I went down to the crossroads…

posted by Robert in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

There is a lot of rumination on “wine quality” as an absolute measure in this country. I have used the idea of a measurable quality level myself often in conjunction with price to confer value (quality<price) or pretentious (price>quality) status on a particular bottle. Over time I have come to realize that this system of determining a wine’s quality vis-a-vis its price to determine a value proposition is a fun concept, mostly academic and one that bears little resemblance to how we enjoy wine. It is what I refer to as an information based methodology of selecting which wines to drink.

But this Quality determination – if it even exists on the absolute plane – requires a fairly well developed system of critics and opinion givers to support the notion and disseminate the information. In mature markets where each consumer is a palate to be fought over wine quality and the quality vs. value proposition should be paramount. In a brand new market these notions are not yet established across the population of consumers and other considerations are more critical.

Take the US, our wine market is one of the only developed wine markets that is showing significant increases in sales volume at all price points but specifically at the higher end of the market. That the whole market is increasing is a bit of a surprise, but the increase in the high-end sector does not surprise anyone who follows US trends and understands that we have always been a major consumer of vintage Champagne, first growth Bordeaux and vintage Port­­ ­- pricey tipples all. Marketers often refer to this segment as the aspirational end of the market and the allure can be explained at various different sociological or psychological angles; see the report on this study for a prime example of how your friend the mind can mess with you.

Taken as a whole, and when faced with limitless options at our local wine shops, we fall back on price as the sole determiner of purchase decisions. I posit that this is exactly what you would expect from a nascent community of drinkers. Now, to be fair, the US is not a homogenous market and the level of transition from price based to information based wine selection is very different across the country and, more to the point, as a market the US is well on its way to making this transition at every level of knowledge and across categories. Too, the level of information available to even the average consumer is a quantum measure more advanced in today’s environment than even 10 years past and that aids in the speed in which a market can make this transition.

This is going to be important because the world’s wine producers find themselves on the edge of huge expansion in the size of demand for their product. Call it the China syndrome or more as I have painted it, a devil’s bargain. And you may unwittingly be a part of that bargain as these new markets may be driven top to bottom by price and not by information and this will affect the type and style of wines available in all locales across the globe.

Before we deal with the shift in worldwide supply my question to the community is have you felt the shift in your own purchasing habits and to what extent do you feel that you are, if you are, broadening your information base to make better purchasing decisions?

Robert Scibelli is a lecturer and administrator at New York’s premier wine school, International Wine Center.

Render unto Caesar…

posted by Robert in Snooth, Wine, Guest Bloggers

I did not want to limit these entries to Italian wine, but news keeps leaking out of the boot that demands attention. No more information on the scandal in Brunello as of this writing, no, more of a tempest in a teapot concerning the venerable Valpolicella producer Allegrini and the use of screw caps.

Screw caps? Haven’t we moved beyond that already with both high and low end wines bottled under screw cap pouring onto the shelves of our local retailers. (Quick aside, I was opening wine that had been wrapped for a blind tasting and I was having a devil of a time getting the cork screw into a particular bottle until I finally broke through and discovered it was a screw cap.) There may still be talk in certain circles about the acceptance of this closure but by and large the future has been writ.

Just not by the Italians; after years of tweaking their wine laws to accommodate “innovative” wine making techniques while protecting traditional wines the Italians find themselves behind the times. Valpolicella Classico has a series of rules attached to it and one of those rules is you must finish the bottle with cork. Here is a quote from Mr. Allegrini himself from the Decanter article linked to above:

‘We have been waiting for the regulations in Valpolicella Classico to be amended so that we could use screw caps on this wine,’ said winemaker Franco Allegrini. ‘But they haven’t, so we have decided to pull out of Classico. The closure is more important to us than the denomination’

So, is Allegrini striking a blow for the innovative use of alternative closures against the staid and out of it government and conservative consorzio members as this article makes it appear and the quote backs up? Hmm, here is how I re-imagine the quote:

‘We could label our wines using the Valpolicella DOC and stopper the bottles with handkerchiefs and wax if we like, but that would mean we would not get any press play or appear to be taking a stand for the injustice wrought by these admittedly not too restrictive laws. Allegrini wines are available at a retailer near you.’

The point here, illustrated by this one example, is that so much of what passes for ‘news’ or ‘knowledge’ in the wine industry is free flowing marketing-speak. Some of this information is valid and useful but only if you read and digest it with a grain of salt and view it through a prism of slight skepticism. I am not suggesting that a wine consumer need be a tough as nails cynic - cue Mary Astor walking into Humphrey Bogart’s office to sell him a case of wine - but it pay to have a full understanding of what the playing field looks like and it is big a lucrative. Websites like Snooth go a long way to helping one navigate with eyes wide open but it is still up to each individual to avoid swallowing too much hype that will eventually dilute the wine we are trying so hard to enjoy.

Parting bit - my friend Scott gave me some advice on writing blog entries; he said either read everything that is out there or nothing at all. I chose the latter path but I must admit that it is hard to ignore the entire oeuvre of fine writing available at a mere click. To that end, I peaked at one of Eric Asimov’s recent blog entries on quality and critics, and without leaking my feelings, I heartily recommend the read.

Robert Scibelli is a lecturer and administrator at New York’s premier wine school, International Wine Center.

A Rosso By Any Other Name

posted by Robert in Wine, Guest Bloggers

I am often asked, usually by skeptical non-wine people, what it is that drew me to make wine a career. It is a two day answer, of course, but I usually resort to the tried and true “the endless learning opportunity as wine is very enjoyable with no knowledge and mind-blowing exciting the more you know.” Trite, to be sure, but like most clichés based in truth.

I was thinking of this during a recent tasting I was privileged to take part in on the recently released 2003 vintage of . It is just one of the benefits of placing yourself squarely in the business of wine, you find yourself sitting in front of 80 pre-release Brunellos (I don’t care if Brunelli is correct or not, I won’t use it) with a pen, paper and your palate and your off.

The 2003 vintage in Montalcino was weak at best and the wines showed this clearly across the board. (As an aside, this is a wine recommendation site but I won’t swear off the whole vintage, if you have a trusted retailer who claims a particular producer had it right in ‘03 then go for it, but if you are just perusing a wine list you probably want to fish elsewhere). A failure as a tasting, not even close, I was able to cement pre-conceived notions of what the differences in vineyard sites might bring to the wines and drive home what exactly the off conditions in the weather might do to the wines. This is exactly what we mean by more knowledge opening more and more fascinating little boxes.

So imagine my surprise when I started to read the reports of possible fraud in the wines of Montalcino. My first thought was “Jesus, how much worse would these wines have been if they were unadulterated” but ultimately I was actually shocked that these things are (allegedly) still happening in today’s day and age. I realize this is big business and when you establish a wine like Brunello as a major player on the world wine stage you really can’t afford a truly bad vintage and the lure of blending in some non-Sangiovese and/or muscular southern Italian wine to balance your offering has to be strong.

And then I thought does it even make a difference? I mean, I tasted through the wines thinking they were all Brunellos and the knowledge that some may have been adulterated really doesn’t change my opinion of the wines. Circling back to where we started, the uninitiated surely could care less about such things simply asking that when you plunk down $50 on a bottle of wine it lives up to that expectation.

But it does make a difference. Producers of terroir driven wines need to plan for the inevitable bad vintage and ensure that their “brand” is not damaged by one, two or even three bad vintages in a row. Doctoring the wines may not mean much for every taster but – even undetected – it strips the wine of its true allure, its credibility and ultimately its uniqueness. You are not just saying that you were too weak to face a bleak financial projection you are also saying that your wine can be “assembled” from parts not necessarily from the same grape or location as your wine purportedly comes from.

So, I hope it turns out that this scandal is untrue. But if it turns out to be true I want to be among the first to say, shame.

Robert Scibelli is a lecturer and administrator at New York’s premier wine school, International Wine Center.