Tag Archives: marijuana

Winebits 513: Marijuana, direct shipping, wildfires

marijuanaThis week’s wine news a day early, to make room for tomorrow’s annual Halloween post: A Canadian province takes over marijuana sales, plus a direct shipping lament and good news out of wine country

• State control: New Brunswick won’t allow retailers to sell marijuana when the Canadian province legalizes dope sales in July. Instead, the provincial liquor store system will set up “a network of of tightly controlled, stand-alone stores.” The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reports that as many as 20 stores will open, but weed products will only be displayed under glass and customers will need to show identification to prove they’re of legal age before they can even get in. The story is worth reading, even if it’s not strictly about wine, because the politicians in New Brunswick are using many of the same buzzwords to justify the system that elected officials in the U.S. use to justify three-tier and state control of liquor sales – starting with protecting young people.

• More woes for direct shipping: Eric Asimov, perhaps the best wine writer in the world, has discovered that it’s not easy to buy wine over the Internet. “But now, states — urged on by wine and spirits wholesalers who oppose any sort of interstate alcohol commerce that bypasses them — have stepped up enforcement efforts. Retailers say that the carriers began sending out letters to them a year ago saying they would no longer handle their shipments. For consumers who live in states stocked with fine-wine retailers, like New York, the restrictions are an inconvenience. For consumers in states with few retail options, they are disastrous.” Welcome to the middle of the country, Mr. Asimov – as we recently noted on the blog.

• Little vine damage: California grape experts say the grapes and vineyards should not suffer much from the recent wine country wildfires, reports a trade magazine for growers. The analysis says only a small percentage of the 2017 grape harvest might have been harmed by the fires and smoke, but most of the harvest was done before the fires started. In addition, the grapevines acted like firebreaks, preventing the flames from spreading as they moved through vineyards.

Winebits 434: Freixenet sale, consolidation, marijuana

Freixenet sale• Say it ain’t so: Freixenet, the Spanish wine giant that makes so much of the cheap wine that I buy and drink regularly, may be sold. This is almost certainly not good news for those of us who drink the Rene Barbier red and white blends, Segura Viudas cava, or the more expensive Gloria Ferrer sparkling wines from California. The German company that wants to buy Freixenet, Henkell & Co., sells very little wine in the U.S.; how interested will it be in continuing to sell those labels if it gets the company? And this doesn’t take into account the concern that any new owner usually screws up the old brands just because — right, Alaska Air? So, if any of the Ferrer family members who own the company read this (and I have met a couple of them over the years): Please, please don’t sell.

• Just more businesspeak: Want to know why so much consolidation is going on in wine? Then read this piece from the Supermarket News trade magazine. The article doesn’t address wine, but the sentiments and buzzwords used in it to talk about grocery store mergers describe what’s happening in wine — and that consolidation has nothing to do with improving products or benefiting consumers. How about “the … narrow approach to defining competition could hinder efforts to make the industry more efficient.” More efficient, of course, means firing employees and cutting costs, not providing a better product.

• Premiumize this: Aspen, Colo., where people who make industries more efficient go skiing, may have shown us the future of wine sales. And it’s not good. The city’s seven legal pot shops outsold city liquor stores in March and April last year. In April 2015, city residents and visitors bought almost $1 million worth of dope, compared to about $860,00 worth of booze. Know that weed has been legal in Aspen for less than two years, which makes that number even more amazing.

Winebits 402: Bogle, Ben Kingsley, marijuana

ben kingsley ? The best get bigger: Bogle’s $10 wines have been in the Hall of Fame since I started doing it, and it’s a pleasure to see that the Wine Curmudgeon isn’t the only one who appreciates the brand’s efforts to maintain quality and value. Bogle expects to sell some 2.5 million cases of wine this year, which could push it into ranks of the 10 biggest U.S. producers. The best news about all this? “Regardless of what ?s going on with the economy, people are always looking for strong value, and that ?s at the core of what we ?ve done, ? says the company’s national sales manager, Sam Bon. ?For the price category below us, things are difficult, and for the price point just above us, things are going very well. We plan to maintain our price points.” Take that, premiumization.

? Money doesn’t help: Wine-Searcher.com interviewed Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley (“Gandhi”), who can afford to drink wine that that rest of us can only dream about. So what did he tell the interviewer? “The first thing your readers must understand is that I’m not a wine expert. I’m fascinated by wine but it always struck me as a very complex subject. Any tips you can share would be gratefully received.” Congratulations, wine business. You not only confuse those of us who spend $10 a bottle, but those who drop thousands on a bottle, like Kingsley. I wonder: Should I send him a copy of the cheap wine book?.

? Weed with that wine? What happens when you add marijuana to wine, infusing the latter with the former? That’s the question Vinepair attempts to answer, and if you don’t mind more than a few Cheech and Chong jokes, it’s a reasonably interesting piece. We learn, for example, that grass probably isn’t the worst additive for wine, though there isn’t a comparison made with polyvinyl-polypyrrolidone, which is currently legal to add and has something to do with adhesives.