The Wine Broad's Board

Calling all Pinot Producers

I just received an e-mail from my friend Barbara Drady, who told me about a silent auction she's organizing as part of the 6th Annual Pinot Noir Summit on March 2nd, at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center. The auction will benefit Lou Gehrig's Disease research, in honor of wine judge/writer David Jones, who was recently diagnosed with the disease.  Wineries willing and able to donate auction items should contact Barbara: bdrady@affairsofthevine.com.

If you've never attended an Affairs of the Vine event, you might want to check this one out. Rather than a typical walk-around tasting of random wines, this is a blind tasting of 40 Pinot Noirs pre-selected by an expert panel of judges. Participants rate the wines according to their preferences, and the results are tallied and pitted against those of the expert panel. The event also features Pinot workshops and an awards ceremony for the top Pinots at the end of the day. And knowing Barbara, it's sure to be a great time!

Wine Culture in America: It's Here!

Some said it would never happen--that the uncouth, brewski-swilling American public would never embrace wine as a part of everyday life. But according to the Wine Market Council's latest consumer tracking study, the term "American wine culture" is no longer an oxymoron.

WMC's reserach shows that the U.S. reached some impressive wine-related milestones in 2007:

* Wine consumption topped 300 million cases for the first time ever, taking over Italy's spot as the second-largest wine consuming country in the world.

*Adult per-capita wine consumption reached 3 gallons.

*Adult wine-drinkers in the U.S. now outnumber non-wine drinkers.

*The average age of "core" wine drinkers (those who drink wine at least once a week) was younger than that of marginal wine drinkers.

That last one is important: It indicates that young adults are playing a major role in the increase of U.S. wine consumption.

This is obviously good news for the American wine industry, because more people than ever are drinking wine--and more expensive wine at that. But that's not to say there aren't challenges ahead: For one, the Millennial wine drinkers who are driving the increase in consumption aren't necessarily drinking domestic wines. In fact, their generation is the one that's most likely to buy imports. Then there's the looming recession, which threatens to put the brakes on America's wine spending.

But overall, there's plenty to celebrate. I've certainly done my part to bring that per-capita comsuption average to the 3-gallon level.

Moving On

You may have noticed that I've been writing a lot of freelance articles lately: consumer-oriented wine, food and travel pieces for publications like Via and US Airways (see "Articles I've Written" sidebar on the right for links). Well, I'll be doing a lot more of that in the coming months, along with more blogging. Yes, after five great years, today was my last day as a full-time editor at Wines & Vines. Don't worry, I'll still be writing my monthly "Marketing Matters" column for the magazine, along with occasional features and news, but I'll be doing it from the freelance-y comfort of my living room sofa.

Why? Sometimes you need a kick in the ass to do something different. For a while now I've been thinking about doing more writing on the consumer side of wine, and widening my focus to other passions like food and travel. Whether this means pure freelance work or another full-time post, I'm not sure: I'm keeping my options open.

In the meantime, let's all drink a toast to change. Salute!

Repeal This

Today marks the 74th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition: Let’s get drunk!

On this day in 1933, the nation’s decade-plus dry spell officially ended. Of course, the “dry” part never really began, since Americans could get all the wine, beer and other booze they wanted through the miracles of bootlegging and home winemaking/distilling/brewing. As someone who grew up in the ‘70s, it’s hard for me to imagine that there was ever a time in U.S. history when drinking anything stronger than milk was illegal—yet, there are plenty of wine-industry veterans who remember those days.

Early on in my wine industry career, I helped put on an “Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition” event hosted by Wine Institute. My job: dress as a 1920s flapper and check in guests at the door. (Don’t laugh, it was kind of fun—I got to wear a cool vintage dress rented from the costume department of San Francisco’s ACT Theater.) One of the highlights (aside from Robert Mondavi winking at me and calling me “sexy,” and another ol’-timer commenting that ladies in the ‘20s were more flat-chested than me—but that’s another story) was listening to guys in their 80s reminiscing about the good old days. That’s right: the good old days! Despite the underground nature of the industry, the wine biz was actually booming during Prohibition--at least for some producers.

Probably the biggest effect of our nation’s failed experiment in temperance was the near-disappearance of Eastern wineries. Before Prohibition, Ohio was the hub of the U.S. wine industry (no kidding!). But by the time of Repeal, many of those wineries had gone under, and the wine industries in those Eastern states are only now starting to re-emerge. There are some really good wines coming out of states like New York and Virginia these days, but imagine how much better they’d be if the industry hadn’t been put on hold for several decades!

Another lasting effect of Prohibition was the change in Americans’ wine preferences. Before Prohibition, dessert wines were Americans’ grape-based drink of choice, but by the time of Repeal, they’d gotten used to drinking dry European table wines. Wineries that managed to survive Prohibition had to switch gears pretty quickly to stay in business.

Fascinating stuff, this.

So, as we mark the 74th anniversary of Repeal, pop a cork and raise a toast to all the great American wines at our disposal. Unlike your grandparents, you won’t even have to worry about getting tossed into the Paddy wagon for it.

Two-Buck Chuck? Out of Luck

In case you haven't heard, the 2005 Charles Shaw Chardonnay (aka Two-Buck Chuck) was judged as California's top Chardonnay at this year's California State Fair Wine Competition. (It scored 98 points, and was awarded double-gold, Best of California and Best of Class accolades.) So what's the big deal? The big deal is that this wine sells for $1.99 per bottle, and others in the competition cost many, many times more. (Or so they say; the full contest results haven't yet been released. Check the website in mid-July to find out who Chuck was competing against.) Just how good is this Two-Buck Chuck Chard? I wouldn't know about the 2005 vintage, since every last bottle had been cleaned out of my local Trader Joe's when I stopped in ONE DAY after the State Fair results were announced. I went there to buy a bottle for a blind tasting at my office (we do them every Friday--yeah, I know, poor me), but there was no Chuck Chardonnay to be had. It was pathetic, really: a 90-something-year-old man and I hovered outside the TJ's stockroom door like cheap-wine groupies, hoping to be invited backstage to meet Chuck. But he'd already left the scene with some whore from Larkspur, leaving Arthur and I to cry ourselves to sleep after drinking an inferior bottle of $50 Chard. I haven't given up, though. I'm still planning to do the blind tasting (maybe next week).

Rowdy Topless Tasters!

Last week I received an intriguing press release about a new program launched in New York’s Finger Lakes wine region (click here to read the news story). The program’s goal? To rein in out-of-control tour groups that can’t tell the difference between a genteel afternoon of tasting fine wine and a booze-soaked Mardi Gras parade. Groups exhibiting “inappropriate or illegal behavior” will be issued either a “Yellow Card” or a “Red Card” to let them know they’ve been put on notice. Meanwhile, tasting room staff will call the next wineries on the trail to let them know that a drunk posse of crazed wine tasters is heading their way. Groups holding the dreaded “Red Cards” may be turned away at their next stop and forced to drink tepid tap water for the rest of the day. This all seemed a bit extreme when I first read about it—how rowdy could these people be? We’ve all gotten a bit loopy after one-too-many stops on the wine-tasting trail, right? Well, it seems that Finger Lakes tourists have taken the concept to a whole new level of debauchery. Paul Thomas, who is the executive director of the Seneca Lake Wine Trail, told me about some recent incidents: “a college student almost killing himself doing a header off a winery deck, another customer coming close to drowning in a winery pond clearly posted ‘no swimming,’ customers urinating in the parking lot or scampering around topless.” Did he say “scampering around topless”? I hope I never see that here in California! (People prone to topless--or even pants-less--scampering are never the ones you’d actually want to see showing off the goods.) Now that I’ve put that appetizing image into your heads, does anyone have an out-of-control-wine-taster story they’d like to share? Feel free to make one up—I could use a laugh!