Mike Veseth's Blog, page 6

Asti: the OG LA Wine

Over in Beer World, the NA (non-alcoholic) category is booming. Sales by market leader Athletic Brewing Company continue to grow while more and more other brands introduce NA products. There is a lot of interest in NA here in Wine World, too. The most-read single Wine Economist article of this year so far is an essay on “Non-Alcoholic Wine and the Second-Glass Test.”  However, NA wine remains a niche product compared to NA beer.

More of the Wine World focus is on LA (low-alcohol) wine, which is ...

Wine Economics 101: the Three Vs of Wine

We often talk about trends and problems in the wine industry, but I think we all know that wine isn’t a single business about which it is easy to generalize. Different countries or regions have different business characteristics, for example, and making and selling multi-million case brands like Gallo’s Barefoot differs greatly from much smaller and more local operations.

The wine industry doesn’t come in one size or shape that fits all and doesn’t run at a single speed. Significantly, while all...

What’s New? Portuguese Translation of “Around the World in 80 Wines”

The Portuguese translation of my 2018 book Around the World in Eighty Wines is here. A Volta ao Mundo em 80 Vinhos was released last month by the Brazilian publisher Editora Valentina.  The new book is available from the publisher as well as through the usual online sellers including Amazon.com here in the United States.

What’s the book about? Well, here’s a brief excerpt from the summary to test your Portuguese language skills! (The English language summary can be found on the book’s Amazon.com...

Is Wine a Good Value?

These are challenging times for many (but not all) consumers. Rising housing and interest costs are squeezing budgets. Pandemic-era stimulus check bank balances are going or gone. Student loan payments, paused for a time, are back again.

Faced with tight budget constraints and rising debt costs, consumers are struggling to cut costs without sacrificing their standard of living, which means they are more and more focused on value for money. Perhaps the most obvious indicator of this trend is the ...

Collio DOC: Wine, Brand, & Identity in Italy

[This is the third and final article in a series inspired by our recent visit to Collio DOC in north-east Italy. Click here to read the first report and click here to read the second.]

What does it take for a wine region to stand out in today’s crowded market? Excellent wine, of course, but good wine isn’t enough because there are lots of quality wines around the world; consumers need a reason to buy one instead of another.

Brand and Identity in Wine

What else does it take? There are many ways ...

Leveraging Wine & Tourism in Collio DOC

[This is the second in a series of articles inspired by our recent visit to Collio DOC in north-east Italy. Click here to read last week’s introductory report.]

When Sue and I first visited Collio in 2000 we stayed in the newly opened agriturismo rooms at Venica & Venica and in a rustic cabin at La Subida.  We dined well at several memorable restaurants including Trattoria al Cacciatore at La Subida and Trattoria al Giardinetto in Cormons.

Wine Tourism and Economic Development

Guided by articles...

Collio Revisited: Tradition & Change in One of Italy’s Great Wine Regions

Collio DOC is a tiny appellation snuggled up against the Slovenian border in north-east Italy. It is a beautiful place. How beautiful? After our recent visit to the region, I noticed that Sue changed her computer’s desktop image to a photo of these hills. Collio replaced another beautiful vineyard area, Cartizze, on the screen, which last year replaced a photo of the Douro Valley. The competition for real estate on Sue’s desktop is fierce. Collio is that beautiful.

2024 marks the 60th anniversar...

Wine Book Review: Italy in a Wineglass

Italy in a Wineglass: The Story of Italy Through its Wines by Marc Millon (Melville House Publishing, 2024).

They say that every glass of wine tells a story, so if you get enough of the right wines together, can they tell a really big and complicated story? Can you tell the history of Italy through its wines?

That’s the challenge that drives this very interesting new book by Marc Millon. Sue and I recently returned from a trip to Collio in Italy’s northeast near the border with Slovenia (watch f...

Chilling Out: The Red & White of Austrian Wines

Austria’s colors are red and white. Those are the colors of the national flag and the uniforms of the country’s football team, too. You can see them clearly on the bottles of many Austrian wines because a seal atop the bottle continues the red and white theme.

Blessings and Curses

Red and white. That’s Austria and its wines. But what do people think of when they think about Austrian wines? Not the red. Just the white. Riesling, of course, and increasingly Gruner Veltliner. Delicious wines that a...

Wine in America: An Independence Day Flashback

It is an Independence Day tradition here at the Wine Economist to use our national holiday as an opportunity to reflect on wine in America and American wine. This year we take a historical perspective by re-printing a book review from 2020 that offers a fascinating glimpse of changing American attitudes toward wine in general and American wine in particular.  Enjoy!

Book Review: Wine & the White House

Wine and the White House: A History by Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. (White House Historical Associati...