Or at least that is the impression of the editors of Wine Enthusiast magazine. Why the French, he said, they don’t even have a word for entrepreneur!īut apparently they do. That’s what President Bush is supposed to have said a few years ago in a conversation almost certainly not about wine. Old Europe is afraid of change, afraid to take chances. We have a broad first step in America - no surprise there - but I think it is a step up. Every staircase, no matter how high it reaches, needs a bottom step. My experience working with college students who study wine is that the inexpensive wines serve a really useful function of introducing students to wine and diverting them from beverages that are more closely associated with binge drinking.Īlthough some White Zin drinkers suffer from arrested development and never move beyond it, I am persuaded that many do. Compared to Germany, in fact, much more fine wine is sold here and proportionately less of the bulk product.įor myself, I see a glass half full. Remember that there are many markets for wine and that the US is no different from other countries in this regard. If the first list of restaurant wine brands depresses you, then ignore it and focus on the second list, where White Zin is much harder to find, but don’t get too smug. Perhaps other producers will try to emulate K-J and CSM, especially given this tough economic climate. It isn’t surprising that they rank high on both lists. Both makers seem to combine wide distribution with a range of wines at attractive price points. Looking over the data, I find myself especially impressed by the performance of Kendall-Jackson and Chateau Ste. Gallo and The Wine Group are missing from the W&S top 20, although Constellation Brands makes the list through Robert Mondavi. Only two other wineries appears in both top 20s – Beringer and Chateau Ste. Only one winery appears in both top 10 lists – Kendall-Jackson. Sonoma-Cutrer is #1 on this list, yet it appeared on only about 14% of the surveyed wine lists (and, as noted above, there is no indication of how much was sold). Since wines don’t stay on lists long if they don’t sell, this is an indirect measure of availability and popularity, although it isn’t the same as as volume rankings. W&S asks a group of wine-focused restaurants to report which wines are on their lists - now how much they sell, but which ones are on offer. The Restaurant Wine data give us one picture of the market, Wine & Spiritsmagazine’s annual restaurant report (April 2009 issue) provides a different (and perhaps more comforting) image. I think the fact that three of these four are Italian wine brands says something about the importance of Italian restaurants, including especially Olive Garden, in the American wine market.Īnother Picture: The Wine & Spirit Rankings Only 4 of top 20 are international brands (Yellow Tail, Cavit, Ecco Domani and Mezzacorona). You can see the results virtually everywhere. They get their wines into every nook and cranny, both retail and on-premises sales. These three giants have large brand portfolios and strong distribution machines. The complete list of the top 20 brands is dominated by America’s three largest wine companies with three brands each from Constellation Brands (Woodbridge, Taylor California Cellars and La Terre), Gallo (Copper Ridge, Barefoot Cellars and Ecco Domani) and The Wine Group (Franzia, Inglenook and Almaden). The list changes only a little if we look at the data for wine brands (as opposed to specific wines): This data, based on volumes shipped to all “on-premises” establishments in 2008, reveals that when America goes out it drinks a lot of White Zinfandel, Pinot Grigio and (gasp!) “Chablis.” Only one red wine made the top 20 list: Yellow Tail Shiraz. It reported data from Restaurant Wine magazine for the best-selling wines in American restaurants as determined by distributor “on-premises” shipments. My recent post on “ Olive Garden and the Future of American Wine” (see previous post) seemed to catch many wine enthusiasts by surprise. Now, however, the critique has shifted to the wines themselves and what they reveal about wine in America. They are seldom satisfied with my answer - restaurants charge high prices because people will pay them. Usually they complain about high restaurant prices and ask how they can possibly be justified. Many people have written to me over the years expressing their dismay at the sorry state of restaurant wine.
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