The Wine Curmudgeon

Winebits 240: Cupcake, wine shows, airline wine

• Cupcake CEO speaks: David Kent, who runs The Wine Group, was interviewed by the MarketWatch trade magazine. Excerpts ran here and here. Kent’s company makes Cupcake and the Franzia boxed wines (among many others) and is one of the biggest in the world, and he knows the cheap wine business: “We prefer to define wines priced under $4 on a 750-ml. basis as ‘popular-priced,’ since many of their consumers don’t fit the classic definition of an economy shopper. Just ask our friends at Trader Joe’s. Popular-priced wine consumers know what they like and know what they need to pay for it. Franzia is an extraordinary brand because it appeals to consumers across all age and income demographics. It’s built on the idea that consumers prefer fresh, affordable wine to stale, potentially overpriced wine. It works.”

• Mega-event canceled: And the high-end wine business still isn’t what it used to be, if this is any indication. France’s Vin-Expo is the ultimate in wine trade shows, featuring the best wines in the world – including all that stuff that most of us will never get a chance to taste. It had scheduled a New York consumer event for this fall, but couldn’t sell any space to wineries, reports the drinks business trade magazine. Only one-third of the producer slots were filled, so the event has been canceled. Two things stand out – first, that high-end wineries didn’t want to participate in an event like this, which speaks to their unease with the economy (as well as how much the organizers were charging them to participate). Second, even it had attracted enough wineries, would consumers have paid $180 to $300 to attend?

• Best airlines for wine: Yes, I know – an oxymoron. But Departures, an on-line magazine, lists the five best anyway: Qantas, Air New Zealand, Malaysia, Qatar and – hard to believe – the bankrupt and legendarily poorly-run American. The caveat here is that the rankings only include wine service in the premium cabins, and not coach. Where, I know for a fact, the American wine selections often make stuff I won’t review on the blog seem good. (Full disclosure: I still do an occasional article for the company that publishes American’s in-flight magazine.)

Off to Indy

I’m judging the 21st annual Indy International Wine Competition this week, so I might be a little slow answering emails and moderating comments (which is still on since TypePad’s success in blocking the spambots has been intermittent at best).

I enjoy judging Indy because the people are top-notch, and I get to see old pals every year; many of the grapes used to make the we judge wine are just as odd as I am; and it’s probably the premier regional wine competition in the world (though, as I am always reminded by the organizers, it’s much more than just a regional competition).

I’ll have a full report next week when I get back. Of course, I will be tweeting. Sigh.

The Judgment of Paris on canvas

Or, did George Taber really dress like that? Actually, I kind of like his Huggy Bear look (the original, and not the remake). Not enough men wearing hats anymore.

The painting, done in the style of Da Vinci’s Last Supper, was commissioned by Peter Michael of the self-named Napa cult winery. Decanter, which published the painting, reports that the work depicts the moment when everyone at the tasting discovered that the California wines had ranked higher than the French – “a circumstance unthinkable in the mid-1970s.” There’s that British talent for understatement, no?

That’s Taber, the only journalist at the 1976 event, at the far right. I asked him what he thought of the likeness, and he said it was closer to reality than his character had been in “Bottle Shock,” the movie made about the Judgment. There, apparently, he looked liked a chubby Columbo (played by Louis Giambalvo). Which, of course, George does not look like.

Want a bigger, easier to see version of the painting? Click on the Decanter link above, and then click on the painting.

Mini-reviews 38: Muscadet, Toad Hollow, Brocard, Rhiannon

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting  for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month.

• Alfred Pery Vallee Loire Muscadet 2010 ($10, purchased): Those of us who think Muscadet, a French white, is one of the world's great cheap wine secrets can skip this one. Not much to it other than some lemon fruit amidst a bland, watery style.

• Toad Hollow Pinot Noir Rose 2011 ($10, sample): California wine is better than the 2010 vintage, which was a white zinfandel knockoff, but still not up to its former $10 Hall of Fame standards. Thin and missing any sort of noticeable fruit.

• Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis 2009 ($20, purchased): This French white is more New World chardonnay in style than most Chablis. It’s rounder and softer, with more red apple instead of green apple and Chablis' tell-tale acidity. Having said that, it's not worse, just different.

• Rhiannon 2010 ($13, sample): Find this California red blend for $10, and you're in business. Simple, dark fruits (even a little less than ripe, which I liked), and a bit of tannin.

Let Robert Parker into the Vintners Hall of Fame

Enough is enough. Stop being petty. It’s time, after two previous failures, to do the right thing and elect Robert Parker to the Vintners Hall of Fame.

My colleagues in the wine writing business have decided that Parker, the critic who popularized the 100-point scoring system and has been the most important person in the wine world for the past two decades, isn’t worthy. The voters snubbed Parker in 2009 and 2010, and he wasn’t even on the ballot last year to give the controversy a chance to cool off.

There is no reason why Parker shouldn’t be in. We’re told we should vote for someone who made "the greatest contributions to the California wine industry in any area of achievement." I’ve got news for them. That’s Parker, no matter how jealous they are of his success or how envious they are of his prestige and popularity. If I’m writing this, and I think the 100-point system is dumb, then the rest of the other 216 writers (and current hall members) who have a ballot have no reason not to vote for Parker. More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Bollini Pinot Grigio 2011

The Wine Curmudgeon doesn’t trust Italian pinot grigio. Since it’s a wine that people who don’t drink much wine drink, a lot of pinot grigio producers feel it’s their duty to foist poorly-made, over-priced wine off on them. Some of the samples I get are so awful that I pour them down the drain after the first couple of sips (with loud muttering under my breath).

So I haven’t done an Italian pinot grigio review in two years, and an Italian pinot grigio has never been a wine of the week.

Until now.The Bollini ($12, purchased) is everything the rest of those wines aren’t. It’s reasonably priced. It doesn’t taste like rubbing alcohol. Even more amazingly, it’s varietally correct. There are aromas of flower blossoms, just enough apple and pear fruit to be recognizable, and bit of minerality (and not turpentine) on the finish. Serve this chilled, either on its own or with almost any light summer dish. It would also go with pasta and seafood. I'd even buy it again.

This is the kind of wine that people who don’t drink wine would love; if you know someone like that, tell them about it. To be honest, I’m not quite sure why I bought the Bollini. I guess I was feeling guilty about my attitude toward pinot grigio given that one of my goals for the blog this year has been to be more accessible to non-wine drinkers. I took one for the team, and I’m glad I did.

Winebits 239: Sweet red wine, grape shortage, wine blogging

• Riunite goes sweet: Because, as it was once explained to me, the flagship Ruinite Lambrusco, the pure and natural wine, can’t be called sweet, only soft. Hence two new wines from Banfi, which makes Riunite -- Sweet Red and Sweet White for $6 a bottle, reports Shanken News Daily. The target audience is women 25 and older, and Banfi is spending $2 million for a digital ad campaign to promote the new wines. Which, for those who wonder if there really is anything to this sweet red thing, this probably means yes. One has to try to spend $2 million digitally, and Banfi is well known as a good marketer.

• Whither the grape shortage?  Rob McMillan at Silicon Valley Bank, perhaps the leading U.S. wine business analyst, was one of the first to sound the alarm about an impending California grape shortage. He even left a comment on the blog. Now, McMillan isn’t so sure. He writes: “The distinct possibility that the supply that we said was ‘trending to shortage’ early this year, might just be equalized for another season.” He cites good weather that could turn into a possible record crop in California, as well as cheaper imported wine that is holding down the price of bulk wine. And, because he has a sense of humor, McMillan also offers wine business investing advice. He tells the story of one wise guy who is buying California grape land figuring to make a killing from the grape shortage that may not be a shortage.

• Win blogging award finalists: And, once again, the Wine Curmudgeon is not among them. But that's OK. The Italian Wine Guy, in one of his other blogging voices, explained that I'm not a wine writer, but someone who writes about wine, which is a significant difference in this business. And you know what? I'd rather be someone who writes about wine. That said, I'm rooting for Randal Grahm, Blake Gray, and the Italian Wine Guy in their respective categories.