• Wine drinkers like merlot: Call it the not-Sideways effect -- a study commissioned by a major merlot producer found that consumers never really stopped drinking merlot. The Nielsen people, who track much of this stuff anyway, discovered that merlot is the second most popular red wine in the U.S. And that "merlot drinkers strongly agree that merlot is a good, versatile and food-friendly everyday wine." And that they like it because it's cheap. Three shockers, huh? I could have saved the Blackstone Winery folks the cost of commissioning the study. All they had to do was read the blog here and here. Of course, Blackstone is owned by multi-national drinks Goliath Constellation, so they can probably afford it.
• Too many grapes? California's 2009 wine grape crush totaled 3.7 million tons, the second biggest total in history. It was also almost one-quarter more than than the 2008 total. All of which is bad news for many producers and good news for consumers, as this will almost certainly continue to keep domestic wine prices down. The biggest winners other than consumers? Producers who make ultra-cheap wine, like Bronco's Two Buck Chuck. There will be a lot of quality fruit going into very inexpensive bottles of wine, though the experts don't think it will be produce as big a grape glut as the 2005 harvest.
• Vintners Hall of Fame: The 2010 class includes longtime Napa Valley grower Andy Beckstoffer; Al Brounstein, founder of Diamond Creek Vineyard; Randall Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon Vineyard; veteran winemaker Zelma Long; and Leon Adams, a founder of the Wine Institute. And they let the Wine Curmudgeon vote in this.
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