Category:Wine news

Shocking news: Wine with dinner won’t kill you

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

wine and health
“Of course we’re smiling. We’re not going to die after drinking wine with this dinner.”

New British study says infamous 2018 research that said we’re all going to die was flawed

One of the blog’s tenets when it comes to wine and health studies is to check the methodology. If the study seems flawed in some way – and way too many studies about wine and health from reputable peer-reviewed journals do – then something fishy is going on.

Hence, the infamous 2018 study in Britain’s Lancet, one of the world’s most influential medical journals, and which claimed that any amount of drinking was dangerous. This week, the fish really started smelling.

The Times newspaper of London reported on Wednesday that a soon-to-be published paper in “The International Journal of Epidemiology” found that the Lancet research was “flawed.”

Said one of the new study’s authors: “One cannot now say any amount of alcohol is harmful in the same way as one can say any amount of smoking is harmful.”

The authors note that the “risk of developing a range of illnesses increases with any amount you drink on a regular basis.” The idea, they say, is not to encourage drinking, but to understand that “a little alcohol is acceptable but a lot is harmful.”

Which, of course, is not a surprise to any of us who were paying attention. What I found most interesting was the mathematical analysis used to refute the Lancet study – in other words, checking the methodology. The math showed that the results found in the Lancet research were not consistent with what should have happened.

Which raises the question of how the Lancet research made it past the peer review process. Perhaps the next study can look at that.

Photo: “Chalet N Wine Cellar Dinner” by jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Winebits 718: Premiumization, anti-trust, postal service wine delivery

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

pandemic pricing
“It doesn’t matter what it costs — we want it!”

This week’s wine news: Premiumization “is the gift that keeps on giving.” Plus, grocers ask feds to take action and the history of the postal service and booze delivery

• Premiumization strikes again: I wasn’t going to report this, since we’ve had enough depressing wine news over the last several years. But premiumization as “the gift that keeps on giving?” For whom? Certainly not wine drinkers. Yet Richard Siddle, writing in a British restaurant trade magazine, insists it is: “But we are also increasingly willing to pay more for brands that are genuinely different, authentic and make us feel good about buying them.” The rest of the piece is the usual marketing-speak about how consumers won’t pay more money unless they’re convinced the product is worth it and which, with consolidation, has less and less to do with reality. And no, that the story spells premiumization with an s, in the British English style, doesn’t help.

• Supermarket consolidation: Those of us who pay attention to wine consolidation aren’t the only ones who have noticed what’s going on with big companies controlling key parts of the economy. A trade group of independent grocers has accused the largest retailers, including Walmart and Amazon, of “predatory action.” The trade group says the biggest retailers get better pricing, exclusive products, and even better packaging because they have more clout in the market place. The group has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate to see if those practices violate federal law.

• Booze and the postal service: Wayne Curtis, writing in The Daily Beast, does a terrific job detailing the history of the U.S. Postal Service and alcohol as there’s a chance the agency might be allowed to deliver wine. “Given the long-standing prohibition against shipping liquor, it may come as a surprise to learn that ordering liquor by mail was once commonplace.” It’s the kind of story I wish I had written, and includes an ironic section about how it was once legal for out-of-state retailers to sell into another state.

Is there good news for wine delivery on the horizon?

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

wine deliveries
How many of us have had to resort to this to get wine deliver?.

Apparently, wine drinkers aren’t the only ones fed up with Fed Ex and UPS

Imagine my surprise when I saw this headline: “A wave of e-commerce logistics startups is threatening to break the UPS and FedEx duopoly”

Apparently, wine drinkers aren’t the only ones who are fed up with the way Fed Ex and UPS control the delivery market. The story reports that “a slew of new players, juiced by millions in venture capital funding, is entering the package logistics fight to see if they can’t can’t change a decades-old power dynamic.”

Look past the fancy writing, and you’ll discover that UPS and Fed Ex have lost market share, that their on-time and delivery performances are declining, and that they’re even telling unprofitable customers to look for another company to deliver their packages.

Which is no surprise to the blog’s readers. We’ve been talking about this since before the pandemic, when I ran a couple of posts listing wine delivery horror stories. I followed that up last month for the Pix.wine site, which also elicited a fair amount of traffic and comment.

That’s the good news. The bad news? For one, the story doesn’t specifically mention wine or alcohol delivery – and especially its particular and infuriating delivery requirements. For another, all the fancy writing (yes, the story even mentions unicorns) details more hopes and dreams than actual, concrete solutions. After all, just because someone throws venture capital money at a problem doesn’t mean the problem will be solved.

Still, this is the best news wine drinkers have had in a very long time. As, as I joked with the editor of the Pix piece, any news is better than chasing the delivery truck down the street.

Winebits 717: Winespeak, DoorDash, supermarket wine

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

winespeak
“OK, now let’s make this clear — toasty and oaky are out.”

This week’s wine news: Wine Scholars Guild says it will try to make winespeak easier to understand. Plus, DoorDash expands booze delivery and a look at the supermarket wine store of the future.

• No more toasty and oaky? The Wine Scholar Guild, a leading wine education group, says it wants to change the way we talk about wine. Or, at least I think that’s what it wants to do. The story describing the effort is so full of PR-speak, education-speak, and some -speak that I couldn’t decipher, that it’s difficult to say for sure. To quote: The project would “empower the individual to taste and describe wine with an enriched and universal lexicon.” In addition, it would “dive deeper into assessing the qualities of a wine’s building blocks” and look “into the nature of a wine’s personality.” Sigh. This is probably worth a separate post on the blog; I’ll try to follow up and see if I can make any sense of it.

• Bring on the booze: DoorDash, the restaurant delivery  service that has branched out to groceries and clothing, is expanding its alcohol delivery effort. Customers will be able to place orders for beer, wine, and spirits (with or without food) from participating local restaurants and supermarkets in select markets in 20 states. We’ll ignore for a moment the company’s infamous reputation (and that the Wine Curmudgeon has all but stopped using it, since half my orders are wrong in some way). Instead, let’s focus on what this news means: Another chink in the armor that restricts alcohol sales in the U.S. That the company would have done this two years ago is doubtful. But the pandemic changed all that, and that DoorDash thinks it can make money with wine delivery speaks volumes.

• Even in Iowa: We’ve written a lot on the blog about how important supermarkets are to the future of wine, and here’s one more example — a regional grocer has built an upscale market in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, with “a Hy-Vee Wine & Spirits department offering a walk-in beer cooler, a walk-in wine room and a walk-in humidor.” In Iowa? In addition, the story reports that building the store required a $26 million investment, and that it is its “first entirely reimagined grocery store.” What does that say about what Hy-Vee’s bosses think about selling wine in supermarkets?

Winebits 716: Eating at home, Italian imports, “waxsplaining”

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

eating at home
The only thing this woman didn’t buy at the supermarket for dinner was a bottle of wine.

This week’s wine news: Eating at home — and what the means for wine — is still driving supermarket sales. Plus, Italian wine imports surge and wax-sealed wine

• We’re still eating at home: Kroger’s CEO told business analysts that the supermarket chain is still seeing its sales driven by shoppers buying to eat home, something that appears to be with us even as more restaurants remain open. Rodney McMullen said that “food-at-home trends remain sticky,” and that Kroger’s sales were more or less the same as they were in the same period a year ago, near the height of the pandemic. That’s an impressive performance, and is one more indication that we’re not eating out the way we were two years ago. We’ve discussed the impact of his many times on the blog; that it bodes well for retail wine sales but not for restaurants. In this, the wine business may need to re-examine how it sells wine, as eating at home becomes less of a trend and more of a way of life.

• Bring on the Italian wine: Those of us who are flummoxed by the way wine continues to defy the law of supply and demand can take heart: Italian wine sales to to the U.S. rose 12 percent in value in 2020, compared to 2015-18. In other words, shoppers — faced with higher prices on French and Spanish wine thanks to the Trump wine tariff — bought less expensive Italian wine, which wasn’t hit by the tariff. Sparkling wine sales — mostly Prosecco — rose by 75 percent in value over the same periods.

• “Let’s make enjoying wine harder!” So writes Amber LeBeau, writing on the SpitBucket website after battling a wax-sealed wine bottle and barely getting it open. “Why are we putting extra tolls or ‘effort taxes’ on our product that we’re expecting consumers to happily pay? And then come back for more?” LeBeau asks. Which, of course, is something the Wine Curmudgeon has been wondering about for years. The points in the piece are all well made, and explains is losing popularity to alcohol with tabs. And screwcaps.

Photo: Jason Briscoe on Unsplash 

Bring on Bogle’s ghost story writing contest!

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

ghost stories
And they thought Reptilicus was bad? Just wait until they see the three-tier monster.

The WC knows more than a few terrifying wine stories that could lead to the $5,000 prize

Yes, I know the Wine Curmudgeon has had his problems with Bogle over the past couple of years. But I see a way to make amends.

It’s the winery’s 2021 Original Ghost Story Writing Contest, in which the winner gets a $5,000 first prize and the chance for their piece to be turned into a short film. But it has been a while since my writing won anything, and I didn’t get five grand for that.

Besides, who knows more about the horrors of the wine business than I do?

How about these possibilities?

• Adapting this story, about aliens visiting Earth and their first encounter with wine – and wine scores.

• The three-tier system that ate Pittsburgh. The Supreme Court can’t stop it! State legislatures can’t stop it! Watch it devour city after after city, leaving cranky wine writers in its wake!

• The invasion of the alcohol snatchers. What? Drink only a 13 percent wine? Only a 14 percent wine?! Only a 15 percent wine?!! Not after strange pods start showing up in the homes of California winemakers.

• The Stepford focus groups. It seems like a quiet and otherwise normal suburb. But it has a deep, dark secret – all the wine drinkers are exactly alike and all the wine is oh so ….. smoooth.

• Hush, hush sweet wine. Strange things start happening in a small Southern town – and all the wine suddenly tastes sweet – when a woman’s cousin comes home. Yes, probably not a winner given my criticism of Bogle, but I can see the first five scenes of the film in my head.

Hard seltzer’s popularity may be waning; can the wine business finally relax?

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

hard seltzer
When’s the last time you saw this many young people drinking wine?

Hopefully not, since hard seltzer was just one of wine’s many problems. But don’t bet on it.

The news traveled through the cyber-ether last week so quickly that it was past viral: “Is the hard seltzer craze turning sour?” “Has the hard seltzer bubble popped?” “America’s Taste for Hard Seltzer is Suddenly Starting to Wane”

One trade editor even emailed me: Did you see this? Is there a story here?

So huge massive news, since hard seltzer’s growth over the past couple of years has often been cited as the reason younger consumers aren’t drinking wine. And, if true, raises another question: If hard seltzer has fizzed out, can the wine business relax? Does this mean younger consumers, bored with Truly and White Claw and all the rest, will reach for a bottle of wine?

The answer? No.

NO.

NONONONONO!!!!!!!!!

Hard seltzer, as noted here and elsewhere, was just one example of wine’s problems with younger consumers. It was everything that they think wine isn’t – cheap, low in calories, low in sugar, low in alcohol, low in carbs, and convenient. Pop a top, get just a little buzz, and smile. Anyone who thinks hard seltzer’s troubles mean they will move to a product that comes with an indecipherable label, requires a special tool to open, comes in mostly big bottles, and doesn’t disclose calories or ingredients is kidding themselves.

In other words, way too much of the wine business. Or as Wine Business Monthly columnist Jake Lorenzo put it recently, “A class system is developing, and the wine business is not only welcoming it, but we are driving it. In Wine Country things are not getting back to normal, they are wallowing in abnormal.”

Think of hard seltzer as a kind of fast fashion, cheap and interesting and then forgotten. So if it does wane (and the second link at the top isn’t quite so sure about that), younger consumers who see wine as bougie and old-fashioned will just find something else that isn’t wine.

Because that’s what has happened over the past decade. Yes, this month’s controversial Gallup poll may have had its flaws, but it didn’t miss the point. I talked to a leading European wine analyst for a trade story about something completely different; so, of course, we ended up talking about wine and younger consumers.

As we were looking at her numbers, I said, “These can’t be right. Your surveys show that wine has lost the two youngest generations in the U.S. and Britain.” And she nodded (it was a Zoom call), and said, “Yes, it has.”

And hard seltzer is far from the only reason.