Vintage Story

WORLD EVENTS AND WINE

Full Moon: April 20, 2008.

            Undoubtedly, you have noticed the sharp increase in Old World wines in recent months. Imagine, a bottle of Beaujolais-Village costing more than double what it was just a year ago. We’ve grown used to the very wealthy vying for the limited production of top growth Bordeaux and Burgundies and jacking up prices beyond what the average consumer can afford, but even the privileged rich now have to compete with new buyers in Japan, China, and India – and even in Eastern Europe for those precious bottles. But Beaujolais? Chianti? Two and three times more expensive than a year or so ago?

            Thank the increasingly weakening dollar. A year ago we thought – even hoped the dollar was bottoming out at about 1.35 euros; today it’s fallen to 1.65 euros and seems destined to go even lower. The Federal bail out and credit crunch has only exacerbated the exchange rate; so now our European wines are costing us a heck of lot more than they used to.

            That should be a bonanza for American wine producers, right? Well, to a point. But don’t forget that those top Napa cabernets have during the last four or five years attracted the same market that’s inflating Bordeaux, and while a Napa wine may still be about half the cost of a comparable quality Bordeaux, a $125 - $150 price tag puts many of them out of reach to the average guy or gal.

            We don’t have to restrict higher costs to top wines; most California and Pacific Northwest wines are feeling the pinch of higher energy costs and an increasingly tight labor market. You have probably already heard about upscale resorts on both coasts and golf clubs around the nation reporting to Congressional committees that they have to reduce services, cut back on opening times, and lengthen their off-season because of labor shortages. Why Congress? Because much of the shortage is caused by visa problems for the seasonal immigrant labor they’ve come to depend on, and, they report, there is no local labor source to come in to help make beds, clear tables, cut grass, and clean kitchens.

            Domestic vintners are beginning to tell similar stories. They need more help to work the vines, harvest the grapes, and work the winery. Their loyal, dependable immigrant work force is disappearing, in part because of fear of deportation and in part because of an inability to obtain one of the very limited worker’s visas. Produce growers are telling the same story. Not enough workers.

            Tack on higher transportation costs – need we point out that a gallon of gas is a dollar more now than it was a year ago – and vintners have to raise costs and reduce the edge they have over European imports.

            Currency exchange rates aren’t so critical in South America – yet, but transportation costs are still substantial enough to make the fine wines of Chile and Argentina more expensive than we’ve become accustomed to.

            Wine and politics have never mixed well, except, of course, at lobbyist receptions for Members of Congress and for state legislators, but in this election year cluttered with national debt, a hot war, a credit crisis, rising food and energy costs, we wine consumers are well advised to pay attention.

            It’s a good season to support our Indiana wineries, and you can certainly get acquainted with them on April 26 at the Indiana Wine Fair around the old barn behind the Story Inn. From 1:00 – 8:00 p.m., you can sample just about every wine produced in the Hoosier state and take home as much as you like.

            You can also join VinSense – www.VinSense.org -- at no cost and help all of us wine consumers work toward changes in Indiana law governing the sale and distribution of wine in our state.

See you on the 26th.

 

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            Subscribers to Sheer Lunacy are automatically members of VinSense, but we urge all of you to enlist more members (read: voters). Membership is free. The easiest way to join is via the VinSense web site – www.vinsense.org -- where you can also read about opportunities to donate to VinSense to help cover costs of lobbying, maintaining the web site, and furthering the cause. We would like 10,000 voter-members by the end of 2007.      

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   Vintage Story is an e-newsletter authored by Ole Olson and published by the Story Inn, and is available free of charge to all who appreciate good wine. Vintage Story is published at each full moon. The author and the Story Inn specifically authorize the republication, reprinting and circulation of any issue Vintage Story so long as due credit is given to the author and to the Story Inn (which holds the copyright). If any newspaper or website desires to make use of any issue of Vintage Story, we do request that you notify us. Thanks, and here's to your health!

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