The News
Giant nerd that I am, I take in a lot of wine podcasts and documentaries, and I’m a big fan of SommTV - both the podcast (free) and the streaming service (not free). These are the people who made the Somm films, beginning with the one about the guys taking their Master Sommelier exams. If a measure of documentary quality is how much sympathetic anxiety you share with the main characters, I rate this as a truly great film. But the good news for this week is that the fourth Somm film, Cup of Salvation, is now available to rent, buy, or watch free if you have a SommTV subscription! Please go watch it right now so we can discuss. It’s about a father-daughter team of Armenian winemakers and their journey of making wine during a war and from grapes harvested from Iran, where winemaking has been illegal since the 1979 revolution. While I didn’t feel quite as much sympathetic anxiety watching this one (probably because I am taking high pressure wine exams but am not illegally transporting grapes from a fundamentalist Muslim regime), it is a hair-raiser and tear-jerker to be sure. You can also buy the wines featured in the film for an incredibly reasonable price from Storica Wines. My pack will be arriving on Thursday, so you can expect a review soon.
Good news and bad news came from the Premiere Napa Valley annual trade auction on Saturday. On the plus side, the auction raised $3 million for Napa Valley Vintners. On a less positive note, this was down from $3.4 million in 2023, and the average bottle price was down 32%. One down year doesn’t constitute a trend, and I don’t think we need to declare that the sky is falling, but given the general downward trends in wine consumption, those of us in the industry are all going to be facing changes in the wine market and necessary shifts in how we promote wine.
On the topic of changes, the VinePair podcast wondered whether any of us know how to sell wine anymore at all. The wine industry backs itself into a corner with snobbery, inaccessible and unrelatable language, overly complicated background information, and beverage directors and retail buyers stocking according to their agendas for what customers should like rather than what customers actually like. Apparently we need more vibes.
Even in the midst of global wine decreases, Washington wine producers are celebrating success.
An arctic blast recently caused incredible damage to Canada’s Okanagan Valley, possibly eliminating the entire harvest for 2024. There isn’t currently much that can be done to protect vines from these conditions, but one app is trying to help with vineyard-specific frost warnings, while the Eastern Winery Exposition is offering seminars on vineyard management solutions.
Photo by Jack Butler on Unsplash Side note: if you had told me two years ago that I’d be gleefully digging into articles about wine marketing trends and vineyard cold protection, I would have been befuddled indeed, but here we are.
Bordeaux is experiencing an oversupply of wine and decreased demand, and leading brand Mouton Cadet has shifted to both support farmers in the area and improve Bordeaux’s image around the world by achieving Fair for Life accreditation for its best-selling red Bordeaux blend. The part of this article I find most interesting is the brief discussion by branded wines director for Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Véronique Hombroekx, of altering the style of Bordeaux wines to meet consumer demand. There is always tension in historic wine regions between maintaining the traditional varietals and styles that have defined the area, and adapting to the desires of consumers so as to economically survive. Bordeaux isn’t exactly known for being progressive, and I suspect the changes she suggests are seen by many winemakers as inauthentic to the terroir. I’m also biased as someone who does often want my Bordeaux on the “rounder, fruitier, with softer tannins” side.
Please, for the sake of those of us studying for WSET Diplomas, Master of Wine, and Court of Master Sommeliers exams, and for poor beleaguered retailers everywhere, amen, amen, let it be so to this article pleading for a stop to the endless subdivisions in wine appellations. If I have to memorize the unique soil types and winemaking differentiations of 134 subzones of Franciacorta, so help me god.
Speaking of beleaguered retailers, I guess I’ll get ready to field requests for George Clooney’s wine. And BuDhaGirl. Because if you make a fortune in all-weather bangle bracelets, the next logical move is obviously into sparkling wine.
Light Housekeeping
If you’re around the Cincinnati area, come and drink some wine with me on Wednesday nights from 5-7pm at the Party Source. We pour a different theme every week; tonight it’s wines from Spain.
If you’d prefer a private event, I also offer a variety of tastings and classes, both online and in person.
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The Best Thing I Drank This Week
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