Against the Tide: A Town Where Wine is Cool

December 2, 2025 By Mike Veseth in wine 3 Comments

Most of the news we read about the wine market is depressing. Consumers are drinking less wine, buying less wine, and seemingly less interested in alcoholic beverages in general. The world has hit “peak wine,” according to The Economist newspaper. It’s all downhill from here. Many different causes are cited, but the bottom line is almost always the same. The rising tide that lifted wine to higher levels in the past has reversed course.

We see evidence of this trend everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except in our backyard, where wine seems to be cool and getting cooler. A puzzle! Here is our report about the unexpected rise of wine in our little neighborhood. Are there broader lessons here? Read on and make up your own mind.

>>><<<

Tacoma, Washington, a wine destination? Huh? We wouldn’t have thought so, and yet … A new wine bar, Valo, opened in our neighborhood, a block from an existing and popular wine bar, Browne Family Vineyards. Two tasting rooms/wine bars? In our little neighborhood?

We started looking around and were surprised. From Wine Economist World Headquarters, we can walk 15 minutes to those two winery tasting rooms, at least two restaurants that feature wine, and two wine-friendly supermarkets. A little further afield, within three miles of World HQ, we have several wine shops, more tasting rooms, and restaurants, and a farm store that features 3000 different wines on its shelves.

What’s going on here? Is wine cool again?

Context: The Neighborhood

Sue and I live in a neighborhood called the Proctor District (Tacoma is as much a collection of neighborhoods as it is an identifiable city). Our little shopping district was born years ago when two streetcar lines intersected at the corner of North Proctor and North 26th Streets.

The economic nexus thus created grew to include two supermarkets, two public schools, a church, a library, bowling alley, a firehouse, a post office, an historical movie theater, Saturday farmers’ market, and a collection of small shops, salons, offices, restaurants, and bakeries lining the city streets in the old way that predates strip malls. I am not sure how many places there are to buy coffee drinks in the Proctor District, but you are never far away from a caffeine fix.

The campus of the University of Puget Sound is less than a mile away and the University Washington Tacoma is not too far by bus or Uber. The population of the area has grown in the past decade through construction of several apartment buildings and a zoning policy that looks favorably on auxiliary dwelling units. Housing costs are not low in absolute terms, but look affordable compared with the Seattle area.

The domain of this report also includes a neighborhood called Old Town, which is about a mile away. It is a much smaller collection of businesses located, as the name suggests, in the historic home of Tacoma where Commencement Bay with its docks and mills met up with the railroad line.

Supermarket Wine

The first hint that wine is cool around here can be found in the two supermarkets that sit on opposite sides of Proctor Street at the entrance to the district. One is a Safeway store that fits the profile of a typical good supermarket of its type, except that is is perhaps a bit smaller than many stores today because it is constrained by the limited footprint of the original store lot.

Directly across the street is the Metropolitan Market, which featured in Chapter 3 of my Wine Wars books. It is is part of a small regional chain of upscale supermarkets of the Whole Foods/Wegmans genre but more compact than newer stores, again because the smaller scale of the original store’s footprint.

The stores are very different in terms of their scope and focus, but they both have strong wine departments and we see lots of wine going through the checkout stands. The two wine walls seemed to have evolved to complement as much as compete. The Met has a better selection of wines from smaller producers in Washington and Oregon, for example, and its range of European wines is very good, too.

Safeway features wine from larger producers from California and Washington, but with many unexpected gems scattered on the shelves, a tribute to the talented Albertson/Safeway wine team. When I sent students to Safeway to study the economic geography of the wine wall a few years ago, they found prices that ranged from about $2 per bottle equivalent to over $200 per bottle, so something for everyone.

Winery Tasting Rooms

But that’s just the beginning. The fact that our neighborhood has supermarkets that feature good wine programs is important, but not necessarily exceptional. More noteworthy is the rise of tasting rooms, wine bars, and wine shops. They provide evidence of a changing, rising wine scene.

The Browne Family Vineyards tasting room opened in late 2020 and immediately drew good crowds for flights, glasses, and bottles of Andrew Browne’s wines along with snacks and other beverages from the Browne portfolio. It is the third Browne tasting room to open after Walla Walla and Seattle. Andrew Browne (CEO of Precept Wine) was drawn to the Proctor District’s dynamic vibe. The tasting room is a very comfortable place to meet friends and enjoy wine. It has been busy enough during our recent visits that we reserved tables. Think of the Browne tasting room as “proof of concept” that wine still draws a crowd.

Now there is another winery tasting room in the Proctor District. And a brewery tap room, too. The Valo Wine tasting room opened a block from Browne last month joining Narrows Brewing taproom just a few doors down the street. Gradually, then suddenly, the opportunities to enjoy wine, beer, and other adult beverages have blossomed in the neighborhood. Is this normal?

Shops, Bars, and Restaurants

The Pacific Northwest Shop isn’t really a wine store; it features local arts, crafts, and foods. But it has long been know as a place to go to find a selection local wines, too, especially those from smaller producers.

Tacoma Wine Merchants opened its new store in Old Town in 2022, moving from a much smaller location in the Stadium neighborhood (named for Stadium High School, which you might remember from “10 Things I Hate About You”). It is an attractive wine shop with interesting wines and warm atmosphere. It hosts frequent tastings that draw a good crowd.

The Old Town wine scene gained momentum in 2024 when the Bordeaux Wine Bar opened just a block away from Tacoma Wine Merchants. It is an outpost of the Bordeaux Wine Bar in Enumclaw, Washington. It is a good place to hang out, enjoy wine and food, and take advantage of regular tastings.

There have always been restaurants with interesting wine lists in the Proctor neighborhood (and even more in the 6th Avenue district a short drive away). But things are getting even better. A restaurant called Corbeau opened in the Proctor District a little over a year ago and got attention with a long list of mainly French wines. Corbeau has billed itself as “Franco-Tacoman cuisine,” which can be translated as French cuisine and sensibility combined with Tacoma-area regional ingredients. If you are interested in wine, as we will explain next week, Corbeau takes the local scene to an unexpected new level.

Something’s Happening Here

So what’s the “so what?” here. The wine market has been in decline for most of the last five years. Wine’s tide has been going out. But our little neighborhood has seen a significant bump in wine activity. It is worth noting, celebrating, and maybe analyzing a bit.

How do these new wine establishments work and what do they have in common? Come back next week for business profiles and some thoughts, focusing on Metropolitan Market, the store that some say started the Proctor District renaissance; the Browne Family Vineyards tasting room; and Corbeau, the Franco-Tacoman restaurant.

Wine, Thanksgiving, and the Problem of Deadweight Loss

November 25, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Economic impact, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

Weight gain is the problem we most closely associate with Thanksgiving, but this Wine Economist column from 2021 argues that wine lovers need to consider the economic concept of deadweight loss when choosing a wine to bring to the festive gathering.

An Economic Theory of Thanksgiving Wine

The Wine Economist / November 15, 2021

Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States and many of us will gather with family and friends for the holiday feast. If you have been invited to share Thanksgiving with others (and if you are interested enough in wine to be reading this column), then you must confront a perennial problem: what wine should you bring?

Deadweight Loss?

Why is the choice of a gift wine an economic problem? Well, it isn’t much of a problem if you plan to drink it all yourself. Then you should just buy what you like — but don’t expect to be invited back next year!

Since the point will be to share the wine with other guests, the choice is more difficult because just as you can’t be sure exactly what dishes will be served, you cannot be certain what wines the other guests will like the best.

There is a pretty good chance that you will experience what economists call a “deadweight loss” which is more or less where the benefit that the guests derive from your wine is less than what they’d have gained from a simple cash transfer. The story (which is possibly true) is told about the time Malcolm Forbes threw himself an extravagant birthday party where the guests were served some of the rarest, most expensive wines on the planet. Forbes went from guest to guest pouring the evening’s show-stopper wine. Finally he came to Warren Buffet. Wine? said Forbes with a smile. No thanks, Buffet replied. I’ll take the cash!

Warren Buffet understood the concept of deadweight loss and wanted nothing to do with it!

The Problem of Other People’s Money

The problem is asymmetric information. You know your own preferences and budget situation pretty well and so you have a fairly good idea of what you are giving up when you buy an expensive bottle of wine as a gift. But you don’t know the preferences of the other guests very well or whether they would prefer your wine or a simple cash payment to be spent on something else. You can’t be sure that their gain is greater than your loss.

This leads (I hope you are following along) to the conclusion that you are most efficient when you spend your own money on yourself because you can fairly well calculate both the gain and the opportunity cost. You are less efficient (in terms of deadweight loss) when spend your money on others. You are even less efficient when you spend other people’s money on yourself. And you are hopelessly inefficient when you spend others people’s money on other people. What do you think?

So it would seem like the most efficient thing to do would be to decline that dinner invitation and stay home with the wine you buy for yourself. How sad! No wonder economics is called the “dismal science.”

It’s Not About the Wine

But here’s the notion that saves the day. Thanksgiving is not really about the wine (or the turkey or the green bean casserole), it is about the sharing. Thanksgiving is more a public or communal good than private good. And so, if you do it well, the particular elements of Thanksgiving including the wine will play a secondary role to the general warmth of the shared experience.

I used to get frustrated when wine wasn’t the centerpiece of gatherings, some of which were actually organized to celebrate the wine. But then I got over it. Wine is doing its job when it makes everything else better. Don’t you agree?

This fact changes a bit how you might approach your choice of a Thanksgiving wine to share. Cost is nearly irrelevant. Picking a wine that draws undue attention to you (and your fine taste or great wealth) almost defeats the purpose. A modest wine that makes everyone smile — maybe something with bubbles? — will serve very well. And then you can concentrate on what Thanksgiving is really about.

That said, no one will complain if you bring a nice Port, Madeira, or Sauternes to savor at the end of the meal.

>>><<<

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Enjoy the wine and the feast and most of all each other!

A Tale of Two Wine Guides

November 18, 2025 By Mike Veseth in book reviews, wine, wine education 6 Comments

Margaret Rand, general editor. Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book 2026. Mitchel Beazley, 2025.

Rose Murray Brown MW. A Taste for Wine: a new tasting masterclass for wine lovers. Mitchel Beazley, 2025.

Two new wine guides arrived at the Wine Economist mailbox recently, both published by Mitchel Beazley. They both take a very broad view of the world of wine and address some of the same topics and questions, but do so in very different ways. “There are no one-liners in wine,” as Jon Fredrikson says, so there’s probably not a single clear path to guiding readers through the world of wine.

Herewith a brief comparison of the two new books to help you think about the different ways that guides can approach wine and, perhaps, to help you consider what you might want from a book like this.

Compare and Contrast

The first difference is obvious: the Hugh Johnson guide is small (about the size of two or three smartphones stacked on top of each other) and densely packed with information with very small but clearly readable text. A Taste for Wine’s format is about twice as large, the pages have a relaxed feel with lots of colorful illustrations. Hugh Johnson’s vibe is “dive deep,” while Taste for Wine feels more “take a look around.”

Taste for Wine is brand new this year. After initially wondering if the world really needed another wine book, she decided to write this one to put her own personal stamp on wine education. The Hugh Johnson guide, on the other hand, has been updated almost every year since it first appeared in 1977. It is now a team effort with Margaret Rand leading more than 30 area-specialist wine writer contributors.

Both books provide information about wine grape varieties and wine-food pairing suggestions. Both present surveys of global wine regions, too, but there is a big difference in depth of analysis. Taste of Wine provides two-page introductions to each region with illustrations, basic facts, and a brief list of suggested wines plus, in a separate section, a list of the author’s picks of the best wineries to visit. The list just gives names, not detailed explanations, but that might be enough to get the reader digging deeper on the internet.

The core of the Hugh Johnson book is in the chapters on the main wine-producing countries. France and the United States are divided into the main regions and states respectively. Other countries such as Italy have one long alphabetical list of thumbnail descriptions of wineries, regions, and grape varieties. Smaller countries and U.S. states have short descriptions. This organization allows the book to pack in lots of information, but I have never warmed up to the alphabetical approach since I tend to think of wine in regional terms, so I’d put all the wineries from Alto Adige together, for example. I imagine that this organization evolved as the number of wineries and regions grew and grew over the years. I might be happier with fewer wineries in each list with more detail on each, but the depth vs. breadth trade-off is impossible to solve to everyone’s satisfaction.

A Taste for Wine’s largest sections are, naturally, devoted to wine tasting itself. Rose Murray Brown hopes that the book will make wine less complex and more approachable. Simplify without dumbing down. She illustrates many of her points through 10 wine tasting flights that readers are encouraged to replicate. Each element of wine tasting is indeed explained in easy-to-understand terms. It is not Brown’s fault that there are many elements to consider, so the complexity problem is difficult to overcome. I suspect her readers, seeing the “masterclass” reference in the subtitle, will be up for the challenge.

One thing I like about A Taste for Wine is the way it reminds me of Kevin Zraly’s classic Windows on the World wine course book, now in its 35th edition and still #1 in Amazon’s wine guide ratings. Both books are focused on providing readers with the practical knowledge they need to enjoy wine. I think that practical aspect explains why there is depth in the tasting sections, which apply every time you open a bottle of wine, versus the other sections that apply in specific situations. Give readers what they need to know to make a good beginning and then guide them to take the next steps.
The basic structure of the Hugh Johnson guides does not change much from year to year, so I always look forward to the two sections that vary considerably from year to year. The early section on “12 Wines to Try in 2026” gives readers a chance to think about what’s new and interesting in the wine world. Always interesting. And there is a themed section at the back that changes every year. For 2026 the topic is the price of wine, how it is set, what it means, is wine good value? Interesting reading.
So which book should you add to your bookshelf? I suppose the obvious answer (and the one that Mitchell Beazley probably hopes you will give) is both books since their strengths are so complementary. Personally, the opportunity to read both books makes me think about what a wine guide needs to be in 2026, especially given the many changes in the wine world today and the availability of so much information via the internet and apps. Thinking about your perfect wine guide is a useful project, but a dangerous one. Rose Murray Brown says it is what provoked her to write A Taste for Wine!

Holiday Flashback: A Guide to Overthinking Thanksgiving Wine

November 11, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner, and planning has started here at Wine Economist World Headquarters. The menu will be traditional (for us) with a focus on the vegetable side dishes more than the roast bird. The real question is, what wines will be served? That’s plural wines because we stretch the feast over several days on the theory that leftovers are the best part.

Choosing wines is often a last-minute affair, and it is never simple (or uncomplicated) because you have to decide what to try to match. The turkey (maybe Pinot Noir)? The side dishes (a crisp white wine or maybe Cabernet Franc)? The festive mood (bubbles)? So many decisions!

But maybe this year’s Thanksgiving wine is hiding in plain sight. Sue has a small collection of older vintages of wines from The Eyrie Vineyards (gifts to her from winemaker Jason Lett). Any of those wines would elevate the holiday. Maybe Sue will open her Eyrie Pinot Meunier Estate. Wouldn’t that be a treat?

But it is too soon to tell what will happen and I am sure we will end up overthinking the wines again this year. I used to assume it was just us but a 2023 Wine Economist column on the problem (reprinted below) is especially popular during Canadian and U.S. Thanksgiving periods, so there must be many others trying to figure out what corks to pull. I hope this helps you navigate the holiday better than we do. Cheers!

>><<<

A Guide to Over-Thinking Thanksgiving Wine

The Wine Economist / November 14, 2023

Sue and I always give some thought to what wines to serve with our Thanksgiving feast and over the years I have reported on our deliberations here on The Wine Economist. Our thinking has evolved over the years. Although we are often “wine first” diners, who choose the wine first and then pick pairings that will complement, we’ve more or less decided that Thanksgiving should be an exception to our rule.

Thanksgiving isn’t really about wine, is it? And it is not actually about food, either, although a lot of attention is pointed in that direction. (I acknowledge that Thanksgiving is about football to some people, but that’s another story.) Thanksgiving is about the relationships that bring us together over the food and wine (and football, I guess). Honoring and deepening those relationships is the thing.

So it is important not to overthink Thanksgiving wine. Wine should make everything better, but it should not be the star. If all you can remember is that glass of wine, the holiday hasn’t fulfilled its potential.

So we pledge not to overthink Thanksgiving wine, but that doesn’t mean we can’t think about it at all. Here is a brief history of our experiments and how our thinking has evolved this year. In each case, we paired wines with a meal that evoked the spirit and flavors of Thanksgiving without cooking a whole turkey each time.

Test #1 Joseph Phelps Freestone Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.

We love Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon wines, but we hadn’t really explored the other varieties in their lineup, so jumped at this opportunity to test out this Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. It was restrained, elegant, and deftly balanced. And it paired very well with the poultry (seasoned roast chicken) on our test plate. We have often served Pinot Noir at Thanksgiving and this would be a great choice.

But Sue started thinking (danger! danger!). The Pinot Noir was perfect with the bird, and that’s generally the centerpiece of Thanksgiving tables, but what about the side dishes? When you ask people what part of the Thanksgiving meal they could not do without, it usually isn’t the turkey that they name. It is always a traditional (or not-so-traditional) side dish. Maybe, Sue said, we should be focusing on the side dishes in our tests.

Test #2 Joseph Phelps Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.

White wine makes lots of sense for pairing with the classic Thanksgiving side dishes, many of which are rich and cry out for something with a little acidity. Sauvignon Blanc is the hottest white varietal wine at the moment and this Napa Valley was an excellent choice.

If you’ve grown accustomed to the stereotypical Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc style, the Joseph Phelps Sauvignon Blanc will come as a bit of a surprise. It is elegant and restrained (the Phelps house style at work?). It didn’t try to take over the show but did exactly the job we were looking for as an ensemble player.

Sauvignon Blanc is a great Thanksgiving choice, but it comes in so many styles that you’ll need to think about which one you choose (without over-thinking it, of course). That Marlborough style might work depending on the side dishes, but it could be too dominant in some cases. Ditto with a heavily oaked fumé style. Think. But not too much. That’s really hard!

Test #3 Chateau Ste Michelle Indian Wells Yakima Valley Riesling.

Sue and I recently attended a German wine dinner at Ricardo’s Kitchen and Bar in Lacey, Washington and it was such a treat that we’ve been thinking a lot about Riesling wines. Those wines went so well with the robust German cuisine we were served that it makes sense that they would play well with Thanksgiving sides.

We chose the Indian Wells Yakima Valley Riesling from Chateau Ste Michelle. The Chateau is the world’s largest maker of Riesling wines and a lot of the focus is on the entry-level Columbia Valley Riesling, which is one of the great American wine bargains. There is a reason that you see it so often on restaurant by-the-glass lists. It over-delivers on flavor at a price point that works for both buyer and seller.

But there is a lot more to Ste Michelle Riesling than the entry wines, so we were interested in how the Indian Wells wine would work for our Thanksgiving test. The wine was elegant, restrained, and well-balanced. Sue said it would be an excellent role player with the holiday meal. I think it might be fun to try the entire Ste Michelle Riesling range throughout the long Thanksgiving weekend, from the entry-level Columbia Valley wine all the way through the iconic Eroica.

Side notes: Glad to see winemaker David Rosenthal’s name on the front label because he made so much great white wine at the Chateau before moving to his current work with Partnership Wine Consulting. I am also happy to see that the wine lists the Yakima Valley appellation, which doesn’t always get the respect it deserves for the wonderful wines that are grown there.

Test #4 Zonin Orange-Cran Riviera Spritz.

I did not expect that our experiments would take us in this direction, but once I learned about Zonin’s Orange-Cranberry Riviera Spritz I could not resist. Orange-Cranberry. Those are real Thanksgiving flavors at our house. Sue makes a dynamite orange-cranberry sauce and its tart-sweet brightness really works alongside the savory roast vegetables and, of course, classic green bean casserole. How would those flavors work in a wine?

Sue was very suspicious of the Zonin spritz and accepted her glass reluctantly. I thought it might look and taste something like an Aperol spritz, but I was wrong. The color was bright rosy pink and the aromas and flavors very cranberry and orange, especially on the second day, with a pleasant orange leading the way. Very refreshing! It would be a great sparkler to serve with Thanksgiving desserts and I think anyone would smile if you gave them a glass of this spritz as they walked through the door because they would know at once that they were going to have fun.

Sue declared herself a fan of the Zonin Orange-Cranberry Spritz before that first glass was empty. What a surprise!

Thinking About Overthinking

Sue and I have learned a lot through these experiments, which will continue through the Thanksgiving weekend and beyond. Thinking about Thanksgiving wine in terms of the ensemble of flavors on your plate has merit, even if some combinations may work better than others.

Once she started thinking about wine and the side dishes, Sue quickly moved on to other questions. Pairing wines for particular guests? Maybe different wines for leftovers? Because leftovers (like turkey on rye with cream cheese and cranberry sauce) are the highlight for some of us. Next question: what wine to serve with turkey soup?

Wait! Are we starting to over-think this? Nah. That would never happen. So what do you think? Use the comments section to tell us what you are planning for Thanksgiving wine.

Small is Beautiful: Bulichella’s Distinctive Tuscan Coast Wines

November 4, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Italian wine, wine, wine markets 1 Comment

This is not an easy time to be an Italian winemaker. There is climate change to deal with, of course, and the global fall in wine (and alcohol in general) consumption. Add to this the dramatic 28 percent decline in shipments of Italian wine to the U.S. market that has been reported recently by the Unione Italiana Vini. U.S. consumers love Italian wines, which is why they are the biggest import category, but the combination of tariffs, unfavorable exchange rate movements, and pre-tariff stock-building have taken their toll.

The headwinds are the same for all wine producers. Small wineries may lack economies of scale and scope, but small can be beautiful in a crisis. A small winery doesn’t have to push vast numbers of bottles and cases through the distribution pipeline to balance its books. They need the right customers to find them in just the right number to balance the books. It’s a problem and the current economic environment doesn’t help, but it is a human-scale problem.

Italian by Design

This is one of the lessons we have taken away from our recent discovery of Bulichella, a wine estate in Suvereto on the Tuscan coast between Grosseto and Livorno. The Suvereto appellation may not be large or famous like many others in Tuscany, but it boasts DOCG status, so its quality is recognized.

Sue and I were surprised to be invited to a Zoom tasting of Bulichella wines with the winemaker Nico Miyakawa because this didn’t seem the moment to take Italian wines to the U.S. market. But I guess we were thinking big wine. So we listened, sipped, and learned.

Bulichella is a project that Hideyuki Miyakawa began in 1983, first in partnership with friends and eventually as a family project of his own. Miyakawa is Japanese by birth and, I guess you could say, Italian by nature. He was a cofounder of ItalDesign, the famous automotive design practice. ItalDesign achievements include cars for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, DeLorean, Volkswagen, Maserati, Lotus, BMW, and Audi. The designs, both limited-output and mass-market, have helped define the modern auto era.

The Labels Tell a Story

So it is not entirely surprising that Miyakawa brought a certain style to Bulichella (named for the locality within the Suvereto appellation), which continues today with his grandson Nico Miyakawa. Sue and I found ourselves attracted to two very different ideas of design when we sat down to try the wines.

The labels, which were created by members of the Miyakawa family, are very personal and can almost be read like parables. The label of the Coldipietrerosse — a Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot blend — shows the winery, organic farm and vineyards, the sea, and the island of Elba in the background. All the pieces seem to fit together naturally, without tension or conflict.

The label for Rubino, a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot, and Cabernet, shows a family of wild boar in the vineyard. Are they the Miyakawa family? That’s my guess, especially when I look at the label for Tuscanio, a 100 percent Vermentino wine. Two generations of wild boar look down on the vineyards and territory. What are they thinking? What should we think?

The thing that is hardest to make out on the Bulichella labels shown here is the name of the winery! Bulichella, Suvereto, Tuscany is printed in teeny tiny type. The story is the brand, not the winery name. An interesting design choice, don’t you think?

Designed by Nature

So there seems to have been much thought given to how nature and family fit together at Bulichella. Would this design influence the wines themselves? The only way to answer the question was to pull corks.

We started with Rubino. At about 15,000 bottles per year, it is the winery’s flagship and largest production wine. The wine was fresh, elegant, and restrained. The heavy hand of a winemaker was nowhere to be found. The finished wine didn’t really taste like its components (we would not have guessed Sangiovese), so what did it taste like? The place? The terroir? Hard to tell, since we’ve never been there.

Tuscanio, the Vermentino wine, confirmed our suspicions. It was different from any Vermentino we have ever tried. Nothing like Sardinia. Could we sense the rocks and the sea that define Bulichella’s domain? Yes, that’s how it seemed to us. And the wine didn’t just hold up as time passed, but it seemed to become more and more like itself.

This prepared us pretty well for the limited production Coldipietrerosso, which is named for the hill with the red rocks that you see on the labels. Seamless, elegant, refined. Not quite like anything else.

Small is Beautiful

Before you ask, you won’t find these wines in the United States. Not yet, at any rate. Nico and company are looking for the right distributor partners to bring their wines to America. They don’t need a big mass-market pipeline because they couldn’t possibly fill it. And the wines are so particular to place that they are best seen as hand-sells.

So the tariffs and the falling dollar are problems, but not the most important challenge. Find the right people to drink the wines, to distribute the wines, to import the wines. That’s the human-scale problem these wines were designed for. Small really is beautiful sometimes, don’t you think?

Uncorking the Hidden Diversity of the Sparkling Wine Category

October 28, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Chile, wine, wine markets 3 Comments

The sparkling wine category has been one of the wine market’s winners of the last 20 years. Although sparkling wine sales are struggling right now along with the rest of the wine market, bubbles are much more of a thing than they were in years past.

Much of this success is driven by Italy’s Prosecco, which in many ways redefined sparkling wine. If you think of bubbles as French and expensive, saved for ritual consumption at serious celebrations, then Prosecco is a revelation. Bubbles can be fun and suitable for all occasions, both serious and frivolous. Hard to resist!

More to Sparkling Wine

But there is much more to sparkling wine than the European Big Three: Champagne, Prosecco, and Cava. There are dozens of other sparkling wines in France, Italy, and Spain and around the world. Sparkling wine production is diverse both geographically and in terms of wine grape varieties used and methods employed.

It is a shame, really, that all these very different sparkling wines from so many places tend to be lumped all together in the “sparkling wine” section of the wine wall. They all look pretty much the same as you stare at them. What’s the difference? A lot! It’s time to uncork the diversity of sparkling wine today and appreciate what an opportunity it is to explore the world of bubbles.

Here are a few examples of sparkling wines that we have enjoyed. What ties them together? Bubbles, of course, but they were all also both delicious and surprising. Feel free to use the comments section below to tell us about your own recent discoveries.

Enchanting New Mexico

Most people don’t think of New Mexico when they think about wine, so they are surprised to learn that the state has a small but active wine industry and positively shocked to learn that wine was first produced in 1629, nearly 400 years ago.

New Mexico is especially know for sparkling wine because of the Gruet Winery, which was founded in 1984 by members of the Gruet family, producers of sparkling wine in a place called Champagne (you might have heard of it!).

Sue and I were recently introduced to wines from the Vara Winery & Distillery in Albuquerque. Our first taste was the Vara New Mexico Sparkling Brut 2023, which was made by winemaker Laurent Gruet using the traditional method and a unique blend of grapes: 72% Chenin Blanc 18% Listan Prieto 10% Pinot Meunier. Listan Prieto? It is a very old Iberian grape variety that came to Mexico (and then New Mexico) early on. It goes by many names, but you might know it as the Mission grape. It is just my imagination, I know, but I think it gives the wine both flavor and a sense of history.

The wine was declicous and distinctive. Many of the Vara wines are made with grapes from California and Washington State because New Mexico just doesn’t grow enough grapes to meet the demands of local wineries.

Bubbles from Wine’s Birthplace

Sparkling wines from Georgia and Armenia? Probably not the first thing you think of. Georgia is better know for its traditional still qvervi wines and Armenia is better knows for its excellent brandy. But the sparkling wines are there and worth seeking out.

We’ve recently sampled Pet-Nat sparkling wines from Georgia’s Mtsvane Estate. The sparkling Saperavi was stunningly beautiful and delicious. It is joined by a Pet-Nat blend of 70% Chinuri and 30% Goruli Mtsvane.

Meanwhile Armenia’s wine industry is returning to its roots, as has been documented recently in the film SOMM: Cup of Salvation. We have been serving Keush sparkling wines made with indigenous grapes including Areni and Voskehat to our surprised and delighted friends.

Shiraz and Grenache?

We are always interested in trying sparkling wines made with unexpected grape varieties. There was a memorable sparkling Riesling at our very first Open That Bottle Night dinner, for example. And a visit to Rockford winery in the Barossa Valley gave us an opportunity to try a sparkling Shiraz so good it has achieved cult status among wine lovers Down Under.

The latest addition to our growing list is a Cava Brut Rosé from Dibon made from Garnacha grapes. Garnacha (a.k.a. Grenache) is such a versatile wine grape, so it is great to taste a sparkling version.

Southern Comfort

Have you tried many sparkling wines from Southern Hemisphere producers? There are lots of sparkling wines produced south of the equator, but you might have not find them on your local store shelves.

The French have clearly known about the Southern Hemisphere’s potential for a long time. Chandon Argentina was founded in 1956 and Chandon Australia was established in the Yarra Valley in 1986. The wines are made in the same way using the pretty much the same grape varieties that Chandon uses in France, California, and China, but have their own personality.

Cool climate Tasmania is a natural fit for sparkling wine production and a wine we sampled a couple of years ago from House Arras was one of the most distinctive and delicous sparkling wines we have had in a long time.

Chile has such a tremendous range of terroirs that it makes sense that it would produce sparkling wine, too, but I don’t remember drinking one … until now! We recently received a traditional method Carmen Brut Nature from the Limari Valley. Very excited to pop the cork.

I’ll finish this intentionally incomplete survey with Brazil. Most people don’t associate Brazil with wine, much less sparkling wine, but that’s a mistake. Brazil attracted immigrants from many wine-producing countries (Portugal, Italy, Germany, and more) and they brought both a love of wine and the ability to make it with them when they arrived.

The second Brazilian wine we ever tried was a Prosecco-style sparkling wine made by the Aurora winery, Brazil’s largest wine cooperative. It was as refreshing as it was surprising. (The first Brazilian wine was a Marcus James Zinfandel, which was for several years a a popular brand of wines sourced from Brazil.)

If you are interested in trying a Brazilian sparkling wine, look for a brand called Bom Dia (that’s good day in Portuguese). Bom Dia Brazilian Bubbles are canned sparkling wines and, although they have only been on the market since 2024, they are already getting attention. The brand has been nominated for Wine Enthusiast’s Innovator of the Year award.

>><<<

I have only scratched the surface of the world of sparkling wine. Looking for a project for the holiday season? See how many different and interesting sparkling wines you can find and pull some corks. You won’t regret it.

Designer Wine Glasses (and their Discontents)

October 21, 2025 By Mike Veseth in wine 5 Comments

Today’s Wine Economist column is inspired by sample wine glasses we received from the folks at Glasvin. Glasvin makes all sorts of hand-blown glassware, but the particular products they sent us were designed by Raj Parr, the famous sommelier, author, and winemaker. Our experience with these wine glasses has made us think a bit about what we want in and what we think about wine glasses generally. Here’s the story.

One Glass to Rule Them All?

The Raj glass was designed to be the one glass you need for wine. There are several universal glass designs on the market, some of them created by wine celebrities. We tried the glass when it arrived a couple of years ago and had mixed emotions about it. It was light and delicate, a thing of beauty: largish bowl, shortish stem, sort of like a tall snifter. Click here to see a video about the Raj glass.

Here’s what Glasvin said about the design:

- Designed to taste and drink all wines – young and old, sparkling, white, pink, red and orange – objectively and expressively.
- Designed to have a wide, snifter-like bowl that tapers to a narrow rim, for the purest expression of the vine.
- The unique shape brings a wine’s aromas and texture into focus as they travel through the bowl.
- The narrow rim drops the wine perfectly on the tip of the tongue. With a shorter stem (1.5”) and lower center of gravity, the RAJ Glass will stay upright, so you can move around the cellar, your kitchen while cooking, or get comfortable at home.

Interesting for wine tasting, we decided, but not what we wanted from wine drinking because it seemed to draw our attention more to the glass than the wine. And the short stem wasn’t always easy for us to grasp. We set them aside in the glass cabinet and have rarely used them. We liked the idea of these elegant glasses but, as the video explains, they just weren’t designed with us in mind.

A Daily Drinker?

Then earlier this summer we received a set of the new Parr glasses (shown below), which are part of the Glasvin GV Home collection. Still light and beautiful, these glasses are meant for daily use by a broader audience than the Raj glasses.

The Glasvin design literature had this description:

- Designed in collaboration with Raj Parr
- Part of the GV Home collection, Glasvin’s durable, elevated glassware line.
- A universal bowl that highlights aroma, texture, and balance
- Slightly thicker glass for increased durability
- Handblown, lead-free, dishwasher safe

The Raj and Parr glasses are much alike to the casual observer, with largish bowl and narrow rim to concentrate aromas, but the Parr’s stem is a bit longer, which makes it easier to pick up and hold. Sue and I enjoyed using these, but still felt like they somehow drew our attention away from the wines as much as they enhanced them. They come out of the cabinet occasionally these days (mainly for white wines for some reason), but they haven’t become our daily drinkers.

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum

Is the problem the glasses? Or is it us? To try to find out the answer to this question we invited two seasoned Wine Economist research assistants to lunch and had them try out the glasses throughout the meal. Their reaction was completely different. They loved the jewel-like qualities of the light glasses and thought they enjoyed the wine experience.

I found an informative video on the Glasvin website where Raj Parr explains exactly what he wanted to create with the Parr glass. You can view it here along with more information about the glass series. You and I might not be looking for the same things in a wine glass as Raj Parr, but no doubt it is useful to have someone so focused and passionate doing this work.

I guess wine glasses, like many things in the wine space, are a matter of taste and we should welcome a diversity of options. To each his (or her) own! Sue and I seem to use different types of glasses in different situations. Sometimes we break out the INAO tasting glasses, for example, and sometimes (pizza night!) we use simple juice glasses to drink our Costco-sourced Portuguese Red Blend wine.

Barriers to Entry

A problem with wine glasses, however, is that sometimes they can be one more barrier to entry for new consumers. Wine already has many disadvantages for anyone starting out. It usually comes in inconveniently large packaging that often requires special equipment (corkscrew) to access. There is a lot of waste (cork, capsule, bottle) that isn’t always easy to recycle. You are supposed to drink it at certain temperatures with certain foods.

And then there are the glasses. You need specialized glasses that you hold in a certain way and taste in a prescribed pattern. Yes, I know that it is all part of the mystery and romance of wine and I actually love the rituals as much as anyone. But I don’t blame the young person we met recently who, when faced with all these complications, just turned and walked away.

So two cheers for designer wine glasses like the Raj and the Parr that elevate the wine experience for the enthusiasts who like them. In fact, we seem to have added the Parr glasses to our regular rotation for white wines and Sue commented a couple of days ago that they were kind of growing on her.

But give a cheer, too, for rustic juice glasses (and other simple drinking vessels) that give pleasure to many and might present one less barrier to wine newbies.

Wine Industry Uncertainty 2025 Update

October 14, 2025 By Mike Veseth in Economic impact, wine, wine markets 2 Comments

Nine months ago today, The Wine Economist published its annual column that, inspired by the upcoming Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, looks ahead to the future. The theme was sort of anti-climactic at the time, but it seems pretty much on the mark at this point: the future of wine is always uncertain, but 2025 is special. There are more unknowns and even unknown unknowns than ever before.

Frozen by Doubt

That’s a problem because fear, uncertainty, and doubt tend to freeze businesses in their tracks. It’s hard to know what to do, so the tendency is to wait until the smoke clears. The air is still far from clear both for the wine market generally (see this recent Wine Economist report) and for key international variables.

Many predicted that the dramatic increase in tariffs would lead to higher retail prices and this has happened to a certain extent. However, many firms have delayed raising prices until they know for sure what the tariff rates will be and which products and countries will be exempt. U.S. tariff policy has changed course several times and there is no assurance that the tariffs in place on the day you sign a contract will be the same ones in force when the shipment arrives and payment is due.

The Pasta War?

There was a surge in wine imports prior to tariffs coming into force. Now it seems to be wait and see because the situation could change yet again. Just last week, for example, we learned about the 107% “pasta war” tariffs that the U.S. threatens to impose on Barilla and some other Italian pasta makers. Thirteen Italian producers are accused of “dumping” pasta in the U.S. market and will be subject to a 92% pasta tariff on top of the existing 15% “reciprocol” tariff. The Financial Times reports that the import taxes will go into effect in January, so you might want to stock up.

Wine. Pasta. What next? I have no idea.

November is an important month in this regard because that’s when the Supreme Court hears arguments on whether the tariffs that apply to wine were legally imposed. Sectoral tariffs (steel, aluminum) may be legal, but general tariffs such as those that apply to wine may have been incorrectly applied, with unclear consequences. For what it is worth, the Economist newspaper’s AI-powered SCOTUSbot predicts that the broad tariffs (including wine) will stick.

In the meantime retaliation against U.S. products in foreign markets continues. The loss of much of the Canadian market for U.S. wine is especially damaging as Canada was the #1 export market. Wine’s problems mirror in a small way the situation of much of U.S. agriculture, which is heavily focused on exports. There is talk of $10 billion in federal aid to farmers to offset some of the negative effects, but I don’t know if any of this is earmarked for winegrape producers.

Dollar Dilemma

Uncertainty permeates other economic variables. The dollar has fallen this year, for example, when many thought it would rise. The logic (see below) was that tariffs would increase inflation and force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. The inflation has been less than expected so far, but the economy seems to be weakening. The Fed is now lowering interest rates, accepting the risk of higher inflation in order to reduce the chances of slower or negative growth.

Inflation or unemployment? That’s a lot to worry about. But there’s more. But what will happen in the future if, as the Treasury Secretary has suggested, the U.S. does “whatever it takes” to support Argentina’s economy and its tenuous debt situation? I don’t have an answer to that question. More uncertainty!

The list of uncertain factors goes on and on. Here’s the original article from earlier this year.

>>><<<

2025: Wine & the Age of Uncertainty

The Wine Economist / January 14, 2025

The Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, North America’s largest wine industry meeting and trade show, is only a few weeks away. I will be in Sacramento to moderate the State of the Industry session, which features an impressive lineup of wine industry experts:

Jeff Bitter, Allied Grape Growers
Glenn Proctor, The Ciatti Company
Stephen Rannekleiv, Rabobank
Danny Brager, Brager Beverage Alcohol Consulting

The panelists have decades of experience in the wine industry, which informs their analysis of current problems and future prospects. It is a tremendous opportunity to hear what the experts are thinking now and to talk about it with the other attendees.

There are many other sessions at the Unified covering all sorts of topics in winegrowing, winemaking, marketing, and business operations. I am particularly interested in the Thursday general session on Crafting a Positive Narrative: Promoting Wine in the Face of Challenges, which will be moderated by New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov. One of the biggest challenges, of course, is the rising anti-alcohol movement. Telling wine’s positive story is as difficult as it is important in the current environment.

There is something for everyone at the Unified (click here to view the complete program and click here to read the speaker bios). Sue especially appreciates the big trade show where more than 900 exhibitors will highlight what’s new in the wine industry from the biggest machines, smartest technology, and best products and services from vineyard to cellar to bottling line all the way to market.

Always the Age of Uncertainty?

I always start the State of the Industry session with a few remarks to set the stage and this year I have chosen a theme, the Age of Uncertainty. This is a time of great change in the wine industry and change makes people nervous.

Age of Uncertainty? I know what you are thinking. It is always the Age of Uncertainty in the wine business. Growing grapes is risky, making wine is risky, and selling wine is risky. There is no part of the wine business that does not have an uncertain component. Wine is a global business, too, and while global markets create opportunities they also introduce additional layers of risk.

I specialize in international and global wine markets, so I am especially concerned with how international economic policies add more layers of uncertainty to wine business today. We have been told to expect high tariffs (on wine and just about everything else) in 2025. Depending upon how they are structured, and how our trading partners react to them, tariffs can have a number of direct and indirect effects. There’s a lot at stake and the final outcome is difficult to predict.

Indeed, the International Monetary Fund recently identified the threat of tariffs as a major global economic concern. The possibility of tariffs has driven up long-term borrowing costs around the world, according to the IMF, which will release its new report on the global economy later this week.

And this week’s Economist newspaper highlights uncertainty about tariffs and other policies as a main cause of global instability.

It is easy to see why uncertainty has spread. Will Donald Trump deport millions of people? Nobody knows. But if he succeeds inflation could jump as employers lose workers. The story is similar for tariffs, which would also increase prices. At the same time, potential Chinese counter-measures in a trade war, such as a devaluation of the yuan, could prompt a global deflationary shock.

The rising perceived risk, according to the Economist, helps explain falling bond prices, rising mortgage interest rates, and many other current trends. They say that what you don’t know won’t hurt you, but uncertainty clearly has a cost.

Not by Wine Alone

I know many people who think a tariff on imported wine would benefit American growers and producers and others who strongly oppose the idea. But it is important to remember that we aren’t talking about tariffs just on wine. Although it is hard to know right now (that uncertainty thing), it looks like the new administration will impose tariffs on most imported products from many or most of our trading partners, with the highest tax rates on China, Mexico, and Canada, the countries with whom we trade the most.

Border taxes on such a long list of imports have different effects than a tax on a specific product category like wine. That’s part of the uncertainty problem. U.S. producers may gain from protection from imports but lose from higher costs for imported supplies, equipment, and technology. Labor costs, interest costs, and insurance costs would all likely be pushed higher by rising inflation.

And U.S. tariffs aren’t the end of the story. How will other countries react? Will European nations retaliate with tariffs on U.S. wine? Probably not. I think they’d focus on spirits, not wine. Would Canada target U.S. wine? Yes, I think they might and that’s a problem because Canada is a good market for U.S. wine exports.

The Dollar Also Rises

President Trump favors a falling dollar value on foreign exchange markets because that would reinforce his trade policy by discouraging imports and promoting exports. But tariffs tend to push the dollar higher as we have seen since the election results were announced. The dollar’s value rises when it sounds like tariffs will be used as a blunt weapon to keep out imports. The dollar falls, however, when the rhetoric suggests tariffs as targeted strategic tools to gain specific concessions. Which way will tariff policy lean in 2025? I don’t know, do you?

How are tariffs and the dollar related? Here’s one way. Tariffs tend to increase inflation, which forces the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher than they otherwise would be. This attracts foreign capital that boosts the dollar’s value, making imports cheaper in dollar terms and U.S. exports less competitive abroad.

Immigrant policies are the third element of the Age of Uncertainty for wine in my analysis. It is too soon to know how border controls and deportations might affect labor both generally and in industries such as agriculture and construction that are most exposed. So wine’s Age of Uncertainty is a complicated matter. What’s the bottom line? I’m saving that for the State of the Industry session.

Galbraith’s Uncertainty Principle

Why did I choose this theme for my remarks? The idea was inspired by an old book that strikes me as still relevant today. The Age of Uncertainty is the title of a 1977 BBC/KCTS television series and an accompanying book by the distinguished Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith. The book and videos, which survey two hundred years of economic history and the history of economics, were timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.

People tend to remember Galbraith as the sophisticated author, public intellectual, and Harvard professor that he became, but his personal story is more complicated. He grew up on his family’s small Ontario farm and seemed set for a farming career, graduating from Ontario Agricultural College in 1931. But the 1930s were not the best of times for farming and Galbraith soon found himself doing PhD studies in agricultural economics at the University of California and then working for the U.S. federal government’s Agricultural Adjustment Agency (AAA) trying to prop up farm prices.

I don’t think that wine is mentioned even once in Galbraith’s book, but his agricultural background and experiences are easy to trace. The world has changed a lot in the almost 50 years since The Age of Uncertainty first appeared (and nearly 250 years since Wealth of Nations), but American winegrowers and agriculture generally can certainly relate to Galbraith’s story and the concerns he expressed in this book.

Three Cheers for Saperavi and Georgia’s Wine Market Miracle

October 7, 2025 By Mike Veseth in emerging wine regions, wine, wine markets 5 Comments

This column is inspired by a recent birthday celebration dinner that featured three very different Saperavi wines from Georgia.

>>><<<

Mariam invited us to a dinner celebrating her husband Todd’s birthday and we accepted with enthusiasm, offering to bring some Georgian wines with us. Mariam is originally from Georgia, so her dinners often feature dishes you’d find at a Georgian supra feast. Sue and I were happy to share Georgian wines, but we had a selfish hidden motive. We wanted to see what our fellow guests would think about the wines.

The guest list was diverse in terms of wine experience. Mariam and Todd knew Georgian wines very well, of course. Several guests were knowledgable wine enthusiasts, but had never tasted Georgian wines. Saperavi? Is that a grape or a region or a brand? And the rest were novices, intrigued by the opportunity, and willing to try something new.

Three Faces of Saperavi

Sue and I brought three Georgian wines we had received as samples. The sparkling Mtsvane Estate Pet Nat Saperavi Rosé was beautiful in the glass and delicious on the palate, with nice acidity and great balance. Everyone enjoyed this wine, but Todd’s reaction was the most memorable. One taste and he knew where he’d had that wine before. At their wedding in Georgia. It was not just a special wine but also a memory of a special day. And, of course, it was a completely different idea of Saperavi. A great beginning.

The other two wines we brought to the party were alike (both were Saperavi wines), but also different. We wondered what our friends would think of them. One, the Dugladze Saperavi Qvevri, was made in the traditional Georgian way, fermented and agerd in qvevri clay vessels buried in the ground with only the lip of the vessel in view. This is a very old way of making wine which has been rediscovered and put into use around the world in different forms.

The final wine, a Schuchmann Saperavi, is a modern take on Georgian wine, fermented and aged in stainless steel to preserve aromas and fruit. Sue and I visited the Schuchmann winery when we were in Georgia for a wine tourism conference several years ago. We were confident that this wine would please the guests. But how would it compare to the other wines?

Of course the wines paired well with Mariam’s Georgian-style feast. What was surprising was the reaction to the wines. As Sue noted the next day, everyone embraced the wines and enjoyed them (which doesn’t always happen with unfamiliar wines or even familiar ones), but in different ways. One novice was fascinated by the Dugladze and Schuchmann wines because they were the same but also so different. She tasted them again and again.

Sue appreciated the qvevri wines, but was drawn to the clean stainless steel Saperavi best. What nice fruit and balance! Who wouldn’t enjoy this wine? I was drawn to the qvevri wine as often happened when we were in Georgia. I find a certain energy in some of these wines that really appeals to me.

Georgia’s Wine Market Miracle

Conclusions? The sample size, both in terms of drinkers and wines, is too small to allow much generalization, but it is hard not to be impressed with these wines and Georgia’s progress.

Saperavi may be Georgia’s best known wine grape variety, but it is certainly not the only one or even, depending upon whom you ask, the best. Saperavi is to Georgia what Malbec is to Argentina, the relatively easy-to-pronounce signature grape variety that is both an advantage in breaking into new markets and a liability because it can over-shadow other options like a delicious semi-sweet red Kartuli Marani Kindzmarauli and a dry white Akido Kisi.

To Saperavi and Beyond

We had an opportunity to taste both these wines a week after the birthday party gathering. Todd’s brother missed the party because he was fishing in Ketchikan and we were invited back to share the Coho salmon he caught there. What a treat!

White wines are actually more popular in Georgia than red wines (and are gaining share on reds in the overall market here in the U.S.). And sweetish reds are a large market segment here, too, even if they don’t get a lot of publicity. Lots of potential for Georgian wines.

The Kisi was a perfect match for the Coho baked under a layer of caramelized sweet onions. The Kindzmarauli was juicy and grapey and paired nicely with everything, but was is “semi-sweet?” As we know from our Riesling tastings, sweetness is very subjective, but Sue says that this wine is so well-balanced that she’d call it off-dry, not semi-sweet. In any case it was a hit with both Mariam (it reminded her of her Georgian home) and Todd (it was the taste of the first wine he was served on his first trip to Georgia).

Random Walk in Tbilisi?

You are unlikely to stumble upon Georgian wines like these on a random walk through your upscale supermarket’s wine aisle, but imports of Georgian wine have been growing in recent years. I searched the inventory of my local Total Wine & More store, for example, and I was surprised to find 37 different Georgia wine SKUs. That is sort of a miracle when you think about it. Red, white, and qvevri amber. Dry and semi-sweet. Easy to pronounce Saperavi and more challenging grape variety, region, and style names, too.

How does Georgia compare to other “Cradle of Wine” countries in terms of their Total Wine footprint. Armenia, which has been making great strides recently, has only two wines on my local Total Wine shelf, both made with the Areni grape variety which is easy to pronounce and also makes delicious wines. I could not find any wines from Turkey, which also has a very long wine history.

Three cheers for Saperavi, Georgia, and its wine market miracle. And best wishes for success navigating the uncertain waters ahead.

>><<<

I mentioned Turkey in the article above for three reasons. First, because, of course, it shares a place in wine history with Georgia and Armenia. Second, because Sue and I have a little experience with Turkish wines and appreciate their potential in the U.S. market. The third reason is that I have been reading a review copy of Mehtap Emmie Turan’s book Turkish Wine: Past, Present, and Future of Viticulture in Turkiye. The book examines the land, the grapes, and the wines as you would expect, but I especially appreciate the attention to history, culture, politics, and business challenges. It made me realize that, while Turkey and Georgia are different in very important ways, they also share certain challenges. Perhaps Georgia’s success will inspire the Turkish wine sector. Fingers crossed.

“Globalization versus Terroir” after 20 Years

September 23, 2025 By Mike Veseth in globalization, Shameless Self-Promotion, wine markets 3 Comments

“Globalization versus Terroir” is the title of my first published essay on wine economics. It appeared as a chapter in my 2005 book Globaloney: Unraveling the Myths of Globalization, which was the third in a four-volume series analyzing globalization and its discontents. (See list of books below.)

The wine world has changed a lot in 20 years and my thinking about the wine economy has changed, too, so I thought it would be interesting to re-read that first essay and see what I think about what I thought then. Here is a brief report.

Globalization versus Globaloney

The book Globaloney was conceived as a collection of case studies of how globalization was playing out in different industries. I had noticed that much of what we were told about globalization was based on a few vivid stories from specific industries, boldly generalized to global dimensions. So globalization is McDonaldization, for example, or Coca-Cola-ization. Globalization was almost always a bad thing and almost always centered in the United States.

I was suspicious that something as complicated as the global economy could be understood in such a simple way. And I knew from previous research that the search for counterexamples would be interesting. An earlier book, Selling Globalization, had argued against the prevailing wisdom that globalization was unstoppable. Global economics is built on global finance, I argued, and finance is fragile by nature. Critics doubted this conclusion until the Asian Financial Crisis and then the Global Financial Crisis. And then they didn’t doubt so much.

What’s really true about globalization? And what’s just “globaloney?” That’s what I was trying to figure out.

Globalization versus Terroir

I would like to say that everything I know about terroir I learned from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, which is almost true. It is probably hard to imagine Smith, an austere Scot, sniffing, swirling, and droning on about vineyards and microclimates, but he did develop both knowledge of and appreciation for fine wine in his mature years and recognized the importance of what we call terroir.

Significantly, because after all he was Adam Smith, he noted the economic value of terroir, real or imagined, in establishing a winery’s or a region’s reputation. There was money in terroir then as there is today.

How does globalization affect wine terroir? Is it a McDonaldization situation, where the incentive to expand globally leads to homogenized products? Does the global mean the death of the local when it comes to wine?

I argued that while wine is a global industry, there really are not many truly global wine firms or dominant regions. Even Gallo, the largest wine producer in the world, has only a tiny share of total output and sales. Most wine-producing countries drink mostly their own products (a significant home-court advantage), limiting global effects.

Up the Wine Ladder

The impact of globalization on terroir seemed to me to depend on which step of the wine ladder you consider. At the bottom, basic commodity wine, there isn’t much terroir to lose (because that’s not what consumers are looking for). But globalization has had a big positive impact in raising the standard of quality of these wines by spreading winemaking knowledge and techniques and forcing bad local wines to compete with better wines from other regions.

The situation might be different at the top of the wine staircase. Winner-take-all global markets have the power to push the price of the best wines to stratospheric levels that Adam Smith could not have predicted. Great terroir wines are traded or collected, but not necessarily opened and enjoyed. A shame!

I also cited the Parkerization argument, which was very popular when the book was written. The growing global market put more power in the hands (and palates) of famous critics like Robert Parker, providing a powerful incentive for upwardly mobile winemakers to make at least one high-scoring “Parker wine.” If the top wines are all trying to please one critic, then won’t they all start to taste the same? That’s an unexpected globalization consequence for sure.

What about the wines in the middle, the ones that are neither commodities nor investment-grade icons? That’s the interesting question! I thought that product differentiation would be the key here because undifferentiated wines would sink toward the commodity bottom. Successful differentiation would allow for higher prices and margins. Looking back at this part of the essay I can see indicators of the premiumization trend that would gather force only a few years later.

Land versus Brand

What’s the secret to differentiation? Here’s where I made a mistake. Because I framed the chapter as globalization versus terroir, I naturally look to an increased emphasis on terroir as the key. So I was very hopeful about how things would turn out.

But, of course, terroir isn’t the only strategy. I should have paid more attention to branding as a strategic response to premiumization forces in the middle market tiers. I just wasn’t thinking land versus brand at this point. But I got there eventually (with the help of many wine people), which led to The Wine Economist and the five wine business books, starting with Wine Wars.

><<<

Here are the books in my globalization series.

Globaloney2.0PBK.indd