When it dawned on me just how lucky American wine consumers are today. Really.

I am not going to bother to quote you all the statistics and studies which are readily out there if you Google away but I will put it out there: America is currently the most significant consumer wine market in the world. Period. For now (yes, we are all eying China and Asia). But for now… America drinks volumetrically more wine (or depending on the study you read is about to drink more wine) than any country on earth (not per capita but as a nation), and we have been the most profitable wine market for several years. All of this is good for the consumer… and so, you ask, why? Continue reading »

Like you, I have noticed that Americans are demanding bolder flavor and more adventure in their food and in their wines. (in fact I wrote a book about it!)  It’s easy to note that in wine people are gravitating towards wines that are full of flavor- from Malbec and Torrontés in Argentina, to Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand, Carmenère in Chile, Primitivo in Italy and the list goes on and on and on. Outside of wine, you’ve likely seen same- from flavorful grass-fed beef, to brewed and flavorful cocktail infusions, to the ongoing rage in all things spicy. If you haven’t spent much time in cyberspace looking at hot sauce websites and seeing what’s out there, you have surely missed something evocative to the senses. Continue reading »

I spent last week in Seoul, South Korea being the “American judge” at the finals of the 7th annual Korea Wine Challenge…which you’d know if you’ve been following my Tweets and Facebook page updates. This international wine competition is becoming more and more serious and important with each passing year. It is encompassing new and interesting wines that reflect the interest of many exporting countries to increase their offerings in this dynamic and expanding north Asian wine market. Continue reading »

The New Year always starts out with folks wanting to make prognostications as to what the forthcoming twelve months will bring. Financial people look at indicators from the opening day on Wall Street (up 150’ish for those who don’t recall) to consumer confidence numbers. Retailers take physical and emotional inventory of the ‘OND’ (October-November-December) and especially the holiday ‘D’ numbers while restaurateurs intuitively get a hit from the level of consumer happiness they detect in the dining room, the number of private parties booked at holiday and what they were spending, and bullishly anticipate what the first few weeks of the year will bring. Continue reading »

I was glancing through the myriad emails that come my way this past week when I saw a headline in Wines & Sprits Daily.com that read: SOME FRENCH PRODUCERS USING NEW WORLD TRICKS. Needless to say, I was intrigued. It’s not a secret that French wines have been having a hard time of late selling in the American market and it’s not exclusively due to the tough time the dollar is having versus the euro. Continue reading »

Over the past few weeks I have been asked a lot about what to expect this year in terms of countries and regions who are poised to capitalize, if at all, in the current economic environment. A great but loaded question.

There are many factors which contribute to what is selling and what isn’t. A country may be ‘up’ volumetrically but ‘down’ in value. For example, if people are buying more French wine at lower prices (Alsace, Loire Valley, Languedoc) but are eschewing their normal desire to drink classified Bordeaux or Cru Burgundy, well, the cases could, in theory, climb while the actual dollars sag. This has been a case in point of the Australian market in the USA and England over the past couple of years that the Australians are keenly aware of, and in the process of aggressively addressing. A recent conversation had over dinner with some key head honchos for ‘Brand Australia’ (Wines of Australia) clearly pointed out this dynamic and addressed a few of the table’s questions on how they plan to respond. But it’s unfair to pick on the Aussies as they are certainly not alone in such a conundrum. So who is benefiting?

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Though I am not a skier, I am a good listener and skiers talk to me about how altitude affects the quality of the skiing. I know this in winemaking too - but we speak more of altitude in the context of mountain vineyards, stressed vines and lower yields. Rarely do we talk about it in the context of vines being so much higher and closer to the sun that it actually affects wine style. Well the Southern part of Argentina’s key Mendoza region, the Uco Valley, is a case in point. Here they achieve an almost perfect physiological ripeness with manageable alcohol dues to the proximity to the sun. It’s amazing in the opposite sense of what happened to Icarus! Continue reading »

While there are several prominent wine regions in Argentina, the conversation starts and stops in Mendoza, the country’s largest and most important production area. And though one can make specific associations of multiple grapes and wines in Argentina’s other regions that are critical to the overall texture of her culture - Torrents and Salta (especially those of Cafayate), Syrah and San Juan, Pinot Noir and Patagonia’s Rio Negro area - Argentina is spiritually about Malbec and Mendoza is about Malbec.

We had several meals, gazillions of tastings and lots of evocative conversations of which the following is assembled. Much of this information is as a result of a follow up of dinner held in Buenos Aires with Victor Honoré, proprietor of his eponymous company in BA (Buenos Aires), and mixed with my own notes. A little key info…

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I am fortunate to say that I have been to Buenos Aires a couple of times in my life. I am not so happy to say that this current trip, the kickoff of a nine day wine adventure in Argentina and Uruguay, has been the first that I have actually gotten out of the hotel conference room/ office meeting to restaurant(s) to meetings and then hotel to sleep type of visit. What was I thinking!?

This cosmopolitan metropolis of South America, so often referred to as the “Paris of the Southern Hemisphere”, is truly awesome. A dense city proper of three million people (five million if you include the daily commuter population) fans out to include an additional ten million more including the suburbs and adjacent urban areas. It is a wonderful assemblage of French (architecture, wide boulevards etc.), Spanish (clearly from its colonial beginnings, the city oozes español - beyond the spoken word) and Italian (the population clearly views themselves as much Italian as anything else and you can taste it in the delicious Italian food and fabulous gelato among other Italo-markers). Continue reading »

Recently the Argentines arrived in masses to San Francisco for their annual “Wines of Argentina” trade tasting. Always much anticipated, the attendance this year was higher than I recall in past years and the wines even more delightful.

Argentina is the 5^th largest producer of wine in the world, following the good old US of A at number 4 and just in front of China, who is number six. This dynamic wine producing country has transformed itself mightily over the past decade. Traditionally, Argentina has been a part of the world that produced volume wines, primarily consumed internally within the cities and surrounding areas of Buenos Aires, Cordoba, San Juan and Mendoza. Now, Argentina is well known to becoming a leader in quality export wines, representing some of the finest wines and best values available in today’s market. Continue reading »