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The drop in sales are just starting to show. Large corporations, such as Treasury Wine Estates and Kendall-Jackson, have announced tasting room closings and significant layoffs. Their weak brands are being eliminated. Smaller, family owned wineries are trying to sell or declaring bankruptcy. Nurseries that provide important rootstock are closing as growers are ripping up vines at a clip of 7 percent a year.

One winemaker told us of a major producer that dumped 100,000 gallons of unpurchased wine.

Whether the wine industry is going through a bleak phase only to recover in a couple of years is up for debate. But for the short term production is going to decrease to meet a smaller demand.

I hope we’ll see a drop in prices as producers get desperate to sell inventory. But, more likely, they will sell juice to third-party bulk sellers, such as Cameron Hughes, Cam X and other operations that will not disclose the sources of some very good wine. It might become a buyer’s market for consumers.

In fact, consumers in the U.S. drink 3.33 billion liters of wine, which is about 15.6 percent of the market. France is next at 10.7 percent; Italy at 10.4 percent, Germany at 8.3 percent and the UK at 5.9 percent. Together, these countries consume 50 percent of the wine sold in the world.

This is data from the International Organization Wine and Vine as compiled by the Visual Capitalist.

Pink champagne was identified in the early 1900s in both Champagne and Burgundy.

Among the other minor grapes in the lineup are arbane, petit meslier, pinot black and pinot gris.

Depending on the final tariff - if any - consumers may set aside their love of French burgundy and bordeaux. But my guess is that wealthy collectors are not going to be deterred by a 10 percent increase. The rest of us may - I certainly will cut back purchases of European wine if prices escalate substantially.

But no one can assume California wine prices will drop. In fact, they are likely to increase with tariffs. The reason? U.S. winemakers get their corks, bottles and other winemaking parts from Europe.

California winemakers agree that tariffs are not good for them either. They also aren’t good for high-end restaurants that cater to customers who want European wines. Can you imagine going to an Italian restaurant and not finding chianti on the menu?

Everyone needs to judge their risk of cancer based on their personal health and they need to decide if the risk is worth it. Many will just give up wine and die of something else. Others could decide the risk is no greater than crossing a New York City street.

I’m not giving up my wine — but I am consuming less. If you’re in the same fix, you’re looking for alternatives.

I’ve been tasting a lot of non-alcoholic wines lately in search of the impossible. Based on what I have tasted so far, there is no substitute for wine unless you count sweet fruit juice as one of them. I don’t.

As the industry struggles to find the perfect recipe, the consumer is left with two basic choices: alcohol free wine and dealcoholized wine. The latter is much closer to wine because the process starts with alcohol and keeps much of the aroma, acid and flavor.

Alcohol can be removed in a number of ways. There is reverse osmosis in which it is filtered out. You can boil the wine much like you do when you cook with it. And a winemaker can remove alcohol with a centrifuge of fixed and spinning cones. The latter method is often used when a crop is high in sugar and the alcohol level is off the chart. Think zinfandel.

Look at the label and you can discover if the wine was dealcoholized. “Alcohol free” means that it is just a fruit juice and likely not a good one at that.

Personally, I’m turning to flavored water if I’m not drinking wine.

And, so says researchers at the Tulane School of Medicine’s internal medicine residency program. According to the study, beer drinkers — mostly male smokers with low incomes — take in more calories and exercise the least. Comparatively, wine drinkers are associated with meals containing vegetables, fruity and dairy.

Of course, neither group came close to the study’s adequate diet score. Red wine drinkers are just not as bad.

Alas, that’s where were at. A steep decline in sales and a campaign to make alcohol a health risk have combined to end California’s golden era. And, it’s not just in the United States. European wine producers are reporting a decline in sales.

What does this mean to consumers? I’ve been predicting for months that producers will be dumping their unsold wines at steep discounts. Some California grape growers are saying they can’t sell their crop even at dramatically reduced prices. Most of their product will go into bulk sales. But, I predict third-party producers such as deNegoce and Cameron Hughes will find a lot of good wine to sell under their labels.

I buy wines from K&L and Wine Spies. They are like negociants who sell wines for producers who can’t sell their product through conventional channels. These wines are reduced in price. I think we will see more of these wines become available for a couple of years. But, eventually producers will have to address long-term solutions if they want to stay financially healthy.

Already, we’re hearing about wine companies ripping of vines to reduce their crops while holding their prices. This is especially true among luxury winemakers who don’t want to see the prestige of their label drop with the advent of bargain prices. In Europe, some grape growers are planting olive trees where vineyards once stood — the olive oil market is more lucrative than grapes.

Isn’t it interesting how this market has changed since the halcyon days when “60 Minutes” made wine a healthy product to extend life spans? Now, wine and every alcoholic beverage is life-shortening even in small doses.

Constellation has been moving fast into the premium wine industry to get ahead of the trend towards consumers buying less but buying better. Sea Smoke will join Schrader, Booker and others in Constellation’s growing portfolio.

The deal also is just an inkling of the shakeup that is yet to come in California. With profits squeezed as sales plummet, more and more privately held companies are going to either cave to lucrative offers from large corporations, such as Constellation, or declare bankruptcy. I think many of the small producers who launched in the last decade are going to close up shop in the next several years. Many of them are over-extended now.

I also believe you will see many struggling wineries cut back production and eliminate poor selling wines in an attempt to hold prices. I’m seeing a lot of great deals suddenly appear on the market by third-party vendors, such as Wine Spies and Wine Slash. Many of these wines are from producers I’ve never heard of but who are located in good regions. Their sudden appearance on the bargain market indicates soft sales. Maybe even desperation.

Washington, D.C., was number one. The per capita consumption is 1.07 gallons. It’s top ranking is no surprise given that legislators are literally wined and dined. More surprising was the second state for per capita consumption: Delaware. I guess there is nothing else to do there. Same for New Hampshire and Vermont, two cold-weather states ranking third and fourth respectively.

Oregon and California, two states that make the most wine in this country, ranked fifth and sixth.

Holding down last place was West Virginia, where I suspect beer is king.

• 2023 year-end premium wine sales will likely end with another year of positive value growth.

• Tasting room visitation was lower in the premium segment in 2023, but improvement is expected in 2024.

• Direct-to-consumer sales will grow again modestly in 2024.

• Conditions for overproduction in the total wine category are present, but inventory supply is more balanced in the premium segment.

I have interviewed Daniel a number of times and was impressed with his family story and his insistence that he found his place for grapes the closest to Bordeaux in soil. He and his brother narrowly escaped death during the bombing of Beirut. Both suffered emotional and physical scars before their father evacuated them to safer grounds. Inseparable, they launched Daou Vineyards in 2007 and got good reviews. Soul of the Lion, a Bordeaux blend, is named in honor of their father.

I’m sure the price was too good to pass up. But $900 million? Wow. Treasury says aligns with its strategy to build a luxury portfolio and expand in the United States. But I wouldn’t call Daou a luxury wine. Outside of its Soul of the Lion blend, its wines are pretty pedestrian. They are pretty ubiquitous on the market, though.

I’m sorry to see Daniel Daou leave the wine market, but best of luck to the brothers.

When flying overseas, I usually have a couple of glasses of wine before sleep and have never felt worse for it.  But until recently I didn’t know the more important impact was on how the wine tasted.

Wine consumed at 3,000 to 5,000 feet will taste different than at ground zero.  We read one report that you taste about 20 percent less sugar and 30 percent less salinity in wines consumed on planes. .

TAP Air Portugal actually sent up a team to determine what wines go best with altitude. With a vast portfolio from all regions in Portugal, they came up with a list that took this into account and matched the cuisine.  They chose fruity and fresh wines that showed better with their food, especially that served in business class.

Wines grown close to the sea usually have high salinity.  We notice it albarinos from Spain and assyrtiko from Greece. Sweet wines, such as moscato and sauterne, aren’t going to taste the same with 20 percent less sugar.  There are some chardonnays that could be better without the obvious sugar.

Dehydration also influences the wine experience. You don’t recognize as many aromas – some say you lose as much as 25 percent. Since the palate only picks up five elements – sweet, bitter, salt, acid and umami (the savory character that is akin to beef stock) – most of a wine’s character is determined by the aromas. Try pinching your nose the next time you taste and you’ll see how much you are missing.

Drinking a glass of water alongside wine will go a long way in enjoying the wine.

Meanwhile, steer towards fruity and less tannic wines.

France is reporting a wine glut so severe that it allocating $216 million for producers to destroy a portion of their wine to hold up prices. The alcohol from this wine can be used in hand sanitizers, cleaning products and perfume.

The crisis is a result of several factors. French wine growing regions had a good harvest last year in a time when consumption was heading downhill. Production was up 4 percent, but demand was down about 15 percent in France. Other countries face similar drops in consumption: 7 percent in Italy, 10 percent in Spain, 22 percent in Germany and a whopping 34 percent in Portugal. On top of this vortex are the lingering after-effects of the Covid-19 shutdown of restaurants and bars and higher cost-of-living expenses in France.

Hardest hit was the Languedoc region, France’s largest wine area. Rose and red wines were particularly affected. Bordeaux was not spared either. According to a local agricultural association there, one in three wine producers face major financial challenges.

The French government is providing financial incentive to wine producers who rip up vines and grow alternative crops, such as olives. Bordeaux is looking to uproot 23,500 acres. That’s a lot of vineyards and most likely not those that produce grapes for first growths.

I had hoped the glut would lower prices, but that’s not likely to happen. Prices may even increase as quantities decrease.

I’m headed for southern France in a couple of weeks. I’ll be eager to hear directly from wine producers about their futures.

The report found that there are now 11,601 wineries in the United States — mostly on the West Coast. A whopping 83 percent of them produce less than 2,000 cases a year — half of that produce only 1,000 cases annually.

Almost all of the American wine you find in grocery stores and retail outlets are made by Gallo, The Wine Group, Trinchero, Delicato or Constellation Brands. Gallo’s production is more than the others combined.

I constantly find a special wine while traveling on the West Coast and am frustrated when I can’t get it locally. It costs a lot to ship wine, but I often do that just for the pleasure of having it here.

Small producers are likely to multiply in number because it’s a business formula that works. Small scale means high consumer prices but even at $100, the producer does not have to sell a lot. He sells it in his tasting room and wine club, thus avoiding the costs of a national distributor.

In a remarkable “2023 Direct to Consumer” report by Silicon Valley Bank, the average tasting of basic-level wines is now $81 - an increase of $21 over 2022. And if you like what you taste, be prepared to spend for it - the average cost of a Napa Valley wine passed $100 for the first time. Up $17 from the previous year, a bottle averages at $108.

But wineries aren’t too concern, although their tasting rooms aren’t as packed as they were before the covid pandemic. The average sales taps in at a whopping $488.

Even more noteworthy is that it is becoming very difficult to just walk into a tasting room without a reservation. Although walk-ins were welcomed decades ago, the pandemic closed all of them. Eventually, they reopened on a reservation system that allowed producers to minimize the crowd. Once that crisis was over, 60 percent of the tasting rooms elected to keep the reservation requirement.

Better deals can be found in other regions. The average tasting fee for basic-level wines in Sonoma County is $38 and in Paso Robles it is $28, according to the report. In Virginia, it’s only $18.

Tasting room fees are spreading through Europe too. I’ll be traveling to southern France in a couple of weeks and expect to pay for tastings that were once free.

I understand that producers are not pleased with freeloaders who are there for a buzz and don’t buy any wines, but their fees should offset only part of what they pay. If a visitor spends $400 on their wines, the fee should be waived.

I joined a group of friends who amassed a nice collection of Napa Valley cabernet sauvignons from our cellars. The wines included the 2016 Joseph Phelps Insignia, 2013 B Cellars Paradise Hills, 2013 Beringer Private Reserve, 2012 Blankiet, 2005 Shafer Hillside Select, 2005 Karl Lawrence Herbert Lamb Vineyard, and 2017 Chappellet Pritchard Hill.

Some — such as the Chappellet — I knew would show well because of its pedigree. And it did. Still a baby, it was a mouthful of bliss with great complexity and power.

The disappointment was the Beringer. This wine dominated the Napa scene before the turn of the century, but the wine hasn’t impressed me since Treasury Estates bought the property in 2011. By itself, I’m sure it would have been enjoyable, but when compared to similar wines, it falls short. Too ripe, lacking finish and structure.

On the other hand, the Insignia reminded me of the old, rustic style of Napa cabernets from the 1980s. I always thought the wine was vastly overrated, but the 2016 I tasted changed my mind. It was big with a long, long finish.

The B Cellars and Blankiet were new to me. Blankiet got started with the help of viticulturist David Abreu and wine consultant Helen Turley. It showed more of a Bordeaux style than a Napa style — not big, bold and fruit-forward, but more feminine with sophistication and finesse.

B Cellars sources grapes from the vaunted Beckstoffer vineyard. The 2013 was a brute with complexity, depth and surprising young after a decade in the bottle. Similarly, the Shafer Hillside Select — always a favorite of wine — was still tannic but with riper, more forward dark berry fruit and smoothness.

The Karl Lawrence more simple than we expected, but I’m told that’s just their style. It’s a wine that got my head spinning, trying to reach for an elusive flavor or scent. Heidi Barrett was once involved in making this wine.

My garage refrigerator was used largely for prosecco and other inexpensive wines, as well as beer, water, energy drinks and White Claw. I don’t know how long the power to the refrig was out, but by the smell of the spoiled food in the freezer part, it was at least a week.

I dumped all of the beer and wine, but was worried about the sparkling wine bottles. There is about 80 pounds of pressure per square inch in one bottle and is enough to damage an eye if it isn’t handled carefully. The first cork came out with a loud pop and bubbled over into the sink. The other bottles were another matter: one cork came out with such force it knocked the bottle out of my hand and literally showed both me and the outdoor counters around me.

The remaining corks exploded out of the bottles and into the 12-foot ceiling as if they were NASA rockets. By the end of the ordeal, I was sopping wet with champagne and a 12-foot parameter around me was doused with bubbles. Fortunately, I did all of this outside. Still, the cleanup was extensive.

All of this is written as a warning to anyone who leaves a bottle of sparkling wine in a hot car or, like me, an un-airconditioned garage in the middle of the summer. I was very luck none of the bottles exploded — a testimonial to the glass maker.

Although California accounts for 80 percent of the country’s wine production, its residents don’t drink the most. That title goes to Washington, D.C. with 1.01 gallons per person. The reason is most likely the political arena and people coming from neighboring states for cheaper wines and better selection.

I lived in Maryland for 35 years and often traveled to Washington, D.C., to purchase wine at lower prices. Maryland ranks 26th with a meager .40 gallons per person.

New Hampshire is second in per capita consumption, but probably for the same reason.

The South drinks the most wine by volume but the West drinks the most wine per capita.

These numbers come from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

My theory was confirmed when I recently read a report from the Wines Vines Analytics
Winery Database that reported the U.S. has 11,691 wineries. I doubt that I’ve tasted wines from more than 200 of them. The good news is that there is still work to be done.

Large wineries (more than 500,000 cases a year) that account for most of the wine you buy in grocery stores number only 71. Smaller producers — those who produce less than 5,000 cases a year — account for 82 percent of all U.S. wineries.

I have been tasting countless wines from producers who make less than 2,000 cases a year. In general, these are great wines focused more on quality than quantity. Alas, to purchase them you have to go through their web sites and that’s frustrating. But in 2022, I ordered more wines to be shipped than ever.

Alaska has 15 wineries; Hawaii has 6. It’s unlikely I’ll live long enough to taste any of their wines.

The industry added 400 wineries in 2022. Since 2019 the growth has been 1,215.

This is an amazing growth rate, especially in light of flat consumption. Young people, except for those in their 30s, aren’t drinking much wine and that portends ominous warnings for the wine industry as the baby boomers die off. I suspect in the next decade we’ll see the market shrink.

What we draw from these statistics is that the best wine being made in California won’t be found in stores. They are best found visiting these areas and either joining a monthly wine club or shipping home your favorites. You need to let your fingers do the walking.

In San Francisco, you will pay $100 at Danko’s. Other restaurants may be charging less, but not much less.

According to a report I recently read, the average is $50. In my hometown of Naples, Florida, I have noticed a dramatic increase. One restaurant charged $54 and most other restaurants are in the $40 range.

Alcohol delivers the most profit for restaurateurs. Some of them have dreadful wine lists, so I’m incentivized to bring my own. My justification is that I’d rather spend $40 for a great wine from my cellar than $65 for plonk from a restaurant’s crappy cellar.

In a United Wine & Grape Symposium report, the number of regular drinkers decreased since 2015 from 37 percent to 35 percent. However, consumers didn’t lower the cost of their wines, as you would expect in inflationary time. They just drank less, which could be a result of going out to restaurants much less.

According to Sovos ShipCompliant and Wines Vines Analytics, the volume of DtC shipments decreased by 10.3 percent (876,848 cases) in 2022. While the return to normalcy drove consumers back to their local stores, higher costs also contributed to the decline.

Equally notable was what the consumers were willing to spend on their wine. The average price of a DtC wine increased nearly 10 percent in 2022. Those who spent $50 or less on a bottle of shipped wine ordered less. But those who spent more than $100 did not change from 2021.

DtC sales represent only 12 percent of off-premise sales, but over the years the number has increased as states dismantled their bans on out-of-state shipments of alcoholic beverages.

By grape variety, the shipment of cabernet sauvignon faired better than other grape varieties.

If you have used Amazon before and noticed that an item has “only three left” or if a store salesman said “this is the last one left,” you know the power of scarcity. Numerous tests have shown that people are driven to buy something if they feel it may not be available if they think about it overnight.

It’s a principle that works in the wine industry just as well.

Screaming Eagle is the poster child, but there are hundreds of wine producers who drive up prices and sales by limiting production. In many cases, there is a waiting period just to lay your hands on a wine that can cost more than $300 a bottle. If they increased production, there would be no scarcity and thus no stampede to their door.

That was the case with iconic wines like Silver Oak, Caymus and even Dom Perignon whose productions are significantly larger than that of Screaming Eagle, Schafer, Opus One and others.

I got an offer from de Negoce, a reseller of wine owned by Cameron Hughes. The Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon was available from the producer for $195. Hughes was selling it for $27 — he gets the same wine from the producer with the understanding he won’t identify the source.

He wrote, “The winery bottled their portion and sold us the rest of the blend out of the tank so we have the exact same 100% Cabernet Sauvignon blend as the original bottling.”

In short, the original producer didn’t want to increase production and reduce the notion of scarcity.

I thought they did until I read a report from ARENI, Global.

Among other subjects, the research firm polled fine wine consumers about what role sustainable farming played in their purchasing decisions. Those consumers from the U.K. were the least interested with only 7 percent saying they care. The highest interest was from fine wine buyers in China who clock in at 21 percent.

Consumers may care about the environment, but we’re not talking about off-shore oil drilling. Wine comes from fruit grown naturally in soil. Whether it is fertilized by manufactured chemicals or whether buys are killed by insecticides may not matter to most people as long as their wines are pure and delicious.

With that fear well in mind, I opted to open a 2007 Frank Family Vineyards cabernet sauvignon. Would it be over the hill or a gem I didn’t anticipate? Frank makes great wines but this regular cabernet sauvignon was never a standout for me.

It was ripe and in remarkable condition, but I was more struck by its sweetness. Where did that come from? Not sure, but my suspicion is that Frank, like many other producers, vinified this wine by leaving a little residual sugar. You don’t pick up the sugar in its early years, but as the wine ages and sheds its tannins and acidity, the sweetness stands equal to the ripe fruit.

Alas, it is my complaint with many Napa Valley cabernets: too alcoholic, too fruity, too bold, too sweet. Comparitively, French Bordeaux is more balanced and ages gracefully. Of course, this is an overstatement as the best Napa Valley cabernets are incredible — and balanced — with a decade or more of aging. Still, the Frank experience was disappointing.

ARENI Global, a “think tank dedicated to the future of fine wine,” recently issued a report identifying who buys fine wine. It defined that as wine which costs $75 or more.

Here are its conclusions, many of which are surprising:

• Younger than the average wine buyer

• Mostly men in the U.K. and U.S.

• Mostly Chinese

• Mostly interested in Bordeaux in the U.K. and Hong Kong but mostly interest in California wines in the U.S.

• Influenced by wine critics.

Producers wouldn’t set lofty prices on their wines unless they sold, right? Right. In fact, I have heard from countless winemakers that they would not be recognized as a quality producer unless they have an expensive wine. Some new producers start with $100 wines. And the more expensive and exclusive they are, the more their demand.

At least that was the case during the covid years. People locked indoors for nights on end decided to splurge on wine to get through the boredom. Disposable incomes were high and there is only so much money you can spend on Amazon.

However, it appears their buying spree is slowing now that consumers have resumed their routines and are more conscious of cost in inflationary times.

According to year-end report from Liv-Ex, Buyers are showing more interest in village-level wines.

I’ve come to the conclusion that just because a Burgundy ages well doesn’t mean a California or Oregon pinot noir will be just as rewarding. Why is that? Pinot noirs in Burgundy have more finesse than tannin. The ones I taste from the West Coast have a lot of alcohol and forward, often sweet fruit and high alcohol. One would think this character would allow them to age well, but that hasn’t been my experience.

Admittedly, this is an over-generalization. But the wines I recently opened from Ken Wright, Goldeneye, Penner-Ash and Panther Creek — mostly from the 2015 vintage — were over-ripe and flaccid. The only exception was the 2015 Etude Heirloom Pinot Noir which had a lot of structure, fresh fruit and still some fine tannins.

Lesson learned: drink your West Coast pinot noir within a couple of years.

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Nonetheless, I succumbed to temptation while visiting France recently. After tasting 17 red and white wines at Maison Drouhin, I shipped home a mixed case of chardonnays. And, I did the same after visiting Chateau Beaucastel.

Not until I got back home did I do the math. The Drouhins were available in the United States; some of the Beaucastels were not because the case included the 2012 vintage.

Three of the Drouhin chardonnays — Clos du Mouches, Marquis Laguiche Chassagne-Montrachet and Corton-Charlemagne — were $30 less in France. The 20% French tax was dropped and I didn’t incur the markups from a wholesaler and retailer. However, shipping costs added about $16 a bottle. I probably would have incurred a shipping cost had I bought them from a retailer in the United States since they are not readily available in my local market. Still, the wine cost less in France but not as much as I imagined.

I didn’t lose any money and I don’t have buyer’s remorse.

Harvest started on August 20, as determined by Comite Champagne. That’s significantly earlier but similar to picking times in other French regions. According to CC, quality is up and “potential alcohol on average is better than 10% by volume.”

A good season was critical to Champagne this year. High quantity will allow them to replenish the reserves to meet demand in the future. Sales are up nearly 10 percent, in part because of the pandemic that encouraged people to celebrate at home.

I thought he had achieved his goal and said so in a column. I also tucked away a 2015 Bellacosa Cabernet Sauvignon in my cellar to see if it would age as well as some of the expensive cabernets.

I opened it the other day. It was absolutely great — still structured, alive and full of fruit. How about that….

The wine is selling for about $25 today, but it’s still better than wines twice the cost.

According to Community Benchmark, tasting room visits are down from 2021 when covid-trapped people were seeking liquid escapes to wine country. However, wineries are reporting that average revenue from a visitor rose from $80-$100 to $110-$125.

At the end of the day, tasting rooms may prefer fewer but more discriminating people. Crowds often mean that people are there for the wrong reasons, so “invitation-only” tasting rooms result in more attention, more revenue.

The cost of premium wine tastings is often $50 or more. Long gone are the free tastings.

According to World Population Review, New Hampshire adults score the highest amount at a whopping 4.76 gallons a mouth per year.

New Hampshire has a number of wineries that probably boost that number, but one less deterrent they enjoy is no alcohol tax. or sales tax. Liquor is cheap there but property taxes make up for the government’s loss, I guess.

But New Hampshire doesn’t have a lead on drunks. That title goes to counties in Wisconsin

According to 24/7 Wall St., 82 percent of the top 50 drunkest counties in the country are in Wisconsin. That number was determined by a survey of men and women who reported they are heavy drinkers (more than a glass of day for women; more than 2 a day for men with five a day being a binge drinker).

Its winemaker and owner don’t agree to interviews or allow for any visitors. They don’t need any marketing or promotion — just the frustration of not being able to buy the product. Some people have been on the waiting list for years.

For years I wanted to taste the wine just to see what the fuss was all about. Finally, got my chance when a good friend and collector opened a bottle after I put together a program and tasting of the wines of the Languedoc-Roussillon region. He and his wife were headed there for a month. It was quite a generous reward.

Now that I’ve tasted the wine, I get it. I don’t think I have ever tasted a syrah of this caliber and that includes some the best wines from the northern Rhone Valley. Of course, stylistically it quite different from the massive syrahs made in northern Rhone. The Sine Qua Non is more extracted, more hedonistic. The 2011 Dark Blossom, blended with grenache and petite sirah, was loaded with forward and young black fruit flavors and layers of herbs and spice. Big tannins make it a keeper for sure. Even at 11 years, this wine could last at least another 10.

I may not be able to afford to buy it — if I lived long enough to get off the waiting list — but I’m blessed to have tasted it. It will go down as one of my favorite all-time wines.

In the last week, I joined five other people in an impressive tasting of 11 red wines from this region of southwest France. The wines were extraordinary and represent some of the best values in premium wine.

Languedoc is “the language of yes,” or the “language of the Oc,” short for Occitane. In the 16th century “oc” meant yes in this region of France. But it would be “oui” that the country would adopt much later. The Roussillon area was once part of Spain and today it still has the Catalan influences in culture and language. It represents only 10 percent of the wine produced in the Languedoc-Roussillon. But together they producer more than 30 percent of the country’s wine.

Still, try to find one in your local wine store. Even the best wine stores are ignoring this region. So, why aren’t we very interested?

Until now, the region made plonk. Wine producers were hobbled by phyloxerra and turned to importing juice from Algeria to make ends meet. Not until an AOC was created in 2007 did new producers focus on bringing quality to the region. Today there are many winemakers who are producing world-class wines. Gerard Bertrand is making terrific wines from several vineyards he owns. Other big labels include Chateau de La Negly, Domaine Gauby, and Chateau des Truffiers.

More than 70 percent of the wines are produced by co-ops, which I think hurts them in their goals. Using a common winery to vinify wines could force winemakers to take short-cuts. They can lose control of how a wine is made by a central winery eager to get every member’s wines into bottle.

The Languedoc is also leading the country in biodynamic farming. Producers like Bertrand are obsessed with it — and it shows in his impressive portfolio.

I’ll have specific tasting notes at a later date.

Retail stores remained open because when it comes to wine and liquor sales, there is nothing like fear to drive profits. When I was in Maryland, the highest day of sales didn’t come on New Year’s Eve — it came on the eve of a snow blizzard.

People stuck indoors and surfing the net also bought cases of wine online. If they didn’t order wines from their favorite West Coast producers, they found importers and clubs to get wine delivered to their doorstep. But as covid has weaved its way through our neighborhoods and people have relaxed their precautions, they are ordering less wine online. According to Wines Vines Analytics/Sovos Ship Complaint, direct-to-consumer sales (those which bypass the distributor and retailer) dropped nearly 13 percent in June when compared to the previous June. Wine sales normally slow in the summer because producers are reluctant to ship wine in warm temperatures, but nonetheless the drop signals a change in consumer habits.

The report also mirrored other research that shows consumers are paying more for a bottle of wine. The average bottle price is now $32.84.

The Kimpton Harper Hotel, celebrating its first birthday, has installed a rotary phone in the rooms that assures residents will immediately get more champagne if they run out. In a partnership with Veuve Clicquot, the program will summon a bottle and special stemware.

Once the special celebration is over, the phones will remain but other champagne producers will join the fun.

So when the eminent Wine Enthusiast announced recently that it will no longer taste wines from a number of domestic and foreign regions, I understood why. Nonetheless, its decision will mean more difficulty in minor regions getting international attention for their wines — many of which are worthy of review.

The regions the publication targeted include: Bulgaria, Croatia, China, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Switzerland. In the United States, it is dropping all states other than California, Washington, Oregon, New York and Virginia.

Having roots in Michigan and Maryland, I have tasted many of their wines that command high scores. Yet they are still rare. These wines won’t get the attention they deserve without national publications such as the Wine Enthusiast’s review.

The changing climate around the world has forced grape growers into leaving their comfort zone in search of different grape varieties that will tolerate heat, experimenting with new vititcultural practices and modifying how they make wine. It’s a revolutionary era that will preserve the industry and introduce consumers to new wines. 

We recently interviewed Christopher Jackson, second-generation proprietor of Stonestreet Estate Winery, about how his family operation is adjusting. Jess Stonestreet Jackson and Barbara Banke launched the estate in 1995. 

Located on Alexander Mountain, the vineyards are already facing difficult growing conditions even without climate change.

Jackson said, “Over the last two decades, the extreme of winegrowing on the mountain have continued to grow in intensity. In 2004, recognizing the challenges in achieving physiological ripeness and high stress to the vineyards, we began implementing regenerative farming practices that could mitigate the growing intensity of conditions and foster resilience of the land and vines.” 

He said he has identified more rigorous rootstock and clone combinations to reduce the stress on the vines. But the producer also has planted drought-resistant varieties, such as assyrtiko, chenin blanc and malvasia blanca. How these grapes fit into future wines – as a blend or stand-alone – remains to be seen.  

With disappearing sources of water for irrigation. Stonestreet added reservoirs on the mountain to capture the rainwater. Since 2008, water use across Jackson Family wineries has been reduced 43 percent.

A team of researchers from the University of East Anglia, the London School of Economics, Vinescapes Ltd and Weatherquest Ltd have studied climate changes with an eye to the future. Warming conditions over the last year has seen viticultural growth expend nearly 400 percent. The conditions are similar — if not better — than those in Champagne. The sparkling wines I’ve tasted from here in the last year are ever bit as good as top champagnes, a conclusion born from several blind tastings among friends.

Although the growing areas in southern England and Wales have warmed, they are still cool. While that is ideal of pinot noir and chardonnay grapes used for sparkling wine, they are not ideal of still wine that requires more maturity and ripeness from the grapes.

The team forecasts that certain areas in these regions are projected to become 1.4 degrees centigrade by 2040.

Dr. Alistair Nesbitt, the lead author in the study, said, “This expands the area of suitability for pinot noir for sparkling wine production, but also new areas will open up within the growing season temperature suitability range for still pinot noir production and for growing varieties such as sauvignon blanc, riesling, semillon and more disease-resistant varieties.”

Nesbitt saw potential in Burgundy- and Baden-style wines.

To demonstrate the world-wide changes, more established reasons are looking to plant less popular grape varieities to accommodate climate changes. I communicated with Christopher Jackson of Stonestreet Estate Vineyards recently and he said he has experimental plantings of assyrtiko, chenin blanc and malvasia bianc.

Producers across the globe are preparing for a significant shift in climate conditions. Not only are they looking for more drought-resistant grapes, but they are looking for new growing regions.

The islands were created by volcanic eruptions that have been active as recently as last year. Particularly noteworthy is the island of Lanzarote which had a great eruption in 1730. It last six years and caused major changes to the terroir.

Volcanic soil is very good for vineyards any where in the world, but the soil is particularly instrumental on this island. The landscape is so black it’s hard to imagine anything growing here. The vines are planted in individual depressions that are semi-encircled by stacked rock. This unusual configuration shields the vines from the cool winds. Obviously, the yield is low. To compete, winemakers must focus on quality.

Among the wines produced here is malvasia, Listan Negro, Listan Prieto.

Besides Lanzarote, the lsland of Tenerife and La Palma are also known for its vineyards. Here Malvasia Aromatica and Albillo Criollo is the primary grape.

I’m gathering some of these wines in the next few weeks and will report on what I find.

Jensen graduated from Yale and then Oxford. During his time in England, he fell in love with French burgundy and even worked a harvest at Domaine de la Romanee-Contee. He returned to the States to find the same limestone soil as that of great burgundies. He found it on the slopes of Mt. Harlan and in 1974 he planted Jensen, Reed and Selleck vineyards. Those vineyards became synonymous with pinot noir wines that came as close as ever to burgundy.

Jensen sold his winery to Duckhorn (www.duckhorn.com) in 2017.

I’ve sampled these wines for decades and they never have failed to impress me. Their mineral quality makes them unique. May he rest in peace.

www.calerawine.com

Those producers relying on imported glass are experiencing high demand and short supply. Imported glass accounts for about 25 to 30 percent of the food and beverage industry — it’s not just wine that is impacted. One example is a case of empty bottles has gone from $10 to $22.

I guess we can call this a bottleneck problem.

The U.S. is now the second largest export market.

This improvement is certainly a direct result in the suspension of the 25% tariffs on French wines. Consumers were reluctant to pay higher tariffs, but with that tax now lifted, they were eager to return to the Bordeaux market.

The Bordeaux wine council (CIVB) released figures that show 2021 sales to this country grew 67% — a new record. Volume rose 24%. Not only are Americans buying more wine from Bordeaux, but they are buying more expensive wine from this region. An improved stock market (until recently) and growing wealth among the most rich opened the wallets for many who looked for new buying opportunities during the pandemic.

No matter how big the increase, China still imports more Bordeaux, according to the CIVB. Oddly, sales of Bordeaux wanes in France.

• Dry (sec): sugar content of the wine does not exceed 4 g/l

• Medium-Dry (demi-sec): sugar content of the wine is between 4 g/l and 12 g/l

• Mellow (moelleux): sugar content of the wine is between 12 g/l and 45 g/l

• Sweet (doux): sugar content of the wine exceeds 45 g/l

For centuries consumers have learned by experience what to expect from these wines. While a riesling can be dry, a gewurztraminer can be sweet. Only tasting a wine will reveal to the tongue which is which.

According to a press release, the labeling initiative was originally proposed by the Association of Alsace Wine Growers with support from the CIVA (Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d'Alsace or Alsace Wine Board) along with other wine professionals in the region

Among the 2,000 respondents, the youngest generation claim to follow the rules most closely. Baby boomers basically say they don’t care any more.

Just to show you how out of touch I am, the men in the survey preferred mac and cheese with their wine; women liked to pair wine with wings. And those in the Northeast are most likely to add ice cubes to their wines.

The rules they say they have abandoned:

• Drinking white wine at room temperature instead of chilled

• Holding a glass by the stem

• Filling a glass only half way

• Sniffing a cork

The bottom line: there is no wine etiquette any more.

Here’s the list of values:

The Top 10 Wine Values of 2021 are: 

1. Allan Scott | Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2021 | 93 points | $17 | 100,000 Cases made/45,000 Cases Imported | New Zealand

2. Castello Banfi | Chianti Classico 2019 | 91 Score | $17 | 40,000 Cases Made/23,000 Cases Imported | Italy

3. J | Pinot Noir Monterey-Sonoma-Santa Barbara Counties Winemaker’s Selection 2018 | 91 Score | $25 | 65,000 Cases Made | California

4. Bodega Numanthia | Tinta de Toro Toro Termes 2017 | 91 Score | $24 | 12,500 Cases Made/10,000 Cases Imported | Spain

5. Seghesio | Zinfandel Sonoma County Sonoma 2019 | 92 Score | $26 | 100,685 Cases Made | California

6. Alois Lageder | Pinot Grigio Vigneti delle Dolomiti Terra Alpina 2019 | 90 Score | $16 | 19,000 Cases Imported | Italy

7. Dry Creek | Fumé Blanc Sonoma County 2020 | 92 Score | $16 | 29,000 Cases Made | California

8. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars | Chardonnay Napa Valley Karia 2019 | 91 Score | $34 | 26,400 Cases Made | California

9. Frei Brothers | Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley Sonoma Reserve 2018 | 90 Score | $27 | 40,000 Cases Made | California

10. Cambria | Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley Katherine’s Vineyard 2019 | 91 Score | $22 | 52,000 Cases Made | California

Traditional barolos undergo a short maceration — 15 to 30 days — and then are put into neutral oak barrels for several years before release. The newer style, introduced in the mid-1980s, shortened the maceration time to about 10 days and then aged the wine in French oak. The traditional wines were tannic monsters because they were exposed to the skins for a longer period of time — as long as 3 weeks! Skins are the primary source of tannin and these barolos were monsters that required another decade of cellaring. The newer process sped up the drinkability factor with less skin exposure and French oak. These wines could be enjoyed within a few years of aging and were even enjoyable on release.

Traditionalists argued these modern wines didn’t represent the history of the region or the wine and tasted more of oak. But the progressives said the public liked them more. Eventually, the dust settled and now you can find both styles in the market. It behooves the consumer to understand which style they are buying because these can be very expensive wines.

Both of the wines I tasted were extraordinary. The Azelia was aged 24 months in a mix of oak — Slavonian, French and Austrian. Maceration was 55 days. The Wine Advocate gave it 95 points. The Domenico Clerico Pajana was macerated for half the time and aged 16 months in barrique. Domenico Clerico, who recently died, was called one of the progressive “Barolo Boys.”

Second, Inglenook was a leader in its time. Its reputation fell apart with a lot of ownership changes that began in 1964, particularly when Heublein came aboard and turned the label in a grocery store brand. There followed RJR Nabisco, Grand Metropolitan and then Constellation. By 1994 Inglenook was pretty much destroyed. Finally Francis Ford Coppola, who purchased a part of the property in 1975, bought back the Inglenook name in 2011. Initially the estate was known as Niebaum-Coppola and later as Rubicon Estate. His new releases under the Inglenook label — although pricey — at least quality back to the name.

But can Napa Valley wines made today survived 51 years? The 1970 was still alive and kicking — tired and fading but still in the game.

Having tasted a lot of $100-plus Napa Valley cabernet sauvignons in the last month, I really question whether 50 years of age will do them any good. They may be delicious but many of them are not balanced.

Stores commonly use what the industry calls “shelf talkers.” They are promotional tags that provide a high score for the wine. Often these shelf talkers are provided by the producer. The obvious intent is to sell more wine to overwhelmed consumers who are looking for some guidance on what to buy.

First, look closely at the rating. Who rated the wine? If it’s a respectable publication like the Wine Advocate or the Wine Spectator, the rating has credibility. We’ve seen some shelf talkers with unattributed scores — or scores from previous vintage . Buyer beware.

Second, a critic’s palate may not match yours. A good critic will score a wine according to how it represents the region. Does a pinot noir, for instance, typify the Willamette Valley, its soils and the style that you expect from there. But on top of this foundation is the judge’s prejudice for, say, a tannic and complex cabernet sauvignon or an oaky chardonnay.

Third, consumers gravitate exclusively to wines rated no less than 90 points. Anything less struggles for sales even though most of the wines are excellent and may even be more appealing to the palates of occasional wine drinkers.

We like to test a salesperson to see if our palates match up. We’ve been recommended wines we intensely dislike and then be more skeptical on our next visit. When recommended a wine, we ask a series of questions: How do you describe it’s style? Does it show well now or should we wait a couple of years to open it? Is it food friendly? Can you taste the oak? If they can’t answer these questions, they really don’t know the wine.

The bottom line is that you’re the best judge.

Barefoot Oreo Thins Red Blend is said to taste a lot like Oreo thin mints. It’s only available through the Barefoot website, but don’t bother looking — it’s all gone. Apparently, there are a lot of Oreo Thin Mint fans out there. The package of wine and cookies sold for $25.

The match made in heaven got me to think about other combinations. Surely, a wine could me made to taste like Cheetoes. What about cornflakes? You could substitute wine for milk to get your day started.

While I could still focus, I looked at the label to see my hunch was right. The Chalk Hill had 15.5 percent alcohol. Knowing that the producer is legally allowed a one percent error, I suspect the Chalk Hill had more than 16 percent alcohol. That’s a far cry from the 12.5 percent alcohol I regularly saw when I first started to write about wine in the mid 1980s.

What happened? Lots.

First, California producers turned to a blowsier style — based on critic ratings and growing popularity — that hyped the fruit, lowered the Ph levels and raised the alcohol. Second, growers left the grapes on the vines longer to achieve phenolic ripeness but also higher sugar levels. More sugar converts to more alcohol. Third, sun is maximized in many vineyards in warm regions. Sixteen percent alcohol is common in zinfandel produced in interior regions like Lodi.

The trend is born out by the Department of Agriculture, which performs an annual grape crush that reveals the sugar content as measured by Brix. Since 1997 the inspection never fell below 24 degrees Brix, which is a sugar equivalent to about 14.3 percent alcohol. In 2013, the figure hit a record — 26.3 degrees Brix, or about 15.6 percent alcohol.

Alcohol is one ingredient to a full-body wine and that’s what producers want to achieve. Alas, alcohol is also an ingredient to trouble. Share a bottle of Chalk Hill Estate Red at a restaurant and you may be driving home drunk.

Buyer beware.

“Asians and Europeans don’t like California wines – that’s a fact,” Daniel said, “because California wines don’t cut through the acidity of food. Jammy wines don’t do that.”

Daou scoured the country in search of the calcereous soil that is found in Bordeaux. The only place in California where he found it was the Adelaide district of western Paso Robles. There he launched DAOU with his brother. He even named the mountain after the family name.

Alas, Daou struck a nerve. The wines I typically see from California are too extracted, high in alcohol and short of acidity. They are fruit bombs better served as dessert Daou’s Soul of the Lion, named after his father, is balanced. A Bordeaux-style blend, it stood out in a flight of California wines — mostly from Napa Valley — that I recently tasted blind with a couple of fellow oenophiles. With many of these wines well over $100 a bottle, it is more reasonable to enjoy a cru bourgeois from Bordeaux for a fraction of the price.

Napa’s extracted style began in the mid 1980s when wine critic Robert Parker was awarding this type of wine with high scores. If you taste any wines from, say, Chateau Montelena or Beaulieu Vineyards from earlier vintages, you will find more balanced and long-lived wines — wines that fared well in a blind tasting with the best of Bordeaux in the famous 2006 Judgement of Paris wine competition.

We’ve tasted some cabernet sauvignons back to the 1970s. I suspect the same wines made in the last two decades won’t have the staying power. On the other hand, I recently tasted a 1975 Mouton Rothschild and a 1975 Chateau Trotanoy that were showing quite well even though neither vintage was very good in Bordeaux. It proves that a good producer can make a decent wine in even a poor vintage.

Champagne officials are predicting a worldwide shortage of French bubbles toward the end of the year. Part of the reason is that demand for champagne, particularly in the United Kingdom, has bounced back with gusto. Tariffs placed on champagne by former President Trump depressed sales in the United States, which meant more of the product being sold in the UK. But U.S. sales picked up in the spring as consumers were re-emerging from the pandemic. Now, the U.S. in back to stocking up at a time when producers were reducing production in anticipation of a long-term slow down. Yields in 2020 were intentionally lowered by the Committee Champagne.

The shortage will benefit prosecco producers and even sparkling wine producers from the West Coast which face no product shortage.

I suspect that consumers are tired of the pandemic, no matter what its risk, and will find reasons to celebrate this Christmas season. Those with the ability to pay higher prices will indulge in prestigious champagne no matter what the cost. — if they can find it.

The 1961 harvest got off to a similar start and turned out to be one of the more remarkable wines of the century. Yield was low in the vineyards but the grapes were intense and the few wines made were long-lived. How the 2021 vintage fares remains to be seen. Just add wine to the woes of the year.

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When my wife and I go out to dinner — maybe 4 times a month — we go to a nice restaurant and spend at least $50 on a bottle of wine that would cost half as much at a local wine store. The wine usually isn’t worth it because the restaurateur is more focused on far more expensive bottles that complement his food. If I spend more on wine, my tab is often more than $200 for the night.

If I’m willing to forgo the restaurant experience, prepare my own food and clean up the dishes, I can spend the same $50 on a better bottle of wine bought at a local wine store. I buy my own steaks, grill them nicely and end up the night with a tab that is significantly less.

This logic may not make sense for some people who are willing to buy a glass of wine for $15 and enjoy a night on the town. But for me, the wine is as important as the food. And, the dining experience isn’t the same if I’m sacrificing quality for cost.

In recent weeks I’ve come across some great wines at $60-70 a bottle and wince when I find the guts to buy them. But, as I age and find less reason to save, I enjoy my wine more — even more than a night out with ridiculous prices that are even harder to justify. You don’t need to buy a case of a very nice wine. A bottle is a good experience into a world you may have been avoiding far too long.

The other day among friends we submitted ourselves to four sparkling wines: one from Champagne, one from Oregon, one from South Africa and one from England. All I asked is for the knowledgeable tasters to tell me which one they liked the best. The champagne was very good, but it was the Nyetimber from England that was judged the favorite. And, many thought it was champagne.

It was the result I was hoping for. I recently wrote a magazine article on the growing success of the English sparkling wine industry. I was blown away by the quality of these wines and their similarities to champagne. British winemakers are using the same grapes grown in similar soil and using the same traditional winemaking process. Temperatures in the southern region, thanks to climate warming, are as perfect as those in Champagne. In fact, as temperatures rise in Champagne, England has a better future. More than 70 percent of the wine that comes from these vineyards is sparkling.

Would anyone have judged the English wine superior had they seen the label? I doubt it. In fact, restaurateurs who carry Nyetimber in my town say it takes some convincing. But when the adventurous diners try it, they are universally delighted.

Subsequent to the sparkling wine tasting, we blind tasted four reds and asked to guess on their grape variety or region. I was convinced the first one was a blend from the Rhone Valley and the second was from Rioja. The third I couldn’t guess and the last I thought to be another Rhone.

All of them were from the Paso Robles region of the Central Coast. They were stunning, expensive wines Three were from the 2014 vintage, the fourth was a 2010.

The Booker Vineyard The Ripper was grenache, so I at least had the grape variety right. The second was a grenache/syrah blend from Law Estate — hardly close to Rioja. The third was the 2010 L’Aventure Cote a Cote, a blend of mostly syrah and mourvedre. The last wine — the 2014 Saxum Broken Stones — was a blend of grenache, syrah and mourvedre. All were stunning wines but I liked the Law Estate the best and close behind was the legendary Saxum.

As I said, blind tastings are humbling experiences when you stick your neck out. But they taught me a lot.

Fungal disease is caused by heavy rains in the spring. Once it appears on the grapes, there is little that can be done. There is a spray of copper sulfate and slaked lime to prevent fungal disease, but growers have been loathed to use it because of their commitment to organic farming. Even those who have used it as a preventative say it isn't foolproof.

It sounds as if no one has been spared -- and merlot growers are affected the worst.

This is hardly the news Bordeaux wants. Last year's production was cut 40 percent because of severe frost. It was the worst harvest since 1945. 

With harvest more than a month off, it remains to be seen how badly this disease will impact this  year's production.

According to data tracked by Nielsen, off-premise sales fell dramatically in April. They are still higher than 2019 numbers, but clearly consumers are back buying wine in their favorite retail stores and in restaurants.

Surprisingly, wines selling for more than $20 continue to do very well. The average bottle price of April shipments increased $7 to nearly $40. Shipments of $50-plus wines are seeing double-digit growth.

A lot of wine flowed under the bridge since Frank Woods founded Clos du Bois in 1974. The brand was purchased by Constellation and the model went from making great pinot noir and chardonnay to generic supermarket wines at bargain prices. Constellation sold the brand to Gallo who just announced it would close its Geyserville property and make Clos do Bois elsewhere — along with a bunch of other brands.

Sebastiani’s trail is even more depressing. Founded in 1944 by August Sebastiani, it landed in the hands of grandchildren. Sam left in the mid 1980s to make fine wine in a family dispute. Don, a former California legislator, stayed to make mostly inexpensive plonk that never achieved the status the brand once held in Sonoma County. Foley Family bought the historic winery in downtown Sonoma and the brand in 2008. It embarked on a plan to improve the quality of Sebastiani’s wine. Now, it has decided to close that facility and make the wines at one of its other properties. Without a tasting room and without the employees who have been laid off, the brand loses appeal and their identities.

I’m sure these steps will reduce expenses for Gallo and Foley, but I’d be shocked if the wines will ever return to the quality they enjoyed long ago. After all, they have stockholders to answer to. Both Sebastiani and Clos du Bois are popular wines found in grocery stores or in bargain baskets for less than $12. That’s a far cry from those great Sebastiani Cherry Block cabernet sauvignons I remember so well despite their lofty prices.

Christie’s will hold a private sale of the bottle of 2000 Petrus that spent 14 months aboard the International Space Station. Proceeds will go to funding future space missions.

Sadly, there’s only one bottle. It will be packaged in a unique trunk made by Parisian Maison d’Arts Les Ateliers Victory. The trunk will include a decanter, glasses and a corkscrew made from a meteorite.

The 2000 Petrus, valued at about $7,000, was one of a dozen wines sent into space on November 2, 2019. One of the goals of the mission was to see h ow plants adapt to the stress of space conditions. According to the Christie’s release, “Recreating an Earth-like environment with near-zero gravity…offers a unique research framework to better understand the evolution of key components of wine, including yeast, bacteria and polyphenols.”

The space-aged wines were analyzed on March 1. Said the release, “The initial results found the bottles positively endured all the constraints of preparation, travel, and storage. Remarkable differences in the color, aromas and taste components were noted, and the wines sampled were commended for their compexity and considered to be great wines.”

In other words, the wines were the same on Earth as they were in space.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if the person who buys the Petrus finds out it is corked?

At first, the alternative to a bottle was a 3-liter box that seem to satisfy a party host. Then came the cans. Once a container for cheap wine, the can was slowly adopted by major producers who felt they were missing the younger crowd. I don’t think we’ll ever see Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in a can, mostly because millennials aren’t buying it. Decoy, on the other hand, is putting some decent wine in a can and they are part of the elite Duckhorn portfolio.

I did, however, cross over to hard seltzers after my millennial nephew came to my house looking for White Claw. . Also called spiked seltzer, these canned drinks add alcohol from fermented sugar cane or malted barley to flavored sparkling water. Consumers like them because they don’t have the same high carbs as beer, although the alcohol content (calories) is about the same.  They come in a rainbow of exotic flavors to keep you interested, but we find them to be a lot of bubbles but not much flavor. It reminded us of Bartles & Jaymes, those canned concoctions that rocked the market in the mid 1980s. When the feds raised excise taxes on alcohol, Gallo dropped the alcohol in Bartles & Jaymes and consumers lost interest. But, they are back on the market with fermented grape juice.

But they have tons of competition. Even Budweiser and Corona are making hard seltzers because they are seeing millennials moving from craft beers to seltzers.

I’ll be writing more about this in a future column. Tonight, though, my lips will be a GLASS of wine from a GLASS bottle.

The International Organization of Wine and Wine reported recently that global consumption of wine was done 3 percent in 2020. That’s better than the 10 percent drop it anticipated, but still down from previous years.

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down the hospitality industry and thus on-site wine sales. Although large retailers and e-commerce showed increases, they weren’t enough to offset the loss in on-site sales. Adding to these woes were the tariffs initiated by the U.S. and China.

Hardest hit was the sparkling wine category. Except for prosecco, sparkling wine experience the worse declines. Bag-in-the-box wines, however, soared. What does that say? Some people were drinking more wine, but not better wine.

At least the U.S. kept up its end of the trade. Now the world’s largest wine-consuming country, it is on track to keep up with previous years’ consumption levels. Way too go, folks.

It seems unreal to me.

Bezos recently introduced Davos Elite Portfolio of Fine Wines. It’s first release, a cabernet sauvignon from the elite To Kalon Vineyard, is entirely virtual. Participants get an empty bottle with virtual reality goggles that have enhanced aromatherapy technology.

The experience is hosted by a sommelier who offers help in what the user should be tasting.

You have to be kidding, right? I get that this could be instructional, can’t be overconsumed and can be enjoyed by minors and alcoholics, but is anything more than a gimmick for real wine drinkers? I can’t imagined being satisfied without actually tasting the wine.

The “wine” retails for $75 a bottle — not including the $400 goggles. Now, I’m liking the idea even less.

Now come the French who are confident that helium balloons loaded with hygroscopic salts will turn hail into rain. The experiment was approved by 90 percent of winemakers in St. Emilion. Thirty-seven launchers will be used.

Hails was especially damaging in St. Emilion and the Entre-Deux-Mers region in 2020.

The decision comes after years of research by scientists and growers who were focused on supplementing Bordeaux’s varieties to address the impact of climate change. Arinarnoa, castets, marselan and touriga nacional — a Portuguese varietal — are said to adapt well to stress from temperature increases.

The two new white varietals are alvarinho and liloria.

Bordeaux producers are loathe to change tradition, but the climate changes have forced their hand. With these grapes being first planted this year, it’s hard to predict who will use them and how they will change the flavor profile of these prestigious wines, but I can’t wait to try them.

As reported in Wine Business, the pinot harvest was about 36 percent less than that of 2019 and about half of what was harvest in 2018.

Merlot and zinfandel crops will be cut in half as well, but there aren’t as many of these grapes picked.

New tariffs initiated on January 12 will be increasing prices if producers decide to pass along the tariff increases. Although some absorbed earlier 25 percent increases, it’s not likely they will hold their prices this time around. The previous tariffs applied only to wines under 14 percent alcohol from France, Spain and Germany. The new rounds will apply to those with more than 14 percent alcohol, but oddly Spain is spared from the new round.

Maybe this is a good time to buy Rioja.

Recently, for instance, I had the opportunity to interview Bibiana Gonzalez Rave, an innovative and new winemaker who was knighted as the newspaper’s Winemaker of the Year in 2015. Her handcrafted Cattleya wines are extraordinary. But her award gave her gravitas that no publicity could equal. It’s an award that for the chosen will remain a highlight on their resumes.

Alas, the newspaper elected not to name a winemaker of the year for 2020, perhaps the worst year for American wine. The reasons are compelling: the COVID-19 pandemic that closed tasting rooms, the wildfires that closed production for many wineries, a sexual harassment controversy at the Court of Master Sommeliers, and other roadblocks to a successful year. I get it.

Instead, the newspaper featured a dozen wines that writers thought better represented the successes of the year. It’s a rather novel twist to featuring a person.

Let’s hope for a better 2021.

No other wine region has classified its wines like this, preferring instead to divide them according to time in cask (Spain), by vineyard (U.S.), by crus, price or by the vague term “reserve.” Even a president like Donald Trump couldn’t follow in Bonaparte’s footsteps and order it to be done in, say, California. However, I’ve often mused about which properties in Napa Valley would make the first-growth cut.

If history influenced the decision, I’d have to consider Chateau Montela, Louis Martini, Beringer, Caymus, Beaulieu, Heitz Cellars, Chappellet, Dominus, Opus One, Joseph Phelps, Mondavi. If I pulled in producers with less history, I would consider Screaming Eagle, Spottswoode, Sullivan, Cliff Lede, Gamble and Ladera.

The reserve cabernet sauvignons of these producers sell for more than $100 a bottle — in some cases more than $3,000. Not many people — even collectors — will pay that much for California cabernet sauvignon, especially when they can buy a second-growth Margaux for less.

What happened?

Many winemakers tell me there is more labor involved in farming mountain fruit that is often the source for the best cabernets. But, more likely, they will charge whatever the market bears. They make little of their best wines, sell it to their club members and develop a waiting list to drive the fear of being left out.

Most of them resist comparing their wines to those of Bordeaux and I get that because the soil, winemaking and blend is often different. But consumers will compare the two regions. And, winemakers insist that however unique their Napa wine, it is every bit as good as Bordeaux.

From what I saw, it’s basic but fundamental for anyone in the hospitality business or anyone who just wants a foundation in understanding wine. A quiz at the end gives you a chance to privately test your knowledge.

Here’s the link:

https://www.smwewinecompanion.com/

 The other day I was sampling the Las Moradas de San Martin Senda, a wine I had never tasted before. I thought it was a $40-50 wine — but when I looked it up, it cost $13. I am not accustomed to buying cases of wine on line, but I did this time. Even with shipping costs, it represented one of the best bargains I’ve found on the market in recent months.

Las Moradas is on the Madrid side of the Gredos range of hills in Spain — relatively obscure in my book. The producer is focused on old vine garnacha. The Senda was loaded with fresh plum and dark berry flavors, but it was the depth, body and texture that was most impressive. This is a wine you could lay down for several years.

In fact, I tasted the producer’s 2013 Initio garnacha and it was showing marvelously.

More than 7 million acres have been destroyed by wildfires in the U.S. — 3.7 million are in wine country. And, there is a lot of fire season ahead.

Napa and Sonoma counties were particularly hard hit. But damage from smoke taint depends on wind direction, slope orientation, distance to the fire and more. Labs are backed up in analyzing the amount of smoke taint in the grapes, but many producers already are rejecting purchased grapes.

Among the producers who have decided against a harvest this year: St. Supery, Somerston and Priest Ranch, Lamborn, Pfendler, and several others not as recognized. The financial loss is huge unless they can turn the damaged grapes into bulk wine. Some have even considered making grappa, which actually tastes good with a little smoke.

Just before the fires, I sat in on a virtual wine tasting with Emma Swain, CEO of St. Supery. Like others, they were improvising to survive the pandemic, but the fires stopped whatever momentum they were making. I reviewed their semillon and now hear they won’t be making any in 2020. What a shame. But Swain made the right decision — St. Supery’s reputation could be damaged for years if flawed wine hit the market.

Consumers will have to be careful when they buy wines from the 2020 vintage. Why most reputable producers will suffer the loss and not make wine, others will and hope that consumers won’t pick up the ash tray flavors or care.

And the answer is still the same: it depends….

First, how well you metabolize alcohol depends on your size and amount of fat. Everyone is different and you need to determine your alcohol tolerance. Using a breathalyzer helps, but even that is no guarantee it is as calibrated as the unit used by the police.

My experiment showed that I had a .44 blood alcohol content — well under my home state’s chargeable limits — after consuming slightly more than a half bottle of wine over a hearty dinner. I took the test about 30 minutes after my last sip.

Second, every state has a variety of charges: drive while intoxicated, driving under the influence and impaired. Some even have zero tolerance, so any alcohol found in the blood will result in a charge. In most of these cases, the police have pulled you over for another reason (accident, missing tail light, rolling through a stop sign, etc.).

I’m not condoning driving and drinking. But neither am I supporting temperance. You can have wine with dinner if you know when to stop drinking.

I suppose most wine drinkers, like me, looked for a dining experience if they were going to be stuck in their homes. Wine complements a dinner and at least makes you feel better about a troubling world we live in.

According to Nielsen’s figures, sauvignon blanc sales were up nearly 27 percent. Pinot noir, rose and cabernet sauvignon followed in that order.

Participants also concluded that it’s still possible to make a good red wine as long as there is little skin contact. That suggests we’ll see a lot of rose and light-colored pinot noir — even white pinot noir as I suggested earlier.

Two other conclusions the participants reached, according to Wine Business Monthly:

— Those who delayed picking their cabernet sauvignon grapes may benefit. Green grapes could enhance the taint; ripe fruit suppresses it.

— Hand-harvested chardonnay grapes will fare better than machine harvesting, which breaks open the skin and starts fermentation on the way to the winery. Generally, cheaper chardonnays are machine harvested.

— Oregon wines could have a harder time because of its dependence on pinot noir. Syrah, too, will be more susceptible to smoke taint.

Despite a foreboding early start of the harvest (Aug. 10 in Burgundy), growers report more than a 6% increase in production. The quality of the grapes look good too.

While this sounds like positive news in a weird year, the fact is that French winemakers are having a difficult time selling what wine they make. U.S. tariffs and the COVID-19 virus combined to stifle sales to a worldwide market. Sales were so bad that many producers turned unsold stock into hand sanitizer.

This year many producers are saying they will limit production to keep prices elevated and to avoid bulk inventory.

For consumers, don’t expect any price breaks despite the over-abundance of French wine. Tariffs will inflate the cost.

But the fire damage to the vineyards pales in comparison to the smoke damage to the grapes. Vineyards are a natural fire break because they just don’t burn like dry brush and undergrowth. At worse, a couple of rows on the fringes may burn but they’ll come back the following year. The damage is from smoke taint which clings to the grapes and eventually marries with the sugar. Smoke taint can’t be artificially removed and unfortunately it may not manifest itself until fermentation.

Grape growers are sending their grapes to labs for testing, but labs are warning that the backlog is causing 30-day delays. That leaves winemakers in a quandary: do they proceed or just drop fruit?

Wine grapes are less susceptible than red because they don’t stay with the crush for long. Red grapes, however, sit on the juice for many days, thus allowing the taint to permeate the juice. Worse, pinot noir skins are thin and sensitive. Areas like Santa Lucia Highlands, Russian River Valley, and Monterey will see a huge loss in its pinot noir crop.

The impact of the fires is simply too early to tell.

In a survey commission by Corvin and performed by OnePoll, 66 percent of those who responded to the survey said the quarantine helped them to mature their palates. They have been experimenting more with adding wine to their recipes (39 percent) and to learn more about wine in general (37 percent).

They have defined what they like and don’t like about wine and have even changed their favorite wine to rose instead of pinot grigio, according to popular choices in the survey.

About a four of the respondents said they have set up in-home, comparative tastings, attended virtual classes or virtual happy hours.

All of this renewed interest has favored online wine sales. If people are going to stay at home, they are going to enjoy the confinement with good food and good wine.

I’ll toast to that.

Hughes sold the Cameron Hughes label to Vintage Wine, but now he has a new venture: sell wine en premeur. Modeled after the advance sales program in Bordeaux, Hughes agrees to accept a tranche of wine from Producer A. He tells his customer base — now numbering 10,000 — about his agreement in an email. The customer agrees to buy at least a case of the wine. Once the tranche is sold, he releases the wine to the customer. Sometimes it has been bottled just days ago. Wines that sells under his de Negoce label for $10 are sold by Producer A for $40 or even $90.

Normally, we wouldn’t fall for such a scheme because we’d be gambling our money on trust. How do we know he’s getting the wine, say, from Chateau Montelena and not Menage e Trois? However, we tasted several of these wine with Hughes himself on Zoom and were stunned by their quality. No question, these wines are coming from quality producers. An $18 de Negoce cabernet sauvignon from Diamond Mountain was extraordinary — we wish we could buy a case but it was already sold out. Hughes said the producer is selling the same bottle for $100.

A very good $15 sauvignon blanc was sourced from Stagecoach Vineyard. Another cabernet sauvignon from Dry Creek sold for a ridiculous $10.

Those who pride themselves in top-drawer wines from a particular vineyard may not be as satisified sharing a wine under the obscure de Negoce label. It may be like sporting a knock-off Rolex watch. But if looks don’t bother you, this is worth the gamble. You can even reduce the risk by splitting cases with friends and family.

Cameron Diaz has joined the Hollywood crowd in launching her own branded wine label. The star of “Bad Teacher” has partnered with entrepreneur Katherine Power to market Avaline, a project that has been two years in development.

She said in a press release, “ We realized that we knew the contents of everything that went onto and into our bodies--why not wine? "

She said they would brace “clean wines,” or what I presume are organic wines.

The 'Bad Teacher' star - who has five-month-old daughter Raddix with her husband Benji Madden - says Avaline is collection of "clean wines", which are "full of natural goodness".

The collection so far includes a white and a rose that will sell for $24 a bottle. They will be sold at Whole Foods and eventually at Safeway and Target.

A spike in COVID cases triggered an automatic closing set by the state. It includes dine-in restaurants, bars, theaters, brew pubs, museums and more.

Napa County reported 60 new cases, bringing the total to 436. Only 4 people have died, but the number of cases is the highest for one day. Most of the new outbreak occurred on a farm.

Sonoma County’s cases are alarming as well, but not enough to trigger closings. It experienced 92 new cases last Friday; its highest day total was 50 before then. Its total cases are now 1,359 since March. Although Sonoma’s cases are higher, it is the proportion to case rate that triggers the closings. If it has two more days above the 100 per 100,00 case rate, it will have to return to the same prohibitions now forced on Napa County.

Cork comes from the bark of a cork tree grown mostly in Portugal. A cork tree survives for more than 100 years and re-grows the bark that has been stripped for bottle corks. But, a tree can’t be cultivated for nearly 10 years and re-grown cork can’t be harvested for nearly the same time.

A chemical development called TCA for short happens when airborne fungi come in contact with chlorophenol compounds found in pesticides and preservatives used to sterilize corks. Corks are no longer bleached with chlorine, so the incidence has decreased as cork manufacturers have analyzed TCA’s cause.

Now, Cork Supply, a Portuguese cork manufacturer, has developed at TCA extraction technology that it says can eliminate the risk of cork taint 99.85 percent of the time. Called PureCork, the process uses steam distillation.

All good news.

But now I’m in favor of expanding what must be put on labels. I’d rather know what’s in the wine that be told it has “bold flavors reminiscent of a hibiscus garden.” Wouldn’t you?

We would like to think that wine is a natural product created by producers who nurture the grapes with painsaking care. While that’s true, a lot goes on after the grapes are crushed that consumers don’t know about. A winemaker can add water to reduce alcohol levels, alter harsh malo acid levels, use animal products to clarify the wine, and add powdered tannins and oak chips.

Wineries that use herbicides, pesticides, and commercial fertilizer will leave behind such things as ferrocyanide, ammonium phosphate, copper sulfate. They are not dangerous, according to USDA, but you should be the judge of that.

But the one that irks me the most is Mega Purple, a grape concentrate made from the teinurieur grape Rubired. Constellation makes and sells it. No winemaker I have met has ever admitted to using it, but most do, according to the reports I’ve read.

Mega Purple adds a rich color to the wine and some sugar to round off the edges. Used in small amounts, you probably won’t be able to identify it. But producers of cheap wines, especially those sold in bulk containers, are using massive doses. Again, no one says it’s harmful, but don’t you want to know what the winemaker is doing to manipulate the color and flavors of what you’re drinking?

Mega Purple is an inexpensive short cut to making wine better. The winemaker could blend petite sirah or malbec to get more color; he could cut fermentation short to make it sweet.

Constellation makes Robert Mondavi, Meomi and The Prisoner among other popular wines. I have always suspected that Meomi in particular has lots of Mega Purple. It’s dark and sweet, although Meomi’s popularity indicates consumers really don’t mind.

What’s good for food labels should be good for wine labels.

It was. OMG, I wish I had a few more. Golden in color, luxurious and viscous texture, tropical fruit flavors and a heavy dollop of coconut. I cherished every sip and thought about it for hours after the last drop was consumed.

Not all chardonnays can stand the test of time. I’ve tasted 5-year-old California chardonnays that had oxidized or fell apart. But a grand cru from Burgundy can last decades. It’s what makes French Burgundy so collectible and it’s why no other chardonnay region can compare.

Today this wine costs close to $200 a bottle, which is well above what I’m willing to spend on wine. It’s worth it — but alas unaffordable.

I could easily double the virtual meetings, but Zoom takes its toll when you add dinners with friends, gatherings with family and endless emergency meetings with non-profit groups whose boards I sit on. Still, the COVID-19 crisis has pushed the wine writing world into a new future that isn’t bad.

I get to the West Coast wine regions about once every three or four years. I’m due to return this year, but may have to put it off. In the course of writing my weekly wine column, I’m often interviewing winemakers on the phone. So, why not bring the experience to our homes and save the travel? Tasting a wine together doesn’t have to be in person. I think winemakers should do continue to host these meetings.

Benziger gave me a virtual tour of the vineyards — he spared me the tour of his stainless steel fermentors. Although it’s not the same as actually standing in the vineyards and feeling the influence of weather, it’s not a bad alternative. Kruse had three other wine journalists in the program — talk about making our visits more efficient!

Not only are wine writers involved, but many of the winemakers have done their programs for members of their wine clubs and often anyone who buys the wine in advance of the virtual tastings. Driving direct-to-consumer wine sales is helped with an invitation to meet with the winemaker, even if it’s a virtual meeting.

These ideas — born from a crisis — should be just as valid for the crisis ends.

In the last two decades, vintners have ripped out their merlot and replanted with cabernet sauvignon to address the trend to California’s top cash crop. But that change has resulted in more bulk cabernet and more coming as young vines mature.

Top producers are unlikely to make more wine because it can destabilize the lofty prices they charge. More likely, they could sell off more of their estate grapes. If they don’t have estate vineyards, it is unlikely they will buy more grapes from the glut. Cameron Hughes, who often scarves up these excess grapes, will have a field day selling wine from top vineyards at reduced prices (with the promise he won’t name the source).

Other producers of inexpensive wines will find better quality at reduced prices. Those of us who buy wines in the $15-20 category mostly likely will be buying better wine at the same price.

The mass producer of wine under the Butter and J&M labels is suing The Wine Group for using “bold and jammy” to describe its rebranded boxed wine Franzia. J&M has a trademark on “jam” to describe wines.

I’ll let the lawyers duke this one out, but I was puzzled to read in the Napa Valley Register that J&M Cellars is arguing that “jam'“ is not a “known or common description of wines,” according to the newspaper.

I disagree. I use “jammy” often because today’s fruit bombs from the West Coast are so jammy that you could spread them on toast. Google “jammy wines” and you come up with 469,00 hits in less than a second. There are scads of definitions from professionals.

J&M is also suing The Wine Group for using “rich and buttery” on the same grounds.

I understand this is a marketing issue. But, geesh, really? How can you trademark words that are so commonly used?

I bet no one has trademarked “cat pee,” a common description of many sauvignon blancs.

In a report on WineBusiness.com, Danny Brager, Nielsen’s senior vice president, said, “No one has ever seen the kind of channel shifting we’re seeing now. It’s totally unprecedented.”

The good news is that these sales are enough to offset on-premise declines. Restaurants and retail stores are still struggling but consumers are still drinking. The question is are they hoarding or are they drinking more? Time will tell. However, many consumers may stick with their direct-to-consumer ordering on line.

In the direct-to-consumer market, the average price of a bottle dropped to $42 in March, perhaps because more average consumers used the DTC method to buy their wine. Many consumers were already ordering wine through wine clubs and their favorite West Coast producers.

Washington state led sales growth, maybe because they’ve been embroiled in this outbreak longer.

If you would be interested in participating, drop me an email and I’ll put you on the list. Just use the comment feature at the bottom.

The programs will be done on Zoom. You don’t need to download the program, but there is a free version should you decided to use it on your device. You’ll need a device with a camera and microphone.

The first one will be on how wine is made. I jumped past this lesson when I first got involved in wine and then found that I needed to know more about the winemaking process if I was ever going to understand what I was drinking. How did the winemaker get that red wine so dark? How did the tannin get there? What do they mean by malolatic fermentation and sur lies aging?

Please join me for this free program — while it’s still free.

Yesterday I was talking to Dana Epperson, a winemaker at Duckhorn’s chardonnay program that is made under it’s fabulous Migration label. She said her team is engaged in determining the blends for the 2020 wines. She and another winemaker take home beakers of various chardonnays, then taste them together virtually. Life goes on.

Epperson said it would have been far different if the crisis struck during harvest. Maybe they could have found enough pickers, but could they have processed the grapes without close contact? California was pretty restrictive in distancing.

Other wine growing regions — South Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand — aren’t so lucky as they head into their peak harvest season. Their governments have allowed them to remain open as an essential industry, but they have to restrict the number of personnel involved in vinifying the grapes.

Let’s hope this crisis is over by September.

No matter how good the business, merchants are worried that the market will experience a dramatic swing of the pendulum once the corona virus abates. The current splurge is what they call “pantry stocking.”

Even though restaurants are experiencing a dearth in sales, retail merchants have picked p the slack. And, those producers with robust on-line or club sales are in a better position to weather this crisis.

Consumers can help too. In my community, a lot of retailers are still open and offering hands-free, curbside pickup with incredible sales. Perhaps the most impressive are the restaurants who offer food and wine packages. Restaurants often get wines that retailers cannot get, so it would be wise to see what they are offering. One restaurant in my community is selling wines at retail prices — half the price they sell it for in the restaurant. It goes to show you the huge markup they get for table-side wine.

I’ve had a couple of virtual tastings with friends last week. Ironically, two of us even chose the same wine — an obscure blend of Italian grape varieties called Zenato Alanera Rosso. What are the odds? It was great to share notes of this delicious wine.

This week my wife and I will share the screen with another wine-loving couple. We’re getting the wines and food from the same restaurant. Even if we can’t get together in person, we can still have a great conversation over food and wine.

“These meals mean that our staff will have hours and normalcy in their lives right now,” said Petaluma caterer Amber Balshaw of Preferred Sonoma Catering. Her company is producing more than 600 meals per week for Sonoma Family Meal’s clients. The initiative also helps support small family farms and local food producers by purchasing their products for use in restaurants. 

To make a donation, visit https://sonomafamilymeal.networkforgood.com/projects/96348-jordan-foundation.  

To apply as a restaurant, visit https://www.sonomafamilymeal.org/for-restaurants/. 

The $150,000 investment from Jordan will allow SFM to keep the doors open at least 12 struggling restaurants and caterers throughout the county currently providing meals, purchase 42,000 to-go containers (compostable or reusable) and provide 65,000 meals. Irwin estimates that SFM needs $300,000 to add at least 20 restaurants and food purveyors, expand our relief network and continue to provide services until mid-June, the projected time frame of increased need during this crisis.

“The owners of successful businesses have a responsibility to help those less fortunate throughout the years,” said John Jordan, who started his foundation in 2012. “But during times of crisis, we have to lean in and find ways to do even more.”

Like in any catastrophe, being confined to a home drives sales of alcohol just like they drive sales of toilet paper. When I lived in Maryland, a snowstorm set off an avalanche of alcohol sales. One store told me that the threat of three days of snow and an imminent disaster declaration resulted in his highest per-day sales. The threat of a hurricane had the same effect now that I’m in Florida. But, a snowstorm and hurricane are local. A national pandemic drives alcohol sales nationwide.

Several weeks into the pandemic, liquor stores are reporting strong sales. Nationally, sales of wines priced $15-20 were up 42 percent. Wines priced $20-$25 soared 75 percent. People hunkering down in the face of death aren’t drinking cheap wine.

Large wineries were reporting that grocery chains and big liquor stores were stocking up, so their large inventories may result later in a fall off as the pandemic eases. Bu people are definitely drinking what they buy. In San Francisco alone, alcohol sales are up 42 percent.

Also good for small wineries, direct-to-consumer sales were up. More people are joining wine clubs and ordering wine directly from producers. The ease of getting wine delivered to homes and the ability to avoid stores is more attractive than ever.

Producers and their marketing teams are coming up with creative ways for people to participate in wine seminars from their homes.

Segura Viudas is pushing its cava to enjoy while taking a virtual tour of The Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. You can have the wine shipped via wine.com.

Oceano recommends its pinot noir and chardonnay while live streaming performances from The Metropolitan Opera. Its owners Rachel Martin and Kurt Deutsch are passionate about wine and theater. You can order their wines at oceanowines.com.

Far Niente and Nickel & Nickel are using the Zoom app to set up private or group virtual tastings for those who order wine shipped to their homes.

Hamel Family wines are selling “At Home with Hamel Family Wines,” a virtual tasting experience led by a professional via Zoom or FaceTime. Several packages of wine, ranging from $200 to $375, are being offered at its web site.

JUSTIN and Landmark Vineyards are also offering virtual tastings with Certified Winery Educator and Sommelier Jim Gerakaris with any wine order.

Since the pandemic broke and my wife and I have been self-quarantined with no signs of infection, the highlight of the day has been dinner. We’re eating well — as if there is no tomorrow, in fact. Today is lobster; tomorrow is steak. I’m dipping into my cellar for wines that may not be at their peak maturity — but wines I’m not waiting around the to enjoy. There are several Bordeaux wines from the 2003, 2004 and 2005 vintages, for instance.

I am choosing wines that bring back memories from better times. This week I opened a 2005 Beau-Sejour Becot. I was in St. Emilion about that time and met with Juliette Becot, daughter of current owner Gerald Becot. The father was running Beau Sejour Becot, but had just bought Juliette a vineyard and gave her a pair of boots to show him what she could do. He didn’t think she was ready to make wine for him.

I brought back a couple of bottles of Joanin Becot (I think it was her grandmother’s name) and enjoyed them. Now, Juliette is working with her brother on all of the wines, now under one roof. I guess the boots were used and Juliette earned her father’s confidence. Juliette confessed to me then that her brother helped her make the Joanin wine but she was fighting to earn respect from the men in the family.

As I enjoyed the 2005 Beau-Sejour Becot, I remembered my afternoon with her. It was a great memory to have as my wife and I sipped a perfect wine.

Just as the virus hit our country, I was at a wine store and my eyes landed on a Condrieu. Again, a flood of memories came back. The Rhone Valley village of Condrieu was an unexpected highlight during our first visit to France in the 1980s. We stayed at a delightful Relaix et Chateau and sipped a Guigal Condrieu white on our balcony. It was my first experience with a good Condrieu. The viognier grown here on steep hillsides creates intense, powerful wines.

So, of course, I bought the Faury Condrieu and gulped at its $75 price. But, I opened it the other day and remembered our first visit to France. Priceless, as they say.

We were with Pat Darr and his wife just as the crisis hit our shores. Pat writes the weekly wine column with me. We have so many memories of the column since it debuted more than 30 years ago. To recapture those times, I opened a 2005 Mastraberandino Radici Taurasi (we tasted with its winemaker many years ago) and a 1982 Chateau Gruaud Larose (we each bought this wine as futures).

Do you have a wine in your cellar that evokes a good memory? Don’t wait any longer. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

According to the Washington Post, among those exceptions were wine shops, bakeries, butchers, cheese shops, fine grocers and tobacco stores.

However, out of the usual “abundance of caution” many shops decided to close anyway. Before they did, though, many were offering delivery of “survival wine packs” of six or 12 bottles of wine.

If wine isn’t your sin, you can go to the Netherlands where cannabis dispensers are open to easy the anxieties of the Dutch.

Wine producers in the United States are getting very creative with virtual wine tastings and special deals. Chateau Montelena, for instance, has put together a “Wine Shelter package” that includes a copy of “Bottle Shock” (an excellent book based on Chateau Montelena’s win at the 1976 Judgment of Paris), a mix-and-match set of wines and a complimentary wine tasting coupon to use in the future.