finalanalysis

The guidebook Gault Millau isn’t well known in America, but in Germany it is a big deal. As with a high score in Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate here in the US, a good review in Gault Millau can make or break a sales vintage for a producer.

Presumably Gault Millau knows this, which is why someone over there thought it would be a good idea to shakedown producers for a “voluntary” contribution of $195 Euros ($277 US). Unsurprisingly, German wineries weren’t thrilled with this and they sent a group letter in protest.

Now according to Decanter.com, “the chief editor, Armin Diel, resigned this month because the ‘whole issue made me feel uncomfortable,‘”

I’ll give him credit for self awareness, which is more than I can say for the review site Yelp.com, which got caught in a similar pay-to-play scandal earlier this year.

It is an interesting contrast: the German resigns after losing face, the American wages a full-out PR blitz attacking the media outlets that wrote about his company.

People pooh-pooh the Wine Spectator restaurant awards. And to be fair, they’ll give the One Glass Award of Excellence to anyone, event outright frauds.

But to get a Two Glass “Best of” award takes a deeper commitment to crafting a thoughtful and considered wine program. Canoe Restaurant’s Matt Bradford was the only Wine Director in Atlanta to receive an upgrade to a “Best of” award this year, joining Bone’s and Joel as the only Two Glass award winning independent restaurants in our fair city. Kudos!

At the very least he has more interesting things to say about the cooling of “luxury fever.”

From the Wall Street Journal’s Dept. of Somewhat Obvious Phenomena we learn that expensive wines aren’t selling very well:

“Many of America’s high-end wineries are reeling from the economic downturn…Recession-weary consumers…are buying more mid- and low-priced wines…The shift is pinching the profits of luxury vintners in Napa and Sonoma counties and forcing many to cut prices…”

If you write a business plan based on $250,000/acre land, $90,000/acre planting costs, and $1,000,000 consulting fees, I’m sure you feel your wine is “worth” $100+/btl. But to hear the market speak, it isn’t. Speaking from experience, the premium and super-premium wines that sell well in today’s market either have an established fan base or excellent scores (95+) from either Wine Advocate or Wine Spectator (or both).

Otherwise, super-premium wines are dead in the water. You wanna sell 200 cases nationally at $100+/bottle retail, you probably can regardless if you work hard enough. You want to sell 15,000 cases at the same price point? Good luck with that.

Until I come up with something terribly original to say, you’ll have to settle for other people’s original thoughts:

• Are cult wines “boring elitist wines, riding on their laurels, and dependent on the flattery of a handful of chosen sycophants to keep their reputations aloft”? Steve Heimhoff says yes.
• Can Social Media save these same cult wines from extinction? Tyler Colman says no.
• It seems to me that if you practice biodynamic farming, then throw a bunch of crap into your wine to give it mass appeal, that sort of misses the point. Kudos for truth in labeling though.
• If you have to taste a wine six times to know it, are scores meaningless?

Thoughts?

Before I started this blog, people encouraged me to and I didn’t because I thought I wouldn’t keep up with any kind of reasonable posting schedule. And look what has happened! Now I have people approaching me in public asking me why I don’t post more.

It remains to be seen whether I manage any kind of serious frequency, but in the meantime, here’s some things I have been following in the world of wine:

• Streets of Buckhead is apparently a go again. Because what Atlanta needs right now is a super-premium retail development
• Want to counterfeit some wine? Start here.
• At last, a solution to the question of how to take wine on a long hike.
• Ludacris now has a brand of Cognac with naked women on the label.
• Tom Wark wants you to blend bottles of wine together.

I guess this means I am back.

I don’t get this.

Grange is great and all. Best wine in Australia and all that. But $595? When the Bordeaux first growths are having a hard time breaking $200 en primeur?

Guess some folks still have money.

The wino world is chattering with the news that Murphy-Goode is offering a $10K/month wine blogging job. Atlanta’s own Hardy Wallace, aka Dirty South Wine is in the running. (Actually, Hardy’s a yankee, but we love him anyway.) Obviously he is far and away the best candidate. Right? And you want him to get the job so he can stop eating Ramen. Right? So help out. Start commenting on his new blog Goode to be First, and fan him on facebook.

Moet Hennessey’s Champagne Sales are down 35%

I have a financial interest in this, but you should still come:

This Monday, April 20th, Milla Handley, owner and winemaker of Handley Cellars in Anderson Valley, California will team up with Chef Billy Allin of Cakes & Ale in Decatur for a 5-course wine pairing menu featuring Handley’s Anderson Valley wines. Seating is limited to 30 people and the price is $55, including food & wine, tax and gratuity not included. Here’s the menu that Billy provided me:

* 2003 Sparkling Rose
o Deviled Eggs
o Gougeres with country ham & greens
o Arancini
o Radish with sea salt & butter
* 2007 Pinot Gris
o Clams with white beans, saffron, tomato & salami
* 2006 Chardonnay
o Hand cut green pasta with rabbit, ricotta & breadcrumbs
* 2006 Pinot Noir
o Roasted pork tenderloin with Israeli couscous, charred leeks, morel mushrooms & pinot noir-juniper sauce
* 2006 Late Harvest Riesling
o Strawberry mille-feiulles

Milla doesn’t visit Atlanta very often, so this is pretty cool (to me, at least). Call Cakes & Ale (254 W Ponce de Leon Ave Decatur, GA 30030) at (404) 377-7994 for availability.