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March 23 2008
The increase in wine consumption in the U.S. is great for everybody; a rising tide raises all ships, right? It could, however, be better.
How so, you ask? Well, for starters, it would seem that most of the growth is from new customer acquisition, which is fantastic. In the parlance of Wine Market Council research, new consumers are coming in as “Core” consumers—those that drink wine at least once a week.
No doubt, the increase in wine consumption in the U.S. is tied to Generation Y and no doubt, it is linked to the absolute boom we have seen over the last decade in terms of fine dining and Chefs as celebrities.
I grew up watching the Frugal Gourmet and Yan Can Cook on PBS and now there are whole channels dedicated to food. Mario Batali, amongst many, is ubiquitious, leading to a more sophisticated food culture.
New customers and a more sophisticated culture are contributing to the wine bottom line.
However, after reading an article in Wine & Spirits magazine (summary here) and watching Diners, Drive-in’s and Dives on a perpetual loop on the Food Network, I am beginning to re-think the culture of wine.
Instead of new customer acquisition the way we are seeing it, the low hanging fruit, what about conversion of those less inclined to wine? New business development, if you will.
Perhaps I am biased because if I were ever going to open up a restaurant (I am not masochistic enough to actually do that) I would open up a joint. It seems much more interesting to open up something that can become a local institution than to try to hit the next wave for five years of boom.
That said, it seems like our joints, diners, drive-in’s and dives never have a wine list that is worth a damn.
If I had one wish, it would be that every distributor sales rep. in the country would pick out five joints in their territory, the local institutions, the places that give our cities a sense of place and soul, and work diligently to build a quality wine list at these cultural gems citing all of the research about wine consumption in the U.S.
Selling wine to fine dining establishments is great, but it is competitive and there is only so much room for so many bottles of wine at a finite number of places where you would expect to sell wine. However, by farming the acres of diamonds, by building the bottom up, the places where you do not expect to see a nice, affordable bottle of wine, the wine industry can create cultural change and a culture of wine for good, for the long haul.
Anything else is a cyclical trend.
March 22 2008
Tom from Fermentation has named the finalists in the American Wine Blog Awards. Voting is now open.
With eight categories—Best Overall Wine Blog, Best Wine Blog Writing, Best Wine Reviewing Blog, Best Single-Subject Wine Blog, Best Graphics on a Wine Blog, Best Winery Blog, Best Wine Business Blog and Best Wine Podcast or VideoBlog – there is a little something for everyone.
In fact, there are a couple of pleasant surprises whereby a few lesser-known blogs are having an opportunity to gain some meritorious attention after the jury review.
Good Grape was nominated in four categories and named a finalist in two—Best Graphics on a Wine Blog and Best Wine Business Blog.
Please vote for all categories at this link.
I won’t shill for your vote, but I would like to note that I’m very proud to be nominated in two categories for two years in a row.
Last year was in the Graphics category and Best Overall blog.
This year a new category was created –- Best Wine Business Blog—for those that focus on wine separate from a pure consumer orientation, something that this blog happens to do with an emphasis on marketing and industry dynamics.
It’s really nice to have your hard work and diligence recognized, and anybody that says differently is kidding either themselves or you.
It’s also motivation to bring your “A” game all the time because your body of work is judged by industry experts.
Thank you to everybody that visits this site, comments, and emails and please vote for your favorites for the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards
March 18 2008
Have you seen the new Dunkin Donuts commercial? It is something of a commentary, in my mind, on the opportunity that is slipping through domestic winery fingertips.
It is embedded below and lampoons the retail coffee culture of mangled half-English words—calling it “Fratalian,” for example. It is a small slice of advertising genius—equal parts funny and memorable and a reminder that says sometimes staying with the tried, true and comfortable is a good thing.
This advertising stuck with me for a couple of reasons. Millenials aside, who drink internationally with a view of the global village, some of the dynamics of the U.S. wine industry COULD help engender the same kind of love and attraction for California, Oregon and Washington wines, the tried, true and comfortable, particularly as consumption increases at an incredible pace. Consumption of domestic wines could increase were it not for a small problem.
Prices.
California and West Coast wineries are going to price themselves out of 95% of the market. Meanwhile, imports, with incredible quality at price, seem to be all too willing to occupy the abandoned areas of the wine market.
I was in Chicago yesterday and stopped in at Binny’s to do some browsing. There on the shelf the news of many domestic wineries going upstream in price was never more evident. The $11 to $15 “super-Premium” price segment has virtually disappeared.
Vanished. Disappeared. A David Copperfield-like trick for our times. Alternatively, perhaps cynically, it is more like D.B. Cooper—a disappearing act while making off with the money.
It was not so long ago that you could find a decent bottle of wine in the “super-premium” category. However, with more wineries going into the ultra-premium category, a notch below the $25 + luxury category, there is a gap big enough to drive a truck through.
It would seem that it might be manifest destiny for a lot of people to trade down instead of trading up. Personally, I am more inclined to take a risk on a cheaper bottle than a more expensive bottle. At the very least, in these economic times, I am not likely to deviate from my buying patterns and move up market, save for the occasional bottle.
Lest you think I am doing too small of a sample, I would point you to the current issue of Wine Spectator—the one that says, “California Values. Best wines to drink now from $8 to $50.”
I do not mean to burst anybody’s bubble here, but a $50 bottle of wine is not exactly a value in my book. This is not a knock on Wine Spectator either, because I am not shooting the messenger, but having 58 out of 189 value wines, or approximately 31% of wines priced at $15 or under is not my definition of value. The balance of the wines, generally, is in the $16 to $35 price range—the ultra-premium and luxury market. Since when did “value” become synonymous with “ultra-premium” and “luxury?”
It is too bad about the disappearing price segment. As entry consumers continue to move through the price spectrums as they become more attuned to wine, they are going to move into the $11 + category pretty shortly, if they are not already there, and see a gigantic huge domestic hole. It may just be that Malbec outpaces Merlot. Perhaps wine lovers won’t be learning more “Fratalian,” but definitely “Argintenglish” or “Chileanglish.”
March 15 2008
Groundhog Day with Wine Topics
If you are a wine lover, and you are online, than chances are good that your view and review of the world of wine includes more than just the simple appreciation of the grape. Simply, it is hard not to look behind the curtain and see wine as the industry that it is, a venture to make money.
To that end, one of best things you can do, if you are a consumer of wine-related information, if you do not do it already, is sign-up for the daily Wine Business Monthly news summary.
You can find it here:
Wine Business Montly Daily News Summary
I bring this up because over the course of the last couple of days it has helped me keep track of a number of stories that pretty fairly encapsulate all of the re-occuring story themes we see not only in the blogosphere, but also some mainstream wine press.
I’m making no comment about how the standard topics get recycled, just merely stating that if you want to stay on top of these, then signing up for the Wine Business Monthly daily email is a pretty good bet. See how many of the below stories you recognize by generic description.
Stories like:
Entry-level wine consumers are frequently overwhelmed
Distributors protect their turf
Gary Vaynerchuk is a HOT commodity
Wine is a green product
Global warming affects the world of wine
The new, new thing about understanding your palate
And, finally, what is not listed above about the industry of wine is found in an article in which the author punctures the remaining 10 things about wine that we talk about when we are not talking about the above—it is funny, in a good way.
After 40 years in wine – here’s all I know
The Next Topic Du Jour
I do have a small prediction about a subject that I think will get significantly more airtime over the course of the next couple of years—bottle shock.
There seem to be two separate strains of the same term, too. One has to do with the “dumb” stage that wine goes into shortly after bottling and the second is a “dumb” stage that a wine goes into if it is shipped – i.e. to a consumer in a FedEx box.
Slight problem in that one is a winemaking term and the same term is applied with a need for consumer understanding.
I have been doing some informal polling over the last year—talking to wine people, distributors and retailers about their definition of “Bottle Shock” and whether it is valid. Two interesting things emerge #1) Common belief is it is very valid #2) Nobody has the same opinion on what it is, how long it lasts, or what to do about it.
I had lunch with a distributor a couple of months back and he was talking about getting a container into the states and not being able to sample for a few weeks as the wine settled down. He indicated that just simple domestic shipping is a problem, too—especially for wines with some delicacy like a Pinot.
If you Google “Bottle Shock” you will see, about 99% of the returns are for the movie of the same name and then 1% is related to the actual term.
My two cents here, with Amazon.com entering the wine game and consumer direct shipping taking off on a rocket sled, the wine industry will need to do some education around what “Bottle Shock” is and how to address it.
Do you think consumers will be able to let their wine mellow in a cool, still place for two weeks to let the wine settle down?
I dunno either …
Mother, Mother
My wife is on a kick for our household to tighten things up. She is closing in on the leaky checkbook (mostly my doing and mostly wine purchasing) and she has a desire to help me not have five bottles of wine going in the fridge at any given period with the inevitable waste. A lot of money goes down the drain because of my predilection to want to taste wine as opposed to drinking wine. I open many bottles, and if a bottle is just “okay” I’d prefer to open up something different the next night … it is a bit wasteful, I know, but since my wife doesn’t drink a whole lot, it is a lot more responsible than trying to tackle the whole bottle myself. A generous one glass is about what I am good for on a nightly basis, and a one to one ½-bottle week is just too damn boring.
We have thought about getting some ice cube trays to freeze wine for use in reduction sauces and other cooking, but instead we are honing in on the red wine vinegar idea.
I will not go into a ton of detail about it, because a quick search of the internet will yield all you need to know about it, but I have been promised that the next gifting opportunity for me will be some sort of vinegar crock and a vinegar Mother.
Check out Gang of Pour for a primer, if you are interested.
March 13 2008
I have heard the oft-repeated phrase, “It takes a lot of beer to make good wine” and quietly smiled to myself. Man does not live on grapes alone and nor do winemakers get their quaffable sustenance from just the vine.
Dammit. Sometimes a beer hits the spot. I am no winemaker and I know this. Heck, some people swear to a diet of Guinness as a meal replacement program.
As I sit here and write this I am sipping on a Bell’s Hopslam—an amazingly rich and delicious IPA from Bell’s Brewery in Michigan. For other hopheads, it is very comparable to the Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA, another fantastically delicious butt-kicker of an Imperial Pale Ale and a beer considered by many to be the best in the country.
Frankly, if I were more fickle and more prone to “finger in the air” weather casting to see which way the wind was blowing, I might start a craft beer blog because there are many cool things happening in the world of craft brewing.
I bring this juxtaposition of beer versus wine up because a book, fascinating by its very premise, is due to be published at the end of the month and it is one of the most anticipated books of the year for me—and this is no slight to Tyler Colman, Neal Rosenthal, or Alice Feiring.
Just as wine consumption nestles into its steady manifest destiny in the US, and wine bloggers piss and moan about varying degrees of this thread or that notion in the world of wine, the craft brew world continues to grow at its own steady pace and an author prepares a frontal assault on the wine world.
This is curious because, frankly, I think most people view our wine culture in the states as something that is not yet where it needs to be. Yet, in the world of beer, apparently, we are number one with a bullet.
The new book called. “Grape vs. Grain” promises to:
Why is wine considered more sophisticated even though the production of beer is much more technologically complex? Why is wine touted for its health benefits when beer has more nutritive value? Why does wine conjure up images of staid dinner parties while beer denotes screaming young partiers? Charles Bamforth explores several paradoxes involving these beverages, paying special attention to the culture surrounding each. He argues that beer can be just as grown-up and worldly as wine and be part of a healthy, mature lifestyle. Both beer and wine have histories spanning thousands of years. This is the first book to compare them from the perspectives of history, technology, nature of the market for each, quality attributes, types and styles, and the effect that they have on human health and nutrition.
One of the blurbs on the book jacket says:
“Grape vs. Grain offers a thorough, comparative look at mankind’s two most beloved and culturally significant beverages that will surely change the mind of anyone who thinks of beer as wine’s less-sophisticated ‘poor relation’. Charles Bamforth’s jovial approach to the subject is as clean and refreshing as a Blanche de Bruges on a hot summer day. Not only did I learn a lot from this book, I enjoyed reading it too; I’d love to sit down and share a pint with its author!”
-Alan Tardi, Author of Romancing the Vine (Winner of the 2006 James Beard Best Wine and Spirits Book)
I ordered the book on pre-order from Amazon.com and have not yet read it, but I understand that pre-release copies of the book went out to the craft beer blogosphere, so I fully expect a book that ardently justifies brewing in the pantheon of drinks, especially against the history of wine.
Just goes to show you that even though, as consumers, we may be critical pundits of the wine industry for its wayward and antiquated ways, yet we are still the object of admiration from other segments, notably beer.
I am anticipating this read, and so should you. Grape vs. Grain? I like a beer now and again, but it does not hold a candle to the wine lover in me.
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