Category:Wine news

Thank you, La Vieille Ferme, for some good news about cheap wine

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

La Vieille Ferme rose 3-liter box
Would that I could buy the 3-liter box of the La Vieille Ferme rose in Dallas

The experts tell us no one cares about cheap wine, but La Vieille just keeps growing

The blog’s 16th annual rose extravaganza — featuring lots and lots of pink wine that most of us can afford to buy – is just about a month away. So why not some good news featuring one of the blog’s favorite roses, which is especially welcome given the doom and gloom in the rest of the wine business?

The second-largest French table wine brand in the U.S. is not some premiumized plonk, a snooty wine snob brand, or a 94-point label that is only available in three stores (none of which are near where anyone lives).

It’s our old pal La Vieille Ferme, all $7 a bottle of it. Or, as my mom calls it, “the rooster wine.”

La Vieille sold almost 630,000 cases in the U.S. last year, which would rank it among the 30 or so biggest U.S. producers. Most importantly, its growth – up about one-third over the past five years – was led by its rose. And regular visitors here know just how much the WC appreciates the La Vieille rose – wine of the week more often than I can count, a long-time member of the Hall of Fame, and a finalist for the Turner award a couple of times.

And why not? It tastes like rose – dry, fruity, crisp, and refreshing, and neither sweet nor smoooth. It has maintained its quality over the past decade when so many others have not, giving in to cost cutting or marketing foolishness.

And, perhaps most importantly, La Vieille thrived during the Trump wine tariff. The man who runs its U.S. importer told me that he didn’t raise prices because he didn’t want to lose market share; which not only worked, but also got La Vieille new business from retailers who were impressed by the brand’s long-term determination to stay relevant. When’s the last time you heard that about a wine brand?

So drink a toast to the La Vieille – whether from the 750-ml bottle, the 1.5-liter bottle, or the 3-liter box. Because quality can win out, even when it doesn’t cost very much.

Winebits 796: Expensive wine and more bad news for restaurant wine

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

man hodling menu
“Here… this list will take hardly any time to read, since we’ve taken off so many wines.”

This week’s wine news: Is some expensive wine becoming too expensive? Plus, more bad news for restaurant wine.

• Too expensive? How expensive is wine becoming? So expensive that even some of the world’s most expensive wine may be getting too expensive. Or, at least, that’s what this story in Wine-Searcher says. Writes Margaret Rand: “… but the overall opinion from the merchants who had to sell the wines was that it was just too expensive and that pricing paid far too little attention to the realities of the global mood.” She’s discussing the upcoming futures market for French Bordeaux, which is always a bit too geeky for most of us to understand, and where a recurrent theme is that the wine is always too expensive. But this report sounds more worrisome than the usual pricing back and forth between producers and those who sell the wines. Still, as one of my editors told me the other day, “The number of rich people is going to keep growing, so we need to find some stories to write for them.”

• Restaurant wine, part I: Restaurant wine lists are getting smaller, continuing a trend that started during the pandemic but was supposed to change as the recovery continued. Not so, reports Shanken News Daily. The story, despite being written to show that this is a good thing (in the finest Shanken style), is actually quite terrifying – higher prices, less choice for wine drinkers, more market share for the biggest producers, and less opportunity for smaller wineries to get on wine lists.

• Restaurant wine, part II: Of course, none of that may matter, as consumers continue to cut back on eating dinner in restaurants. That’s the the gist of this story from Nations Restaurant News: Consumers “seem to be accelerating their trade down activity that started picking up late last year. … And, higher-check full-service dinner visits – the segment’s busiest daypart – declined by 13%” in the first quarter of 2023. Which means fewer people are in restaurants to order off those smaller wine lists. The story, despite also trying to be positive, does not offer an optimistic take on the restaurant recovery that was also supposed to be part of the post-pandemic recovery.

Have dog, help destroy grapevine pests

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Churro, a Chihuahua
“If I sniff out the damned eggs, do I still need to wear this stupid hat?”

Churro, the blog’s associate editor, is well suited to help save grapevines from the spotted lanternfly

Churro, the blog’s associate editor. resident Millennial, and free speech advocate, will now be able to do one more thing to help save the wine business.

He can be trained to find the eggs of the spotted lanternfly, another of the many pests that destroy grapevines.

We’ve noted the danger from the spotted lanternfly on the blog, and that chemicals aren’t always effective in killing them. Hence, researchers at Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are deploying teams of dogs — and their owners — to help detect the lanternfly’s eggs before they hatch and they destroy the vines.

The project, which started at Texas Tech in Lubbock in Texas’ High Plains wine region a couple of years ago, aims to use dogs to sniff out spotted lanternfly eggs. Dogs, with their keen nose, can smell the scent the eggs apparently give off. I asked Churro about this, and – like the Millennial that he is – he gave me one of those looks.

“Of course I can smell the eggs if I want to,” he said. “That’s not the question. The question is: ‘Why should I?’ “

The Virginia Tech researchers anticipated this, and dogs are trained by rewarding them if they sniff out the eggs. If the dogs find the eggs – which are usually laid on the underside of plants – the dogs get a treat.

I should mention here that Churro, who is a Chihuahua mix, is a fine scent hound; he can unearth old fast food wrappers, bird droppings, and clumps of fresh grass without any trouble at all. So I don’t think nosing for lanternfly eggs would present a problem.

Rather, the biggest difficulty would be – as one of the researchers noted – that scent training may lead to “positive behavioral changes.” And, if anyone knows anything about Chihuahuas, that’s the last thing they’re interested in.

Winebits 795: “Struggle Meals,” Pierce’s Disease, cans vs. bottles

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

This week’s wine news: Frankie Celenza of “Struggle Meals” is coming to a WC podcast. Plus, Pierce’s Disease strikes again and cans, bottles, and quality

• Struggle on! The Wine Curmudgeon has long wondered why the current generation of cooking shows don’t do wine. Who better to ask than “Struggle Meals” host Frankie Celenza when I record a podcast with him later this week? Plus, he can offer some insight into this wine and young people thing. I’m a big fan of “Struggle Meals;” Celenza cooks like I write about wine – cheap matters, and expensive isn’t necessarily better. Plus, he has a much cooler sidekick than I do. We’ll also talk about pairing wine and food, and feature some “Struggle Meals” recipes. I haven’t scheduled the podcast yet, but it will likely run in the next week or so. So yes, one more reason to subscribe.

• More Pierce’s news: Pierce’s Disease, perhaps the worst wine scourge than isn’t phylloxera, has been found in California’s Humboldt County, about five hours north of Napa and Sonoma. Humboldt isn’t a major wine region, but there are vines, both wild and cultivated. Regardless, this is not good news; Pierce’s almost always kills the grape vines, despite some significant advancement in treatment over the past couple of years.

• Cans vs. bottles: Does wine quality suffer in cans? No one has quite figured that out yet, but there is a new study that looks at beer. And it found that “different beers react differently when bottled or canned, suggesting that style should dictate the best storage method.” Even though beer and wine use different ingredients and production methods, this research would seem to give someone who wants to look at wine a head start. Interestingly, lighter beers seemed to do better in bottles; heavier beers seemed fine with either.

Feds to country’s biggest wholesaler: May be time to clean up your act

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

FTC investigating Southern Glazer’s for anti-trust violations

gavel on top of money
FTC inquiry will ask if Southern Glazer’s favored big customers over smaller ones.

The Federal Trade Commission, doing something that it hasn’t done in two decades, says the country’s biggest wine and spirits wholesaler may have broken anti-trust laws.

The FTC is investigating Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, which could control much as much as two-fifths of the U.S. wine distribution market, of illegal practices “related to how wine and liquor are priced and sold around the country,” Politico reported on Friday.

Politco reports that Southern may have violated the 1936 Robinson-Patman Act, which prohibits suppliers from offering better prices to large retailers at the expense of their smaller competitors. The federal government has largely ignored enforcement of the Robinson-Patman Act for more than 20 years, and this action may indicate that the Biden Administration was serous about its 2021 report calling for more competition in a variety of U.S. businesses, including alcohol.

Why does this matter to those of us who buy wine? Because, if the charges are proved, it means Southern has used its dominant position to artificially inflate prices – and we’ve paid more than we should have.

Which, frankly, would not be surprising given consolidation in the second tier, where Southern and RNDC probably control some two-thirds of the business. And I can’t emphasize enough how important this action is, even if nothing comes from it. And nothing might, since it’s just an investigation. Nevertheless, this demonstrates that someone understands that one or two companies dominating a market is not good business and is not necessarily good for the economy – unless you’re the companies doing the dominating.

Says the Politco story: The FTC is seeking detailed sales data on thousands of brands of alcohol and wine sold around the U.S. by both Southern Glazer and its competing distributors. This includes questions about pricing and benefits Southern Glazer offers to retailers, including quantity-based discounts, rebates, promotions, as well as marketing, warehousing, merchandising and other services.

It is also asking about the “competitive dynamics” in the retail market for wine and alcohol and how Southern Glazer allocates wine and alcohol between different retailers, including whether and how it limits distribution to certain customers.

 

Winebits 794: Wine supply, Wente, Substack

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

wine bottles in crates
Too many grapes and too few wine drinkers: a recipe for unfilled wine bottles.

This week’s wine news: A thoughtful look at wine’s supply and demand conundrum, plus the history of chardonnay’s Wente clone and Substack wants your money

• Wine’s supply and demand conundrum: Jeff Bitter knows as much about the wine business – and especially the grape growing side – as anyone. So when he tells a farming trade that wine might be headed for a supply-and-demand crisis, and that recent smaller grape harvests are false optimism, it’s worth reading the story. Bitter is the long-time president of the Allied Grape Growers trade group, and he didn’t mince words : “We’re not bringing in consumers at a younger age at the same time our more mature core consumer numbers are shrinking. Looking into the future, prospects appear dismal for demand growth based on current trending.”

• The Wente clone: Grape clones – the specific kind of chardonnay grape, for example – are usually something only a wine geek could love. But the SevenFifty Daily site has a nicely done piece about the history of the Wente chardonnay clone, which pretty much made it possible for California to grow chardonnay grapes. By one estimate, it accounts for three-quarters of the chardonnay grown in the state. Says one grower: ““In the 1960s, if you wanted Chardonnay, Wente was what you got. I don’t think anybody was talking about clones when we were getting started, but I think that there’s a definite style of California Chardonnay whose underlying tones probably come from the Wente clone.”

• Invest in Substack? Regular readers know how much the Wine Curmudgeon appreciates Substack, the blog’s subscription platform. Now, I have a chance to own a piece of it. The service is trying to raise money through a corporate version of crowdfunding, giving those of us who don’t go around talking about venture capital and all the rest a chance to do just that. I pledged $270, about 10 shares worth. Now, do I expect to make any money from this? Of course not. As Elizabeth Lopatto wrote in The Verge, this seems like more of a publicity stunt than anything else, and may have a lot to do with Substack’s difficulty raising money through more conventional venture means. So why did I do it? So I could write this, of course – skin in the game, baby! Isn’t that what the VC types say (or used to say, when I covered this stuff before I got into wine)?

Winebits 793: Sherry-Lehmann, Veritas, Live Nation

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

two women drinking wine
“I never got my Taylor Swift tickets, either.”

This week’s wine news: New York’s Sherry-Lehmann, one of the finest wine shops in the world, closes – but Dallas’ Veritas doesn’t. Plus, a winery does a deal with Live Nation.

• So long, Sherry-Lehmann? The legendary New York City wine shop closed after its liquor license expired at the end of February. The Wine Spectator reports there’s a chance the store’s owners may be able to work something out with the state liquor cops, but the tone of the story was not optimistic. The blog has followed the Sherry-Lehmman story over the past several months: how it was almost closed for an unpaid electricity bill, reports of unpaid employees, and its unpaid $2.7 million state liquor tax bill. The 89-year-old shop, once one of the best in the world, has apparently struggled with financial woes since at least the end of last year. If it does close, it will be missed.

• But not Veritas: The WC reported with much sadness the closing of Dallas’ Veritas wine bar several months ago. Now, the good news: It’s not closing. Its owners were able to renegotiate the wine bar’s lease with the new landlord, and Dallas won’t lose one of its best wine drinking locations. This is especially noteworthy given that Dallas landlords are notorious for throwing out long-time businesses when there is a chance to raise rents. This recently happened to a Mexican restaurant that had been in the same spot since 1984. Welcome back, Veritas.

• Live Nation: Talk about good publicity – Washington state’s Chateau Ste. Michelle has signed a deal with Live Nation to become first national wine sponsor for the music event company. Live Nation, of course, is owned by the same parent as Ticketmaster, which recently had a wee bit of trouble with tens of millions of people, as well as the U.S. Congress, about selling (or not selling, as the case my be) Taylor Swift concert tickets. The WC, who has had long experience with the music business, liked this bit from the parent company website: Live Nation’s goal is to “create an artist-driven company that provided fans with the highest quality live experience.” Good luck with that, Chateau Ste. Michelle.

Photo: Gary Barnes from Pexels