The French Wine Industry Fights to Win Over Their 20 Somethings

A few days ago I saw this post on Avenue Vine describing how the 20 somethings in France describe wine as "expensive and old fashioned", complaining that "There are so many names and regions."

You know, it isn't suprising, just because France has such a storied history with wine doesn't mean that the next generation is born with the knowledge of how all the appellation system works and how to know what kind of wine is in a bottle from Corton, Margaux or Gigondas.

Not that I'm spurning tradition, I really like it and I'm not advocating removing the appellation information and replacing it with the grape varietal(s) used in that bottle. That said, having that information and widening the market is a good thing.

Well, talk about synchronicity. I just saw this article describing how the French appellation rules are changing to "fight off the New World challenge".

In a nutshell, France is introducing a new "Wine of France" category that is defined by grape varietal.

Although I don't like how they've relaxed the rules on adding tanning and using wood chips, I think this is a good thing overall and will increase the sales of French wine.

Of course, like all things, progress is not without it's anchors, here is an example of a recent Burgundy ad campaign that was banned for no good reason, it's an elegant and creative ad.

Bordeaux Cheat Sheet

I was thinking about what a Bordeaux cheat sheet might look like. What are the key pieces of information you would like to have with you when you are buying a bottle of Bordeaux? (either at a restaurant or at a store)

I'm thinking it would look something like this:

Wines from the left bank (of the Gironde) are primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and the region includes: Medoc, and Graves.

• Medoc includes the northern Medoc as well as the Haut Medoc.
• The celebrated regions of the Haut Medoc include (north to south) St Estephe, Pauillac, St Julien, and Margaux
• Graves includes Pessac-Leognan
• The more specific the appellation, generally the better the wine (i.e. Margaux is much more specific than Haut Medoc. Medoc less than Haut Medoc with Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur being the most basic
• In the famous wine classification of 1855 (First Growth, Second Growth etc) only the Chateau from Medoc and one Chateau from Graves (Haut-Brion from Graves) were included.
• In Medoc, the 200 chateaux that were never classified are called the Crus Bourgeois. Quality can range a lot on a wine that puts Crus Bourgeois on the label so pay it no mind.
• In Graves, a small number of Chateaux (16) were classified as Cru Classes in 1953

Wines from the Right Bank are primarily Merlot (sometimes 100%) and the region includes Pomerol and St Emilion.

• St Emilion was classified into 11 Premiers Grands Crus Classes and 53 Grands Crus Classes, revised every decade.
• Pomeral was never classified (many outlying areas were also never classfied)
• Cotes de Bourg and Cotes de Blaye (as well as Cotes de Castillon and Cotes de Francs) are north west of Pomerol and are still right bank wines (Merlot dominant) and are generally for everyday drinking

The actual Medoc 1855 classification can be interesting to have available as can a vintage chart although your mileage will vary with both.

Generally, I try to choose a bordeaux based on region and of course, factoring in the amount I want to pay.

What would you include in your Bordeaux Cheat Sheet?

Demographics of a Wine Drinker

As I was searching the web for different wine festivals, I stumbled across some demographic information about those festivals. In particular, I found the demographic data for the Boston Wine Expo as well as the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.

It would be good to point out that the type of people that go to wine festivals are a small subset of all the wine drinkers out there. That said, it is interesting to see how you fit within the wider demographic.

Largest Age Group: 30-40
Income: 69% earn more than $100,000 (Boston) Average income: $107,000 (Vancouver)
Average Amount Spent on Wine/Month: $152 (Vancouver)
Average Price/Bottle: 20% spend between $20-$30 (Boston)
# Bottles/Month: 39% buy 5-10 bottles, 33% buy 1-4 bottles (Boston)

It seems the demongraphics of a wine drinker align on both the east and west coast as well as into Canada. It certainly does paint a picture of your typical wine enthusiast.

It also reinforces how much wine is a luxury item that is marketed that way. I read somewhere that the quality of wine increases quite a bit for each additional dollar you spend up to $50/bottle. After $50/bottle, you do get an increase in quality and better materials (i.e. where the grapes are from, how they are treated, how much patience was put into the vinification of the wine, newer oak barrels and the like) but the increased cost is more marketing (name brand) and/or supply and demand driven.

I'm curious about the bigger picture, the demographics of a wine drinker and how the US compares to other countries like France and Italy.

Technorati Profile

Strategies for Learning Wine

Recently, after close to 8 years, I met up with an old friend and amidst the conversation, I shared how I had gotten into wine and had a modest wine collection. He asked how I got into wine (more on that in a minute) and how he expanded his wine knowledge by focusing on a particular for a year - say Italy for a year, France for year and so on.

It got me to thinking, what are some of the great and enjoyable ways one can get into wine?

For me, I started kind of small, trying a glass of wine here and there with dinner and trying to make note of what I liked. Of course, that didn't go so well mainly because 1) I didn't keep a very good list and 2) Even I had that list, I couldn't use it to understand what I liked or whether I would like a given bottle.

I eventually found that I needed to develop a vocabulary that described the elements of wine and figure out which of those elements I liked. After that, it's about figuring out which regions and types of wines have those elements.

I took a few classes and did a fair amount of reading to develop the vocabulary and to gain experience (i.e. taste a lot of wines). Visiting wineries, joining a wine club and going to wine tastings also helped a lot. Ultimately, there is no substitute for experience and the great thing about wine is gaining that experience is the joy.

The other thing happened unconsiously was that I did focus on particular regions. There was two reasons for that 1) Finding wines I liked in a particular region, say Burgundy, fueled learning more about that region and 2) visiting particular regions, Napa, Sonoma, Willamette Valley brought those regions to life -- nothing will bring a wine region to life like having to figure out driving directions, which wineries to visit and tasting some of the differences between say Stag's Leap and Alexander Valley.

I do believe narrowing focus in order to learn is a great tool because the reality is that the world of wine is huge. It is overwhelming.

I like the example my friend gave of focusing on a particular region for a year. That doesn't mean if you are in the mood for something else you shouldn't act on that mood, it just means you expand yourself in a particular region for a given period of time and round out that exploration with drinking, looking at maps and reading about it.

If you are really lucky, you can also spend time in each region.

Having a wine buddy to share this with will also help in a lot of ways. For me, I've been lucky to share my passion with my wife as a mutual interest which in turn has helped us bond.

What strategies for learning wine would you recommend?

Betz Pere de Famille 2003

My wife and had a bottle of Betz Pere de Famille Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 that I got a couple of years ago when I was in the Vino 100 Bellevue wine club. Kind of a pricey wine at around $50/bottle but we both hadn't tried it before and were interested in tasting it.

This bottle has been lying down for a couple of years in our Eurocave and I think it's done it some good although we both agreed it could even get better over a few more years.

Just as an aside, I'm not going to post something about every wine we taste, there are far better people to tell you about that. I will mention some of the outstanding ones, which is the reason why I'm writing about this wine.

It was a very tasty wine, lots of nice fruit, more on the berry side with a fair amount of toasty oak flavors such as chocolate, fennel and nutmeg. The balance was really good although it was a touch astringent on the finish. Plenty of complexity and flavors. Not bitter (did have structure), not too acidic.

Quite a good wine, we're looking forward to our next bottle.

Parker & Zraly Wine Certification Program

Recently I started the first level, Level I - Aficionado of Wine (AW), of the Parker & Zraly Wine Certification Program on eRobertParker.com.

So far I've completed the Wines of France, Wines of Burgundy and Wines of Bordeaux tests all with flying colors. There are 8 exams in total, I still need to make my way through United States, Italy, Spain and Portugal, the Southern Hemisphere, and "Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe".

So what can you expect from this certification program? Well, given that you have to get to level III before you actually have to taste wines in order to pass the test, and Level I is all multiple choice online, the main purpose is for a Wine Enthusiast (don't mind the pun) to test their knowledge.

For me, it was a great way to motivate myself to learn more about regions aside from the American and French regions I tend to spend the majority of my time reading and drinking about.

For the most part, if you read the related sections in Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible as well as Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2008 Edition you'll be in good shape to answer the majority of the questions.

On the France test, there were questions on what rules were a part of the AOC, what grapes are used in each region, wine making terminology, terminology from the regions, classifications and such.

Bordeaux and Burgundy dove more into the sub-regions of each region, asking a number of questions about what region a particular winery, or vineyard belongs. Of course, classifications, 1855 for Bordeaux and the Cru system for Burgundy was asked as well.

Occasionally I got what I felt were somewhat useless questions such as "how many acres are in region X" or "how many cases of red wine are produced in region y". Somewhat hard to study for questions like that.

For the most part, I'm getting what I wanted out of the exams, they are making me read more wine books and driving me to learn more about all kinds of different wine regions.

You do have to sign up for eRobertParker.com and pay for the exams which at the time of this writing was $35/exam or $195 for all 8. Quite a bit of money for a certificate and a small amount of bragging rights :)

California WIne Down the Drain? How could you!

Recently, I reviewed Alice Feirings new book, the shortly titled "The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization".

If you want to get a real flavor for the book, read her latest opinion/editorial article entitled California Wine? Down the drain.

Controversial? To be sure. Trying to make a point? Definitely. I want to ask Alice Feiring what she thought of the drop in sales in Merlot that resulted from Miles comment in the movie Sideways where he says that he'll leave if they are drinking Merlot?

Because, ultimately, that is the kind of comment that Alice Feiring is making. It's lucky she doesn't have the exposure that the movie sideways had.

Alice Feiring bashes Robert Parker for being so polarized and for influencing the wine world with his matter of fact wine reviews, at the same time she makes the same kind of comments.

In fact, in her book she is frustrated that Robert Parker doesn't like wines from the Loire Valley, that in 16 years, he only found a few that he liked. Isn't it hypocritical of her to make the same kind of comment about California wine?

I'm not debating that she shouldn't like California wine, I feel pretty strongly that saying that all California wine isn't good sends the wrong message and will unfairly impact the whole regions

It's almost like we need a metacritic for wine reviews so that we can avoid a situation where a few people's palates can influence the success of a wine, a winery or a whole wine region.

I love a lot of California wine even though I'm not a big fan of hot alcoholic wines. I don't know and don't taste whether it has a custom yeast or went through micro-oxygenation. I'm not as educated or experienced in wine as Alice Feiring but how sad would it be if I didn't even taste the amazing wines I've had from California because of an article of one person's opinion?

Also see Jim Gordon's post. His opinion rang true to me.

The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization

Just read Alice Feiring's book entitled "The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization".

Essentially, the book describes how many new technologies such as reverse osmosis, custom yeasts, custom tannin, micro-oxygenation, cold soaking, late harvests and such are being used to make wines that no longer reflect their terroir.

One of my favorite quotes from the book goes like this:

I just don't see Big Wine allowing labels on wine reading something like this: This wine was de-alcoholized by reverse osmosis and smoothed out with micro-oxygenation. Ingredients: Water, alcohol, grapes, chestnut tannin, oak extract, oak dust, genetically modified yeast, urea, enzymes, grape juice, tartaric acid, bentonite, and Vecorin.

On a naturally made wine, the ingredient list would read simply: Grapes and minimal sulfure (100 parts per million or lower).

To me, the first part of the book is the most interesting as it discusses the technology. The rest of the book basically describes how she goes to this region then that region and talks to the wine makers and complains about how all the wines are becoming Parkerized. Less interesting but still readable.

If you are a wine geek, I recommend this book, it's well written and easy to read... you'll find it interesting as well, you just may not get through the whole book.

Brix Wine Cafe

Last Thursday, my wife and I went to Brix Wine Cafe in the Juanita area of Kirkland. We called ahead to see if we can make reservations and were told they don't take reservations because there were plenty of tables.

We were a little taken a back by that since we usually find the good places tend to be busy. For example, the Purple tends to be busy all week.

Nonetheless, we knew the restaurant was pretty new and we had read some reviews on the web that made it sound like it was pretty good. There are reports that the Chef is Tom Black from Barking Frog however the web site and the menu indicate that the Executive Chef is Craig Stout with no mention of Tom Black. We don't care about who's in the kitchen as long as the food is good, just a point of interest.

Drove over there and parked, I had read that some people have worried about parking in Juanita village however I noticed that on our bill, it said that if you get a ticket while eating, Brix will cover it. Nice touch - I'd check into it with the restaurant before counting on that though.

The decor was good, trendy, nice display of wine bottles, and we took a seat in a booth close to the Windows. There were plenty of tables however the bar was pretty busy. It seemed like although they weren't packed with a lineup out the door, there was a steady stream of customers and the bar stayed full for the duration of our stay. (might be a good time to check this place out as it could get busier soon)

They have wine flights and we got the flight of Oregon wine which included A to Z Wineworks, Cherry Hill and Westrey, all Willamette Valley Pinot Noires.

The flight came to us in these mini glasses. I always wonder about this, wine really tastes bad in small, thick rimmed glasses. You can't get the bouquet off the wine which totally changes the experience. I'm always shocked when wineries trying to sell wine from tastings use crappy glasses. I understand there is an expense and for flights, big glasses make it look like you aren't getting much of a pour but still.

We asked for bigger Burgundy glasses and the waitress was nice enough to oblige even though she brought us bordeaux glasses. They were full sized glasses though, good enough.

The Cherry Hill tickeled our fancy the most although none were the kind of wine we'd run out and buy, mainly because they all seemed to either lack some complexity or were a little off balance. Good to drink and try however.

We then had a couple of glasses of the Fontanafredda Briccotondo Barbera which was quite good, easy to drink and enjoy.

The food (my wife had the Ahi Tuna special, I had the Pappardelle Pasta was pretty good, a little rich for our liking but definitely well prepared. We also had a cheese plate which was quite good but would have benefitted from a better selection of crackers/bread to go along with it.

The wine menu had a fair number of Washington wines along with a selection of Italian wines. We really missed having a selection of French wines to go through.

We also would have liked to be able to make a custom flight from the list of by the glass reds (we do this when we get the opportunity at other places).

Net/net for us was that we would go back but we wouldn't go out of our way to go back or plan to go back. We expected a little more refinement such as a better presentation of the flights, a full table of cutlery (we had only 1 fork and 1 knife), cheese knife for the cheese plate and such. Service was good though, there was just a bit of a feeling of a startup.

What is this blog about?

Two of the passions that my wife and I have are wine and food, in that order.

We really enjoy learning about wine, going to wine tastings, buying wine for our modest collection and trying different restaurants.

This is not yet another blog that says "this wine smells like cassis and plum and I give it 90 points!". Honestly, I don't find wine reviews all that interesting and I figure a large number of you don't as well.

Instead, I plan to focus more on what going to the winery or tasting was like, whether we liked the wines or not and why.

I also plan to talk a lot about the interesting things I learn along the way, the kinds of things I'll mention to my wife or our friends in our daily conversations.

For the food side of this blog, I want to add the the reviews you can get on the web about various restaurants, throw in my 2 cents on a particular restaurant. Because I live in Seattle, most of the restaurants mentioned are going to be in this area although my wife and I are lucky enough to travel now and again and trying new restaurants is always high on the list and I'll review those as well.

Not sure at this point where this will end up but I hope that I can provide something useful and interesting for anyone willing to read.

I am very open to feedback so please, don't hesitate to contact me from this blog.