Wines Stories of 2020

  A look at the main stories covered in this blog for 2020. Yeah, guess what, the Covid pandemic tops the list as it related to the wine business. Second on the list were the wildfires.

Wineries and the pandemic

  With the lack of visitors wineries switched from onsite sales to internet sales. Some did better than others at this. Retail wine sales in stores are doing okay. Some wineries rely heavily on restaurant sales and they are hurting.
  Some wineries fumbled around with online tastings, informational, or fun zoom meetings. Some didn't do well and a couple high-end wineries even tried to charge a fee. The most entertaining ones I found were from Jean-Charles Boisset, owner of several wineries in Napa and Sonoma (plus others), because he's an entertaining guy.
  CA tasting rooms went from full closure, except for wine pickups, to open for outside tastings, then back to closures. Almost all required appointments for tastings when they were open. This may become the new norm post-Covid making drop-in tastings a thing of the past.

Drinking at home

  Day drinking is a concern among medical professionals as more people are at home; many of them unemployed now. Some of these folks also have their kids at home.

Race in America

  Even the wine industry took an inward look. It's always been obvious visitors are almost all white and this is mostly an economic thing as wine is considered a luxury good. Likewise, employment is almost all white in the business and hospitality side of wine, Hispanic in the vineyards, and mixed white and Hispanic in the production of wine.
  This issue has no easy answers and has fallen by the wayside with the pandemic and wildfires. The question is will the issue be picked up later?

California Alcohol Beverage Control

  The ABC has always had an interesting view of themselves as a sort of quasi-lawmaking and enforcement agency (yeah, nobody should be able to do both). They are using the excuse of the pandemic to add lack of due process along with warrantless searches to their toolbox. These folks need to be reined in.

Wildfires … again

  Wildfires affected primarily the Napa & Sonoma areas though the smoke taint spread farther. In Napa something like 17 wineries were damaged plus resorts and there are losses of vineyards, wine in storage, wine making equipment, homes, etc. and the losses are quite staggering.
  The bigger issue may be the longer-term damage to the tourism industry from the perception of Napa burning down (it didn't).

Grape harvest

  The pandemic made it difficult getting harvest staffing as people couldn't come in from other countries as normal. Plus the working conditions were more difficult.
  Maybe 20% of Napa's fruit was not harvested because of fires.
  The heroes of the harvest were the first responders fighting fires and the others keeping people safe. The unsung heroes were the harvest staff at the wineries working through Covid.

Longer-term issues

  Real estate prices are pretty much crazy high in some grape-growing areas, especially Napa. This directly affects what you pay for a bottle of wine. As prices continue up fewer will be willing to pay.
  There is the perception of Napa or even all of California burning hurting the tourism business. There may also be worry over buying California wine as it might have smoke taint.
  Climate change has been a concern for awhile as grapes have a narrow band of climate they do well in. However, a few years ago I don't think anybody was expecting wildfires to be part of the problem.

A few pet peeves

• Rosé isn't your only choice for a warm weather wine.
• The heavy 750ml glass bottle shouldn't be your only choice for a container.
• People outside of California should know more about zinfandel and its styles.
• People not knowing how to store their wine correctly. If you're going to drink much wine you should understand a few things about wine cellaring.
• The wine industry's love of new AVAs (named grape-growing regions) to the confusion of most wine buyers.