The Wine Curmudgeon

Winebits 81: Aussie Two Buck Chuck, analysts and the recession, LocalWineEvents.com

• $3 Aussie wine: Bronco Wine, which brought the world Two Buck Chick, is going to bring $3 Australian chardonnay called Down Under to the U.S., and the Aussies aren’t happy about it. Said one winemaker: “The prospect of a three-dollar Australian chardonnay called Down Under does make me cringe, I must admit I realize you can't stop people making dirt-cheap wines, but I'd prefer it if they didn't have Australia written on the label." Bronco is buying Australian chardonnay for pennies on the dollar, thanks to an almost unprecedented oversupply in Australia.

• Words of wisdom: We’re buying less expensive wine and not eating out as much, a couple of analysts said at a major industry event -- and alcohol is not recession proof. Said one: “Consumers want the most for what they spend.” This is why the Wine Curmudgeon has always wanted to be an analyst. I can figure these things out, and I work cheap.

• Updated Web site: LocalWineEvents.com, the free calendar service that details wine events in most of the places in the world where people drink wine (even a listing for Hanoi), has a new look. Founder Eric Orange says to expect a faster and better server, as well. It looks clean and efficient, and it is faster.

Technorati Tags: Australian wine,cheap wine,Bronco Wine Company,wine and recession,LocalWineevents.com

Update: Costco's 90-point wines

I exchanged emails with Annette Alvarez-Peters, Costco’s assistant general merchandise manager for wine, spirits and beer for the U.S. about my post last week -- the one that said that several vendors had told me that the only new wines Costco was buying had to retail for less than $15 and score 90 points or better.

Alvarez-Peters was unequivocal. (And, for the record, she only does interviews via email). Alvarez-Peters wrote, “Costco does not have a policy to only purchase 90 point wines.  As mentioned previously, there are times we ‘promote’ 90 point wines as a feature endcap or quad (4 pallet positions) to create excitement for the department.”

On the other hand, four people –- none of whom work for the same company –- all told me the same story, practically word for word, that Costco won’t consider new brands that don’t score 90 points and cost $15 or less. One represents a variety of major national brands, the second handles well-known national and imported wines, a third represents mostly imported wine, and the fourth does smaller domestic and imported brands. And, since the original post ran, a fifth person, who is reasonably important at a major distributor, told me the same thing.

I also want to make an important distinction between wines Costco currently carries and new wine brands that it may purchase. This is something, from comments I’ve seen about my original post, that not everyone understands. The 90-point policy, if it exists, doesn’t mean Costco is pulling out wines that didn’t score 90 points. It means that it isn’t going to add new wine brands that don’t score 90 points or that retail for more than $15.

After the jump, the emails that made up our interview:

Special International Lone Star Wine Competition award

The Wine Curmudgeon is judging the 26th International Lone Star Wine Competition in Grapevine, Texas, today and tomorrow, where a new category has been added -- the Texas Vintner's Rising Star Award, sponsored by Paul Bonarrigo, the long-time owner and winemaker at Messina Hof Winery in Bryan.

The award will recognize the best Texas wine made by new winemakers; six wineries are eligible this year. They’ll compete against each other for red and white wines. This is exactly the kind of progressive approach and attitude that regional wine needs, and I'm very glad to see it in Texas. Bonarrigo is to be congratulated.

I’ll have a post later this week on the competition, which has attracted more than 500 wines this year from around the world.

Technorati Tags: Texas wines,regional wine,wine judging,wine competitions,Messina Hof,Paul Bonarrigo

Wine review: Vida Organica Malbec Rose 2008

This wine, produced by Argentina’s Familia Zuccardi (the same company that does the well-done and reasonably priced Santa Julia wines), may be a little hard to find. It’s mostly in Whole Foods, though I have seen it scattered around elsewhere. In fact, the availability issue is the reason why it’s not a wine of the week.

But if you can find the malbec rose (about $9), it’s well worth it. Think strawberry, low alcohol, dry, and a pleasant stony finish. If I used the word quaffer, which I always thought seemed  demeaning, I'd use it for this. Serve chilled with almost any warm weather meal, and especially salads and grilled vegetables.

A note about organic wines: This is made with organic grapes, but it doesn’t mean the wine itself is organic. The definition of organic wine, according to the federal government, is quite complicated, and many organic wine producers don’t bother with it.

Technorati Tags: organic wine,roses,Vida Organica,Familia Zuccardi,Whole Foods,Argentine wine

Zinfandel update: Yes, there are some worth paying for

The Wine Curmudgeon spoke too soon last month. I’m still not overwhelmed by what is happening with zinfandel in the U.S., but – as Rich Coughlan’s comment in that post noted – there are still some wines that are made to be wine and not port, which means they have too much fruit and too much alcohol.

I did go to the Dallas stop on the Zinfandel Advocate & Producers tour, and found several wines worth trying. Plus, my chat with Ravenswood’s Joel Peterson, which will go up next week as a podcast, helped. And his Sonoma County zinfandel isn’t bad, either.

The ZAP wines included:

• Ridge’s product line. Don’t know how I could overlook that, since I think Ridge is, dollar for dollar, the best winery in the U.S. The Lytton Springs (about $35) remains one of my all-time favorites (though the current vintage could sit for another year).

• Pedroncelli Mother Clone 2007 ($12): An old-style zinfandel that isn’t old-fashioned – affordable, moderate alcohol, and jammy, brambly fruit.

• Ironstone Old Vine Zinfandel 2008 ($11): I was quite surprised by the quality of this wine, which you might be able to find for as little as $10. This is what inexpensive, value-oriented zinfandel used to taste like, peppery and with decent fruit.

Technorati Tags: ZAP,zinfandel,wine reviews,Ridge,Pedroncelli,Ironstone,red wine,California wine

Wine of the week: Vinho verde

Here’s what you need to know about vinho verde:

• It’s cheap, about $5 or $6.

• It’s a white wine with a greenish tint (though there is also some red, not as enjoyable).

• It’s a Portuguese wine from the Vinho Verde region, made with a variety of gapes most of us have never heard of.

• It needs to be well chilled, or else it tastes like warm, slightly flat beer.

• It’s mostly dry, with subtle green apple and lime flavors, but also low in alcohol – and may even have a bubbles.

• Avoid older vintages. This wine is not made to age.

• There are about a half dozen brands on the market at any one time, and they all taste pretty much the same. Some of them are, in fact, the same wine, with different labels for different retailers. I bought the Casal Garcia this year, but you'll also find Aveleda, Famega, and Gazela.

• Drink it by itself, or with any kind of summer food. I wouldn’t do it with beef, but hamburgers might be OK.

Technorati Tags: wine reviews,wine of the week,$10 wine,cheap wine,vinho verde,white wine,Portuguese wine

Winebits 80: Costco and scores, no wine for Amazon, millennials and wine

• Costco loves those 90-point wines: Costco, which may be the country’s biggest wine retailer, has a new policy for wines it carries in its store. Two people who deal with Costco’s wine buyers have told me that the chain, with 407stores in the U.S., has told its vendors that it will only buy wines that will retail for $15 or less and have scored at least 90 points. I’m also told that’s currently the policy at Walmart’s Sam’s Club. This is not only silly, but bad business. Using these guidelines, neither could be able to carry Avalon’s Napa cabernet, a $12-$15 wine which scores in the high 80s, and Cristalino, the world’s best cheap sparkling wine, also high 80s. How much more must we do to demonstrate how silly scores are?

• Is Amazon wine deal dead? Wine & Spirits Daily is reporting that Amazon.com’s plan to sell wine, along with its books and MP3s, is almost certainly finished after the company that was going to handle wine shipping for Amazon closed last week. Writes editor Megan Haverkorn: “As a result, it’s looking less likely that Amazon will enter the wine business at all, particularly not anytime soon.”

• Millennials and wine: All of the people in the wine business who are much smarter than I am (and there are so many) tell me that millennials – those born between 1982 and 2003 – are going to reshape wine in the U.S. They won’t care about scores, they will drink regional wine, and they want value. I love them already. The Bacchus Babes, two Ohio bloggers, put it this way: “[W]e mean common sense. Stuff you can actually use.” And the fine wine and food writer Gretchen Roberts has taken it one step further, with a blog called vinobite.com, aimed at millennials. Now, if I can only get Gretchen to write about Tennessee wine.

Technorati Tags: millennials and wine,wine scores,amazon.com and wine