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How Wine Became Like Fast Food
Sang Tan / AP Photo
The bottle you’ll enjoy with dinner tonight likely wasn’t produced at a winery, or by a winemaker. Instead, most American bottles are little more than grape-based processed food product.
There is a general assumption about wine: it’s made by a winery, and its name will be on the label. One imagines a winemaker in his vineyards, inspecting bunches of grapes. Maybe his dogs are chasing rabbits between the rows of vines. At night, he pops open a bottle of his own creation to share with friends and family.
It is a romantic ideal, but for most bottles sold in the U.S., it’s also untrue. Of the top 30 wine brands in the United States, not a single one of them grows, produces and bottles its own wines. For the brands doing big volume, the formula is: buy tankers of bulk juice, and slap a label on it. Those bottles may look beautiful, implying a bucolic wine-y setting, but the cold hard fact is that the juice within is just a trademark coupled with a savvy marketing plan.
Since most people like to stick with familiar brands and cheap prices, it’s a necessity. Americans consumed 700 million gallons of wine last year, 80 percent of which sold for less than $10, according to ACNeilsen and The Beverage Information Group. No amount of mom-and-pop wineries could ever feed that demand, or that low price point. Similarly, if you walk into any wine shop—in any town, in any state—you will probably see Rock Rabbit, Mark West, Smoking Loon, or Pepperwood Grove. When you consider there are over 38,000 retail wine shops in the U.S., that’s an amazing logistical feat. No winery—at least the kind of winery that resides in our collective imagination—could ever supply and distribute that amount of product.
“The consumer doesn’t know. They think it comes from a guy who farmed his land and made it in his small barrels in his little winery.”
Like every other retail industry, wine is dominated by marketing and wholesale companies. Their businesses are based on creating brands that people will buy, and getting those brands into the hands of consumers. For instance, Smoking Loon and Pepperwood Grove are brands owned by Don Sebastiani & Sons, a company which describes itself as a “wine negociant firm specializing in the marketing of upscale, but moderately priced varietal wines.” Mark West and Rock Rabbit are owned by Purple Wine Company, which calls itself a “virtual winery.”
“Customers should not look down on those scenarios as fraud; this is the reality of wine industry. All wine producers produce many their brands, large or small, the same way, “ says Jonathan Gelula of KDM Global Partners, a wine branding company.
“The consumer doesn’t know. They think it comes from a guy who farmed his land and made it in his small barrels in his little winery. This stuff is not wine; it’s a processed food product,” counters David Moore, an owner of Moore Brothers Wine Shops, a small retail wine chain on the East Coast.
So, who actually makes the wines? Some, like Purple Wine Company, have their own production and bottling facilities. Many are made by wine processing companies, such as Golden State Vintners and Scheid Vineyards. These companies are one-stop-shopping for creating wine brands. They will make the wine, bottle it, and slap a label of your own making on the bottles. Want to create an Obama Vineyards Napa Valley Syrah? Not a problem, as long as you have the cash.
These winery-less wines are not just found at the lower tier of the wine market. Sometimes a luxury wine is born without a winery, a vineyard, and possibly even without a winemaker. These wines are made in custom crush facilities, which are basically a rent-a-winery.
Many well-known, hugely-respected luxury wines are, or once were, made in custom crush facilities. This includes Pahlmeyer, Fife, Bryant Family, Au Bon Climat, Qupe, Colgin, Charles Creek, Nickel & Nickel, and Staglin. There at least 1,500 such “virtual wineries” in the U.S. alone.
Things get weirder still. Sometimes wines are made by actual wineries, from their own vineyards, by their own winemakers…. but they hide behind a virtual label. This is often done when the winery in question has excess inventory that it needs to sell off. These wines are sold at steep discounts to a wholesaler who repackages the wine.
“For example, a prominent winery in Stags Leap has a gorgeous Petit Sirah that sells for $30-40,” explains Jonathan Newman, owner of Newman Wine and Spirits.” In this distressed time, how many do you think they really sell? By selling to me [for pennies on the dollar], they are taking the pressure off the brand. By sticking on a second label, they are not hurting their core brand. Retailers can sell my wine for twelve dollars a bottle.”
Ever been to a wine store, find a wine you like, but never find it again, except at that specific store? You are not alone, and the phenomenon is growing. Wine and spirit chains are now creating their own private label wine brands—thousands of them—which are typically only available at their own stores. Such brands are highly lucrative, with profit margins often 20% higher than comparable wines.
“For retailers, this is almost a no brainer. Companies like Total Wine [a large wine retailer based on the East Coast) and BevMo [based out of California] , are eating everyone else’s lunch. They discount national brands like crazy they sell their own brands at huge margins. Most of what they sell are private label wines.” says Gelula.
For example, Total Wine, which has over 60 superstores on the East Coast and in California, stocks over 2,500 private label brands. 53% of their sales, nearly 2 million cases, from these private label wines and other wines they a similar level of control over.
Steve Faith, Vice President of Wine Operations for Total Wine & More says, “I think people are looking for a good bottle of wine that they can take home every night, the quality will be there, and the taste profile they want, and they don’t care if it’s from a homey winery.” Mr. Faith also stresses that, along with bulk wines, their labels include second labels from well-known wineries and small-scale brands from Europe that would otherwise not reach the U.S. marketplace. “We are quite honest to our customers about this,” he says.
The trend is expanding to all parts of the retail marketplace. Trader Joe’s has it’s “Two Buck Chuck” , Walmart has its Alcott Ridge, and 7-Eleven’s as its Thousand Oaks Vineyards. Mr. Gelula , whose company developed the 7-Eleven brand, says that these private labels are attractive to big-box retailer because it helps builds corporate branding and customer loyalty.
For wine consumers who are looking for reliability and value, the de-wineryification of the wine market may not be of a huge concern. For those wine lovers who prefer to drink wines that are made by an actual winemaker working at a real winery, this is your moment to despair.
Okay, that moment is over: there are still plenty of great wineries out there; you just have to search for them. The trick is to read the fine print. In wines made in America, look for the term “produced and bottled by” on the label. It may not sound like much, but it’s all you need to know. Terms like “cellared and bottled by” or “vinted and bottled by” do not mean the same thing. In fact, they imply that the wine was not actually made at the winery at all.
In wines from other countries, look for similar terms. For instance, French wines will sport the term Mis en Bouteille au Domaine or Mis en Bouteille au Château. On Italian wine labels, look for Azienda Agricola or Imbottigliato all'origine.
Whether you want value or authenticity is up to you. But you generally don’t get both.
Plus: Check out Hungry Beast for more news on the latest restaurants, hot chefs, and tasty recipes.
Keith Wallace is the founder of the Wine School of Philadelphia.
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This is without question the least shocking expose ever. While you're at it, here's another story idea: It's time some hard-hitting journalist ripped the lid off that Keebler Elves scam... you don't really think they make all those cookies by themselves, do you? In a tree?
I think the wine connoisseur such as the author of the article probably knew that your $2.00 bottle of "chuck" or "rock rabbit" didn't have a good pedigree. However, for the vast majority of the wine shoppers out there, this is probably a surprise, like when they find out their Raleigh bicycle is made in China. As the author points out - it's all about marketing.
One thing that's a little misleading is that this seems to imply you can't find good wine for $8-$20 a bottle. My advice is to stick with your locally produced brands or, as the author suggests, check the labels. Appelation D'Origine Controlé¥ is a good one to go by also, but isn't perfect. More reading here: http://www.morethanorganic.com/aoc-classifications
Thanks for the article!
I don't think the author meant this to be a hard-hitting expose. I assume one of Mr. Wallace's motivations - as the founder of a wine school - is to educate, providing the consumer with the knowledge to make more informed choices - and this article does a great job of that. I don't think most people know about the industrialized nature of the wine industry. If consumers, in fact, do want an "authentic", artisanal, elfin-crafted wine, it's useful to know where you can and can't expect to find it. And, it's even more useful to know that you *might* find greater quality from non-industrial sources.
Just don't mess with my Carlo rossi.
My first instinct was to call the author a snob for insisting that the wine he consumes comes from an actual winery. Even though the 'cheap wine' he refers to is still wine, with all the nutruitional benefits of wine, with a taste profile that many consumers actually enjoy, and is in fact often a more expensive variety just lowering its price (to move inventory) but changing its name so as to not harm the more expensive brand name. I was at first going to call the author of this article a snob for demanding not that his wine fit any profile for quality or flavor that he could identify, but simply that "IT COME FROM A WINERY." But now I realize that the poor guy is not a snob. He's actually just sort of an idiot... which is really just sad.
The last line of your comment is ironic, given the incoherence of the rest of your post. Nowhere does the author demand that his wines come from an "authentic" winery - nor does he suggest that consumers should demand it. He's simply provided a succinct and interesting sketch of the modern wine industry's realities of production, marketing, and economics - presumably so that people interested in things like quality or "authenticity" can make better choices. Mr. Wallace may imply that smaller batch wines are better, but there's actually very little discussion of relative quality. And the quotes from both "sides" support an overall objective approach. Indeed, the article's last sentence (did you actually get that far?) makes it perfectly clear: there's a trade-off to be had, and it's up to the consumer to decide what s/he wants. Sounds like the opposite of snobbery to me.
drjohnathan, it is said that you wish to look down upon the rest of the world with your title. Fact is, Mr. Wallace seeks to educate those interested in wine with the amount and level of knowledge they elect to pursue. It appears you editorialize into a mirror with your face while the audience is face with the prosect of seeing only your derriere which is clearly much broader than your parochial view of the world...and your shoulders. Did you really intend to bring anything to the party beyond your self-idolizing ability to namecall? It seems liek such a waste of education. May you continue to enjoy your fine collection of Yellowtail and Mondavi.
Who cares? This article is dumb to not point out the fact that some of the best wines in the world aren't actually bottled by the vineyard.
The Grand Crus of the Burgandy region in France are almost never bottled by the vineyard. Instead, they are bottled by a 'negotiant' who will buy the best wines from different vineyards, looking to create the best taste he can. The bottles are labeled not by their vineyard, but by they appelation (specific region) the grapes were grown in (note: no mention of the vineyard ownere) and the negotiant who bottled and aged the wine. Is he saying that some of the best wines in the world aren't made in the correct way?
Also -- does anyone actually expect a wine from 7-11 to be good? Gross, just on principle.
Grand Cru Burgundy is almost always labelled by the vineyard (assuming it has not been declassified and bottled under a lesser appellation). In the French legal framework for wine labeling, this is done by granting each GC vineyard its own appellation.
There are some odd exceptions where a GC vineyard is allowed to use a neighboring vineyard's appellation. For example, wine produced from the Mazoyeres-Chambertin vineyard may be labeled "Charmes-Chambertin" (and vice-versa), which is actually the vineyard just north. But these are the exception.
Lower level Burgundy ("Village" AOCs and AOC Bourgogne) is frequently produced in the manner you describe, though. This is probably partly due to historical inheritance laws in the area, which have caused vineyards to be repeatedly divided. Producing any quantity of Burgundy generally demands buying wine from several owners.
The wine industry is just another drunk example of greed for the grape. Great article great insight.
Good story! The important thing to remember is that if you want a consistent experience you have to know what you are drinking and where it came from; otherwise it's just grape juice with alcohol. It's not snobery. it's called taste.
Okay, I'm sorry I called the guy an idiot. But honestly, you are not describing the TASTE of a wine, you are describing its pedigree. Also, wine from smaller vineyards is BY DEFINITION more variable, because you cannot control flavor consistency as well with small batches. That variability, for me, is a big part of a local wine's charm. Honestly, expecting a wine to be more consistent because it comes from a small, local vineyard has no more basis in fact than saying my wines are especially good because their labels are all a particular shade of yellow. It is the very definition of snobbery, or foolishness at the very least. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with being a snob or a fool for wine: for those who don't drink to excess it is a nearly harmless vice. But to call such behavior rational and to claim it produces higher quality wine selection on your part is not true, and such claims will always draw criticism.
Your arguments and complaints make no sense. The article was not about pedigree or snobbery or how wines taste. You are draping my essay with your own biases, which makes it all the more amusing that you call me both a fool and an idiot.
The article is an outline of how wine is produced and marketed in the modern world. I don't get into moral or gustatory judgments, I just simply lay out the facts. That may be a bit much for some people, who expect wine journalism to be about painting pretty word pictures.
Mr Wallace: Your article is indeed about a wine's pedigree, even if you don't understand that yourself. You are claiming in your very title that wines have become like fast food. Fast food is inferior to home-cooked food nutritionally (at least by and large). Fast food is intentionally manufactured to have tightly controlled flavor and consistnency, often using large batches that leaves the process open to contamination by rat feces, bug parts, etc. Fast food is also over-promised in its marketing to be of healthful benefit: witness Subway's over-processed, msg-laden meats as the 'healthy' choice.
If it was your intention to compare these very real deficiencies in fast food to deficiencies in mass-marketed wine your claim would be false and idiotic. If you were attempting to make the point that such mass marketed wine is inferior in flavor to more expensive wines on this basis is also foolish. If your only real point is that wine is both locally produced, and then mass-blended, or re-labeled and sold through a negotiator, well then you are correct; but this unfortunately is nothing more than the wine's pedigree.
If you have something genuine to say about what makes one wine better than another, I would be happy to read. But to be honest I was a bit offended to waste my time by trusting in The Daily Beasts fine recommendation and reading your article. You said nothing about the quality of local wine versus mass-marketed wine, or how mass-marketing of wine has any connection to fast food except that both are consumed by large numbers of people.
Your article was not about snobbery. I am pointing out that a person who believes wine which is mass-marketed, but which has no dicernable difference in quality or flavor from local wine, is the very definition of a snob. Mr. Wallace: You are behaving like a snob when you look down at mass-marketed wine, but have no dicernable reason for doing so except that you don't like that it is mass-marketed.
Is that clear enough for you? Oh, and by the way, thanks a lot for responding. I'm sure you are a very intelligent fellow with a great love of wine. I just wasn't a big fan of the article.
Ah, Dr. Jonathan.
Editors write headlines. That has been true for almost ever single major publications for the past century. This is something you should have known.
Also, you are unable to understand that I am simply reporting about the modern wine industry. Your concept of pedigree is a by-product of your own preconceived notions about what wine writing is supposed to be: you are not seeing past your own nose.
Here is an analogy: if I wrote an article on how cars were built in a union shop versus how they were constructed in a non-union shop, would there be an inherent expectation that I would also give a subjective appraisal of those cars? Would you be insisting that I am talking about pedigree and snobbery by simply pointing out that their is a difference? Of course not.
You don't seem to get the idea that I am supplying the reader with an objective article, stripped of the usual wine-y and snobbish crap. I expect that the readers are intelligent and can make up their own minds. If they want suggestions, they can read my monthly newsletter (its free and published by the Wine School of Philadelphia).
It's NOT a necessity, a lot of great, authentic wine in France every year goes to spoil as surplus, I'm not sure whether it's taxes or transport or trade issues, but we should FREE THE WINE! There's a a movement I can believe in.
This is great info to have (re: the megawineries and labels). Now, if I could just figure out what 'off labels' are used by Stag's Leap and others, which they use to unload their wine without diffusing their brand...
As one other commenter opined, what a SHOCKING expose, not. The author, except for one reference to Stags Leap that didn't really have anything to do with the article, didn't reference a single winery that has any reputation of making fine wine.
Talking about "private labels" sold by Wal-Mart and 7-11? How the fuck goes to Wal-Mart of 7-11 to by wine?
Nandemosan, I do! 7-11 has their own "Lowest Price Guarantee" on my personal favorite, Boone's Farm. And you just TRY to find a better deal on Robert Mondavi Merlot than Wal Mart. Those prices just keep on falling...
Wow. Maybe next you can expose professional wrestling as fake.
When you have to provide wine to thousands of grocery stores across the country, you have to produce on an industrial scale. Duh. The grapes are picked, processed, aged, bottled, and shipped across the country, all the while being held to health and safety standards. They can sell it to you for ten bucks and still turn a profit. That should have been a clue.
Hand made wine is sort of snobby by nature, taste or no, because to give wine the care and attention it demands, you have to make small batches that require lots of man hours. In a perfect world we'd all be able to afford "true" wine and appreciate the subtle differences, but while we're wishing, I'd like a solid gold swimming pool full of caviar and a unicorn to fly with me in the rocket ship I'll never have either.
Finally a wine guy that will write more than a generic wine review or of well known wine pleasantries. Good article! Great names from the industry quoted... AND a point of view. I love the idea that we can possible get great juice without the price just to protect a brand. I'll have to get my detective hat on. I'm sure there are enough clues in the vintage, grape, location, and label of what wine might be in a generic bottle to get a great deal! I bet there's an app for that. Good job by the author.
Great piece; very informative. It seems like this is an issue that way too many people don't think about often enough. And whatever wine lovers are hoping to get out of that bottle, it's something that we all should pay more attention to. With all of the hype surrounding eating locally, or at the very least eating seasonally--or, for that matter, just eating foods that haven't been processed to death and that hide behind a screen of misleading language on the label--it's about time that someone (Mr. Wallace, for example) applied the same sort of logic to wine. Well-written, smarty argued, and very enlightening.
Although many people (including at least some who have been commenting on this article) may be aware of the differences of mass market vs. smaller producer wines, I'm quite sure that most wine buying consumers are not. Also, nowhere in this article did I read anything telling people what they should or should not drink - only information to help identify what they are drinking. Regardless of anyone's opinion of the author, ultimately this article is simply putting information out there for people to take in, evaluate for themselves, and possibly learn from (or not). Even though most of what is stated is not a surprise to me personally, I am intrigued by the prospect of seeking out some re-branded wines from prominent producers at lower prices. After all, the label doesn't really matter - as long as you enjoy what is in the bottle.
The best description on a wine label is "estate bottled". That means the grapes were grown at the winery and the wine was made at that winery. Under the labeling rules, the winery and the vineyard must be in the same appelation to use "estate bottled". "Produced and bottled by" is also an excellent clue. It means almost the same thing as "estate bottled", but the vineyards don't have to be in the same appelation as the winery. But both terms means that winery has been in control of the grapes from start to finish.
To my man ChileConCarne - Wrestling is not fake, it is STAGED. Huge difference. I'll toss your ass off a 20 foot steel cage and see if it hurts. And there's not a person out there who doesn't know it's a male soap opera.
In the same vein, while this piece isn't meant to be an expose, it does touch on important info that people forget from time to time. Wallace doesn't appear to be a snob here, he's just teaching a class here for the 101's. I dig it. Not every column can be inside baseball, and I think it's important to know where your juice is from, whether it's Grand Cru Bordeaux or Franzia Box4Life.
The 2 Buck Chuck issue is legit, too, because while they once were made by Charles Schall, they are now made by the aforementioned Franzia.
Keep up the solid work, Sir Wallace.
To a certain extent, Ken is correct that many wines are simply made by process in a vat. The label is just marketing, of course. This is true with many products.
On the other hand, having lived in California and Napa for many years, many of Ken's assertions are patently false. There are over 1800 wineries in the Napa area, and on any given day I would be happy to take ken on a tour of any number of fine wineries and perhaps we can even have a chat with the vintners.
Outside of CA, Ken's assertions have even less merit. Let's speak of Bordeaux for a moment. Aside from the grand maisons, there are a tremendous number of small wineries that are owned by families and, in some cases, the village. One would be in violation of French law and shut down if the methods described in this article were to ever be attempted by an established vintner.
Therefore, the veracity of this article generally applies to low end and low quality wines. I doubt very much that you would not be able to find the winery if you pay much above $70 dollars a bottle in California. So Ken, let's tell the whole story.
Great article. I think any of the big chains should make it obvious to consumers which brands they own outright. Why don't they just put their own name on the label instead of hiding behind some invented brand? They do this for other own label products that they sell. In the UK the supermarket ASDA, owned by Wall-Mart, uses its name on their wine brands and have actually won awards in blind tastings.
The name is Keith, not Ken. Your point is not really a point at all. It is obvious to anyone in the modern world that -yes- there are real wineries in California.
The article is (in part) about how nationally-known wine brands are produced, marketed and sold, and that includes both value and premium wines. If you are going to spend the time to write four paragraphs, at least read the damn article before you do so.
Keith, my apologies for the social faux pas regarding your name. Regarding your comments, my observations regarding real wineries in California are as valid as the entire point of your article. Anyone who has ever been to a grocery store understands that some items, including wine, are mass produced.
Your comments regarding premium wines not having a vineyard are completely wrong. With the exception of Lewis Cellars, (who make wonderful wines by the way) all the premium brands you mention have vested interest in vineyards. What they also have is a cooperative agreement to share grapes in any given year. If you can find a premium winery that does not own or lease a vineyard let me know.
Further, you seem to equate vat houses with crushing and off site wine production houses. It is obvious to me from the article you have not spent much time in either. The fact that a small winery may use a crushing a fermentation site other than their own does not disassociate that winery from it's product. Quite the opposite.
Again, the facts in your article are not accurate. Most wines in California, from either Napa or Sonoma, and aside from low end volume wines, are made by the vintner. Sorry, you got it wrong Ken.
Actually, I am a former winemaker, and have spent my fair share of time in Cali.
The next time you are having a bottle of cali wine, look at the back label. If it says anything but "produced, grown, and bottle by" "estate bottled" or "produced and bottled by" then you are drinking a bottle of wine that was made by a third party.
Hmmm. We are one of those small wineries where we farm our own land, touch each vine probably 20 times during the fruit's progress from bud to glass, and produce the wine right here in Cornelius, Oregon just steps away from the vineyard. We believe there is a distinction in the wine, not that we haven't enjoyed wine from other places that produce on a larger scale and maybe don't grow their own grapes, we have. One obstacle for all wineries - but especially small ones - is how onerous it is to ship out-of-state directly to consumers. Some state's rules are laughable - to ship to Arizona, for instance, the buyer has to have set foot in your winery; others, horribly expensive and prohibitive; yet others don't even permit it. Now that would be a column to write, in my opinion. Maybe, if we could ship more easily ourselves and not drive up the price of our estate-bottled wine by having to rely on a third-party shipper, we could get a bottle of wine from A Blooming Hill Vineyard out there and people could have as many choices as there actually are to drink great wine. Just a thought.
check out Arizona House Bill 2500 - domestic farm wineries; direct shipment.
Local wineries in Arizona banded together to change the laws in the state to allow shipment directly to consumers in other states (though not all of course). Might be something Oregon wineries could do. Good luck.
But does it taste good? The authored mentioned brands like Mark West, which is available all over the place for around 10 bucks, and is completely drinkable.
Interesting article-thanks.
The most egregious example I've seen of this mass delivery of wines is the 'Barefoot' brand. The stuff is seemingly available in every corner of the Known Universe. The liquor stores on Cat Island, Bahamas, (not Third World, but definitely Second World) stock Barefoot as their modestly-priced wine. Then, on a motorcycle trip from my home in Oregon to Dead Horse, Alaska (furthest point north accessible by (gravel) road) I found that no matter how small the liquor store in Canada or Alaska, no matter how small the town, no matter how far you are from "civilization"-you will find Barefoot wine. They must make this stuff by the tankerload. On the positive side, its not too bad!.
Thanks, Keith, for your article. Although there are, of course, people who know a LOT about wine, I'd guess that 97% of the wine-drinking public finds the world of wine daunting, intimidating,and generally overwhelming. Anything that helps that audience - any audience - feel more informed and comfortable is a good thing.
As a small wine retailer focused on authentic, estate bottles wines, I welcome the author's clarification to the average consumer that what they are getting at the grocery store is the equivalent of McDonald's in a bottle. The comments saying this is obvious to every consumer are wrong, plain and simple. I see it every day in my shop. My one bone of contention with the article is the last line...while I agree that you "generally" don't get authenticity and value, I hope readers realize that if you look for it, you can. Maybe not for $6 or $7 per bottle, but I sell many estate bottles and grown wines- some from small, family owned wineries- in the $10 to $15 range. If you live in an urban area, it should not be difficult to find a local wine merchant who can point you to some similar examples.
Hey after going to Europe and tasting their table wines... i quit being a wine snob. If the wine tastes good to me, i buy it. I do not care who or where it comes from... but, I do perfer italian wines...
Since Keith's using my "schtick" here, I'll defend it.
If anyone believes that Ragu "tomato sauce" is the equivalent of hand-made marinara from well-farmed tomatoes, or that real Italian food is best exemplified by the "Olive Garden," and should be accorded the same respect, so be it. Such a person will never understand the very real difference between hand-made, well-farmed wine and the "food-processed" beverages sold as "wine."
Now, that said, I love OREO cookies, but I understand that they are chemical-laden, nasty, industrial caricatures of real pastry. I know them for what they are. They have no real "intrinsic" value, and are in fact, not "good."
If you wonder about the chemicals in Ragu (just how DOES Unilever, producers of deodorant, among other things, make it so consistent?), fear not...there are a boatload FEWER chemicals in the Ragu than there is the in food-processed "wine."
All of which is to say, the REAL thing might teach you something about a far-away culture, and it's associated cuisines and traditions. The "fake" stuff will only teach you about the "bottom line" of a multi-national, publicly-traded marketing company.
This stand does not make me or Keith "snobs." We just happen to appreciate the "real thing," and know the fake for what it is. Not WANTING to hear or ackowledge that these things exists, is WILLFULL clinging to ignorance. And that's a far greater affront than "snobbery" any way you cut it.
Sidebar to the fast food headline, my greater concern is with additives in the process. What can a wine producer, industrial or small scale, add to the wine making process and still call the product wine? That $4.99 bottle from Trader Joe's makes sense given our current wine budget, but what the hell's lurking in that bottle?
You should read my article about that very subject. It's here on the Beast.
Here's a suggestion, Keith: publish a list of those fantastic, $30 Stag's Leap Petit Syrahs and so forth sold for five bucks under a different label, and I can fucking promise you there will be at least one buyer for your book. As for this article, though, I have to wonder who was the intended audience--novices or idiots who throw down bills to buy Two Buck Chuck,
Its for the educated individual who enjoys wine, but is also interested in it as an intellectual pursuit.
For wine recommendations, you would have to read my newsletter. Oh, and my book will have nothing to do with recommending specific wines. Good wines at a good price are typically short affairs and very localized. Get such tips from a local wine school or similar independent source, not from a publication that takes weeks-- if not months or years --to hit the shelves.
For instance, that Petite Sirah I wrote about was gone a week after I wrote this article (and three weeks before you read it).
Thank you.
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