Wine economics

Book Review: Oceans of Wine

2009-09-13T11:10:00.001+02:00

The blog "The Wine Economist" has a short review of a new book on the history of the Madeira wine industry and trade.

Diese Nachricht wurde Ihnen von RAEM via Google Reader gesendet.

Book Review: Oceans of Wine

via The Wine Economist von Mike Veseth am 06.09.09

David Hancock. Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste. Yale University Press, 2009.

As the author of a book called Mountains of Debt I am predisposed to like a book called Oceans of Wine based on the title alone. In fact, it is a masterpiece. I wish I knew as much about anything as David Hancock clearly knows about the Madeira wine trade between 1640 and 1815. This serious social and economic history is filled with interesting facts, detailed analysis and thoughtful insights. What a delight!

America's First Wine

Madeira was America's wine in the 18th century, when we were a wine-drinking country but before a domestic industry had taken root. Wines from this small island found their way into shops, taverns and cellars throughout America, one element among many in what this book reveals to be a surprisingly complex network of trade connections that supported an unexpectedly cosmopolitan consumption culture.

Wine exports became a trade necessity when Madeira lost its comparative advantage in sugar production in the 17th Century and, unlikely as it may seem, its wines soon dominated the Atlantic trade. Madeira could be found just about everywhere in America, from the cellars of wealthy families in big cities to humble country taverns and shops.

Although it would be nice to be able to say that its great success was the result of a unique terroir, in fact Madeira wine evolved into a highly manipulated manufactured product, blended, fortified, heated, agitated and tailored to the preferences of specific consumer markets. It was, in short, everything that wine snobs today hate and fear about wine, but it was treasured and enjoyed by the societies that created it. Give up romantic notions of wine's pure and glorious past all who enter here!

Atlantic Commodity Chains

The wine trade evolved, in Hancock's deft telling of the story, through complex formal and informal networks where information was successfully exchanged via "conversations" between buyer and seller and between and among network members at each stage of the complex production and distribution process.

If you think that the interactive, diffused global commodity chain of today is a new thing, you need to read this account of how the Madeira trade worked 300 years ago!

Hancock is not content to simply paint a landscape of Madeira trade. He uses each link in the commodity chain (from Madeira viticulture all the way to American country tavern) as an opportunity to drill down into detailed (and generously illustrated) essays on the economic and social institutions of the time. The result is a work of remarkable scope and depth — a noteworthy accomplishment.

Seriously Interesting

This is a great book of economic and social history told through the wine trade. It is a serious book of history that offers many lessons. Like Madeira itself, it will give much pleasure to many audiences, including historians, wine drinkers and economists. Bravo!

Note: Thanks for Francine Graf, my editor at CHOICE magazine, for suggesting this book.

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Cal-wines in the old days

2009-09-09T17:28:00.002+02:00

Here is a delightful characterization of winemaking in early 20th century California. A friend found it in a 1914 article, "Utilization of Grapes for Non-intoxicating wines: The Processes employed" which appeared in Outwest magazine.

"The ways of the wine men, like the ways of the Chinese, are "peculiar." They make "pure California grape wine" out of decayed grape peelings, potato alcohol, dye stuff, sulphur, tartaric acid, saccharine matter, and other chemicals. They call this junk manipulation an "industry" and when their secrets leak out, they serenely deny everything with the abandon of a chicken thief when the feathers are sticking out of his pockets."

This is my translation into German:

"Die Wege der Winzer sind, wie die der Chinesen wundersam. Sie machen "reinen kalifornischen Trauben-Wein" aus vergammelten Traubenschalen, Kartoffelalkohol, Farbstoff, Schwefel, Weinsäure, Saccharin und anderen Chemikalien. Sie nennen die Herstellung dieses Mists ein "Gewerbe" und wenn ihre Geheimnisse ans Licht kommen, denn leugnen sie ungerührt alles mit der Unverfrorenheit eines Hühnerdiebs ab, bei dem die Federn aus den Taschen herausgucken."

RAEM

Electricity improved wine: News or old hat?

2008-12-21T13:43:00.005+01:00

Last week a "news hog" was dricen through the media: Improving wine by means of an electric current. Among other media the New Scientist wrote:

How to make cheap wine taste like a fine vintage

"Researchers at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou
treated wine with fields of different strengths for different periods of
time. ... The results were striking. With the gentlest treatment, the harsh,
astringent wine grew softer. ...."

Jim Lapsley of UC Davis commented the news with:

Dear All,

This is fairly old news, although interesting that the Chinese are trying it.
During wine aging various oxidative reactions occur (slowly), as well as increased tannin polymerization, which reduces the perception of astringency as the new (larger) molecules no longer fit in the tongue receptors that signal "bitter" and don't react with proteins in the same way.

Almost any method that will put energy into the system will speed these reactions. In the past heat has been tried, radio and micro waves, electricity in other forms, and radiation. (About 20 years ago University Extension and Food Science hosted a conference on food irradiation--"ion kissed"--and Manuel Lagunas-Solar irradiated some wine for the banquet. It did reduce tannin, but also gave a cooked taste to the wine).

All these methods will speed aging, but they also lead to excessive oxidation and loss of wine complexity and aroma.

I leave it to you economists: If a method that could increase the value of the wine more than the cost of the treatment existed, wouldn't it be in use?

Anyway, old news.

Jim

Aldi and the miracle of the loaves and fish

2008-09-19T10:12:00.009+02:00

Some readers of this blog will remember from their early days in bible school the miracle of the loaves and the fish: Jesus was preaching in the desert to five thousand people - not counting the women and children. Came lunchtime, there were only five loaves of bread and two fish - not enough to feed the crowd. Through some undisclosed and irreproducible technology (~ miracle) the loaves and the fish were multiplied, all feasted on fish and chips, and after lunch twelve baskets full of leftovers were collected.

The Gospels are mute about what the people had been given to drink to wash down their fish and chips. If Aldi Sued, the southern sibling of Germany's twin discounter chains, and its suppliers had been around at the time, it might easily have been a 2004 Rosso Piceno Superiore DOC "Naumachos", a wine that received two glasses - "due bicchieri" - from "Gambero Rosso", an Italian equivalent to Robert Parker, of sorts. At one time, when the wine cost 9.80 € the bottle retail, the wine maker claimed to have only 4,000 bottles left. But suddenly Aldi Sued had 50,000 bottles on offer at 6,99 € a bottle. What a miracle – physical as well as economic!

The miracle has been demystified by the German Frankfurter Allgemeine online service "FAZ.Net" on Sept. 16^th, 2008. Giovanni Carminucci of Grottamare, Italy, the winemaker of the "Naumachos", was approached early in 2008 by Rino Frattesi of Essen, Germany. Frattesi is the owner of "La Grappa", an Italian restaurant which boasts a 1,000-items wine list ranging from a 1961 Chateaux Petrus for 8,000 € the bottle down to a 18 € Pignocco Verdicchio. The restaurant proudly advertises it having been recognized by Vinitaly in 2005 as the restaurant with the best wine list in the world.

Whatever such awards may be worth, Fratessi apparently knows something about wine. But running the restaurant and maintaining its exquisite wine list does not exhaust Fratessi. He also supplies large retail chains with "Aktionsware", i.e. goods for special sales, and it was in this incarnation that he approached Carminucci asking him for 50,000 bottles "Naumachos". Carminucci agreed, bottled whatever wine he had on hand, labeled it the same way as the original "Naumachos", including the "due bichieri", and shipped. Fratteri passed the consignment on to Aldi Sued at € 3.50 the bottle. Aldi Sued had the wine tested by "caveCo", an accredited wine sensoric analysis laboratory at Essen, headed by Markus Del Monego. The 1998 sommelier world champion was not fooled, rated the wine as "recommended" with 13.75 of 20 points (I don't know the lower end of the Del Markus scale.) The points are, according to FAZ, less than a "un bicchiere" from Gambero Rosso. That did not deter Aldi Sued from offering the wine as a "due bicheri" bargain. Miraculously, the Aldi-website announcing the sale of the "Naumachos" was no longer accessible when I checked on Sept. 18^th, 2008, two days after FAZ.Net broke the story; the website was back on Sept 19th, 2008 .

Many wine lovers' likely reaction to this story is a jaded "What else is new?" In honesty ratings the wine trade has always competed with the horse trade for pride of place. In a way the jaded wine lovers are right. In spite of all the hype about trusted supply chains, the rabbit-like multiplication of accredited quality experts, mushrooming private ranking schemes, and strict labeling regulations imposed by government, the actors in the wine chains are just normal merchants, people "... engaged in a commercial pursuit. A commercial pursuit is one in which the thing pursued is a dollar." (Bierce, A. 1958. The devil's dictionary. Dover Publications). The miraculous multiplication of the "Naumachos" has helped to remind us of this simple fact. If it also contributes towards immunizing us against the quality assurance and trust hype, the affair has served some good purpose after all.

RAEM

Jancis Robinson & German dry wines

2008-07-27T18:18:00.002+02:00

Jancis Robinson has good things to say on her blog about German dry wines.

She also provides a list of recommended dry-wine wineries. Most are from the Pfalz, Mosel, Nahe, and Rheinhessen regions. Rheingau, Baden and Wuerttemberg are not on the list.

RAEM

Wine Business International

2008-04-25T21:48:00.001+02:00

Riesling apparently continues its remarkable expert market performance. RAEM

http://wine-business-international.com/News_Riesling_renaissance_continues_unabated.html

Social Wine Network

2007-12-11T17:11:00.000+01:00

Building Facebook for Wine: Wine enthusiasts are creating social-networking sites for fellow oenophiles, and they're doing more than just selling bottles, John Tozzi reports in Business Week, 07-12-10.

RAEM

Are the Aussies going the way of the French?

2007-12-08T10:56:00.000+01:00

For a long time the French thought that there was no other red wine than French reds. Then came the Californians and Australians and the French got clobbered in the supermarkets, particularly in England.

Now Tesco tells the Australian winemakers to shape up. The reaction of some Australian winemakers is less than polite. Perhaps the Aussies have developed wine hubris more quickly than the French.
RAEM

The Ashenfelter vs Parker bout

2007-10-02T11:50:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I started reading Ian Ayres' (2007) "Super cruncher". Ayres - he is an econometrician at Yale's law and management schools - starts his book with a 6-page account of the ruckus that Orley Ashenfelter of Princeton University caused in the late 80s with his price prediction formula for Bordeaux wines. For obvious reason, Robert Parker, the king of the "swishing and spitting" approach to wine appreciation, was not amused. I think Ashenfelter won the argument and Parker the money. It is a nice yarn.

The magic formula, as reported by Ayres, is:

Wine quality = 12.145 + 0.00117 winter rainfall
+ 0.0614 average growing season temperature
- 0.00386 harvest rainfall

Most people would probably agree that winter rainfall, growing season temp., and rain at harvest time would affect wine quality and prices. But Ashenfelter estimated the relationship using data from about 30 vintages. Based on this equation, Ashenfelter then estimated the wines' like future price.

A quick check with Google led me to two websites at Princeton that are relevant:
"First crush the grapes, then crunch the numbers".
Princeton economist judges wine by the numbers

RAEM

Wine price and quality - an inverse realtionship?

2007-07-17T12:29:00.000+02:00

Bradford deLong reports about a surprising outcome of a wine competition at a California wine show:
"Charles Shaw Chardonnay, better known as "Two Buck Chuck," beat hundreds of other wines and was named the top prize in a prestigious tasting competition in California."

Cork or Screwcap?

2007-03-27T20:25:00.000+02:00

Dr. Vino reports in his blog about the experience of a Chablis winemaker, Michel Laroche, who bottled the same wines with cork and with screwcaps: Sometimes the scewcapped wines were better than the ones with a cork, sometimes not. But none of the screwcapped wines were corky. Hence, screwcaps weakly dominate corks.

RAEM

Pinotblogger: Free Startup Winery Cash Flow Spreadsheet

2007-03-26T20:16:00.000+02:00

This is a interesting & useful post: a spreadsheet with cost and returns calculations for a virtual US-winery.

RAEM

mueller.rae@gmail.com sent you a link to content of interest

2007-03-10T18:58:00.001+01:00

mueller.rae@gmail.com sent you a link to the following content:

Leaders and liters of wine: Angela Merkel
http://drvino.blogspot.com/2007/03/leaders-and-liters-of-wine-angela.html

The sender also included this note:

Angela works for the wine industry!

--
Sent via a FeedFlare link from a FeedBurner feed.
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/feedflare

Results from a US wine blog competition

2007-02-24T10:19:00.000+01:00

Wine Business.com reported on Feb 22nd in its daily news the results from the 1. American Wine Blogs Award competition. The overal winner is Dr. Vino's Wine Blog. "Wine Economics" was not listed.
RAEM

1st Annual Meeting of the AAWE, Tier, May 24-25 2007

2007-02-06T14:10:00.000+01:00

The American Assoc. of Wine Economists is holding its 1st Annual Meeting at Trier, Germany.
Trier, a city of 100,000, was a Roman outpost, is located on the Mosel river, and it is the birthplace of Karl Marx. It is worth a visit.

RAEM

Compelling evidence of global warming

2006-10-02T15:01:00.000+02:00

Some grape growers are worried that climate is changing to an extent where they would have to switch the varieties they grow. Others are exploring the potential for grape growing of areas which until now are not famous for grape growing; e.g. Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon reportedly visited the south of England looking for new vineyard locations.

Others may still be unconvinced that climate change is actually happening. For doubters there is additional evidence of the change: knickers are getting shorter! For details see my blog "Evolution of agriculture".

RAEM

Yet another "Paris tasting"

2006-09-23T13:12:00.000+02:00

The reputation of California wines was tremendously boosted, when, in a famous blind tasting that took place in Paris in 1976, California wines outshone French wines. The celebrate the 20th anniversary of the event a similar tasting was held again this year - and California wines again won the competition. Now some people organize another tasting, the Decanter reports.

Such events are concerned with rating the top of the crop, or in Chris Anderson's world view, with finding the hits at the head of the wine quality curve. In a way, they are an old-style ritual. The wine quality curve has a long tail and the money probably is in the tail of the curve: the many wines that are both affordable and a pleasure to drink. Such events are no use in shedding light on the long tail of good wines.

RAEM

UNESCO Wine Chair at the University of Burgundy

2006-09-20T10:45:00.000+02:00

UNESCO has established a university chair in wine & culture, the Decanter Newsletter reports. It will be held by Jocelyne Pérard, a French climatologist and located at the University of Burgundy at Dijon.

It is not entirely clear to me why UNESCO funds university chairs concerned with wine. On the UNESCO website I could not find anything about the chair. But perhaps we'll soon have a UNESCO Chair fo Canabis & Culture at the University of Rabat, and a Chair on Whiskey and Song at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

RAEM

No. of U.S. wineries: 4,740

2006-09-19T14:06:00.000+02:00

The number of U.S. wineries tops 4,740, Wine Business Online reports. Of these, 3,382 are "bonded" and 1,358 "unbonded"" or "virtual" wineries.

Most wineries are located in California (2,445), followed by Washington (368), Oregon (281) , NewYork (218), Pennsylvania (106) , Virginia (110), and Texas (106). The rest of the states were home of less than 100 wineries in the state.

Delaware holds the rear: 1 winery - even Alaska has 5!

RAEM

First estimates of Germany's wine grape area and must harvest released

2006-09-19T10:07:00.000+02:00

The Federal Statistics Office of Germany has released its first estimate of Germany's area under vinegrapes and must production in 2006.

Total vinegrape area is slightly up from 98,900 ha in 2005 to 99,000 ha in 2006. The area under white grapes has declined from 62,600 ha to 62,400 ha whereas the area under red varieties has grown by 100 ha to reach 36,500 ha in 2006.

Average yield of white varieties is estimated to reach 101.7 hl/ha (10.2 t/ha), up from 92.1 hl/ha in 2005. Must yield of red varieties is estimated to reach 104.5 hl/ha, up from 102.8 hl/ha in 2005.

RAEM

Going wiki:

2006-09-04T15:08:00.000+02:00

Today, Mo., Sept 4th 2006, The New York Times had a story "New Web Sites Seeking Profit in Wiki Model" where readers were informed about recent developments in the wiki-scene. There I learned that anybody can create a wiki at Wiki.com and quickly create a wine economics wiki is what I did: wine-economics.wiki.com.

I don't know yet what I'll do with the wiki. I think initially I'll just experiment with the wiki and learn what can be done with it. I am curious where this will lead me.

RAEM

Idiosyncratic observations on wine and wineries in QLD & NSW

2006-09-04T13:53:00.000+02:00

After a conference at the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, I took a car and travelled along the New England Highway from Toowoomba, QLD all the way to Sydney, NSW. Naturally, visiting the Hunter Valley was part of my travel schedule. Here are some observations from the trip.

1) On the way from the Bunya Mountains to Toowoomba my friends took me and my wife to the Rimfire Winery at Maclagan, QLD. We tasted some of their whites and reds. The Rimfire whites are quite allright - I liked their Verdelho and un-oakded Chardy - but they are overpriced, unless one is prepared to spend several dollars for drinking a local product. The Rimfire reds reminded my of some of the weaker and thinner German red wines that rarely seem to get enough sun. Why anybody would want to pay more than 20 A$ a bottle for that thin and unimpressive stuff beats me.
Rimfire follows some extraordinary marketing principles. Whereas wineries in many parts of the world provide picnik spaces where visitors can enjoy there own food together with the winery's products, Rimfire asks its visitors not to consume their own food on the winery's premises. Really irritating is Rimfire's rule not to sell about half of their wines to visitors who are not members of the Rimfire wine club. This is definitely not the way to treat visitors and potential customers. I still regret that I bought something from them.

2) The last time I travelled the New England Highway was in 1993. At that time there already were a few wineries coming up in the fruit growing area around Stanthorpe. Now there seem to be many with road sings everywhere showing tourists the way to the next winery. We were in a hurry and I could not visit any of them.

3) Shortly before Armidale a winery has sprung up in a sheep paddock beside the New England Highway at an altitude that is probably above 1000 m. The winery has the appearance of an modern agricultural shed.

4) The city of Armidale, where in the late 70s the culinary experience hardly went beyond steak, meat pie, and Lindeman's cellar cask, now tries to present itself as an abode of advanced culinary experiences. One element in this experience is Petersons wines from the Hunter Valley who operate a vineyard and a guesthouse at Armidale. The Petersons wines are even sold in "Booloomimba", the administration building of UNE whose ground floor has been converted from offices into a cafe. Prices for the Peterson wines offered in the cafe are remarkable: I didn't see a single wine being offered below A$ 20.

5) In the Hunter Valley I had appointments at two wineries: Brokenwood and Bimbadgen. We also visited Keith Tulloch Wines, Tempus Two Wines, Tyrrell's Wines, and Wyndham Estate. Finally, we made a short visit and tasting at Camyr Allyn Winery in East Gresford.

6) At Brokenwood I met with Geoff Krieger, General Manager of Brokenwood. We mainly talked about why Australian wineries tend to be much more innovative than wineries in Germany, about grpe sourcing and supply chain management, about the impact of the Web on direct marketing, and on sundry issues of the Austrlian wine industry. With regard to innovation Geoff believes that the absences of regulations is key to innovation in Australia's wine industry. He emphasized that he can grow whatever variety wherever he wants to grow it in Australia. Moreover, Brokenwood does not hesitate to blend wine from different regions - the Hunter and Orange, NSW, McLaren Vale in SA, and from locations in Victoria.
Brokenwood also buys considerable quantities of grapes. The purchased grapes are grown under contract and Brokenwood pays prices that are above the going market prices (~ 1800 A$/t instead of ~ 1200 A$/t of red grapes.)

Brokenwood uses only oak barrels for oaking its wines and it uses neither oak chips nor oak staves. Spinning cone is not used for Brokenwood wines. Organic growing of grapes is not an option because of the high incidence of mould in the Hunter which makes 10-12 sprays necessary.

Brokenwood sells about 100,000 cases of wine per year, of which ~ 60% are sold domestically through the wine trade, 20% are sold at the cellar door, and 20% go into export, in approximately even shares to the UK, the USA, and to Canada. Brokenwood wants to increase its exports in the next five years from ~ 15,000 cases to ~ 50,000 cases per year.

The web, in Geoff's opinion, is not for sales and the quantity of wine sold by Brokenwood over the web is insignificant. An important marketing tool is the wine club. Members of the Brokenwood wine club are sent either 8 cases per year or 4 cases per year; members can choose the wines they are sent.
Wine yields in the Hunter: Brokenwood Graveyard (Brokenwood's flagship wine selling at A$ 100 the bottle): ~ 1.5 t per acre (= ~ 3.7 t per hectare); other vineyards: 5-6 t per acre (~ 12.5 - 15 t per hectare, red varieties).

7) At Bimbadgen I spoke with Heidi Sheridan, the brand managemer who also is in charge of the Bimbadgen website, with Simon Thistlewood, the Bimbadgen wine-maker, and with the Bimbadgen export manager whose business card I have misplaced. The Bimbagen people cave me plenty of their time and after the talks they gave me and my wife Karin a very agreeable lunch in the stylish Bimbadgen restaurant with a nice view.
The Bimbadgen website is in its 3rd generation. The 1st generation website does not seem to have been much - at least neither Heidi nor Simon said much about it. The 2nd generation website seems to have been overly ambitious, its navigation was difficult, and its impact on wine sales was unsatisfactory. The latest, 3rd generation website, unlike the 2nd generation one which was designed and programmed by an external agency, is maintained by Heidi wit ha CMS. Navigation is made easier and sales on the website have increased. Orders on the web are collected over the day, printed out, and then processed like conventional mail or telephone orders.
The website is also am important medium for communication with the 2,800 Bimbadgen wine club members. Club members are sent two cases per year, each valued at ~ A$ 100; club members have no choice over the wine they get.
Channel conflicts: occasionally, Bimbagen's cheaper wines are offered in supermarkets at prices that a below the reduced list prices for club members. Club members do not complain about this because they tend to be more interested in Bimbadgen's premium wines. Heidi will soon be responsible for the wine club, in addition to her web responsibilities.
Bimbadgen is thinking about installing a website in Japanese that would allow Japanese to order wine from the website; the order would then be forwarded to an importer in Japan who would ship the wine to the customer.

Simon Thistlewood gave me much more of his time than I could have asked for and I learned a lot. Simon confirmed what Geoff Kieger had already told me: absence of regulations is a key to innovation in the Australian wine industry. In contrast to Geoff, who emphasized the freedom of growing grapes in Australia, Simon emphasized the freedom that winemakers have to create wines that are attractive to wine journalists - who talk up wines - and to consumers. Wine shows seem to have been of central importance to Simon: there he could learn from other wine-makers and he could build a reputation with small quantities of "show wines". Important sources of new ideas are for wine makers their class mates from college (Roseworthy College, SA), their peers in the Hunter, and experts at the Australian Wine Research Insitute whom wine makers can ask for advice on the web or on the telephone.
In contrast to German wine-makers, who tend to emphasize custom and tradition in the image they project, Simon seemed ruthlessly customer-oriented: when it sells, why not do it? The number of expensive oak barrels will be drastically reduced and all oaked wines, except Bimbadgen flagship wine, will be oaked with chips or staves. (Compared to Brokenwood's Graveyard, Bimbadgens Signature series wines are cheap at A$ 40 a bottle). Bimbadgen also has thrown out conventional corks - it is screw tops for all wines. There were no complaints from customers. Simon is thinking about concentrating a shiraz that is a bit too light-bodied. We also talked about spinning cone: the cost for reducing alcohol content from 16.7% to 14.5% are A$ 0.512 per litre.
Vineyard operations such as pruning and harvest, are mechanized at Bimbadgen.
I asked Simon whether he uses ozone for cleaning in his winery. He does not. Boulton from UC Davis has come through Australia warning wineries of the health hazards of ozone.
At the 2005 Decanter World Wine Awards Simon's Botrytis Semillon won the International Trophy for best dessert wine (under £10 category). The wine was harvested in July instead of April, when whites are usually harvested. In the cellar we tasted the latest Botrytis Semillon from the steel tank: to me it tasted like a mixture of grape and pinapple juice, but then, I am not all an exprienced wine taster - not from the glass, much less from the tank or barrel. We also tasted from the tank a blend of shiraz and viognier that should stay another year in the tank before it is bottled. The wine was something of taste-chameleon that constantly changed its taste. Quite interesting, but a bit unusual. Also, the wine was rather light coloured.
I also talked with Simon about sourcing grapes, either from the Hunter or from elsewhere. Bimbadgen does not contract for grapes in a formal way but talks to grapegrowers before the harvest. It does not pay premium prices. Simon reckons that new wine growing areas are not systematically identified in Australia; it is more done by trial and error. Simon mentions the Orange wine growing area in this context. There the terroir is very heterogenous and the performance of some vineyards is disappointing.
The export manager told me about her difficulties with exporting wine to China, where import regulations are enforced differently at different entry points. I also learned several useful details from her: (i) wine is too heavy for 40" containers to be filled with wine; a 20" container is more cost effective (~ A$ 3,500 ex winery); (ii) the importer, not the winery, chooses the shipping agent; (iii) the EU and some other countries demand that palettes are fumigated; this doubles the costs of palettes. Palettes made of plastic do not need to be fumigated but they are not yet strong enough. (iv) Traceability of wine is achieved by means of a batch number printed on the label.
What I liked at Bimbadgen was (i) their wines seem to be reasonably priced; (ii) the winery is a very agreeable blend of skilled wine making, stylish tasting room and restaurant, (iii) excellent food, (iv) stylish architecture in a pleasant environment; (v) perhaps most important, very friendly people everywhere in the winery. To me, the Bimbadgen is a very good example of a pleasant comprehensive or holsitic experience: nice wine, nice food, pleasant environs, and, friendly people.

8) We also visited some other wineries at the Hunter. The cellar door at Tyrells winery was a disappointment: some old blokes filling tasting glasses with unimpressive wines in an unattractive envrionment. De Julius has a very impressive architecture, so does Tempus Two. On Saturday morning at about 10 a.m. we arrived at Keith Tullock. Tasting the Tullock wines on the verandah on a fresh spring morning is a very agreeable experience. On the way to East Gresford we visited Wyndham Estates; I did not like their wines - far too much oak in the Chardonnay.

9) The last winery we visited was Camyr Allyn Winery at East Gresford. We visited East Gresford because of Emma and Andrew Badgery who have just moved their into their freshly renovated house. On Saturday we visited the East Gresford rodeo, with Akubras, RM Williams boots & pants, beer cans, steak sandwiches, kids, and dogs everywhere. The next day, before we left the valley to go to Sydney, Emma and Andrew took us to Camyr Allyn where we talked to the owner who is a friend of Emma. I only tasted very little of their wines because I had to drive afterwards. But the winery is located on a very nice spot on the shoulder of a hill overlooking a small river with ducks, a vineyard, and the valley. A perfect spot for a picnic.

Best of Riesling 2006

2006-07-24T22:55:00.000+02:00

The Ministry in charge of wine in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany has initated a Riesling contest that is held bi-anually since 2000. The contest is recognized by OIV.

This year's contest was held at Schloss Engers in Neuwied on the river Rhine on June 17-18 and the result was published on the web a few days ago.

Quite remarkably, the list of winners (ranks 1-3 in each of 4 categories) contained only one winery from the Pfalz region and none from Rheinhessen.

The best Riesling from Europe outside Germany came from Kremstal in Austria, and an Australian Riesling from Clare Valley was the winner in the category "New World Riesling".

The content of the website is available in English and in German.

RAEM

WWF calls on winemakers to choose cork

2006-07-17T08:41:00.000+02:00

The Decanter.com News Alert of Friday, July 14, 2006 reported about efforts by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to conserve cork forests in Spain, Portugal, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, and France that are endangered by the screw top for wine bottles. According the the Decanter, "WWF believes that industries offer added value to their consumers while working for nature,' the leaflet concludes."

The WWF has a Cork Landscapes Programme which is concerned with the protection, management and restoration of the natural wealth of cork oak landscapes. On its website, the WWF publishes a bucket full of bullet points praising the virtues of cork oak landscapes and reminding readers that "More than 100,000 people ... depend directly and indirectly on the cork economies". It doesn't say a word about corkiness, caused by TCA (For more info about TCA and the benefits of screw caps, you may want to watch the amusing video at the Bonny Doon vinery website. You find the video under the menue "Vineyard" in the "Learn our ways" row of the "Dooniverse" section).

The WWF activity reminds me of the economic sophism "A Petition" by Frederic Bastiat from 1845. The petitioners were the manufacturers of candles, tapers, lanterns, etc. who praised the "Honorable Members of the the Chamber of Deputies" for having "little regard for abundance and low prices" and for their concern "with the fate of the producer". The purpose of the petition was nothing less than to be freed from the competition of the sun from which the industry suffered. To this end the candle makers asked the Chamber of Deputies "... to be so good as to pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights, inside and outside shutters, curtains, casements, bull's-eyes, deadlights, and blinds - in short, all openings, holes, chinks, and fissures through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses, to the detriment of the fair industries ...". Apparently, today as yesterday, special interests easily prevail over economic sense.

RAEM

New Association: American Association of Wine Economists

2006-07-15T22:43:00.000+02:00

A new star is shining on the academic journal firmament: it is the Journal of Wine Economics which will published twice a year by the American Association of Wine Economists. The 1st presidentof the Association is Orly C. Ashenfelder of Princeton University. Volume 1, No. 1 of the Journal has just now been published.

Best wishes for the effort!

RAEM