The Wine Curmudgeon

Regional wine labels: Is a wine where it says it's from?

When is a wine made by a winery in your state not from your state? More often than you think.

This is the great conundrum of the regional wine business. The best way for local wineries to market their product is to proclaim its local-ness. But, given the way the wine business works, their wine may not be made with local grapes, but with grapes or juice imported from California or even Europe. Confused? It gets worse. Federal law allows wineries to be appropriately vague about whether the wine is made with local grapes.

All in all, regional wine labeling is a maze that consumers (many of whom aren't sure how to read a wine label to begin with) don't know they have to negotiate. After the jump -- how labeling laws work, what to look for on a regional wine label, and why so many wineries take advantage of this gray area.

Wine review: McPherson Cellars Roussanne 2010

The on-going debate in the Texas wine business is about whether to make wine from grapes that consumers recognize, or to make wine from grapes that are suited to the Texas terroir. It's a debate that has pitted winemakers against winemakers, growers against winemakers, and critics against winemakers.

The first group argues that consumers won't buy wine from a Texas winery unless it says chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, or merlot on the label -- and that if they have to buy grapes from California to make those wines, so be it. Otherwise, there would be no Texas wine industry.

The second group, to which the Wine Curmudgeon belongs, disagrees. Our approach: What's the point of making Texas wine that tastes like California wine? Texas wine (or New York or Virginia or other regional wine, for that matter) should reflect the state's unique characteristics -- the soil, the climate, and the like.

I'm going to write more about this next week, and specifically the labeling controversy in the regional wine business -- how too many regional wineries try to convince consumers that wine made with California grapes came from their state. Today, though, it's enough to note that this roussanne ($14, sample) is a white wine that firmly, boldly and unequivocally makes the argument for terroir-driven wines. More, after the jump:

The Gruet-Cap*Rock saga continues

Texas gave the world the TV show Dallas, which taught reality shows how families should fight. And let's not forget the Texas cheerleader murder plot or the Texas cadet murder case.

So why is the Wine Curmudgeon not surprised that last year's abortive sale of the bankrupt Cap*Rock winery to Laurent Gruet of New Mexico's acclaimed Gruet Winery appears headed down that path?

The Lubbock newspaper reported last week that other members of his family blocked Laurent's bid to buy the winery. As you'll recall, Laurent bought Cap*Rock for $6.5 million at auction on July 12. Then, some two weeks later, Gruet said he didn’t have the money and withdrew his bid.

The newspaper story hinted that there was a Dallas-esque fight for control of Gruet going on at the time between Laurent and several family members, and that the Cap*Rock deal was part of that fight (and, in fact, that fight may still be going on). The story also talks to plots, counter-plots and counter-counter-plots, including a board member who really wasn't a board member, gaggles of lawyers, falsified documents, and perhaps even attempted fraud. The bankruptcy trustee is trying to recover $4 million from some combination of the Gruets for the failed bid.

In fact, the only thing that seems to be missing from this story is a good right hand. Which I am happy to provide, courtesy of JRSueEllen on YouTube:

Texas wine, the Legislature, and the state's budget crisis

This Texas industry is recognized around the country as a leader and innovator, providing thousands of jobs and adding more than a billion dollars to the state's economy. Yet the Texas Legislature is about to strangle this industry by cutting off its seed money and eliminating the work it does to market and research its product.

If this industry was oil and gas, or even wind (in which Texas leads the country in production), would the Legislature be so eager to eliminate its funding? Of course not. But because the industry is wine, the Legislature is poised to cut its $4.3 million in state funding.

This is a huge mistake, and not just because I write about wine. The Texas wine industry is an important part of the state's economy, and the money it receives from the state has played a key role in the wine industry's growth. In this, Texas wine is not some effete pastime enjoyed by a bunch of outsiders who don't like to drink Lone Star and eat chicken fried, but big business. Or, as we like to say here, Big Bidness.

Texas wine sales increased six percent in 2010, with consumers buying almost 240,000 cases of Texas wine from retailers that Nielsen surveys (which doesn't include Walmart-owned stores or restaurants). That, by the way, compared to a five percent or so increase for all wine sales in the U.S. Even more impressive: Texas wine outsold Argentine and Chilean wine -- combined -- in the state in 2010. The cost of this success? That $4.3 million in seed money, paid every two years. That comes out to less than $6 a Texan, or $3 a year. After the jump, how that $3 a person investment has paid off.

When local wine isn't appropriate for a local food event

The Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival, in its 26 years of existence, has done epic work in bringing Texas wine to the people. At one time, it was about the only major wine festival in the state that paid attention to Texas wine, and its efforts have played a key role in improving the quality of Texas wine.

So why, for this weekend's Wine and Swine Culinary event, which is one of the festival's major fundraisers, are no Texas wines being served? There are Texas chefs. But the wines are from Australia, California and South Africa. I have an email in to the event organizers, and if I hear anything, I'll update this. Maybe there's a good reason, like no Texas winery wanted to participate. Yes, I'm being facetious.

Update: Erika White, the festival's executive director, replied to my email: "Peregrine Hill will be there and they are from Texas. We continue to support Texas wineries of course and are working on a few Texas Wine Signature events during the Festival."

Which is all well and good, of course, though it would have been be nice to see Peregrine Hill listed in the publicity. But it still doesn't address the question of why a major Texas food event is skimping on Texas wines.

Texas, New York and regional wine

The cyber ether is ablaze with discussion about this week's Grape and Gridiron Classic, which paired Texas and New York wines in a blind tasting. We tasted 11 wines, and the participants preferred the Texas wines eight times. We wuz robbed, wrote some New York bloggers, while others claimed the fix was in. Some of the Texas writers went overboard in the other direction; Lone Star pride, no doubt, or salve for the Cowboys' woeful season.

Yes, the result was surprising (and more on that later). Even more surprising? That people could think that the Wine Curmudgeon would be involved in something that wasn't 100 percent aboveboard. Question my passion for cheap wine or that I really like the Ramones. But my integrity? I think not, and I have 25 years of doing the right thing to back that up. More, after the jump:

Texas 8, New York 3

Sometimes, an event comes off even better than one had hoped. That was the case for the 2010 Grape and Gridiron Classic last night, which paired New York and Texas wines in a friendly competition. Texas won, 8-3; credit the result to the home field advantage.

I'll write more later this week. My pal Russ Kane, who helped put the classic together (we were paid by the sponsor, the Texas Department of Agriculture), has a report on his blog. It's enough to report now that several members of the visiting New York contingent were a touch alarmed by my driving; that we're talking about a return match in New York next year; and that yes, wine makes a great spectator sport.