Winebits 745: Baseball, aluminum bottles, green wine

This week’s wine news: Baseball and wine face the same problems, plus aluminum bottles as the new glass and deciphering green wine

• Misery loves company: The Wine Curmudgeon has written extensively about baseball on the blog, no doubt trying many reader’s patience. But here comes Zach Geballe on VinePair — lamenting many of the same laments. Each, he says, “are struggling mightily to connect to a younger generation of potential consumers,” thanks to too many choices, a sense of elitism, and an obsession with the past. I would add a fourth: That the wine business, like baseball, can’t see the forest for the trees. Making money is not enough if, by the time you’ve made your money, you’ve ruined baseball or wine and there’s no one left who cares about either. Right, Ricketts family?

• Aluminum bottles: The WC has spent even more time trying to convince the wine business to abandon glass bottles than he has worrying about baseball; now, Melissa Campana on Mashed says it’s time for aluminum bottles. She mostly rewrites a better-reported Food & Wine piece, but I’ll take anything I can get, given glass’ stranglehold on wine. I just hope her email isn’t as nasty as mine was the last time I wrote a glass bottle piece.

• Green wine: Organic and sustainable wine has never made much of an impact on the market, mostly because the topic is so confusing. For example, wine made with organic grapes is different than organic wine. Now, apparently, producers are starting to figure this out. Beverage Daily reports that a worldwide survey found that “wine professionals” want to see a simpler, more clear definition that consumers can rely on. The study seemed to find a growing recognition of the importance of green wine, but many still remain unsure how to define it.