Session #4 The Grapevine

I bet you’re wonderin’ how I knew? ‘Bout your plans to make me blue.

Historians segment marketing history into two primary categories. Marketing practice which many believe emerged in conjunction with the rise in consumer culture following periods such as the industrial revolution. This involves the typical product differentiation, market segmentation, positioning, insight and communications strategies. The history of marketing thought is a broader field of work, with evidence dating back as far Pompei and a manufacturer of fish sauce. Although in this case the fish sauce was used to corroborate the date of the destruction of Pompei, artifacts displaying a personal brand and claims of quality of his product are an insight into early historic consumer marketing thought.

Fast forward to 2018, and although we live in the age of social media and influencers, as evidenced by Terry Wheatley’s talk, much of the core principles remain the same. People often refer to an advanced grasp of subject matter expertise as an ability to make complex things seem easy. I have no doubt that there are complex systems, networks, and know-how below the surface of the nonchalant charismatic Terry, that created a perception of simply being able to walk down the street, see an inspirational photo, attach a provocative name, source some great wine, and voila, a new successful wine brand.

Furthermore, part of the unseen machinery, I believe there is a very strong network of word-of-mouth advertising and networks. Creating decent wine is one thing. Creating an interesting brand is another. But launching it successfully into the politics of the beverage, hospitality, and retail industries, requires a little something more.

That said user empathy design practice has taught me to appreciate the root emotions behind actions and perceptions. They are stronger than we can imagine, and if harnessed in the right way, are more powerful that any narcissistic Instagram influencer’s ability to shape public thought.

I know a man ain't supposed to cry. But these tears I can't hold inside. Losin' you would end my life you see. 'Cause you mean that much to me.

Storing wine @ room temp vs in the fridge?

What is the solution if you drink half a bottle of wine, but cannot bear to throw the rest of it away? No wrong answers here: drink it the next day, cook with it, use it as a marinade, the options are endless.

Let's focus on keeping it for the next day(s). Does one use the cork (or screw top) that came with the bottle? A Vacuvin? Some other fancy device? Again, lots of options. Growing up, it was pretty common for us to leave a bottle of red with its cork in, for consumption the next evening. "It's like the French with their butter," my father would tell me. No need for refrigeration if you consume it quickly enough.

To compare apples to apples, I decided to drink two half bottles of Cannonball Cabernet Sauvignon with a few friends (thanks, Yoav!) and to keep them for two days before finishing them. One of them, I put in a fridge, while I kept the other in a cool dry place (~18 degrees Celcius). A friend and I helped each other blind taste the wines after both days, pouring each of the wines for each other and letting them come to temperature, covering the glasses with plastic wrap.

For the results... 

Father was wrong, at least according to my small sample size of two over the course of ~47 hours. The room temp wine was more acidic and overall much closer to vinegar than the refrigerated wine, per expectations from Chemistry. Perhaps two days was too long? 

Does anyone have any favorite tools that they use to preserve wine if they don't finish it in the first go? 

Rose cider is here and it could be the millennial pink drink of this summer

I just finished reading multiple articles about how rose cider is finally in production and is going to take over with millennials and to be honest, I am surprised it took this long to happen. As one of the articles discusses, rose cider is inspired by the light and fruity elements of a rose wine and made with red fleshed apples that give it a bright taste and color. It is not just from one company either - Angry Orchard, MillerCoors, Strongbow and Bold Rock are just a few of the brands seeking to capitalize on the rose trend with their ciders, but it seems to all be happening at one, which, once again, is shocking that it took so long for them to get on board. By combining trends like rose and cider is one way liquor companies hope to reignite sales, especially amongst the millennial population. These ciders are also including ingredients like pears and rose petals to differentiate amongst a soon-to-be saturated market. 

While rose only represents about 1.5 percent of the total table wine category, it's growing at a massive rate, according to data from Nielsen Rose sales climbed nearly 40 percent in the year in 2017, according to the market researcher.

Has anyone tried this yet? What is the review? Or does anyone know other trends that have started in wine and transitioned to beer/cider?

One of many articles over the past few days:  https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/angry-orchard-taps-into-rose-millennial-pink-trends-with-new-cider.html

Yet Another Classification - Burgundy’s Appellation Controlee System

Though I find the continued usage of the Grand Cru system incredibly surprising (especially because there is little room for movement between levels), what baffles me more is the lack of any digital footprint speaking ill of the practice. I would expect blog posts calling for changes in Bordeaux’s classification practices, campaigns for any particular Chateaux to enter (or improve their standing in) the system, and the like. A thorough sweep of wine blogs, Medium posts, and even Twitter feeds revealed little to no public opposition or outcry to the continued enforcement of an outdated rating system. In fact, my (albeit biased) search queries revealed quite the opposite – questioning searches point the user to various travel blogs and “Get to Know Bordeaux” sites encouraging public understanding of the existing classification system with no highlights of its drawbacks.

Quite ironically, in this attempt to find outcry related to classification systems, I discovered yet another classification system for French vineyards. In the same year that the Grand Cru system was established, Plan Topographique of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or region was published, detailing characteristics of the terroir of every vineyard in the region. Though Burgundy’s appellation controlee system (finalized in 1936) would take into account historical pricing with negociants, these detailed topographical notes drove Burgundy’s vineyard classification system to be based much more heavily on appellation, rating each vineyard in each appellation from grand cru, to premier cru, to village wine, to generic Bourgogne.

While Bordeaux’s Grand Cru approach allows Chateaux to associate any wines produced by the vineyard with the applicable Grand Cru title, Burgundy’s system requires vineyards to produce wine based on the classification of each individual vineyard parcel. One main advantage to this, as highlighted in a summary by The Decanter, is that appellation-based ratings allow market prices to signal to the consumer the quality of each individual producer. One potential limitation, however, is that the breakdown of “grand cru to generic” for each individual appellation makes comparing quality of different appellations difficult, as a grand cru from one region may vary remarkably in quality from another.

Personally, I find the appellation-based system to be much more effective as it captures characteristics of the wine itself and provides more opportunities for the market to drive pricing. Though additional digging may prove me wrong, I’ll consider Burgundy’s approach superior - however I’ll likely continue defaulting to my American tendencies and trust Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate over either J.

Wine Directors

Our class has made me think a bit about the role that wine directors at restaurants play in the wine industry.

In reading this piece on Jeff Kellogg of Quince, I realized the end consumer is still really driving a lot of his wine sourcing. Dom is their 2nd highest selling wine, even though it seemed that it wasn't his personal favorite champagne. The article says that this is driven mainly by consumer request - people want to drink Dom when they're celebrating, and there's a tech executive who dines there frequently that only drinks Dom. Consumer preference is also guiding his choice of Chardonnay. Apparently folks that come in prefer one of two types of Chardonnays, either a big Napa chard or a lighter one to pair with the food (although as we learned in class...ABC...).

The second factor that seemed to drive his buying besides his own opinion of the wine and how it pairs with the food was the quantity that was available. It seems that he needs to have a wine with enough quantity to keep stocked for a busy restaurant.

Interesting read that shed some light on these other factors in the wine industry!


https://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com/people/restpoll-entry/jeff-kellogg-of-san-franciscos-quince-and-cotogna-on-extreme-chardonnays-an

An alternative to Rosé ?

I just read an interesting article on the rise of Vinho Verde. Vinho Verde is a Portuguese wine that originated in the historic Minho province in the far north of the country. The modern-day 'Vinho Verde' region, originally designated in 1908, includes the old Minho province plus adjacent areas to the south. In 1976, the old province was dissolved.

Vinho Verde is not a grape variety, it is a DOC for the production of wine. The name literally means "green wine," but translates as "young wine". They may be red, white, or rosé and they are usually consumed soon after bottling. Interestingly enough, the article bills Vinho Verde as "the new rosé" and given the surge in popularity of rosé, I thought it might be fun to highlight this "alternative."

Much like rosé,  vinho verde has a delightfully zingy taste. Additionally, vinho verde is typically enjoy chilled but unlike rosé, it can be enjoyed on ice or even with juice. What's mainly responsible for it's resurgence has been its low alcohol content and its price. Vinho verde typically runs at $10 per bottle or less. Additionally, while most wines run about 12% to 14% alcohol, Vinho Verde is typically 10% and can even be as low as 8.5%. All this has contributed to its popularity recently with US sales jumping more than 30% in 2017 while US volume jumping more than 15% in 2017. This growth has reinforced the US as the largest importer of vinho verde. The next time you are buying rosé, maybe try out this instead. Having polished off a few bottles this weekend, I can attest to is its value. 

Good / Bad Vintages - What Are They?

In class last week we briefly talked about "good" and "bad" vintages in Bordeaux - but what does it mean to be good or bad? I did a little research to address the factors that impact vintage, the consequent flavor profile, and ways winemakers can cope with less desired vintages.

According to Denis Dubourdieu, professor of oenology at the University of Bordeaux, there are five main criteria for a great vintage (1):

"1. An early and rapid flowering and a good fecundation assuring a sufficient yield and the hope of a homogenous ripening
2. Sufficient hydric stress at fruit-set to limit the growth of the young berries and determine their future tannic content
3. Cessation of vegetative growth of the vine before colour change, imposed by limited hydric stress and therefore allowing all the goodness from the root to flow into the grapes and not unproductive growth
4. Complete maturity of the grapes (sugar content among other factors) assured by the optimum functioning of the canopy (leaves) up to harvest time without further vegetative growth (point 3)
5. Good weather during vintage without dilution or rot, allowing full maturity of all grapes including late ripening varieties"

Translating the winespeak back to English, the key points are 1) early and rapid flowering, 2) lack of water when grapes start to grow in early summer, 3) vine shoots stop growing before grapes change color, 4) adequate heat and sunlight for full maturity of grapes, and 5) not too much rain. As you have probably guessed, the key to a "good" vintage is conducive weather conditions that help grapes grow and concentrate their growth in the ripening of the grains (i.e., not waste energy on growing the vines). 

So how does vintage quality affect how a wine would taste? Well, in poor vintage years, the grapes would not get enough energy and nutrition during its growth months in the summer to fully develop, or weather conditions in the fall become too harmful and the grapes need to be harvested prematurely. Therefore, wines made in poor vintage years generally lack intensity and complexity that one would find in better years, and the flavor profile has less potential to develop as the wine ages. 

However, there is also a different school of thoughts. Prof. Roman Weil at the University of Chicago conducted an experiment where 270 wine tasters were asked to judge bottles from various vintages that are accessible to the general market (~$20/bottle), and interestingly, the tasters couldn't tell the good vintages from the bad ones except for Bordeaux wines (2). The outcome corroborates with the popular belief that Bordeaux wines are more subject to weather conditions due to the volatility in its climate, but vintage might not matter that much for other regions, especially for wines that are not meant for long-term collection.

Finally, it's intriguing to think about what a vintner could do when the weather fails to cooperate. A common strategy in a bad vintage year for winemakers is to be more selective during harvest and reduce yield. A famous Tuscan wine maker named Piero Talenti was quoted saying "there are no bad vintages... there are just vintages in which we make less wine." (3) Another strategy, surprisingly, is to convince merchants that a bad vintage can improve with time. A Wine Folly article quoted US 2011 vintage as an example: it was considered a very cool and therefore unimpressive vintage, but the wines made in that year turned out to have higher acidity, and those made from prestigious winemakers were believed to have superior aging potential as a result. (4) 

In conclusion, vintage is probably more helpful for wine collectors, especially those who focus on regions like Bordeaux that are more susceptible to volatile weather conditions. Meanwhile, the $20 bottle of 2015 Bordeaux (a great year) we got from Costco might not taste that different from the 2012 one (a mediocre year). 

Sources: 

(1) http://www.decanter.com/learn/what-makes-a-great-vintage-276820/

(2) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/03/wine-year-important_n_6784400.html

(3) http://www.boulderwine.com/wine-blog/why-bad-vintage-good

(4) http://winefolly.com/update/the-anatomy-of-a-bad-vintage-for-wine/