Posted on 01/26/2006 5:20:32 PM PST by Amerigomag
On the heels of a record 2005 California wine grape harvest, an Australian wine glut, high inventories of unsold French wine and big harvests in Chile and Argentina, the nail-biting has just begun for the Golden State's growers and vintners. For U.S. wine drinkers, whose livelihoods don't depend on the profit margins of a bottle of wine, the future is plentiful, tasty and inexpensive.
With beer consumption still nine times higher in the United States than wine - and even hard liquor still having an edge - U.S. wine consumption of 2.4 gallons per capita has huge potential for growth. The United States, led by California, is the world's fourth largest wine producer, but its individual wine consumption ranks about 35th globally. Most Europeans and South Americans drink far more wine than Americans.
US wine sales are rising amid baby boomer drinking preferences, a middle generation beginning to switch from beer to wine and a baby boom echo generation that already prefers wine. But the U.S. wine industry is increasingly nervous about a global rush to fill that demand. California wineries have seen their dominance of U.S. sales slip to 66 percent from 75 percent in a decade as Australia, Chile and Argentina have geared up production.
27 percent of wine consumed in the United States comes from abroad, compared with about 13 percent in 1990. California wineries have continued to grow sales by exporting about 17 percent of their production. Now China, with its ability to produce low-cost manufactured and farm exports, has nearly 700,000 acres of wine grapes - and aims to have planted 1.2 million acres by 2009. In contrast, California's 4,000 wine grape growers harvested 473,000 acres last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
(burp) Salute!!
Chinese wine?
Dang, is there anything they can't do?
Locustlike, I suggest we all assemble in the most northerly part of the continent, and work our way down. Together, we can...
'Drink Canada Dry'.
What's really funny is that some good wine is being bottled with screw caps.
I tasted some Red Pillar from Australia that came sans cork.
Not bad, and not expensive.
And this is a problem because????
A round of "Two-buck Chuck" for everyone!
I am seeing no problem whatsoever.
Here in the Mpls-St Paul area, I'm not seeing that glut reflected in the current price of wine.
Poor France....
The news just goes from bad to worse.....
Love it.
Semper Fi
When profit margins are low, loss from corks becomes more important. Some vintners are looking at fifteen percent loss because of bad closures. Screwtops are the wave of the future, like them or not.
I have noticed that some decent wines, like Ravenswood Chardonnay, are hovering around the $6 mark. I wondered why but 'YAY' anyway.
This is the kind of sentence that makes me want to drink a bottle of wine and punch a reporter. WTF is this guy saying?
Steve, the amount of good wine for reasonable prices has never been better.
Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow!
I, that was wash’d to death with fulsome wine,
Poor Clarence, by thy guile betray’d to death!
Hey... I'm DOIN' the best I can!
Can't do it ALL by myself, tho...
I must be looking at the wrong wines or am looking in the wrong places.
I guess global warming isn't ALL bad....
The most difficult thing in buying wine is finding good bargains. I would NOT start at Surdyks unless you go to their quarterly sales and know what you are looking for. If you would like any suggestions about good wines for reasonable prices, Freepmail me.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562905/posts
From a previous thread. "Jarhead Red" wine. Some of the cost goes to a Marine charity.
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