Mike Veseth's Blog, page 33
July 30, 2019
Six Things to Do With Surplus Cabernet Sauvignon Grapes
[image error]The wine grape harvest is just around the corner in California and Washington State and, while that’s a great time of the year, it will present economic challenges to some winegrowers. There’s going to be an awful lot of Cabernet Sauvignon harvested this year. Most of these grapes are contracted, but some will be looking for buyers and it might not be so easy.
Cabernet has been the top choice for new plantings for the last several years and it is easy to understand why. It is a noble grape an...
July 23, 2019
Is Sustainable Winegrowing Sustainable?
Is sustainable winegrowing sustainable? Yes. But there are headwinds and challenges to overcome before this expanding movement will achieve its full potential. Here’s my report.
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Sustainability is a powerful movement in northeast Italy where Sue and I participated in a program sponsored by the Consorzio Collio. I spoke on a roundtable panel on sustainable winegrowing’s many sides. One of the other speakers had recently converted his family vineyards to organic viticulture and he talked about...
July 16, 2019
The Trouble with Being King of the Hill
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For a long time Collio and its neighboring regions in Italy’s upper right-hand corner have been King of the Hill when it comes to Italian white wines. It started in the 1960s when Collio, which had long been known for its excellent hillside terroir, abolished the old share cropping system, which favored quantity over quality, and got a head start on many competitors in the adoption of modern temperature-controlled white wine fermentation practices.
Exceptional grapes were combined with winem...
July 9, 2019
Rediscovering Collio’s Iconic White Wines
Collio, the beautiful wine region in Italy’s upper right-hand corner near Slovenia, along with its neighbor Colli Orientali del Friuli, is one of our favorite places to visit and makes some of our favorite wines, too. We’ve been there three times and each visit has revealed something new.
Flashback to 2000
We were lucky on our first visit in 2000 because we stayed at Venica & Venica, a top producer that was just getting started developing its hospitality program. We happened to arrive on...
July 3, 2019
Romanian Translation of Wine Wars Wins Gourmand Book Award
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Războaiele Vinului, the Romanian version of my book Wine Wars, has received the prestigious Gourmand award for best wine book translation at a gala ceremony in Macau.
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Congratulations to the Romanian team who made this volume possible including especially Cătălin Păduraru, Lucian Marcu, and Radu Rizea. Here is a photo of Cătălin, me, and the world’s largest copy of Războaiele vinului taken in Iasi last fall.
And thanks to Gourmand for this recognition of my Romanian friends’ efforts. I am gr...
June 18, 2019
Pocos, Locos, y Mal Unidos: The Paradox of Sardinian Wine
[image error]Pocos, locos y mal unidos. This description of Sardinia and its people (often wrongly attributed to Charles V) is a useful way to think about Sardinia’s wine sector and the headwinds it faces today.
Sardinian wine is a relatively small (pocos) player in Italian wine with perhaps 20,000 hectares of vines out of Italy’s vast 750,000 hectare total. The winemakers are crazy (locos), but that’s a given and not meant as an insult. I think we all agree that you’ve got to be at least a little crazy t...
June 11, 2019
First Impressions of Sardinian Wine
[image error]Sue and I travelled to Sardinia at the invitation of Alessandro Torcoli, editor of the quarterly journal Civilta del Bere (where Wine Economist columns, translated into Italian, sometimes appear). Alessandro organized a series of trade and press workshops and a wine competition to accompany the Porto Cervo Wine & Food Festival this year.
We were delighted to attend to speak about global trends and opportunities, help with the judging, and to learn more about Sardinia and its wine sector.
Por...
June 4, 2019
The Beginning of the End of the Old World Appellation System?
“Some New World regions are adopting European-style AOC rules,” the Italian journalist I met in Sardinia explained, “Do you think this is an important trend?”
“No. Just the opposite. I think the Old World appellation system is under attack and will need to change to survive.”
He looked at me like I had dropped down from Mars. This was clearly not the answer he was looking for, but I think it is true. I wasn’t able to explain my logic very well in the rush of the interview, so let me try to...
May 21, 2019
Small is Beautiful? Scratching the Surface of Pennsylvania Wine
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Pennsylvania wine? Do they make wine in Pennsylvania? Is that even a thing?
These were the sort of comments we often heard when Sue and I told friends and family that we were going to try to learn a little bit about Pennsylvania wine while we were in the Valley Forge area for our nephew’s wedding. Even some of the Pennsylvania natives we met were caught by surprise.
A Wagnerian Vision
Most people equate U.S. wine with California, which makes some sense because that state has the most winerie...
May 9, 2019
Sardinia, Collio, Pennsylvania? Wine Economist World Tour Update
[image error]The Wine Economist World Tour is on the road. Here is a quick update.
Pennsylvania: Sue and I have just returned from a family wedding near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and we found just enough time to scratch the surface of this surprising wine region. Watch for an upcoming report. Sardinia: Sue and I are in Porto Cervo, Sardinia this week. I am speaking at the Porto Cervo Wine & Food Festival and we will meet as many winemakers and taste as many wines as we can and report our findings here....
