I read a line in a book the other day that I’m having trouble deciding if I agree or disagree with. It goes like this: “The only sin worse than drinking a cheap wine is wasting a good one on people who couldn’t appreciate it.” Is that why I get served Two Buck Chuck instead of a $50 bottle of Pinot Noir?
The quote implies that all good wines are expensive (as in, the opposite of cheap). But I stand by my words that price is, generally, always more associated with quantity available rather than quality. If quality really stood out—even slapped you around a bit—how do you explain five very professional judges disagreeing over whether a wine should be awarded a gold versus a bronze (or even, frequently, no award)? I guess not everybody’s like high-octane, mega killer Parker. Still, it’s an interesting line.
Just mentioning Robert Parker makes me think about Wine Spectator magazine’s list of the top 100 wines in the world. Looking at it, I’m glad they’re not based in California (or, even worse, the North Bay). I took a few minutes to analyze the chosen wines and see how many were from major wine regions. Only 25 of the top 100 were from the United States—and we thought we were big time!
It shouldn’t be a surprise that 11 of the 25 were from Oregon and Washington, including the number two wine, a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington’s Quilceda Creek. The highest-rated Sonoma wine was a Kosta Browne 2004 Russian River Pinot Noir, which came in at number seven, and number eight was a Kongsgaard 2004 Napa Valley Chardonnay. I should probably also mention that it appears Oregon might actually be learning how to grow and make Pinot Noir after all these years. Perseverance wins again. If you’re ever in the Northwest, give yourself a great treat and visit the Walla Walla area in mid-Washington.
Without mentioning a lot of specifics, a summary shows that only five Sonoma wines are listed, only four from Napa and just five from California’s central coast. Australia and New Zealand came through with 14 wines, mainly Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz. There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that New Zealand is setting the world standard for Sauvignon Blanc. Personally, I’m trying to figure out why we can’t duplicate that style. I’m equally perplexed about our inability to compete with Australian Shiraz.
There’s little doubt that we have enough Syrah/Shiraz planted throughout the state to play with. I say, let’s produce both a Syrah and Shiraz style, but do it with the world class that’s expected of our area. Is it the fruit or the winemaking where we fall down? Maybe more time will help answer that. I guess we first have to learn to make red wines that are more sensible in alcohol levels. As expected from the “Wine Speculator,” France led the way with Italy a close second. Also, obviously, all of those scores were in there 90s on the questionable 100-point scale.
Speaking of Washington, Costco has lost its lawsuit against the state. The wholesale giant was suing for the right to sell alcohol at discount prices—a suit it initially won. Unfortunately, the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the Washington State Liquor Control Board could, after all, prohibit discounts, ban central warehousing of beer and wine by retailers, require wholesalers to charge uniform prices to all retailers and require a 10 percent markup. The decision also requires wholesalers to post prices and maintain them for at least 30 days.
These regulations, obviously, were backed by very heavy lobbying of the wholesaler/distributor industry and very definitely stifles our efforts to sell California wine in Washington. Wonder if we could reciprocate the favor. Had Costco won, it could have used the victory to win pricing freedom in a lot of other states with equally arcane (and idiotic) regulations. If we keep adding free trade around the world (NAFTA, etc.), why can’t we do it here?
Back to Aussieland for a minute. A few interesting trends that I saw while down under included a major thrust on lessening the now famous “carbon footprint” of the wine industry. Besides the growing popularity of screw tops, there’s also a movement to phase out heavy bottles as not environmentally friendly and a push toward more user-friendly six-bottle cases instead of our typical 12-packs. It sure would be easier on my back and everybody else’s.
My last tip of the hat to my friends down under is something that may surprise everyone here. Apparently cars there are all sold with turning signals. Since so few are used here, I assume they’re optional in California. Anyway, amazingly, they actually use them! Sure takes a lot of the stress out of driving. By the way, they also stop for red lights. (On the negative side, they do a lot of crazy things, too, including only having two speeds—fast and stop—and U-turns are done absolutely everywhere with little attention to safety. But they do use their turn signals. What can I say?)
Did you notice how loyal Americans are with their own wine industry? I read in the paper not long ago that 31 percent of all wine purchased last year was imported. “We’re the target for everybody in the world and will continue to be so,” says industry analyst Jon Fredrikson. “Through a combination of better marketing, improved wine quality and good values, imports are gaining ground on their U.S. counterparts.”
Maybe that’s why we’re so far down the list of the top 100 wines. Will we learn to make wine that’s consumer friendly and doesn’t have enough alcohol to compete with cough medicine? I guess I should also point out that the really big boys—like Gallo, Constellation and Diago—have stopped trying to beat them, and have joined them instead, importing millions of gallons. If they don’t care about our industry, why should the average consumer? We need to remember that much of the profit made by the big guys is also responsible for much of alcohol’s bad name—remember ‘winos’ (Thunderbird, Ripple, Richard’s Irish Rose, and the like are all made by the very same people). It’s a strange world we live in.
Go do your homework…and maybe you shouldn’t feel bad about some of it being imported.
