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 »

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 »

Having just come back from Portugal, I expected to be amazed by so many of the red wines. And I was. Many of the bottlings happening in the Douro are well known and well documented (from Quinta do Vale Meão to Quinta do Crasto to Niepoort etc.) while the equally large range of modern era reds emanating from DOC’s like Alentejo, Tejo, and Dão are stunning. What I didn’t frankly expect was coming away with a fresh respect for Portuguese white wines beyond the already popular Vinho Verde. So, as promised, a few thoughts on three varietals… Continue reading »

I was recently in Bairrada, an amazing appellation area in the Beiras region in the northwest of Portugal, and have to say how sincerely impressed I was by the wines. Though the neighboring Dão area generates the press and is historically more significant, Bairrada has quietly jumped on the scene producing an array of wines.

First, a little context, Portugal sits in the Iberian southwest of Europe and is geographically 575 miles long by 138 miles wide and has the 8th largest vineyard acreage in world (500,000 plus) (FYI, the USA is 6th). They enjoy their wine and have the 7th largest per capita wine consumption (15 gallons/person) while they are the 11th largest in total wine production in world (USA is 4th) and the 7th largest exporter to USA and growing at a staggering 34.7% with their red wine exports to USA up 126.4% in last three years. Continue reading »

For all the well deserved press that she has received over the past decade plus, Spain is not the entire Iberian Peninsula. Upon enjoying a beautiful bottle of red wine from the Douro the other night, I was reminded of why there’s so much chatter these days about Portugal, the “other Iberia.” While the country may not be basking in the same torridly hot glow that Spain is currently experiencing, something tells me that Portugal’s just a short time away from getting the just due recognition beyond Port and Madeira, her two fortified jewels. 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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As summer furthers itself along, I find myself increasingly doing two things I love: al fresco dining- celebrating the summer’s bounty, and watching lots of baseball as a fan (and as a ‘arm chair’ manager). Both provide great enjoyment, some creative planning and, when well executed, are the source of both pride and pleasure.

Indeed over the past weekend , cooking in the heat of an Alamo (California) summer afternoon, a friend and I were discussing the merits and importance of baseball leadoff hitters whose job of getting on base (with regularity) and setting the stage for their fellow hitters is a crucial role. A team’s chances of winning are greatly improved if you have a leadoff hitter that executes consistent hits. And how does this relate to wine and al fresco dining you ask?

Quite simple. As you set up outside, prepare your grill/bbq/smoker (or whatever heat source you intend to utilize) and plan your lazy afternoon of eating and drinking, you need to have the right ‘leadoff’- wine… and, I would add, foods. The recipes for me are pretty consistent- prosciutto and melon, grilled asparagus, heirloom tomatoes with olive oil and basil and plates of oysters on the half shell with a ‘choix’ of mignonette sauce or juicy and squeezable meyer lemon wedges. So, who do you ‘bring to the plate’ to face such a dizzying array of timely fare? Continue reading »

I was having breakfast with a Bay Area friend of mine who is a big muckety-muck in the world of data research, mostly for the wine trade but also for tech businesses like Microsoft. He does like wine much more than wifi! We were chatting about what’s hot, what’s up and coming, and he asked me for my ‘crystal ball predictions’ for places that are not yet on the radar screen of the drinking public. That means, to him, neither South Africa (coming but still not arrived yet in the USA) nor Austria (already here) or Greece (ditto but not nearly as established). What he was curious about were those players that we can expect to see come up from nowhere over the next few years. Here’s my answer about the places I think we’ll be hearing more from in the near to mid-term:

Uruguay- Still lost in the shadows of Chile and Argentina, there are some lovely wines, mostly red and mostly based on the Tannat grape (being of Madiran and Irouléguy fame in Southwestern France) that are quite tasty if not difficult to come across outside of Montevideo! Look for Juanico, the largest region and the name of one of the more prominent wineries (along with Bouza, a standout winery in some of my recent book tastings).

Portugal- But not Port which has a good and loyal following and whose wines are globally recognized and vintages followed. What I think is up and coming are the table wines that come from the Duoro (yes, where Port is made but more still table wine is made than Port- 60/40) and also the interior Alentejo, the region of Dão, the Minho (home of Vihno Verde and more..) and other spots like the Ribatejo and Estremadura. No, the Continue reading »