Archive for the 'Wine News' Category
Page 2 of 10
California’s 2009 grape harvest is the second largest in history according to a recent article from the LA Times.
Wineries in the state crushed 3.7 million tons of grapes last year, up about 20% compared with a relatively light 2008, and nearing the record 2005 harvest.
All major varietals showed growth, with chardonnay leading the pack in volume at about 726,000 tons, up 28% from the 2008 harvest. Pinot grigio, at 145,330 tons, boasted the largest percentage increase — up 61% compared with the year before.
The preliminary numbers are part of an annual report released by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The increase is expected to slow competition from out-of-state wineries, which benefited from a slow 2008, said John Ciatti, partner in the Ciatti Co. grape and wine brokerage.
Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards
Here’s a link to a great new business related website a couple of my friends started.
NewBizViews (NBV) is dedicated to creating a dialogue about new business trends among young professionals. We try to provide a middle ground between traditional publications and open-forum business blogs through peer-reviewed content presented in a relaxed and interactive format.
Our site is organized around the passions and interests of our editors and contributors. Because each member of the NBV team brings a different viewpoint and set of interests, the thread that holds everything together is our perspective on the news.
Our pieces are forward-looking, focusing on innovative business models, emerging secular trends and new approaches to fields like finance, social enterprise, media and business policy.
Feel free to follow us online, or better yet, join the discussion by contributing a post. Just send us the content and we’ll have you up and engaged in the conversation in no time.
Uncorked: The “New Normal” in the Wine Industry
…
Wine will always be sold, and consumption is on the rise if anything, but the market has shifted and price point has become and will continue to be much more important as competition floods in. Greater focus on efficiency, packaging, branding, and down-and-dirty hand selling is becoming an industry standard that will surely lead the way to a new era in the wine industry….
Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards
Foster’s (beer) new label continues to cause confusion. Many have written in support and we would like to thank the blog ’A Long Pour’ for their excellent and informative article.
This is an excerpt of the article. The full article can be read at A Long Pour:
With more wineries entering the market every year, and more Corporations doing the same, clashes between the two groups are inevitable. Santa Barbara Winery has operated in Santa Barbara, of course, since 1962, Founded by Pierre Lafond, it is the oldest winery in the county.
The family owns and operates two wineries; Santa Barbara Winery focusing on value based Rhone varietals, and Lafond Winery, which operates out of the prestigious Santa Rita Hills. Santa Barbara Winery has its tasting room and winery based in downtown Santa Barbara, not far from Kalyra, Oreana, Carr Winery, and others. Recently however, the winery has felt that the name they’ve spent almost fifty years building has been threatened.
With Santa Barbara County producing some of the highest scoring Pinot Noirs, Syrah, and other varietals, the potential for profit remains tremendous. Like many other entrepreneurs, the corporate world has also taken notice. Recently, a new brand has emerged on the Central Coast. Santa Barbara Wine Company officially launches this month with a vintage of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
For obvious reasons, Santa Barbara Winery has been deeply concerned about the potential for confusion in the market place, given how similar the two names are. “We are deeply disappointed and upset that Foster’s is attempting to create a label so similar to ours using the Santa Barbara name” Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing for Santa Barbara Winery told me via email. Some have suggested the added marketing of the name ‘Santa Barbara” could be a windfall for Santa Barbara Winery, But Joanie doesn’t agree.
“Confusion in the market-place is never a good thing and in the market-place David does not slay Goliath, just the opposite.” There is also concern that although the grapes are to be sourced from Santa Barbara County, the wines are to be produced outside the County in Paso Robles, a fact confirmed to me by a company spokesperson. I have heard some rumblings that Santa Barbara Wine Company is taking steps to gain full and restricted use of the name Santa Barbara on wine labels. But my area of greatest concern comes from their marketing approach…
We’ll pair a special tasting list with artisan chocolates from local chocolatier Chocolates du Cali Bressan. Come sample some wine and luxurious chocolate to celebrate the long romantic weekend.
Saturday 2/13 – Monday 2/15 10-5pm
Tasting Room, Santa Barbara Winery
Wine Club members 7.50
Non-members 15.00
From Choclats du Cali website:
Those of you already familiar with “Le CaliBressan” from France can now enjoy Jean-Michel’s delicious artisan chocolates created fresh right here in the United States! If you are not already acquainted with us and our chocolates, please explore the surprising imagination of Chef Jean-Michel and his “zesty” wife Jill.
Jean-Michel’s experience and creative culinary skills have earned him many world-wide accolades in magazines, brochures, and traveling guides, including “Rick Steves,” and the well known French tour guide, “Michelin Vert.”
I was at the vineyard today to see if yesterday’s solid rain had caused any damage – it hadn’t. The ground cover which we planted to control erosion is thriving. Portions which have been mowed are growing again rapidly. Unfortunately, today the ground is still a little too wet for the tractor but thanks to the sandy soil we can probably resume mowing tomorrow.
The photos are of the ground cover – not too exciting – but I show them to illustrate the variety of herbs and grasses that we use. Most are legumes – stabilizing and at the same time returning nutrients to the soil.
The vines are still dormant but here and there you can see the buds starting to appear. It is still very cold at night and we would rather they waited a few more weeks. The frost threat, however, lasts well into May.
It’s what he calls “this profoundly modern, compellingly individualist approach,” which stands in utter contrast to tradition. And what better time to trash tradition than today, when everything we’ve known for so long seems to be coming undone?
Steve Heimoff’s Wine Blog is on the top 5 of my most visited websites. One of his most recent posts, titled “Dymystify This!” provides his point of view on the contemporary movement to ‘dymystify wine.’ While I agree that wine should not be put on some pedestal, the fact is that quality wine deserves praise and the romantic details of tradition.
I am constantly asked the question of what my opinion is of screw cap wines, for example. My mind teeters between practicality and tradition. I don’t have a problem with screw caps, and they eliminate the problem of cork taint in the wine. In fact, I really love screw cap bottles when I’m grabbing a bottle off of a store shelf with grocery cart in hand, and am going home to slice some cheeses and crackers. Yet, I am also the first person to say that wine and cork go hand in hand, and the tradition of the pop of a cork, nice wine openers, and that slight possibility of getting a TCA infected bottle, is something I would never trade or encourage a complete move away from.
While I side tracked a little bit above from Steve’s article, his points about maintaining tradition in the headlights of a new era of the wine industry are what I would really like to highlight.
Trying to defend a system whose time has come, they say. Refusing to recognize that ordinary consumers no longer want or need “experts” to tell them about anything. And whenever I rise to my defense (and the defense of wine critics in general), I’m answered with something like this: “You’re just an industry gatekeeper, pushing back out of fear against the new world wherein every wine drinker is entitled to his own opinion.”
That’s how the well-known M.W., Tim Hanni, has been putting it, mostly lately in this article, in today’s online Guardian, out of England. Tim once again criticizes the “snobbery” and “prejudice” of those of us who dare to make wine suggestions and recommendations, a sin he believes “costs the wine industry billions of dollars a year” (for some undefined reason). Along the way, he also “debunks” one of wine’s most cherished assumptions: that certain wines and foods pair well together while others don’t. “’Matching’ wine and food is lazily unchallenged bunk,” the Guardian writer paraphrases Tim as saying. And, a little later: “For years, Hanni taught that wine had unassailable, objective absolutes; that certain foods are best eaten with certain wines – oysters with muscadet, say, or chablis.” There followed for Tim, in the mid-1990s, “an epiphany or a nervous breakdown” that made him reconsider “everything he had formerly believed.”
Well, I’m not big on epiphanies, although I’ve had my share of surprises that have made me reconsider lots of things. But I can’t imagine anything that would make Zinfandel taste good with oysters. Or a big, oaky Cabernet Sauvignon. Can you? Uggh.
Sure, it feels great to reassure people that they can drink anything they want with any food. People love reading that. It frees them from the very real tyranny that too often surrounds the wine-drinking experience. Tim argues that his mission in life is to liberate consumers from formulae, including pairings that are very old and well-understood. It’s what he calls “this profoundly modern, compellingly individualist approach,” which stands in utter contrast to tradition. And what better time to trash tradition than today, when everything we’ve known for so long seems to be coming undone?
Click Here for the rest of the article (“Dymystify This”)
Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards
We are excited here at the winery to promote quality and value under the new label design, which will be the new image of Santa Barbara’s oldest winery, locally owned and operated for almost 50 years.
Stay tuned…
Wine industry insiders forecast a slow road to recovery in 2010, but focusing on value will prove to be beneficial for wineries and set them up for long term success.
The worst of the drop in U.S. consumer spending appears over, said Brian Lechner, a client director with The Nielsen Company, which tracks American spending and entertainment viewing habits.
“But we’re kind of on the slow road to recovery,” he said.
A “new normal” is emerging in dining trends, he said. Consumers are dining out less, especially at white tablecloth restaurants that offer high-end wines.
Shoppers also are looking for deals, with sales “stellar” for wines priced from $3 to $6. But some shoppers also are “trading up,” and many stores are strongly promoting wines at $20 a bottle.
“I think that’s a pretty positive trend for wine,” Lechner said. The wineries that recognize the changes in consumer spending will succeed in the near term, he said.
Read the rest of the article here
Joanie Hudson, Director of National and International Marketing, Santa Barbara Winery / Lafond Winery & Vineyards
Recent Comments