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- 📈 Glass, what the hell?
📈 Glass, what the hell?
In this weeks Decorked digest, you will read about glass prices remaining high, Spain's organic predictions, low-alc wine and much much more.
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Happy Sunday! No sweat, nothing spectacular has happened this week. Glass still seems to be the problem for the producers, as the last year’s production seemed to be a logistic nightmare this one won’t be much better. Read on to find out about the tavern’s happy place and much more.
🍾 Welcome to 221 new readers this week!
INTERESTING THIS WEEK
🇭🇰 Sotheby’s Hong Kong to offer a single-owner’s wine collection worth $3.5 million READ HERE
📉 Winejobs index dips 1% (check out our Job Board, above) READ HERE
📊 Fine wine favored over gold during economic uncertainty READ HERE
👭 5 women who are shaking up Minnesota's wine world READ HERE
🇦🇹 Austrian wine exports reach record value READ HERE
🏆 Prowein recovers from the pandemic READ HERE
We curate, filter, and select only the most interesting and important news for you.
WSET LAUNCHES PROGRAMME FOR ‘MANAGEMENT-LEVEL’ WINE PROFESSIONALS
WSET (the Wine & Spirit Education Trust) has announced the launch of its new Impact in Wine leadership programme. Evolving from WSET’s longstanding Business and Commercial Knowledge (BACK) course, the Impact in Wine programme will focus on the importance of effective leadership and innovative thinking. The course, which will take place between 11-13 July 2023 at the Odney Club in Berkshire, is aimed at management-level professionals from all sectors of the wine industry. Offering a fast track for ambitious wine professionals and entrepreneurs, participants will gain access to market insights, taste innovative wines, and network in a relaxed and inclusive environment.
THERE ARE SIX WINE-DRINKER CONSUMPTION FREQUENCY SEGMENTS - FOUR OF THEM MATTER
You can see that the "80/20" principle of retail sales come close to describing wine consumption in the U.S., in that 32% of wine drinkers (those with "daily" or "more often than once a week" consumption) account for 79% of all wine drinking occasions. Read the full analysis by clicking below and make sure to follow Wine Opinions, the author, and the owner of the analysis.
Copyright @ Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
LOW-ALCOHOL WINES ARE ALL THE RAGE, BUT SOMETHING DOESN'T TASTE QUITE RIGHT
Wines with lower-than-usual alcohol levels are booming, fueled by a growing interest in wellness trends. Powerful wine companies like Kendall-Jackson, Bota Box and Cupcake have found swift success with these products, which tend to clock 8%-9% alcohol by volume and 80-85 calories per glass. (A regular table wine might be 12%-14% ABV and 120-125 calories.). This category is poised for better success than wine overall. While sales of full-strength wine are projected to decrease 2% by volume from 2022 through 2026, according to analyst IWSR, low-alcohol wine is slated to grow by 10% during that same period.
GLASS PRICES REMAIN HIGH WHILE BOTTLERS HOARD STOCKS
While energy costs are falling, glass prices remain high. Vincent Messmer searches for clues. Glass is a rare commodity. And an expensive one at that. According to data from the European Container Glass Federation (Feve), more packaging glass - including wine bottles - was produced in Europe in 2022 than ever before. And, as Michael Delle Selve of Feve confirms, prices have risen far faster than inflation. Due to the rise in energy prices as a result of the Ukraine war, customers have accepted drastic price increases for glass. The fact that prices have not been adjusted downwards recently in the face of falling energy costs is causing widespread resentment. There are reports from the bottle trade that the situation is leading to heated discussions with customers.
SPAIN TO BE THE FRONTRUNNER IN ORGANIC FINE WINES
Almudena Alberca MW, the technical director of Spanish wine group Entrecanales Domecq e Hijos, tells The Drinks Business why Spain is light years ahead of other winemaking nations when it comes to organic fine wines. With more than 400 hectares of vineyards across Spain, including in Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Valdeorras, Entrecanales Domecq e Hijos is well-placed to offer a comprehensive overview of the Spanish wine scene in 2023. According to the wine group’s technical director, Almudena Alberca MW, the country is leading the pack in one particular area, that of organic fine wines.
“We will definitely see more organic fine wines coming from Spain in the near future,” Alberca tells the drinks business. “Spain already has more hectares of organic vineyard than any other in the world – with 131,000 ha of certified organic vines in 2020 – as many Spanish areas have climates that lend themselves to this way of working. We often have low disease pressure due to scarce rainfall and naturally low yields.”
MARKETING AND SELLING TO THE EVOLVING WINE CONSUMER
The top issue keeping winery owners and marketers up at night is how to future-proof their brands. Everyone has read the articles warning wineries that their sales will slip if they don’t find a way to attract and build relationships with younger consumers. They’ve watched the rise of hard seltzers and ‘FABs’ (flavored alcoholic beverages), noting the appeal of their fun flavors, lower alcohol and on-the-go packaging to this demographic. At this point, those in the wine industry have accepted that young people will drive industry change but are not yet sure how to get ahead of the coming shift.
WINE REGION OF THE WEEK: PELJEŠAC, CROATIA
The Peljesac Peninsula is a wine region on the Adriatic coast of Croatia between the popular tourist destinations of Split and Dubrovnik. It produces some of Croatia’s best-known wines, most notably the weighty Plavac Mali-based reds of the Postup and Dingac appellations. The peninsula is effectively one long, thin ridge of karstic limestone. Karst is found in various wine regions around the Adriatic, from Locorotondo in Puglia to Kras on the Italian and Slovenian border. The latter is named for this distinctive rock type. The top layer of this soil type has a white surface that reflects sunlight back into the canopy of grapevines, aiding the ripening process.
Dingac is the peninsula’s most famous wine. Wines bearing the Dingac name come from the southwest facing slopes on the steep coastline between the small villages of Trstenik and Podobuce. Introduced in 1961, Dingac was Croatia’s first appellation, and continues to showcase Croatian Plavac Mali wine today. Just a little west of Dingac, overlooking the bay of Orebic and the island of Korubuc beyond, are the vineyards of the Postup appellation. Postup wines, although not quite as full-bodied or complex as those of Dingac, are tangibly richer than those made in mainland locations.
The classic Peljesac Peninsula wine is a powerful, tannic red with gamey, smokey notes and a suggestion of licorice and baked plums.
Text by: Wine-Searcher
Copyright @ Agroklub
GRAPE OF THE WEEK: PLAVAC MALI
Plavac Mali is known for producing dense and robust reds with black cherry flavors and notes of pepper, smoke and spice. They are often quite high in alcohol and tannins, and have excellent aging capabilities, a trait not often seen in Croatian wine. Most plantings can be found on the Dalmatian Coast, particularly on the Peljesac Peninsula, where the appellations of Postup and Dingac provide the best-known examples of Plavac Mali wines. The variety thrives on the sandy, south-facing terraces above the sea, often trained as bush vines to avoid the harsh effects of the Mediterranean sun. In this terroir, Plavac Mali gives low grape yields, leading to concentrated wines.
The variety's name comes from the appearance of the grapes: mali means small, while plavac – a prefix given to several Croatian varieties – refers to the blue color of the berries. These are small and thick-skinned with high sugar concentration, giving structured, tannic wines that are sometimes produced with a little residual sugar to provide a softening effect. Plavac Mali has had a confused history throughout the 20th Century: it was first thought to be genetically identical to the widespread Californian variety Zinfandel.
Mike Grgich, the winemaker behind the iconic Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that upset French wine critics in the 1976 Paris Judgement, first noted the similarities between Zinfandel and the Plavac Mali wines he knew from his youth on the Dalmatian Coast, and employed researchers at UC Davis to explore further. It turned out that the varieties were not identical, but genetically linked, and further testing revealed that Plavac Mali was the offspring of Zinfandel (its other parent being Dobricic, an ancient variety native to Croatia).
Wines made from Plavac Mali follow the trend for rich, age-worthy red wines, and their most famous proponent, Mike Grgich, has helped bring them to an international audience.
Text by: Wine-Searcher
DID YOU KNOW THAT?
🇬🇷 In ancient Greece, the host was the one that used to drink the first sip of wine to prove that it isn’t poisoned.
🌳 The average age of a French oak tree to create wine barrels is 170 years.
📅 The first known reference to a specific wine vintage was by Roman historian Pliny the Elder. He called 121 BC a vintage “of the highest excellence.”
🍑 A “butt” is a medieval measurement for wine’s liquid volume.
🩸 There are so many organic compounds in wine that it is considered more complex than the blood serum.
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This next bit is for entertainment only. Please read at your discretion - or not.
PREVIOUS EPISODES
S01EP04 - HAPPY PLACES
As the tavern’s business became slow, and I wasn’t needed anymore, I felt longing for a special place on earth, the name of which I can’t share as when you hear about it, you will want to go. Forgive me.
Let me tell you a story about this small cove in the south, where I found my happy place.
It was a warm sunny day at the tavern when I suddenly felt an urge, urge to go somewhere. This somewhere was deeply felt in my heart, as my mind had no idea where we were going. And off I went, saying goodbye to my fellow taverners, I whispered: “see you in a bit”.
Two and a half slow hours later, I finally reached my destination. The destination of my dreams, a place on earth so delicately synchronized with my soul’s frequency that it is almost tangible. Arriving there, you can see 3 unimaginably interesting taverns, run by our friends of course. As these taverns make the place alive, I have to tell you about them first.
The first one, similar to ours, ran by an old-school family of fishermen and hunters, spending their mornings and nights fishing or hunting to provide the most amazing delicacies to the guests. Old, traditional dishes, great homemade wine, and the energy of these people alone are enough to come back every year until you breathe. Of all three, this one must be my favorite, as coming here sparks a special joy in my life. During the dinner, our old hostess starts singing while serving the plates of salted anchovies she made personally, not as she is required to do so, but as she feels the urge to let it out. And letting it out is nothing short of a miracle - if you can trust me.
The second one is run by a single guy. Why is this one interesting, you might ask? Maybe because it is open randomly, as he feels like it. What can you eat here? Again, what he feels like it. It’s like this amazing roulette you leave yourself to experience. Nothing you would otherwise, in your normal, everyday life. You come when you see the fire is starting, this means he is ready to serve for the day.
And the final one, and probably even more unique than the previous - is a gamble of sorts as well. You come, but you never know how long you’re going to wait. It is a beauty of the place, as you can’t plan it - you leave yourself to experience what the day holds. You might end up helping them carry potatoes, or simply going for a swim while waiting on your meal. And yes, I almost forgot, they serve in the single most slowest motion you ever saw, watching them is like watching the world slow down, and everybody seems to love it.
Stay tuned for the next episode, where I’ll take you on a journey through my day in the cove.
TO BE CONTINUED
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