Dr Vino's wine blog

SPIT: reform in Maryland
Reforming Maryland’s wine law, where it is a felony to ship wine to consumers, is all but dead for this year. Despite having a majority of co-sponsors in both chambers of the state legislature, the bill has been farmed out for further study. Read the autopsy of reform over on Baltsun.com. As a chaser, check out Tom Wark’s “manifesto for change in the wine industry” over on Fermentation.

SPIT: business as usual
The aftershocks of the earthquake that rocked Chile and its wine industry continue to be felt. “Everybody is struggling to keep up with the harvest. I wouldn’t be surprised if some wineries don’t make it,” an AP story quotes one winemaker as saying. Grape prices have risen, the harvest is at hand, and there is still much infrastructure in need of repair. [Photo: reduced size crop of AP image]

SIPPED: turning tide?
A more sanguine take on the state of Napa’s economy; Nielsen data show wine sales at stores increased 4.6% in February year-over-year with the previously anemic category of wines over $20 showing 12.6 percent growth. Of note: the Super Bowl was on Feb 7 this year as opposed to Feb 1 of last year.

SPIT: business models
Three wine makers from California who were victims of the recession receive profiles in the LAT.

SPIT: extra weight
In the name of a smaller carbon footprint, the Champagne bureau has announced that 90% of Champagne bottles will be lighter weight within two years. They will still be strong enough to withstand the several atomospheres worth of pressure, however. Just easier to break when baptizing boats. [Timesonline]

SPIT: wine on TV; SIPPED: strength of will
Before it even shoots its first program, a proposed wine TV channel may be banned by French authorities on the basis of violating the Loi Evin. Undaunted, the people behind the channel, Edonys, press ahead. [Decanter]

SPIT: good times
Hard to tell which phrase would strike more fear in the heart of Napa: finances that are “very weak” or “on life support.” Even foreclosure has been the fate of 10 vineyards in the valley that once was called “Eden.” But probably the scariest phrase is this: “High-rollers are discovering that there are lots of drinkable $20 to $40 bottles of wine.” [“Vineyard Defaults Surge as Bargain Wines Hurt Napa”Bloomberg]

SIPPED: gilding the lily
Ah, spring is in the air. And with it come California winery newsletters offering their wines for $74 a case–just the shipping, that is.

SPIT: California values
The Bay Area NYT is the latest to ponder the question of why are there so few tasty value wines from California.

SIPPED: Buffett’s billions
Warren Buffett is getting into the wine biz. Not as a producer, but as a distributor. Through his subsidiary McLane, Berkshire Hathaway is buying the Georgia wine and spirits distributor, Empire, reports Wine & Spirits Daily. I guess Buffett knows where the profits are in wine.

SIPPED: spurious variable?
Wine drinking women don’t get fat! But is it wine consumption that explains the slower weight loss among women in a study? Not necessarily. [Globe and Mail]

SIPPED: subway reading
A twenty-something male in office clothes was spotted reading Wine Politics on the F train! Good thing it wasn’t on Kindle or the Cover Spies wouldn’t have known! [CoverSpy]

SPIT: volume (how vial!)
Two companies have developed oxygen-free, trial-sized bottles, 50ml in size (1/15th of a normal bottle). The goal is to send samples more easily from wineries to consumers. But don’t try to share this bottle over candlelight with your romantic partner unless you want the evening to end before it starts. Perhaps the best use would be a 100ml size since that is the maximum liquid allowable on planes. Ziploc, anyone? [AP; Wines & Vines]

SIPPED: a new look
Eric LeVine, who won the voting here to become the wine person of the decade, has rolled out a gorgeous, comprehensive redesign with new functionality of cellartracker and on the URL grapestories.com.

SIPPED: Recovery
Chile’s wine industry is digging from the massive earthquake. According to an official statement from Wines of Chile the total damage 125mln liters, 12% of last year’s harvest, and valued at $250 million. They state that the industry’s exports “will return to normal within a very short period of time and without major difficulties.”

SIPPED: the ride continues
Consumers have filed a class-action lawsuit in California against E&J Gallo over the faux pinot, Red Bicyclette. [PRweb.com]

SPIT: a move upmarket
The Chilean wine industry attempted a concerted move upmarket a few years ago. But the strong peso and weak global economy have crushed those plans. To wit: exports were up a whopping 17.6% by volume last year but flat by value. [LA Times]

SPIT: California bargains
Mike Steinberger contemplates the puzzle of why so few “superstar” winemakers in California make wines under $20. We discussed the lack of tasty California values last year in relation to Fred Franzia, and heard from wine importer Bobby Kacher and winemaker Patrick Campbell.

SPIT: urban winemaking
Crushpad, the pioneer urban winery in San Francisco, has announced it will move its operations to Napa where its main supplier has space. Of note: two-thirds of their clients are commercial wine brands. [NYT]

SIPPED: innovation
While New York is debating selling wine in grocery stores (and foods in wine stores), Pennsylvania, where the state still owns all the wine stores, gets wine bars in supermarkets! Groc-o-pubs anyone? [Philly.com]

SIPPED: footy!
Unruly winery visitors in the Finger Lakes will get yellow and red cards. [WENY]

SPIT: truth
A shocking piece on Slate.com reveals that during Prohibition, federal officials “ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking.” But instead it accounted for 10,000 fatalities. Unmentioned in the brief story, but maybe people were on to the scheme and that helped account for the rise in home winemaking during Prohibition?

SPIT: “pinot noir”
Pinot or dunno? The cachet and appeal of the fickle pinot noir has led to a proliferation of low-priced pinots, which, by US law, must only contain 75 percent to state the grape on the label. Decanter reports that French authorities have brought charges against 13 defendants in the the south of France for stretching pinot more than that, selling the equivalent of 16 million bottles worth of cheaper merlot and syrah to E & J Gallo for their $9 Red Bicylcette pinot noir. The court will likely hand down its decision in two weeks.

GULPED: “wine”
The scourge of Scotland is Buckfast tonic wine, caffeinated, sweet drink made by Benedictine monks. Weighing in at 15% alcohol and with the caffeine equivalent of eight cans of Coke, this low-priced drink has been dubbed “wreck the hoose juice” (hoose being the Scottish pronunciation of “house”) or “commotion lotion.” It has sparked a debate on whether to introduce minimum prices for alcoholic drinks in Scotland. [NYTimes.com]

SIPPED: wine in supermarkets
The editorial page of the NYT argues in favor of wine in grocery stores calling the campaign against it “an impassioned but utterly cynical defense of the little guy.”

SIPPED: science!
Have a vineyard fungus? Science has a solution: liquid spray-on glass! All those pears grown in glass bottles, move over! [Telegraph]

SPIT: blogs for young people
Younger Americans, aged 12 – 29, are abandoning blogging in favor or Twitter and Facebook. Why? Too long – LOL! But the study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project does find blogging on the rise in ancient people (over thirty) where more than one in ten maintains a blog.

SPIT: wine reporting!
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had a “stormy dinner date” with friends (including Alec Baldwin) at Alto restaurant in midtown Manhattan. This story says they had five bottles of wine with dinner, the friends left and then Brangelina exchanged barbs, with him telling her to get therapy and her telling him that she thinks he’s “toxic!” Eeegad. But, really, the most important detail for wine enthusiasts was neglected: which wines did they have with dinner?!?

SIPPED: conflicting opinions
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had found the wine distribution system in Texas unconstitutional. The lower court ruled that it discriminated against out-of-state distributors and retailers according to the Dallas Morning News. With the recent ruling in favor of free trade in Massachusetts, wine enthusiasts will be watching to see if the Specialty Wine Retailers Association appeals to the Supreme Court.

SPIT: wine tastings
Gideon Rachman bemoans a “new Puritanism” at Davos that has banned the epic wine tastings of previous years. Never fear: he was able to find one organized by Jancis Robinson off campus (at a Zurich airport hotel) with Krug, and Chateaus Cheval Blanc and Yquem.

SPIT: tariffs and taxes
Canadian wine lovers visiting America, someone’s got your back: Charles Schumer! The NY senator is trying to have the 100 percent levy on wines brought into Canada to reduced to stimulate sales from NY wineries. On a related note, wineries that export receive almost full reimbursement of federal excise taxes and he also wants to keep that now-imperiled subsidy in place. [BusinessWeek]

SPIT: drinking national?
Imported wine sales rose in Australia — as well as in the US, where California wine sales fell for the first time in 16 years.

SIPPED: kind words
Vinography posts a favorable review of my book, A Year of Wine.

Fair use is made of a reduced size crop image from hell.ca

BLOWN: box wine
After news of an implosion yesterday, today we bring you an explosion for all your demolition needs. (Via @upgradetravel)

SIPPED: Jancis, rocked
A German sommelier who goes by the nom de internet of Finkus Bripp drops by Jancis Robinson’s house to interview her. No exploding microwaves, sadly, but worth a look nonetheless. [Wine on the Rocks]

SIPPED: slim bottles
The wine bottle makes good on its resolution to lose weight: Tesco introduces an ultralight glass bottle that weighs just 300g, or, significantly less than normal bottles. That means more wine shipped around the world, and less packaging. Take a look at the bottle over on wineanorak.com.

SIPPED: more freedom of shipping
A federal appeals court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Massachusetts law could not offer free shipping to in-state wineries over 30,000 gallons a year while preventing out-of-state wineries from shipping. Wineries producing more than the 12,618 case limit rejoiced at the ruling–as did free trading consumers. [AP]

SIPPED: the “new normal”
What’s in store for the wine biz? “Slow growth, lower prices and younger fans who are drinking more at home than at fancy restaurants.” [Wines & Vines]

SIPPED and SPIT: new wineries
The number of new wineries in the USA increased by six percent, according to Wine Business Monthly. Although this is up, the growth slowed to from 15 and 10 percent in 2006 and 2007, respectively. It was the same growth rate as last year. Related question: does the US need six percent more wineries?

SIPPED: Discussion
Randy and Kaz, the hosts of WineBizRadio invited me on last week to talk about my post about wine samples at the Wine Advocate.

SPIT: Tina Fey?
The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association selects Sarah Palin as their convention speaker in Las Vegas. Her talk is likely to be entitled “Going Rouge” and expound on her secret love of Nebbiolo. Oh wait, the WSWA says that she is a great supporter of free enterprise–so maybe she will talk about the market liberalizing effects of dismantling the three-tier system?

SPIT: impossible food-wine pairings!
Eric Asimov, chief wine critic at The New York Times, dismisses our impossible food-wine pairings as “sad” and irritating–eegad!! Too bad since the popular series brings many new commenters out of the woodwork. (And, no, we weren’t being serious when talking about which wine to pair with dog food.) Take a look for yourself at the previous entries in the series and decide if it is funny, interactive, thought-provoking, unpretentious, mouth-watering and sometimes useful–or whatever he said.

SIPPED: Physics!
Does this funky wine glass defy physics? Apparently not! (via @wine_markfisher)

SIPPED: imitation as flattery?
A Loire Sauvignon Blanc called “Kiwi Cuvee” gets a thumbs down from Australian regulatory authorities after objections from their Antipodean neighbor. [Telegraph]