This week’s wine news: Texas goes after direct to consumer wine shipping, plus has wine become a luxury and the wine glass chair
• Not so fast: The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is cracking down on shipments to Texas from out of state wineries. The state agency will apparently review all of the roughly 1,600 license holders permitted to ship wine to Texas customers. And that will include a request for a voluminous amount of paperwork, including licenses, label approvals, and customer invoices, reports the ShipCompliant consultancy. Why does what Texas does matter to the rest of the country? Because the TABC often sets the example for alcohol cops in the rest of the U.S., and if they’re gong to this much trouble, other states may see the need to do the same thing. And if Texas is cracking down, the next question is why?
• Hard to believe: One of the wine critics who helped create the high-end wine world is asking: “Have you noticed how expensive wine is getting?” Yes, actually. But that Jancis Robinson, perhaps the most important European wine critic, is saying so complements the Wine Curmudgeon’s usual rants. That’s because her analysis is spot on – slowing demand yet rising prices. “Not so long ago, it seemed that prices were relatively modest initially, until reputations and/or high scores were won. But now, from where I sit, more and more wine producers dive in at the deep end, asking really quite ambitious prices from the get go.”
• Just for sitting: A Spanish interior and product designer has created a chair based on a wine glass – “The Merlot.” In one respect it doesn’t look all that different from what those of us of a certain age know as a Felix Unger chair. But the designer, Marta Del Valle, acknowledges they “aren’t ideal for tedious and work-oriented actions such as studying, working or consuming long meals. But for all you fun-loving design enthusiasts, and not to mention wine lovers out there, such a piece would only liven up any space it is placed in.”
Photo from Yanko Design, using a Creative Commons license