Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Platinum and Gold Finished Corkscrew
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vagablond/ysSN/~3/qF1Fnr0Mzt4/
Age Verification Comes to Twitter
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/TxMx5Vsz_Eo/
Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand
Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/x4ruIoL8u44/
Chardonnay Sauvignon Blanc Riesling Chenin Blanc Pinot Grigio
Rockin? at Wine & Cars
When is a Twitter Trend not a Trend?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/C078oxVfVRY/
The Perils of Posting On April Fools? Day
The Perils of Posting On April Fools’ Day originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/w4RWgSDbxdY/
Monday, 29 April 2013
Good News Spreads Fast
Head to Head with Landon 2010 & 2011 Tempranillo
Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2012/11/07/head-to-head-with-landon-2010-2011-tempranillo/
Wine on TV comes to a Second Screen
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/uV3T-qA73IM/
Rodney Strong Vineyards: Sonoma County Wines
Rodney Strong Vineyards: Sonoma County Wines was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/jWOiSNtnuvM/
Wine tasting to benefit Sandy recovery
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/HxPG02Fb7r0/
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Stuart Hughes Creates History by Designing a 55? Prestige HD Television with Gold Borders
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vagablond/ysSN/~3/njzpB6lL0ic/
Wine Gifts
Red Wings and Red Rh�nes 2013
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gangofpour/uncZ/~3/Qrgl8oQblII/red-wings-and-red-rhones-2013
Field Notes from a Wine Life ? Story Edition
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass…
Words aren’t enough
I give to thee…the worst wine ad of all-time and that’s without delving into the ponderous name of the wine or, why, inexplicably, the back of the laptop in the photo has a big sticker for Ass Kisser ales…
…In the main visual, three people are huddled around the boss giving him “Ass Kisser” wine…Isn’t the point of being a brown-noser to do it subtly? Who randomly gifts their boss right before their employee review?
Even if you view this ad as schlocky hipster irony, it’s still bad and makes you wonder if the advertising sales guy at Wine Enthusiast couldn’t do a solid for his client and suggest creative that, well, actually makes sense.
Or, maybe being horrible was the plan – like a movie that becomes a cult hit a decade hence…so bad that it becomes a lofty ideal for bad, enjoying a following because of its campy nature.
Bad Week for Eric Asimov?
On both Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Eric Asimov, the New York Times chief wine critic was taken to task for different reasons by Matt Kramer at Winespectator.com and Steve Heimoff at his blog of the same name.
This is interesting because wine writers of a certain stature very carefully call their shots amongst their peers.
Normally the shots are fired up (Parker) or down (bloggers), but usually never sideways amongst writers in the same strata.
To watch Asimov, as seemingly decent of a guy as you’ll find, called onto the rug by two notable wine writers, to me, speaks to something much bigger.
With Parker stepping aside and Antonio Galloni receiving glancing admiration for hitting a stand-up triple by dint of his current position at the Wine Advocate, at the same time that the wheat and chaff are separating with wine bloggers, somebody has to step into the fray as a public foil for other wine writers to target.
Unwittingly, it might be Asimov for reasons entirely opposite of Parker’s hegemony. Asimov’s palate for wine seems food-friendly and balanced; he takes an egalitarian approach to wine for the people without pretense and he doesn’t score wines.
In other words, Asimov is bizarro Superman to Parker’s swashbuckling empiricism and, perhaps, even a greater danger to the Ivory Tower of legacy wine media than the mere jealousy that passed for poking at Parker.
Just a thought…
It’s all about the story
The wine business has always been excellent at storytelling. Virtually every winery has their origin story and that of their dirt down pat, even if not very compelling.
So, it is with interest that I’ve been watching Facebook’s recent changes keeping in mind that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized emotional resonance, narrative and storytelling – factors that extend well beyond consumers using Facebook to “Tell the story of their life,” as Zuckerberg noted. This will be inclusive of the brands that use Facebook for engagement, as well.
I was further intrigued after reading parallel news reports that Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), is singing the same song.
He notes in an article in Advertising Age, “Technology innovations are irrelevant to the future of advertising and marketing unless a more fundamental activity is understood, honored and advanced: the craft of storytelling.”
A quick Google search for “Mark Zuckerberg F8 Keynote” and “Randall Rothenberg MIXX Keynote” will yield a number of stories all occurring in September. There’s no question about Facebook’s influence and the IAB is the thought-leader for digital advertising. Between the two of them, they present an imposing shadow of influence on digital marketing.
If I were a winery with an understanding that digital marketing is a tsunami of change that is important, I might start revisiting my winery story for some fine-tuning…
Two books that I recommend to bone-up on the elements of good business storytelling are: The Story Factor and Made to Stick.
On Sweet Wines
In an article this week from the San Francisco Chronicle called “Beginner drinkers get a crush on sweet red wines,” E.&J. Gallo VP of Marketing, Stephanie Gallo, noted: “There is a major shift going on in the U.S. wine drinking culture. First, we noticed that regional sweet red blends were doing particularly well in Indiana, Texas and North Carolina. Second, our consumers were asking if we produced a sweet red wine after tasting our Moscato at events.”
Good Grape readers had the scoop on this months ago when I wrote:
How Sweet it is – The Growing Sweet Wine Trend in early October, 2010
And
Move over Moscato and Make Way for Sweet Reds in February of this year
Just saying…
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/field_notes_from_a_wine_life_story_edition/
Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Pinot Noir Syrah or Shiraz Zinfandel
Wine on TV comes to a Second Screen
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/uV3T-qA73IM/
Wine & The Connected Consumer
Wine & The Connected Consumer originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/nrx_xWDCG2s/
Chardonnay Sauvignon Blanc Riesling Chenin Blanc Pinot Grigio
Saturday, 27 April 2013
TMiW 1 ? Looking Back, Looking Forward
TMiW 1 – Looking Back, Looking Forward originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/G2HGzSDlbQM/
Public Service Announcement: Passwords Protect All of Us
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/hcWq5-W4iDU/
Stuart Hughes Creates History by Designing a 55? Prestige HD Television with Gold Borders
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vagablond/ysSN/~3/njzpB6lL0ic/
The Top 10 Wines of 2010
Source: http://www.beyondnapavalley.com/blog/the-top-10-wines-of-2010/
Field Notes from a Wine Life ? Cover Story Edition
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass…
The Wine Spectator Affect
When I received my November 15th issue of Wine Spectator on October 11th, featuring a cover shot of Tim Mondavi and an feature article on him and his estate winery Continuum, I captured some online research reference points so I could have a baseline to measure the effect that a flattering Wine Spectator cover story might have on a winery in the digital age.
Using Wine-Searcher, CellarTracker and Google Keywords search data to track various data points, the results, while not directly linked to conclusions, do indicate a small bump in interest as a result of the cover piece.
For example, Wine-Searcher data indicates that the average bottle price, an indicator of supply and demand, rose $2 month over month, from $149 a bottle to $151 a bottle.
In addition, the Wine-Searcher search rank (always a month behind) indicates that Continuum was the 1360th most popular search in September. By Friday, November 11th the Continuum search rank had increased to 471st for the month of October. (See the top 100 searches for October here).
Likewise, interest at CellarTracker increased, as well. The number of bottles in inventory from October 11th to November 11th increased by 177 bottles, likely no small coincidence.
Finally, Google searches increased fivefold from an average of 210 monthly searches to approximately 1000 monthly searches.
What does this all mean? Good question. The truth is, a Wine Spectator cover appears to have moved the needle a bit, and while the easy route is to take a righteous Eeyore approach to mainstream media and its blunted impact in the Aughts, as contrasted to what a Spectator cover feature or glowing words from Parker meant just a decade ago, I believe a more tangible takeaway is to realize that these sorts of cover stories don’t happen in a vacuum and that Wine Spectator cover and feature was likely a result of weeks, months or even years’ worth of effort from a PR professional.
In an attention-deficit, social media-impacted, offline/online hybrid world of information consumption with mobile and tablets proliferating, in order to break through to (and ultimately assist) the consumer, the value of the PR professional, an oft neglected part of the marketing hierarchy, in reaching out and facilitating the telling of a winery’s story seems to be more important than ever.
It’s not about press releases, it’s about people supporting and telling the winery story, repeatedly, as a professional function – that leads to media notice, and that leads to 14 cases of wine being sold and inventoried at CellarTracker in a 30-day period of time. It’s perhaps obvious, but not adhered to.
Wine Labels
To me, a wine bottle is a blank canvas that can either inspire in its creativity or repel in its insipidness. While I have a reasonably conservative approach to the kinds of wine I want to drink relative to technological intervention, I am unabashedly progressive when it comes to the kind of wine labels that appeal to me. In support of my interest with wine packaging, I keep an eye on The Dieline wine blog to see what’s happening in wine label design (another example from The Coolist here) and I also pay attention to the burgeoning field of wine label design contests.
What say you about progressive labels? Like ‘em? Loathe them? I placed a poll to the right.
Below is a slide show of winners from the recent International Wine Label Design competition.
Reconciling the Contradiction
I will lobby the nominating committee of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences on behalf of anybody who can help me understand how it is that in the span of a week I can see multiple research reports (here and here) on a revived sense of fiscal austerity by consumers yet other reports (here and here) indicate that wine above $20 is the fastest growing segment this year.
These two clearly don’t jive with each other, yet I’m witless to understand why wine is “trading up.” Help!
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/field_notes_from_a_wine_life_cover_story_edition/
Pinot Blanc Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Pinot Noir Syrah or Shiraz
TasteCamp East:Bloggers Arrive in the Finger Lakes
Source: http://familylovewine.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/tastecamp-eastbloggers-arrive-in-the-finger-lakes/
The Top 10 Wines of 2010
Source: http://www.beyondnapavalley.com/blog/the-top-10-wines-of-2010/
Stuart Hughes Creates History by Designing a 55? Prestige HD Television with Gold Borders
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vagablond/ysSN/~3/njzpB6lL0ic/
Wine of the Month Club
Age Verification Comes to Twitter
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/TxMx5Vsz_Eo/
Field Notes from a Wine Life ? Power Structure Edition
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass…
Naked Wine and Occupy Wall Street
It’s not hard to notice the parallels between the natural wine movement and Occupy Wall Street - both are valid causes sorely lacking coherence and a rallying point that would move them from fringe head-scratcher to mainstream momentum.
• Natural wine is about purity of wine expression—shepherding grapes grown without chemicals to the bottle with as little human manipulation as possible, representing the place where they came from in the process.
• Occupy Wall Street is about re-calibrating the world’s best economic system – capitalism—to preserve the middle-class, the labor force that has allowed the U.S. to create the most productive economy in the world.
Neither movement represents fringe radicalism as some would have you believe. I look at both as being valid inflection points and, at their core, about keeping a balance between big and small, allowing every man and woman an equal opportunity at pursuing success around their particular truth.
What reasonable person would deny the validity of either if not clouded by confusion?
One idea well-conceived and well-communicated can change the world, but, unfortunately, both the natural wine movement and Occupy Wall Street are prevaricating from their essential truth, rendering them both toothless and feckless.
No need to crib from Che Guevara, but appealing to base logic and the common denominator would do both movements some good.
Just one man’s opinion…
On the Aussies, Redux
A few weeks back, I noted how the Australian wine industry was poised for a rebound in public perception due in part to two things happening in concert – public backlash to Yellow Tail wine, what I call the, “Derision Decision,” and an unspoken coalition of influencers recognizing Australia’s artisanal wine production – the antithesis of Yellow Tail. I cited recent sympathetic mentions from Jay McInerney in the Wall Street Journal and Dan Berger, wine writing’s current patriarch, as proof points.
You can add to the list of sympathetic mentions about artisanal Australia with recent mentions from Jancis Robinson and James Suckling.
Don’t sleep on Australia. It’s making a comeback slowly, but surely in public perception.
Tim Mondavi and Wine Spectator
Thomas Matthews, the Executive Editor for Wine Spectator magazine (WS), has commented on my site a few times. Each of these instances has been to protect or project Wine Spectator around its editorial goals.
Good on Thomas for not being afraid to get in the ring. Certainly, WS takes its fair share of shots from the wine chatterati, mostly with grace and aplomb.
Lest I cast myself as anything but objective, I should note that James Laube’s article on Tim Mondavi and Continuum in the current issue of WS (November 15th issue) is everything right about what mainstream wine media can offer wine consumers that online wine writing (mostly) doesn’t –long-form, depth, first-person access and an effort that takes weeks and not hours.
Laube’s piece is excellent - well-written and balanced; acknowledgement thereof is in order.
Besides the Wine
Jordan winery has two wines – a Cabernet and Chardonnay, but they really have a triumvirate in terms of things to buy. Jordan focuses on food and wine as being partners at the table and, to that end, any purchase from Jordan should also include their olive oil. Wow!
The Jordan olive oil makes Trader Joe’s EVOO seem like Two Buck Chuck, comparatively speaking. A little whole wheat Barilla pasta, some homemade pesto using the Jordan olive oil and some artisan bread in five minutes a day and you’re assuredly living the good life. The rub is I wouldn’t pour the round Jordan Chard with the pesto, probably a Sauvignon Blanc, but don’t let that dissuade you from picking up their olive oil – it’s good stuff.
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/field_notes_from_a_wine_life_power_structure_edition/
Friday, 26 April 2013
Calais 2010 Cuvee du Manior ?Texas Tempranillo
Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2013/01/31/calais-2010-cuvee-du-manior-texas-tempranillo/
Domaine Pierre Usseglio
But I [...]
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/42/domaine-pierre-usseglio/
Drew Barrymore: the ladiez like ice in their wine
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/lFczJZNeRFI/
Social Media Quick Tip: Introduce Your Twitter Team
Source: http://familylovewine.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/social-media-quick-tip-introduce-your-twitter-team/
Field Notes from a Wine Life ? Story Edition
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass…
Words aren’t enough
I give to thee…the worst wine ad of all-time and that’s without delving into the ponderous name of the wine or, why, inexplicably, the back of the laptop in the photo has a big sticker for Ass Kisser ales…
…In the main visual, three people are huddled around the boss giving him “Ass Kisser” wine…Isn’t the point of being a brown-noser to do it subtly? Who randomly gifts their boss right before their employee review?
Even if you view this ad as schlocky hipster irony, it’s still bad and makes you wonder if the advertising sales guy at Wine Enthusiast couldn’t do a solid for his client and suggest creative that, well, actually makes sense.
Or, maybe being horrible was the plan – like a movie that becomes a cult hit a decade hence…so bad that it becomes a lofty ideal for bad, enjoying a following because of its campy nature.
Bad Week for Eric Asimov?
On both Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Eric Asimov, the New York Times chief wine critic was taken to task for different reasons by Matt Kramer at Winespectator.com and Steve Heimoff at his blog of the same name.
This is interesting because wine writers of a certain stature very carefully call their shots amongst their peers.
Normally the shots are fired up (Parker) or down (bloggers), but usually never sideways amongst writers in the same strata.
To watch Asimov, as seemingly decent of a guy as you’ll find, called onto the rug by two notable wine writers, to me, speaks to something much bigger.
With Parker stepping aside and Antonio Galloni receiving glancing admiration for hitting a stand-up triple by dint of his current position at the Wine Advocate, at the same time that the wheat and chaff are separating with wine bloggers, somebody has to step into the fray as a public foil for other wine writers to target.
Unwittingly, it might be Asimov for reasons entirely opposite of Parker’s hegemony. Asimov’s palate for wine seems food-friendly and balanced; he takes an egalitarian approach to wine for the people without pretense and he doesn’t score wines.
In other words, Asimov is bizarro Superman to Parker’s swashbuckling empiricism and, perhaps, even a greater danger to the Ivory Tower of legacy wine media than the mere jealousy that passed for poking at Parker.
Just a thought…
It’s all about the story
The wine business has always been excellent at storytelling. Virtually every winery has their origin story and that of their dirt down pat, even if not very compelling.
So, it is with interest that I’ve been watching Facebook’s recent changes keeping in mind that founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized emotional resonance, narrative and storytelling – factors that extend well beyond consumers using Facebook to “Tell the story of their life,” as Zuckerberg noted. This will be inclusive of the brands that use Facebook for engagement, as well.
I was further intrigued after reading parallel news reports that Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), is singing the same song.
He notes in an article in Advertising Age, “Technology innovations are irrelevant to the future of advertising and marketing unless a more fundamental activity is understood, honored and advanced: the craft of storytelling.”
A quick Google search for “Mark Zuckerberg F8 Keynote” and “Randall Rothenberg MIXX Keynote” will yield a number of stories all occurring in September. There’s no question about Facebook’s influence and the IAB is the thought-leader for digital advertising. Between the two of them, they present an imposing shadow of influence on digital marketing.
If I were a winery with an understanding that digital marketing is a tsunami of change that is important, I might start revisiting my winery story for some fine-tuning…
Two books that I recommend to bone-up on the elements of good business storytelling are: The Story Factor and Made to Stick.
On Sweet Wines
In an article this week from the San Francisco Chronicle called “Beginner drinkers get a crush on sweet red wines,” E.&J. Gallo VP of Marketing, Stephanie Gallo, noted: “There is a major shift going on in the U.S. wine drinking culture. First, we noticed that regional sweet red blends were doing particularly well in Indiana, Texas and North Carolina. Second, our consumers were asking if we produced a sweet red wine after tasting our Moscato at events.”
Good Grape readers had the scoop on this months ago when I wrote:
How Sweet it is – The Growing Sweet Wine Trend in early October, 2010
And
Move over Moscato and Make Way for Sweet Reds in February of this year
Just saying…
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/field_notes_from_a_wine_life_story_edition/
Thursday, 25 April 2013
En primeur prices out early: end of an era?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/M8QXGCEVOo4/
Phelps Pastiche Ritchie Creek Rochioli Rosenblum St. Clement
Where to stay in the Napa Valley
We always like to stay within walking distance of fine restaurants and shopping. We like to enjoy our wine with dinner so we either walk or take a cab. We don?t drink and drive. The centers of the towns of Napa, Yountville, and Calistoga are giving the traveler many choices for lodging within a short distance of many restaurants. Continue reading
The post Where to stay in the Napa Valley appeared first on Napa Valley Wine Blog.
Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/where-to-stay-in-the-napa-valley/
Wine Bloggers? Wines from Oddbins
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/0KjB-LdU1U0/
Review of Chelan Ridge 2009 Chardonnay
Source: http://www.beyondnapavalley.com/blog/review-of-chelan-ridge-winery/
Cap Rock Winery 2011 Sweet Tempranillo
Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2013/01/03/cap-rock-winery-2011-sweet-tempranillo/
White Wine Champagne Sparkling White Wine Rose Alex. Vall. Vyds
Social Media Quick Tip: Tag Your Favorite Wine Brands on Facebook
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Maryland Running Circles Around Massachusetts with Thoughtful Wine Legislation
Posted with BlogsyReview of Chelan Ridge 2009 Chardonnay
Source: http://www.beyondnapavalley.com/blog/review-of-chelan-ridge-winery/
Fake food: impossible pairing?!?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/piRqqlOz1DQ/
Australian Wine: The Once and Future King?
You’ve never heard of Campbell Mattinson: He’s a young, urbane Australian wine wordsmith who forsakes the academically erudite and plaintive wine writing style of legends past for a muscular writing style that is jocularly loose yet incisive, showing every bit of the wunderkind talent of his global English-language contemporaries, Jamie Goode and Neal Martin.
Likewise, you probably haven’t heard of Mattison’s *new* wine book, Thin Skins: Why the French Hate Australian Wine first published in Australia in 2007 and now just released in America.
Seemingly stillborn upon its October publishing date in the states and updated with a scant epilogue where the author notes, “The headiness described in the early passages of this book is now long gone,” the book formerly offered in situ context on the boom and looming bust of the Australian wine landscape and is now something of an ipso facto think piece on the manifested reality.
With recency in absentia as one negative checkmark, Thin Skins as a body of work brooks no favors for itself either. Even when first published four years ago, it represented a compendium of articles and profile pieces, individually quite good, but collectively never quite transcending its constituent parts, especially one that supports the premise of the title. And, unlike its subject matter, time has not aged the book into cohesion.
Worse still, brought to the U.S. market by publisher Sterling Epicure, the book is likely supported with little more than the gas it takes a truck to drive a meager allotment of books to an Amazon.com warehouse and the dwindling number of Barnes & Nobles that still populate the landscape, a veritable line item in an editors’ fourth quarter publishing spreadsheet under the header, “wine.”
Thin Skins seems destined for a hastened half-life and quick retreat to the remainder bin at Half-Price Books…it’s an ignoble fate heaped upon by my damnation.
But, I’ve feinted purposefully, misdirecting by caveat because, despite everything I’ve mentioned having some inherent truth(including the author being very talented), Thin Skins is a wildly entertaining book that delivers on providing a teasing glimpse into a distinctly Aussie viewpoint on the factors that led to the Australian wine boom (Parker points, market forces, greed and drought) and in so doing the author makes three key points worth repeating:
1) The Aussie wine industry, save for its Gallo-like equivalents, is NOT happy about their country’s production being viewed globally as syrupy supermarket plonk
2) Our U.S. perception IS NOT reality regarding Australian wine; their wine industry has an abundance of refined, terroir-based wines from small vintners
3) The Aussie wine business will rise again on the international scene (in an entirely different form).
One key takeaway for me from the book is that Australia is remarkably similar to the U.S.
In the U.S., some reports indicate that 90% of the wine sold is “corporate” wine, the kind found at supermarkets across the country. However, what IS different is that 90% of our national conversation about wine focuses on the 10% of the wine production that ISN’T in the supermarket i.e. everything non-corporate – the boutique, artisan and interesting.
Yet, when it comes to Australian wine, we don’t continue our conversation about the small and beautiful. Instead of talking about the superlative, we view their entire country production through the lens of the insipid, the Yellowtail and other critters that cost $6.99 at Safeway.
American wine consumers would be rightfully indignant if the world viewed our wines not as we do, a rich tapestry, but as industrialized plonk from the San Joaquin Valley.
This is where Australian wine is at today—a ‘perception is reality’ mistake of colossal proportions.
While offering an abundance of stories from small producers along the way, Mattison suggests that while it may take time, with Australia having 162 years of winemaking history, the day will come, sooner rather than later, when Australian wine forsakes its near-term reputation and is viewed on the world stage as a wine producing country that can proudly stand next to its New World peers.
I wrote recently that I’ve noticed a slow change in tenor from American influencers regarding Aussie wine, they’re becoming more sympathetic, they’re starting to speak less dismissively and more optimistically and holistically about Australian wine, discussing the merits and great diversity in the land of Oz.
Recent Symphony IRI sales data bears this out as well. According to a Shanken NewsDaily report from this week, Australian wine in the $15 - $19.99 category rose 23% in September. In addition, growth is coming from varietals not named Shiraz (see also syrupy supermarket plonk). Instead, Semillon, Riesling and Pinot Noir are showing growth.
Still, it’s not the land of milk and honey here in the states for Aussie wine, as it once was. Overall sales are down by volume and dollars, but as Mattinson alludes the correction in the U.S. market isn’t going to be pretty, but it will be healthy and it’s quite possible that Australia will decrease in overall volume and dollar sales from persistent decline at the low-end for years to come as the high-end grows, but not at a rate to replace what was lost.
The net sum of that doesn’t balance a spreadsheet, but it does balance mindshare.
Pick-up Thin Skins if you want to get turned on to a great wine writer while also enjoying a greater understanding of Australian wine – where it has been and where it’s going—perhaps not as a future King, but definitely not in its current role as court jester.
Campbell Mattinson’s Wine Site: The Wine Front
Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/australian_wine_the_once_and_future_king/