Tag Archives: food trends

Winebits 721: Hard seltzer, Ohio, food trends

hard seltzer
The boom is off the spritz: Millions of cases of hard seltzer will join these cans on the junk heap.

This week’s wine news: Millions of cases of hard seltzer will be destroyed, as the boom fades. Plus, Ohio finally does something about its Prohibition-era shipping laws and wine doesn’t make a food trends list

• So much for hard seltzer? The company that owns Truly, the second best-selling hard seltzer in the U.S. after White Claw, will destroy millions of cases of the product. The reason? Hard seltzer goes off it sits too long, and millions of cases are doing just that on store shelves and in warehouses given hard seltzer’s stunning sales plateau this year.  Hence, destroy the product rather than sell one that that isn’t fresh. The other thing worth noting here? Several wine companies jumped on the hard seltzer bandwagon; it will be worth watching to see what happens with them.

• Thank you, Ohio: Ohio, which has been almost Utah-like in restricting wine shipments into the state, has made it easier for consumers (and wine writers) to get wine from out of state producers. State law had forbidden wineries making more than 100,000 cases from shipping directly to consumers; it has lifted that restriction.  That’s not a small winery, but it’s hardly big the way the wine business works these days.

• Absent wine? Wine used to make food trends prediction stories all the time; local wine was especially popular. But not any more, according to a list for 2022 from retailer Whole Foods. Instead, we will be drinking yuzu, a citrus fruit, as well as non-alcoholic cocktails. The big eating trend? Something called reducetarianism, in which we try to eat less meat, dairy, and eggs but eat high quality meat when we do splurge (which, not coincidentally, Whole Foods says it sells). The Wine Curmudgeon, who long ago cut his consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy, always thought he was following best medical practice. Who knew I was actually being super cool?

Photo: Camden & Hailey George on Unsplash 

Winebits 469: Phylloxera, food trends, French presidential wine

phylloxeraThis week’s wine news: Phylloxera in Colorado, wine isn’t a 2017 food trend, and the ultimate sommelier

• Grapevine scourge: Phylloxera, the louse that devastates vineyards and for which there is no control, has been found in Colorado’s most important grape growing region. Grape growers and winemakers in Colorado have always thought that they were safe from phylloxera because of their soils and altitude, but the louse thought otherwise. The only solution? Pull out all of the vines in the infected vineyard in Mesa County, the area that is home to three-quarters of the state’s grape acreage, and hope that the louse hasn’t already spread to another vineyard.

• No wine here: The most important food trends for 2017 don’t include wine. This is noteworthy in a time when wine consumption is flat and wine has been a regular part of these trends for the past decade. How little does wine matter? Consider that cake for breakfast, eating food waste, and sardines made the list.

• The best job? Virginie Routis is in charge of the wine at Elysee Palace, home to the French president. How amazing must that be? She oversees the 14,000 bottles of the finest French wine beneath the Palace, buying, selling, and serving the wine for state occasions. What impressed me is that Routis, whose cellar includes all the wine the rest of us will never drink (Cheval Blanc, anyone?), makes it a point to serve wine from all her country’s regions. Would that that was a consistent policy at the White House, where California wine has traditionally been the only kind served.