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Archive for the 'Wine Business' Category

I Can’t Keep Up, Can You?

August 3, 2007 in Wine Business and Wine News. 0 Comments

So, I’m reading as I walk back into the house with my Wednesday morning SF Chronicle and is the headline about Iraq? Something about health care? Maybe the stock market? Nope. We bay-area folk certainly have our priorities straight. The blaring headline on the front-page article was, of course, about the acquisition of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars by St. Michelle and Antinori. The world and its problems be damned, this is important stuff. I’ll bet Jon Bonné, the Chron wine editor, never expected to see his byline on the front-page!

stags leap winery label

Read on to find out that Duckhorn, another icon, has sold controlling interest to GI Partners, a private equity firm whose investments include pubs and nursing homes (???).

duckhorn winery label

And with it came the gloom and doom predictions about the consolidation and corporatization of the romantic wine industry. Scroll down to the bottom of the article to see a list of recent transactions. I know if I try to explain any of this this to someone 6 months from now my memory will be completely garbled and I’ll get it all wrong (GI Partners??).

But, low and behold, William Hill and Canyon Road, which have been corporate owned, have also been sold - to family-owned and operated Gallo. Perhaps, correctly, you don’t think of Gallo as small family winery - well - the family is small. But they ain’t IBM either.

That’s my Wednesday story.

My Tuesday story is that yet another visitor asked me how to find some little winery I’d never heard of. A quick search reveals that it’s practically in my back yard in St. Helena. Happens all the time… I check out the wine selection at a local shop and there are Napa Valley brands that are complete strangers to me. I can’t keep up, and I live here. New wineries with great spirit and ambition, nearly always family run, continue to spring up like wildflowers in the spring around here and all over the state. Maybe this obscure little place will turn out to be the next Duckhorn!

Sure, some consolidation and changing of the guard happens. Sure, corporate ownership can spell the end of the artisan approach. But, it depends on the corporation. Coca Cola got in and out of the wine business in a flash, presumably because you can’t turn around a wine “product” like you can a bottle of coke. St. Michelle is a wine corporation that appears to be doing a bang-up job and has been a key player, if not THE key player in putting Washington wine on the map (2^nd biggest producer in the US!). Can’t vouch for GI partners…

So, who can keep up with all these acquisitions and new brands? I guess my point is that it’s hard for me to see the tragedy in Warren Winiarski making a decision to retire and selling his beloved winery to a responsible organization in the absence of an heir to carry the torch. To paraphrase him, it’s kind of like seeing your daughter get married. There are mixed emotions, but it’s inevitable.

Warren Winiarski

We’re a long way from becoming a buttoned-down bunch of suits here in the valley. So, happy retirement to Mr. Winiarski, and well deserved! And, for the rest of us - not to worry.

Breakfast of Champions!

May 24, 2007 in Observations, Rants and Wine Business. 0 Comments

Well, this is fun. The Austrian government has come down on wine producers for an ad promoting the leading wine of the country, Grüner Veltliner. I’m not so sure about government intervention and I don’t pretend to have formal education in marketing, but you gotta wonder how people who do have the education came up with a misguided campaign like this. Were they mainlining G.V. when they came up with this stuff?

Weingut Brundlmayer Label

I guess being delicious just isn’t enough these days. Its supposed attributes include being an “anti-depressant ideal against the usual Monday-morning blues.” Does this mean we’re supposed to have a belt of Grüner Veltliner with our Cheerios, or maybe Muesli, before we hit the Monday morning commute? Maybe it’s better to stick with giving away T-shirts.

Gruner Veltliner Shirt

And when the industry came under fire for being such knuckleheads they promptly shot themselves in the foot again by coming out with a position paper “Admitting the necessity of responsible approach to the subject: and “went to great lengths pointing out the positive effects of moderate wine consumption, the important role of wine in Austrian cuisine and culture” - so far, so good - ”and its significance as an icon of a hedonistic lifestyle.” Boom!! Ouch! Perhaps something was lost in translation here, or these marketing geniuses should be looking for a job.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of hedonism I think of wild-eyed Romans rolling around on the floor and the fall of the empire, like this definition from Dictionary.com:

1. the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good.
2. devotion to pleasure as a way of life: The later Roman emperors were notorious for their hedonism.
Synonyms: sensualism, libertinism, debauchery, dissipation, carousal.
Antonyms: puritanism, asceticism, abstemiousness, self-denial.

Maybe the Austrian version is tamed down a bit like this one from WordNet:

1. the pursuit of pleasure as a matter of ethical principle
2. an ethical system that evaluates the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good

In either case this is a most unorthodox way to lend credibility to their stated goals of promoting responsible marketing and moderate consumption.

I’ll admit to using “hedonistic” as a wine descriptor on very rare occasion - you know - for one of those wines that is so good that you need to go to confession after indulging in just a taste? Ah…

Anyway, I guess these guys are just doing what we humans seem to do best: putting our foot in it only to find out it’s quicksand. I think we should all go out and buy a bottle of Austrian Grüner Veltliner. A nice, cool glass of G.V. sounds awfully good right now and we can hope they do the same for us when it’s our turn to look like our industry is chaired by graduates of clown college. Prosit!

Regarding “Dr. Frankenwine…”

April 18, 2007 in Observations, Wine Business and Winemaking. 0 Comments

This highly-entertaining interview reinforces two of the biggest reasons that I have stayed in the wine industry all of these years.

1. The best winemakers in the world are exceptionally intelligent, opinionated, singular and perhaps a little off their nut (in a very good way). Therefore, never boring.

2. Wine is an endlessly complicated, subjective, idiosyncratic subject and beverage. Consensus is impossible, no matter the topic, so the delightful debate rages on. What a blast! Why talk about who’s being voted off the island on American Idol when you can go point and counterpoint on how to define terroir? Or the role of wine writers in the whole scheme of things? Or where “manipulation” begins and ends?

Regarding point 1, just read the interview to remove any doubt that Clark Smith, this extremely intelligent and accomplished winemaker, is full of contradictions. In one breath he abhors 50-year-old technological advances and embraces his own more recent ones as the road to salvation. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to Randall Graham’s impassioned explanation for why he does what he does. And sat and wondered at Jim Clendenen’s eccentric pontifications. These guys are brilliant, articulate (well, maybe Smith isn’t so articulate, but who cares?) and would probably be the first to suggest that the personal drummer to which they march has gone down the road a piece. They not only educate and offer diverting commentary - they make us think.

Surely, most of us have misgivings when it comes to big-time manipulation similar to the ones I expressed in the post about my visit to ConeTech, a competitor to Smith’s Vinovation. I’d like to hear what Smith has to say about the piece by John Williams of Frog’s Leap referenced in that entry. Smith says “It all went out the window 50 years ago. It’s way too late and my company is doing everything it can to get us back to where we were…” - contradicting himself yet again. Williams says it’s not too late: “Pick nearly any problem in winemaking today and you will find with a minimum of research a deep connection to farming practice…” My heart wants to believe Williams.

When it comes to how we should feel about all this, realistically, doesn’t it boil down to which sort of consumer you are? If you view wine as simply a yummy beverage to wash down your bruschetta, innovation and “manipulation”, however you define it, has been a very positive force in the industry. Isn’t it great that cheap wine tastes a whole lot better now than it ever has? I’m that consumer a lot of the time and feel very grateful that the every-day wine I drink usually tastes pretty darned good. That consumer says “I like sausage, but I don’t want to know how it got to my table.”

Then there are those who think of wine as that “soulful product of the earth…” who crave something authentic. I’m that consumer, too, when I stock my cellar with the good stuff and in that case I tend to care about how it all came together. If the producer makes references to terroir and the wine having a “sense of place” then my hope is that they define “manipulation” as something as minor as deciding to add yeast or to age the wine in an oak barrel.

So, I guess I’m a little schizo too. I suppose most of us are.

Anyway, since wine is still a business, last time I checked, we have to figure that most winemakers manipulate a little or a lot to survive. The market only becomes more competitive. You can blame the current state of affairs on the CEOs, as Smith does, or on the wine writers, as I and many others often do. Or the “flying winemakers”. It doesn’t matter. Pandora has escaped from her technology box and is perhaps enjoying a nice glass of very trendy, heavily-manipulated Tempranillo right now. Crazy.

What’s in a Name?

March 12, 2007 in Observations and Wine Business. 2 Comments

I caught myself being cynical/complacent when I read this article. It’s just the way of the world, right? Sigh…

But really, why is this necessary? It’s very sad that the tiny brand known as Inman Family Wines in the Russian River Valley has had to knuckle-under to power-house Grange without even putting up a fight. The bottom line is that it makes good business sense. Why throw away legal fees fighting against a titan who is destined to win through sheer force of dollars?

Fosters Logo

Grange is a limited-release wine, yes? Why such a Goliath? Because Grange is really Penfolds, which is really Foster’s (as in lager), one of the biggest beverage companies on the planet. How is the Inman family, which produces about 1,500 cases total of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris to even begin to combat such a giant? It’s pointless.

Inman Pinot Label

So, what’s the deal? The word “grange” is the issue. Penfolds has sued the Inmans to get them to stop using that word on their front label which, up to now, referred to the Olivet Grange Vineyard, their estate in Russian River. So, they’ve decided their best option is to simply use an acronym, OGV, and hope that their customers can figure it out.

Why am I making a stink? Penfolds Grange was there first, right? Well, it turns out that the term “grange” commonly refers to a farm in England and Australia. Kathleen Inman said “It means a small farm with out-buildings.” No surprise that the Inmans chose to call their new vineyard in Sonoma County a “grange” having relocated there from an 11-acre grange in England. And evidently Penfolds has strong-armed numerous Aussie producers away from using the term on their labels.

But, a trademark is a trademark. Penfolds has the right and they’re using it. We certainly don’t want to confuse people. So this tiny, virtually unknown California producer is trying to pass off their $42.00 Pinot Noir, called “Olivet Grange Vineyard”, for a world-renowned Shiraz that’s simply called “Grange” Yeah, that’s pretty hard to keep straight. I wonder if Fosters thinks that the folks in the northern Rhone should have taken issue in the old days when Grange was called Grange Hermitage? I wonder if they think that was confusing?

Penfolds Grange 1997

Fortunately, Foster’s cannot stop them from using the term grange on the back label or in their literature. This is one way the Inmans and their winery contractors can hope to assure their customers that the grapes are, indeed, coming from the same vineyard - only the name has changed.

Drat! Perhaps I was being provincial or rationalizing when I was in favor of the Napa Valley Vintners when they fought Fred Franzia over the use of the term “Napa” in the branding of the wine. But, in that case it seems to me there was a genuine risk of confusion, plus you had deep pockets fighting deep pockets. It was a fair fight.

I know, I know, all you lawyers are going to respond that Penfolds had to do this to send a message to anyone who might like to try to mislead. But it still looks like they’re doing this just because they can. I wish I could react more like Alder, and get all energized, but in truth, it makes me tired. All of this must be quite ironic for Simon Inman, who is a business attorney, Goosecross being among his many clients.

Inman Family

So, best of luck to the Inman family. Being another very small, virtually unknown fish in a big, increasingly competitive pond we completely empathize and hope that this bit of publicity from these various sources may result in some new friends and customers for Inman Family Wines.

Millennials, Gen X and “Rich, Old White People”

February 24, 2007 in Selling Wine, Wine Business and Wine News. 0 Comments

There were a couple of articles this week - one on the demise of Wine X magazine and the other on the purchasing habits of the Millennials– that seemed to be sending the same message in very different ways.

WineX Banner

Of course, theories abound as to why Wine X folded after 10 years. Wine X founder and editor, Darryl Roberts, was quoted as saying ‘The wine industry says it’s interested in young adults but spends all of its ad and promo money targeting the same people it’s been targeting for the past 30 years - rich, old white people.’

While no one would accuse Wine X of marketing to that demographic description, I wonder how well they were reaching today’s up and coming wine drinkers, the Millennials. Perhaps this Gen-Xer has failed to speak meaningfully to his intended market. I think we’re all guilty of thinking that we’re cool enough and smart enough to know how to communicate with and market to younger generations, but we’re probably fooling ourselves. It may be a hard realization for Roberts, but getting old is hell. Ten years have gone by and perhaps he and his staff failed to reach their target group because their leader must be looking at 40 candles here pretty soon and his world view is somewhat different than that of his intended readers.

He certainly evidenced a glaring blind spot by focusing on glossy print media to reach out to this generation. Of course there’s a website, but it has the look of something that’s trying to promote the hard copy. I like to think that these wine-intrigued 20-somethings are reading this blog right now instead.

The evidence indicates that as a generation the Millennials like wine and they’re curious about it. That’s good. But we Californians better wake up and smell the Zinfandel, and soon, because evidently these folks are far more inclined to shop around in other parts of the world for their wine than prior generations. That’s potentially bad. The San Francisco Chronicle stated that “Twelve percent of both Baby Boomer and Generation X wine drinkers bought imports, compared with 32 percent for the Millennial generation…” and added that there are 70 million Millennials in the United States, compared with 44 million Gen Xers and 77 million Boomers.

Now, we can assume that this has something to do with price. The Boomers and increasingly Gen-X will spend more per bottle than the average Millennial because most of us have long since finished paying off student loans and are established in our careers. But attitudes and habits that are developed now are likely to persist as time goes by. If we want these new consumers to shop for fine wine from California in the future we’d better gain their loyalty by offering them a good value and do our homework on how to market and package it right now. My hat’s off to Don Sebastiani and Sons for leading the charge in the under $15.00 range. And Three Thieves has a new brand with a page on MySpace.

Regarding marketing, Karen Ross of the California Association of Winegrape Growers said that “Every major wine-producing country has an aggressive program in the United States, and California needs to make sure there is a California message out there.” She said the association is launching a public relations campaign focused on “informing U.S. wine consumers and wine trade media of the vineyard practices that add value to California wines.” Sounds pretty sexy, huh? Hmmm. We haven’t been very good at this in the past. Can we possibly come up with the wine equivalent of “got milk”?

It seems to me that Wine X had the right concept: make it fun and informal. Lose the elitism and the snootiness. Perhaps they just lost their way. And perhaps there’s some truth to Roberts’ assertions that we’ve been overly attentive to those “rich, old white people” to the detriment of building a future with this new consumer base.

The market potential is there. The challenge is there. Let’s hope we can rise to the occasion.

Generic French Wine: Pourquoi Pas?

February 6, 2007 in Selling Wine and Wine Business. 0 Comments

“Vignobles de France” This is big, if it happens. The French have proposed a new approach to wine labeling that will allow not only a varietal designation, but will permit producers to blend wines from different parts of France together to produce a style of wine that appeals to specific markets. And these specific markets, being mainly new-world markets, will actually be able to understand what’s on the label. That’s huge.

Pourquoi Pas? Picture this: some guy in Duluth, trying to impress his date with his savoir faire, can serve her a French wine (How do they maintain their snob appeal after all these years?), and yet he’ll also be able to select his grape variety of choice and feel that he knows what he’s buying. On top of that the flavor profile may well be targeted to his palate, for instance the Chardonnay may include grapes from the warmer parts of France in order to please the American preference for abundant fruit and soft acidity - probably agood kick of oak, too. Just a few months ago I wrote about some conversations I had with French producers that indicated a possible move in this direction, but I don’t think too many of us thought something so major would come this quickly! It’s not a done-deal yet, but could be implemented as early as this spring.Of course, the producers in the Languedoc are vehemently opposed to the idea because, in tandem with a push to increase quality in the region, they pioneered the use of varietal designations on French labels. They want the Languedoc appellation to get to the place where it commands respect and view this potential for widespread varietal, appellation-free labeling as eroding their considerable efforts. Their marketing savvy has taken this region from one that drew sniffs of derision (the appellation still makes me nervous) to one that is second only to new-world producers (specifically Australia, Chile and the U.S.) as an exporter of wine with a varietal designation. It’s easy to understand their concern.

And others are against the concept because French wine has always been about terroir. But, do we really want or need the “terroir” of a $12.00 wine from a so-so growing region? I don’t think anyone expects to see a change in labeling practices among wines that come from noble regions. This will be used as a tool to move truck loads of moderately priced wines, not cases of the great stuff.You can see it as kind of meeting in the middle. After the repeal of prohibition California wine was reborn as mostly generic plonk and it’s only now, after decades and decades of study and trial and error blended with copious quantities of blood, sweat and tears, that we’ve evolved to the point where our best wines are indeed beginning to reflect a sense of place. And I don’t think our low-end “California” wines take anything away from our best vineyard designates any more than you’d think that our friend in Duluth has somehow hurt one of the great houses of Corton-Charlemagne by serving a $12.00 French wine called Chardonnay.

Anyway, it looks as if we might have the opportunity to purchase wine labeled “Vignobles de France,” which supplies about as much information as buying a wine with a “California” appellation. Maybe table wine for every day tastes better if it’s blended to combine the best of one region with another. I don’t know.

But I do know that this idea beats the heck out of converting French wine into something that heats their homes or runs their cars. Merde!!

When I wrote before, I said it would be interesting to fast-forward 10 or 15 years to see what happens. I guess I should have said 10 or 15 weeks. Germany is rapidly figuring out how to appeal to the new-world market (stand back!) even if they don’t get as much attention. Stay tuned…

Is Cork Taint on the Run?

January 4, 2007 in Wine Business and Wine Education. 2 Comments

Tom Wark has just whispered what you’d think the cork industry would be shouting: “I have to admit that of late it seems I’ve encountered far fewer “corked” wines than in the past. I’ve no solid, scientific evidence to know this. It just seems this way.” I like to think that this casual observation reflects a rapidly changing reality.

I did an interview with our cork supplier, Heinz Heidenreich of Cork Supply USA, for napavalleywineradio.com last summer and between what he said and what I’ve read since, it seems that cork taint may soon become a non-issue. Can you imagine?????As far as I can tell, there are 2 key things happening. One is that quality control has been massively improved. It used to be that we’d do a sensory evaluation on a relative handful of corks from a bale of 10,000. It was woefully inadequate because of the small sample size and the fallibility of the human senses.

Within the last few years “solid-phase microextraction” has become available for identifying TCA. According to Heinz these tests can be conducted on the whole bale and can assure that the level is below 1 part per trillion TCA (human threshold is 4 to 8 parts per trillion for most of us according to the industry). Jim Laube, who seems to be obsessed with the topic, has said that he and others can detect levels as low as 1-2 ppt.)

The second thing is that methods of purging TCA and other off odors from the cork are being developed. We’ve known for awhile now that they can remove TCA from cork particles, for instance there’s the Diam technical (or agglomerated) cork by Sabat, the globe’s second largest cork producer, which “uses supercritical CO2 for selective extraction of volatile compounds from cork.” But, now Cork Supply says they’ve developed a system to remove the TCA from a solid piece of cork, not just the granules, called Innocork.

And Amorim, the world’s largest cork producer, and another proponent of solid phase microextration, has a system called Rosa to extract TCA.

Now, I know all this information is coming from sources that are anything but impartial, but taken all together it sends a message that the cork industry has finally gotten off of its keister to solve the whole cork taint issue. For me, the most amusing moment in the interview with Heinz was when he readily admitted that up to about 8 years ago, the cork industry really didn’t much care about our little problem with TCA. It was only when plastic corks and screw caps began to threaten their livelihood that they decided maybe they should get their act together. Ah, humans! Gotta love ‘em…

And all of this quality control and purging comes at a price. It seems to me that if a producer doesn’t want to pay for the extra quality control, they should use one of the many excellent alternatives to natural cork. Do us all a favor…

cork1 Anyway, like Tom, I just can’t remember pulling the cork on very many tainted bottles in the past year or so, and between work and play I open a whole lot of wine.Pretty ironic, huh, now that plastic corks and screw caps have become more acceptable to us by the day? Not to mention other options like the Zork and the glass stoppers.

These are truly marvelous developments because they mean that we’re on the threshold of being able to select the closure that best serves the wine or, alternatively, the one that we think will make our customers happy. Some producers think that the screw cap is absolutely the way to go with fresh, fruity whites and spritzy wines.

Most think that for the long haul, natural cork is still the best option in case this concern about screw caps and reduction is founded in reality.

Will there be a place for plastics when the cork dust settles? Hmmm.

How will we be sealing our wine 25 years from now? Anyone care to place a bet????

Are We All A Bunch Of Snobs?

November 28, 2006 in Rants, Wine and Wine Business. 0 Comments

I was skimming here and there and found this interesting post in “Life’s a Picnic”. Very enjoyable reading, but what really got my attention was Greg’s reluctance to visit a winery because he was convinced that the people would be “too serious and snobby.” And this from a foodie, if you take a look at his posts.

Snob

ARGHH!!!! Mortally wounded! After all these years in winery hospitality, at wineries big and small, reading that we’re so perceived makes me break out in a cold sweat. I have invested considerable effort in dispelling this “serious and snobby” thing over more years than I care to admit and, when I was in a position to influence others, I coached them to be unfailingly kind, helpful, informative and, most importantly, FUN! Wine is about a lot of things, but in the end it’s about fun, isn’t it?

Anyway, he was going, with some trepidation, to meet the winemaker at Periscope Cellars in Emeryville, CA. He observed that “The surroundings are certainly not like the palatial settings of the North Counties, more like a big old military bunker…”

And he was delighted to find out that the Winemaker was actually fun to be with. “While having serious credentials and experience he is far from snobby. Brian seems part guy next door, part artist and part mad scientist. He is generous to a fault with his time and seems extremely happy to be doing his wine thing.”

You know, that description fits a whole lot of winemakers I’ve known. I think what people forget when they see all the fancy architecture is that we’re still an agriculturally-based business, and that the work is physical! Sure, there are ivory-tower winemakers and high-flying consultants, but they’re much more the exception than the rule. Most of us in the wine industry are just ordinary people who choose to make our living in wine because we love it.

For those of you who like wine but believe as Greg does, I hope you’ll reconsider and hit the wine trail again. I’ll acknowledge that wine brings out the worst in some people, and those are the folks you want to avoid. And yes, you can find very formal situations with intimidating tasting rooms and astronomical tasting fees, but if you investigate a little, you can also find little places like ours that are off the beaten track. You may not find a grand villa, but you will find that lots of us are genuinely glad to see you, show you a good time and answer your questions without a hint of pretense. Plus, we’ll pour some seriously-fine wine (without taking it too seriously).

It may mean getting off the main highways and onto the sideroads or up in the hills, but that just makes an ordinary outing more like an adventure. COME ON DOWN!

Kermit Lynch, Wine Merchant

November 21, 2006 in Selling Wine, Wine and Wine Business. 0 Comments

As kind of a coda to my last posting, “Alternatives to Wine Ratings” in which I suggested you find a retailer you trust, I have to give a plug to one of my very favorite wine merchants, and he’s one I’ve actually never met.

Nouveau Beaujolais

Kermit Lynch has to be the best wine writer on the planet. Every month when his newsletter arrives, he makes me want to buy out his entire inventory. He even has me lusting after wines of a type I don’t generally care for because he describes them so vividly, and with genuine affection. And that helps me to become that more adventurous, independent consumer that I’m always talking about.

It takes more than great writing to create a loyal customer. Over the years, I’ve found that his descriptions, which are not accompanied by numerical ratings, are pretty darned close to what I experience once I pop the cork. He’s not sitting at his desk in Berkeley, ordering out of a catalogue. He and his staff hand-select the wines and buy them directly from the producers, so the quality of the wines is reliable. It was interesting that when Colleen, our proprietor, and I were in Provence and Chateauneuf-du-Pape last month (see post titled “Culinary Getaways a la Provencal ” the name Kermit Lynch was well known, and in one case, a producer asked if I knew how to get his attention. Who, me???

And there’s the bummer. Provence is his springboard for buying wines from all over France, with an occasional sprinkling of Italian wines. I prefer to buy local most of the time, but I can’t resist placing an occasional order with Kermit Lynch. I rationalize by reminding myself that tasting wines from outside my own back yard is important to my work.

Anyway, if for no other reason than a great read, you should subscribe to his newsletter. I tell ya, if I won the lottery, he’d have to buy another truck just to keep up with my deliveries!

Ain’t Nothin’ Simple

November 14, 2006 in Observations, Selling Wine, Wine, Wine Business and Wine Education. 0 Comments

That’s what my Dad always used to say…

Our growers often drop by with friends, or just to taste the latest and see what’s new. In this case, Geoff Gorsuch, our Winemaker, specifically invited a grower in to try a wine that was coming along especially well. He wanted the grower to literally taste the fruit of his labors–the absolutely delicious wine we made from his vineyard.

Head down, concentrating, he smelled and tasted. He paused and looked up at Geoff. He smelled it again. Smiled. He took a few more sips and suggested “…you know, it would be a great idea to give this wine a vineyard designation.” which translates to us as “he knows this is good stuff and wants his name associated with it.” It’s a happy thing for both parties.

So, I’m working on the back label for the wine and Geoff tells me about this conversation. He’s totally in favor of it. He loves the fruit that comes from this vineyard and, probably more importantly, he really likes and admires the grower - kind of an old-time, authentic, Napa Valley hands-on farmer. Nothing pretentious about him. Grows great fruit with lots of care–salt of the earth kind of guy. Geoff’s thinking this is a done deal.

Wishing to keep my job, before I add the grower’s name to the label, I run it by David, who co-owns the winery with Geoff. Got an e-mail back: “Let’s discuss”.

Hmmm, I think. What’s to discuss? Single vineyard wines are hot, and the vineyard designation seems to take the wine up a notch in the eyes of the consumer. It makes it appear more limited and upscale. What’s David thinking?

Good thing I checked. He’s thinking like a business man. He has no problem with putting the grower’s name on the label, but we need to sign some papers first - a long-term contract with pricing and quality standards. As it stands, with a year-to-year agreement, putting his name on the label is like running a full-page ad for the grower in the Wine Business Monthly. We can’t be the only ones to recognize the quality, and if another winemaker tastes the wine and is similarly impressed, he’s just a phone call away from trying to outbid us for the fruit. But not if he doesn’t know who the grower is. As we look to build brand value and recognition for Goosecross wines, growers look to build vineyard designations. Both designed to improve the bottom line with potential conflicts.

Everybody brings a different perspective to the table, even at a very small winery like Goosecross. Geoff (being a farmer himself) was being emotional, and wanted to honor the grower. As a wine educator, I was thinking of the great story I could tell about this little vineyard off in the hills. But clearly, the thing to do is to go with David’s recommendation. Wine is perhaps more of a romantic business than most, but it’s still a business. Gotta get that long-term contract signed and then give the grower that place of honor on the label.

When we get to talking about what goes on the wine label, guests at the winery are invariably surprised and somewhat amused to find out that there are regulations behind the statements we make about vintage, location and varietal content - and restrictions regarding what we can say to describe the wine. At first glance, everything seems simple.

Wish I could share the name of the mystery vineyard and wine with you, but I’m not sure we’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s yet. For now, it remains a mystery…

By the way: in the USA, a vineyard designation requires that at least 95% of the grapes come from the named site. Click here to read about some of these regulations in understandable terms.