Mike Veseth's Blog, page 12

Italian Wine and the Paradox of Scale: Three Case Studies

Most of the world’s wine is produced by a relatively small number of very large wineries. But most wineries are very small. So wine is both big and small at once. That’s wine’s paradox of scale.

You can see the paradox at work here in the United States. According to the annual Review of the Industry issue of Wine Business Monthly (February 2023), there were 11,691 wineries in the U.S. Eighty-three percent of the wineries, however, produced fewer than 5000 cases of wine in 2022 and 49% produced 1...

Independence Day Flashback: Have Some Madeira?

Today is the day we raise a glass to celebrate American independence and our friends and neighbors sometimes ask what wine is appropriate for this occasion. There are many possibilities. Sparkling wines are traditional for celebrations and pair well with picnic fare. We often favor Zinfandel because America is a nation of immigrants and,  while the Zin grape is not native to the United States, it has found its home here. Or perhaps a wine made from the Norton grape, a hybrid first grown in Richm...

The Hedgehog & the Fox: Discovering the Wines of Lugana DOC & Garda DOC

Today’s Wine Economist is inspired by Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” The fox knows many things, Berlin wrote, drawing on an ancient Greek parable, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

People are like that, don’t you think? And there are wine regions like that too. The Lugana DOC on the shores of Lake Garda in Italy, for example, reminds me of the hedgehog, with its clear focus on one important wine. The Garda DOC, on the other hand, is home to many different ideas of w...

Wine Book Review: Challenging Change in the Wine World and Beyond

Caro Feely, Cultivating Change: Regenerating Land and Love in the Age of Climate Crisis (2023).

They say that time changes things. But sometimes you have to change them yourself. I think of this saying, which I originally heard attributed to Nelson Mandela, whenever I read Caro Feely’s books.

Time and Change

South Africa-born Feely along with her husband Sean and their daughters made the audacious choice to leave their lives in Ireland and move to Saussignac in Southwest France, purchase vineyar...

Pogo’s Dilemma and the Future of Prosecco Superiore

Pogo’s Dilemma is the theme of this week’s Wine Economist. Pogo’s Dilemma? It is a reference to Walt Kelly’s famous cartoon where the character Pogo reflects, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Sometimes life is like that, or at least it seems that way to me for the successful winegrowers in the Prosecco Superiore region.

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As last week’s Wine Economist explained, the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG region in north-east Italy is a remarkable success story. The historic home...

Anatomy of Italian Wine Industry Success

Economics is sometimes called the “dismal science” and I guess it is true that the Wine Economist is often focused on the problems that the wine industry faces (see the recent column on California vineyard profitability, for example).  So it is a pleasure to write about two wine regions in Italy that have achieved rather remarkable success.

The regions I want to highlight here are Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG — home of many of Italy’s best sparkling wines — and Lugana DOC on ...

Four Faces of Wine and Sustainability

I made a virtual visit to Umeå, Sweden last week to accept (via video) the Gourmand award that my book Wine Wars II: the Global Battle for the Soul of Wine received as an outstanding contribution to the analysis of wine and sustainability.

Wine Wars II is one of four books that received this special award and I think it is revealing to consider them together to appreciate the complexity of the sustainability and wine issue.

As I understand it, sustainability is all about the tension between and...

Back to the Future with Dry Rosé Wine?

More than five years ago, I wrote in these pages that “dry rosés are increasing in popularity not only among open-minded wine drinkers but also among California winemakers.”

If I could write these words today they’d make me look like a pretty savvy wine economist. Dry rosé wines have experienced a boom in recent years and not everyone was convinced back in 2018 that the pink wave was real.

But I didn’t write this sentence. Mark Bittman did in an article titled “The Perfect Summer Wine?” that app...

Wine Book Review: On the Wine Trail with Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet Wine Trails 2 (Lonely Planet Food, 2023).

The Lonely Planet Guide folks have released a new guide to global wine trails. The big book (320 pages, 2.4 pounds) lays out itineraries for 52 potential weekend wine country visits. It is a colorful book, full of maps and photos, and worthy of consideration if you are planning trips, interested in how wine tourism has developed, or just want to make imaginary vineyard visits.

Each chapter is organized according to a set structure, starting...

America’s Wine Regions: Re-Imagining Colorado

What do you think of when you think of Colorado? Chances are that Colorado wine isn’t the first image that comes to mind, but it should be somewhere on your radar screen. Wine is both old and new in this Rocky Mountain state.

Peaks and Valleys

Wine was first produced in 1890 from grapes grown on 60 acres of vineyard and orchard land on Rapid Creek above Palisade along the Colorado River. The decades since these first wines were made have been full of peaks and valleys for Colorado wine and Sue a...