Winebits 794: Wine supply, Wente, Substack

This week’s wine news: A thoughtful look at wine’s supply and demand conundrum, plus the history of chardonnay’s Wente clone and Substack wants your money

• Wine’s supply and demand conundrum: Jeff Bitter knows as much about the wine business – and especially the grape growing side – as anyone. So when he tells a farming trade that wine might be headed for a supply-and-demand crisis, and that recent smaller grape harvests are false optimism, it’s worth reading the story. Bitter is the long-time president of the Allied Grape Growers trade group, and he didn’t mince words : “We’re not bringing in consumers at a younger age at the same time our more mature core consumer numbers are shrinking. Looking into the future, prospects appear dismal for demand growth based on current trending.”

• The Wente clone: Grape clones – the specific kind of chardonnay grape, for example – are usually something only a wine geek could love. But the SevenFifty Daily site has a nicely done piece about the history of the Wente chardonnay clone, which pretty much made it possible for California to grow chardonnay grapes. By one estimate, it accounts for three-quarters of the chardonnay grown in the state. Says one grower: ““In the 1960s, if you wanted Chardonnay, Wente was what you got. I don’t think anybody was talking about clones when we were getting started, but I think that there’s a definite style of California Chardonnay whose underlying tones probably come from the Wente clone.”

• Invest in Substack? Regular readers know how much the Wine Curmudgeon appreciates Substack, the blog’s subscription platform. Now, I have a chance to own a piece of it. The service is trying to raise money through a corporate version of crowdfunding, giving those of us who don’t go around talking about venture capital and all the rest a chance to do just that. I pledged $270, about 10 shares worth. Now, do I expect to make any money from this? Of course not. As Elizabeth Lopatto wrote in The Verge, this seems like more of a publicity stunt than anything else, and may have a lot to do with Substack’s difficulty raising money through more conventional venture means. So why did I do it? So I could write this, of course – skin in the game, baby! Isn’t that what the VC types say (or used to say, when I covered this stuff before I got into wine)?