Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

The Price of a Proper Match of Food & Wine

Last night at a dinner celebrating my father-in-law's birthday, a couple glasses of a nice, refreshing Vinho Verde quite nicely got me through a three course meal of Caesar Salad, a three meat stew which "clearly calls for a robust red, my good man," and dessert of Tapioca and sorbet. 

It was a nice restaurant in Sonoma: La Sallette. Had the wait staff been inexperienced or the company I was with any way inclined to "demonstrate" their gastronomic knowledge, I'd have likely been chastised for that second class to go with the meat stew. But it reminded me that even as a marketer of wine who uses allusions to food to help sell wine, I really don't know and am certainly not convinced that little notes here and there in different venues about the "correct" food to serve with wines is in fact a good idea at all.

First, let me tell you my personal strategy for picking wines-by-the-glass at a restaurants. The first thing I do is try to evaluate the talent of my server (let's leave the issue of sommeliers alone for the moment). If know the servers is really a talented and experienced connoisseur of food and wine, then I'll simply tell them to bring me something to go with each course. Let them pick it. However, in most cases I don't know this about my server and I don't want to distract my server from the task of bringing me my food while it's still warm.

But sometimes, if they they seem like experienced multi-taskers,  I'll talk to them briefly about the wines on the menu and what I'm having and ask for their suggestion. You can tell pretty quick if the suggestion is one that results from experience and a knowledge of the Food & Wine Sciences, or if they are just winging it.

If it's the latter, and the server looks a tad befuddled, suggests the most expensive wine on the list or, to their credit, says they aren't sure, then I'll simply pick the most interesting wine there NO MATTER WHAT food I've ordered.

I almost always do the same at home when I pick a bottle from the cellar to to have with a meal. I'll almost always choose a wine that I've been wanting to taste or drink no matter what is being prepared.  Call me lazy, but for me the cost in time and effort to pick just the right wine doesn't match the level of satisfaction of a good pairing. Furthermore, the pleasure of trying and drinking a wine that currently intrigues me almost always outweighs the satisfaction I get from a wine matched will with a a particular food.

I often wonder if the pre-occupation that the professional foodies of the world (chefs, servers, wine and food writers, wine and food marketers, etc.) have with calling out good matches of food and wine is in fact to most people's benefit. It has always seemed to me another layer of understanding that non-foodies feel they "should" know but, to their own personal failings, don't know.

I've written so many back labels of wines, products sheets, ads and other marketing materials that explain to the consumer how "this wine SHOULD be paired with" some specific food I can't even count them up. And yet I don't think I've ever seen any good confirmation that this approach to selling wine is any more useful for selling the wine than an emphasis on what the wine tastes like, a humorous anecdote or a  funny picture of an animal.

I'm in no way suggesting that there exists excellent theory on how to match the right food and wines together or that a really good match can improve both the wine and the meal. But I think I might be suggesting that most folks don't really care about this kind of alchemy and that it might be detrimental to the sale of wine when it is used on marketing materials.

My little Vinho Verde was entirely satisfying last night. So was Caesar, meat stew, tapioca and sorbet. Neither detracted from the other. Would my wine and food experience last night have been any better if I struggled to make just the right match of food and wine? Or would it have been one more thing to think about instead of paying attention to the family at the table, the importance of the occasion and the important discussion of what really good science fiction can be found on television today. I think the latter. (the answer by the way is Battlestar Galactica...served of course with a nice Caprican Red.)

The Story of Chateau Bob

Chateau Bob was created 3 years ago in Vineville when Bob planted his first grape vines. That’s right, it takes a good three years before you get a usable crop from a new vineyard. Yet, Bob has finally produced his first batch of wine: 200 cases of 2004 Chateau Bob “Real Red Wine”.

Down the street from Bob is his old friend Pete who owns Pete’s Restaurant. Pete’s been waiting three years for his old friend to make that wine so he could sell it to his customers while they chow down on his chicken kiev, deep fried catfish and cheeseburgers.

But Bob recently discovered he can’t sell any of his 2004 Real Red Wine to Pete. If he did he might go to jail. You see, by law Bob must sell his wine to a  “distributor” who has warehouses 50 miles away.

The state says that only the distributor can sell wine to Pete. In fact, Bob can’t sell his new wine to Pete or anyone else. He can only sell it to a distributor. Bob has to ship or deliver his wine fifty miles away. Then the distributor must take it out of Bob’s truck, put it on the loading dock for 24 hours, then load it on one of their trucks and take it back to Pete’s Restaurant. By law.

Now, before they heard about this “distributor” thing Pete agreed to pay Bob $200 per case for his 2004 Real Red Wine. But, now they learn that the wholesaler has to get their cut for….well…for delivering that wine. The distributor tells Bob that in order for them to sell the wine to Pete for $200 a case, they need to buy it from Bob for $134 per case.

“But,” Bob tells the distributor, “Pete already agreed to buy the wine from me for $200 per case. And I already talked to a whole bunch of other restaurants and wine shops that will pay me $200 a case.”

“Sorry Bob,” says the wholesaler.” That’s the cost of doing business.”

Then it hits Bob.

If he doesn’t do what this wholesaler says, or what another wholesaler who MIGHT agree to sell his wine says he needs to do, then Bob can’t sell ANY of his wine. By law.

Bob’s starting to get pissed!

So, like any good American who’s getting screwed, he puts on his Sunday clothes and heads out to the State Capital.

“Gonna talk to my representative,” grumbles Bob.

“I’m sorry Mr. Bob. The three tiers system of distribution that mandates you can’t sell your wine to Pete is the only thing standing between us and alcohol anarchy,” explains Willy O’Weener, seven time-elected representative and former car salesman from Vineville.

“Why just imagine if you didn’t have to sell your wine for less and ship it 50 miles away from your customers. Who would pay the taxes on the wine? Who would make sure the wine isn’t tainted? Who would fill out all the paper work? Why it would be anarchy I tell you. Alcohol anarchy.”

Bob looked at Representative O’Weener and said, “Well, I’d be willing to pay those taxes and fill out those forms and I’m sure old Pete would too and I’m darn sure Pete wouldn’t want my wine if it were tainted.”

“You don’t understand, Bob….that’s just the way it is. Now you run on back to VineVille and sell that great homemade Real Red Wine to Ernie over at the Distributor and things will be just fine.”

“I can’t do that,” Bob tells Rep. O’Weener. “Before I came here to see you Ernie called and said he won’t distribute my wine and none of the other 2 distributors in the state will either. They say they don’t have time to sell just 200 cases of wine.”

“Well, I’m sure it will work out. The three tiers system works just great. So long, Bob.”

_______________________________________________________

Between 2000 and 2006 alcohol wholesalers in America contributed over $40 million to state candidates.

The three tier system is in place in nearly every state in America.

This system was created over 70 years ago and has changed little in that time.

Howard Wolf, a respected businessman in Texas and one who has been a keen observer of the three tier system in America wrote recently:

"When laws become disconnected from the reality of social behavior and commercial activity, the inevitable, even if unintended, result is the use of public authority to advance private, rather than public, goals. The essential definition of corruption in a representative democracy is the usurpation of public authority to the advancement of private interest."

Inside The Wines Of the Northwest

If you are looking for a seasoned wine voice and thoughtful mind with which to indulge your wine desires there is a new source on the Internet that is part website-part blog-part tasting and review publication that is put together by one of America's most respected wine writers.

Paul Gregutt's Northwest Wine Insider is described as "the Web's most up-to-date, in-depth, objectively critical guide to Northwest wines and wineries. I do not work for wineries and I do not sell wine. My daily Blog blends breaking news, hot rumors, insider opinion and non-Northwest tasting notes. Just Tasted is your best guide to important new releases from Washington and Oregon."

Seeing how Paul has been covering this region for years for a number of respected publications such as The Seattle Times and Appellation America, you're likely to get exactly what Paul promises...and a little more.

I noticed Paul currently has a story up at the site that features Spanish wines. And I saw some wine reviews of bottlings that originate from that state south of Washington and Oregon.

The content is clearly something that comes from the mind of an experienced writer/journalist/commentator. There is a decidedly journalist bent to his stories and posts that are sprinkled in with personal comments and opinions.

This new wine website is very similar to Frederic Koeppel's "Koeppel On Wine" combined with his blog "Bigger than Your Head". Both men have watched the wine world for years and know where the bodies are buried and where the stories are. And like Frederic, Paul Gregutt brings a wealth of experience to his new site that should end up being a treasure trove for wine lovers.

Bootleggers & Shilling

Yesterday I had to sit back in my chair for a short moment and reflect on a very interesting moment. I had just been accused by a moderately influential person of being a shill for bootleggers.

As I thought about the verbal outburst that I took in a phone call to Illinois I realized that it wasn't about a point of law as the facts the gentleman mustered were not facts at all but a complete misreading of the law. Rather, I think, the person who attempted to demean me and my colleagues was acting out of frustration with the realization that capitalism can be a lot tougher and more difficult than it's made out to be when it turns out that competition really is integral to the practice of the capitalism.

When you think about the idea of competitive economic markets, it really is possible that that wine represents a sort of hyper-competitive market. The number of brands and individual products that consumers have to choose from is mindboggling. Even in a modest supermarket in the suburbs it's likely that Madame Consumer looking for a nice red for dinner will be confronted with more choices than the collective fingers and toes on her and her neighborss bodies standing there in front of the wine shelf. And when you consider what is available to Ms. Consumer as she browses the Internet....well, it becomes clear that few other products categories are as crowded as wine.

This can be very frustrating for someone marketing a product or products in this hyper competitive market. They have quality products. They are in a good location. They have access to a good consumer base of middle to high income customers. Nevertheless, the competition is so great in the area of wine folks will take any advantage they can get...such as taking the opportunity to stifle competition by legal means.

I'm of course referring to the effort to cut out potential out-of-state retail competitors from the Illinois wine market, an issue I've found myself working on of late as I shill for bootleggers.

Progressive retailers and companies in the wine industry are hardly the first to take advantage of the opportunities delivered by the new age of capitalism brought on by the emergence of the Internet. Look at book sellers and travel companies and music. And wine is not the first industry to produce real nastiness among those who believe this new age is either driven by occult forces out to deprive their families of a livelihood or  who simply believe that the old dying paradigm confers upon them an honored and unapproachable place inside that paradigm.Just look at the response by book sellers, travel companies and music as their walls were scaled by New Age demons infected by new technology.

But the wine industry is different. In every state old government-built scaffolding supports  economic structures that favor an old way of doing business in wine. This has resulted in a sense of entitlement among those who are economically invested in the ways of the past and the statist approach to wine sales and marketing and consuming. While I'm not suggesting that the the old state-imposed paradigm for how wine should be sold and who should be able to sell it and who should be able to buy wine is not powerfully well-ensconced into the fabric of the wine market, and that those who have taken advantage of this old paradigm and been lifted up by it are not themselves terribly powerful, I am suggesting they are old.

The problem for these old folks who defend the the old way of selling wine is that they are defending something old. Old is not bad in every context. However, in the context of capitalist markets driven by new technology "old" is very vulnerable to "shills" and "bootleggers".

Bad Wine Precedent

The Specialty Wine Retailers Association (SWRA) is opposing Illinois legislation that would prohibit all retailers across the country from shipping wine to consumers in that state. The legislation, HB 429, is expected to be debated in the Illinois legislature late this week. While the legislation has the support of numerous winery associations in California because it maintains winery shipping rights, SWRA believes this kind of anti-competitive legislation hurts the entire wine industry, not to mention Illinois consumers.

HB 429 creates a “winery shipping permit” in Illinois that may only be issued to out-of-state wineries. Since all out-of-state retailers are unable to obtain the permit they will be excluded from that market after 15 years of serving Illinois consumers.

SWRA believes HB 429 is blatantly unconstitutional as it prohibits out-of-state retailers from shipping into Illinois while in-state Illinois retailers are specifically singled out as still being able to ship wine to consumers in Illinois. The 2005 Granholm v. Heald U.S. Supreme court decision was clear that states must treat in-state and out-of-state wine shippers equally. Subsequent federal court decisions have reinforced that the ruling applies to retailers. HB 429 directly contradicts Granholm v. Heald.

It should be pointed out that retailers across the country are wineries’ most important partners. If winery trade associations support and see passed legislation prohibiting retailers from selling and shipping wine to Illinois residents, a significant source of sales and promotion will be lost to wineries in California and beyond.”

SWRA’s members alone sell and ship hundreds of cases of wine to Illinois residents annually. If HB 429 passes Illinois residents will lose access to hundreds of wine brands while wineries will find a significant source of sales lost, as well as secondary market support that helps current release pricing levels.

ILLINOIS LEGISLATION SETS BAD PRECEDENT AND DIVIDES WINE INDUSTRY
While we are working to let Illinois consumers know that they face the possibility of losing access to all out-of-state retailers if HB 429 passes, we are also reaching out to wineries asking them to support retailers regardless of how their trade associations choose to react to this ugly legislation.

It makes no sense to trade away wine retailers’ rights for the sake of poor legislation that sets a bad precedent and that is likely to prompt a legal challenge if passed. This legislation adversely affects the entire wine industry and consumers and SWRA will continue to oppose and or to change or nullify these types of anti-competitive laws.

Specialty Wine Retailers Association recently issued a statement on the pending threat to exclude the nation's retailers from shipping into Illinois.

Institutionalized Power in the Wine Industry

How could it be that nearly every alcohol-related law and regulation across America favors the interests of a small number of middlemen called "Wholesalers" or "Distributors?

Consider for example the various laws across the country that attempt to restrict consumers from purchasing and have shipped to them wine except from smaller wineries that produce only small amount of wine and in effect forcing medium and large wineries to sell to a middleman in order to get their wines to market in those states. Clearly this does not benefit the consumer as it severely limits their choice. It doesn't help the state because it restricts trade and lowers potential tax revenues. However, it does help the middleman wholesaler preserve their already obscenely huge profits by forcing the largest wineries to only sell wine to the middlemen who then take a 33% mark up.

This sort of law and many others like it are very simply a state-sanctioned gift to middlemen.

How could such lopsided policy ever come into being? How could such blatantly protectionist laws ever be passes?

Answer: Money...and lots of it.

Today at the Mark Fisher's "Uncorked" Blog out of Dayton Ohio there is a post commenting on a Common Cause Report (PDF) that details the influence that Ohio's wine distributors wield based on enormous amounts of political payoffs Campaign Contributions.

According to the recently issued Common Cause report on Ohio wholesalers' "giving":

"From 2003 to 2006 the Association's political action committee and its executives have contributed over $861,870 to state candidates and party committees. In 2006 they reported having 13 lobbyists working on their behalf."

Now you might say, "everyone else does this, why shouldn't Ohio's wholesalers get in the game?" There is no game. According to FollowtheMoney.org wholesaler donations to Ohio state candidates represented 91% of all alcohol-related contributions. 91%!!

Over at Uncorked, Mark takes the high road, no doubt inspired by his status as a real journalist. I'm not a journalist.

The reason the wholesalers in Ohio and nearly every other state are able to have law after law passed that protect them from competition is because the three tier system used to structure most state's alcohol regulatory systems has become perverted into a tool for increasing the power and wealth of a single, small class of business: wholesalers.

It's no wonder that beyond everything else the number one goal of wholesalers in every state is to preserve the integrity of the 3-tier system in which producers are REQUIRED to sell to wholesalers who then sell at huge mark ups to retailers and restaurants who then sell to consumers.

This 70 year old state-mandated requirement that wine producers MUST sell to a wholesaler might not be so perverting of the public good if there were any measure of competition among wholesalers. However, the number of wholesalers has shrunk dramatically over the past 20 years to the point that in nearly every state no more than 4, and sometimes only 2, wholesale companies control the entire market.

This in turn has made the wholesalers wealthy even beyond the dreams of their predecessors, the bootlegging mafia of the prohibitionist era.  This is also how the wholesalers in Ohio are able to give nearly $1 Million in campaign donations without blinking an eye to politicians who write their laws for them.

This is also how the wholesalers in Ohio can look the public straight in the eye and argue that while increased alcohol taxes are not good for Ohio, it is good for the state to keep in place a "minimum markup" of 33% on wine sold by wholesalers to retailers. They have no fear of being opposed in their hypocrisy simply because their is no one with the means to oppose them.

Clowning Around With Wine Reviews

For the longest time I tried to wrap my head around a simple idea: reading wine reviews that don't include the price. I'd never thought about this until today when I came across two blogs that review wines, and do it well, but don't include the price.

There were descriptions of the wine including aromas, body, flavor. There were histories of the wineries included. There were ratings. And there were some pretty insightful ideas bandied about in these reviews that were inspired by the wine. But no prices.

Why did this offend me? I read reviews of books, movies, and music but never really care if the price to obtain these things is included in the review. But with wine, I need the price. It took a while but I figured it out.

Movies, books and music are never out of my price range. And unless it's a rare book or a rare old piece of vinyl, most people can afford them. So the only thing I need to consider when I'm reading these opinions of other products is whether they sound tempting to me.

But wine...well, wine might indeed be out of our price range. It's also important to note that the purpose of consuming wine is to eliminate it from existence. This is not the case with books and music. While we will have consumed them, they will still exist while the bottle we dropped $40 on is forever gone. This changes the equation, doesn't it.

There is also the very unique aspect of wine that while there are literally thousands to choose from, you can find any number of wines that will actually taste quite similar to thousands of others. Yet, they'll be priced quite differently.

This all leads us to the simple conclusion that no review of a wine can be even half way useful unless the price of the wine is included. The point here is driven home by noting that the same can be said of restaurant reviews.

Now, it is entirely possible that there are some connoisseurs of the wine review format for whom the price doesn't matter. They simple revel in the beauty of a well written description of squished grapes. I'll even admit to getting the occasional kick out of reading the review of a wine that is given 69 points. They can be terribly funny. But so can a clown...for a very short time.

So, here's a tip to those who would write reviews of wine: without the price you've produced nothing we can use except a good laugh.

Concocting a Plan to Return to Heaven

What about those folks who, for whatever reason, find themselves consuming great wine day after day and night after night for an extended period of time. What happens to the folks who become accustomed to a lavish style of drinking over a period where every Pinot is perfect, the Cabernet is aways complex and dense, the Chardonnay continually crisp and detailed and the Rioja always revelatory rather than their wine being average or merely interesting? What happens to these folks when their gravy train comes to a halt?

I bet it takes them a bit of getting used to, a bit of time to re-integrate themselves into the real wine world. But since it seems absurd to suggest one should not embrace the opportunity to drink really really well for an extended period of time knowing you'll have to come back to reality, the challenge must be to devise a plan to address the disappointment of returning to a life among mortals.

Some folks who find themselves returning to reality after a stint in wine heaven (or any heaven for that matter) attempt to devise a plan entirely focused on returning to their temporary heaven on a permanent basis. For example, if they've spent a time drinking nothing but great wine they look to get into the wine business where they presume great wines flow like water over the falls. Another example would be, say, someone who spends time luxuriating in a combination of sun and tequila on the Yucatan Peninsula starts looking at real estate there and wonders if anyone there needs an PR Help.

The First American Wine Lover

On the occasion of the 264th Birthday of America's First Wine Lover, FERMENTATIONS is very happy to present this essay by James M. Gabler. Gabler is the author of Passions: The Wines and Travels of Thomas Jefferson and An Evening with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson: Dinner, Wine, and Conversation. Gabler is the foremost authority on Jefferson and his relationship with wine. We highly recommend both books noted above to anyone with a love of wine, history or both.

Thomas Jefferson’s Beginning Love Affair with Wine 
By James M. Gabler

Although born on the Virginia frontier, Thomas Jefferson became the most knowledgeable wine connoisseur of his age, and his tastes in wine covered the world: France, Italy, Germany, Madeira, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Hungary and, of course, America.

His interests in wine developed early as indicated by his 1769 Shadwell wine inventory: 83 bottles of rum, 15 bottles of Madeira, four bottles of “Lisbon wine for common use,” and 54 bottles of cider, an inventory that would change radically with the passage of time. Exactly when Jefferson decided to design and build his own house is not recorded, but the first mention of Monticello (which means "little mountain") is noted in his Garden Book on Aug. 3, 1767. A wine cellar, 17 1/2 feet long, 15 feet wide and 10 feet high, was laid out near a cider room. The 28-year-old Jefferson and a 23-year-old widow, Martha Wales Skelton, were married on New Year’s Day, 1772, at the home of her father, John Wayles, and two weeks later they arrived at Monticello on horseback in a snowstorm.

It is perhaps apocryphal but Jefferson’s great-granddaughter, Sarah N. Randolph, reports that they found a bottle of wine “on a shelf behind some books” that they shared before retiring on their Monticello honeymoon night. It was the first of many bottles that he would enjoy at home with family and friends. In his account book of Sept. 15, 1772, he records liquors and bottles on hand, including “about three gallons of rum and a half hogshead [271/2 gallons] Madeira, 72 bottles of Madeira, 37 bottles of Lisbon wine, 29 bottles small beer, 10 bottles of port and 31 bottles of miscellaneous in the closet.” The year earlier he had recorded ten dozen bottles of port, so in the intervening year, 110 bottles of port had been consumed.

In November 1773, Philip Mazzei, one of the most interesting men to enter Jefferson’s life, landed in Virginia from England with his wife-to-be, her 12-year-old daughter, and ten Italian vignerons. Mazzei arrived with a plan to cultivate European grapes, olive trees and the egg of silk worms to make silk. Traveling with Virginia merchant Thomas Adams to Adams’ home in Augusta County, where Mazzei expected to establish his vineyard, they stopped along the way at Monticello to visit Jefferson.

Early the next morning, Mazzei and Jefferson went for a walk through Monticello’s hillsides, and Mazzei found the vineyard land he was looking for, a 400-acre tract adjoining Monticello to the east. He named it “Colle.” Jefferson described the land that Mazzei selected as “having a southeast aspect and an abundance of lean and meager spots of stony and red soil, without sand, resembling extremely the Côte of Burgundy from Chambertin to Montrachet where the famous wines of Burgundy are made.”

What Mazzei and Jefferson talked about on this early-morning stroll was not recorded, but it sparked a lifetime friendship and caused Jefferson to become a partner in Mazzei’s vineyard project, the first commercial vineyard venture in America. As Mazzei remembered in his autobiography, “By the time we returned home, everyone was up. Looking at Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Adams said: ‘I see by your expression that you have taken him away from me. I knew you would do that.’ Jefferson smiled, and without looking at him, but staring at the table, said: ‘Let’s have breakfast first and then we’ll see what we can do.’ ”

The war intervened and Maxxei’s project failed, but his hope that “The best wine in the world will be made here” was not lost on Jefferson who grew vines at Monticello and throughout his life supported the efforts of other New World winemakers.

Following the Revolutionary War, a new life began for Jefferson when Congress sent him to France to serve as a trade commissioner with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, who was serving as the first American minister to France. Within less than a year of Jefferson’s arrival, Franklin returned home and Congress appointed Jefferson to succeed him as minister. It was during his five years abroad that Jefferson’s great wine learning experience took place with travels to the vineyards of Champagne, Burgundy, Cote Rotie, Hermitage, Provence, northern Italy, Lanquedoc, Bordeaux , the Loire Valley. With a comprehensive background of France’s viticulture locked in his encyclopedic mind, he traveled down the Rhine to learn about German wines.

Jefferson’s love of wine began in Virginia, was nurtured in Europe, and became a life-long passion; he called wine a “necessary of life.”

A Wine Place Puzzle: 4-13-07 Edition

What In The World Is This "Wine Place"?
While Fermentation & Family is on holiday, we offer you these intriquing place-puzzles, brought to you by the GoogleEarth.

Place your guesses in the comments section of this post. No prizes, just pride. The answers will be revealed on April 16.

HINT: Do You know Your Bordeaux Chateaux?