Category:Wine trends

Wine at the State Fair of Texas

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Each year, The Wine Curmudgeon does four or five events that are not typical events for most wine writers. This year, I spoke to a wine festival in Wichita Falls, where the Saturday night tasting was held in the county ag center, and at a music festival 60 miles from San Antonio that’s held in a campground. I did a Wine 101 talk at Grapefest in Grapevine, Texas, home of the People’s Choice wine competition ? no so-called experts allowed. And, for the third year in a row, I ?m doing a series of Wine 101 talks at the State Fair of Texas.

In most of these settings, the people who attend don’t know much about wine and might not be able to tell a cabernet from a chardonnay. But that’s OK, since that probably holds true for most Americans. It’s also why I speak to these groups. The wine world already has more than enough people who want to preach to the very small choir that is the wine world, and I didn’t get to be The Wine Curmudgeon by being like the rest of the wine world.

More, after the jump:

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Wine consumer to wine writers: “Let’s get real”

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

This letter ran in a South African newspaper, and it says everything that needs to be said (and, in this case, South Africa is no different from the rest of the world). The best part is that it ?s not the Wine Curmudgeon whining; it ?s someone who pays their hard-earned money for wine and is mostly ignored by the people who make it and the people who write about it. One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, the wine business will figure this out.

Among the highlights:

? ?Your wine columnist continues to opine in his quaint, elitist style, as if anyone who can ?t afford a bottle at R150 (US$21), or was it R1500-plus (US$210), is beneath him. Many wine writers give the impression that nothing below a certain price point will ever contaminate their nostrils, let alone their lips. ?

? ?Let ?s get real here. Between boxed ?carafe quality ? and auction wines there is a whole array of, shall I call them ?sumptuous, luscious, mouth-filling, affordable wines ?

? ?Apart from the Sunday Times wine fundi, who has the confidence and knowledge to recommend wines from as little as R25 (US$3.50) a bottle, most of the other writers deserve to be put back in their elitist boxes. ?

Thank you, Jeremy Sampson, wherever you are.

Wine discounts, wine prices and wine deals

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Retailers are increasing discounts to move merchandise. The Wine Curmudgeon has spent quite a bit of the past couple of weekends shopping for wine. I can ?t guarantee that what I saw in Dallas is the same thing that you ?ll see where you live, but I did see what look like to be emerging trends nationwide:

? Smaller wine departments, especially in stores like Cost Plus World Market that expanded their wine departments during the boom and now are stuck with too much floor space for a product that isn ?t selling. My local Cost Plus looks like it has reduced its wine inventory by 20 percent.

? More house labels and private labels. I visited eight or 10 stores, and the thing that struck me in all of them were lots of labels I had never seen before. These are wines that the retailers carry exclusively, which means they carry higher margins than national brands and usually sell for a little less than similar national brands.

? The beginning of deep discounting, as opposed to the ordinary discounting that has been going on for most of this year. I bought six bottles of quality wine at Kroger, including one that usually costs around $15, for $39.95. Which works out to $6.66 a bottle, and a Rex Goliath chardonnay was just $4. Kroger had not only marked the wines down, but was offering 20 percent off any six bottles. This is exceptionally notable in Dallas since our wine prices tend to be a bit higher than elsewhere.

? Lots of back vintages, especially for well-known national brands. There were 2006 and 2007 white wines and 2004 and 2005 reds for sale, vintages that should have sold out at least a year ago. Retailers will need to increase discounts to get rid of these back vintages to make room for the new vintages on store shelves, since the alternative is throwing them out.

The photo is from Wong Mei Teng of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, via stock.xchng, using a Creative Commons license.

Restaurant wine: We’re buying less, and we’re buying cheaper

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

These numbers are so important that the trade magazine that reported them, Wine Business News, said that they show that the ?wine landscape in USA restaurants clearly shifted in 2008. ? Given the way the wine business tends to discount bad news, that ?s an amazing statement.

And what did the study, conducted by Ronn Weigand and Restaurant Wine, find that was so industry shattering? That the total restaurant wine market shrank by 5.5 percent in 2008. And the 20 most popular restaurant wine brands in 2008? Almost to a bottle, they are $10 wine companies.

More, after the jump.

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Peter Wasserman on quality wine

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Peter Wasserman and Selection Becky Wasserman (that ?s his mom) are among the best French wine brokers in the world. Their wines are well-made and offer value, even when they cost a lot of money. But, unlike many of their ilk, they sell wine to importers that isn ?t expensive. Which makes the company the Wine Curmudgeon ?s kind of guy (if I can jumble up my grammar).

I chatted with Peter Wasserman during a tasting in Dallas last week. A few insights after the jump:

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Champagne producers to consumer: Nuts to you

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Is the sun setting on Champagne sales? The news is not good for those of us who love bubbly, and especially the French version ? real, live Champagne. The business is in a freefall, as the recession, high prices and the weak dollar combine to clobber sales.

So what are Champagne producers doing? Cutting production, so they can keep prices up. The leading Champagne producers have apparently agreed to production cuts of 30 to 40 percent, which in their case means leaving grapes on the vines to rot. Jocelyne Dravigny, chairman of the Federation of Champagne Wine Co-operatives, told the Times of London: ?For us, the stabilizing of prices is a priority. ?

This is not an indictment of Champagne as wine, which is one of the Wine Curmudgeon ?s guilty pleasures. This is, rather, another example of how the wine industry doesn ?t respect the consumer and is shocked and amazed when that approach backfires. More, after the jump:

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The Wine Curmudgeon on Blog Talk Radio

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

This is last Sunday ?s Art of Living with Olivia Wilder; I ?m on for the first 30 or 40 minutes. We talked about local wine, good cheap wine, and the debut of Palate Press and my wine nutrition label story. We also offered wine suggestions for a woman in the chat room who wanted to start drinking red wine.