Winberis

Consumer Expectation, Consumer Benefit and Willingness to Pay.

There is currently a debate raging in the international wine industry about whether or not it is a necessity to ship wines internationally under strict temperature control.  There exists copious anecdotal evidence that extremes of temperature damage wines, and that by ensuring consistent temperature for the duration of a wine’s journey from producer to market one can mitigate this damage. 

I have personally been on the receiving end of containers of (excruciatingly rare and expensive) wines which upon opening, reveal that instead of being temperature controlled for the entirety of their journey, spent a week unprotected on someone’s 90 degree loading dock. 
Ouch.

In the case of wines retailing for $600.00 per case, making the argument for temperature control at $2.00 per case is simple arithmetic.  Adding $0.17 per $50 bottle is cheap insurance.  Likewise, when the cost of goods on a case of wine is $24.00, the math is pretty much done for you.  At almost 10% of the total landed cost, the previously cheap insurance becomes an unaffordable luxury.  The difficult choices begin in the middle...

What does a wine importer do when the wines are especially robust, like alcoholic, tannic reds with modest value?  Likewise, what is to be done with inexpensive but delicate wines like Muscadet which will be heavily impacted by heat but which don’t offer the margins required justifying the use of reefers?

Consumers can be brought into a dialog with importers wherein they can both indicate their preference as to how a wine should be treated as well as be made to understand the costs associated with their choice.  Typically we use the importer brand as the language for this conversation.  An importer hangs his shingle with an implied value proposition, and the consumers indicate through their purchasing behavior whether or not the value proposition works. 

Let’s use the Muscadet example.  This young, fresh white wine from the Loire Valley has one mission in life… to refresh.  It should taste of mainly of Citrus, stone and a bit of briny sea air.  (I’m not kidding, have one.)  The problem with such an ephemeral wine is that once bottled, it begins a steady march toward boring.  Once the airy top notes of a wine like this disappear, all we are left with is the high acid and light body of a thousand insipid old-world whites.

As consumers we decide what we want.  The difference between the bottom of the market and the top (in the US) is the difference between $6.78 and $18.00.  Different importers with very different philosophies present these wines.  The cost of the wine ex-cellars is the first place we are asked to make an endorsement of one cost structure over another, the next is in transport (our choices are discussed in this article by David Schilknecht), the third is in the importer’s commitment to careful, appropriate marketing and a long term investment in brands and customer relationships over dump-and-see import.

The sophisticated consumer may not consciously make the decision of where they choose to position themselves in the consumer expectation, consumer benefit and willingness to pay equation, but by their behavior they make a statement.  A consumer’s behavior in regards to perceived import wine value is a referendum on the efficacy of  both an importer’s supply chain and their ability to communicate that benefit.

Visiting Burgundy

I've gotten in a bit of trouble before by grabbing items from Jancis Robinson's website (which you really should subscribe to), and so imagine my delight when she published an article I wanted to steal from her website in the San Francisco Chronicle!  Now if Phil Bronstein wants to come after me, Paris is a long way from San Francisco.
This article is for all of the friends who are constantly asking for the scoop on visiting Burgundy... I couldn't have said it better myself.

Tasting through Burgundy

                                                                 

Jancis Robinson

Friday, May 11, 2007

Most of us know how to visit a winery, don't we? You walk into the tasting room and try to wangle a taste of as many of the producer's best wines as possible. 

But in Burgundy, the business of visiting to taste is very different indeed. 

The places where Burgundy is made have in most significant cases remained virtually unchanged for centuries. The typical Burgundian wine producer operates in a dark, damp, low-ceilinged stone cellar that can be found only by those with an intimate knowledge of village backstreets and the courtyards and passageways that lie behind and beneath them. Why, even the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, the most famous and best endowed Burgundian wine estate of all, keeps half of its fabulous wines maturing in a subterranean cavern accessible only by what is virtually a trapdoor. 

Nor are the really interesting wine domaines in Burgundy particularly interested in receiving visitors. They can generally, after all, sell every bottle they fill. An almost infallible rule for tourists in Burgundy is that if they are invited to taste by signs outside an establishment, the wines therein are unlikely to be interesting. 

So the first challenge is to make an appointment to taste at a worthwhile address. Expecting to taste without an appointment is futile. Burgundian wine producers are busy, hands-on introverts who do not need adulation. An hour spent showing you their wines means an hour less tending their wines and vines, which they all do personally. There are none of Bordeaux's teams of workers here. A few helpers perhaps, but the name on the label is almost invariably that of the person who did most of the work.

We wine writers have better access than an unknown visitor perhaps, but even for us the Burgundian welcome is measured. Indeed a fellow wine writer recently exclaimed with more than a hint of exasperation, "Why is it that in Burgundy they never ever ask you for lunch?" In this respect Burgundian vignerons much more closely resemble cautious farmers than anything remotely like a public relations person. In fact, I have found that the more urbane and more famous the producer, the more effusive the welcome. 

Talking of lunch, it is vital to remember that the lunch hour, possibly two, is sacrosanct. Very few vignerons would welcome a visitor who arrived as late as noon and only exceptionally cooperative ones would agree to an afternoon appointment that began before 2 p.m. or after 4:30 p.m. This makes for some rather relaxing tasting days compared with the madness of tasting one's way round a more competitive wine region, where my tasting day could and has run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. without any break for solid matter. Thus, the visitor to Burgundy needs to remember to make his own arrangements for lunchtime, whether by booking at a convenient village restaurant  or by buying provisions for a picnic  --  before all the shops close at noon, of course.

But even once you have your itinerary in place (last-minute arrangements are unlikely to work), more homework is still needed. Some villages such as Vosne-Romanee and Gevrey attempt via a map in the main square and a printed map in the tourist office respectively to locate individual wine producers but this is rare. You will typically be armed only with an address, and the typical vigneron's premises are signaled with nothing more (and often less) than a modest nameplate. You can save valuable time in a hard-pressed day by scouting around the village backstreets in advance  --  during lunchtime perhaps?  --  to locate your eventual destinations. 

Let us assume however that you have found your vignerons. And have turned up at the right time, and so have they. Although almost all of those under 40 speak English and occasionally other languages, many of the older ones speak nothing but French. You'll be looked up and down and then taken down into the cellar or cave, at some point collecting glasses and the all-important wine thief (pipette), because most of the tasting in Burgundy is done straight from barrel. And here we encounter one of the great professional obstacles for anyone who writes tasting notes. A Burgundian cellar is full of barrels and very little else. Barrels on their sides, as they all are here, are round. There is not a flat surface to be found. The vignerons will roam all over their cavernous cellars  to present you with samples of their wines from the most basic Aligote or Passetoutgrains up via village wines and premiers crus to grands crus, each one dribbled into your glass from their pipettes  --  and you will have a devil of a job balancing your glass and notebook. You will be presented with a spittoon, but you will be expected to pour back what remains in your glass, often into the vignerons' own glasses unless you demonstrate that you too can unerringly find the bunghole hidden under the barrel stacked above the one you're tasting from. 

Because the wines will be presented to you upwards in order of quality (which sometimes means that a great premier cru such as Clos St. Jacques in Gevrey may well be served after a lighter grand cru such as Charmes-Chambertin) it is vital that you don't gush with too much enthusiasm about the first few wines. Reserve the superlatives for the wines dribbled into your glass at the end. And you might also assume that whites will always be served before reds, but this is far from an infallible rule. Many producers serve their whites at the end, especially if they are very smart ones, believing they are much more testing than reds out of cask. 

You can be sure that you too will be tested, as a taster and a visitor, and that you will be participating in something that feels like an ancient rite. Because that, as so much in Burgundy, is precisely what it is.

---

Visiting Burgundy

For help organizing your Burgundy itinerary, go to  www.vins-bourgogne.fr. For a list  of local tourist offices, go to www.burgundy-tourism.com.

Thanks again Jancis!

On box wine

I don’t like box wine. I am however a fan of box wine.

It’s not a snob thing; I just usually know something not much more expensive that will provide me with a lot more pleasure. Why not drink a low cost Sauvignon de St. Bris instead of Three Thieves? I’ll tell you why not, because 90%* of the readership of this blog has never had a Sauvignon de St. Bris, wouldn’t know where to find it, and wouldn’t recognize it if it somehow bit them on the nose (that includes my mother… An avid reader.)

10% of the readers of this posting can rest easy in their knowledge, find great wines at great prices in odd places, and cash in on years of hard study and studious tasting… “We band of brothers, we lucky few.”

30% of my readers will happily spend their way out of their indecision; with $40 a blind monkey can find a great wine (at retail) in any city in the world. Even if you weren’t to know the punt from the foil, there will be plenty of shopkeepers happy to help you part with your money… “Many Americans equate cost with quality, and believe that more expensive wines are better, simply based on their price. Consequently, many believe that enjoying wine by its very nature is an expensive endeavor, since the best wines are the most expensive.”**

 40% of the rest will walk into a Trader Joe’s, or other retailer, look for a pretty label (I mean that in a nice way) at their price point, take it home or to a party… Taste it and be either 1) happily surprised, or 2) disavow having brought the wine to the party, or 3) blame themselves for “not liking wine”. In any case, not an auspicious start to a lifelong love affair.

Everyone else (20%) will just say “Screw it, where’s the beer case?”

Enter modern box wine. I see box wine as an easy, safe bridge to the world of wine. Buy it at Target and Walmart. It’s cheap. With a Mylar bag insert, it will last in the fridge. Many of the wines are better than “Two buck Chuck”, and serve as an easy and confidence inspiring alternative to beer. I am all for the bigger wine companies flexing their economies of scale, and reviving the flagging >$6 wines category with a new, sensible range of offerings. We know that Kendall Jackson can produce reliable, value packed products in obscene quantities, day in, day out. The challenge now is to bring that same quality brand promise to a new consumer, one who considers the $14 “premium category” premium.

One of the more persistent trends in recent years in terms of wine sales was the growing popularity of box wines, in particular more upscale brands. Traditionally, box wines were seen as a cheaper way to buy more volume for less price, popular with consumers unconcerned with presentation or quality. But in 2005, upscale labels such as Black Box wine and Block Wine from Kendall-Jackson made strong sales gains. Box wines typically have airtight plastic bags inside lavishly decorated cardboard boxes. The packaging limits the amount of air that gets inside, prolonging the life of the wine. Box wines are also convenient to carry and store in refrigerators. Wine consumers do not have to deal with corkscrews or open bottles, and the packaging also costs less for producers, keeping prices lower. As wine producers look for new ways to soften the elite image of wine and make it more palatable to the mass consumer, box wines are poised to increasingly become an option for wine labels, both economy and premium.**

*certainty within 1σ

**Euromonitor International : Country Sector Briefing, “Wine – US”, April 2006

On opportunity...

I know this may seem like a strange post considering the typically focused nature of this blog, but I've been thinking alot recently about the nature of obstacles and opportunities. 

I was sitting down for lunch on Friday at my friend Filipe's 30th birthday.  There were about 20 of us outdoors under dappled sunlight on the bank of the Seine celebrating, laughing and drinking cheap wine.  Hardly a place where I'd expect cynicism to raise it's ugly head...
At some point during lunch, the conversation turned to wine and the business of wine (not my fault, I swear!).  The fellow across from me, a Swiss MBA/ICRC operative who has lived all over the world doing good works in rough places said, "wine is a dying business... you said yourself that consumption in Europe is flat, and that consolidation is making the industry more competitive... why on Earth don't you do something easier, with more of a potential upside?"

It is a good question, one that I answer with a quote from Machiavelli's The Prince:

“Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.”

The wine industry as we know it is at its core, a centuries old system for moving a locally manufactured perishable good to market.  Nothing more, nothing less.  It is a simple system which we have complicated amazingly through layers of tradition, legislation, and clever business-iness.  I won't say that the system has become unwieldy and inefficient, but I won't say anything else either.

I have been auditing a class at INSEAD taught by Professor Cool (real name) called Industry and Competitive Analysis.  One of his core tenets is that strategic opportunity lies in identifying and correcting market inefficiencies.  If that is true, and I believe it is, then few businesses are as exciting and opportunity filled as the one in which I find myself. 

Every time I see one of our tried and true models suffering (traditional wine importers vs. grey marketers), I am seeing a correction of an inefficiency... Market Darwinism?  I'm not saying that there is no place for traditional models in wine, I just believe that businesses should look honestly at themselves from the customer's perspective and then steal their own lunch before someone else can.

Look for obstacles, inefficiencies and things that you accept with blind faith.  Ask why.  Find opportunity.  Repeat.

An anniversary...

It is now almost a year since my last post on this blog, so let's see if I can get it restarted...
I am living in France while my wife attends INSEAD for her MBA.  I have been spending an inordinate amount of time in Burgundy and Champagne... not a bad thing considering Burgundy is supposed to be my specialty!
I hatched a business plan to develop wine brands for the emerging market in India, got offers of funding, got customers, got everything lined up, and spent weeks there proving my model and the market.  After all of this, I found that for lifestyle reasons I was unprepared to move to Bombay for the 3-5 years that it would take to get the idea off the ground...  Anyone want to buy a ready-made business?  I'll sell it for an equity stake!
Actually, I was mentioned in "Time Out Mumbai" in the cover article of their wine issue.  It was Seagram, Vijay Mallya (Indian brewing billionaire), Rajeev Samant (the most modern of Indian wine producers) and yours truly.  Pas Mal!

Source : Time Out Mumbai ISSUE 14 Friday, March 09, 2007

Brave new world

Maharashtra’s wine industry is raising a toast to a happy future, reports Leo Mirani.
A few weeks ago, Mint reported that Vijay Mallya’s UB Group plans to
set up India’s largest winery to produce a wine called Four Seasons and
to open a chain of wine bars across India. A few days later, Seagram
India launched its brand of wine, Nine Hills, in Mumbai. Shortly after,
France-based Christian Pillsbury held a market research exercise in a
home in Bandra to discover local taste preferences. The following day,
Sula Vineyards CEO Rajeev Samant held a press meet at Haiko
supermarket in Powai, the first convenience store in Mumbai to retail
wine.
All this hyperactivity is an energetic attempt to quench India’s enormous
thirst for value-added grape juice. The subcontinent’s wine industry is
now growing at 35 to 40 per cent a year, according to India’s largest
wine producer Chateau Indage, much faster than consumption of traditional favourites like whisky,
which is rising at a mere eight every year. For wine makers, the future looks even more delicious.
India’s per capita consumption of wine is roughly six ml, or a little over a teaspoon, compared to
nearly 60 litres in France, said Seagram India’s assistant vice president Rukn Luthra. He said that
Indians now drink twice as much wine as they did five years ago. According to Euromonitor, a
London-based market research agency, the Indian market has grown by 126 per cent in volume
since 2001. They forecast that the market will expand by 97 per cent in the next five years.
The thirst has been intensified both by social changes and by government concessions to the wine
industry. Middle-class Indians now have more disposable income than ever before and they’re
looking for new experiences. Besides, wine’s lower alcohol content (12-15 per cent compared to
40-60 per cent in spirits) means that it’s seen as a healthier alternative to liquor.
“The growth is not recent,” said Vikrant Chougule, strategy head at the
Indage Group. “It’s been a process since we started in 1982 and now all
the new entrants are doing their bit for people to understand wine better,
to realise that wine has all these benefits and is actually a nicer thing to
drink than Scotch and killing yourself.” The greatest yardstick of the
drink’s newfound popularity, he said, is the Hindi movie. Said Chougule,
“Gone are the times when they used to celebrate with Vat 69.”
Christian Pillsbury, who describes himself as a wine business strategy
consultant, plans to get into the Indian wine market by creating wines
that are specifically for the Indian market. “You aren’t like everyone else
in the world,” he said. “International brands arrive with a product made
for places like Sweden and expect to be greeted like conquering heroes.
The future of wine in India lies in the creation of wines especially for the Indian market and
consumer.”
Maharashtra is the theatre of action for the Indian wine industry. The state’s first winery was
Sharad Pawar’s Baramati Grape Industries, which started in 1975. Pawar is now tipped to be a
shareholder in Mallya’s new venture. Regions of the state such as Nashik and Narayangaon have
the right climate to produce the graps varietals needed for quality wine. Many farmers already grow
table grapes, making it easy for new wineries to persuade them to switch to cultivating wine
grapes. (Seagram doesn’t grow grapes. It has 20 farmers contracted for the purpose. Indage has
up to 1,000 farmers on contract in addition to 2,800 acres of vineyards.)
The state government formulated a policy to encourage wine growing at the beginning of the
decade after it realised that the quantity of table grapes being produced by Maharashtra’s farmers
far exceeded demand, said Jaideep Kale, technical co-ordinator of the Maharashtra Industrial
Development Corporation’s wine park projects. “When the government looked at the figures of
worldwide production and consumption of wine, they realised that if they didn’t encourage Indian
:::: Time Out Mumbai - city guide and fortnightly listing magazine :::: http://www.timeoutmumbai.net/client_coverstory/client_coverstory_detai...
2 of 2 3/10/2007 1:58 PM
wineries then foreign players would eventually come here and set up,” he said.
The Maharashtra Grape Processing Industrial
Policy of 2001 has been vital in promoting new
wineries. The policy exempts the wine industry
from excise duty for 10 years. It simplified
licensing procedures, established cheaper
licences for bars serving only wine, allowed beer
bars to sell wine and enabled wineries to get
cheaper bank loans by declaring wine production
as a small-scale industry. At the time the policy
was passed, Maharashtra had four wineries.
Today, there are 43, with eight new wineries
coming up this year, said Kale. In 2002, the state
government helped establish “wine parks” –
special zones where the government gives entrepreneurs land and infrastructure to develop wine –
in Nashik and Sangli districts. On December 30, Haiko became the first supermarket in the state to
start retailing wine as a result of a decision in October to allow grocery stores to sell wine and beer.
The cost of a licence to sell only wine and beer in supermarkets and grocery stores is a fourth of
the cost of a regular wine shop licence.
450 Crore rupees
Value of the Indian wine industry.
650,000
Number of cases of wine sold in 2006.
24 Billion litres
Worldwide consumption of wine.
30 Per cent
Rate at which Indian wine consumption is growing.
8.3 Million litres
How much wine we’re expected to be drinking by 2010.
47 Per cent
How much of the wine we import is French.
30 Per cent
The rate at which Italian wine imports is growing per year.
1-1.5 Crore rupees
Cost of setting up a winery with a capacity of one lakh litres.

The Grey Market

    Often when looking through the offerings of a retailer there are inconsistencies which beg explanation.  How can one find a rare Burgundy or Rhone wine at oddly sub-market (US) prices?  Why wouldn't I buy a '95 Laflaive Chevalier Montrachet for $445 when the going list price is closer to $690?
    The answer to the first question is the grey market, the answer to the second question is also in a way, the grey market.
    First a definition, Wikipedia says:

The grey market refers to the flow of goods through distribution channels other than those authorized by the manufacturer or producer.

Unlike those on the black market, grey market goods are not illegal. Instead, they are being sold outside of normal distribution channels by companies which may have no relationship with the producer of the goods. Frequently this occurs when the price of an item is significantly higher in one country than another . Entrepreneurs will buy the product where it is available cheaply, often at retail but sometimes at wholesale, import it legally to the target market and sell it a price which provides a profit but which is below the normal market price there.

    With the Laflaive above, the wine which could be had for the lesser price comes with some unspoken caveats.  There is the issue of the wine being a pre-arrival, as in the customer pays now and receives the wine at some unspecified future date (I have a friend who bought some very expensive red burgundy a year ago through a grey market source and has yet to hear word one on her purchase).  This differs from the more formal Bordeaux futures market which is the official avenue of sale with a recognized and accountable chain between producer and retailer. 
    The second caveat is the more disturbing of the two, that is the question of provenance (an auction derived word describing the wines path through various owners, from producer to you).  It is more than likely that the Leflaive was purchase from a wine shop in Brussels or a private cellar in Geneva... not from the producer.  The grey marketer has no relationship with the producer at all, nor most likely a strong relationship with the end retailer, and consequently no financial incentive to safeguard the quality of the wines in their care. 
    This is what a reputable importer Dan Kravitz has to say on the matter:

Right now Pegau is the only wine I represent that is brought in grey market on a regular basis. I've discussed the matter frequently with Laurence Feraud, co-owner and winemaker at the Domaine.

First of all, I've got libertarian (small 'l') leanings so I have no philosophical objection to what is really only free trade. However grey market imports mean that wines are misallocated and/or mispriced. In fact, there is a fair amount of gray market Pegau in the U.S. - usually selling for the same price or more than the stuff I bring in. Laurence has made some efforts to find out which of her European customers is selling to gray market importers, but she's a busy woman. Although we haven't discovered any culprits, the amount of gray market Pegau seems to be decreasing even as demand increases, as she is questioning her customers more carefully about their markets.  Laurence for a while talked about putting different capsules on wines for each market, so that I could send her a bottle of gray market wine and she could identify the customer who sold it for reshipment. Haven't heard any more.

The point about gray market wine is that it is always the producer's fault. If they sell the right amount at the right price to each market, it won't be worth anybody's time or effort to buy it in Belgium and sell it in the U.S. (or vice-versa). I attribute the decrease in gray market Pegau directly to questioning her customers closely about where the wine is going. There was clearly an imbalance for a while and Laurence is acting to correct it.

It is natural for an importer to take higher margins on wines in great demand. I do it myself. However I have a fairly narrow range of pricing and while I price Pegau at the top of that range, I don't try to get rich off of it. This isn't lack of greed, it's just long-term business policy and not wanting to kill the goose, etc. Many of my distributors also price Pegau at the top end of their price structure, but I don't think that anybody sees serious gouging.

    Sometimes a single producer will name more than one "official" importer for an area, Kravitz for example is not the primary importer of Domaine Pegau for California... He shares that title with Martine's Wines of Novato, Ca.   Although both firms would like to be exclusive representatives, they don't fault each others commitment to quality.  Ultimately they both must, in concert with their represented producers, fight the grey market importers who serve to undercut the reputations of producers which authorized importers work to cultivate.

A useful equation...

    An email by Jack at forkandbottle.com recently got me thinking about an equation I learned in economics a while ago, one that I find use for everywhere. 
    In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country; it has since become known as the 80/20 rule.  It postulates that 80 percent of the country's wealth is owned by 20 percent of the people (yes, totally out of date now). 
    Later the rule was adopted by the fields of management theory and human resource; 20 percent of applied labor results in 80 percent of a desired result, and the last 20 percent requires 80 percent of one's effort.
    I have decided that the rule is applicable in wine purchase and consumption.  I'll call it the "Parker Principle"; 80 percent of wine drinkers will chase 20 percent of wines, leaving 80 percent of wines to 20 percent of wine drinkers.  I theorize that because of the centralization of wine criticism to only a few palates, and the limited scope of what they are able to taste... the vast majority of wines produced will be under-served by critics in general.
    There are some clear results stemming from this behavior:
    Screaming Eagle remains $1100 per bottle despite the fact that no one can taste it, and the top ten most common searches on winesearcher.com will all trade at a premium above what quality would dictate (editor's commentary)

Search Phrase	Number of Searches
MARGAUX	15135
LATOUR	13317
PETRUS	11125
YQUEM	11025
MOUTON ROTHSCHILD	10276
PERIGNON	9378
HAUT BRION	9217
LAFITE ROTHSCHILD	8506
CRISTAL CHAMPAGNE	8469
ROMANEE CONTI	8438

    The flip side of this equation ensures that the wines of under-marketed regions will remain good values, at least until they are selling at such a deficit in comparison to quality that they become critical darlings... in which case their prices will begin to correct.  In some cases, like in the Rhone Valley, notice by the critics can (in a relatively short time) cause the region to over-correct to the point where supply of small production wines like single vineyard Côte Rôtie can be out-stripped by global demand.
    Then the process begins again.  My advice is to learn to manipulate the Parker Principle, and email me with regions flying under the critical radar :-)

Yup, they call it hiatus...

Well, I've had quite a few objections to winberis.com's current inactivity. 
Yes, I said I was taking a week off for finals... two weeks ago.

I have a good excuse, and ask for continued patience.  I am getting married Saturday and have been distracted from dealing much with wine and wine thinking so my mind and this blog have been unusually infertile.

I will be gone on my honeymoon for the next two weeks in a Caribbean paradise without internet access.  I'll catch up on my reading and be absolutely engaging upon my return.  I promise!

A funny story before I go:

    I was at a family member's house last weekend having a couple of glasses of yummy Cahors.  When we finished the bottle as usually happens, I went to drop the fallen soldier into the recycling bin where a bottle of Peter Michael caught me eye.  Out of curiosity I wanted to see which bottling this was (naturally).  OH MY GOD!  It's Point Rouge! 
    For those of you who aren't intimately familiar with the Peter Michael family of wines, Point Rouge is the phantom in the corner that everyone knows but no one has seen (winesearcher.com has this wine at retail between $300 and $600 per bottle).
    It turns out that there had been a party of "The Ladies who Lunch" the night before and this had been one of the various Chardonnays opened during the course of the evening.  Who knows when?  All I could find out was that a family friend had brought a bottle of wine from her husband's cellar unbeknownst to him.
    My favorite quote is "I don't remember which wine it was, but I think it was good."

The Primary Source...

Find out what all of the fuss was about... Mondovino and Sideways are available on DVD!  This is good for those of us who would've liked to get Mondovino in a couple of sips as opposed to a straight shot.

Here is a link to purchase Mondovino at Amazon.com.
And here is another link for Sideways at Amazon.com.

Winberis.com will be inactive this week due to scheduling conflicts (Final Exams).  We'll be posting again next weekend!

So You Want to Start a Winery?

    Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work in the wine business?  It's probably no more difficult than what you do now, but any expertise you bring from past experience will be of limited application. It is the confluence of traditional capital intensive agriculture, government regulation, dynamic marketing, and intense global competition, and as such, special rules and strategies apply.
    Wine: A Global Business the first book dealing comprehensively with this topic, has been edited by my good friend Dr. Liz Thach and Tim Matz, President/Managing Director for Jackson Estates Wine International.  Both Dr. Thach and Mr. Matz are acknowledged experts in their fields and have brought together 40 influential authors from industry and academia.
   I know, being a textbook it sounds dry, but it's not (Except for the accounting section)... If you have an interest in the business surrounding wine, there is no substitute.  The information provided here is unavailable anywhere outside a classroom.
    Here is a list of chapter headings:

Chapter 1. The Landscape of New World Wine
Chapter 2. Strategic Planning for the Wine Business
Chapter 3. The Business of Viticulture
Chapter 4. The Business of Enology
Chapter 5. Global Marketing
Chapter 6. Wine Media and Public Relations
Chapter 7. The Importance of Wine Brand
Chapter 8. Wine Distribution
Chapter 9. Direct Wine Sales
Chapter 10. Financial Aspects of Wine
Chapter 11. Wine Accounting and Tax
Chapter 12. Wine Supply Chain Management
Chapter 13. Managing Human Resources in the Wine Industry
Chapter 14. The Legalities of Wine
Chapter 15. Environmental and Social Responsibility Issues
Chapter 16. Looking Towards the Future

    I hope people who read this: 1) Buy the book. 2) Write to tell us about their experience.