Canned Wine -- More Obscure Regulation Hampering the Industry

Previous posts have discussed the emergence of canned wines, and there's a lot to consider around the challenges and opportunities of selling wines in new, non-traditional packaging or formats. However, an interesting obscure twist poses a significant challenge for canned wine: it needs a special can. The reason is that there are legally authorized "standards of fill" for wine that determine how much wine should go in each packaged serving.  Those are as follow:

3 liters.
1.5 liters.
1 liter.
750 milliliters.
375 milliliters.
187 milliliters.
100 milliliters.
500 milliliters.
50 milliliters.

A standard bottle is 750 milliliters, which helps keep bottles uniform for consumers and seems like a reasonable regulation at face value. However, that same standard does not apply to beer. With the U.S.'s backward history with the imperial measurement system, the standard beer can that you'll find in the grocery store is actually 12 ounces. That means that the majority of infrastructure for canning beverages is for the 12 ounce size, and requires a specialized (read: more expensive) canning solution to accommodate the 375 milliliter cans for wine.

This give some interesting insight into why you'll never find a 250 milliliter can like the one sold by Backpack Wine available outside of a four-pack: 250 milliliters isn't a standard fill, so they need to be grouped in order to hit that 1 liter standard. This also sheds some light on why we might not see canned wine take off until either the packaging industry or wine regulation catches up.

Wine Podcasts

I’m a huge podcast enthusiast, so thought I’d do some searching for podcasts about wine to further my education. I came across this New York Times article from January on what seems to be the most prominent podcast on the subject, called “I’ll Drink to That.” Does anyone in the class listen to it? 

It’s hosted by Levi Dalton, a New York based sommelier, and co-founded by Matt Duckor of Bon Appétit magazine and Epicurious. They’ve produced over 450 podcasts, with interviews from everyone from Danny Meyer to Margrit Mondavi, the late widow of Robert Mondavi. Notably, Robert Parker has not accepted their interview request. Dalton conducts all interviews in person, mainly in his New York apartment, though some are onsite at wineries. 

The podcasts assumes knowledge of wine, though the New York Times recommends four others, some of which do not: 

“GRAPERADIO” In business for more than a decade, “GrapeRadio” is like a talk show where the subject is wine.

“INSIDE WINEMAKING” Focuses on all aspects of making wine, with a largely West Coast point of view.

“THE VINCAST” Direct from Melbourne, Australia, with an emphasis on that country but not exclusively so. Entertaining and informative.

“WINE FOR NORMAL PEOPLE” Wide-ranging but easygoing discussion of wine issues for nonexperts.

I’d love to know if any other podcast listeners out there have opinions on the best wine podcasts! 

Look no further than Berkeley for a nautral wine oasis

If you are looking for some delicious natural wine in an unfussy environment, look no further than 5th street Berkeley. In a great piece from Vogue today, author Kristin Tice Studeman writes about the wine warehouse club: "these small, urban operations are run out of graffitied warehouses—a stark contrast to some of the glamorous, high design estates of Napa or Sonoma. Inside tends to be equally unfussy, with a mix of people (ages 20 to 40-something) in jeans and T-shirts hanging out and drinking wine."

Along with traditional California wines like Chardonnay and Zinfadel, Berkeley's wine scene gives consumers a chance to try other smaller grapes that have been growing in California for over a century such as Carignan. After some research I learned that the Carignan variety, is a red grape variety of Spanish origin that is more commonly found in French wine but is widely planted throughout the western Mediterranean and obviously, California. For years it has been a substantial producer in jug wine production in California's Central Valley and in recent years, has been reborn as a flagship grape for wineries all over. 

These Berkeley storefronts are delivering consumers a totally different wine experience - an unusual location for tasting, with different grapes in an urban environment. Really looking forward to checking out Windchaser Wine Co. and Donley & Goat next time I am in the East Bay!

https://www.vogue.com/article/berkeley-california-street-natural-wine-oasis

An interesting read ahead of our wine-filled, cheesy, "Super Session" Thursday:

The Science Behind Wine and Cheese Pairing

This piece in Time explores the science behind wine and cheese pairings. The article describes a scientific study published in Journal of Food Science in which a food scientist used a group of 31 volunteer subjects to test various wine and cheese pairings. Subjects sampled different pairings over five hour long tastings held over the course of a week. The wines tested were a sweet white Pacharenc, a dry Sanceerre, a red Burgundy, and a red Madiran. Cheeses sampled were Comte, a hard cheese (Crottin de Chavignol), a creamy Epoisses cheese and a Roquefort.

The researchers found that the cheeses actually influenced the "dominant taste" of each wine in a different way. They found this effect was consistent across subjects. For instance, the Roquefort reduced the tannic notes of the Burgundy wine it was served with due to how the cheese's fat coated the subject's mouths.

One issue the article alludes to regarding testing the science behind wine and cheese testing is the suitability of laboratory style experiments for a decidedly nonclinical experience. That is, the experience of wine and cheese pairing and tasting is rather idiosyncratic insofar as how it naturally and diversely unfolds at dinner parties. It is hard to replicate the spontaneity of pairing in a laboratory setting, where control is key to success.

More on the science of wine and cheese pairing:

Mapping the Perfect Wine and Cheese Pairing 

Wine and Cheese Pairings Have Scientific Basis

Why Wine Goes with Cheese

French Attitudes Toward Wine: Part Deux

Jane had a great post last week about French attitudes toward wine. She discusses how the traditional relationship between wine and French national identity may be challenged and come into tension with health concerns about alcohol consumption that have recently entered the social consciousness. I found the topic really interesting and it was great to get the health perspective on French attitudes toward wine. The post reminded me of another angle I've thought about in the past regarding French attitudes towards wine and how it might change over time. Specifically, I'm curious as to how changing religious and cultural demographics might affect these attitudes over time. This has been in the back of my mind since our first class when Alyssa presented a slide that showed a slight decrease in French wine consumption over time. I wondered at the time what this decrease was attributable to.

Jane's post offers health as one potential contributor to this change. I wondered whether or not changing demographics from immigration might also contribute to this phenomenon. Islam is currently the second largest religion in France, following Catholicism and is likely to continue to grow as a share of religious affiliation due to underlying demographic headwinds (e.g., continued immigration, birthrates, decline of Catholic affiliation). I wondered how this might affect France's attitudes towards wine given that consumption of intoxicants, including alcoholic beverages is forbidden by the Qur'an. I think it's unlikely that changing religious demographics are a major driver in the short term, but over time I would think that a large Muslim population might also affect how France views wine in relation to its national identity. In fact, there have already been a few controversies adjacent to this issue. In 2016 then-French President Francois Hollande cancelled a scheduled lunch with the President of Iran because the Iranian government insisted that no wine be served at the lunch. More recently, in December of last year, local French authorities ordered a Halal supermarket in a suburb of Paris to close unless it began to sell alcohol. The authorities argued that the market did not properly serve the local community by withholding alcohol from its shelves.

It is unclear whether or not French attitudes towards wine will significantly change with changes in the country's religious makeup. That said, there do seem to be times in which wine as a historical element of French national identity comes into tension with other evolving aspects of French identity.

P.S. As an aside, as a practicing Catholic, I find the interplay of religion and wine consumption  quite interesting given the centrality of wine consumption to the rites of my faith (i.e., weekly consumption of the "accidents" of wine). Two pieces of trivia re Catholicism and wine in Napa Valley: 1) the winning white wine of the storied 1976 Judgment of Paris was from Chateau Montelena, a winery owned by Judy Barrett a committed Catholic and steward of the Papal Foundation. 2) Robert Mondavi actually had some of the grapes at his winery blessed by a Catholic priest before crushing at an annual ceremony each year.

FitVine: Lower Carb Fix or Good Marketing?

I'm an "aspirational" (misuse intended) low-carb dieter. That is, I aspire to live a sustainable low-carb lifestyle. My body is particularly sensitive to carbs--they make me feel bloated, tired, and light headed. For that reason, I try to eat a diet that emphasizes protein, healthy fats, and lower-carb vegetables. This lifestyle requires quite a bit of commitment, but can more or less be managed through smart meal planning and self-discipline. One area where maintaining the lower carb life style is particularly arduous (especially in business school) is alcohol consumption (for that reason, FOAM is the cause of my joy and the bane of my existence). While beer is pretty much out of the question for me (you'll never find that liquid bread in my refrigerator), I've been able to get by with clear liquor. However, sometimes I want an alcoholic beverage more suited to consumption with a good meal. To me, wine is the answer to boozing up the dining experience. Though lower in carbs than beer and fortified liquor, wine is much higher in carbs than most of the clear liquors I've subbed, so you can see my dilemma.

Recently, I came across what I thought might be a solution to my problem. I started getting a lot of sponsored ads on Facebook for FitVine, a brand of "bio-hacked" lower-calorie, lower carbohydrate wines targeted towards people living healthier lifestyles.  I'm generally a skeptic of virally marketed products that haven't stood the test of time, nonetheless, I found the brand's audacious claims intriguing. The brand claims to use "dry fermentation" to produce wines with "no residual sugar levels" other than sugar...which is naturally found in the alcohol and is less than 0.2g per 5oz glass." These numbers sounded good to me, but I had no real reference point to contextualize the carb savings. I did a bit of research and found that FitVine's sugar content isn't leaps and bounds better than other dry wines. After doing a bit more research I came to the opinion that the brand is mostly hype with very few substantive benefits over other wines. This research process also made me a bit more comfortable with moderate, occasional wine consumption within the context of an otherwise lower-carb lifestyle.

The Moscato Boom and Bust: What's the Deal?

Towards the end of the last class, I asked Pete Mondavi a question regarding the durability of European style table wine as the preferred consumer preference in the United States. I wanted to understand why wine making in the United States switched from sweeter, fortified wines to drier style of still wine like those popular in Europe. Mr. Mondavi voiced a convincing response arguing that wine styles produced in the United States would likely remain in line with those styles preferred by Europeans. As part of his answer he mentioned the moscato phenomenon of the the early 2010s as evidence of some consumer affinity for sweeter style wines. This aside made me curious about the moscato phenomenon more generally. Why was moscato so popular in the early 2010s and what accounted for its fall from grace (N.B. by "grace" I refer to its popularity with consumers--from what I understand, many serious wine critics never caught the moscato bug).

As I'm sure you all know, Moscato, is a sweet, lower-alcohol (commonly 5% ABV) wine originally produced from the muscat grapes of Italy. The wine surged in popularity beginning in 2011. Its rise in popularity is often attributed to its popularity with trend setters in the hip hop industry. By 2012, moscato overtook Sauvignon Blan as the "3rd most sold wine in the United States" However, by 2016 "moscato fell to the 13th most popular wine by sales volume." What accounts for the moscato bust? Is it possible that overplanting and mass production caused the wine to lose its characteristic qualities that made it popular in the first place? Or rather, did the wine just fall from grace due to the lack of sustained promotion from pop cultural trend setters?

Will rose suffer the same consequences as moscato?

P.S.

 Mr. Mondavi didn't really address the first part of my question, which was why fortified wine was popular in the States in the first place. Would love to hear the answer if anybody knows.

A Better Restaurant Wine Experience for the "Rest of Us"

This is a little sneak preview for our presentation on Thursday, but I was recently pondering on this.

Why does ordering wine at a restaurant have to be so intimidating? I love the "flights" concept that exists to some extent in wine and to a greater extent in beer, and find that it's a great way to help me learn my preferences.

However, it seems like wine flights are extremely uncommon at restaurants. Perhaps because they take up a lot of space and you don't end up spending more, but what if you could make them a win-win?

Picture this: You have a list of restaurants in your area that are willing to offer you three sample pours (similar to the size we get in wine class) before purchasing a glass or bottle of wine.

For you as a budding wine connoisseur, you get the chance to try and perfect your preferences before making a selection. You also get the chance to build up your experience tasting and comparing varietals.

For saavy restaurant owners, I liken this to the 1000 point Opentable promotion. You can drive more traffic to your store and have the opportunity to push incentive (like a premium pour if you dine before 6 or after 9).

It's time to let the average wine consumer have more choice and let our palettes take flight!