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February 22 2009
I ventured out to do some shopping yesterday, went by Trader Joe’s and the mega-club store, the parking lots packed to the edges.
Charles Shaw stacked high at Trader Joe’s and Cameron Hughes Lot 111 in the Sam’s Club complete with a demo gal eyeballing me anxiously, ready to pounce with her pitch.
The store aisles were jammed creating a haphazard navigation course of carts and kids, difficult to traverse.
Apparently, many people are not participating in the global recession.
I got to thinking about this after the stimulus package passed, which, by some accounts, may be the most expensive advertising campaign ever to influence the largest demographic.
The good news and the bad news about our media, both online and offline is they can present a potentially distorted view of the world while influencing groupthink.
A random sampling of consumers of media would say that, “yes, we’re in a nasty recession.” A random sampling of wine blog readers would say, “yes, online wine consumers have a distaste for the 100 pt. system and fruit-bomb New World wines.”
However, truth be told, my drop in consumer spending is a reaction to the unknown and the news. Separately, a vocal minority who likely do not represent a larger public propagates the reports of a Parker backlash.
It is the lunatic fringe, the vocal minority, which influences and creates mass psychosis.
Sure, times are not great, particularly in the business climate that contributes to our gross domestic product, but surely, they cannot be as bad as some of the news outlets would lead you to believe.
Amid reports in December that this might be the worst holiday season EVER, consumer spending dropped just 1%.
I am no economist, but most of this economic distress seems terribly interrelated and most of it is based on fear of the unknown. Businesses cut jobs because they do not know how bad the economy is going to get, and it is difficult to bet on growth with a tight credit market, while consumers cut spending because they are afraid for their jobs.
Nobody wins. Somebody has to break the cycle.
So, here is what I am recommending on the occasion of “Open That Bottle Night” on February 28th.
Some quick background, first: “Open That Bottle Night” was started 10 years ago by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, wine columnists for the Wall Street Journal, as an event that allow consumers to stop saving that special bottle of wine and just open the damn thing and drink it—a noble thought if ever there was one to seize the day and live in the moment; Carpe Diem for wine lovers predisposed to waiting a decade to indulge, the anti-thesis of the here and now.
Similarly, in these economic times, as consumers, all we can control is our contribution to consumer confidence and that is mostly by spending.
Therefore, it seems like “Open That Bottle Night” would be better served as “Buy That Bottle Night.”
For “Open That Bottle Night,” which I have now hijacked and dubbed, “Buy That Bottle Night,” I implore all wine consumers to head to their local wine shop and buy the most expensive bottle of wine they can, take it home, and pop the cork and savor, get lost in the company of others and your own thoughts.
Even if you spend a $100, well, hell, you cannot take it with you. You can always regale your kids later on with the time Mom & Dad went out and bought and drank a very expensive bottle of wine in the midst of the millennium depression just because …
Your wine shop will appreciate the purchase, the economy will appreciate it, and you will appreciate it for a bit of recklessness that feels indulgent.
Do not let the vocal minority lull you into the security of consumer conservatism, break the shackles of cellar tyranny and buy your way to freedom, particularly in wine, where your wine shop will be glad to sell you a special bottle of something for “Buy That Bottle Night” instead of scouring the cellar for the dusty, musty gem.
February 21 2009
Inniskillin
I am not normally a cantankerous kind of guy, but at this point in the winter, I have to admit that I am just about done with the cold, snowy, icy weather mixed in with alternating unseasonably warm weather, making the schizophrenic Sybil and her 16 personalities seem positively normal.
I have been cold, sick, frustrated with listening to the news, frustrated with the pace of development with clients at work, frustrated looking at the gray foliage in my yard, and I have been acting like I am a 75 year old widower man, fastidious about his lawn, who eats cans of Beefaroni and hates kids in a neighborhood full of young families.
And, then THE package arrived.
The skies parted and the birds started chirping yesterday when I received an order of, well, a symbol of cold weather.
Suddenly, I wish the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver were here already so I could commune with favorite winter activities.
Ah, Icewine. Yes, thank goodness for the majesty of the snow draped vineyards and the chilled temperatures that makes this nectar possible.
Canada’s finest winery. A couple of the Inniskillin wines are from the Okanagan district, northeast of Vancouver, too.
While I am not a Rosé guy, I have long championed two underserved areas of the wine market – the front end of the meal with a spritzy aperitif like Moscato d’Asti or Lambrusco and the back-end of the meal with a dessert wine like Inniskillin.
You can go dry red between the bookends if so desired, but for my money bubbles and nectar of the Gods truly make a meal.
No reviews yet for these beauties, but I am pulling the cork on one tonight with a wedge of cheese while I imagine and embrace the cold outside. Thank goodness for winter and the cold that it brings.
Gundlach Bundschu
In honor of Gundlach Bundschu’s pending 151st anniversary of the acquisition of the land on which they farm, the winery is sponsoring a writing contest – in 151 words or less tell them why wine stirs your soul.
Some “delicious” prizes are available for the winner, which sounds good to me given that their wines are delicious. You can find all of the details at their web site.
Slender Wine Redux
I recently wrote about and was not too kind with the notion of a “Slender” wine with a sugar-free additive. Nope, not kind at all. The wine comes from a winery in my Indianapolis backyard, just southwest of the city. They tout the fact that the wine has—“No Sugar, No Carbs, No Fats, No After-taste, No Kidding!” To me this panders to the lowest common denominator, like selling cars to people with the promise of “no credit check.” Preying on people’s insecurities and what they do not know, as opposed to what they do know.
Yet, against the odds, or with a hefty pr retainer, they have managed to make it into the Oscars swag bag that is given to nominees.
This is a pretty big coup from a pr perspective. I am sure a couple of high-fives were exchanged, just the same, it is hard for me to rally around this sort of thing in wine – it makes Arbor Mist and their Mixed Berry Pinot Noir look positively old school. Harumph.
February 19 2009
Beyond all else, the thing I love about my blog are the comments from readers. It is the fuel in my blogging engine. I even like dissenters because they keep me on my toes.
So, I’ve been kind of mildly freaking out—seven of my last posts have registered no comments. I’m scratching my head because I’ve been getting steady comments for the last two years. Yet, the past week or so—nothing.
I’m checking my traffic to see if it dropped off, I’m trying to step up quality of blog posts, everything ...
And, then I get the bright idea to submit a test comment on my site to, you know, see what happens. Hmmm ... the comments function isn’t working. Yeah, I’m having that fixed pronto!
Jeff
February 19 2009
If you haven’t (and chances are you haven’t) looked through the $787 billion dollar package, I would encourage you to do so. There is no way to comprehend spending at this level. The board game Monopoly is going to have to change the numbers on their funny money currency to keep up with trends.
You can find the stimulus package at this link.
I did do a search of the stimulus package searching for three words—wine, grapes and vineyards. Alas, I came up with nothing. However, a search for “agriculture” turned up investment projects that give pause.
If we were outraged at misappropriated funds after Hurricane Katrina or to Halliburton during the Irag conflict, we haven’t seen anything yet.
Now, this isn’t a political blog, and I don’t prescribe to a particular party line, but $6 billion to the nebulous Rural Community Advancement Program is interesting.
There has been much talk about Obama being our “Wine President” and while it is difficult for anybody to identify specific cash to specific programs, I really hope that viticultural extensions in each of the 50 states get a slice of cash because this is a really good opportunity to truly turn the U.S. into a nation of winegrowers with quality at its core. Nothing would please me more then to see research, staff and marketing for state and local wine industries.
And, for fun, I enjoy observing new phraseology enter our lexicon—who can forget such recent gems like “coalition of the willing,” “weapons of mass destruction” and my personal favorite, “war on terroir,” er “war on terror.”
February 19 2009
Most of my life is spent trying to maximize opportunities as they present themselves while I otherwise mitigate risk.
This is the reason I am reasonably entrepreneurial with a risk tolerance for working at start-up’s. Yet, I am over-insured for life, health and disability insurance.
In the same way, I waited until I was 32 to marry, while I spent an inordinate amount of time working – taking opportunity and mitigating risk – controlling what I could control, while minimizing attention to areas full of unknowns. Hopeful, but circumspect.
The truth eventually reveals itself as it did when I met my wonderful wife.
To be sure, it is a bipolar way to live, but when it comes to wine, I tend to follow that same philosophy of risk-taking vs. risk-aversion, which is why I have a hard time with so many of these internationally themed Wine Blogging Wednesday’s.
Quite simply, in my wine life, I like to mitigate risk. Precious little bums me out more then pulling the cork on a bottle of wine and not enjoying it.
It’s not unlike my admiration of women. Show me 10 women from a sidewalk in New York and I have a reasonable confidence that I’ll be able to find at least one attribute that I can appreciate. Should I go outside of my cultural comfort zone, I’m not sure I can say the same for an equitable sampling of women from places foreign. Too different, not known, un-quantified.
I offset this self-induced, and admittedly not favorable mental tic by buying mostly domestic wines and if not domestic, they are typically new world. I just have a higher degree of confidence in new world wines, at an everyday price point, than I do with France, Italy, Germany or elsewhere.
Perhaps this is naïve or xenophobic on my part and in a self-aware bit of neuroticism I offset this known deficiency in my wine worldview by continuing to buy old world just to torture myself. It’s like dating the foreign exchange student, against odds, to see if it feels right. Oy vey.
I am almost to the point where I now believe that $35 is my cover charge for a decent bottle of juice from anywhere across the pond. And while I have seen God in Barbaresco’s and Barolo’s from Piedmont, Chateauneuf du Pape’s from France, those aren’t $14 dollar wines, either.
This leads me to this month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday hosted by David McDuff from McDuff’s Food & Wine Trail.
The theme is Piedmont and, well, I picked a couple of dog Barbera’s – one from d’Alba and the other a d’Asti, both tasting like strawberry’s marinated in vinegar-laced dishwater with some loose leaf tobacco floating on top.
There is a lesson in this somewhere … perhaps, in my aversion to wine risk, I am not opening myself up to wine opportunity. In drinking primarily new world, where I can usually find at least one admirable quality akin to the sidewalk in New York, I feel comfortable.
But, alas, as I mentioned, the truth usually reveals itself, someday my risk-aversion to affordable old wine world will slip away, and I too will become a convert looking down my global nose, the lyrics to U2’s “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” will no longer be a soundtrack and will simply fade to legacy relic. No longer circumspect and just simply hopeful. It just hasn’t happened yet.
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