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In France Today Crime is Legal !!!!! If it is Done By the Wine Industry As we monitor wine prices world wide, we note price drops in almost every category in almost every country... except for French Champagne. In fact many champagnes such as Duval Leroy Paris have risen from under $30 to around $40. We just didn't get it. But we do now. It seems that every vintner in that small growing area East of Paris known as The Champagne District had a meeting. This Champagne area is the only place in the world from which the grapes are grown that can bottle a wine that can be called Champagne. But their warehouse shelves and those of their importers and distributors and retailers were still loaded with bottles left over from last year. Continued normal production would further overload the inventory and result in dramatic price reductions. The wine consumer would clearly benefit, but the Champagne vintners would suffer serious losses. Thus, the bubbly producers all met and universally agreed to maintain prices and cut production. All the Champagne producers agreed to this course of action. In many countries the owners would go to jail. In the United States, the law against restriction of trade by monopolistic acts was instituted in the early 20th Century against the tightly knit petroleum industry who were then found guilty of price fixing which cost the American consumer billions. Many other countries followed suit. But France has always encouraged restricted production of wine in various ways. Wines cannot be called Bordeaux or Burgundy unless they are grown in the same limited acreage in which it was grown for the last 150 years. Same amount of wine produced. Population increases fivefold. Guess what happens. It would have been like allowing Ford, General Motors and Chrysler to jointly agree to build no new plants and restrict production to what it was in 1915. The only serious wine area of France that has not succumbed to this vicious monopolistic action is The Southern Rhone Valley. Values still abound there and they should retain our support. I suggest that we all refuse to be exploited by the rest of France. On the other hand...... prices around the world are plummeting, In Napa is some cases wineries have so much on their shelves that they are not buying grapes this year. The high prices Napa has developed are beginning to disappear. A Piemonte Barolo can be now be found for less than $20. Brunellos and Chianti Reservas are also down. If you walk through the wine section of the mass merchants and especially the fast responding high wine volume clubs you now will see sections piled high with cases of wines that previously were in limited display on shelves. Wine values from all hemispheres can be found for $10 or less. The change has been dramatic and amazing.
But understand this wine by its nature is a long run business and name brand
wineries work for years to establish a name and a price point. So the major
names will sell off wine to the The Negotiant as we have explained is an individual business often operated by one or two people. They search for wineries or farmers in distress and use their own entrepreneurial and very unique palate skills to create great values. They own no land, no wineries, no warehouses. They rent all of this only upon need and thus have the dramatically lower cost of doing business. of paying for time and equipment only when needed. Thus they are capable of offering wines from Napa, Sonoma, Russian River, Oregon and Washington plus Spain and South America for $10 retails that might sell for up to $40 in the original label. Three very active and visible negotiants right now are Castle Rock, Cameron Hughes. and the dreaded Franzia Brothers, creators of Two Buck Chuck (See next article) Hughes is located in Geyserville. But his reach is deep into Spain with some wonderful Grenache wines at under $10 retail. His wines both domestic and imported have been universally remarkable.
The other slightly more stable market is Private Branding by big wine retailers. They generally don't have the talent of the Negotiants but they may have the buying power to go to a major vintner that is in distress and buy already crushed, blended and perhaps bottled wine that is sitting in warehouses unsold. The retailer then can obtain continuity by demanding a long term supply over many years in return for instant cash. This year, we have purchased remarkable Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the upscale Russian River area for about $10 that taste like $50 to me. It does take some work and a developed skill but it is a lot of fun and is tremendously rewarding. It takes no skill, no brains and little satisfaction to plunk down $50 to $100 for a bottle of wine that may come out last in a wine tasting with wines that are 1/5th the price. But if you are the person that bought the latter wine, think of your satisfaction level. it is a feeling that money can't buy . Read on for more specifics if you have the time 1. Shocking 2008 Wine Auctions: This was the Early Warning: You see, the 4th quarter 2008 price sensitive wine auction sales were down from $81 million to 35 Million. These sales are made to market savvy professionals who set the standards for future retail prices. They understand what will happen in the future. Now so will you. This tremendous drop in the net dollar value at auction sales were a result of two things. Prices that were actually bid on individual wines went way down.. plus lots that went completely unbid went way up. Sold lots were 81% in 2007 and 54% in 2008. That meant almost 1/2 of the 2008 wine had no bidders and remained unsold. WOOW !!!!!
Chateau Ste. Michelle also in that same Columbia Valley produces good Cabs, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc under $18. Finally also check out Hogue in that area for very drinkable Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer under $20 and a Riesling at an unbelievable $9 and a Merlot at $16. It still is pretty hard to find a good Pinot Noir under $20 but b California obviously has many offerings especially now in whites throughout the state but value in fine Reds are hard to find. Napa, especially, saddled with ridiculous real estate costs sadly seems to be think it is above having to offer value in Cabs. In fact they seem to follow the French (Louis Vuitton) approach that the more you charge, the more the customer will want it. Strangely the only reasonably priced California Cab is from Napa however, via Villa St. Eden at $15. Supply is limited, There is a Buehler Napa Zinfandel at $18
Over-planting of Chardonnay for many years combined with strong value competition from Sauvignon Blanc has produced heavy price reductions from some big names like Robert Mondovi, Beringer and Rutherford Hill-Napa, Chateau St. Jean- Sonoma,Bernardus-Monterey, Gloria Ferrer-Sonoma and Mount Eden- Edna Valley. They all are currently offering very drinkable wines at under $20..
Sauvignon Blanc has now exploded in California. There are at least 25 producers offering very satisfying wines well under $20. When you add in New Zealand as I will below, the choices become so broad that I leave it to you to find one that measures up if you drink Sauvignon Blanc. Finally and somewhat amazingly, California has begun sneaking up to France. producing very satisfying champagne at 1/2 the French prices which are still sort of controlled. and over priced especially considering that the Euro is down 20%. You will not be ashamed to pour Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noir, Sonoma, Scharfenburger Brut, Mendocino and Mumm Brut Napa Valley Prestige, Napa at a small party. They are all around $19. For big champagne parties see Spain below. 3. France: Bluntly, I find it very difficult to seriously recommend any wines from France white or red as a value with the exception of the many wonderful values from the Southern Rhone with which I am very familiar. The Languedoc, Dordogne and Loire areas are not bad. But hardly worth the trouble. There are so many other better choices. Leave them to the French. With globalization exploding, most drinkable French wines are now still 2 to 3 times as expensive as comparably rated other wines worldwide. A French name on the label cannot be
worth that much. Forget them. However look for names like Guigal, Perrin, Cave Des Papes, Cave De Rasteau along with many others from the wonderful Cotes du Rhone area of Southeast France. These vintners know what to do. They are marketing large quantities of wonderful wine at remarkable prices. The complex reds from primarily Grenache grapes (often blended with Syrah and Mourvedre) can satisfy palates across the board that enjoy Cabs, Pinots and Merlots. Look for recent vintages. Further if your wallet (or purse) is still fat in today's world, then look at that wonderful premium wine from the Southern Rhone. It is Chateauneuf du Pape and is the outstanding value in a true fine wine. It can be found at prices from the above names at $30-50. Look for 2005s and 2006s with some fine 2007s on the way. 4. Italy: A Brunello di Montalcino Sangiovese grape scandal still hovers over Italy. This, the world economy and the drop in the Euro has resulted in price reductions throughout Italy. While the French try to ignore most of the problems, the Italians typically make deals. Values abound. Right now, there are great values in the Northern Tuscany Chianti Classico, Riserva and Ruffina red wine areas. There are perhaps hundreds of good choices around $20 or less. Look for Ricasoli, Volpaia, Frescobaldi and Banfi, among others. Do a little work, talk to a valid wine merchant and have some fun searching this market. You'll be thrilled at the results.
Until a few years ago, white wines and Italy had little to offer. But remember that this long Mediterranean boot has been the merchant center of Europe for more than 2.000 years and they recently recognized the dramatic worldwide switch to white wines on the part of the new wine drinkers of The United States. (I'll have a glass of Chardonnay, please????). Thus the North East region of Alto Adige and Fruili between Verona and Venice is a wonderland of fine white wines under $20 in Pinot Blancs, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and even Chardonnay. Look for names such as Legeder, Santa Margherita, Terlano,Tramin . Do a little of your own wine tasting and find a wine that satisfies your palate. That is the fun. 5. Spain: It turns out that Spain with its desirable latitude and climate has the largest vineyard acreage in Europe. It is also considered by a majority of serious wine drinkers worldwide to offer the best overall values especially in both reds and white. Up until recently, it has had limited distribution in the United States but that is now changing. The Tempranillo grape is among the most widely used but the versatile Grenache is now also very popular worldwide. Right now the easiest way to go is to search out the wines of the Rioja with those Tempranillo grapes. Marques De Caceres Rioja Crianza is widely available example. But also look for Bodegas Faustino Rioja VII 2008 . Both are less than $16.
Finally, look for bargains from "negotiants" in Spain. They own no vineyards, no wineries. They have special skills and search the country for grapes that they have blended for them as does the now famous Castle Rock in the US. However, again you should know (perhaps in time for June Weddings and Anniversaries) that what many (including me) consider to be the best value in grapes in the world is the Spanish Cristalino sparkler that competes with Champagnes at 5 times the price. It is $5.99 a liter and about $16 for an upgraded and spectacular and crowd pleasing magnum Bluntly I am not too familiar with the other highly rated whites of Spain. Perhaps that is because there are all those easily found bargains from California, Italy and especially New Zealand under $16. 6. New Zealand: I guess my basic favorite place to search for great overall value right now is New Zealand. That is because I prefer Pinot Noir to Cab and Sauvignon Blanc to over planted and over oaked Chardonnay. New Zealand is the only place in the World that has both wines in good supply and features unmatched availability and quality combined with price.
Good values and quality in the elusive Pinot Noir are St. Clair, Seven Terraces, Villa Maria and the above mentioned Staete Landt. All the wines shown above are from The Marlborough region of New Zealand and that is what you should also use as an overall guide. 7. Australia: It has some things going for it again. It had a recent bad season due to a drought and its currency was almost 1 to 1 with the dollar. Prices rose. Quality dropped. Now the dollar has strengthened worldwide but especially against Australia with an almost 50% increase. So there are again economic bargains to be found over that wide range offered from this large wine growing continent. However be cautious and test one bottle at a time. Much of what is still on the shelves in all categories can be a problem. 2005 and 2006 if available should OK but be wary of 2007 and 2008. Look for Cabs and Shiraz along with the newly discovered blends with Grenache-Mourvedre which is in the style of the wonderful Cotes du Rhone of Southeast France. Australian Chardonnay can also deliver satisfaction with many choices. The big names dominate with tremendous distribution in the United States. Names that have produced a lot of satisfaction in all categories are: Penfold's, Rosemont, Wolf Blass,Jacob's Creek, Greg Norman, Innocent Bystander, Yalumba and Kilikanoon the latter three especially as smaller vintner's with high quality, very interesting and different choices in red and white. 8. Argentina and Chile: My knowledge is limited in both cases although I have had some experiences. Argentina's Malbec grape dominates. I have been drinking Norton with consistent satisfaction for a year. It is under $14. Try it and give me your thoughts. Chile has developed a very strong position in the usually pricey Cabernet Sauvignon. but with amazing prices. It is also getting a small handle on the usually equally pricey Pinot Noir. Look of rConcha y Toro for excellent Cabs at less than$20. 9. Germany and South Africa: I must confess that I have my hands full trying to keep abreast of a reasonable amount of information on the Eight countries above. Early on I thought of Germany as producing primarily sweet Riesling wines that did not appeal to me. Thus I devoted my energy to other areas. South Africa has become a small factor. But I decided I had enough on my plate at this age in my life to avoid diluting my energy beyond my present capacity. If you have some vital experiences or suggestions about German or South African wines, please e- mail me via the address on the home page. 10. Definitely Consider Corkage: With the economy the way it is, dining out becomes more of a luxury. Wine often adds 50% to the bill. Restaurants have begun to recognize the diners concern about the high cost of dining and the perception of exploitive wine prices. Many have reduced their corkage fees and in some cases have had nights with no corkage. One premium 4 star restaurant now offers corkage free at all times. You should take as much advantage as you can of these opportunities. But there are mathematical issues. Always ask the corkage fee when you make the reservation The wines listed above are all under $20 or less. They would be priced at a restaurant at $40-$50. If the restaurants corkage fee is on average $20, the benefits are small or nil You can do the math on other amounts. Thus, we believe that if you plan to use corkage, $20-30 should be the absolute minimum retail price of wine you bring to a restaurant. Many folks with wine cellars bring $75- $150 bottles and thus save mid three figures off the bill depending on the restaurant. Most restaurants used to frown on allowing corkage. Competition no longer allows them to do that. Thus you should never be embarrassed when you bring a bottle of wine with you. But don't bring 2 Buck Chuck. There's more if you are still with us.
Read The intriguing story of Two
Buck Chuck if ou have not done so already
A Wine Flavor Aerator
and Flavor Enhancer That We Think actually works!! We have all seen many gadgets that claim to enhance wine flavors or seem to speed aging. Most of them turned out to be frauds. But my son recently gave me this crystal aerator and I quickly concluded it worked. To be sure that it really wasn't mind over matter, I have discussed it with a number of competent sommeliers and they have almost all agreed that this accelerated breathing actually works. It started out as about $40 a year ago and sold well. But if you check around, you may find products similar to the original for about $20. It certainly seems that this is a god time for some early Christmas gifts for one of your oenophiles. This is not a dirty word. Two Buck Chuck A Great
New HBO Series??
Think “The Wine Sopranos” If you think “Sideways” was a story about wine worth telling and a film worth making, wait until you hear about this one. It may be impossible to believe. But the Charles Shaw Label or “Two Buck Chuck” has been on the market at Trader Joes for six years and 400,000,000 bottles have been sold at $1.99 in California and $2.99 in the other 49 states. And it has all been done by a third generation XXXL ":wise guy". with that classic Northern Italian Heritage. He essentially operates his privately owned Bronco Wines as a one man grape growing, grape crushing..... and deal making biz (whatever it takes) with a little help from "the boys" of La Famiglia, brother Joey Franzia and cousin Johnny. Franzia. His name is Fred Franzia (Think Tony Soprano and family) and he does have very, very serious chops that go back to Italy 116 years ago. His grandfather Guiseppe Franzia had then emigrated from Genoa in 1893 and quickly went to work in the grape fields around Modesto. He soon had his own farm. His future wife, Teresa whom he had never met before, was sent to him from Genoa. From this arranged marriage they conceived and raised 5 sons and 2 daughters. When prohibition ended, hardworking, entrepreneurial and now Grandma Teresa saw an opportunity. She announced to her 5 sons, while Grandpa was still visiting and fooling around somewhere back in Italy, that the family would go into the winemaking business. During Prohibition she grew grapes on the road from Modesto to Yosemite and sold them to Italian home winemakers in the New York -Hoboken area. Somehow she was able to borrow $5,000 from her Genoese "Paisan", Amadeo Gianinni, founder of the The Bank of Italy (soon after to merge with the Bank of America) and she and her boys started..... Franzia Brothers. Freddy and Joey were born during this time to one of Theresa's sons, Guiseppe # 2 But the hardworking tough Grandma was the one to became Freddy’s true role model. During all those years she worked the bottling line 9 hours daily and still cooked dinner every night featuring home made pasta..... with that marvelous Genoese Pesto sauce........ for the entire family . While all of this was going on, Ernest Gallo married one of the grandma's two daughters. She then loaned her son-in-law the $5,000 needed to go into his own wine business. You know what happened to Ernie and his brother Julio. Gallo and Sons now do well over a Billion a year. But little nephew Freddy quietly now does about $500 million with his unique multi faceted approach. He crushes 350,000 tons. Only Gallo, the largest vintner in the world crushes more. Freddy had graduated from Santa Clara University and went to work as a salesman for the already very successful Franzia Brothers. They made lots of cheap sweet wines that then appealed to the average street guy. It was port, sherry and muscatel, plentifully produced in that very fertile and sunny San Joaquin Valley. But his father and uncles then cashed out to an investment group that took it public and it later was sold to Coca Cola. who eventually sold it to another large wine company. Franzia Wine Is now known primarily for its "Wine in a Box" Freddy was furious with his father, Guiseppe #2, for selling out.
He quit
and started Bronco Wines with his In the same time period, Robert Mondavi was establishing Napa as a premium wine area with that low yielding tough gravelly soil and the climate that is needed to produces the premium wines. They would compete with the Bordeaux Cabs and Burgundy Chardonnays of France. This soil and heavy pruning however, produces only 4 tons per acre while Freddie’s more fertile San Joaquin acreage could produce 12 tons and the price of each acre was about 1/10th the price of Napa real estate.... or less. It has been rumored that Francis Ford Coppola paid $300, 000 plus per acre for some choice (?) Napa land. Freddy didn't go to Stanford for an MBA as all the Gallo kids did. But he quickly understood the economics of this new game of which he now made himself a part. (he understood costs and what his edge could be). The Napa Cabernet and Sonoma Chardonnay wine explosion then began. He was a risk taker not adverse to cutting serious corners while challenging that entrenched upscale Napa hierarchy. ....... .... and the legal system. Thus he started buying up labels such as Napa Ridge, Napa Creek ,Domaine Napa etc., planning to put them on his Modesto grown wines or distress wines bought by the tanker-load.. You see, because of a grandfather loophole, he was able to put the Napa Ridge label on those low cost grapes for supermarkets to sell at about $5 retail since that name had been in play before 1986. He also bought The Charles Shaw label around then. It was a very respected Napa name that had gone bankrupt because of high living by the owners followed by a messy divorce. But he shelved that name... until 2002 because the stars had not yet lined up. In the early 2000s, in another rather clever and timely act, the Bronco bottling facility broke ground .......... in the town of Napa....... with a capacity of triple that area's total production, Reality then finally sank in to those dozing vintners. The Napa Valley Vintners Association prevailed on Governor Davis to sign legislation that closed that 1986 Napa loophole. Franzia sued as unconstitutional but eventually lost the right to use the Napa Ridge name in 2006. So What!!! In the interim, those stars lined up for Bronco. Over-zealous. optimistic and overpriced production within California by a bunch of those arrogant dozing dilettantes of wine created unwieldy domestic varietal wine surpluses. They also faced inroads from Australia, New Zealand and others from the Southern Hemisphere. Those foreign interlopers had lower real estate costs. lower production costs.......and little debt, Does that sound familiar? Freddy was waiting.. He is a very, very ruthless buyer. He paid as low as $1 or $2 a GALLON for casually drinkable varietals such as Cab, Merlot and Chardonnay. He already had the hi-tech skills and equipment in place to anticipate and reject any of the real trash. You can produce Five 750 ml bottles from one gallon.....Five ...............Do the math. Freddy surely did. So with all those brilliant moves, he combined penny prices with that esteemed Charles Shaw Napa aura and almost zero distribution costs. You see, he sold directly to the nearby and very high volume Trader Joe’s. Thus, no agents fees, low transportation costs and 2 day delivery for fast turnover. Trader Joe’s loved that magical $1.99 price point They had the wine sold before they even received an invoice. Everybody loved Bronco and Freddie....... except Napa wineries. You see that new bottling plant now allowed him to legally state...... on that Charles Shaw label that the wine was... bottled and cellared in …Napa. He then put that label on whatever semi-decent Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and even Pinot Noir that measured up. Already crushed wine was then tanked in bulk to Napa from surplus sources all over the state or from his own vines,. some of which now actually have Pinot Noir grapes grafted on to them in The San Joaquin Valley. All these wines were often cynically described as "Freeway Aged" by those enraged Napsters .Skeptical pro wine tasters stated they had to deal with a "A moving target".. Get it? But Trader Joe wine consumers were always seen smiling..The economy has soured and the surpluses
Oh Yeah! I forgot. In 1994 Freddy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud by falsely labeling grapes. He personally paid a fine of $500 thousand and Bronco paid $2.5 million. The Grand Jury indictment said that in the late 80s and early 90s he misrepresented more than one million gallons of wine worth 5 million dollars in the bulk market by offering a lesser Modesto grape as the varietal Zinfandel. He instructed Zinfandel leaves to be scattered over his local vines in an act he called “Blessing The Load”. The judge ordered him to step down from the Board of Directors and as CEO for 5 years. His brother Joey became CEO and President.... on the stationery. Freddy accepted the job of chief financial officer. But he still sat in the big office. Today he is Chairman and CEO again. Brother Joey (see Woody Allen below) and cousin Johnny are now co-presidents???. Freddy applied to “Dubya” for a pardon. He was rejected. Bronco Wines is now the largest grower of grapes in the U.S. with 40,000 acres in production beneath 250 million vines!!! But he not only produces for himself, he still sells to other wineries and also buys large distress lots of wines from troubled competitors or growers. Gallo out-sources most of their grapes from contract growers and then crushes. Of course Fredrick Franzia still retains that Italian Joe Pesci street heritage with that traditional ego.... and the eternal Casanova eye for the ladies.. So there are rumors that he is seeking to self finance his story and offer it to HBO as a series. He certainly may think James Gondolfini is right for the lead with Scarlett Johannson (Sorry Edie) as his trusted in-house accounting manager. Scarlett likes to appear in Woody Allen productions so, as noted, he could play Freddy’s "schlemiel" brother.. and direct. Freddy now has a very attractive and worldly young lady running his very active computerized accounting system. He says he really needs her. The End ......seriously
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Again except for
The French whose arrogant monopolistic marketing approach has been in place
for centuries, the rest of the world has had to and has reacted. It will be
interesting to see how long the French can hold out.
The Rhone area has already reacted so look for value in Chateau Neuf
du Papes under $30. .JPG)
oth
But the shocker to
your friends, if you tell them is
“Goombas”, brother Joey and cousin Johnny in that same San Joaquin Valley
area. Where they got the money is unclear. Maybe rather now rich Grandma Teresa was still
alive and gifted her three grandsons. From the start Freddy was "Il Capo"
the
unchallenged boss. 