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Excellent writing from Mark Storer, a part time wine blogger, writer and radio host on Food & Wine.
Mark's blog is very esoteric, touching on personal issues, educational issues and, of course, wine. The highlighted post is not about wine, but it is about something touching and it is proof that there are excellent writers working in the blogosphere.
I'm an absolute sucker for these kinds of stories. Not because I tend to be a star struck type, but because it really helps to have a celebrity stand up and say "Wine is Good"...even if it's for purely business purposes.
So it is that Dan Aykroyd of Saturday Night Live, Blues Brothers and cinema fame has invested $1 million in a Canadian winery company with the hopes of getting more Canadian wines on shelves and making a buck.
Now, think about this. Wouldn't Dan be a great choice to play Orson Welles in a BioPic. He's got the girth, or at least did and if you throw a beard on Dan, well...you've got Orson. Now, you've just got to have a scene in that film of Orsen/Dan doing the "We will sell no wine before its time" commercial...and getting it wrong, and having to do it over and over again.
Three cheers for Mr. Aykroyd.
I came across this post on a blog working on behalf of an Internet retailer selling interesting rare wines. I honestly don't know what to think of it:
I agree that trading up to higher quality wines yields decreasing returns in satisfaction the higher you go up. Over at XXXXXXXXX Wine Shop we're pretty sure that the biggest payoff of drinking expensive wines
isn't the flavor of the wine itself, but the emotional flavor of the
experience or occasion surrounding consumption.
Opening up
an expensive bottle of wine in public, with friends or to commemorate a
special occasion is like taking the Ferrari out for a special night in
town. The actual materials that go into the making of the vehicle might
be only marginally better than a low-market vehicle. But material
improvements aren't what the luxury car buyer (in general) really
wants. He's going for the WOW factor, and the respect and admiration of
his friends.
This is either he most honest (and therefore most pitiful) opinion ever expressed on a wine blog, or it is satire of the most subtle and well written order.
Is this blogger justifying the purchase of an expensive wine merely for the sake of feeling good about themselves? Or are the ridiculing the idea? It it's the former it's the equivalent of purchasing a hamburger for $40 because it's feels cool to order the really expensive stuff. If it's the latter, well, I applaud their sentiments, as obvious as it might be...and I like the satirical wrapping they deliver it in.
But honestly, I have no idea which it is.
I have a pretty good idea of how wines are marketed and how they are presented for sale. Having worked in wine communications for about 15 years I've had the chance to work with wineries of varying size, varying quality aspirations and from various regions.
But one thing I've never had the opportunity to do is work directly with a classed Bordeaux property or an equivalently hallowed estate. I'm talking here about the Petrus, Cos d'Estournels, Mugas, Screaming Eagles and Domaine De La Romanee Contis of the wine world. It would be fascinating to work with a producer that is at once an icon of the wine world and also has only the problem of deciding how much to raise their price each year.
Understanding this perspective however is not as easy as it seems. There is more going on in these wineries' heads other than the chant, "Aren't we awesome and happy we are". So its interesting to see its representatives display the cavalier attitude that really must come with such a position in life.
Decanter Magazine has an article up that draws the curtains back every so slightly on that world. It is a story about a conference in England on Bordelais viticulture that some of the top names in Bordeaux attended. In the course of a panel discussion the issue of Bordeaux's lack of appeal to the younger drinker was brought up.
Now, this is something of an issue for the folk in southwestern France. It seems that young drinkers worldwide really want nothing to do with the Bordeaux wine they can afford. Australian, American, Chilean, Argentine and New Zealand wine is much more to their liking.
This is important because presumably it has implications for when these drinkers age and start spending the kind of cash that puts them in the ballpark to buy great and greatly priced Bordeaux. It seems given what they are weening themselves on they may be more likely to turn to high quality and high priced wines from New World locales.
So, what was the response when the likes of Jean-Michel Cazes, director of the famed Lynch-Bages, was asked if it didn't it makes sense to work with the average, lower priced Bordeaux producers to undertake the kind of marketing initiatives that made New World wines so popular with the younger set?
Cazes simply responded that the idea was "not so relevant to us".
Now, while I'm sure he offered up more than this that wasn't reported, isn't it fair to say that this is so purely dismissive of the plight of the average Bordeaux winery as to border on contempt? Another way of looking at this is to understand just how far away and how much on another plane of existence the likes of Lynch-Bages and Chateau Latour are from their neighbors in Bordeaux, as well as their winemaking compatriots around the world.
Then there is this one. Bernard Magrez, owner of Graves grand cru classé Chateau Pape Clément, responded to the notion that the more people drinking lower priced Bordeaux today will move up to your wine tomorrow with more dismissivness. Saying the low priced sector of the market was "already lost", Bordeaux should focus on better marketing his and the rest of the classed and expensive Bordeaux wines.
So let me paraphrase Monsieur Magrez: "Screw'em. If they can't sell their plonk that's their problem. We on the other hand can and for good money too. So just give us the marketing Euros and we'll take care of things."
That's a pretty confident lot they've got there. And I think they can be confident of their status as the most important collection of wineries in the world. They've earned it and proved their viability over the course of 150 years.
But, it's a bit short sighted too. The consuming class that came of age in the 1950's through the 1980's were taught, if they were so inclined to listen, that the best wines in the world came from France and the most prestigious came from Bordeaux. You know what though, that advice has changed for the generation of high end consumers who were reared in the 90s and 00s. The word is out among them: Great wine does come from Bordeaux...but it also comes from California, Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Oregon, Washington, New York, Germany, Austria, Canada....You get the picture. There will be no more slavish visits to the Bordeaux aisle as soon as they get a few hundred dollar bills splashing around in their pockets.
Despite the rather practiced detachment of the top Bordeaux producers I think the French and the Bordelais in particular, will address this issue. The changes will be viticultural, enological, political, and in the realm of marketing. An industry that has so much to lose won't stay complacent long. It's change or die.
Now, does this mean I wouldn't take on a First, Second, Third, or Fourth Classed Bordeaux property as a client? No. Besides the hoped for discount on wines, there is that studied detachment that would be interesting to cultivate. I'm just not sure how productive it would be.
The word on WineBlogs is slowly filtering through the wine industry. A number of wineries now maintain blogs. A recent guide on wine pr made particular note of blogs. The upcoming second wine writer symposium in Napa Valley will include a blogger on the panel, and wine bloggers are now frequently receiving press releases and contact from wine marketers.
The world of wine blogs is also being put on display by the wine trade press. Wines & Vines magazine, one of the oldest wine trade magazines if not the oldest, recently published a story on wine blogging in their September issue written by Jane Firstenfeld. You'll see some of the wine bloggers discussed and quoted in the story are familiar.
I was on the phone earlier today with a wine writer. They needed a sample of a client's wine for an article they were working on (I obliged, of course, understand the basic truth "if they can't taste it, they can't write about it).
In the course of our discussion that ranged from Terroir to Writing, we found ourselves bumped up against two "absurdities" that exist in the wine world. The recognition of both these absurdities rendered us both speechless for a moment as we considered them.
Both had to do with the idea of wine criticism: one from looking at wine reviewing from the critics perspective and one from the point of view of the consumer of wine criticism.
Absurdity #1:
There is that class of wine drinker who will change their opinion of a wine upon hearing that a respected wine critic thought opposite from them about the wine
Is this not completely absurd, yet uncomfortably depressing for its reality? Imagine possessing that most ugly combination of traits of 1) not trusting your own senses and 2) being so slavish in your devotion to another's opinion over yours. With wine, this ugly combo is most often exhibited when the wine drinker brings back a unopened bottle or two of wine to their local wine shop, tells the clerk they did not like the one bottle already opened and asks for a refund. Yet, the clerk tells the consumer that this is odd since wine critic Paul Palatecleaner gave the wine 95 Points. All of a sudden, our wine drinker decides they should really keep their bottles.
This happens a lot, in retail establishments as well as restaurants. And sometimes you see it at tastings where the wines are offered "blind" with no hint of their source or their critical acceptance before you taste it. What we have here is a compulsion to be in the majority, or at least to be associated with the leader of the pack. You must ignore this person when you come across them in person. You really can't be spending the precious moments you have in this life mixing with people so willing to sell their soul. It's just ungrateful to do so.
Absurdity #2
The reality that people like Robert Parker, Jr. and Jim Laube spend their waking life knowing that somewhere someone, probably many, are thinking deeply about their nose and palate.
Personally, I have a hard time imagining what this must be like for the influential wine critics. It is, of course, an extension of the really strange fabric that makes up the bubble inside of which famous people exist. But with the likes of George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Brad Pit, some of the fame-associted strangeness that surely exists in their life is actually lessened do to the fact that their fame provokes people to think deeply about a whole slew of things that connect to their lives. Yet with Parker and Laube, probably everyone thinking about them at this very moment is considering in one way or another the composition and inclinations of their palates...their nose, their tongue. That's strange. And I don't think I envy them either. I surely envy their talents and their craft. I just don't think I'd react as well as they usually do to the pointed, probing comments about my mouth, nose, tongue and palate.
My discussion partner will get their wine in a few days. They'll taste it. Possibly like it. Maybe like it a whole lot. And there is a chance they'll feel compelled to write nice things about it. Then, they will move on to their next assignment and challenge, forgetting for the moment about this particular Pinot Noir. But I don't think they, nor I, will forget about absurdity #1 or absurdity #2 any time soon. They remind both of us of the elements of pure "crazy" that exist in the wine industry.
The international row between Robert Parker, Australia's James Halliday and others from the land down under is interesting insofar as it touches on the issue of wine styles, heady wines vs more delicate wines, and the ability of an individual to detect the best of a country's output.
But what's more interesting is the fact that the "discussion" between these two immensely influential wine writers exists at all.
In Robert Parker's October-issued rundown of Australian wines he gushes over them in such a happy-faced, exuberant way it's hard to understand why anyone connected with the Australian wine trade would have anything to say other than..THANK YOU!!
For example, Mr. Parker noted:
"However, the finest Australian wines are fruit-forward, rich, often singular-styled efforts that can not be produced anywhere else in the world. Here are some of the current realities and myths surrounding Australian wines."
and
"I noticed there are more nuances and complexity being built into the top Australian wines than ever before. Certainly there are vintages that produce more fiery, potent, and dramatically concentrated wines, such as 2001 and 2003, but cooler years such as 2002 and 2004 have produced more streamlined, restrained wines from South Australia that can even be confused with some of their competition in the cool micro-climates of Western Europe."
and
"Perhaps the biggest surprise of Australia is how good the dry Rieslings are. Another surprise is their unoaked Chardonnays, which are delicious at the top level. Despite their enthusiastic acceptance by wine consumers, they have not caught on in other parts of the New World, which seems unusual to this taster."
And, finally:
"In summary, Australia has as much diversity in wine quality and styles
as anywhere in the world, ranging from full-throttle, flamboyant,
exuberant dry reds, to elegant, finesse-styled efforts with undeniable
minerality."
James Halliday is surely one of the greatest wine writers to ever sip a fermented beverage. Yet, for some reason I'm unaware of, and which I hope one of our readers more familiar with Australia can answer, he chooses to bash Mr. Parker for 1) recommending wines that were not chosen as the best by the Australian competition judges and for not tasting enough wines from particular regions to get a sense of the whole. To wit, Halliday said:
"Sorry Mr Parker, whichever way you want to look at it, the Australian show judges profoundly disagree with you.'
"I'm sure you will all appreciate our provincial nature and convict
ancestry but it would be nice if Mr Parker would
refrain from judgments based on tasting of no more than 10% of the 120
Yarra Valley wineries."
The Australian wine industry finds itself in a situation where over production of average, industrial wines combined with a well-established reputation for producing cheap plonk (how many millions of cases of Yellow Tale have been exported) has resulted in a "reputation problem" and low prices in general. There are obvious ways to address this issue, and it seems the industry is doing just that. First, mass plantings of vines must slow down. But just as important, Australia must put its best face forward, champion its great and fine wines, and demonstrate the vitality and diversity of that country's wine industry.
Seems to me that Robert Parker is on their side. Why would you kick one of the best ambassadors for your wines? It makes not sense to me.
I think we are seeing frustration bubbling to the service. Combine the doldrums that the Australian industry is in along with a resentment of Parker's power and prestige and you get an idea of what's going on.
UPDATE:
If you wish to read the speech that James Halliday gave that seems to have started whole thing, you can find it HERE.
Assuming news of wine's cancer curing properties is not announced between now and the end of December, following are my Top Ten Wine News Stories of 2005
THE TOP TEN WINE NEWS STORIES OF 2005
10. The Rise of Rose
How great was this? Finally in 2005 Dry Rose came on strong in popularity, appealing not only to the younger drinkers that have found wine, but to the wine trade in general. We had a Rose tasting in San Francisco as well as a book on Rose. We saw lots of new Rose hit the market too. Jeff Morgan, owner of Solo Rosa, has played a big part in promoting not only his own fine bottling of pink wine, but drawing attention to Rose in general. Watch for the trend to continue in 2006 along with higher prices for the best best promoted bottlings.
9. Wine Blogging Comes On Strong
Yes, wine blogging seems to be everywhere. In the year that Fermentation has been on line the number of people creating and maintaining blogs on wine has increased 500%. And there seems like nothing can stop the onslaught. The new trend in wine info publishing is part of the larger blogging trend that has changed the way people consume information in the Net and changed the way websites are designed and distributed. But what of he impact of Blogs? Some have gained great readership, helped move wine and helped move he debate. The impact will continue to grow as the audience for these unique voices grows.
8. The Growth of Wine In The Box
People are convinced. The quality of Box Wines is just fine and they are expressing that satisfaction in record numbers. According to Wine Business Monthly, sales of Box Wine increased 160% between 2003 and 2005. At around $15 for some of the better boxes, it's hard to argue. That's about $3.75 for a wine that will stay perfectly fresh in your fridge for a LONG time. A lot of big producers are in the Box game so expect the promotion of this category to continue even stronger in 2006.
7. Mondovino Offends, Delights, Creates Debate
Readers of this wine blog will know that I thought Mondovino, the documentary on the nexus of wine and globalism, was a pretty trashy attempt at making a point about globalization. That said, Director Jonathon Nossiter stirred up a hornets nest with his shaky, over long depiction of the "good guy" and "bad guys" of wine and the the apparent World Take-Over of wine by the giant, uncaring wine "manufacturers". The debate that ensued was fascinating, reaching into issues of terroir, natural vs. synthetic winemaking, globalization and standardization of taste.
6. French Wine Industry In Disarray
This has been a tough year for the French. Falling domestic sales. Falling export sales. Prices for grapes that have plummeted causing riots among winemakers and falling prices for wines. All this has led to some nasty transatlantic back and fourths as the French have tried to blame the "globalization of taste" for their declining sales. No matter what you think of the superior attitude the French expose when it comes to the issue of wine, you still have to hope their wine industry gets back on its feet. France is the traditional and sentimental home of all wine lovers.
5. Wine Takes Home the Oscar
The impact of Sideways taking home Oscars reminds me of what happened in the wake of "60 Minutes" broadcasting a segment on the "French Paradox" and the health benefits of wine. It was dramatic. It had been a long time since wine had been given such a high profile stage and sales reflected the impact of that kind of exposure. 2005 saw the wine business and Pinot Noir sales in particular come back strong. In large part is was due to the popularity of "Sideways". Now what we need is an Emmy winning dramatic series about wine.
4. The Hangtime/Ripeness Debate
It has been building for quite some time. But 2005 saw the debate over the impact of riper and riper, bigger and bigger, more and more alcoholic wines. Andy Beckstoffer, the largest independent grower in Napa Valley, nearly single handedly forced the debate upon the industry by questioning the affect longer hangtime had on the vines and those who grow them. The media too picked up on the issue of bigger, more alcoholic wines and it seemed the issue was a constant on the various wine message boards and blogs. One gets the sense that the pendulum may have swung so far to the ripeness side that it might be ready head back toward balance. Yet there are those who have incorrectly blamed Robert Parker's and the Wine Spectator's palate for this stylistic trend that believe BIG wines will continue to dominate the quality end of the market as long as reviewers push the industry.
3. Pinot Noir On The Rise
The increase in sales of Pinot Noir has been nothing less than spectacular in 2005. Sales have jumped nearly 80% over the same periods in 2004. They say that the movie "Sideways" is the reason. Whatever the explanation there is no getting around the fact that Pinot Noir is the "Varietal of the Year". What that means for consumers is that there will be a lot more to choose from in 2006, particularly at the low end of the price spectrum. You can also count on the prices of the best Pinots, domestic and imported to rise in the face of demand.
2. The Wine Warehouse Fire
Devastating. And, if it turns out to be true that the wine warehouse fire in Vallejo, California is the result of arson the mourning will be even greater for the pure despicableness of the act. Wineries lots whole vintages while some lost years and years of library wines. The impact will be felt for some time. Wineries will take a closer look at their insurance. And warehousing companies will be making serious upgrades to their facilities.
1. The Supreme Court Rules On Direct Shipping of Wine To Consumers
Ruling in May that a state could not discriminate against out of state shippers by preventing them from selling direct, while in-state wineries could, the Supreme Court of the United States dealt a severe blow to wholesaler-instigated monopolies. The 5-4 ruling sparked a wholesale re-appraisal of wine shipping laws in the various states with the majority choosing to liberalize direct sales. The changes will continue in 2006 as other states come to grips with the choice of supporting consumers and local wine industries by opening up direct sales or bowing to wholesaler pressure and campaign contributions by closing off all direct sales.
Anyone, in or out of the wine industry, looking for a brilliant and spot on analysis of the direction the global wine industry is taking should read Legendary Australian winemaker Brian Croser's comments over at Fine Wine Press. His "The Idea of Quality: Creating Sustainable Competitive Advantage" was, I believe first presented as a speech. Though I am not sure.
In it Croser explains how the "idea of quality" has been overtaken by the "idea of terroir" and how embracing this particular notion of quality is the best path towards increasing the quality perception of Australian wine. Yet, his comments apply equally to any New World wine region.
Embedded in his words is the inherent question of the value and meaning of terroir. Is it a marketing phrase? Is it primarily an idea that speaks to the objective environmental factors that influence the growing of the grapes? Is terroir something that primarily informs us of what a wine should taste like?
These are questions that spring out of Croser's piece, but are not truly addressed. I hope he will take a stab at these issues. In the mean time, he has written a short piece that should not escape the eye or anyone watching the wine industry seriously.
How do you get your wine news?
Google? Blogs? Wine Business Monthly? The wine print publications?
For those really interested in wine from a wine lovers perspective or those in the wine industry this question is important. It's more important today than it was a decade ago because with he emergence of the Internet, new wine-related Internet sites and blogs, there is just so much more wine news to consider.
Wine Science News is a relatively new website (begun in May) that has been doing an outstanding job of aggregating the wine news found on the Internet and presenting it in an easy to digest format.
Aggregation websites (sites that gather and list items found around the net rather than developing their own content) can often be frustrating. The source of the frustration is the algorithm and search parameters used to gather up the various items across the net that are listed on the sites. All too often you find such sites that simply search for "wine" and then list the item. This leads to a lot of useless items to skim through.
What's needed is an editor with an eye toward real news and real commentary who can make sure that the useless stuff is edited out of the feed to the site.
Wine Science News seems to have accomplished this in one way or another. I use the site on a daily basis. It hasn't replaced my own searches across the Net for relevant news. However, it sure has made it easier.
In addition to searching and listing news on wine, Wine Science News also goes through a variety of blogs, looking for items they think rise to the level of "interesting" and "useful". Whether news or blog commentary, each item is listed under the appropriate category: Viticulture, Winemaking, Wine Retail or Wine Drinking. The items are listed by the date they originally ran. Wine Science News also offers a convenient RSS feed.
Their list of news stories is not complete. Yet, there are no sources as yet that are. I suspect WSN wills continue to increase the number of stories and items and blogs that are culled for news as the site continues.
