Main Wine Regions:

- Big #1: California: $3,000M

- Next three: Australia: $429M, Italy: $305M, Washington: $257M

- Next Six: Chile: $87M, France: $85M, Argentina: $55M, Germany: $55M, New Zealand: $52M, Spain $42M

I know this is only grocery, but look at WA, not bad at all in this channel no?

Main Varietals:

- Big #1: Chardonnay: $942M

- Next three: Cabernet: $558M, Merlot: $423M, Pinot Gris/Grigio: $332M

- Next Six: Pinot Noir: $252M, Sauvignon Blanc: $195M, White Zinfandel: $229M, Riesling: $136M, Syrah: $136M, Zinfandel: $118

Well, looks like Riesling is about to -or will soon-  pass Syrah. Next “varietal” to beat is White Zinfandel!

I have also received today a crop estimation from the Washington Association of Grape Grower (hence the post) and it confirms the delay in ripening due to cool weather. The current estimate for total crop for Washington is 156,000 tons (10 million cases) which would be flat to slightly up vs actual 2009 harvest. Chardonnay would still be #1, Riesling #2, Merlot #3 and Cabernet #4. All top four varietal would be slightly down except Merlot (be ready for some cheap Merlot out there!). Major growth in volume is projected to come from Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah (Syrah is struggling in the market place, so expect bit of oversupply) and Cabernet franc (what in heaven is going on with Cab Franc +1,500 tons?).

• 67% of american drink alcohol, 33% do not. The archetype of the non drinker is over 55, has less than a high school degree, makes less than $20K/yr, attend church weekly and is Protestant – can’t wait to meet you Mr non-drinker. The classic alcohol indulger is young, college educated, seldomly go to church, make more than $75/yr and is agnostic – you sound a bit better Mr indulger but you sound too much like Gordon Gekko.
• Beer is still the #1 preferred alcoholic drink in the USA (wine is #2, spirits #3). The archetype beer drinker is male, under 34 from the midwest while the archetype wine drinker is female, 50 and older, from the East coast (guess who I am hanging out with? hint: I am more comfortable at the Opera than at a Rodeo). Women from the south also ranks the highest for spirit consumption – go southern girls!

I am offically obcessed with the idea that Riesling can be a larger category than Syrah – that is only the first step to the global Riesling domination that we have plans for (hehehe). Looks like we have a shot at seeing Riesling passing Syrah before the end of the year and become the #8 varietal in the country. Right now the index shows the following rank among varietals (52 weeks ending 2/6/10):

- #1: Chardo: 25% MS (marketshare) growing at +2.5% – Yep, still a lot of growth at that size..

- #2: CabSauv: 16% MS +4.8% – American love story with CabSauv. Can we grow Gamay that fast? Surely is not foreign to the Malbec Growth (Malbec is not part of the topd ten and is about half the size of Riesling right now)

- #3: Merlot: 12% MS -1.9% – Keep losing steam. might never recover…

- #4: Pinot Grigio/Gris: 9% MS +3.7% – Wake up folks, this is not that great of a wine

- #5: Pinot Noir: 6% MS +7.3% – Amazing to see PN in #5 now…

- #6: White Zin: 6% MS +0.5% – Do me a favor, drink Riesling instead of this White Zin thing

- #7: Sauv Blanc: 5% MS +7.7% – This is the white we need to follow on the way up

- #8: Syrah: 4% MS -7.5% – Ouch, this varietal is just going back in the dog house

- #9: Riesling: 3% MS + 8.9% – #1 growth in the top ten. ‘nuf said

#10: Zinfandel: 3% MS +3.7% – Yes, Riesling is bigger than Zinfandel

I was reading Steve Heimoff’s blog this morning and he had an interesting question about revieweing wines: should the wine be reviewed with the winemaker or should it be reviewed blind with no context. I have, as usual, an opinion. The more time I spend in our wine industry, the more I think that it is difficult to separate the winemaker (I use winemaker as a broad term, not the individual, but the set of circumstances that leads to make a particular bottle of wine) and the wine itself. Of course one can try to be very analytical and cold about wine reviews and that is a viable way to test a wine no question. But there is so much more in a bottle of wine than just the taste – how was it made (what techniques were used), where are the grapes from, what was the intent behind this wine. The value of knowing the tid bits are as important to me as the wine itself. I relate wine to Classical music; some folks just like to listen to a piece and give it a thumb up or down while others want to know how was this written, why was the composer pushed to write this – sometimes a not so good sounding piece of music becomes interesting once one knows the reason for its being. The details are not for everyone, many people just want to know the score and that’s it and we should respect that. For the few for whom the context matters, wine should be reviewed with some emotional background and I would love for us to keep some of that.

I am blessed to live in a city where local food is just as common as stop signs. I have been a bit frustrated lately to find that so many places that claim their dedication to local food have no local wine on their wine list – that’s right zippo localo vino, no American wines, only Europeans. Some say that it is because European wines go well with the food and that domestic wines are too heavy. Well, to that I say booooguuuus – they are plenty of great balanced wines made domestically. More likely it is because foreign wines are easier to mark up because patrons can’t recognize the names or because the wines are not available else where (make the mark up invisible). This mark up shell game is silly – think about the cost of a coke, or a coffee, or anything on the menu for that matter, do you think the customers does not know there is a markup?

Why are restaurant owners keep ignoring the fact that in grocery twice as much domestic wine is sold versus imports (and the trend is accelerating)? And why not having local wines or your menus? When I go to Michigan – I want to try a Michigan wine, when I go to New York – I want to try a New York wine. The last two times I went out I had only European wines on the menu and I ended up drinking water in one instance and beer in another. Not that I don’t like foreign wines at all (I buy and drink my fair share) but in a local restaurant I want to have the possibility of drinking a domestic wine. I am not suggesting boycotting foreign wines but at least give them a shot on your wine list and see what happens. Gee, you might sell much of it.