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Chile is hot baby! Yes, we are seemingly behind the times at Rad Grapes in adding great Chilean wines to our portfolio, but finding great quality, well made, value priced wines takes lots of searching and tasting. Lots… I have been lucky enough (or really good) in finding not one fantastic producer from Chile, but two….as you already know we are adding the Vina Tabali wines to our our wine portfolio in March and I am very proud to announce that we have also come to an agreement with the folks from Vina Ventisquero to be the exclusive NY State distributor for their wines as of March 1st as well. First time ever in NY…By the way, “Ventisquero” by definition is an area in the Andes where great snow accumulations take place, protected in such a way that the winds form whirlwinds that attract it…a unique expression of nature and its beauty.
The vineyards that are sustainably managed by the cutting edge team at Vina Ventisquero are located in three of the best known Chilean growing regions, the Maipo Coast and the Casablanca and Colchagua Valleys. This means that grapes for each of the varietal wines made at the winery are sourced from ideal growing conditions within one of the three appellations….what a concept! The other factor that I should not fail to mention is that the infamous Aurelio Montes is the consulting enologist (from Vina Montes fame, among other projects) for Vina Ventisquero.
New Yorkers will be able to find the Vina Ventisquero Reserva line wines in the market first. If our launch goes as expected, we will most likely look towards bringing in the Venntisquero Quelat line up and eventually the flagship Ventisquero Gray wines…Viva Chile!
How Rad are your Grapes?
In today’s issue of the NY Times, Eric Asimov has a wonderful article and taste off on Oregon Pinot Gris/Grigio entitled “By Playing it safe, Will they be sorry”. Guess what? Our very own Rock Point Pinot Grigio was #7 out of 20 wines and by far the best value. I am having a drink at the Bar at Mesa Grill, with Terry Lannon from Del Rio Vineyards as I type this….Very cool indeed. How Rad are your Grapes?
Vina Tabali is a magical place within the Limari Valley about 400 km. north of Santiago de Chile. I had the opportunity to taste the Tabali wines a few months ago and was impressed across the board, from the Sauvignon Blanc, through the Carmenere, to the Pinot Noir all the way to the Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery is located not too far inland from the Pacific Ocean, which provides the perfect cooling moist air to supplement the hot Chilean sun, creating the perfect micro climate for a variety of grape varietals.
Rad Grapes will be selling the Tabali wines in the New York market starting March 1st. The wines have already garnered some great press from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and the Wine Spectator, which should help us along, but as always for us it is all about what’s in the bottle and Vina Tabali has it nailed there. The press ain’t gonna hurt…Stay tuned for more great wines that we will be bringing to New Yorkers from Chile and Argentina over the next few months.
Cheers…
I’ve written about this subject before… but I’ve just read the best, concise analysis of what has happened with California wines during this downturn, compared to wines that come from elsewhere. Why have sales slowed down? In essence prices…California wine sales were down in 2009 for the first time in 16 years. Some pretty sobering revelations were just recently presented at the Unified Grape & Wine Symposium in Sacramento. If you care for more….read the rest of the article from The Cellarist at the San Francisco Chronicle.
It is not easy to find good, quality, well made California wines at what may be considered value price points, but I may have just found another good brand to add to the Rad Grapes portfolio. Sometimes you just get lucky…I have not added any California wines to our book in well over 2 years, simply because the market was in the process of changing more towards value pricing both at the retail and restaurant level and most well made California wines are not what we could consider “value” priced. That’s where the wines from Paige 23 come in…
I recently received some samples from the winery looking to make a change in the NY market. The wines do have a little NY presence, but not enough according to what I tasted from the bottle. Very good wines and a good price should be relatively easy to sell if you present them to enough of the right customers. That’s our job anyway…Tasting through the 2007 Santa Barbara releases from Paige 23 wines, was surprisingly pleasant experience. These are not fruitbombs…The Chardonnay was very crisp and elegant, with some good mid-palate structure and a refreshingly long finish with some great acidity; The Pinot Noir was soft and sophisticated, showing some traditional Santa Barbara terroir with soft berry fruit and spice and the Syrah was bold, deep, dark and luscious – up there with some of the most balanced and structured Syrah’s I’ve had from the Central Coast.
 Paige 23 Wines 2007 Santa Barbara Syrah, Pinot and Chard....rather yummy... If all works out well, we should have the Paige as part of the Rad Grapes portfolio by March or April. I will keep you posted to further developments with this new brand. Cheers…
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Morgan Stanley Sees More Growth Potential in Wine
Dear Client:
Does wine have better future growth prospects than beer and spirits? Morgan Stanley thinks so after studying results from a consumer survey and wholesaler survey, along with GuestMetric’s on-premise data. In their survey, the majority of wine, spirits and beer wholesalers agreed that the wine and spirits categories offer solid, long-term growth but promotions, demand and inventories in Q4 have brought short-term risks particularly in spirits.
In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley executive director Dara Mohsenian acknowledges that wine industry growth has slowed, but also believes that the market underestimates wine’s growth potential. Why are they upbeat? Because “we think the recent wine volume slowdown has been driven by macros, which is a temporary phenomenon, while long-term secular growth drivers are still in place.” They believe concerns over pricing “are overblown” and that mix “should turn positive in 2010 and beyond…import pricing should rebound as importers take pricing to offset negative FX, and we discount concerns over Australian oversupply given that Australia is only 7% of US volume.”
Morgan Stanley predicts that wine volume will grow 3% and pricing will gain 1.8% in the next five years (2010-2014). They expect spirits volumes to rise 2.5% and price to grow 1.5%. And finally, domestic beer volumes should rise about 0.3% with pricing up 2.8%.
Wine has the most “favorable perception” among consumers when compared to beer and spirits. It’s considered healthier to drink, more sophisticated, higher quality and increasingly more popular. In their survey, 66% of distributors agreed that wine has the highest long-term growth potential in the US. Twenty-two percent thought beer has the most growth potential and 13% chose spirits.
Read on, there’s more at Wine & Spirits Daily…
Governor Paterson has proposed to change NY State Liquor laws in a relatively drastic fashion, including allowing wine sales in grocery stores, letting current wine shops sell many other items, allowing multiple ownership of retail stores and also extending the credit window for retail customers from 30 to 60 days. I certainly disagree with a few of the proposals. Check it out for yourself…the headline and link below are from the Albany Times Union.
Wine sales plan aims to ease liquor store worries
Rad Grapes started our partnership with Del Rio Vineyards just over a year ago and we are already making a splash. We have done very well with the Del Rio and Rock Point wines, since their introduction in NY, so well in fact that we are getting television coverage for our hard efforts. My good friend Bill Powers, who does the wine buying at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill has been a huge fan and supporter of Del Rio and we have him to thank among others, for the exposure and the accolades…
KTVL News, the local CBS affiliate from Medford, Oregon just did a great piece on Del Rio, the influence that Southern Oregon wineries have had and the success we have had placing the wines in great NY restaurants like Mesa Grill. Check it out…
http://ktvl.onset.freedom.com/video/?videoId=59571651001&lineupId=1155263524&play=now
Just a quick heads up to all of our Rad Grapes customers – we have a long list of incredible wine deals for January with the Rad Grapes Winter Closeout. I have decided to heavily discount (up to 60% off!) and clean out a substantial number of wines from our current portfolio that have not been performing. Our loss is your gain…We need to make room for some new vintages and some brand new wines.
Copies of the closeout list will be sent out over the weekend to all and you can also ask your Rad Grapes sales representative for a copy of the list – first come first served, so hurry up and get your orders in.
Happy New Year to all!
Talk about a bitch….2009 has been a very difficult year to say the least. As we approach the end of the year, I cannot help myself to think that most of us are happy that the year and the first decade of the 21st century is ending. I for one am glad that we are turning a new page and entering a New Year, 2010 and a new decade. Good riddance to the bad economy, the layoffs, the credit card bills, the bailouts, George Bush and exploited consumerism….you can add more to that list I am sure…hopefully they are all truly behind us for good.
Maybe after all the mistakes, hardships and pitfalls, we will all learn to be thankful for the things we have a cherish, like our health and our families and do with a little less than before and to be more charitable. I do have to note that at least our business at Rad Grapes has actually improved nicely in the last quarter of 2009 and finished with a very good December, so at least we are finishing a dreadful year on a positive note. That being said, I still feel like I am behind the 8 ball, when it comes to bills for the foreseeable future, but as long as the economy and sales continue to improve, hard work and improved wine sales will fix everything…
I hope 2010 brings good health and more of that prosperity to all. Pop some corks tonight, have a good time, be safe and count your blessings. Cheers…
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