Are we in a wine bubble market?
I lately reviewed a rather good wine that would get my vote at twenty dollars. But its liquor store price is thirty-five dollars a bottle and its restaurant price above a hundred.
I do not pay for the wines I review. That is an inescapable fact of the industry. Things work that way for a reason. The purpose is to prevent a riot in which people chase each other down the street, reporters demanding their money back from wine sellers, followed by editors hounding reporters about expense accounts, followed by publishers and accountants shouting about the bottom line, and advertising men whining about everyone spoiling their "campaigns."
Perhaps one wine in four gets my mention, which is what I do instead of reviewing three wines negatively.
I owe good language to the vintners and distributors who have avoided riots by pulling the cork gratis. I hope to offer a good turn, in return, as they say. Let me tell you a story.
In the nineteen-nineties, Carribean cigars were fashionable to the point that lovely women smoked them on magazine covers. And, yes, I wrote cigar reviews. (I've quit smoking since.) Then something happened. The public snapped, ten dollars for a cigar? Twenty? Effin fuggedaboudit! The cigar market has greatly contracted since the burst of the bubble. My favorite brand from the old days is now selling for four or five bucks. Factor in inflation since the nineties. Do that and you see a huge loss at retail; the manufacturer has come down about a mile in price. Some other brands were not lucky enough to stay in business.
For the cigar sellers, it was good while it lasted, but it did not last. That it did not last was squarely their fault. They jacked up the prices until the bubble burst.
Cheers, vintners, and thanks for the samples. Think about it. You make a tasty wine with no important flaws? A cut above vin de table, not a great wine but a very good one? You can sell two bottles for forty dollars, maybe fifty, or go out of business bilking thirty-five for one bottle. My audience is the American adult male of the sort who sees things through his own eyes. You need to know and be warned: We like beer okay. It doesn't have to be wine with a nice dinner.
The most perfect examples of the French accent circonflexe I ever saw: A lady from the wine industry took me to dinner, off the clock and no strings, just to talk. I ordered Guinness Stout, 2019. Both her eyebrows drew into perfect peaks. The superciliousness crawled halfway back to her neck. That's not the attitude to bring to the American market.
I do not pay for the wines I review. That is an inescapable fact of the industry. Things work that way for a reason. The purpose is to prevent a riot in which people chase each other down the street, reporters demanding their money back from wine sellers, followed by editors hounding reporters about expense accounts, followed by publishers and accountants shouting about the bottom line, and advertising men whining about everyone spoiling their "campaigns."
Perhaps one wine in four gets my mention, which is what I do instead of reviewing three wines negatively.
I owe good language to the vintners and distributors who have avoided riots by pulling the cork gratis. I hope to offer a good turn, in return, as they say. Let me tell you a story.
In the nineteen-nineties, Carribean cigars were fashionable to the point that lovely women smoked them on magazine covers. And, yes, I wrote cigar reviews. (I've quit smoking since.) Then something happened. The public snapped, ten dollars for a cigar? Twenty? Effin fuggedaboudit! The cigar market has greatly contracted since the burst of the bubble. My favorite brand from the old days is now selling for four or five bucks. Factor in inflation since the nineties. Do that and you see a huge loss at retail; the manufacturer has come down about a mile in price. Some other brands were not lucky enough to stay in business.
For the cigar sellers, it was good while it lasted, but it did not last. That it did not last was squarely their fault. They jacked up the prices until the bubble burst.
Cheers, vintners, and thanks for the samples. Think about it. You make a tasty wine with no important flaws? A cut above vin de table, not a great wine but a very good one? You can sell two bottles for forty dollars, maybe fifty, or go out of business bilking thirty-five for one bottle. My audience is the American adult male of the sort who sees things through his own eyes. You need to know and be warned: We like beer okay. It doesn't have to be wine with a nice dinner.
The most perfect examples of the French accent circonflexe I ever saw: A lady from the wine industry took me to dinner, off the clock and no strings, just to talk. I ordered Guinness Stout, 2019. Both her eyebrows drew into perfect peaks. The superciliousness crawled halfway back to her neck. That's not the attitude to bring to the American market.
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