Winebits 716: Eating at home, Italian imports, “waxsplaining”

This week’s wine news: Eating at home — and what the means for wine — is still driving supermarket sales. Plus, Italian wine imports surge and wax-sealed wine

• We’re still eating at home: Kroger’s CEO told business analysts that the supermarket chain is still seeing its sales driven by shoppers buying to eat home, something that appears to be with us even as more restaurants remain open. Rodney McMullen said that “food-at-home trends remain sticky,” and that Kroger’s sales were more or less the same as they were in the same period a year ago, near the height of the pandemic. That’s an impressive performance, and is one more indication that we’re not eating out the way we were two years ago. We’ve discussed the impact of his many times on the blog; that it bodes well for retail wine sales but not for restaurants. In this, the wine business may need to re-examine how it sells wine, as eating at home becomes less of a trend and more of a way of life.

• Bring on the Italian wine: Those of us who are flummoxed by the way wine continues to defy the law of supply and demand can take heart: Italian wine sales to to the U.S. rose 12 percent in value in 2020, compared to 2015-18. In other words, shoppers — faced with higher prices on French and Spanish wine thanks to the Trump wine tariff — bought less expensive Italian wine, which wasn’t hit by the tariff. Sparkling wine sales — mostly Prosecco — rose by 75 percent in value over the same periods.

• “Let’s make enjoying wine harder!” So writes Amber LeBeau, writing on the SpitBucket website after battling a wax-sealed wine bottle and barely getting it open. “Why are we putting extra tolls or ‘effort taxes’ on our product that we’re expecting consumers to happily pay? And then come back for more?” LeBeau asks. Which, of course, is something the Wine Curmudgeon has been wondering about for years. The points in the piece are all well made, and explains is losing popularity to alcohol with tabs. And screwcaps.

Photo: Jason Briscoe on Unsplash