Category Archives: Wine Culture

Timing is Everything

26 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Contemporary Food Culture, Wine Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

tasting at the wineryAs state and local governments order people to stay home to limit the spread of the virus, toilet paper and canned goods are not the only items people are snapping up. Wine sales at wine shops are soaring and large, highly-distributed wine brands are struggling to keep wines on the shelf.

Meanwhile, small wineries that depend on restaurants and on-site sales are trying to figure out how to survive. The question on the mind of  everyone  in the wine business is what will things look like on the other side when we get the virus under control.

I’m no economist so I won’t speculate but on matters of wine economics The Wine Economist Mike Veseth and Silicon Valley Bank’s Rob McMillan have already started to tackle that subject.

Rob McMillan went so far as to offer a tentative prediction about when things might open up:

Timing of an end is the most difficult to predict, but I have a current operating guess.

  • The CDC has worked with Major League Baseball to predict a tentative date for the opening of the Baseball Season and has come up with May 10th. Obviously, that’s not set in stone.
  • While I know this virus is different compared to the common flu (See Johns Hopkins comparison of the two), there are many similarities. The CDC also reports that flu season normally peaks between December and February, with activity at times lasting as late as May.
  • Finally, we are seeing South Korea and China having success flattening their curves and they are now restarting their economies. Both went through a period of about 4 months to work through this, and if that holds true for the US, that would put us in May when we do the same. So for scenario planning, I am coming up with the end of May as the expected case date we open tasting rooms and restaurants again.

Hmmm. I’m not so sure about this. According to most epidemiologists, even if we succeed in reducing the transmission rate of the virus, we are likely to see waves of resurgence until we get a vaccine or reach herd immunity. Even assuming a seasonal reduction when the weather warms up as with the flu, a possibility most experts are uncertain about, with the lack of immunity in the population, as soon we stop the social distancing, the virus might well go on the rampage again. We are likely to be playing whack-a-mole with the damn thing for many months.

Under such conditions, are people going to be willing to repopulate restaurants and tasting rooms? Unless we have comprehensive testing abilities including antibody tests and massive contact tracing to spot outbreaks before they take off, many people will be reluctant to resume their social activities. Our capacity for testing thus far doesn’t give me much confidence in that scenario.

Of course, as we saw last week with the beach hordes on Spring break, some people will throw caution to the wind in order to have their parties. Maybe there will be enough of them to make opening tasting rooms and restaurants worthwhile.

I think I won’t be joining them.

Covid 19, Christmas Ponies and the Taste Revolution

23 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in Contemporary Food Culture, Wine Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

christmas ponyThere are many tragedies unfolding as covid-19 ravages the planet. With the massive loss of life and livelihood up ahead, this is not among the worst outcomes, but given my interests it nevertheless saddens me when I think about it. Independent wineries, restaurants and their employees are going to take a big hit. That’s a lot of skill, imagination and determination gone to waste. I’m sure the chains and commercial wineries will survive by doing what well- financed firms with market power do. But it will be hard for the little guy to survive in a business as tough as the restaurant business or the artisan winery business.

No one knows what society will look like on the other end of this. There are too many contingencies to make predictions. But the food and wine revolution that has transformed the taste landscape in the U.S. over the past 50 years may well be over. It was driven organically by creative individuals with drive, courage, and an idea. But it was enabled by upper middle-class wealth and a global consciousness open to new influences. I suspect both will be in short supply in the near to middle future.

I hope I’m wrong. Maybe in 18 months with a successful vaccine in hand, the innovation economy will come roaring back with investment capital thrown around like confetti and consumers flush with government checks and a new job.

Please might I have a pony for Christmas?

Wine Tasting in the Age of Corona

16 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in Wine Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

croweded tastiing roomAs the U.S. begins to implement social distancing in order to reduce transmission of the coronavirus to manageable levels, there are two things we should not be doing right now:

(1) Mingling in crowded public spaces; and

(2) Listening to Republicans who are trying to make you sick.

This is a real crisis and the basic mathematics of exponential  growth tells us so.

Given that tasting rooms at some wineries on Saturday afternoon are basically just a crowded, elbow-to-elbow  barroom, now is probably not a good time to go wine tasting. Just stay home.

However, at some point in that dimly seen horizon called “the future”, people will emerge from behind their battlements seeking social contact. Even then, barring a medical breakthrough, this virus will still be with us. I suspect some degree of social distancing will be necessary for quite some time.

What does that mean for visits to wineries?  Many wineries will develop innovative ways of adapting in order to sell their wines. Here are several good suggestions from Rob McMillan for how wineries can start thinking about adapting to the situation.

But what about the consumer visiting the winery? How should we adapt? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Take advantage of private tastings. They are more expensive but your health is priceless.

But If you’re going to a public tasting room:

2. Choose one that isn’t crowded. If you arrive at your chosen destination and it’s too crowded go to the next one. Plan ahead with several destinations in mind.

3. Bring your own glassware, pen and notepad.

4. Sit outside. Most wineries have outdoor seating and they will probably make it even more accommodating as a way of encouraging people to visit.

5. Do not touch the menu or flight map. Again, wineries may find ways of supplying informational material that does not require handling.

6. Wipe down your seating area with hand-sanitizing wipes. Wineries should make these available.

If we become accustomed to following good social distancing practices visiting a winery should not be especially dangerous once the period of peak transmission passes.

More Evidence that Tasting Expertise is Real

12 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Wine Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

wine judgingThe best evidence that tasting expertise is real and that some dimensions of wine tasting are objective is the fact that, each year, many people past the rigorous Master of Wine and Master Sommelier exams. If wine tasting is not a genuine skill what explains their ability to pass the exam?

But it also helps to have real world experiments like this one conducted by Christian Wolf, the organizer of the European wine competition Mundus Vini.

Twice a year, MUNDUS VINI brings more than 280 international judges together to taste in groups of six or seven. For the summer edition in 2019, Wolf created eight special groups: there was a table of women; a table of men; a table of Germans; a table with older jurors; a group of younger jurors; people drawn from the wine trade; a table of sommeliers; and a table of wine writers.

Each group was presented with a flight of wines that was also given to another table, while individual wines were doubled and given to different juries.

Regardless of age, gender or nationality, the wines received the same scores.

Wolf was testing the hypothesis that there are cultural, gender, or age differences in how professionals judge wine. Apparently that hypothesis is not warranted.

Wolf attributes the consistency of these results to the method of scoring he uses for his competitions. Called the OIV judging system, it requires judges to focus on one wine at a time, rather than as part of a line up. The score is determined by summing subscores on a variety of specific attributes.

Truth be told, not all competitions show this level of consistency. Wolf might well be right that the discipline of assigning scores for various dimensions of a wine is the key to consistency among tasters.

Wolf intends to replicate this test with a much larger sample size.

Are Wine Reviews about Entertainment?

05 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Wine Culture

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

entertainerOliver Styles is largely right about the purpose of wine reviews. He argues that people don’t read wine reviews to guide their buying decisions.

I suspect this is true. Sure, some wine drinkers might note the score of a wine and choose it over lesser scoring wines. But I don’t know many people who painstakingly sort through and read reviews in order to identify the wines they want to buy, if only because most of the wines they read about wouldn’t be available in their local market anyway. Why then do people read reviews? Styles references his own case:

Mostly, though, it was just to read about wine. I need no-one to help me enjoy drinking it but I do like reading about it, and the reviews form part of that. And this is the thing about wine ratings and about wine writing. For all our talk of scores and sleepers of the vintage and Quality-Price-Ratios, I strongly suspect that what people read about wine for is to be entertained, not to get a bunch of recommendations because they have no idea what they’re going to put in their next mixed case order from The Wine Society, or Kermit Lynch.

Many reviews are of wines that are unavailable. If you read about a fantastic wine of which 2000 cases were produced, good luck getting ahold of a bottle. Reviews are often part of a shipment of wines that have already been allocated or purchased so they couldn’t be giving buying advice. I suspect many people read reviews because they are curious about what other people say about a wine they’re drinking.

Wine writing is really about creating a discourse about wine. Wine writers establish tasting norms, identify trends, stick it to conventional wisdom when its needs prodding, or let people know what is new and exciting in the wine world. The most important thing a wine critic can do is find something new and interesting to say about a wine that readers might have been unaware of without reading the review.

I suppose all of this falls under the category of entertainment.

We read them because we’re in a post-Nader world and I suspect critics take their role both too seriously as a critic and not seriously enough as a performer.

I couldn’t agree more.

A Motto That Makes Me Run Away

02 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in Wine Culture

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

run awayI recently came across a winery whose motto is “if you like it, it’s good”. That motto is a really good reason not to visit this winery. The wine is unlikely to be worth exploring.

“If you like it, it is good” assumes there is nothing beyond your merely liking something that accounts for its quality, nothing more to be discovered and nothing more to be enjoyed beyond what you already like. It assumes that  you have no reason to recognize the limitations of what you like or search for something better. It is a shame to encourage such an attitude in wine drinkers.

People in wine education, of course, know this is misleading—that is why they put in the work to gain expertise. But they pretend otherwise because customers want their palates validated and are perceived to be intimidated if wine becomes too serious. Granted, not every situation is a “teaching” situation and sommeliers/merchants must be sensitive to what the customer is looking for. But to dismiss the possibility of educating a palate is irresponsible.

Of course, we can appreciate a wine for all sorts of reasons that are only modestly related to its quality—when relaxing after work for instance. Enjoying what is in front of you regardless of merit may be all that matters in some contexts. But it is to be hoped that a winery is striving for some sort of excellence; that some of their wines meet a less subjective standard in which discovery, learning, and insight can be gained from drinking their wines.

Some Expensive Wines are Worth Their Price

27 Thursday Feb 2020

Posted by in Philosophy of Food and Wine, Wine Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

chateau rayasRobert Joseph has a fascinating article in Meininger’s about the relationship between quality and price entitled Is expensive wine worth the money?

He participated in a blind tasting and ranking of 24 wines all highly rated by France’s respected wine critics, Bettane & Desseauve and La Révue de Vin de France. 9 of the 24 wines in the lineup were from Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the highest regarded appellation in the Southern Rhône. The other wines were from lesser known regions in the south especially Languedoc-Roussillon. Although there were a few bargains in the lineup from CdP, most of them were quite expensive. The non-CdP wines more modestly priced.

So, what did we learn? Well, I was gratified to discover, when the identities were revealed, that my favourite, to which I gave 99 points, was also the overall winner: Château Rayas 2005 Châteauneuf, with an average score of 95.6.

This is not a surprise given the reputation of Château Rayas, and at 700 Euros it better be good. But the rest of the results did not really fall in line.

Four of the top 10 wines were from Languedoc-Roussillon rather than the Rhône, and half of the most successful eight wines in the tasting were also among the eight cheapest, ranging from €19 (Domaine d’Aupilhac les Coclières, Montpeyroux 2017) to €37 (Tardieu Laurent Gigondas, Vieilles Vignes 2017), which were ranked fourth and third respectively.

Joseph concludes that consumers of Châteauneuf-du-Pape are being irrational  and emotional when they pay hundreds of euros for a bottle.

That would certainly be true for someone who could not afford to splurge on wine. But let’s suppose price is no object or a secondary concern.

Origins matter to people because we feel emotional connections to them. Art lovers will pay millions for a genuine Picasso; only a few hundred dollars for an identical knock-off. Why? Because one was worked on by Picasso; the other wasn’t. Works of art are achievements; knock-offs less so. We build shrines at famous locations, e.g. in Williamsburg, VA or Mount Vernon, PA because that is the location of important events. Transport Williamsburg to the middle of Nebraska and I doubt it would be much of an attraction since the early settlers never occupied that ground. For well-heeled wine lovers who enjoy that style of wine, the storied vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape are hallowed ground and wines from those vineyards are worthy of respect. Is that irrational? It isn’t obvious to me that it is.

Of course, one reason wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape are expensive is because the region and certain producers such as Chateau Rayas have a great and long-standing reputation. Much of what you’re paying for is that reputation. If you walk into a wine shop looking for a special bottle, eager to try something new, do you take a chance on Languedoc-Roussillon or do you go with the wine with the reputation, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, again assuming price isn’t the dominant consideration. It isn’t obvious that it’s irrational to trust the reputation.

I do think in the contemporary wine world the calculation has changed a bit. One thing we are discovering is that really good wine can be made outside the classic, noteworthy regions. They have been making wine in Languedoc-Roussillon for centuries but it was noted for its bulk wine. Until about 20 years ago, no one bothered to make the investment in the region that would enable quality wine to be produced. The wine world is rapidly expanding with newly emerging regions dedicated to making great wine. If you think only the traditionally-respected regions can produce good wine you’re ignoring evidence. That is irrational. We shouldn’t expect  Châteauneuf-du-Pape  to always win out over Languedoc-Roussillon in blind tastings because quality has escaped the confines of tradition. But neither should we expect price to track intrinsic quality when reputational effects play such a large role.

Finally, there is one other factor to consider. Knowledgeable wine lovers will drink wines from a favorite producer or vineyard because there is something distinctive about the flavor profile that can only be found in wines from that source. On some absolute scale of wine quality (if there is one) the wine may not be quite as impressive as its competitors, but if it is distinctive, and the consumer enjoys that distinctiveness, why is it irrational to pay for it? Distinctiveness is among the most important values in the wine world and you will always have to pay for it because by definition it is rare.

So I’m skeptical of the claim that people who pay top dollar for wines they can afford are being bamboozled or dazzled by price. Obviously some are; many people are irrational. And I agree with Robert that “having a story” by itself is of limited value.

But when something is rare and distinctive it is worth having if you can afford it.

Thoughts on Boomers, Millennials, and Wine

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Wine Culture

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

wine country 2Among the many challenges facing the wine industry today is the fact that millennials seem to be purchasing less wine than their parents did. It’s important for the wine industry to figure out why and develop new strategies for reaching them. Various explanations are typically offered: financial challenges, competition from beer, spirits and cocktails, an interest in healthy lifestyles that include less alcohol, or an out of touch industry that hasn’t updated their image for new generations.

I have no idea whether any of these explanations are correct. But it occurs to me that what might be going on is that wine is losing its power as a symbol system for younger generations.

Wine has enjoyed steady growth since the 1950’s but it really starts to take off in the early 1970’s as baby boomers were becoming stablished in their careers. The emergence of a fine wine culture in the U.S. cannot be disentangled from the simultaneous emergence of a food culture in the U.S. Soldiers returning from WW II and its aftermath in Europe had acquired a taste for European wine and cuisine, and as air travel improved, prosperous Americans were traveling to France and Italy and being exposed to refined tastes and a focus on flavor. Meanwhile the wine trade created an imaginative discourse around wine in which it come to symbolize a life of refinement, ease, aesthetic appreciation and sophistication. Wine became an aspirational beverage that promised luxury, heritage, romance and “la dolce vita”, the sweet life.

I suspect that millennials don’t look at their life prospects in the same way. Many were late launching their careers because of the great recession and many millennials spent lots of money on education but are now underemployed. With climate change threatening to limit everyone’s prospects and the robots coming to take their jobs, they perhaps don’t see their lives on a trajectory culminating in “la dolce vita”. They are intensely interested in taste and aesthetics but wine doesn’t have the symbolic charge that it had for my generation.

Symbols matter and I think wine is loosing its ability to symbolize aspirations.

As to the question of how wine might regain its symbolic importance, I will leave that to younger, more agile minds.

The Peculiarities of Wine Nationalism

19 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Wine Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

french wine in storeThankfully, the 100% tariff proposal is now off the table at least for a few months, so fans of European wines can breathe a little easier.

Speaking of European wines, this article about wine nationalism by Don Kavanaugh at Wine Searcher is interesting and sort of disturbing.

We took a look at wine searches from countries that produce wine and, to be perfectly honest, we assumed the situation would be akin to George Bernard Shaw’s definition of patriotism: the conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it, but it turns out the situation is quite different.

Just four of the 10 countries put their local producers first when searching for wine, while some countries even had merchants who didn’t stock a majority of local wines.

France (of course), Chile, Argentina, and Portugal were the most nationalistic with regard to the number of local wines being offered in wine shops listed on Wine Searcher.

The U.S., Spain, Germany, and New Zealand were the least nationalistic. The figures paint a complex picture especially in the U.S. and Italy. The U.S. consumes mostly domestic U.S. wine (67%). But most of those consumers are not perusing the offers in wine shops or doing searches on Wine Searcher. Only about 43% of the wines on offer in wine shops were domestic. Italy was anomalous as well. Mostly domestic offers in wine shops but lots of searches for global wines.

Praise be to the globalists.

Here is what strikes me as curious. Wine is an aesthetic object and part of what makes wine interesting are the variations it’s capable of producing. And we know terroir matters—the variations are the result of local geography and climate. Drinking some local wine makes sense because it is likely to be distinctive and interesting. But there are interesting terroirs all over the world. If you’re interested in the variation wine is capable of, why would you drink mostly local wine? Of course, cost factors might come into play if imports are expensive and there are environmental reasons for drinking local. But neither explains the fact that the French are exposed to mostly French wine (90% of all offers) and the Chileans are exposed to mostly Chilean wine (93% of all offers).

Now the French invented wine as we know it and tradition dies hard especially in the wine business and especially in France. But if they think no one else can make great wine they’re not paying attention.

And the Chileans? I don’t get it. If you really love wine why the narrow focus?

A Wine Country Travesty

10 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by in Wine Culture

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

wine countryIt is sad to hear stories like this. Rob McMillan posts an email he received from a wine lover and his daughter who  were treated shabbily at several wineries they visited in wine country.

We had 15 visits;  every one with an appointment set many weeks in advance.  Four had no record of our reservations while others had it for the wrong time or type of tasting.  Only two had bothered to look at what we had bought from them in the past.  Only once were we met by the person we were told would be meeting us.  Several set us down with a glass and a bottle and walked off — only to reappear while bruskly asking ‘you want to taste something else now?’

With declining overall sales and direct-to-consumer sales as the only bright spot, this is not what the wine industry needs. We don’t know, from what was published, the location of these wineries although the post mentions wine country and appointments so I assume its Napa and/or Sonoma.

I’ve visited several hundred wineries over the last 6 years, and I must say this hasn’t been my experience. I could count on one hand the wineries where we have been treated with indifference. But we stay away from the tourist traps and large, commercial wineries. We don’t care about event spaces, gondola rides,  which band is playing on Saturday, or the movie memorabilia in the tasting room. We seek wineries that take pride in their wines and want to talk about them.

My advice if you want a decent wine country experience is visit smaller wineries with good reputations. If you see limousines in the parking lot, run away very quickly. A winery that in anyway resembles a bar on Saturday night will not be worth experiencing.

And give some thought to visiting emerging wine regions that are hungry for recognition. We’ve had some wonderful experiences in California but wine regions such as the Finger Lakes, Oregon, Michigan, Texas, Missouri, New Mexico, Arizona and Virginia offer a more intimate experience and the wines from the best wineries are outstanding.

If you’re a winery, treat your customers like honored guests, thoroughly train your staff to assess what customers want,  and please offer interesting wines that set you apart from the competition.