But that doesn’t stop us from armchair speculation! If Greece, Portugal, Spain or even Italy were to withdraw from or be bounced from the euro and revert to their national currencies, the theory goes that they would suffer a devaluation but that the cheaper goods would be more attractive on the world market. Assyrtiko, feta cheese and beach vacations would all be on sale and this would help kick start the economy.

Although on a much smaller scale, the wine world does have a recent example of devaluation: Argentina. For those who don’t remember (see a piece of mine from the time for more details), the peso was pegged to the dollar to slay the beast of inflation, but the peg became untenable and when it was cut loose in early 2002, the peso fell by 75 percent against the dollar.

What happened to the Argentine wine sector since devaluation? One thing is that the wines already in the marketplace did not fall commensurate with the peso; A $10 wine did not become a $2.50 wine with the next vintage. In part, that’s because of cost factors since many of the barrels and bottles used in Argentina came from overseas. Also, importers and producers may have an idea of how much their wines should cost and may be reluctant to move to a lower price point as consumers might perceive a drop in quality. But Argentine wines, which previously had largely stayed within the country, went on a tear in the export markets lead by malbec. Foreign investment poured in and the wine sector internationalized.

Would Greek vintners pop corks if the drachma returned, hoping for Xinomavro to be the next malbec? Probably not. Greece doesn’t nearly have the spare capacity that Argentina did ten years ago. Spain or Italy might. But, still, there would be so much uncertainty, it’s hard to imagine a lot of euphoria.

What would be an interesting outcome of a devaluation would be if Mediterranean wines took a turn toward natural, less-interventionist winemaking. Maybe replanting would be too costly, so indigenous varieties would prevail. Oak barrels too expensive, thus no oak or the reuse of old barrels. Ditto yeasts, pesticides and fertilizers, with perhaps a return to horse plowing and organic cultivation and indigenous yeast fermentations? But, then again, maybe an influx of foreign capital would plant everything to Chardonnay.

Anyway, the discussion may be moot if there’s no breakup of the euro; James Surowiecki has a piece on the crisis, saying all it might take to call it off would be dropping Europe’s “catastrophic stubbornness.”

Citing fatigue of “living by the rule of the trade,” he told me at the recent tasting of his wines in New York that he has not journeyed to Maryland to present his portfolio to the Wine Advocate for two years. It’s also a philosophical difference over scoring.

“Wine is an agricultural thing,” he said. “You can’t score a tomato.”

He added that spending 30 or 40 seconds tasting a wine failed to capture everything about it. “You have to have a respect for the work that has been done. That’s hard to do without being there, meeting the people and seeing the land.”

So how does he sell his wine? He says that good retailers care how the wine got to the glass, not just whats in it, he says. He works with retailers such as Chambers Street Wines in NYC and Terroir in SF as well as restaurants.

“Things are really changing. People in the trade want to know more first-hand, to visit, to learn, to taste. And consumers too.” He says that it’s easier to undersand wine talk when it is coming from a fellow consumer, who describes a wine with food–or even over food, sharing the wine together. Then there are no points, no “chocolate and vanilla” descriptors.

“Back in the day, there were only two or three guys with a voice. Now there are many. It’s great for wine!”

* * *

The diversity that he celebrates in wine appreciation is also evident in his wines that represent one of the most exciting Spanish portfolios available in the US today. All the wines are from small producers with a focus on wines made with a minimal hand in the cellar. The Benaza white and red are terrific value godello and mencia, respectfully. German Gilabert makes a reasonably priced, organically grown cava from 30-year-old vines.

But perhaps the heart and soul of the portfolio is in the large selection of wines from the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory off the coast of Africa. The little-known grape varieties planted in volcanic soil on their own roots (phylloxera never swam ashore) often at 1,000 meters or more make for a distinctive grouping of wines. They aren’t blockbuster wines, but that’s not the point–they are distinctive, fresh, and often quite tasty. From Lanzarote’s black soils and distinctive, low-yielding viticulture (as we discussed once before) come the wines of Los Bermeos. From Gran Canaria come the high-altitude, peppery wines of Fronton de Oro. And you can get your Listán Negro fix from Tenerife’s Tajinaste. I look forward to trying them all with food. And, who knows, perhaps even visiting the islands one day!

Jose Pastor Selections

Since I was always a fan of his wines, it was hurtful when Joe started leaving caustic comments on this blog in late 2008, a practice that he continued for about a year. It bugged me–and my wife. During that time, his wines became less fun to us. Joe had a brain tumor at that time and used a blog, The Amazing Adventures of Captain Tumor Man, as a way to cope. Eventually, he did apologize to me on Twitter. I was sorry not to have been able to penetrate his prickly, irascible persona better since I know that he had a razor-sharp, irony-drenched wit and was a man of conviction.

He was a pioneer in popularizing natural wines in this country. I offer my condolences to his family and his business associates. I look forward to raising a glass in his honor tonight.

A remembrance at Diner’s Journal
Louis/Dressner

Just stumbled on this fictitious (or not?!?) diary of a wine sales rep. Some LOLz for you whether you are in the wine trade or a wine geek who has ever wondered what it might be like selling the wines you love. The entry on the Languedoc gets two-and-a-half stars. Er, wait, they have wine to sell–92 points.

DearWineBuyer.com

“You take a bottle and you empty the bottle, and my God, why would that only be a one-time bottle?” Stephens tells the Journal. He points to the lost era of bottle washing in milk bottles, beer bottles and even Coke bottles.

Reusing a bottle is an important way to reduce wine’s carbon footprint. In a paper I co-authored on the subject, we found that the manufacture and delivery of empty bottles to the winery accounted for anywhere from about half to three-quarters (depending on bottle weight) of the carbon dioxide emissions of a wine locally produced and consumed, taking into account all of production and delivery phases, including the vineyard and winery operations. Recycling is good since in introduces a closed loop. But reusing is better since the energy demands are so much less than recycling.

While the amount of bottles that Wine Bottle Renew can clean in a day still is a drop in the bucket of California’s wine production, it’s good to see that industry heavyweights Kendall Jackson and Sutter Home have invested in the company, which may indicate eventual broader usage.

Obviously, there isn’t a standard shaped wine bottle today as there was for milk or Coke back in the day. But what do you think: if it encouraged reuse, would you favor wine bottle standardization? I would, especially if the bottles were lighter (14- to 19-ounces). Sparkling wine producers could be the first adopters since there is little variation among their bottles, the heaviest in the wine trade.

“For New Wine, Vintage Bottles” [WSJ]

I just got an email from the importer of a 17,000-case Argentine malbec called Budini, which will now be called Bodini. Here’s why:

Vine Connections recently made the decision (or should I say that we were strongly advised by some attorneys to make the decision) to change the name of the wine formerly known as Budini. It will now be called Bodini.

The Budini brand has been in existence since the 2002 vintage. We made the decision to change the Budini brand name because there is another alcoholic beverage company which aggressively protects its trademark that starts with the letters “B-U-D”.

Really, I don’t have any trouble telling the above two labels apart–do you? How many drunk (or sober) people are really going to order a Budini when they wanted a Bud–or vice versa?

In our recent discussion on “cooked” wine, Louise from eProvenance joined the discussion. Founded by Eric Vogt, a wine collector formerly of Boston Consulting Group, eProvenance can provide a detailed history of wine’s temperature during transit via an RFID tag inserted into either a case or tacked on to a pallet of wine.

Tracking 1,450 shipments in and between the Northern and Southern hemispheres, they assembled a fascinating report: eProvenance found that almost 10 percent of shipments were exposed to temperatures of 30 degrees celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) or more for 18 hours or more, a threshold ETS Labs found as significant a perceptible damage in wine. The report generously does not declare all that wine to be “cooked,” instead saying it is merely “at risk”; they suggest 2.8 percent of shipments as having perceptible damage.

Interestingly, some of the highest heat exposure comes not from the journey in the refrigerated container but rather the first and last miles of the journey, as the wine gets to and from the loading bays of wineries and shops. They estimate the monetary value of “at risk” wine to be about $9 billion and the heat-damaged wines to be worth about $2.5 billion.

While eProvenance clearly has an innovative technology to sell and thus may overstate the size of the problem, I am willing to go out on a limb and say that the quantity of heat-damaged wines represents a greater problem for wineries and consumers than counterfeiting. While the Jefferson bottles and their ilk may pose problems for the pinnacle of the wine world, heat-damage may be much farther reaching, especially as cheaper, high-volume wines are less likely to benefit from temperature control.

Heat damage, with its diminution of wine’s aromas and freshness that leads to bad consumer experiences, could well be on par with or a greater problem than TCA, or “corked” wines. If I were a vintner, I would strongly consider adding temperature tracking to every delivery and take corrective measures if problems arose in the supply chain. As a consumer, I’d welcome heat shipping data or a third-party certification on each bottle. But then again, I like data–almost as much as I like sipping a glass of wine that isn’t flawed.

It’s also been an extremely hot summer in much of Europe. Antonio Galloni considered the implications of this when at a domaine in Burgundy recently, as he saw an unrefrigerated truck hauling away wine bound for America via Dijon, a four-hour drive. Even if it joins a refrigerated container for trans-Atlantic travel, Galloni wrote on eBob, saying, “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that 4 hours in a truck at 100 degree temps means those wines will probably be cooked before they ever have a chance to oxidize, prematurely or not.”

Fortunately, most conscientious importers do ship in refrigerated containers today. But some warehouses in the US and/or delivery trucks for the last few miles to shops and restaurants remain without temperature control, affecting foreign and domestic wines alike. While lower-priced wines tend to get less kid-glove treatment, when I tweeted about it yesterday, James Molesworth tweeted back that when he worked in retail, he saw grand cru Burgundy returned because the corks were pushed out from the heat. Daniel Posner of Grapes the Wine Company said he is not taking deliveries these hot days but added that many (but not all) wholesalers in NY are taking good care of their wines.

Are there solutions that could improve the situation for consumers?

For one, if critics purchased the wines they reviewed at retail stores instead of tasting at the winery, that would provide a strong incentive to tighten controls in the wine supply chain. But this has a snowball’s chance in today’s sweltering midtown of happening.

Another approach would be to have temperature sensors on bottles that showed at a glance the max/min range that the bottle had experienced. This could be a primitive strip or a tripped-out tag that included a temperature surge with a log of the trip to locate where the spike occurred. This is also unlikely to happen, but it could provide some transparency to consumers.

What do you think–how much wine outside the winery is cooked, if even a little? What can consumers do to avoid it? (I applaud retailers who will hold wine for free until cooler shipping weather arrives.) If you are a retailer or a sommelier, how prevalent is the lack of refrigerated delivery trucks–and what do you do about it?

Across town and upstate, specialty wine shops such as Chambers Street Wines and Crush Wine and Spirits or Grapes the Wine Company, often broker collections of rare older wines that individual collectors are selling. And even though wine auctions have shifted to Hong Kong with astonishing speed over the past couple of years, the gavel still does come down on wine lots at places like Sotheby’s and Christie’s here in New York.

All of these facets of the wine business mean that, with a bit of effort, a wine enthusiast can hunt down an enormous range of rare bottles in New York. It is arguably the best city on earth for wine lovers.

But the status quo is under threat thanks to new proposed legislation in Albany. Representative Robin Schimminger has introduced a bill to the Assembly that would make it possible for restaurants and retail shops to only purchase wine from a “primary source,” that is to say, only from the distributors authorized to sell the wines. So the wine director at a restaurant like Nice Matin who wanted to acquire old vintages of certain wines could only do so through the distributor. And if the distributor did not carry the wines, then the wines could not be purchased from collectors. And such a wine list would likely not exist then in NYC.

Older or rare bottles often find their way into New York via what’s called the “gray market.” It’s a legal yet untraditional channel that brings many exciting back vintages and other hard-too-find wines, wines that may not be of interest large distributors yet are the very wines that quicken the pulse of wine enthusiasts. Not all states offer such a channel for sourcing wine; Connecticut, for example, has a “primary source” bill that prohibits stores and restaurants from buying older collections. And I know plenty of Connecticut wine enthusiasts who do much of their wine shopping in New York.

The new legislative proposal in Albany frames the attempt to shut down the gray market as consumer protection against counterfeits. While counterfeits are certainly an issue in the world of fine and rare wine, I doubt that having a single distributor for many wines would curb counterfeits. Instead, what I fear, is that it would squelch the diversity, sophistication, and excitement out of the New York wine market by reducing selection and raising prices for what’s left. Further, the state’s coffers would suffer from a loss of sales tax revenue on these wine sales.

The bill, known as A06884, has not garnered any attention since it was introduced on April 5. So help shine your light on it by talking about it with your wine friends. And maybe you’ll get so worked up about it, that you will want to contact your legislators in Albany.

Full text of A06884
Find your state representatives in Albany

Still in beta, the site aggregates offers from the leading “flash sale” sites. Beyond detailing the sales, the site also offers various “social” features, such as voting up the deals and discussion boards. Still embryonic, it could grow into something useful with more participants. But one thing that is useful now is that it provides a record of the wines offered a the various flash sale sites and usually those sites make it difficult to see what exactly they’re offering without clicking through.

Anyway, I like the idea since late one evening, probably after too much cru Beaujolais, I once thought about doing such a site myself! What do you think–obviously the site’s not much of a looker yet, but is this better than scanning 50 emails a day? Or is the flash sale world of wine sales so fast moving that such an aggregator site is not quick enough for you to score the deals you want?

SPIT: Celebrity status
Out of disbelief, a wine store clerk in Manhattan refuses Matt Damon’s credit card for the star’s impulse purchase of $1,200 of wine, insisting that he pay cash. Which store was it? And which wine was it? [latimes with video]

RUNG: alarm bell
A French researcher warned a Bordeaux trade group this week that the region will be too warm to grow red wine grapes to long-lived wines–by as early as 2050. When will Norway develop a premier cru? [AFP]

SIPPED: foreign takeover
Concha y Toro, Chile’s #1 wine producer, is buying Fetzer’s three million case production for $238 million. How will this affect consumers of Bonterra, or Fetzer’s other brands? Probably not at all. Concha y Toro shares in Santiago were up 7% on the news. The Chilean currency has appreciated by 21% against the greenback in the past two years. Will other domestic wineries be in the sights of foreign companies? [WSJ]

SPIT: critter labels
In case we needed any further indication that critter labels have jumped the shark right off the wine bottle, Yellow Tail is now suing a more recent arrival for infringing on the wallaby. [WSJ]

SPIT: counterfeiting?
The BBC explores laser bottle etching, stealth mineral placement, and bubble codes at Chateau Margaux, all weapons in the current fight against counterfeiting. Whether these measure can outsmart fraudsters remains to be seen.

Will this stiff drink, now on the table in Harrisburg, lead to the end of the PLCB? The state-run system that bestows such snappy names on its wine stores as #5801 is in a rough patch. As seen in the picture at right (and the accompanying Times story details), the opening hours of this store are limited and the prices, selection and knowledge of the staff may not be all that great either at some state-owned stores. The new kiosks have bombed. Consumer dissatisfaction may be growing as is chatter about privatization. Even though previous governors have floated the idea only to meet with failure, the stars seem to be aligning for reform. While this is something most Pennsylvania wine consumer would likely raise a glass of hard-to-find wine to, the logic that will carry the day for public officials is about money.

The libertarian think-tank, Reason, published a 2007 white paper on PLCB privatization that brings up many good points. (Ah, the PLCB, it’s enough to turn liberal wine drinkers into libertarians.) The report suggest that over half of the PLCB revenues come from taxes, which would continue to flow regardless of state or private ownership of stores and distributorships. Further, the state’s costs would decline with the reduced workforce and pension obligations while the state’s revenues could increase from taxes on the new businesses, which include over 600 locations that are state-owned (thus not generating real estate tax for municipalities).

As we discussed last year, privatization can be botched. Indeed, Iowa and West Virginia got less than the early estimates in their privatizations. From a public policy perspective, it’s crucial to rein in the windfall estimates and not to give away decades of future profits. So state officials should temper their hopes for a one-time profit buy auctioning licenses for shorter terms rather than longer given the weak state of the economy now. (If Pennsylvania authorities do decide to auction off liquor licenses, they should consider doing so in Hong Kong to get four times the going rate stateside.) Also, they could consider scaling license fees as a percentage of revenue to make it more accessible for small business owners. And on a related note, adding a bottle deposit would add hundreds of millions to the state’s coffers, as I estimated a reform could add $200 million to New York’s treasury.

And, please, for the love of Epoisses, allow food to be sold in wine stores!

Distributors are likely to want access to the sixth largest state and use their clout. Since the governor-elect does not appear to have distributors as major donors, he should use this independence to simultaneously push for a liberalization of shipping wine directly to Pennsylvania residents while collecting taxes.

Consumers also need to recognize that while a slothful public monopolist can fail to deliver the goods, private sector isn’t always a panacea: even if a 7-Eleven offered better hours than #5801, would they offer better wine? And even in New York, I’ve encountered wine store clerks who don’t know Chardonnay from Chenin Blanc.

If you are a Pennsylvania resident, what’s your take?

SIPPED: tariffs
Will India develop a thirst for wine? Maybe after it reduces its thirst for 150+% tariffs & taxes. [WSJ]

SPIT: human interaction
Remember those wine vending machines in PA? WalMart wants in. Redbox DVD? Check. Wine from kiosk? Check. Humans? Nil. [The Consumerist]

SPIT: 7-eleven wine
Millennial “would rather die” than drink wine sold at 7-Eleven. [Thomson Family Vineyards]

SIPPED: bankruptcy
A&P grocery stores, which purchased Best Cellars in 2007, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. Given that Royal Ahold (owner of Stop & Shop) is already circling, the new, merged company could be called Stop & P. [Bloomberg]

SIPPED: foreign ownership?
Speaking of distress sales, a French blogger wonders if a Chinese bidder may emerge for Heidsieck Champagnes. Sure, one may come forward, but it will have to do better than India’s United Breweries, which received a “frosty reception” bidding on Taittinger in 2006.

SIPPED: another round
Will the Supreme Court extend to wine retailers their previous decision that liberalized winery shipping? We may find out since the Specialty Wine Retailers’ Association has appealed. [AFP]

SPIT: bubble pricing
An economist has some advice to wine collectors: Sell your Lafite. Now. [WSJ]

SIPPED: boats and dragons
And you thought our Cuvée 88888888 was brazen! File under: “How to succeed in China: get personal and put a boat or a dragon on your label.” [decanter.com]

SIPPED: end of an era?
“I think we’ve just come out of 15 years of wine criticism where there was really only one point of view.” SF mag tracks the evolution in California wine styles.

SPIT: inoculated discussion
If you’ve ever had a question about yeasts in wine, it’s likely been discussed on this epic thread on Wine Disorder.

SIPPED: sizzle
Chateau Angelus will be James Bond’s choice of red wine, reports decanter.com. The movie had an “unbelievable” impact on sales of the St. Emilion wine, says owner Hubert de Bouard. No word of how much, if anything, the tie-up cost. Just think what it would have done if he picked a cabernet franc from the Loire!

SIPPED: more sizzle
After recent successes in Hong Kong, auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s graced New York with sales this past weekend. The Sotheby’s sale grossed $5,403,527, blowing away the estimate, and the Christie’s topline was $3,652,140, a high for them for this year. Absentee bidders from Asia featured prominently.

SIPPED: fizzle (not fizz)
While Napoleon Bonaparte could always find a reason to have Champagne, whether in victory or in defeat, Remy Cointreau has found a reason not to: lack of profits. The cognac and spirits maker has engaged a bank to find a buyer for its unprofitable Champagne businesses, which include Charles Heidsieck and Piper-Heidsieck. Interested in their margins? Poke around their helpful web site where they lay bare the financials of their divisions, including €96.7mln sales for Champagne with a €4.0mln loss. [Bloomberg]

SIPPED: spooky vines
NBC is developing a series (not yet even a pilot) revolving around a “troubled family desperate for a fresh start that takes over a Napa Valley winery whose ancient vines possess dangerous mystical powers.” Aha! All those ancient vines in Napa… [deadline.com]