The Wine Curmudgeon

HR 5034 and Congress

The United States is coming out of its worst recession in more than 50 years, the unemployment rate is near 10 percent, and more Americans are living in poverty today than at any time since 1994. We're fighting a war in Afghanistan, we have to clean up the BP oil spill mess in the Gulf of Mexico, and our infrastructure -- roads, bridges and the like -- is literally collapsing.

So what's the Congress doing about all of this? Holding hearings on HR 5034, the bill to tighten the three-tier distribution system. They should be ashamed of themselves. More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Becker Provençal Dry Rose 2009

Rose is one of the glories of French winemaking, even though it's overshadowed by red Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. The best French roses, which usually come from in and around Provence, are subtle, complex wines that have about as much in common with the American concept of pink wine as the Wine Curmudgeon has in common with $100 wine. Any rose that has Tavel on the label is well worth sampling, even at some of the prices you'll find.

So what does that have to do with the Becker Vineyard 2009 Provençal Dry Rose (about $10, purchased)? It's a mostly successful attempt by one of Texas' leading wineries to make a Provencal-style rose without being in Provence. The grapes, in fact, come from Mason, about 40 miles north of Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country.

This is no easy feat, but no less than Russ Kane, perhaps the most knowledgeable Texas wine writer, sings its praises. Russ, in fact (shameless plug alert!), will appear at our Texas wine talks at this year's State Fair.

What does Provencal-style mean? Very dry, low in alcohol, and with less fruit than New World roses. Don't expect to find the big dollop of strawberry or watermelon that the latter have. Instead, these wines have much less intense red fruit. Drink this with any fall harvest kind of meal or while you are football tailgating. And don't worry about drinking rose if it isn't summer; this is the kind of wine that you can enjoy all year round. Availability is limited outside of Texas, but you can order it from the winery.

 

Winebits 148: Trading up, harvest reports, wine consolidation

• Buying more expensive wine: Here's an odd story: The MarketWatch news service, which should know better, is trumpting the end of the recession. "Dollar sales of bottles marked $20 or more are up 19 percent from January 2010 through Sept. 5 compared to the same 2009 period. ..." Of course they are. That 2009 period was one of the worst in the last 30 years, so any uptick is going to look fabulous. Don't they teach reporters how to analyze statistics any more? Where is Richard Hainey when you need him? Now, a story that looked at 2006 stats, before the crash, and compared them to 2010 would have meant something.

• Why harvest reports don't mean much: And why I don't run them, as explained by the great Dan Berger: "No matter how mild, obviously of no concern, or even downright beneficial the weather patterns in a year are, grape growers will find a way to be pessimistic. And then, after all the grapes are in late in the year, many wine makers will delight in saying that the vintage produced the best wines ever. Vintage of the century, etc." Which reminds me of the way Realtors do business. No matter what state the economy is in, or what houses cost, this is always "The best time to buy a house!"

• What happens when big companies buy smaller wineries: From Linda Murphy, who is never one to mince words: "The current trend toward winery consolidation and cost-cutting in California smells like cabbage left in the refrigerator for two weeks too long. It stinks. ..." She notes the changes at distinctive, well-run labels like Rosenblum and Arrowood, and asks the key question: When does a winery stop being what it is and become just another cog in the corporate machine?

Barefoot wines (again): Value or just cheap?

The second most popular item on the blog this year was something I wrote more than two years ago, a post that asked whether the $6 line of Barefoot wines offered value or were just cheap.

In one respect, this isn't surprising. That Barefoot post has always been popular -- the fifth most visited in 2008 and the fourth most in 2009. What is surprising is that a 2 1/2-year-old post is still being read, and that so few people who who write about wine in the cyber ether have noticed this. You can see for yourself. Do a Google search, and hardly any reviews written about Barefoot in the last couple of years show up on the first page. And if the results don't show up on the first page, then they're irrelevant as far as the Internet is concerned.

After the jump, a few thoughts about what this means for consumers, and my take on the current Barefoot merlot.

Back labels and the flavor of lynches

The Wine Curmudgeon has long been depressed about the back labels on wine bottles, which do nothing to educate consumers. So you can imagine my reaction when I picked up a bottle of Gato Negro sauvignon blanc from Chile, and the back label said the wine had the "flavor of lynches."

That should, of course, be lychees. Which a 3 for $10 wine like the Gato probably doesn't taste like anyway.

Sigh.

Texas wine at the State Fair of Texas

The 110th State Fair of Texas starts next week, and Texas wine and the Wine Curmudgeon will be there. The Texas Wine Garden is an integral part of the 24-day event (well, maybe not quite as integral as corny dogs), and I'll be on hand to interview Texas winemakers, wine personalities, chefs and sommeliers. We'll talk about Texas wine, taste Texas wine, and even give away a few items.

We've lined up some impressive names -- Paula Lambert, one of the top cheesemakers in the world, to discuss cheese and wine pairings; chef Joel Harloff of the re-opened Green Room; master sommelier James Tidwell, long a proponent of Texas wine; and Jim and Vicki White, who run the Savor Dallas wine and food festival.

The schedule is here (it will open in a spreadsheet you can view or download). If you're in the Dallas area between Sept. 24 and Oct. 17, stop by and say hello. I'll be at the fair on the days colored in light blue. John Bratcher, the other Wine Guy, will be there on the days colored in what the computer calls light cyan.

Wine prices: Still going down?

The news, as reported by Nielsen, is that 2010 has been a better year for wine sales than 2009. Which is good news, though one must take into account that 2009 wasn't exactly robust.

But wine prices have not, apparently, followed suit. Though there has been a bit of a recovery in the sale of wine that costs $15 and more, most of us are still looking for wine that costs $4 to $15. The link goes to figures from IRI, which tracks retail wine sales, and its survey for the two-week July 4 period over the past three years. Obviously, one can't read too much into data from such a small sample, but what's interesting is that it shows solid growth for cheap wine during a very ordinary part of the year. The people buying wine in June and July are regular wine consumers, and not people who buy wine just for the holidays, when they may be willing to pay more.

In other words, wine sales may be up, but consumers look like they're not trading back up. We switched to less expensive wine during the recession, and we're staying there. So $10 wine may still be the new $100 wine. Which ties into anecdotal evidence from wine people I've talked to and prices I've seen over the past couple of weeks. Producers are acknowledging this new reality, and prices are dropping. It's especially impressive that they're dropping in Dallas, where retailers tend to charge more:

• A blog visitor emailed me that Whole Foods in Dallas is selling 1-liter bottles of red and white blends from Argentina's Familia Zuccardi, which does excellent cheap wine, for $8 a bottle.

• My local Kroger is selling Rodney Strong sauvignon blanc, which is not overpriced at its normal $15, for $10. This is an amazing value. And I had a Fred Sanford moment when I saw Geyser Peak's reserve meritage, a $50 wine, in a Kroger. That's not supposed to happen.

• Pine Ridge's chenin blanc-viognier blend, another excellent $13 to $15 wine and a long-time Wine Curmudgeon favorite, is on sale for $8 at a specialty grocer in Dallas. That's more or less cost.