Tag Archives: Big Beer

Winebits 722: Big Beer, Bordeaux scandal, Patagonia wine

Big Beer
“Damn — two-thirds? Really?”

This week’s wine news: Big Beer may be even more top heavy than Big Wine, plus a wine scandal in Bordeaux, and retailer Patagonia will sell wine

• Big, Big Beer: Two companies control two-thirds of the U.S. beer market, which may make it even more top-heavy than the U.S. wine market. The Guardian newspaper reports that there are 9,000 breweries in this country, but that two of them — Anheuser-Busch InBev (42 percent) and Molson Coors (24 percent) account for two out of every three bottles sold. In fact, the top five producers control 79 percent of all the beer sold. This compares to about half of production for the three biggest wine companies. The story is well worth reading, explaining how the oligopolies restrict consumer choice and reduce competition — as they do in wine.

• Scandal in Bordeaux:The owner of a prestigious Bordeaux winery has been found guilty of promoting his friends in the appellation’s controversial ranking system. Wine-searcher says that Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, the owner of Saint-Emilion’s Chateau Angélus was found guilty of using his clout to help friends and clients improve or retain their rankings in the 2012 Saint-Emilion classification. In some parts of France, the wineries are regularly ranked for quality, and a move up or down — or even staying the same — can mean millions of euros in business. de Laforest, a winemaker and consultant, was fined €60,000 (about US$69,000), of which €20,000 (about US$23,000) was suspended.

• Bring on the wine: Patagonia, the outdoor apparel and gear retailer, has its own wine. Outside Business Journal notes that the company’s food division, Patagonia Provisions, has unveiled a collection of wines, ciders, and sake. The nine wines are part of what the retailer calls  “our collection of artisanal fermented beverages made using restorative land practices and bottled with minimal intervention.” Which translates to a $48 bottle of New York state marquette. Not to worry if you haven’t heard of marquette — the grape is a rare hybrid, best known for thriving in cold climates.

Winebits 693: Wine marketing, wine lawsuit, Big Beer wine

cheap wine
“Where are those $10 wines that Eric Asimov wrote about?”

This week’s wine news: Retailer takes New York Times’ Eric Asimov cheap wine recommendations to the next level. Plus, Jackson Family sues Gallo in what could be a lawsuit for the ages and Anheuser-Busch announces wine deal.

• Cheap wine from Asimov: New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov is the best wine writer in the word, even though he regularly downgrades $10 wine. So imagine my shock — and pleasure — to see a couple of quality $10 wines in a recent column. Asimov cited the La Vielle Ferme red and Masciarelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, both of which I drink regularly, as well as the Las Vascos cabernet sauvignon. Hopefully, Asimov will take a look at the Hall of Fame and find others he can recommended. Equally as impressive? An e-mail from retailer Saratoga Wine Exchange touting the wines and offering a mixed case for $120. Wine marketing comes in for a lot of criticism on the blog, but this is one case where a retailer has figured it out.

• Bring on the process servers: I’ll just quote this, since not even I can think of anything to add: “Jackson Family Wines, the ninth largest wine company in the U.S., filed a lawsuit last month accusing [E&J] Gallo, the world’s largest wine company, of infringing on Jackson Family’s copyright for La Crema with a new Gallo wine called Cask & Cream.”  Jackson sued Gallo in the 1990s, claiming the latter’s Turning Leaf infringed on Jackson’s flagship chardonnay and lost. So quickly, from a couple of Google searches: It costs more than $1 million to defend this kind of lawsuit, or about 12,000 cases of Gallo’s Barefoot wine. The cost of filing the lawsuit is more or less the same, which works about to about 7,000 cases of Jackson’s chardonnay. Which, when you think about it, isn’t all that much to a Big Wine company.

• Bud Wine? Again, so damned weird all I can do is quote: “The Wine Group and Anheuser-Busch continue their collaborative partnership with the release of 101 North which is now available nationwide. A popular-priced wine brand inspired by its California roots and the iconic U.S. Highway 101, the brand celebrates the spirit of adventure and discovery. The approachable, new collection was made to explore with rousing blends of richness and bold fruit flavors in every varietal. At launch, 101 North Wines are available in Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Moscato.” Wine from the company that makes Budweiser? And if Churro, the blog’s associate editor, had written a post as poorly as that news release is written, I would have fired him. Is it any wonder I worry about the future of the wine business?

Winebits 442: Orange wine, Big Beer, Franken-wine

Orange wine• Orange is the new rose: How else do we know that rose has become acceptable? The wine geeks and hipsters are looking for something else to drink because rose is too bourgeois: “Rosé addicts probably won’t be abandoning the pink stuff, but funky, fruity and unique orange wines add yet another colorful hue to summertime happy hours. Orange you glad you have something new to drink?” Sigh. And, as if you couldn’t guess, the cheapest wine listed in the story is $15, and one costs $90.

• Bring on the Bud: There is much hand-wringing in the wine business over the popularity of craft beer, and it’s easy to see why. Craft beer producers are clever in a way wine types can’t even begin to imagine or would do if they could imagine it. Consider this offer from a Buffalo, N.Y., craft brewer – bring it an unopened Budweiser, and get a discount on its beer, complete with this quote: “We don’t care where the Anheuser Busch product came from or how you acquired it. You don’t even have to pretend someone left it in your fridge after a party. We just want it off our streets.”

• Faking great wine: In one respect, this is nothing new, as any Northern Exposure fan will tell you. But this approach – making wine in the laboratory without grapes – does seem to be taking wine where it has never gone before. Or should be taken. And because this is a tech company that’s making a wine-like product, nothing is cheap. How does $50 a bottle sound? Thought I do wonder what the artificial intelligence wine review will say.

How desperate is Big Beer?

big beerHow desperate is Big Beer to regain its stranglehold on U.S. beer drinkers? So desperate that it’s not enough to mock craft beer; now, even chardonnay is seen as a threat, and that has never been the case in the history of the United States. Beer consumption has outpaced wine since before we were a country.

Nevertheless, Miller Lite came up with this commercial, which says that women should take its product to a chardonnay event. My guess is that wine is seen as a Millennial drink, and someone found a study that said Millennials are forgoing Big Beer for wine. Perhaps one of our visitors with ad agency experience can explain why chardonnay is a target, given that old white guys drink Miller Lite.

For all of my ranting about Big Wine, it has never done anything this stupid. The commercial is below — what were they thinking?

How desperate is Big Beer?

big beerHow desperate is Big Beer to regain its dominance? So desperate that it’s not enough to mock craft beer; now, even chardonnay is seen as a threat, and that has never been the case in the history of the United States. Beer consumption since before we were a country.

Nevertheless, Miller Lite came up with this commercial, which says that women should take its product to a chardonnay event. Perhaps one of our visitors with ad agency experience can explain why chardonnay is a target, given that old white guys drink Miller Lite.

For all of my ranting about Big Wine, it has never done anything this stupid. The commercial is below — what were they thinking?

Winebits 426: Stupid wine headline edition

headlines
Some people do know how to write headlines.

Because a cranky ex-newspaperman still gets a kick out of silly headlines.

? I’m a teetotaler: The latest Centers for Disease Control edict about drinking, that women who want to get pregnant and aren’t on birth control should not drink, surprised even me, and I didn’t think the Neo-Prohibitionists could surprise me any more. Check out this headline: “Millions of women risk exposing unborn children to alcohol.” That would stop me from drinking, and I can’t get pregnant. The problem, though, is that you’re telling someone not to do something because it might affect something that might happen to them years in the future. Which is neither practical nor good medicine. But it is very scary, which was probably the point.

? Drink the damn wine: Each year, people much smarter than the Wine Curmudgeon tell us that we’re not smart enough because we didn’t buy the correct wines. And it doesn’t even mean we’re drinking the wrong ones, despite this effort: “10 wines you should have bought a year ago.” We didn’t buy the right ones to invest in, and I kept slapping my head as I read it. How could I not buy the 2006 Opus One, which appreciated in value 35.9 percent to almost $4,200 a bottle? No wonder I’m still working for a living.

? They just don’t like each other: In “Bull Durham,” Kevin Costner’s character teaches Tim Robbins’ character how to talk in cliches. I still laugh when I see it, because it’s spot on. As is this headline, if you’re looking for cliches: “The battle between Big Beer and craft brewers is getting ugly.” No kidding? You mean they really don’t like each other? (Another phrase that used to make us groan on the copy desk when we had had to edit it out.) I think, as the story details, that the relationship between Big Beer and craft beer is past ugly when they start cursing at each other on Twitter.

Winebits 407: Locations rose, Big Wine, craft beer

Locations rose ? This is how hip rose has become: California winemaker Dave Phinney’s Locations wines are huge critical and popular hits — wines made in different parts of the world (even Texas) with top-notch winemakers under Phinney’s supervision. They’re known for the big country initial on the label — F from France, I for Italy, and so forth, and as huge, alcoholic fruit bombs — not something I especially enjoy. So what’s the newest Locations wine? A 15 percent French Locations rose, because if the hipsters want brose, Phinney is going to give it to them. The wine lists for $17; given the price and the high alcohol, I couldn’t bring myself to buy it for a review. Even the Wine Curmudgeon has his limits. But if someone wants to write a review, I’ll be happy to run it on the blog, even if you like the wine.

? The big get bigger — or something: Diageo, one of the biggest drinks companies in the world, has decided that wine isn’t big enough for them, and will probably sell the the handful of wine companies that it owns. That these are huge brands, like Sterling and Rosenblum, makes the decision even more intriguing, since Diageo is a top 10 wine company in the U.S. But Diageo, based in Britain, wants to boost its stock price and, as the financial types like to say, “reassure investors” that it wants to make more money. This has always baffled me; what company doesn’t want to make more money? If this happens, look for Sterling and its Diageo brethren to go to some sort of leveraged buyout company, which will cut costs and take the brands private.

? Big Beer? It’s not enough that we’re probably going to have just one beer company accounting for one-third of the beer in the world, but now it looks like craft beer — much of which isn’t all that crafty anymore — could be bigger than the California wine business by the end of 2016. That’s according to figures compiled by Lew Perdue at Wine Industry Insight, who found that craft beer is growing three times as quickly as the California wine business. Given that growth, it would total more than $29 billion, about $1 billion more than California wine. So much for premiumization.