Team C&J
● The French are buying up a lot of US wine properties.
● No, Tannis in red wine do NOT give you a headache.
● Wow, that’s a lot of sugar!
San Francisco Chronicle – He criticized one of California’s most popular wines. Then he got a letter from its lawyers
Sonoma Winemaker Adam Lee created a display ad for his Dial Tone Pinot Noir that read: There is less sugar in 32 bottles of Dial Tone Pinot Noir than in just one bottle of Meiomi Pinot Noir.
From the article: Meiomi’s parent company Constellation Brands caught wind of the display and on Sept. 25, Lee received a sternly worded letter from the conglomerate’s lawyers. The letter, which the Chronicle reviewed, demanded that Lee provide evidence to support his claims and suggested his ad may violate a federal law prohibiting false advertising. “Constellation welcomes competition in the marketplace,” the letter stated, “so long as such competition is fair and does not mislead consumers.”
Wine-Searcher – Italian Red Wine without the Headache
No it isn’t the Tannis that give you headaches. It is a compound called Quercetin. And it tuns out that two italian grape varieties have the lowest level of this compound. So if red wine gives you headaches, then maybe try a Sagrantino or a Tannat.
Wine-Searcher – Wine and Spirits Struggling in US Retail
From the article: Moreover, one good-news category of recent months is now a bad-news category. Expensive spirits took the biggest hit, with bottles that retail for over $100 down 8.5 percent in retail stores and 12.5 percent in bars and restaurants.
Expensive wines won an immunity challenge: sales of wines above $50 retail are up, albeit by under 1 percent. Prosecco is the only category that had a good 12 months, with sales up 2 percent. Meanwhile, the bottom continues to fall out of the bottom, with sales of wines between $8 and $11 down 12.7 percent.
“There are a lot of very big brands that are in that $8 to $11 range: 19 Crimes, Apothic, all those red blend brands,” Stratton told Wine-Searcher. “They aren’t doing very well now.”
Jancis Robinson – French invade the US
The French are buying up a lot of us wine properties, for a lot of different reasons. Perhaps the most surprising to me was this passage from the article:
Futhermore, owning an American wine producer gives them the precious right to sell their French wines direct to American consumers without having to rely on the US’s notorious three-tier distribution system (which encouraged DTC sales in the first place).
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