Cracking Down on Wine Shipping

There was an article published by the Washington Post today entitled Why is it becoming harder to buy wine online? It details the legal issues that have frequently arisen in class. While wineries can ship to 40+ states, retailers can only ship to ~13.

The article explains that recently, states have started to crack down on retailers attempting interstate shipments. Fedex is telling retailers they won't accept wine shipments going to certain states.

The National Association of Wine Retailers is fighting back. They're lobbying, getting legislation introduced in four states, and have set up a website, winefreedom.org, which has generated over 1K messages to Massachusetts lawmakers in favor of a bill.

Do you think this push by retailers will be successful?

Stop Your Wine-ing? -- Beer is Fighting Back

According to a recent Nielsen report, between 2006 and 2016, beer lost 10% of market share to wine and spirits. The largest brewer in the world, Anheuser-Busch InBev, reported that beer as a proportion of the alcohol consumed by 21-to-27-year-olds fell to 43 percent last year from 65 percent in 2006. That figure represents a steep drop over the past dozen years. Over the past few years, wine and spirit advertising has made positive inroads among young adults in places that were once the domain of beer, like sports arenas. Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors have decided to take on wine and spirits in an advertising war of sorts.

Recently, a digital ad campaign, “Stop Your Wine-ing” by MillerCoors was released for “Two Hats,” a light beer with fruit infusions and 4.2% alcohol by volume that is supposed to wipe out wine. In the ad, a bowling ball rolls across a bar and wipes out a few bottles of white wine.

"We want to recruit this new generation of drinkers, who generally find current beer options to be outdated or expensive and build their preference for beer in the long term," says Sofia Colucci, senior director of innovation at MillerCoors.

With consumer preferences continuing to change in the wine and spirits industry, it will be interesting to see how wine companies respond to capitalize on this trend.

Tanzanian Wine Making Splash

I’m getting ready to visit my friend in Tanzania over Spring Break, and she has a ton of fun culinary excursions planned for us. I was curious about the types of wine I might encounter while I’m there. Turns out Tanzania has a pretty interesting wine history.

South Africa, the continent’s leading wine producer, has been Tanzania’s Big Brother and helped develop its grape-growing and wine-producing sector. A short distance outside Tanzania’s capital city are 150 hectares of land filled with clusters of red and white grapes that produce Dodoma wines. Grapevines were first introduced to the central zone in 1938 by missionaries from the Hombolo Catholic Mission, who, after independence assisted in setting up production in Dodoma. Local investors slowly began to consider the sector’s potential and in 1979, the government established the Dodoma Wine Company, which bought grapes from farmers, established a research centre to determine appropriate types of grapes for wines and encouraged more farmers to start grape farming.

Tanzania’s Dodoma region produces three wines -- dry white, red and natural sweet. Apparently, their red wine has a smooth, rounded taste and is best with "Nyama Choma," a local delicacy of roasted spiced meat, while the "natural sweet" wine is the perfect complement for light salads or simply enjoyed as an aperitif. The Dodoma region is home to a number of varieties including Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Makutupora, a local dry red. The dry earth and sandy soil, combined with low humidity, is perfect for producing dry white and red wines in Dodoma.

I'm really excited to see what Tanzania will have to offer. I learned a ton during my last trip to India about the challenges and barriers of importing and creating wines in emerging economies, so I'm interested to see what similarities and differences Tanzania will present.

Is Merlot fighting back?

After several classes with references to the 2004 movie Sideways and its impact on Merlot sales, I was curious as to whether the varietal has bounced back nearly 15 years later. I came upon a Bloomberg article on the topic (love reading about wine in Bloomberg) and found that, similar to what many of our speakers this quarter suggested, merlot is making a comeback. Sales of ultra-premium merlot were up 5% in 2017 and a 2016 Wine Intelligence report found it to be the varietal of choice for Americans wine consumers of all ages. Even with the knock from Sideways, people love the silky, cherry forward flavor that a good merlot provides. When thinking about project ideas, I thought this would be a great topic – a new age merlot for the wine-savvy millennial. Maybe the new rose? On a separate note, the Bloomberg article provides some wine suggestions. Safe to say I won’t be purchasing this product of Bordeaux anytime soon:

2014 Pétrus ($2,300) 

This famous Bordeaux red is the planet’s ultimate merlot, velvety and sumptuous, with complex layers of dark red fruit and Asian spices and a cashmere-like texture. One secret to its greatness? Blue clay soil in the vineyard. 

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-29/the-sideways-curse-has-lifted-merlot-is-having-a-comeback