This week’s wine news: The cheapest countries for buying wine (and we know what isn’t), plus Mike Dunne’s new book and Stella Rosa tops Yellow Tail
• Not the U.S.: Regular readers of the blog won’t be surprised to hear this – the U.S. ranks as one of the most expensive countries in the world for wine. That’s according to Food & Wine, which parses a study that says Portugal is the least expensive, averaging $4.30 per bottle. Hungary ($4.81), Chile ($5.13), Slovakia ($5.37), and Germany ($6.02) complete the lowest five. The fourth most expensive – and the only one among the priciest that is a major wine producer – is the U.S. at $15.18 a bottle. What makes this that much more depressing is the most expensive countries either don’t drink much wine or don’t make any, like Iceland, Norway, and South Korea. But that’s nothing we didn’t know, is it?
• Mike Dunne: Dunne, a long-time friend of the blog, plugs his new book, “The Signature Wines of Superior California,” on YouTube’s The Varietal Show. The book has been a work of love for Mike; he has talked about it for years. The book’s website is here; I’ll get with Mike and see if he wants to give one away as part of the blog’s upcoming Substack anniversary celebration.
• Topping Yellow Tail: Stella Rosa, the producer whose roots are in Los Angeles’ tenure as a key wine region, is the top imported wine in the U.S. It replaces Yellow Tail, which has been the leading import for almost two decades. The change is a combination of Yellow Tail’s sales decline (about a 14 percent drop since 2020) and Stella Rosa’s rapid growth. Stella Rosa has showed up on the blog a time or two – an example of a popular, sweet-style wine that has made inroads among younger drinkers.