The Wine Curmudgeon

Comment moderation is on again

April 25 update: Never underestimate the power of a spam attack. There were a hundred or so spam comments waiting for me when I got up this morning, so moderation is back on. My apologies to anyone who makes a comment today but doesn't see it in a timely fashion; I'm travelling today for the DrinkLocalWine conference and won't be at the computer much. I'll post an update if there is any news from TypePad.

April 24 update: Looks like the situation is back under control, and the spam bots have been beaten back. So I've turned comment moderation off, and things are back to normal.

April 23 update: Whatever is going on does seem to be bot-driven. My metrics show what looks to be an attack on the blog from Facebook. There are about 1,000 percent more links from Facebook to the blog than usual. I'm told TypePad is working on this.

The blog has been blitzed by bot-driven spam over the last 12 hours, so I've had to turn comment moderation on. As soon as TypePad figures out how to block these new spam attacks, I'll turn moderation off again. I didn't think anyone wanted to read comments in Russian or what appear to be computer-generated comments based on key words in the post. Badly misspelled, as well.

If anyone has questions, please let me know here or via the site's email.

Winebits 226: New York wine, Alabama wine, wine prices

• New York wine: How about the Finger Lakes as the next great wine region? No less than the Atlantic says so, and who am I to argue with a big deal East Coast magazine -- and especially when our fourth annual DrinkLocalWine conference is set for this this week? Reports writer Caroline Helper: "At the end of the day, the Finger Lakes is producing some truly inspired wine, and perhaps more remarkably, the winemakers there are doing it in a way that is rather inspiring."

• Alabama wineries urge boycott: Not as much good news in Alabama, where a state legislative committee killed a bill that would have allowed the state's 14 wineries to distribute their wine without a distributor. The bill was apparently tabled at the behest of the state's beer distributors, who were terrified that any change in the three-tier system would cost them money. Like they don't already make enough. The wineries' response? A boycott of the state's national beer brands, including Budweiser, Miller and Coors, to protest the decision. They have the Wine Curmudgeon's support.

• Pricier California wine? Silicon Valley Bank, which is supposed to know about these things, predicts that U.S. consumers will have to pay more for domestic wine, settle for lower quality, or buy cheaper imports. Its annual report on the wine business says there is a serious shortage of California grapes, which will last for a while and kick prices higher.

Costco and its role in the wine business

CNBC, the cable network, is running a documentary later this week about what it calls "The Costco Craze: Inside the Warehouse Giant." Part of this is a very quick look at the part Costco plays in the wine business as the largest importer of high-end French wine in the U.S. and as perhaps the largest wine retailer in the world.

The clip, which is after the jump, is revealing if only for the interview with Annette Alvarez-Peters, who oversees Costco's wine buying -- and rarely gives interviews. It's not long, only a couple of minutes, but worthwhile for Alvarez-Peters' reaction when reporter Carl Quintanilla asks her if she is the most powerful person in the wine world.

Wine trends 2012: What we're drinking

Does this woman know that the wine she's drinking is inferior because it's cheap and popular?

There are two wine communities in the U.S. -- the regular, ordinary wine drinker, who buys almost all of the wine sold in the U.S., and the elite wine drinker, who represents a tiny, tiny fraction of the wine drinking community but who is catered to by the wine business and, especially, by its allies in the Winestream Media.

Read the latter, and one would assume that wine has to cost a lot of money, that one needs a PhD in wine geek to appreciate wine, and that anyone who dares to argue with them is a crude boor.

We know where the Wine Curmudgeon fits, no?

Nothing demonstrates this better than sales figures. I have a copy of a report from an important U.S. distributor, detailing sales from March 2011 to March 2012 in the Dallas market. It was given to me by someone who asked to remain anonymous; hence, I can't reproduce it or link to it. And, though, it's not a perfect fit for what's going on nationally, it's still a revealing look at what the real wine market -- and not the Winestream Media's wine market -- is like. More, after the jump:

Winecast 18: DLW 2012: Colorado

What better way to get ready for DLW 2012: Colorado next week than with a podcast featuring Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post and the Wine Curmudgeon, DrinkLocalWine's co-founders?

We talk about the conference's history, what we'll be doing in Denver during the conference, including the seminars and Nomacorc-Colorado Twitter Taste-off, and discuss the respect that local wine has earned over the past four or five years. And we give ticket information; those of you who want to come should pay attention, since we're selling them faster than ever and headed for a sellout.

We also touch briefly on how old we are and the difficulty each of us has with drinking wine and tweeting at the same time. And Dave has to remind me to give the hash tags for the Twitter Taste-off. You can tell I'm firmly part of this social media thing.

We didn't mention the Amtrak ticket giveway, where you can win two roundtrip tickets between Denver and Grand Junction in the Colorado wine country, but it's not too late to enter. Click here to download or stream the podcast, which is about 17 minutes long and takes up 16 megabytes.

Wine of the week: Dauvergne Ranvier Vin Gourmand 2010

Total Wine, a large regional chain, is supposed to open in Dallas shortly. Throw in Trader Joe's, which is supposed to open this fall, and Spec's, Texas' largest chain, which opened at the end of last year (as well as all of the current retailers), and we have an abundance of wine choices -- not just more than we've ever had, but lots and lots more.

Which will not only drive the retailers crazy (and probably put a couple out of business), but give consumers more choice and lower prices. How can the Wine Curmudgeon argue with that?

Case in point is the Vin Gourmand ($13, purchased), a white Rhone blend. It's a style of wine not much sold here; Dallas is an oaky California chardonnay kind of town. And, when you do find a white Rhone, it's usually a couple of dollars more than in the rest of the country. So, when I saw the Gourmand and for less than elsewhere, you can imagine how quickly I scooped it up.

My enthusiasm was amply rewarded. This is quality wine at a terrific price -- a blend of grenache, roussane and viognier that is fresh and clean, with lime and apricot fruit (the latter from the viognier). It's not overly complex, but it's not lacking in a middle or finish, either, and even has a bit of stoniness on the end. This is perfect warm weather wine that will pair with almost any kind of summer food. Given that we've already been in the 90s here, this is a a welcome addition. Highly recommended. 

Winebits 225: Organic wine, wine investments, wine prices

• Whither organic wine? Dave Falchek looks at organic wine, and offers new perspective on something that has raditionally been much less important in wine than elsewhere. "Once the vinous equivalent of an unkempt grunger, these wines now have more polish. There has never been a larger array of eco-sensitive wines." He also offers an interesting take on the differences between conventional, organic and biodynamic wine.

• Looking for a tax shelter? Think wine -- or so suggests this website, run by a group called Premier Cru, "Europe's leading fine wine investment house." There is even a chart comparing an investment in wine to the leading stock exchange indexes since 2005, and guess what? Wine has done better. This assumes, of course, that you don't drink the wine you buy, which opens up so many metaphysical questions that it makes the Wine Curmudgeon's head hurt.

• The Greek wine crisis: The country's wine business has collapsed, along with the rest of the Greek economy. Wine is being sold below cost, and consumers are shifting to less expensive bulk wines. Why does this matter to Americans? Because the European financial crisis has softened demand for wine throughout the continent, lowering prices. And lower prices in Europe could well affect wine prices here, as Greek, Spanish and Italian producers look to dump in the U.S. that they can't sell at home.