I put the question to my tweeps the other day “What’s in your glass when you want a thirst-quenching, domestic red wine?” The replies were telling. Bruce Schoenfeld,”Something domestic to a different country.” Mike Steinberger said “Um, Beaujolais.” Michael Kortrady replied ” (uh, gosh, umm, well, ya know…I’m sure I’ve had one).”

There may be hope. Chambers Street Wines recently offered the wines of Chris Brockway’s Broc Cellars calling them “Californian vin de soif,” including his 11.9% alcohol cabernet franc. Hirsch Vineyards has the ebullient, crackling Bohan Dillon 2009, a 13.1% pinot noir. Sommelier Raj Parr is teaming up with Arnot-Roberts to make a gamay. The trouble with the first two examples is that they are north of $25, so there’s only so much thirst one can quench. We have discussed California’s value challenge before several times.

Do you lament the dearth of American thirst-quenching reds or do you find some good examples?

That’s one of the many interesting findings I learned at the Wine Market Council’s presentation in New York City on Tuesday that included survey and market data. To set the backdrop, Nielsen’s Danny Brager presented data that showed wine and spirits are taking market share away from beer. That’s the good news. But, thanks to the economic headwinds, prices are falling modestly. And that may also be good news if you’re a consumer. Indeed, 73% of consumers surveyed say they are finding good wines available at lower prices. Citing data from the Beverage Information group, John Gillespie of Wine market Council said that the latest estimate for the size of the wine market is 291 million cases, up from 278 million cases the year prior. That’s up from 207 million cases ten years prior and is the eighteenth consecutive year of growth in the US wine market.

John Gillespie broke down some of the demographics of wine drinkers. The most important point is that 21% of those surveyed drink wine once a week, which makes them “core” drinkers. These core drinkers, in turn, consume 91% of the wine in America. So they’re the ones driving the bus. After a focus on baby boomers last year, John focused this year on the millennials, the cohort that is aged 18-34 (well, 21-34 for wine purposes). He found that the generation is large enough to split and that the older subgroup of 26-34 year olds drinks wine with more frequency, in greater quantity and are more experimental than their younger peers and the older bracket, Generation X. These older millennials are really into wine and are also online a lot, visiting wine websites, tweeting and doing status updates on Facebook more than any other age group.

Also worth noting was that across all generations, “high end” purchasers (wine over $20) a month, are very engaged online. Oh, and they’re even more confident about telling cab from merlot, clocking in at 83%. Harry Waugh would be even more impressed.

Many of us wine writers praise the trend to lower-alcohol wines. But there’s one low alcohol wine that has taken off yet generated little coverage: Moscato.

Sales of the $6 sweet, fizzy white that ranges between 5 – 9 percent alcohol have almost doubled each of the past two years, albeit off a small base. The top-selling Barefoot moscato, made by Gallo, had $31 million in sales in 2010. A spokesperson for Gallo told Marketwatch “What makes this so exciting is that it’s bringing new users to the wine category.” Yes, and where there are “users” there is “innovation” such as Beringer’s “red moscato” that adds zinfandel and petite syrah for some red and black cherry flavor. Yellow Tail recently introduced a moscato.

Moscato has now taken a revered place in pop culture as hip-hop performers are touting it. Yes, it’s a sign of the times that we’re no longer in a Cristal economy, but a Moscato one. Here’s a taste of the hip hop lyrics from Ab-Soul: When things get hard to swallow / We need a bottle of moscato. And Trey Songz’ “I Invented Sex” (wherein he also admits to drinking “Ace“: It’s a celebration / Clap clap bravo. / Lobster and shrimp and a glass of moscato / finish the whole bottle.

I’ve recommended Moscato d’Asti as perhaps the ultimate wine for newbies so it doesn’t surprise me that it has taken off, presumably poaching market share from white zinfandel. But good moscatos from Piedmont producers such as La Spinetta or Elio Perrone, with acidity undergirding sweetness, are not the wines driving this lastest trend. But that’s fine. I adopt a live and let drink approach–if this is a “gateway” wine then so be it. Maybe next they will discover Riesling.

What do you make of this moscato madness–a good thing or the next incarnation of Nasty Spumante?

That’s what state legislators were hoping when they voted a reform to New Jersey wine law this week. With the governor’s signature, which he has said he will provide, the state will become the 39th to allow the direct shipping from wineries to consumers. After Granholm, the 2005 Supreme Court decision that found it unconstitutional to allow in-state wineries the right to ship to consumers while out-of-state wineries were prevented, New Jersey was one of the rare states that didn’t open up shipments, but instead closed down.

The new law is certainly worth celebrating but don’t think about popping Champagne unless it is purchased at a store in NJ. The most glaring shortcoming is that the bill only legalizes shipments from wineries, not wine stores, thus disallowing free trade in over a third of the wine consumed in the US. For reasons of parity, that’s too bad. But since there are many innovative wine stores and the state has become one of the most competitive in the country, New Jersey residents are still well-served.

Anyhoo, not all wineries can ship to New Jersey under the new law, just wineries under 250,000 gallons (about 85,000 cases). These “capacity caps” are controversial and were struck down in Massachusetts (at a threshold of 30,000 gallons) as a form of discriminating against out-of-state wineries, which was what Granholm said was the big no-no. Further, wineries must purchase a license to ship, which is among the highest such fees in the country. Cathy Corison, proprietor of Corison in Napa Valley, tweeted “NJ opens up to direct wine shipment. $938 annual fee. Gee… thanks. #smallwinerytax.”

For an additional fee, licensed wineries are allowed to open more than a dozen tasting rooms for direct sales throughout the state, which also seems to advantage in-state wineries. But if an out-of-state winery opened a store, it would be a new and fascinating challenge to the three-tier system. (In this vein, Chateau Montelena just opened a “tasting room” in the Westin hotel in San Francisco; New Jersey also has many BYOB restaurants.)

So for NJ consumers, it’s a half-a-loaf law. It’s better than the status quo ante. But not ideal since buying wine from, say, NY wine stores is still illegal (and thus, I’m sure, never happens). New Jersey wineries may be the biggest beneficiaries of all as they can expand in-state (and out-of-state!) sales. Time to bone up on the terroir de Jersey Shore (although this map is much funnier).

What do you think? If you are a winery or New Jersey resident, are you excited or non-plussed by the change?

Have you ever said, “I cannot wait to get home and pop open a bottle of red California Trousseau!” It’s not likely since the grape that hails from the Jura region of France is pretty rare in California: Only 49 tons were crushed last year (compare that to 400,000 tons of zinfandel; but since it fetched as much as $1,700 a ton vs an average of $442 for zinfandel, maybe the premium will attract future plantings). But maybe you should? Assuming the wines are done well, I think the expansion of grape varieties beyond the Big Six is potentially one of the most exciting stories to come out of California, nay, all of America.

A while back, I tweeted about Trousseau (noir) from Arnot-Roberts, a wine that I liked. The Sonoma-based winery sources the fruit from Luchsinger Vineyards in Lake County’s Clear Lake AVA. Bryan Garcia, a savvy 24-year-old wine geek from NYC, tweeted back exclaiming that California trousseau is more expensive than the Jura masters!

It’s a fair point. But if all the Trousseau lovers of America bought only Jura wines, who would buy the domestic Trousseau wines–zin fans? Somehow, I doubt it. And without demand for offbeat wines, producers would would likely give up making them commercially.

More broadly, what do you think: do you have any sense of obligation to buy local or domestic wines because you like the idea or the story, even if you find them not price competitive–or even quality competitive, as Bryan suggests by invoking the “masters”?

Pax used to make full-throttle wines, syrahs and pinots mostly, that scored big Parker points. Then, in what might be another stop in our “Road to Damascus” series (see Wells Guthrie), he grew tired of the style at around the time he had a falling out with his financial backer, bringing an end to the Pax label. His new label, Wind Gap, offers lower-octane wines thanks in part to cool vineyard sites as well as the changing tastes of the wine maker. “My tastes tend to prefer a lighter style,” he told me, adding that his favorite wine of his on that warm June day was is his Trousseau Gris. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an appointment with him and he was heading out so I didn’t have a chance to taste his wines. Just to see the eggs.

Of note, he said that he has won back the Pax name and will be releasing about 700 cases of wine under the Pax label. Wind Gap makes about 3,000 cases of wine a year.

Anyway, Alice Feiring’s recent article about amphora wines of Pax and his eggs. After a trip to the Republic of Georgia, Alice wonks out and informs us that to be über wine geeky, we should call amphora by the Georgian name of qvevri!

Another Pax egg shot (mine) and video (found on youtube) after the jump.

I understand why these wines come about: someone approaches the celebrities as yet another way to cash in on their fame. But what I don’t understand is who buys them. You like Motörhead? Fine, crank Ace of Spades up to 11. But leave the wine selection to someone else.

I’m holding out for the Keith Jarrett wine, an improvisational blend that has a 20-minute finish. Or the Bob Marley wine. (Oops, I guess pot wine is already available, apparently.)

New for the 2009 vintage: Sea Smoke of Santa Barbara is putting “California Grand Cru” on the label.

The term is pure marketing. Needless to say, there is no codified “cru” system of California. However, the term does not fall afoul of the protected terms negotiated in the EU-US accord on place names. The labels previously read “Santa Barbara County California.”

After eyeing it for some time, Bob Davids acquired an apparently gorgeous, 350-acre parcel in the Santa Rita Hills in 1999 for his label Sea Smoke. According to North American Pinot Noir, it was previously a bean field. He immediately developed about 100 acres into vineyards; the first vintage was 2001. The winery produces four pinot noirs and two chardonnays; all bear the term “California Grand Cru” for the 2009 vintage.

Queried about their decision to use their term, Director of Winemaking Victor Gallegos pointed me to this Wine Spectator article ($) in which James Laube called Sea Smoke “an important part of Santa Barbara’s wine scene and one of its ‘grand cru’ properties.”

HOW MUCH: $13.9 million reserve, down from $25 million. Auction to occur next month.

SIZE: Two bedrooms; 11,500 sq ft. Includes 50-foot-long pool in the living room where Mr. Mondavi regularly exercised and a roof that opens up over the pool.

OUTDOOR SPACE: Guest house; two outdoor, lighted tennis courts. No vineyards.

CORBIERES, France
HOW MUCH: Planted vineyards at $6,000 per acre.

BURGUNDY, France
HOW MUCH: Planted vineyards at about $1.3 million per acre, if available.

Gourmet, even though it’s not even in print any more, obviously has been on different winery tours than I have! To wit:

In wine country, pot-infused wines are the open secrets that present themselves in unmarked bottles at the end of winemaker dinners and very VIP tours (it bears mentioning that most winemakers are cagey enough to keep the manufacture of such wines far from winery grounds). The wines range in style and intensity as broadly as “normal” wines and winemakers do. Some practitioners of the fruit-forward, higher-alcohol, New World style take a similarly aggressive approach to infusing wine. “I know a winemaker that takes a couple of barrels a year and puts a ton of weed in it and lets it steep, and that wine is just superpotent,” says a James Beard Award–winning chef, who also asked not to be named. Henry, though, makes more classically styled wines, and with that reserve comes a more subtle hand with the cannabis. Adjusted for volume, “special” wines can range from under a pound of marijuana per 59-gallon barrel to over 4 pounds per barrel. The result is a spectrum ranging from a gentle, almost absinthe-like effect to something verging on oenological anesthetic.

Just reading this is giving me the munchies…what food pairs with marijuana wine (cuvée MJ?)–brownies?!? Where does this weedy wine fall on the natural-spoof wine scale? Marijuanipulated?

PS: has anyone heard of this? How widespread is it?

SIPPED: Yeoman wine
James Conaway, who wrote Napa a couple of decades ago, now turns his eyes and palate to Virginia and its wines on the pages of Garden & Gun (really, who doesn’t get their wine news there?).

SPIT: brainwashing
As we did here recently, Matt Kramer also expresses distaste with the idea of “brainwashing” among wine consumers [WineSpecatator.com]

SPIT: left on the block
Sign o’ the times? Lafite fails to sell at auction in Hong Kong. “There weren’t so many buyers.” [Bloomberg, WSJ]

SPIT: AOC
So what if Anjou producer Olivier Cousin wrote “Anjou Olivier Cousin” on his box? Well, the authorities that preserve origins already have a monopoly on those initials so his wrist has been slapped the spanking paddle has been broken out with large fines threatened. [levindesamis]

SIPPED: Bacchanal and bananas
The Montmartre Harvest Festival is underway in Paris, celebrating the one remaining vineyard there, complete with kids’ programming, a parade for Bacchus and a tribute to France’s overseas holdings (not sure of the wine angle there…).

SPIT: brown bags
Wine picnics in Paris: what NYC could emulate if it weren’t for open container laws…enjoy a last gasp of summer this weekend! [Enjoy the photo above and more at WineTerroirs]

But the list raised questions for Ray Isle of Food & Wine, since he tweeted:

The lack of California wines is understandable for a couple of reasons. Yes, California makes a lot of wine and much of it is under $12. But, as we have discussed before, precious little of the California wine under $12 is estate wine; rather it is often assembled from far-flung vineyards in steel tanks so large they could double as nuclear silos. The two American wines on the list, from NY and OR, are both from single estates.

The people on the list, mostly wine directors at restaurants, don’t exactly champion tanker wine. They are trend-setters or at the very least someone who wants to help a diner or customer discover something new that they might only find at a restaurant or specialty shop. Also, the composite nature of the list means that one author didn’t save spaces for certain categories as each contributor gave a top pick. As to the absence of other new world countries, perhaps that was a function of the taste preferences of the people surveyed too.

Anyway, good wine under $12 is always of interest and Ray raises some good questions. What do you think?

If you’ve turned on PBS during the past couple of nights, you’ve probably encountered slow zooms and pans of black and white photographs. And the people in those photos may have been women protesting saloons or men using hatchets to destroy barrels of whiskey. Yes, these are scenes from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s three-part series, Prohibition.

I’ve seen the first episode (available here online), entitled “A Nation of Drunkards,” that chronicles the social and political forces that led to enacting Prohibition. Part of it was that men were drinking Herculean amounts of whiskey. As Ken Burns told Stephen Colbert, men were each putting away 180 bottles of whiskey a year. To which Colbert replied: “How did we conquer the West?” Another factor was the rise in political activism among women. The episode is well done and very much worth watching.

But the one that I am most looking forward to is the concluding episode that airs tonight. It’s not because I merrily rejoice that the “noble experiment” was undermined by a lack of enforcement, double helpings of hypocrisy, and became such a miserable failure of policy. What intrigues me are the myriad unintended consequences of the policy, particularly for the wine industry. I detailed these in my book Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. Prohibition dealt the American wine industry such a disastrous blow that it left a lingering finish that can be measured in decades (not seconds, as wine tasting notes sometimes include). Paradoxically, grape acreage increased under Prohibition even though the making, transportation and drinking of wine (other than sacramental wine) was largely illegal. I say “largely” because of a loophole that allowed for the making at home of “non-intoxicating fruit juice,” a loophole that was relentlessly exploited. This decreased the quality of wine, needless to say, and associated wine with a cheap buzz, setting back the image of wine for decades in this country.

But the lingering effects of Prohibition are still felt in the form of the politics of distribution. Instead of having on national regulation, there are 50 state regulatory structures. Instead of allowing vertical integration or self-distribution, wineries must have a distributor in almost all states not their own. Online wine sales have been hampered. For many wine consumers, the selection suffers and prices are higher at the same time wine has become more popular than ever. I get into more details in my book; I hope Burns can highlight these lingering effects; he paid no attention to Jerfferson’s perception of wine as a drink of moderation in episode one, so I fear it is unlikely he will get into the continued effect of Prohibition today.

But either way, the documentary is definitely worth watching tonight. Preferably, with a glass of wine in hand.

PROHIBITION: a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

Bishop Thomas Olmsted has taken the action as part of a new translation of the Mass that will start in coming months. The Arizona Republic reports that no other diocese in the country will be removing wine from the Communion. Since 1975, bread and wine have been available to parishioners during Catholic Communion. Bread and wine are believed to be transformed during the service into the body and blood of Christ. There is no obligation to take both and the Diocese of Phoenix’ press release underscored that “… bread alone makes it possible to receive all the fruit of the Eucharistic grace.”

Criticism mounted of the wine-less mass. So the chalice may not disappearing a Mass near you soon. Unless you live in Phoenix.

Beer consumers are a far more confident lot than wine consumers. They’re at ease with beer, mostly because they’ve had a solid grounding in their subject, unlike wine consumers who’ve been brainwashed into believing they must be educated or taught how to “appreciate” wine before they can enjoy it.

Who are these “beer consumers” and “wine consumers”? Are they the average consumer, who drinks mostly Bud and Yellow Tail or are they the dedicated hop heads and wine geeks? Some specificity would help the discussion.

Further, how did “beer consumers” gain such confidence–through Super Bowl ads? Doing keg stands in college? I assume through tasting, talking, reading and perhaps taking a class; I doubt they were born with a knowledge of the effects of dry-hopping and decotion on the finished beer or knowing differences between a saison, a pils, a kölsch, and a Berliner Weisse. As exciting as the craft beer revolution is, it takes some education to successfully navigate increasingly complex beer menus or beer selections at specialty stores. And, fortunately, it’s the kind of research that a lot of people can take pleasure in.

Finally, which “wine consumers” feel “brainwashed” into thinking that they have to have studied wine to enjoy a wine? (And who is doing the brainwashing–the wine education/book publishing/bulletin board industrial complex?) This sounds like a straw man to me as I have never met a wine consumer who couldn’t simply pull a cork, pour, and enjoy a wine without having a categorical knowledge of its production. And I’m not really sure where his advancing the brainwashing position takes the discussion. Surely Asimov is not arguing that tasting, talking, reading and perhaps taking a class about wine is a waste of every one’s time–how did he gain his knowledge, after all?

The comparative question of how craft beer enthusiasts and wine geeks, the most die-hard of the two constituencies, achieved their knowledge is interesting and worth pursuing. If I were to look into it it variables I would examine include: the role of critics in each beverage; the role of online discussion boards and user-generated reviews/ratings; the extent of home wine making or beer making; the availability of formal classes or training; and the geographic proximity of an enthusiast to a microbrewery or winery. Hmm, thinking about this makes me want to go crack open a nice cold wine and enjoy it without angst.