The Wine Curmudgeon

Has regional wine entered the mainstream?

This tweet, from last week’s monthly Texas wine Twitter event, says it all:  “Hey @DeniseClarke and @VintageTexas [two of the event’s organizers] -- who knew we'd do #TxWine at a national retailer like @WholeFoods?”

Certainly not me. When we started DrinkLocalWine five years ago, the idea that one of the leading grocers in the country would participate in a regularly scheduled regional wine event – and offer free samples -- was not even worth thinking about. We had enough problems convincing consumers wine was made in states other than California, Washington and Oregon, let alone marketers with multi-million dollar budgets.

But there we were, sipping and tweeting, on a cold and rainy Tuesday night at several Whole Foods across the state, as well as a variety of wine bars, restaurants and retailers that served Texas wine. And then, about 45 minutes into the event, the evening’s hashtag, #TxWine, was trending at No. 1 on Twitter. Which, even for a Twitter neophyte like me, means something. #TxWine ain’t no Kardashians.

Hence the headline for this post. Is regional wine finally more than a novelty? Is it an accepted part of the U.S. wine business. The answer, I’m happy to say, is yes. Companies like Whole Foods don’t do events like this out of the goodness of their corporate hearts; they do it to make money. And nothing speaks mainstream acceptance like getting it from a company with almost $13 billion in sales.

This doesn’t mean there still isn’t work to do, and I saw that Tuesday night. We had a couple of people at my Whole Foods who brought their regional wine attitude with them -- arms crossed, eyes squinting, and minds less than open about wine that wasn’t made in a real wine region. But that’s OK – we know how much the Wine Curmudgeon enjoys a challenge.

Big Wine: 5 companies, 60 percent of sales, 200 brands

Call it serendipity. Shortly after my blog posts about Big Wine at the end of last year, a Michigan State study offered even more data about how Big Wine works and how it has changed the business.

The paper, “Concentration in the U.S. Wine Industry,” was compiled by Phil Howard, an associate professor who studies consolidation. After doing soft drinks and beer, he told me, wine was the next logical step.

“And even I was surprised by what I found,” Howard said. “Wine was much different than what I thought. If you go to the stores, it seems like you have all these choices, because the shared ownership is not very apparent. We wanted to help consumers understand what they were really buying.”

More, after the jump:

The original $10 Hall of Fame

The PDF at this link is a story called "Uncork It" that I wrote for the Southwest Spirit inflight magazine in 1999. It was the first appearance of what, today, is the $10 Hall of Fame.

How long ago was that? Randall Grahm still owned Big House wines (and I will no doubt get an email from him for bringing that up); I used the word checkbook, because we wrote checks in the 20th century; and I quoted Peter Granoff of a company called Virtual Vineyard, a predecessor to Wine.com that disappeared when the tech bubble burst.

No surprise to see Bogle on the list, of course, though I haven't seen the McGuigan in a store in years, and the Belvedere no longer exists. And how far ahead of my time was I with a regional wine and moscato?

As for the the Hogue fume and Jaja red blend: "Let us not burden our remembrances with a heaviness that's gone but distant memories," wrote Shakespeare, because those were two of the finest cheap wines ever. Versions are still around, but they're made by different companies and bear little resemblance to what they were. In fact, they gave me the idea for this story because I got tired of hearing people tell me you couldn't buy great wine for $10 when you could buy Hogue and Jaja.

The advice? As current as ever, and it's nice to be able to give credit to the people who first told me those things. And my editors at the time, Tracy Staton and Lori Stacy, deserve several waves o' the Curmudgeon's fedora. If they hadn't bought this story, who knows what I'd be doing now?

And is anyone surprised to see I was cranky about scores even then?

Wine of the week: Domaine de Pouy 2011

This Gascon white wine set me up for a 2013 Curmudgie. I saw it in the store, and immediately doubted whether it would be any good, and for no reason other than I was being stupid.

A guy I know at the store talked me into buying it, and the first thing I did the next time I saw him was to apologize for being so cranky. What’s the most important rule in tasting wine? Drink it before you judge it.

The de Pouy ($10, purchased, 10.5% alcohol) is another amazingly fresh, almost grapey wine from Gascony, made with grapes used almost nowhere else in the world. It’s one of many Gascon wines I’ve praised over the past several years, many of which are in the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame.

What sets the de Pouy apart is a green apple sort of citrus note that balances everything and takes the wine where most $10 wines don’t go. Yes, it’s a simple wine, but the best simple wines, like this one, aren’t overdone or insulting. That’s what makes them interesting.

Highly recommended; chill it and drink on its own, or with almost any kind of food that isn’t red meat, a cream sauce, or spaghetti. It should stay in the Hall as long as it costs $10 -- and as long as I don’t judge it before I drink it.

Winebits 263: Cheap wine edition

News about cheap wine from the cyber-ether, as part of 2013 $10 Hall of Fame celebration:

• How to buy cheap wine: This older post from the Brooklyn Guy Loves Wine blog offers some outstanding advice, including this: “Its excellence must derive from the smell and taste of the wine, and from its expression of place, not from the mere fact that it is palatable and costs $10.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. The only drawback? He recommends Chambers, one of the great wine retailers in the world, for its cheap wine selection, and 99 percent of us will never get a chance to shop there.

• These people make cheap wine: The Wine Spectator, of all places, has a two-parter about four winemakers who make wine that I write about. It’s a bit sloggy to get through, but worth the effort if only for the technical information one doesn’t see much elsewhere. At Chateau Ste. Michelle, for example, wine is produced in two facilities, using 82,574 barrels and 475 stainless-steel tanks. Some of the tanks hold as much as 380,000 bottles of wine.

• Seal of approval: Eater, a very au courant website for people who call themselves foodies, has decided that cheap wine is in. Jordan Mackay, who writes for San Francisco magazine, reports that "it's never been a better time to be a cheap wine drinker. Maybe I've just been bludgeoned for too long into thinking I needed to spend more for decent quality and interest. Spending less on wine makes me happy on its own, but the fact that often times I actually prefer the unadorned, straightforward, and open nature of such wines makes it a win-win.” Shocking news, no?

The 2013 $10 Hall of Fame

This was a record-setting year for the $10 Hall of Fame, with 12 wines making the cut. In some two decades of drinking cheap wine, I've never tasted so many that were so good. I came across at least one wine every week that was made me go, "Does this belong in the Hall?" That has never happened before.

Click here for the entire list, or the $10 link on the upper left of this page.

There were lots of surprises -- the Mandolin syrah from California, a French picpoul from Font-Mars (picpoul is notoriously inconsistent), and even the Rene Barbier Mediterranean Red, which took $5 wine to a place I never thought it could go. The Hall's selection process and eligibility rules are here.

We're living in the Golden Age of cheap wine, and I hope everyone who reads this understands how lucky we are to be here. It's as if Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, the Ramones, and the Beatles were all on the same bill, all in their prime, tickets were free, and we never had to go home.

2013 $10 Hall of Fame coming on Monday

The 2013 $10 Hall of Fame will post on Monday -- perhaps the most impressive group of cheap wine I've honored in the decade I've been doing this. There's more Gascon wine, a French picpoul that is stunning, some of the best Australian wine I've had in years, and even $10 California wine -- plus a mystery wine that surprised even me.

Want a sneak preview? I'll be on Olivia Wilder's Internet rado program at 8 p.m. CST on Sunday to talk about the new Hall, answer questions, and dispense cheap wine advice.