are Valdobbiadene DOCG. Simple as that.

Refusing the Prosecco name seemed crazy to me at first, but maybe it is a reasonable response to the Pogo effect. If Prosecco is often sweetish and cheap, then maybe a drier luxury wine should have a different name, even if it is one that Americans might be afraid to pronounce. It certainly might work for some producers in their domestic market. Or at least that’s what came to mind when we were shopping for Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines at a big shop in Verona. You can see how the wine display was labeled in the photo.

Sue and I were impressed with the creativity and innovation we encountered during our visit to Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG. It is a magical wine from a magical place and the magical people who make it are bound to find solutions to Pogo’s Dilemma.

Anatomy of Italian Wine Industry Success

June 6, 2023 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets Leave a comment

Economics is sometimes called the “dismal science” and I guess it is true that the Wine Economist is often focused on the problems that the wine industry faces (see the recent column on California vineyard profitability, for example). So it is a pleasure to write about two wine regions in Italy that have achieved rather remarkable success.

The regions I want to highlight here are Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG — home of many of Italy’s best sparkling wines — and Lugana DOC on the shores of Lake Garda, makers of one of Italy’s most distinctive white wines. Although the wines of the two regions are very different, the sources of their success have some things in common. Why are these regions successful? What challenges do they face? Read on.

Wine and Words

Sue and I came to Italy as guests of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Consorzio to participate in the first edition of a wine literature festival called Co(u)ltura Conegliano Valdobbiadene held in the scenic and historic Castello San Salvatore di Susegana. It was two days of author interviews, masterclasses, walk-around wine tastings, and more that drew a large and appreciative crowd. A highlight was the special recognition of five young Italian writers whose essays on this region were collected and published for the event. (The photo at the top of this column shows a fantastic video-mapping demonstration.)

Sue and I took advantage of this opportunity to meet with winemakers and Consorzio officials and learn as much as we could about this dynamic wine region. When the festival was over, we changed locations to join a small press tour organized by the Lugana and Garda wine consortia. The result was a very revealing set of experiences.

Signature Grape vs Taste of the Place?

I am not sure that anyone has ever thought to directly compare the Lugana DOC and the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG (henceforth Prosecco Superiore DOCG) regions the way we found ourselves doing, but it is an interesting exercise. Although the wines are completely different in terms of sensory and market characteristics, there are still interesting shared qualities that are worth considering.

Each region is best known for wines made from a single grape variety. Glera is the go-to grape in Prosecco Superiore DOCG, producing several variations of sparkling wines as well as traditional still white wines that you can find if you look for them. Lugana DOC is built on the Turbiana (a.k.a. Trebbiano di Lugana) grape variety, which is made in several styles of still white wines and sparkling wines, too.

You might think these wines would be defined by their signature grape varieties, but you would be wrong. These are wines of place. The Lugana DOC wines are different from the many Trebbiano wines you will find in Italy and the particular climate and especially geology of the Lugana region at the south end of Lake Garda has a lot to do with it.

The Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines are distinctive, too. Although you can see the family resemblance in many cases between the Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines and similar wines made from Glera using the same processes from the Prosecco DOC and Asolo DOC zones, to my taste the DOCG wines are often brighter, more alive in the glass. They always make me smile.

The wines of Lugana DOC are distinctive, too, and for a long time, I found it hard to describe them. But a masterclass we attended led by the brilliant Constantino Gabardi has given me the words I need. The Lugana DOC wines are not so much defined by fruit as we often think for white wines, but by salinity and minerality held in tension by acidity. It is a different idea of wine than I am used to and so it is no wonder I find the Lugana wines so fascinating.

In both cases, the land and the grapes interact to create a complicated but fascinating experience. The landscape between the wine towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene is varied and stunningly beautiful, which is why, I suppose, it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Vineyard regions are often pretty, but these vineyards are special — even more spectacular than the Douro Valley. The dramatic landscape terroir is reflected in the wines. Fruitier, they say, in the more rolling hills near Conegliano. More structured on the sharp peaks and valleys near Valdobbiadene.

The area around Lake Garda is beautiful, but it is nothing like the stunning Valdobbiadene landscape. Yet the more subtle variations here matter a lot. The balance and dynamic interaction of Lugana DOC wines stem from the land, in this case, the complicated geology that was left behind as glaciers scraped the landscape eons ago. The soil is very different at lower elevations closer to the lake and the wines reflect this and the balance of salinity and minerality that is so attractive in the glass is the result.

Victims of their own Success?

Both regions have achieved great success and are developing strategies to climb even higher on the wine wall in the future. Having navigated the shifting market tides of the Covid era very well, producers in Prosecco Superiore DOCG find that they have hit a plateau. Virtually every available hectare of potential vineyard land is planted (to Glera for the most part) and yields have been effectively maximized. The challenge is not so much to produce and sell more wine, but to better differentiate the wines in the market to increase margins.

Lugana DOC producers are also victims of their success to a certain extent. The Turbiana grapes that go into Lugana DOC wines sell for several times the value of other grapes in the region, creating a prosperous environment for producers. Lugana is effectively differentiated and benefits from its reputation. The potential problem, I was told, is that just a few export markets dominate sales. What happens, one winemaker asked me, if tomorrow Germans decided they don’t like Lugana wines so much?

The Prosecco Superiore DOCG producers hope to raise margins. The Lugana producers who to expand and diversify their markets. Neither of these tasks is easy in today’s competitive marketplace, but then there was nothing easy about getting to their current high plateau, either. Watch for additional analysis of these two fascinating regions in the weeks to come.

Four Faces of Wine and Sustainability

May 31, 2023 By Mike Veseth in Shameless Self-Promotion, sustainability, wine 2 Comments

I made a virtual visit to Umeå, Sweden last week to accept (via video) the Gourmand award that my book Wine Wars II: the Global Battle for the Soul of Wine received as an outstanding contribution to the analysis of wine and sustainability.

Wine Wars II is one of four books that received this special award and I think it is revealing to consider them together to appreciate the complexity of the sustainability and wine issue.

As I understand it, sustainability is all about the tension between and among seemingly opposite poles and the need to navigate the force fields thus created.

First, Sustainability is a global concern (think United Nations Sustainable Development goals), but it is a battle that must be fought one locality at a time. Think global, act local. (One scholar coined the term “glocal” to describe this situation, but I avoid it since it sounds like my cat coughing up a hairball.)

The first pair of books on the award list, Manifeste Chateau Cheval Blanc and Agroecologie: Quatre Saisons du domaine de l’Apocolypse examine the problem from the local level in France and Greece respectively, giving us a look at how global principles are translated into local practice, with attention to the specific challenges and opportunities.

Science and business are often seen as opposite sides of the sustainability issue, too, but is this the case? The second pair of books explores this tension in two very different ways. Jamie Goode’s book on Regenerative Viticulture takes a scientific approach to sustainability, developing a toolkit to be applied thoughtfully to specific situations to make viticulture more truly sustainable.

If business and its profit motives are the enemies of sustainability, what can drive wine firms to adopt the tools and follow the examples that the first three books listed here provide? My answer in Wine Wars II is risk. Adopting sustainable practices may come at a cost, but not taking action is costly too and wine businesses are increasingly being forced to confront those costs both in the field and on their business accounts.

Climate change creates material risks that businesses must report and attempt to manage and it is informative to see what wine sector businesses see as the most important risks and what they are doing to address them.

But there is most to consider from the economic perspective. Sensible practices in the vineyard and cellar are only truly sustainable if they are also economically sustainable. The final section of Wine Wars II explores wine’s “triple crisis” (environment, economy, identity) and tries to help readers think clearly about the complicated issues the wine industry faces today.

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Many thanks to Edouard Cointreau and the Gourmand awards team, both for the specific recognition for Wine Wars II and for their efforts to draw attention to the many faces of wine and sustainability. Congratulations and thanks, too, to Pierre Ly who accepted the award certificate for Wine Wars II. Adventures on the China Wine Trail, by Pierre Ly and Cynthia Howson, also received a Gourmand award at the ceremony.

Back to the Future with Dry Rosé Wine?

May 23, 2023 By Mike Veseth in wine, wine history, wine magazines, wine markets Leave a comment

More than five years ago, I wrote in these pages that “dry rosés are increasing in popularity not only among open-minded wine drinkers but also among California winemakers.”

If I could write these words today they’d make me look like a pretty savvy wine economist. Dry rosé wines have experienced a boom in recent years and not everyone was convinced back in 2018 that the pink wave was real.

But I didn’t write this sentence. Mark Bittman did in an article titled “The Perfect Summer Wine?” that appeared in the August 1998 issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine. (This issue sort of fell into our hands when Sue found it in the Little Free Library down the street. Someone in the neighborhood must be cleaning magazines out of the basement.)

Tutti Fruity?

You might be surprised to know that dry rosé was fashionable back in 1998, but actually that’s not the point that Bittman makes in this article. You see way back in 1993, Bittman’s tasting panel found lots of dry rosés that pleased them. But by 1998 things were going downhill, he writes. Too many of the wines they tasted were sweet, not dry. “Tutti fruity” one tasting note reads. “Just drier than black cherry soda, not unlike it,” says another.

That’s not to say that Bittman’s team couldn’t find delicioous dry rosés for the 1998 tasting. The thing that struck them was that most of them came from France and only a few from California. Three out of four of the “not recommended” wines were California products. Not exactly a Judgement of Paris result.

All but one of the “recommended” and “highly recommended” wines came from France. The sole California selection? Heitz Cellars Napa Valley Grignolino Rosé!

The Curse of the White Zinfandel?

I wonder if this was a “white Zin” effect? There was a time when sweetish pink California wines were very popular and the leader of the pack was White Zinfandel. Do you suppose that the popularity of that style of wine influenced Calfifornia rosé wines generally the way that the success of Kendall-Jackson Private Reserve Chandronnay influenced a lot of California Chardonnay producers?

The sweet/dry cleavage isn’t the only one that Bittman’s article highlights. There is also pale and dark to consider.

The top rosé wine, according to the tasting panel, was the same in both 1993 and 1998: Chateau de Trinquevedel Tavel. Younger readers may wonder in what part of Provence is Tavel found? This is a trick question because Tavel is in the Rhone valley and the wines are dark and full-bodied. I have always thought of them, in my simplistic way, as pink wines for red wine drinkers. Pale Provencal wines (like the #2 wine in 1998: Domaine de la Gautiere en Provence) are, by contast, pinks that appeal a bit more to those who like white wine.

Delightful and Affordable

The wines were not especially cheap in 1998: $15 for the Tavel and $8 for Provence. That is much more than Beringer White Zin in those days, but worth every penny, Bittman assures us, and I am sure he was right. The most expensive wine reviewed cost $22 in 1998 prices, which was a lot for a rosé back then. But what a wine: Domaine Tempier Bandol 1996.

Dry rosé is back with the French in the vanguard. But darker rosés like the Tavel are hard to find (Tavel wines are very hard in my local market). Everyone tells me that consumers strongly prefer pale pink to dark pink, even though the experts say that color and hue don’t determine flavor and aroma. If the conventional wisdom is correct in this case, then I feel a certain loss. Those Tavel rosés and wines like them deserve more attention.

Mark Bittman concluded his 1998 Cook’s Illustrated article saying

I wish I could write, as I did in 1993, that this was a “group of delightful, affordable wines.” But there are some delightful and affordable wines in the group; you just have to be a little more picky than you did a few years ago.

I wonder what he’d write today? Certainly there are many more rosé wines and a lot of them are surely delightful (how affordable they are is a matter of judgement I leave to you, but the majority seem affordable by the standards of the 1998 tasting). You probably still need to be a bit picky, however, to find what you want.

Wine Book Review: On the Wine Trail with Lonely Planet

May 16, 2023 By Mike Veseth in book reviews, wine, wine tourism Leave a comment

Lonely Planet Wine Trails 2 (Lonely Planet Food, 2023).

The Lonely Planet Guide folks have released a new guide to global wine trails. The big book (320 pages, 2.4 pounds) lays out itineraries for 52 potential weekend wine country visits. It is a colorful book, full of maps and photos, and worthy of consideration if you are planning trips, interested in how wine tourism has developed, or just want to make imaginary vineyard visits.

Each chapter is organized according to a set structure, starting with an overview and map followed by brief profiles of six or seven wineries (a reasonable number to think about for a weekend trip). Accommodations? A couple of options are provided along with three dining choices and some ideas for non-wine things to do. Just enough to get you started.

Sue and I have visited many of these regions and, in general, I’d give the Lonely Planet itineraries solid marks. They might not always be the wineries we would choose to visit or the hotels and restaurants we’d pick, but they would certainly steer a first-time visitor in good directions. This is not a surprise, since the wine tourism chapters were written by an international team of experts.

Creating a big book like this is an exercise in choice. What do you put in? What do you leave out? You can’t possibly include everything in 300+ pages. Something has to give! This fact became apparently to me some years ago when I was asked to edit a book for a New York Times series. I was given the entire 20th century of New York Times content (all 100 years) and tasked with telling the story of globalization. What I learned was that you have to begin with a story and build around that, which is sort of a top-down approach that prioritizes the narrative. A bottom-up approach, which relies upon the facts to form their own images, is fiendishly difficult to pull off.

The decisions when looking at wine tourism begin with the question of what regions to include. Fifty-two is a big number, but there are many more wine trails around the world. When a French wine periodical published a list of the 35 best wine tourism destinations back in 2012, they found that 29 of them were in France. Zut alors! That’s not much for the rest of the wine world.

The Lonely Planet guide lists eight French itineraries including the “greatest hits” of Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Champagne. Italy and Spain get seven entries each, including the most famous and most-visited regions. So far just as you might expect. But while Australia has seven entries, big-name Barrossa is not one of them. And Napa is not anywhere on the USA list, which takes you from the Finger Lakes of New York, through Pennsylvania wine country, to Grand Valley, Colorado, and on to Walla Walla, the Willamette Valley, Sonoma, and Santa Ynez.

Other parts of the wine world receive less space. Argentina, Canada, Chile, England, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Portugal, Romania, and Slovenia get one entry each. New Zealand and South Africa get two entries each.

At first this inconsistent treatment of famous regions versus the rest bothered me, but I’ve decided that it is probably OK within the context of this book. Reading about the charms of Colorado wine country, for example, might encourage someone to look beyond the big name appellations when visiting France or Italy. And that would be a good thing.

This method of mixing the famous with the lesser-known continues within the chapters in terms of the winery choices presented, accommodation options, and dining recommendations. Some of the choices left me scratching my head (why list hotels and restaurants in Portland, for example, when there are so many good choices in the Willamette Valley wine country itself?), but in general I’ve decided that the Lonely Planet guide is quite useful. It gives readers the basics and invites them to explore.

Readers who don’t go beyond the recommendations here will have a good time. Curious types who use this as a springboard to dive deeper into the wine tourism pool will have even more fun because when it comes to wine the wines, wineries, restaurants, etc. that you discover yourself are often the most satisfying.

America’s Wine Regions: Re-Imagining Colorado

May 2, 2023 By Mike Veseth in emerging wine regions, wine, wine markets Leave a comment

What do you think of when you think of Colorado? Chances are that Colorado wine isn’t the first image that comes to mind, but it should be somewhere on your radar screen. Wine is both old and new in this Rocky Mountain state.

Peaks and Valleys

Wine was first produced in 1890 from grapes grown on 60 acres of vineyard and orchard land on Rapid Creek above Palisade along the Colorado River. The decades since these first wines were made have been full of peaks and valleys for Colorado wine and Sue and I have had sort of a rocky road experience ourselves with these wines.

We’ve had several chances to taste Colorado wines over the years, especially when I spoke at the state’s annual VinCO Conference in 2018. While we’ve been impressed by some of the wines, we were disappointed by others.

Peaks and valleys. This uneven experience is a problem because you seldom get a second chance to make a first impression when people taste your wine. But it is also understandable. Honestly, I don’t know any wine region that doesn’t have its share of peaks and valleys.

Climbing to the Heights

It is also understandable because, although the Colorado wine industry is surprisingly old, it is also unexpectedly young. You see, Colorado citizens embraced Prohibition even before the national policy was enacted and the vines were ripped out more than 100 years ago. Wine really didn’t restore its foothold in Colorado until the 1970s (Warren Winniarski, of Judgment of Paris fame, made some of those early wines). The industry has charted an upward path since then, but the road has remained rocky.

Sue and I were delighted when offered the opportunity to taste Colorado wines from The Ordinary Fellow winery, a project of the winemaker Ben Parsons and located in the old United Fruit Growers COOP peach packing shed in Palisade. I don’t know Parsons personally, but his career path reminds me of Randall Grahm. Grahm is a brilliant brand-builder who is also a committed terroirist. Both land and brand, if you know what I mean. I think Parsons might be the same.

Parsons achieved brand-building fame with The Infinite Monkey Theorem winery. He started out making wine in a quonset hut in Denver, far from the vineyards but up close to the urban customer base. He set out to be different, which drew him to keg wine and then to cans. Infinite Monkey Theorem became a canned wine phenomenon to such a degree that at one point a second winery was opened in Austin. Parsons and the Infinite Monkey Theorem brand were way ahead of the curve in terms of cans and creating an image and environment that appeals to younger consumers.

Parsons left Infinite Monkey Theorem in 2019 to found The Ordinary Fellow (named for a favorite pub in England), making wine in Palisade from grapes grown on two high-elevation vineyards in southwest Colorado.

More Than Mile High

We tasted three of the Colorado wines. Our favorite was a 2021 Riesling ($18) from the Box Bar vineyard, elevation 6200 feet. It had intense Riesling character and developed nicely in the glass with dinner. We also enjoyed the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon ($25) from the same vineyard. Can you taste high elevation? I wonder. This wine reminded me of some high-elevation Malbecs from Salta in Argentina. The acidity really lifted the and balanced the tannins. Was it really an elevation effect? Probably the power of suggestion, but very interesting.

The 2021 Pinot Noir ($25) from the 6800-foot Hawk’s Nest vineyard struck us as a work in progress, but one we’d be interested to follow in the years to come. What a beautiful light color and nice nose! But Sue thought it tasted more like a Grenache than Pinot Noir, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Me? I’m just amazed that Pinot Noir can be grown in Colorado, but I guess I need to reimagine what’s possible in Colorado. Overall I would say these wines are a “peak” experience for sure. I hope we have a chance to visit the winery in Palisade somewhere down the road.

Parons produces about 2500 cases of wine these days with plans to grow to 5000 cases. He’s working hard to develop the vineyards and to make wine that reflects their particular terroir.

Rocky Road Ahead?

Colorado has 163 wineries according to Wine Business Monthly’s annual survey, which puts it just ahead of Missouri and just behind of North Carolina (two important wine producers) on the list. A WineAmerica economic impact study suggests wine is an important driver of jobs and income.

I asked my friend Doug Caskey, who is executive director of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, about the road ahead for the state’s wine industry and he provided a very realistic assessment. On the plus side, innovation is rising, including new sparkling wines that expand the state’s wine menu. But scale (and therefore economies of scale) is limited by several factors including water availability, the risk of severe winter weather, and the cost of vineyard lands.

Colorado recently expanded wine sales from specialized shops to include supermarkets and convenience stores and this change introduces a big question mark for Colorado wines. On one hand, wine will be more readily available for the state’s shoppers, which is likely to increase wine sales. But will it increase Colorado wine sales, or will those supermarket shelves be filled with bigger-volume wines from California and elsewhere? Lots of uncertainty.

Will the rising tide lift all wine boats? Maybe. Supermarkets like to demonstrate their commitment to local products and producers. What could be more local in Colorado than Colorado wine? However, based on what we’ve seen in other states, it’s a tough problem to solve.

Sue and I are glad we had this opportunity to revisit Colorado wine and look forward to learning more about this state’s evolving wine industry in the future.

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As you probably already guessed, The Ordinary Fellow wine isn’t ordinary at all. Its exceptionalism begins with the colorful labels, which are actually more complicated and interactive than they appear in the photos. There are two parts to the label. The first is a very colorful inner label that reminds me a little of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” type of art, then a plain white outer label that rotates to reveal different aspects of the inner art. Kinda psychedelic! Not ordinary at all.

Co(u)ltura Conegliano Valdobbiadene: Festival of Wine Literature

April 25, 2023 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, Shameless Self-Promotion, wine, wine festivals Leave a comment

Sue and I are off to Italy in a few days to be part of an ambitious festival of wine literature sponsored by the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore consortium in collaboration with Alessandro Torcoli, director of Civilta del Bere. Here is a link to the festival website coulturafestival.it

The setting is the fantastic Castello San Salvatore in Susegana. The program features conversations with noteworthy wine writers interwoven with focused wine masterclasses. All the senses will be stimulated, especially the imagination.

My contribution will take the form of a conversation with wine writer Susan Gordon about my new book Wine Wars II: The global battle for the soul of wine. followed by a book signing opportunity. We hope to see our Italian friends at the event.

Here is an excerpt from the (auto-translated) press release with the details.

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Wine is an integral part of our culture; an ancient drink whose production over the millennia has been improved thanks to the study, experimentation and research of man. The cultivation of the vine has forged landscapes, created local cultures, defined communities and projected Italy into the world. During Co(u)ltura Conegliano Valdobbiadene guests will be welcomed in a space designed to allow them to deepen the many aspects that the wine world offers to its enthusiasts and to the increasingly numerous curious.

“With Co(u)ltura Conegliano Valdobbiadene we want to propose a wider and more engaging way of proposing our product” announces Elvira Bortolomiol president of the Protection Consortium “It is an event inspired by the presentation of the last vintage of Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG to lead the visitor on an exciting journey into the world of wine. Through meetings with authors and their books, with the producers of Conegliano Valdobbiadene, with images, which we will use in various ways to tell the many facets, visitors will have the opportunity to be surprised by the many insights and entertainment that we are sure will involve them “.

“Co(u)ltura is an extraordinary opportunity to experience wine in its best dimension, the cultural one” comments Alessandro Torcoli, director of Civiltà del bere. “It is the first time that a Consortium has decided to go beyond the promotional dimension of its wine to give back to the public opportunities for authorial reflection, thanks to the meeting with writers, journalists and essayists of clear fame. Visitors will be able to alternate tasting sessions with presentations of books on food and wine, to come out enriched not only in the senses, but also in the intellect. On the other hand, we are convinced that the best weapon against prohibitionist campaigns is that of culture, which teaches to drink with the head”.

Visitors and wine lovers will be able to spend an entire weekend meeting with the most authoritative names in Italian oenology such as the agronomist Attilio Scienza and Luigi Moio, president of the OIV; the most famous critics such as Daniele Cernilli. We will not neglect the marketing aspects with Slwaska Scarso nor the most evocative names and faces of the sector such as Sandro Boscaini. For those who want a complete overview of the product, its origin, its territory, it will be possible to register for in-depth masterclasses on Conegliano Valdobbiadene, also proposed “in combination” with a book that in various ways will address the territory: from the verses of Andrea Zanzotto to the studies on soils of the Director of the Consortium Diego Tomasi. The journalist and expert on the global wine market, Mike Veseth, will also be involved who, interviewed by Susan Gordon, will broaden our horizons beyond national borders. Finally, Gad Lerner will talk with Alberto Grandi about the origin of the denominations.

The books and their authors together with experts in the sector, the producers of Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG will be the expedient to make Italian and foreign consumers discover that wine is not just a product that we consume but cultural expression in a broad sense, passion, effort, joy, sharing. For this reason, the event is also enriched by two exhibitions, one dedicated to advertising posters in the sector that tells how wine was promoted until the first half of the ‘900 and an immersive exhibition that will unfold in some rooms of the Castle from 21 pm on Saturday 6 May, in which the visitor will be literally immersed in the rows and stories of the territory.

Finally, the protagonist of the evening of Saturday 6 May will be the video mapping projected in the magnificent courtyard of the San Salvatore Castle, for a story of the history of the Protection Consortium, which winds between enchanted of the past and dream of the future.

For the complete program, directions on how to reach and how to book masterclasses visit www. coulturafestival.it