"It's only a bottle of wine, for Christ's sake." A colleague of mine back in the 1980's said that upon hearing the price of 1983 Chateau Mouton Rothschild would exceed $100. Supply and demand, I suppose, with the 1st Growths of Bordeaux, then and now. But isn't it amazing how many wines top the $100 mark now? For that matter, $50 or even $30--and often for wines with no track record or first releases from new wineries.
So much of what passes for supply and demand these days in the wine business is manipulation by marketing. "Limited Release" often isn't; "Reserve" with all its adjectives--Private (really?), Winemaker's, Cellarmaster's, Vintner's, Grand, and Everyman's--is rarely. And, that's just a start.
The dizzying array of wines available today makes it tough for anyone to navigate through a wine department or wine shop without feeling overwhelmed and undereducated. Me included.
So what I'd like to do here with this blog is strip away some of the pretentiousness of wine, and by that, I don't mean reducing wine to four or five varietals from California that are just easy to understand. No, let's look at the world's wine and have some fun with it.
I'll explain some of the mystifying terms on labels, and we'll write some quick notes on favorite finds. For example, I had a great little 2006 Cotes de Brouilly from Ferraud & Fils (imported by Vinum Wine Importing, Seattle, WA) last night at 10 Mercer, one of my favorite Seattle restaurants. Cotes de Brouilly is one of the Grand Cru villages of Beaujolais. The red wines from that region of France are made from the Gamay grape, rarely planted in this country. Such a pity. This wine had a fruity nose with some earthiness, very much like its more expensive Pinot Noir cousins to the north in the Burgundy region. Soft, supple and a terrific match for a variety of foods.
Yet, Beaujolais is a rarity on the shelves and wine lists these days. Why? Hard to pronounce or understand labels? Let's look into this more next time.
Thanks,
Jim
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ok. my friends love wine, but shop by the cuteness of the label. Last get together -- they drank "mad housewife."
ReplyDeleteNice ladies, good friends, but we all know so little about wine. you can't blame them for liking the label. sort of like someone who wins at the horse races because they bet on the pretty one. Your thoughts on an intervention -- remember we are all lay people. that is -- know little, but love good wine.
"Packaging" is one of the 5 "P's" of marketing. So is "price," and I know lots of people who shop for wine by price alone. So, shopping by label is just as legitimate as shopping by price, and it keeps lots of marketing people employed (not to mention graphic designers).
ReplyDeleteBut, I don't shop that way. Here's two things I look for after I've decided how much I want to spend:
1) On the front label, I look for where the grapes were grown. This is called the appellation. Every label will have it in some form. Your Mad Housewife wine clearly states "California." Mighty big state that. A wine produced from grapes grown at the base of Mt. Shasta will taste very different from one produced from grapes grown near Bakersfield. This tells me nothing and will always be a crapshoot.
2) On the back label, I look for the "Produced and Bottled by" statement. This means the wine was actually made at the winery. More often, especially with "California" appellation wines, it will say "Cellared and Bottled by" or just "Bottled by" which means someone else made the wine and sold it to the wine brand. "Estate bottled" or often "Grown, Produced, and Bottled by" means the winery grew the grapes, made the wine, and bottled it.
These wines are usually reliable and consistent year in and year out (with some variation from vintage differences). More on picking good wines in my next post.
Thanks for the comment,
Jim