Younger Consumers Giving Up On Wine?

The premium wine drinking population by age has changed over the past decade. During that time we came out of recession into good times, then were hit by the pandemic. These numbers are from Wine Intelligence, a wine consumer research company. Premium wine is generally considered wine costing over $20.

California's Mishandling of Merlot

  First, addressing the big question when anyone says "Merlot," did Sideways ruin Merlot? No, certainly not single-handedly, but the movie helped its fall. Merlot is the great mistake of the California wine business.

The Pandemic and Changing Drinking Habits

A researcher in England has looked at drinking habits during the Bubonic Plague. Though this was several hundred years ago, it's an interesting comparison to the current situation.

In the 17th century, the plague outbreak closed down the social outlets for people, meaning the taverns. Remember, they had no internet to fall back on for socializing! They couldn't order beer and wine online! This may have been the start of the drinking at home routine.

Read all about it.

Sonoma County Best Value Wineries

You wouldn't know it by some wine reviews you read, but not everyone wants to spend $125 on a bottle of Napa Cab or $75 on a Sonoma Pinot Noir. Here are wineries that offer reasonably priced quality wines in Sonoma County.

Wine Memes

 Cuz people's drinking habits are funny.

Zinfandel, Past, Present and (Maybe) Future

This is an interesting article on my favorite wine. It's an easy read on Zinfandel's history, how it looks now, and what its future might be. The future part is based on desires from a couple of producers quoted in the article. An intriguing observation is that Napa has turned Cabernet into Zinfandel by changing its style over the past few decades.

California Zinfandel: Past, Present, and Future from the Napa Valley Wine Academy

California Wine Sales: 2020 and 2021

California wine sales were up in 2020 despite the lack of on-premise sales (bars, restaurants etc. selling for on-site consumption). Wine shipments were up one percent within the U.S. and two percent for overseas shipments compared to 2019.

The Cost of Shipping Wine

Free or flat rate shipping is used as an incentive to get people to buy a full case of wine directly from a winery or retailer. It's gotten to where many consumers think they're entitled to free shipping. Problem is this isn't sustainable, especially for small businesses.

What's the true cost of shipping? I don't have an exact number, but can make an educated guess.

Another Change Brought on by the Pandemic? Robots

It's called ag-tech and investors are jumping in. Farming and robotics. Ag-tech has already been growing with things like GPS, aerial imaging, and temperature sensors. With the shortage of seasonal farm labor brought on by the pandemic (COVID: the gift that keeps on giving) we might see a lot of robots in the vineyards and in other farming.

John Deere has an autonomous tractor that will be for sale by 2023.

image from burro.ai, Augean Robotics

Wine Trends - The Good and the Bad

It's a new year, so we should talk about trends. Rather than just reviewing what happened in 2021 or making a wild ass guess at what might happen in '22 we'll look at the good and bad trends without any specific timeline. 

Alcohol Level on a Bottle's Label

You've no doubt noticed the ABV (alcohol by volume) number on a wine label. Some of us use this number to help select a wine to purchase. Unfortunately, that number can be misleading. There has to be flexibility in the ABV as labels are often printed before the actual percentage of alcohol is known. That allowable range is quite wide. Luckily, most winemakers are honest and usually the number on the label is very close to the actual number.

Statements About Wine That Aren't Necessarily True

 There are misconceptions  about wine. Here are a few statements that are wrong, at least sometimes.