Wineries are still navigating the post-pandemic world and may be making some mistakes.
There are a few post-pandemic trends in the wine business that are driving customers away, like sky-high tasting fees. There's another that may be a little harder to spot at first glance. This is wine clubs that aren't really wine clubs.
There have been several professionally written articles about the dark days ahead and plenty of Internet chatter about the coming downfall of Napa. Yes, Napa because many associate American wine with Napa Valley even though Napa only produces three to four percent of the country's wine.
Are things crashing into oblivion as anyone looking for clicks on the Internet says or is this just an adjustment?
There were a few big events that put American wine and specifically Napa Valley on the radar. Some of them have been mentioned in this blog several times. The 1976 Judgement of Paris wine tasting, the 1991 French Paradox on 60 Minutes, and the movie Sideways, released in 2004. There's another largely unforgotten TV show.
Scientific opinion on whether you should drink, and how much, has been all over the place. What's going on? The science hasn't changed, so what has?
Recently, Good Morning America did a "bucket list" piece California Wine Country on a Budget all about saving money while visiting Sonoma County.
It's a high-level overview, but will get you started on figuring out flights, car rental, lodging, eating, and wine tasting.
One error in the program, Francis Ford Coppola sold off his namesake winery three years ago.
With the Pandemic in 2020 Amazon put out a proposal to modernize alcohol shipping rules that would allow them to get into the business. Wholesalers everywhere screamed until they had heart attacks. Nothing much has happened in the four years since this plan became public, but that doesn't mean Amazon has given up on the idea. More likely, they're working behind the scenes to get this moving.
All 50 U.S. states have at least one winery. Over 30 states grow wine grapes. Yes, even Alaska. Here's how one Alaskan farmer grows his.
California's wine production dwarfs all other states.
Prices have everyone bummed. There are plenty of people complaining about wine and wine tasting prices. Following are a few relatively inexpensive wineries that offer what I consider excellent wines for the price. There are no doubt others that could be listed here, but these are ones I'm familiar with.
As a bonus, they are family-owned.
Ready to visit some wineries? Maybe even spend some time at the coast and visiting an old growth redwoods park?
Most out-of-state visitors fly into San Francisco, then rent a car and take the drive up. It's an hour-and-a-half in light traffic, over two hours in stop-and-go. There are other ways to get here with less hassle.
It's science, of course, and most of us don't really know how it works. It helps if you realize your perception of a wine can be altered by many things, including being sick, even who you are with, and palate fatigue (already had too much wine and your senses are tired or it all). Food definitely has a big effect on a wine's taste. If done right, the food and wine will both be altered in a good way.
I'm no marketing guru and maybe that helps here. My insight comes from being a wine consumer for decades, mostly buying direct from wineries. Plus, I've worked in tasting rooms serving people from 20 years old trying to get a drink to people in their 80s. Some knew nothing about wine or how wine tasting works. Others came straight to you asking for your most expensive cabernet.
I'm purposely not talking about the names given to different age groups. I'm just going to use old, middle, and young consumers with no magic DOB dividing them into smaller cultural segments.
Gaylon Lawrence Jr isn't a name the rolls off the tongue of wine drinkers. Running a business built by his late father, this Arkansas-based agricultural tycoon owns Lawrence Wine Estates. Their holdings include Heitz Cellar, Stony Hill, Burgess and other wineries in Napa plus one in Bordeaux, France.
