In the News
Wine/drinks related articles in the press that interest, amuse, or depress me, and my slightly rambling thoughts on them.
-Christina
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The False Promise of Cheap Wine: An excellent rebuttal to one of the most ignorant, mis-informed and just plain stupid articles I have read promoting cheap wine ever.
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New Vineyard in Dublin City Centre: McGuigin Wines is spending £200,000 to bring over 80 Semillon vines aged over 60-years old to create a city based vineyard complete with cellar door, wine barrels, tractors.
Christina’s Thoughts
The idea of city slickers and tourists alike, many of whom would never have the opportunity or wherewithal to visit actual vineyards, wandering through rows of vines, seeing wine ageing in barrels, etc is only a good thing in my book. A (clever) marketing campaign it certainly is, but it is a better education on how wine is made and where it comes from than educators like myself could ever provide. I have so often wished that I could magically transport the world’s greatest wines regions to the centre of cities so people could see the the beauty behind the stuff in their glasses, and to realise that it comes from a living thing, just like food crops, and can therefore also be tampered with (or not) in the same way food crops can. Education often breeds respect, and the more people realise that wine is actually quite difficult and time consuming to make (good wine is anyway), perhaps they will make more informed buying decisions.
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The Millennial Drinker: 18-25 year olds will account for 40% of American drinkers in the next decade (strange considering the drinking age is 21?!). These tech-wise consumers are forcing the wine trade to become more social media savvy.
Christina’s Thoughts
A nationwide UK wine survey conducted by Accolade Wines and called the Wine Nation Report 2011 was recently published revealing that the younger consumer market, an average of 25 years old, are the fastest growing wine consumer sector. So it seems that the UK is headed in the same direction as the states. When I posted these recent findings on Twitter, members of the trade showed both interest and disbelief in these stats. I’m not sure why this should come as a surprise to anyone, and can only chalk it up to trepidation, owing to the fact that the trade, including-and perhaps especially-members of the wine media, are mainly middle-aged and above, and have for the most part overlooked this age group.In my 5 short years in the wine trade, I’ve personally seen a rise in interest from younger consumers. I started to co-host the online radio show (aka podcast) The Crush in the spring–a program aimed at a younger, trendier wine crowd who are keen to learn about wine but in a way that makes it fun and accessible. To my surprise and delight, The Crush is already bringing in several thousand listeners a week. For the most part our listeners are in their 20s and 30s, use social media frequently, and happen to have an interest in all things vinous. What a wonderful thing, to have confirmed my long held suspicion that there were lots of people out there my age and younger who loved wine as much as I did and were just looking a platform like ours (and several others, particularly in the states) that reached out to them and not to their mothers! Businesses have long been aware of the power of social media, and I’m hoping that with these new stats, the wine trade will finally catch up properly, and take bigger steps forward than the baby kind.So what’re the pros and cons of having younger consumers calling a good portion of the shots? Unlike in the USA and most other New World countries, the UK has a lot of hard-to-shake baggage attached to what brands, regions, and grape varieties are considered acceptable and unacceptable. 20-somethings tend to be much more open-minded when it comes to trying new styles of wine, after all, many weren’t even born when Blue Nun was in its heyday, systematically ruining the reputation of German riesling for decades to come. From my experience, when given the opportunity, younger drinkers are far more game to trying wines from lesser known wine-producing countries like Greece or Croatia for example, and they’re more in tune with environmental issues and therefore keen to learn more about organic and natural winemaking philosophies.The con? A lighter wallet. In general 20-somethings are on a tighter budget than their older drinking counterparts. I once read somewhere that you know you’ve officially left your twenties behind when you buy your first wine rack…so perhaps this is not the market that the fine wine industry will be targeting. By being unable or unwilling to spend more, it makes it difficult to convince these bright-eyes and bushy tails to drink the higher quality stuff or to experiment much at all. It means that budget brands will make a killing, but it squeezes out the smaller, more boutique producers, or indeed any brand offering a higher level of quality beyond ‘entry’. This is where the members of the wine trade need to step up, to educate and most importantly include. Many young consumers have a thirst (pun intended) to learn about the drink that is so often at the centre of their social lives. And it goes without saying that the more they learn, the more informed their buying decisions will be. However, they need more industry figures to relate to them and to speak to them in a tone that makes them feel not like they are on the other side of the velvet rope, but rather like everyone is welcome at the party. And social media is where they will receive their invitation. —-
Paid to Sip: The wine scandal of the week. In short, the president of a large Spanish wine organisation has been accused of asking wineries to pay huge sums in return for a visit from well known American journalist. The same well known journalist then resigned shortly after (although allegedly only coincidental aka atrocious timing).
Christina’s thoughts
Whatever the outcome of this particular scandal, it certainly opens up a can of worms in the world of wine journalism. From my lowly blogger/presenter’s point of view, I have occasionally found myself in tricky situations, particularly on press trips (and don’t believe that the Wine Advocate’s journos ‘foot their own travel bills’ as stated in the above article, they’d be broke!). There is a lot of wining and dining on these trips; a lot of bum-kissing. But also a lot of genuinely nice, generous people, some making great wines, and some making not-so-great wines. The difficulty for journalists comes when the wine falls into the latter category, in having to let down these nice people who have more than likely taken them out to dinner or invited them into their homes and given them a few bottles for the road. Of course it is a journalist’s job to give an honest review of all wines, but inevitably there is a human element that always creeps in (really wine is ALL about people–it is drunk socially, and it stirs a passion in people like no other drink), and that is bound to have an effect, however marginally on the journalists’ feelings towards the wine. Even when wines are sent to journalists to try, without them knowing the winemaker, they will still have predisposed opinions on the particular grape variety or region or style, and on the supplier who sent it to them. In short (or more appropriately ‘in long’), a review on a wine is rarely going to be completely unbiased. But of course asking wineries to pay for a good review crosses a major line, and if the journalist in question knew about it, well then that’s another story.
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Wine Set to Overtake Beer as Taxman’s Favourite Tipple
Christina’s thoughts
Don’t be deceived. The continually rising wine prices are not increasing the profit margins of the winemakers in the slightest. They’re helping to line the taxman’s pockets. However, if the UK economy is in as much of a shambles as we’re constantly told it is, I guess we should all do our part to help boost the economy and drink more wine! It’s the only patriotic thing to do.
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Coopers have new technology over a barrel: Diageo unveils new technology for whisky cooperage to speed things up a bit.
Christina’s Thoughts
I love that the art of coopery, although slowing dying, is one of the few crafts that hasn’t changed much at all in hundreds of years. The thought of machines entering these traditional cooperages, interfering with the smell of the wood and the shavings on the ground, disrupts my idyllic memories of cooperages I’ve seen in Spain and Portugal. But if it’s going to help out the coopers themselves, in doing much of the heavy lifting, and perhaps allowing them to stay in work longer, then I can’t object too much. But the traditionalist in me is hoping that the machines won’t take over.
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