We’re officially in the second week of 2008 and I thought it might be a good time to look ahead to what may be the trends for the coming year. As always, we thank you for your patronage in 2007 and look forward to seeing you often this year in our stores.Wine values will be stronger than ever for selected products. Savvy shoppers are looking for value in wine. With new vineyard and winery technologies available, wineries are able to produce better wines every year for seemingly less money. As always, the Wine Warehouse is at the leading edge of sniffing out these value products.
A few wacky values currently in our stores:
Smoking Loon Cabernet Sauvignon, Retail $8.99 Warehouse $5.99
Smoking Loon Chardonnay, Retail $8.99 Warehouse $5.99
Smoking Loon Pinot Grigio, Retail $8.99 Warehouse $5.99
Turner Road Cabernet Sauvignon, Retail $8.99 Warehouse $5.99
Turner Road Chardonnay, Retail $8.99 Warehouse $5.99
Turner Road Pinot Grigio, Retail $8.99 Warehouse $5.99
Talus Pinot Noir, Retail $6.99 Warehouse $4.99
For collectors, fine wine prices rose to new heights in the first two thirds of 2007, falling back a little from these new heights as global markets suffered but they are still 40% up against last year. The US is now competing for the classics and gems with emerging and newly affluent countries. Fine wine has come to the attention of more potential investors around the world – new buyers coming largely from east rather than the west. Couple the world’s new collectors driving up demand and thus prices combined with a weak and ever shrinking dollar, making one long for prices from the 2000 vintage release five years ago - even though we thought that at the time that prices couldn’t get any higher. Look for selected 2005 Burgundy, Bordeaux and Rhone to arrive at the Wine Warehouse stores early in 2008. Prices being what they are……this is still one of the finest vintages on record.
Wines from South America will continue to increase in importance. The Argentine currency is one of the few that exhibits more weakness than our dollar. The Chilean wines tend to be sold from wineries based on the dollar. These facts lead to price stability. Continued increases in quality and value make the South American continent a ‘go-to’ player in 2008. Malbec from Argentina will continue to grow in popularity. Malbecs continue to be one of the best overall values in our stores.With Australia’s 2007 crop was down by nearly 30% on the 2006 harvest and 2008 is expected to be even smaller, Australian wineries have had to consider price increases in the wheelhouse of their production; the value segment. Severe drought in the areas which supply the majority of Australia’s wine values wine have made the Australians try and figure a way to tap the higher price points and hope to continue their importance and market share.
The French comeback is happening in spite of the dollar/euro conversion. Some of the world’s best wine value at present is in France’s wines currently retailing at under $20 a bottle. Check out our 2005 Bordeaux wines at under $20 for some of the best Cabernet and Merlot wines at that price point. Loire Valley whites and reds from lesser known regions show incredible flavors at under a twenty and there continues to be fantastic Rhone and Languedoc vales at around a ten-spot.
The planet is going green and the wine market has a number of producers following the trend. Sustainable, organic and biodynamic viticulture will continue to grow as wine buzzwords. As governments look to the health of their people whether it is a worker or consumer, chemicals in the vineyard and in the winery will be legislated towards minimizing their use. Organics will increasingly have a larger section in stores and biodynamics will be understood by more and more consumers. The are now reportedly 400 wineries that use biodynamic techniques which involve following the lunar calendar and burying homeopathic doses of various ‘dynamised’ preparations in cow horns at strategic points in the vineyard. Wine Warehouse has been featuring organic and biodynamic wines for years now. Just check out our price tags with a ladybug on them.
The ever increasing green consumer population will look to reusable carriers for wine. We will have available ultra-convenient 6-bottle recycled polypropyline wine bags that will make shopping easy, carrying the bottles more secure and with re-use, inevitably more green for the planet.
In the vineyards, whether or not global warming is responsible for the increasing alcohol levels in wine, wine producers will continue to be frustrated by the fact that flavor, tannin and color refuse to ripen as fast as the grapes fermentable sugar levels rise. This phenomenon is a complex amalgamation of the emergence of new clonal selections in the vineyard, better canopy management techniques and more frequent heat spells than have occurred in the past. It seems that older vines and vines that are in better balance to their environment can mitigate the unevenness of grape ripening. Winery technology will be increasingly used where legal to compensate for the higher levels of alcohol. Spinning Cone or Reverse Osmosis anyone? If only this technology was able to produce water it might help regions that are completely dependant upon water to grow their grapes. Droughts over the last few years are wreaking havoc in many winegrowing regions. Another dry year may push some growers to throw in the towel.
Napa will continue to be the Disney World of wine. Top-your-neighbor, build-your-own-legacy wineries are being built no matter what the real estate market does. The talk of the town is the new Hall winery that was designed by Guggenheim architect Frank Gehry. Funny enough, Hall’s prices are up significantly on last year. Go figure…..
Pinot Noir will continue to ride the resveratrol and ‘Sideways’ bandwagon. I’m still amazed at the unabated price increases that continue to be accepted by the consumer in this category from Burgundy, California and Oregon. Pinot Noirs from less likely parts of the world will grow in percentage within the category. The Languedoc and Chile come to mind here, yet I shouldn’t forget the $6.99 Smoking Loon and $4.99 Talus from California.More and more wine sites will have videos that bring the consumer a closer look at the wine and winemaker. Consumers will continue to respond favorably to information on the products that they choose.
And as always, there will be new and ever improving wine gadgets. The most interesting new gadget that we have found this year is the Pek wine preservation system. This system lets you fill the headspace of any open bottle with the inert gas ‘argon’ in place of oxygen which lengthens the shelf life of the wine. This is the easiest and best value way to keep wine open without it deteriorating as quickly. For an additional $299.99 plus $35 for shipping and handling, the Vino Vault is a sleek stainless steel wine fridge that works together with the Pek system.Pek Preservation Metal Box, Retail $49.99 Warehouse $39.95
Pek Argon Cartridges (4), Retail $14.99 Warehouse $11.95
The wine swami wishes you and yours a fantastic 2008…………………
