Dr Vino's wine blog

Best wine list for 2003

As 2003 rolls into 2004, I, once again, offer a year-end best list. Moving beyond my usual lists of 10 wines under $10, this list suggests the best wines in various price points and categories. The trouble with regularly recommending value vino is that there is so much excellent wine at higher price points that is worth the urge to splurge. So here is a parsimonious list that not only provides some stars of the past year (bearing bargains in mind) but also integrates some of the key words and phrases from 2003. Of course the major theme for 2003 was war, so I use military ranks as grades for the different price categories. Bargain hounds can remember to shop at sale times to expand their wine dollar and rise in the ranks. Cheers! -Dr. Vino Also see the 2004 best wine list and 2002

Best wine, Privates
In the movies, Privates may be for "saving" (e.g. Ryan) but in this schema they are for drinking. ASAP. Great wines in this category are two wines from Spain: the Osborne Solaz ($5.50), a flavorful red, and the Cuvee RS ($6), a refreshing white, perfect for sipping under the summer (or desert) sun.

Best wine, Sergeants Sergeants have many choices. From Spain, the Higueruela 2001 ($7) a great value with rich, dark fruit is an excellent choice, as is the Chateau Pesquié Les Terrasses 2001 ($10). But the Castano Solanera 2001 ($10.46) is the clear winner in this category with its complexity and long finish—and an almost unheard of ability at this price point to remain excellent the next day without even being corked. Sergeants who prefer whites can take comfort in the chardonnay from Alamos ($10)—who can forget that?

Best wine, Colonels
Colonels can benefit from nay choices for their expanded, officer’s budget but the best colonel wine this year as a group came from Australia (appropriately enough, a member of the coalition of the swilling). The 2002 vintage produced some gems, not only for fans of "big reds" but also those looking for some refinement as well. Torbreck Woodcutter’s Red, Mitolo Jester, Thorne-Clarke Shotfire Shiraz, D’Arenberg’s Footbolt, are all strong examples of syrah’s adaptation to the southern hemisphere. To score some exotic points, those colonels wishing to impress with the breadth of their knowledge rather than pure firepower should look to the floral notes of Crios Torrontes 2001 ($13) from Argentina. Those looking for a food friendly white should turn to the Maison Rijckaert, Macon Villages 2001 ($16).

Best wine for shock and awe
What better than the "hedonistic fruit bomb" that is Turley Juvenile 2000? Clocking in at 16% alcohol, this Hummer will crush your palate—and leave you and your dining companions in shock and awe at how this American Zinfandel made you forget your meal.

Best wine for the spider-hole
1982 Léoville Las Cases ($260). It’s drinking beautifully right now and doesn’t need any more cellaring (although the spider hole would make a good cellar). Live it up and pull a cork while you’re six feet under.

Best wine for Metrosexuals
Riesling. Pampered, massaged, and waxed urban males have undoubtedly discovered Rieslings (especially the excellent 2001 vintage from Germany), which are not only openly discussed in polite wine society now but actually desired by the cognoscenti. I’m surprised Riesling hasn’t appeared on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. (Why are the wines recommended on the show always terrible?)

Best wine for LOL (internet parlance for "laughing out loud")
Any new Napa winery that attempts to charge over $100 a bottle.

Best wine for the bling-bling lifestyle
Clearly, Cristal 1996 is the ne plus ultra for those dressed to impress. But the rest of us can be quite satisfied with the same Champagne house’s Louis Roederer NV or even the vintage l’Ermitage from their Lake County California arm.

Best wine for "Mission accomplished" Gibson’s BarossaVale, sparkling merlot ($24). For a celebration, tradition dictates that the wine must be sparkling. But for this (premature) celebration, move beyond Champagne and impress with this double-fermented red wine from down under that has a "dosage" of port added at the last minute. A wine for contemplation….

Best wine that is a weapon of mass destruction (WMD)
Charles Shaw ($2). Although "Two Buck Chuck" can easily be found, with 5 million cases sold, how many wine palates have been ruined?

California’s stunning absence from the under $10 category of quality wines—and why that may become even more important to consumers.

“Muscleman put in charge of world’s fifth largest economy” read a recent headline about Governor Schwarzenegger in The Onion. Sadly, the satirical newspaper found truth funnier than its usual fictitious headlines that week. For bargain wine lovers, the news coming out of California has a similar tragi-comic tone. Nothing, it seems, can prod California producers into making good, interesting and affordable wines. And the worst part is that as the clouds seem to be lifting, not only have the lessons of the recent storm have not been learned but regulatory changes stand to reduce the quality of wines on retailers’ shelves even more.

While many California wines are excellent, they are not good values. My value wine recommendations display a stunning lack of wine picks from California. Spanish and French producers make much more exciting wines at lower price points. And fortunately there are plenty of those around.

But you don’t have to take it from a pseudo-critic like me: Robert Parker, the world’s foremost wine critic, has a similar conclusion. In the June 2003 issue of his newsletter, he recommended 153 value wines (for this hedonist, value means $20 and under). Of these, 79 were French, 25 from each the US and Australia and 21 from Spain. (For those keeping count, the other three were from Portugal.) Handfuls of these selections from France and Spain are under $10. From California, there is only one.

The California producers are obstinate in their unwillingness to produce good cheap wines. Land is expensive in the north coast, but grapes are cheap. Labor may be more expensive than Argentina, but the workers are not exactly overpaid. The crises of the past three years should have sent them a message. But apparently they have not.

To recap what has happened over the recent past in California is a sad tale. Three consecutive booming harvests have driven wine grape prices to their lowest levels since the mid-1990s (see data). This has led many growers to let the grapes rot on the vine rather than harvest or even to uproot vines and replant other fruits. The abundant supply has also led to bankruptcies in the quality growing areas (De Loach, Liparita Cellars, Sonoma Creek Winery and Buchanan Cellars are a few from the north coast). Some merger and acquisition activity has also occurred as a leading industry analyst reckons 5% of the state’s 1300 wineries are economically “distressed.”

But with so much bulk “juice” sloshing around, the biggest impact of the glut for consumers has probably been “two-buck Chuck.” Charles Shaw, as the wine from the bulk producer Franzia is officially known, retails for $2 a bottle at Trader Joe’s grocery stores in California (and $3 at TJ’s outside of California thanks to mandatory distributor intervention). Two-buck Chuck comes in a few different styles that are perhaps best described as “flavors”: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, etc. And it is forecast to sell over 5 million cases this year. If Darrell Issa was really intent on starting a recall of something for being bad, starting with Two Buck Chuck would have been a better use of his money than Gray Davis.

Other factors beyond the control of the California producers have contributed to the storm clouds over the industry. The slow economy that coincided with the three big harvests has meant decreased business travel and entertainment, a big component of high-end wines from California (and elsewhere). And beyond the flood of “juice,” a pest has threatened the vineyards, although the glassy winged sharpshooter would have helped reduce the oversupply.

Imports represent, of course, another big factor. Those lush, cheap shiraz and chardonnay imports from Australia have now made Australia then second largest provider of imported wines behind Italy. Yellow Tail is Australia’s answer to Two-Buck Chuck. Complete with kangaroo on the label, it sells for $5 a bottle and is forecast to sell 5 million cases this year, a staggering figure given its launch just two years ago. The producers have now added a “reserve” wine for $9.

But the storm clouds are lifting over California. The economy appears to be turning around, which should bring increased travel and entertaining. The 2003 vintage will be smaller, thanks to pruning and freakish weather at harvest time, which should lead to higher grape prices. Indeed, the profits of Robert Mondavi, the largest publicly traded winery from California rose in the most recent quarter and the share price has rallied as investors anticipate brighter days lie ahead.

And will this new period bring better, cheaper wines? No, sadly, it will bring fudging and protectionism. Fudging will occur as producers seek to dilute the vintage claims on the label and have the right to include 15% of wine not from the stated vintage (LA Times 9/29/03). As consumers become more knowledgeable about wine, what consumers need on the labels is more precision, not less.

And protectionism appears to take place under the guise of bio-terrorism. Not satisfied with the weak dollar already protecting domestic producers from cheap imports, the Food and Drug Administration now threatens to hold up wine imports, particularly from Europe, with stacks of bureaucratic filings. Effective 12 December 2003, the 2002 Bioterrorism Act requires any food or wine exporter to the US to register with the FDA, adding even more intermediate steps between producer and consumer. We can but hope that many small (European) producers will not be scared away from the US market, otherwise it would be “good-bye wine values.” (Hello, gray market?) See the stunning details of the regulations for yourself.

Bolstering an already oligopolistic structure of production with protectionism and fudging is not the blend for reducing prices and raising quality that consumers need.

Since beating California producers over the head with a plank of oak (better than using it in their chardonnays) seems not to work, the question remains whether the distributors and big retailers ride to the aid of value-oriented consumers? Slim hope. The distributors, for one, are trying to line their pockets with a $234 million tax break currently before Congress. (NYT 10/30/03)

The big wine retailers are too restrained in using their market muscle to push for quality bargains from producers. Trader Joe’s does probably the best job at seeking out value wine from around the world (to wit, their Argentine La Boca wines at $3 are better than Charles Shaw). Given the success and poor quality of Charles Shaw, just imagine how well an innovative wine at $7 would sell? And a Costco Cuvee? Not to be found. Sam’s Wine in Chicago has arranged some custom cuvees to roll out soon but they hover around the $30 mark, so not exactly a good fit for weeknight dinners.

California, a trend-setter in so many ways, needs to follow the worldwide trend of making good wines at low prices. Terminate the oaky chardonnays—or we’ll have to put Arnie on to you!

Is being a wine importer all fun and no work? Why is the name of a wine’s importer on a label a good indicator of the bottle’s quality? Dr. Vino chats with Ben Hammerschlag of Epicurean Wines about the daily grind (crush?) and becoming a success.

It’s 9:30 PM and his phone rings. Never mind that Ben Hammerschlag has been with distributors and retailers all day or that he and I are dining at Naha, a contemporary chef-owned restaurant in Chicago’s River North. The local distributor on the phone wants to pin down Hammerschlag for the next day’s schedule.

Hammerschlag is likely to find himself very much in demand these days. He has exploded on to the wine scene with his portfolio of big, muscular wines from Australia. Since incorporating only four years ago, he has built his business to impressive levels of sales and quality. Indeed, it has been a hot summer.

In July a New York Times panel rated two of his wines—Mitolo McLaren Vale and Woop Woop—as the best in a Shiraz tasting. And in the August issue of his influential newsletter, Robert Parker bestowed 94 and 98+ point ratings on many of Hammerschlag’s wines, particularly the excellent 2002 vintage.

All this and Hammerschlag is only 31 years old.

Does Parker’s preference for “hedonistic fruit bombs” steer Hammerschlag in that direction of winemaking? Not really. “Parker and I have similar palates,” he says. “If I were doing sweet wines then I would be out of luck. But fortunately he loves Aussie wines (and Rhones).”

With 90% of production concentrated among the 6 biggest producers, consumers could easily be forgiven for thinking that Australia is simply a land of easy-drinking and uninspiring value wines. But there are over 1,000 smaller producers and the entire line of 150 wine labels that Hammerschlag imports comes from these boutique producers. And they are priced accordingly, selling between $20 and $60 retail, mostly through small wine shops. But they have also had good success breaking into the coveted but difficult domain for Australian wines: American restaurants.

Although one of the Epicurean wines, the 2001 Barton Vale Shiraz, appears on the Naha wine list, we skip it since he certainly knows that one. Instead we opt for a 2000 Mt. Difficulty Pinot Noir from neighboring New Zealand’s Central Otago region, reputedly the southernmost vineyard in the world. The Pinot Noir is a good compromise for his scallop starter and wood-grilled quail main course.

Like a celebrity, a top importer is a good local draw. Local distributors like the importer to talk to the retailers. Retailers like the importer to do a tasting for the customers. Restaurants like the importer to talk to the staff. So when the importer comes to town, his-and he is almost always a man-phone is likely to ring.

With only three staff, including a national sales manager, Hammerschlag works constantly. From his base in Seattle, he tracks his wine shipments across the Pacific, monitors the exchange rate with the Australian dollar, and calls producers and distributors. His weekends aren’t for relaxing. They are for doing bureaucratic paperwork. “If it’s not revenue generating, then it doesn’t make it to the top of my list of things to do,” he says.

Getting around the state and local regulations on selling wine constitutes his “biggest headache.” The uneven repeal of Prohibition has resulted in a situation where the American states act more like sovereign states. Thus it is quite an achievement that the Epicurean wines now are available in 31 states. These relationships require constant attention during the business week.

Even the aspect that traveling to Australia to work with producers is draining. Hammerschlag is so focused on his business that he has never even been to Sydney—no winemakers live there. Instead, he flies direct to Melbourne and spends his time in between there and Adelaide, the heart of Australia’s wine growing region. Renting a house for four days on the beach at Margaret River once was noticeable simply because it stood out so much from his usual itinerary.

Hammerschlag make the trip across 12 time zones three times a year for a total of six weeks. Two of the trips are only 10 days long and are particularly draining: just as he starts to overcome the jet lag, it is time to return. But more draining are perhaps the activities. After working with producers by day, tasting and blending wines, a dinner follows—with wine—and then more talk of business. New contacts are often made at dinner, which require further following-up during the day.

These on-the-ground networks prove essential for finding new wineries to work with. “If they are interested in me, I’m probably not interested in them,” he says. Quality is the m.o. here and he has an exacting palate.

Hammerschlag credits his success with his six years as a wine buyer for a high-end grocery store in Seattle. Although he was “paid the same as the baggers” the experience there was invaluable. Not only did he order a lot of wine, he got to work with consumers. He observed what they liked both in terms of taste and the packaging. This helps him steer the Australian producers to blend wines for the US market as well as have eye-catching labels and packaging. This experience gives him an edge over other importers who often are far removed from the end consumer.

Woop Woop is one such example. With an expensive portfolio of wines, Hammerschlag sought a good value wine to offer distributors and restaurateurs a full range of wines at all price points. Woop Woop, which retails for around $11 in the US, is a fruit-forward Shiraz with a striking sunset photo on the label (and a trendy screwcap on top of the white wine version). The box for a case of Woop Woop-and there are 22,000 of those a year-is covered with uses of this local expression, which in local parlance means “the middle of nowhere.”

Hammerschlag thinks that retail price points matter and wants those not to change-even at the cost of his own profits. In a move that is unusual for an importer, currency fluctuations have eaten into his profits. Although revenues have doubled over the past two years, the decline in the greenback versus the Australian dollar has kept net profits relatively flat. Importers normally pass on currency fluctuations to the distributor, the retailer and ultimately the consumer.

Many challenges lie ahead. He plows all his profits back into the business as it expands. Since profits are not necessarily what motivate him what is it that keeps him going? “I want to be the best.” His is a name wine consumers should seek out since he is not resting on his laurels—or riding off into the Woop Woop!

What do you get when you blend 2,500 exhibitors from 47 countries with record-breaking summer heat in Bordeaux? Why, this year’s Vinexpo, the biennial wine trade show, with 48,000 visitors who came to sample the latest vintages, schmooze, and do deals.

Vinexpo illustrated three of the main trends in the wine world right now: tensions between France and America, increasing globalization of production, and rising quality. To give you a flavor for what it was like at the event, I have excerpted some tasting size pours from my notes…

Cuvée Libération
Everyone attends Vinexpo, even the guys who sell barrels. Oak barrels are all the rage among quality wine producers and are a major cost (particularly for those who buy French oak denominated in euros). I lunched with a barrel salesman responsible for North Africa and the Middle East, an area that has been gripped by wine fever. Hmm, Arabic wine? It takes all kinds. Indeed, good wines now come from such places as Morocco, Tunisia, and Lebanon. With even a conservative country such as Syria planting vines (for wines, not for raisins, he assured me), the barrel salesman would not be surprised if the Americans planted vines in Iraq. One wonders what they would call it—Cuvée Liberation 2003?

Oh, Canada!?
“Vines love it here” the enormous sign at the Canada stand exclaimed. I guess that beat out the slogan “beyond icewine,” Canada’s best-known viticultural product. Canada remains much more of a wine consuming country than a producer, but the small growing areas are producing wines from the “noble varietals” of France. With more countries of the north producing wine, such as England, might global warming make these the vineyards of the future? Time to buy that vineyard property in Norway?

The brave face
During the week of Vinexpo, retail sales figures for French wines in the US showed a decline of 25% over the same four-week period one year earlier. Awe and incredulity were the reactions I encountered from industry participants on both sides of the Atlantic. The diplomatic tensions between France and the US have led to American boycotts of French wine. But the general sentiment from the French side is that “time heals all wounds.” The thaw seen earlier in the month at the highest level was also on display here in Bordeaux as the French PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin pressed the flesh of the US ambassador.

Swirl and spit
What if you have a party and nobody comes? Or at least the guest of honor? Such was the case in March at the Bordeaux annual barrel tasting when Robert Parker, world’s foremost wine critic, decided not to attend. That was the nail in the coffin for the 2002 vintage, which saw prices tumble after already being pressured by economic malaise and bad weather last August. As your stalwart correspondent, I braved the crowds of adults with purple teeth making gurgling noises to taste through the top chateaux of the vintage and found it a solid one. Yum. Swirl and spit accurately.

Red hot Chili
Chile is hot. The Chileans staked out a large corner of the main hall and their stands were buzzing. Buoyed by the prospect of a Free Trade Arrangement with the US as well as an influx of investment from Europe and North America, Chile is hoping to increase exports even more. But the leading Chilean producer Concha y Toro decided to forego the main exhibition hall for the sanctity of an outdoor private tent in exclusive the “Club des Marques” area. However, with temperatures over 100 degrees (40 Celsius) it was the smaller producers in the air conditioning who had the last laugh as more than one Concha y Toro representative sought relief inside.

Greenback blues?
As if the diplomatic crisis weren’t enough for the French, the euro has strengthened significantly against the dollar for a year or more. This makes the prospect of imports to the US more expensive-for all European wines. But the same currency move makes US exports to Europe cheaper. Are the US producers licking their lips? Yes and no. With only 15% of production exported, and many boutique producers who have small production and high demand, the US remains a net importer of wine. So what motivates US producers to attend international trade shows and sell their wares overseas? According to Margaret Duckhorn of Duckhorn Vineyards, “We make a world-class wine and we want to sell it to the world.”

Just eat it
The greenback’s weakness has cramped the European producers, but will they be the only ones to eat the currency swing, if at all? Many, particularly those with strong sales, steadfastly refused to lower their price out the winery door. But US importers, who stress the importance of retail price points, are certainly giving producers the squeeze. While the threat of unsold stock makes importers wary, they may have been protected against the currency move. According to a leading US retailer, if the cost to them goes up, then the price goes up, simple as that. So that leaves the consumer likely to foot the bill when the dollar weakens. How about giving us something back when the currency strengthens? Slim hope…

No topic has dominated wine as much as politics in the past few months. Frayed international relations have led to recriminations and reprisals. Although 11 of the 15 UN Security Council members were on the fence or opposed to the Iraq war, France has caught the most popular and elite ire in the US.

Given their highly symbolic nature, much of this sentiment has been targeted at French wines. Those who supported the war have denounced French opposition by boycotting or not drinking French wine. (Others bought French wine to ceremoniously pour down the drain, a type of protest that comedian Lewis Black described as “having a bouquet of…idiot!”) On the other hand, those opposed to the war often went out of their way to buy and drink French wine, as reported in the SF Chronicle. But the net result is that the “nays have it” as French wine sales declined by 20% from mid-February to mid-March, according to Wine Spectator.

This is not likely to affect the 10 largest brands imported to the US since only one of them is French. According to the annual Impact wine market survey, and reported by Frank Prial in the NYT, George Duboeuf, the Beaujolais producer, was the only French firm in 2002, ranking eighth.

The rest of the top ten brands come from countries that were members of the “coalition of the willing” in the war effort. Australia, which contributed 2,000 troops, also contributes three of the best selling wine brands, Rosemount, Lindeman’s, and Yellow Tail, a brand launched last year and rapidly sold 1.4 million cases in the US. Italy, where popular opposition to the war topped 80%, ended up contributing logistical support to the war. To the US wine market, Italian producers dropped five “big ones,” including Riunite, Bolla, and Ecco Domani. With jug and flavored wines like those, it sounds more like a coalition of the swilling…

Chile’s Concha y Toro produced the largest imported brand to the US with 2.1 million cases. Chilean opposition to the war may have escaped popular attention, but it has not escaped the eagle (hawk?) eyes in the Bush administration. They have delayed a free trade agreement with Chile and accelerated one with Singapore, a more supportive country. Hmm, that’s not much help to wine lovers.

But Chile has not been unaffected. In one of the more humorous stories on this war and wine, a Mississippi wine retailer decided to make a political statement and give away his stock of French wine. Finding high demand for this free wine, he threw in some German wine as well. Having that stock also rapidly exhausted, he threw in a few bottles of Chilean wine for good measure. However, instead of using the trash can ceremoniously placed by the shop door, people put the free bottles in the back seats of their cars and drove off. (Clarion-Ledger 2/28/03)

There is a lesson from Mississippi for all those who can separate wine from international relations. While French wine sales are down sharply, total wine demand has remained stable. That means the shift has been only away from French wines. With plenty of French wines on their shelves, retailers are likely to try to move them through sales and discounting rather than giving them away as in Mississippi. Even the future prices for the Bordeaux 2002 vintage have declined, thanks in part to Robert Parker’s cancelled trip to the spring barrel tasting. Thus frayed international relations have caused bargains from “Old Europe” for wine lovers. Let’s hope that we don’t start looking to “New Europe” for our wine imports!

Argentina has been in the headlines recently for its currency devaluation and defaulting on its international loans. But what hasn’t been in the general news is the quality of the wines. Given that the country is now “on sale,” are we likely to see discounted prices here in the US? Sadly, the answer is probably not. But at least we have good quality to console us.

Endowed with an excellent growing climate for wine, an association for Argentine growers claims they are on “the right side of the Andes” (a not-so-subtle jab at their neighbor and rival, Chile). The Mendoza province, where most of the wine growing occurs, lies on the flanks of the Andes where vistas of rows of vines evaporate into snow-capped peaks. The high desert has growing areas between 2,500 and 4,000 feet that provide for hot summer days and cool nights, a perfect climate for wine grapes.

But sadly the natural potential of Argentina went largely untapped for too long. Argentina has always been a prolific producer of wine with harvests that make the country one of the largest producers in the world (it is currently fifth behind France, Italy, Spain and the US). Indeed, quantity—not quality—was the prevailing orientation of the winemakers throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. Yields were kept high as grape prices were set simply by harvest weight without quality considerations.

It is not surprising, therefore, that most of this production remained on the domestic market. What is surprising, is that people drank it! As recently as the 1970s, Argentines drank an astonishing 90 liters per person. Exports accounted for very little of the production and Argentine wines were largely unknown overseas.

Declining consumption rates, however, snapped the producers to attention. With the rising popularity of beer and soft drinks, wine consumption declined dramatically (today it is 39 liters per person, about the same as France and Spain and four times that of the US). Suddenly, the producers found surplus wine driving down prices. Many went out of business and vineyard area declined by about one-third during the 1980s.

Quality production emerged as a strategy to combat the trend of falling prices. However, in the mid-1980s, the time was not right as hyperinflation plagued the Argentine economy. Inflation of 2,500% a year prevented producers from purchasing the necessary equipment to stage a transition to quality. As the currency sagged noticeably from day-to-day things such as new oak barrels that producers had to import became increasingly expensive.

In an effort to slay the beast of hyperinflation, the Menem government took the bold step in 1991 of pegging the peso to the dollar. This achieved the price stability that the economy had been lacking (but would prove disastrous ten years later). Price stability had two key impacts on Argentine wine production: quality winemaking equipment from abroad became more affordable and Argentina became more attractive to foreign investors.

For wine regions to grow qualitatively, it is helpful to have a leader who achieves a major breakthrough. In French, such a leader is known as a “locomotive” pulling the region along behind. One of Argentina’s locomotives is Nicolas Catena. An economist by training, he gambled that the dollar peg would bring economic stability and invested in quality. His wines received favorable reviews and attracted international attention.

Foreign capital started to flow in. Now, the Argentine wine industry has possibly the most international group of firms participating in any wine growing area. Wine producing firms from Bordeaux and Champagne, the US and even Chile have bought up assets. Since most of the recent trend occurred before the recent devaluation, it is not attracting simply the value players. Just this week, the owners of Chateau Cheval Blanc, one of the highest-regarded Bordeaux producers announced that they will be making a red wine from Argentina and calling it “little Cheval-Blanc” with a price tag of $80.

The crucial questions for American consumers now are: will the current crisis decrease the quality of the wines? And are we likely to see better values emerge?

Quality will likely continue on its upward trajectory. The excellent growing environment has not been affected by the political and economic instability. Further, for foreign investors, the country now is selling at a discount as the good land is cheap. In fact, the low prices may soon be gone as the peso appears to have bounced off the bottom (the Argentine stock market is up 22% this year in dollar terms). Domestically capitalized wineries, however, have seen their costs triple on imported items needed for quality production.

Wine prices, unfortunately, are not likely to decline in the US. Given that the major obstacle for Argentine wines is a lack of recognition, a good stint of high quality at low prices would benefit the entire industry (not to mention that strong exports would help the economy). However, the good producers already have solid foreign demand for their product thanks to favorable reviews. And a recent rise of wine bars in Buenos Aires has made more demand for quality wines at home. But all participants in the industry, in Argentina and the US, would be well-advised not to let this economic window of opportunity close before the consumer has had a chance to benefit.

While there is now good quality available, it remains patchy from producer to producer and stuck at a frustratingly high price point. Several bargain wines are available for under $10, but it may be a few more years before quality is consistently good across the whole range of production. The dynamism and potential definitely make Argentina a country to watch.

In a fine Parisian restaurant, a DrVino.com reader recently overheard
an exchange between an English diner and a French diner that went
something like this: the Englishman observed the recent success
of wines from Australia and New Zealand. And the Frenchman scoffed:
“But they do not have terroir!”

What is this mysterious variable that the Frenchman invoked to dismiss the entire production of two countries? Jay McInerney sums
up terroir as “location, location, location.” More than only the soil or the geology of the growing area, terroir also includes the local microclimate such as amount of sun or rain, the winds, the topography of the area and temperature fluctuations.

The general logic behind terroir (pronounced ter-WAHR) is that the more distinctive a grape growing area, then the more unique its wines will be. Consider Bordeaux, where the loose, rocky soil with a slight slope makes it terrible for growing wheat but excellent for growing wine. The breezes from the Bay of Biscay blow over the vineyards and keep the zone temperate. The wild card is the rain at harvest time, which can ruin a vintage. All of this makes Bordeaux wines distinctive, with a bit of mystery from left bank to right bank and from vintage to vintage—but all have the taste of the terroir in the bottle.

Try sampling six Chardonnays from around the world and the differences of terroir will probably be covered by differences in winemaking (those darned oak chips). But try tasting six different Chardonnays from Burgundy where it is easier to control for winemaking differences, and the effect of the growing area, or terroir, is easier to apprehend. The concept of terroir is spreading to other agricultural products too such as coffee or apples that boast distinctive tastes based on their origins. In France, the appellation system, which protects terroirs, now encompasses a wide array of agricultural products from some types of cheese to chicken from Bresse to green lentils from Puy. Contrast the richness that terroir expresses with the caricature of grape growing in a place such as Australia. The vineyards are large, the sun beats steadily all year, and the vines are irrigated. This combination of factors has a tendency to produce a homogenous, undifferentiated, unexciting product. This standardization can lead to unchallenging wines for consumers and direct price competition for producers. It is a difficult game to play, one that relies on economies of scale, which explains some of the recent mergers in the industry. But New World winemakers have also discovered terroir. In the 1940s, Professor Maynard Amerine from the University of California at Davis devised a classification of California growing areas based largely on temperature. Since then, the concept has been refined with other variables added. But the net result is that many California growers have an acute sense of terroir. As evidence, consider all the single vineyard wines that have emerged. The intrigue of terroir also has a dark side, which is the possibility of getting a clunker. Simply because a wine comes from a certain growing area does not solely determine that a wine will be good. Who hasn’t had a bottle of Bordeaux from an unknown château that is awful?! While terroir is not a guarantee, it can offer good guidance.

A recent advertising campaign in US magazines by Champagne producers emphasizes their terroir as what sets them apart from other sparkling wine producers (see sidebar for part of the campaign). This provides a sharp contrast to the firm-oriented marketing strategy
of corporate brands—marketing terroir is not simply a product of one firm’s marketing department, but several producers making a collective pitch around their territory.

Although it is not guaranteed, I would take my chances with terroir over industrial swill. The Frenchman who scoffed at the Australian production probably knew that wine from France and Australia does not fall neatly either into terroir or plonk. In fact, France has its share of plonk although it does have a lot of terroir wines. But Australia and New Zealand also have many distinctive growing areas, such as the Barossa Valley or Marlborough. Sure the wines may not taste like French terroir, but they have a unique taste of where they come from. And they are often very good. So I say “vive la différence!”

Heads of state, heads of governments, leaders of the sovereign—whether they sit atop dictatorships, democracies, or feudal orders—often have a passion for the fruits of the vine. Louis XIV kept the aristocrats well lubricated at Versailles. Thomas Jefferson tried (unsuccessfully) to plant vines at his property in Virginia following a stint as Ambassador to France. Winston Churchill celebrated the end of WWII (and everything else) with some Pol Roger Champagne.

Today’s leaders have brought us to the brink of war. Can their wine preferences help us predict the outcome? I have sorted through my clip file and have this quiz to offer. Connect the leaders involved in the current realpolitik with their preferred drink.

Mix ‘n match—who likes what?