Dr Vino's wine blog

An op-ed in the Times yesterday puzzled over why beer sales are down while the economy is also in the dumps; there’s a perception out there that people drink more alcoholic beverages during a recession but a slump in beer sales defies that logic. The author pays a passing mention to wine, indicating that Constellation, the world’s largest publicly traded wine producer, has said they will have to “recalibrate” sales expectations.

But have Americans gotten so into wine that even a recession can’t take wine off the table? It appears that wine sales sales for 2008 may be up fractionally by volume but the value is likely to be down since many consumers are “trading down,” or reaching for less expensive wines.

We last checked in with you about your buying habits on September 29. Lots has happened in the economy since then. Tell us how your wine buying and consumption is now! And with the new polling software, you can now select two answers!

[poll id=”3″]

After learning that the wine vote carried Obama to victory, it’s no surprise that wine writers can barely contain the corks from popping until next week.

John and Dottie dig up this vignette from the the White House Historical Association: “In 1840, the Whigs presented their candidate, William Henry Harrison, as a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast to an aristocratic, Champagne-sipping Van Buren.” But then they say they don’t know what Obama will have after the inauguration.

Cue Elin McCoy. She’s got the intel on this one. And it ain’t all pretty. To the tape: “Fortunately for Barack Obama, the first wines he’ll sip as president include some pretty nice California bottlings, though one of them poses a foreign-relations test. At the inaugural congressional lunch at the Capitol, right after the swearing-in ceremony, the wines will include 2007 Duckhorn Vineyards sauvignon blanc ($30; find this wine) and 2005 Goldeneye pinot noir ($55; find this wine). Two hundred dignitaries will toast the new President with 15 magnums of Korbel Natural sparkling wine ($15; don’t find this wine). It’s labeled “California Champagne,” so better not show it to the French.” Korbel? Puh-lease. And how did Duckhorn hit a double (they also make Goldeneye; see the inaugural lunch menu at their site)?

Mike Steinberger pops off a piece on Slate bristling with his usual brio. He has his own version of financial stimulus and suggests expanding the paltry White House wine cellar, introducing mature wines as opposed to current releases, and flattering foreign dignitaries by re-introducing wines from their own lands (presumably as an aperitif). I’ll raise a Montelena to that.

What will you pop next Tuesday? UPDATE: Or, if you were in charge of the inauguration lunch, what would you pour for the 200 honored guests?

Related: “The Sorry History of Wine in the White House,” p. 54, A Year of Wine
“Leaders and Liters of wine“

We’re back with Part Deux of our interview with John Gilman, author of the newsletter A View from the Cellar (part one is here). John has offered a free issue from his backlist to any Dr. Vino reader so surf on over to his site and check it out. In this part of the Q&A, I had intended John to give a quick thumbs up or thumbs down on a number of hot-button issues in the wine world today as well as some things that I’ve heard him express unusual views about. In case you thought you were done gorging during the holidays, you can now feast on John’s 7,000+ words in this second part. So buckle up and get ready to hear his thoughts on what’s wrong with Riesling from Austria and Australia, screwcaps and their problems, the Loire, California cab then and now, indigenous yeasts, roto-fermenters, small oak barrels, wines over 14% alcohol and why he uses scores!

German Riesling
To my mind this is clearly the most singularly misunderstood and underappreciated region for great wines in the world. Read more…

On Wednesday I went on Fox Business–for the second time in a week! The video for this segment is available (see it by clicking on the image at right).

We continued the discussion of “trading down” that we started last week, this time with a focus on bubbly, as the day demanded. Since I didn’t get a chance to actually mention the Dibon cava brut reserve (about $11; find this wine) on the show, I’ll do so here: it’s some really easy drinking stuff, great for parties, or to accompany coconut fried shrimp, as I did recently (it sure beat Lipitor, which could have also worked for that dish). I brought the tasty Roederer Estate brut NV on the show as well (find this wine). And for those who really didn’t want to trade down–or simply prefer fine Champagne in the winter, as I do, economic climate be somewhat damned–I brought the Larmandier-Bernier, brut, premier cru, blanc de blancs (about $45; find this wine). It’s a fantastic example of a grower Champagne and one of my favorites.

So here’s the big mystery question: since they didn’t allow us to pour wine on the set, what bubbly was actually in our glasses at the end?

The economy’s downturn has left many a gap in the New York State budget. Governor Paterson has proposed some new ways to plug those gaps, such as difficult spending cuts as well as new taxes on private jets, furs and soda. It looks likely that wine will not escape unchanged.

The governor proposes raising the state taxes on wine. Given that the state tax is currently $0.19 per gallon, below the national median of $0.69, we could have seen that one coming.

But he proposes a more far-reaching change: selling wine at grocery stores. Yes, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and others might soon be able to sell Sancerre right next to the Camembert without the need for special, at-grade entrances to separate facilities. This could really shake up New York wine retail by offering more convenience to consumers and increase wine sales overall; indeed, the governor estimates that it will bring in $150 million in revenues to the state.

Given that the number of licensees would jump from 2,400 to 19,000, the plan would presumably, remove the limit to one location per licensee. This would allow stores such as Zachys, which has only one location in suburban Scarsdale, to open stores in Manhattan or other successful Manhattan stores to open in other neighborhoods. Presumably, they would also be allowed to sell cheese and bread if they wanted to. Many details clearly need to be worked out and we’ll see how it unfolds between now and March.

In the meantime, have your say in the latest poll!

poll now closed

After so many suggestions in magazines, food and dining sections about which wines should be on your table, and probably a fair amount of going back and forth, which wines did you pour for Thanksgiving? What worked and what didn’t?

Some local friends and their extended family welcomed us to their celebration this year so it was an “away” Thanksgiving for us. We brought some wine, which included a Taittinger brut nonvintage champagne (find this wine), a magnum of Marcel Lapierre Morgon 2007 (find this wine), and a bottle of the (in)famous Palin syrah (find this wine). The Champagne was very good and well received. The Lapierre was lighter than I recall the ’06 being but still excellent and even my friend who really prefers “big reds” admitted that it was a really fine wine (someone else said it was the most beautiful wine bottle he’d ever seen!). The Palin syrah was horribly corked, not much different than the erstwhile veep candidate. Fortunately some more Champagne emerged from the other guests.

In case you’re curious what other people around the world tried, click here to see the 5,500 bottles consumed on 11/27/08 and entered (so far) into cellartracker. Domestic wines prevailed with Kistler, Kosta Browne, Peter Michael, Ridge, Seghesio, and Turley coming the first six places.

SIPPED: too much
As G-20 leaders met in Washington this weekend while the economic world burns, they sipped Shafer Hillside Select 2003, a $250 Napa cab (find this wine). This raised the hackles of bloggers at CNN (perhaps because they could only find it for $500?). The era of the teatotaler-in-chief is soon over! (Thanks, Arthur!)

SPIT: too little
An eagle eyed publicist at Kendall-Jackson spotted a mention of their Chardonnay in an interview the Obamas did with People magazine. The maker of this supermarket staple then sent “a few congratulatory cases of the brand” to the Obamas, care of the Democratic National Committee. Celebrate a historic victory such as his with a $12 chardonnay? But what did Shafer send them?

SPIT: Sauvignon blanc
NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni goes public about his dislike of Sauvignon Blanc as he tasted one from California, “he offered a grimace and a cry of anguish.” And what did his colleagues do to him after that. Why, laugh at him. Get the full story and their wine picks for turkey day in Eric Asimov’s column.

SPIT: 2008 Hospice de Beaune
The climate, both meteorological and economic, put a damper on the annual charity auction for barrels of red Burgundy. [Reuters]

SPIT: celebrity wine
Michael Vick’s 22 dogs will appear on a new wine line called “Vicktory Dogs.” A portion of the proceeds benefit the shelter in Utah where the dogs now reside. [ESPN]

Obama beat McCain by 53 – 46 percent in the popular vote. The logic of the electoral college broadened this to a 68 – 32 percent victory. But there’s one core constituency where Obama thrashed McCain by an even wider margin: the wine vote.

Obama took nine of the top ten wine consuming states (Texas, the fourth largest wine market, was red) as well as 17 of the top 20 (Georgia and Arizona are 13th and 14th) using 2006 data on wine consumption from Adams Wine Handbook. Those states alone would have been enough to win the electoral college with 276 electoral votes for Obama. Overall, blue states this year were thirsty for wine, putting back a total of 80.8 percent of all wine consumed in America.

McCain captured nine of the ten states with the lowest consumption (Vermont was blue).

And in case half-bottle sized Vermont raises the question of whether the data per capita (of drinking age) were different, Obama actually took all of the top ten thirstiest states per capita and 18 out of the top 20. McCain took 14 of the bottom 15.

Drink wine, vote Democratic? Forget Joe Six-Pack, this year the path to the White House was through the wine glass.

Finally, and prosaically, Illinois was the number two state (behind much larger California) for Champagne and sparkling wine. I’m sure that figure went up after last Tuesday night.

Total gallons of wine consumed in blue states: 228,563,000 or 80.8 percent of the total. The top twenty wine consuming states roll after the jump. Read more…