Archive for the ‘Viticulture’ Category
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
 I was talking the other day with my friend Arthur (The Wine Sooth), and he raised an interesting question: In light of the pressure on the part of producer to maintain profits while maintaining competitive pricing, are we likely to see an overall decline in wine quality as a result of the current economic downturn?
I have to admit that I’d never really thought about this before, but it’s kind of an obvious question to ask as more producers struggle to maintain their revenues and market share while facing an increasingly cash-strapped and reluctant buying public. I’m not really sure of the answer, but there’s certainly both a pro and a con side to this issue.
On the “Pro” side (quality should decline), most obvious is the fact that reducing retail prices while maintaining positive revenue means more and more of the wine on the market has to come from mass-production Central Valley vineyards. These grapes, nothing special to begin with, are then rammed through a fermentation and aging process (if any) that emphasizes doing things on the cheap (to maximize net profit). As more and more wines on the shelves are made of 100% or 25% low-quality Central Valley fruit, on average, we’d expect to see a greater level of mediocrity. As more poor quality California wines enter the market, the lower the overall (average) quality of California wine. It’s a fact of life that fine winemaking and $7.99 retail really don’t pair very well.
But I think it goes further than that. As a producer, can you (or should you) spend the same amount of money to make what used to be a $30 wine that now only fetches $15-20 a bottle? Likewise, if you’re a grape grower who used to get $4,000/ton, and you can’t even get half that now, are you able to (or can you afford to) put the same amount of effort into farming? Measures that lower the cost of growing or producing wine will in all likelihood result in lower quality wine.
Additionally, when you’re already struggling to make a small profit on your wines and you pride yourself on making a high-quality product, why would you want to expand production, or even maintain production, beyond what you’re pretty certain you can sell? It follows that if less high end wine is being produced, the overall quality of wine has to be affected.
Also on the “pro” side is the consolidation that’s taking place in the wine business. To some extent, this is due to the ongoing trend of larger companies buying up smaller ones - a trend that’s accelerated in these hard times. In addition, larger companies are gaining market share at the expense of smaller companies that can’t compete in the lower end of the market. Either way, if you believe, as I do, that smaller wineries as a rule make better wines, the declining market share of smaller wineries should translate into lesser overall quality. It’s a matter of the proportions of what’s on the shelves.
That’s the “pro” side of the argument. But there’s a “con” side as well.
Grapes from the most prestigious areas (e.g., Napa, Sonoma) are still being grown and harvested and turned into wine, and it’s unlikely this will change to any significant degree. So if the best vineyards are still being harvested and wine is being made from them, we should expect that the quality at the high end, as always, will be maintained. Or, at least, that’s the argument.
Also on the “con” side is the general trend towards improvement in grapegrowing and winemaking that we’ve witnessed over the last few decades. This improvement, though minimal from one season to the next, over a period of years has to help the general level of wine quality irrespective of the prevailing economics in any particular year. Even in the Central Valley. And the argument can be made that if, after an economic recovery, wines labeled California continue to be made from Central Valley fruit, market pressures will drive improvements in growing in that region – leading to better (if still not stellar) wines.
And the ultimate “con” argument is that the present economic pressures will dissipate, and we’ll be back to business as usual in a few years. That raises the question whether we’re witnessing a basic change in the wine business that won’t be undone whenever the good times return. Its really going to depend on the consumer, who may, or may not, have permanently altered their view of what’s an acceptable wine. I guess, in the end, that’s the $64,000 question.
Posted in Viticulture, Winemaking | 5 Comments »
Monday, August 16th, 2010
In this cool growing season, we’re finally reaching the stage in the vine’s seasonal development called veraison. The most conspicuous sign of veraison is the change in color of the grapes from green to red (at least for red varieties), a process that takes several weeks. For white varieties, the change in color is less dramatic, going from green to a more golden color. Less conspicuous, but of greater importance, are other changes in the vine that take place at veraison.
At veraison, the vine, in essence, changes gears in several ways. It marks the end of leaf and cane growth, which should have already slowed down considerably earlier. Instead, the vine switches its resources to ripening the fruit. Prior to veraison, the grape development was concentrated on the formation of the seeds. From veraison on, the whole berry is the recipient of the vine’s resources. The process that begins at veraison involves increasing the sugar levels of the fruit, softening of the skin, seed color turning from green to yellow to brown, and other physiological changes.
Veraison’s end marks the time for the main fruit drop of the season. The best crops are those with the most consistency bunch to bunch. The end of veraison, however, leaves the vine with some bunches that have turned color, and some that have not. The ones that have not are laggards, and will unlikely fully ripen along with the rest of the crop. If allowed to stay on the vine, they will eventually turn color and get picked, but will still significantly lag behind the bunches that colored up on time. Left on the vine, these laggards would contribute unpleasant green attributes to the finished wine. So at the end of veraison, it is common to go through the vineyard and drop the bunches that haven’t fully colored up.
Irrigation practices can change after veraison as well. Prior to veraison, it’s important to get the vine to slow down its vegetal growth so that, come veraison, the vine doesn’t continue to direct its energies towards the pushing of ever longer canes with more and more leaves. The main means of doing this is controlled irrigation. By restricting the amount of water that goes to the vine, the vegetal growth slows, eventually stopping (hopefully) at veraison. Once this vegetal growth is under control, it’s less important to restrict the amount of water the vines receive. It’s often said that “stressed” vines produce the best wine. The stress is the result of the water restrictions that lead to the vine switching over from vegetal growth to fruit ripening. Once this water-restricted “stress” achieves its goal, water restriction is less important.
As you are no doubt aware, this year is one of the coolest on record, with the crop lagging several weeks behind normal. That means not only that veraison is occurring several weeks late, but that harvest is likely to be well behind schedule as well. One likely result of this is that the dropping of green fruit will likely be more than normal, in order to reduce the crop load–the vine can more quickly ripen a moderate crop than one that is too heavy. The thinking is not just to make sure the crop ripens, but that it ripens early enough to avoid the possibility of early fall rains that, by allowing the growth of mold, can adversely affect the quality of the fruit.
So, while every year veraison marks an important point in the development of the crop, this year it is being viewed with greater concern than in most years, as we try to balance the concerns of getting the crop ripe in time with the desire to maintain reasonable yields. And so many of the decisions made today can be judged right or wrong only once we know how the rest of the season plays out. As Mark Twain once said, climate is what you expect, and weather is what you get. The weather we end up getting will dictate how good a season we end up having.
Posted in Harvest, Viticulture | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 9th, 2010
I’m asking this question somewhat facetiously, as every vintage, from the industry’s perspective, seems like it’s the vintage of the century. But this vintage, at the least, is going to be different. As anyone living in California knows, this has been a very cool year both for people and grapes. Only time will tell for sure how the vintage will turn out, and there’s still lots of time for the weather to do a 180 and give us some real heat. But, at least so far, it’s looking like one of the coolest growing seasons ever.
So what does this portend for the quality of harvest? Looking at it from the point of view of the optimist, this could be one of the best vintages ever, particularly in the inland appellations. We know that the grapes are lagging several weeks, indicating that they will ripen under much cooler conditions than normal, if for no reason other than maturity is being pushed into a later, autumnal, season. I’ve written often about the benefits of ripening under moderate weather conditions, and how much of California is too warm to achieve this. This year will probably be the exception, particularly inland. What we’re seeing is a shift of normal weather patterns, where what would be normal for coastal (and cooler) regions is being experienced further inland. If so, this could be an exceptionally good vintage for the Central Valley.
Looking at it from the point of view of the pessimist, the worst case scenario is that the grapes aren’t ripe before the fall rains start. This puts the grape grower in a quandary: does he harvest, even though the grapes aren’t fully mature? Or does he wait, and risk botrytis and other infections that depend on rain? Either option is fraught with potential problems, and neither betokens a stellar harvest. Coastal regions, which in a normal year can still harvest under optimal conditions, are most at risk.
Assuming that the rains don’t come, there’s still an issue whether certain cooler, coastal, regions will be able to fully ripen their grapes. This seems like less of a concern to me than the possibility of rain, but for some coastal areas could be a concern, particularly if the cool weather persists.
Also, on the negative side, is the possibility that the cool weather will suddenly break, and we’ll get some real heat. Grapes, not acclimated to heat, don’t always respond well to a sudden warming. Some vines can shut down under these circumstances, particularly if they don’t get enough water. So dry-farmed vineyards could be particularly at risk. Even when the vine remains in good health, a sudden heat wave after cooler weather can result in shrivel, causing raisiny characteristics in the wines.
One question I have (and I’m not at all sure of the answer) is whether we can expect leaner, more classical, wines this vintage. It seems that this probably wouldn’t be the case in inland areas, where there should still be enough heat to fully ripen the grapes, but would be more likely the case in cooler regions.
One thing we know for sure—this isn’t going to be a normal, relatively stress free, California vintage.
Posted in Harvest, Viticulture | 3 Comments »
Monday, July 12th, 2010
For anyone in the wine business involved with selling Merlot, what I’m about to say is old news. Merlot burst on the scene as a Cab alternative—similar in many ways but more fruit forward and less tannic. It was often vinified to emphasize the soft, fruit-forward aspects that the wine was capable of. As such, it was the perfect wine for the non-connoisseur, someone who was looking to step into reds from the familiar White Zin.
It’s success was astounding. From nowhere, it became one of the best selling varieties. People couldn’t get enough of it, and wineries couldn’t produce too much of it.
As demand exceeded supply, everyone jumped into the Merlot Gold Rush. It got planted everywhere, no matter now appropriate, or inappropriate, the site. It got made into an innocuous plonk wine most of the time, bereft of any true character. But that was all ok, since the consumer would buy it.
As with all to many bubbles, the bust followed the boom. In Merlot’s case, the fierce expansion in its volume led to a decline in quality. Merlot’s case wasn’t helped along by the movie Sideways, where Miles, a wine dilettante, refuses to drink Merlot. Instead, he insists on Pinot Noir. And here we go again.
Merlot, like any grape, has its requirements to produce a quality product. But what is true of Merlot is doubly true of Pinot Noir. If Pinot is capable of producing some of the world’s great wines, it is equally capable of producing some of the worst. I’ve always wanted to produce a really good Pinot Noir, but just can’t in my area (I have tried).
But, as with Merlot, Pinot Noir is now being planted everywhere. Where cool weather and restricted yields are the starting point for quality Pinot Noir, it is being planted in areas with too much heat, and cropped at levels that allow a low-priced product to reach the store shelves, but not one that in any way resembles a true, quality, Pinot Noir.
As much as I like Pinot Noir, I have to admit that buying one is a little like buying a lottery ticket. When you hit, you hit big, getting a wine to remember. But most of the time, the lottery ticket, and the Pinot, doesn’t hit. The lottery ticket finds its way into the trash. The Pinot miss gets drunk up, but with little pleasure, since it’s probably a thin, vapid caricature of the real thing. Sometimes, instead, it’s an overripe Cab wannabe, which to my mind is even worse, as it doesn’t even resemble what a true Pinot should be.
Which leads me to the question: Is Pinot Noir going to take a fall the way Merlot has? It seems like it has to. After all, how much mileage can you get out of Miles, who, after all, didn’t know what he was talking about. And as with any consumer frenzy, can it withstand the oceans of plonk Pinot Noir that now fills the marketplace? After all, it seems even the most Pinot oriented of consumers will eventually catch on the fact that most of the wines simply aren’t very good. Certainly, if there’s a really good low price point Pinot out there, I haven’t found it.
Of course, Pinot will always have its place. It makes too good of a wine. But unlike many wines that can be produced well at reasonable price levels, I don’t think that will ever be true of Pinot Noir. It will in all likelihood settle into a niche at the higher end of the wine price spectrum, where those producers that can make a truly outstanding wine will continue to succeed while what is becoming a gigantic Pinot Noir market will come crashing down.
Posted in Viticulture, Wine Tasting | 16 Comments »
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Heimoff further opines that the impetus behind vintners pursuing the obscure varieties is to carve out a marketing niche for themselves, something that’s impossible in the common varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon. I think there’s some truth to this, although I’ll wait and see whether our Montepulciano is successful in this regard. I’m not so sure that you aren’t better off, financially, producing the zillionth Cabernet Sauvignon out there, because, at the least, you know there are people who will buy Cabernet Sauvignon. Are there people who will buy Montepulciano? I’m sure hoping there are.
But when you come out with a wine, you can’t just be thinking about the ultimate consumer. In getting your product to the consumer, you need to first of all get a distributor to buy into your vision for Montepulciano, and then a retailer who has to buy in as well. If you can get that far, you get to the shelf, but you still haven’t made a sale. Hopefully, the local wine store salespeople or restaurant sommelier will hand sell the wine, since I doubt there will be very many people wandering into a store asking for a good Montepulciano. Assuming you can get to the market, Heimoff is right, however, that you’re not going to be going head to head with a crowd of other Montepulcianos. Only time will tell how the marketing side works itself out.
But I think the greater motivation for vintners isn’t the marketing angle, but simply the desire to expand the wine world’s horizons. Producing another Cabernet Sauvignon, no matter how good it is, isn’t really changing things one iota. I would like to think that when it’s all said and done, I brought something new and different to Winedom. I can do that with Montepulciano. I can’t do that with Cab.
I do take exception to Heimoff’s comment that many of these obscure varieties are doomed to fail simply because they aren’t very good. I think many of the varieties that are obscure are obscure only because they hail from the back roads of the wine world. Historically, the wine world’s Main Street is located in England, and England has sourced its wines historically from France. Does that mean that French wines are better than those from Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc.? I personally don’t believe that for a second. But it does mean that the French varieties are the familiar, what we expect when we taste a wine. The obscure varieties aren’t inferior, just different, and don’t come with the comfort of a familiar old shoe the way Cab does.
I also don’t totally agree with the observation that it will take a long time to learn how to grow and vinify these obscure varieties here. While some varieties are pretty finicky (e.g., Pinot Noir) and take lots of learning, many other varieties don’t take a lot of getting used to. Obviously, every vintage you can learn something new, or try something different. But that doesn’t’ mean that many years of trial and error are necessary for every variety. Montepulciano, for one, hasn’t presented any overwhelming difficulties even though I’ve been playing around with it for only a few years.
I think in the end, many of these obscure varieties will succeed. After all, the varieties that we think of as common were all obscure at one time. I think I it will take some time, though, more because of the consumer resistance than because of the inherent problems in making top-flight wines from these varietals.
Posted in Harvest, Viticulture, Wine Sales and Pricing, Wine Tasting | No Comments »
|
