More good news from Napa…not!

Vineyard Defaults Surge as Bargain Wines Hurt Napa…..like we could not have predicted that…

March 8 (Bloomberg) — In California’s Napa Valley, producer of the most expensive U.S. wines, 2010 may be a vintage year for foreclosures as the industry is squeezed by falling land values and a consumer shift to cheaper brands.

As many as 10 wineries and vineyards in Napa will change hands in distressed sales or foreclosures this year and next, up from none in 2008, according to Silicon Valley Bank. In a bank survey of vintners, 7 percent called their finances “very weak” or “on life support.”

“We have 250 vintner clients saying this downturn is the worst in 20 years,” Bill Stevens, manager of the bank’s wine division in St. Helena, California, said in an interview. “Anybody who was late to the party won’t have staying power.”

Land values in Napa, home to about 400 producers, have fallen 15 percent from the 2007 peak, driven in part by slumping demand for high-end wine, said Robert Nicholson, principal at International Wine Associates, a consulting and financing firm in Healdsburg, California. The decline makes it harder for owners to refinance mortgages, especially if the property is worth less than the loan.

Read on…

It is warm enough to grill…

The entire Rad family is at home for a quiet evening. Diner and a movie….its was in the 50’s and sunny today – first time in months we’ve seen weather like this, so we decided to grill. I am enjoying a little Lagavulin on the rocks and grilling some NY Strip steaks and roasting some of my infamous new potatoes. My wife is doing some shrimp, garlic & broccoli thing to boot…

Maybe a little of that open bottle of Vina Ventisquero Cabernet Reserva will be in order when the steak is ready. After a relaxing evening at home, it’s back to a busy week at work. Business has been stressing me out lately. It has been up and down…I wish it would just….it’s nice to be home for a quiet family dinner. Business will have to wait until tomorrow.

Setbacks in Wine Country

We all know that the recession has changed almost everything related to consumer spending habits, including what people buy and how much they spend. People that still have jobs are being more conservative with their spending and have traded down what they are drinking, spending less. I have seen several good articles about changes in consumer spending and how the average consumer is spending much less on average for a bottle of wine, but have never seen such a well written and researched article as the one from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat I just read online today.

This very well written and thought out article goes into some detail about how specific producers, wineries, wine growers and distributors are taking a hit from the changing spending patterns. It also describes how people in the business are weathering the changes and what the future holds not only for North Coast wineries, but the rest of us as well,  given what seems a secular change in the business. I fel tit was important to pass on. Click on the link below and read on…

As frugal consumers turn to more affordable vintages, strapped North Coast wineries forced to adapt…

The Vina Ventisquero wines have arrived

The value priced line up from Vina Ventisquero arrived into our warehouse on Wednesday and I went to pick up samples on Friday. The Rad Grapes crew will be out on Monday with samples in hand, tasting and selling the wines. It has been a long hard trip over the last few years and what has kept us in business (sometimes barely) have been our quality value priced wines. We are all stuck with some form of older inventory that just does not sell that well anymore no matter how good the wines are…times have changed indeed, even for the wine business. So I have been searching far and wide to find great wines that most of us can afford to drink every day.

Vina Ventisquero Reserva wines that are finally available in NY through Rad Grapes

Vina Ventisquero Reserva wines that are finally available in NY through Rad Grapes

Today’s consumer will eat up brands like Vina Ventisquero. My favorites are the Carmenere, Pinot Noir and the Sauvignon Blanc…but that’s just me. Great well made, quality wines at incredible prices. People want good wine, but they are done paying too much to get it. Retail these wines will end up around $13 a bottle, except for the Pinot Noir that would be around $15 per bottle. Those fall into every day for us wine geeks. Something so good for the money, even we drink it at home….what a novel concept! As for restaurants, these are perfect wines for wine by the glass in the $9-$10 range. Once we take the wines out this week, the feedback and sales will follow quickly.

Home Cooking Radisic style

The snow is still falling and has been all day…very wet and heavy stuff. So…since I happen to be home, I have been given the assignment to cook dinner. With nasty and cold weather outside, my inclination is to go with hearty, stick to your ribs food – Penne aglio, olio with chicken sausage and broccoli. We will add some garlic, bread, a small salad and maybe some Tagaris Malbec – big, bold, spicy, luscious and long. Sounds good, right?

It sure looks pretty, but…

Another snow day for the kids….the adults still work to do, although today it is office work, given another winter storm. This one looks to be a big one too. For now here is a picture of our back yard I just took a minute ago. I will update pictures later as we get more accumulations. Not like we did not have enough snow on the ground already! Enjoy.

Just the beggining of the Nor'easter...

Just the beggining of the Nor'easter...

Maybe we get to do a little sledding later?

More freakin’ snow? Geez!

I like all four seasons including winter, but we are at the point here in northern NJ where I think we have just about enough….an yet it seems we are going to get pounded again tomorrow. A classic Noreaster as per the local weather men….and that it awfully hard just to get out the driveway, yet alone go out to see customers and sell wine. If we do get a ton of snow, I will have to remain productive with March price sheets, April price postings, website updates and placing some orders. Productivity comes in many shapes and forms.

I just hope everyone is ready and has a few good bottles to hunker down with tomorrow afternoon and evening. I am sure the kids will get a snow day and enjoy the snow – sledding with the girls is one of the few winter activities I enjoy, so if the snow is right, I may even do a little sledding.

No matter what tomorrow brings though, on Friday I have to go to the warehouse to pick up a bunch of samples for some newly arrived wines and then into the city and Brooklyn for a few appointments.  Hopefully the snow is done by then.

Stay safe and warm.

Constellation still selling wine from convicted supplier, while greasing the skids…

Here is a great article from AFP I picked off Goggle, about the fake Pinot Noir Gallo was buying for their “La Byciclette” so called Pinot Noir and guess what?…one of the other mass producers of wine – Constellation – was also buying cheap Pinot Noir, as per the NY Times, Eric Asimov…and all that is followed by another article link at the end talking about Constellation’s $25,000 contribution to Governor Paterson, all while lobbying for the sale of wine in NY supermarkets…I could not have come up with a better story if I tried.

Constellation still selling wine from convicted supplier

(AFP) – 2 days ago

PARIS — Constellation Brands, the world’s top wine group, said Friday it was still selling wine bought from a French supplier convicted this week of sending fake pinot noir to the United States.

The US group said it had bought 10 percent of the 18 million bottles of fake pinot noir that the Sieur d’Arques company shipped to Constellation, E&J Gallo and other US clients between 2006 and 2008.

Sieur d’Arques was fined 180,000 euros (240,000 dollars) Wednesday by a French court that handed out fines and suspended jail terms to 12 makers and dealers for passing off red wine from cheaper syrah and merlot grapes as pinot red.

Cheryl Gossin, a US-based spokeswoman for Constellation, said that after the allegations of fraud emerged against Sieur d’Arques it took action to ensure the wine it received after the years covered by the court ruling was authentic.

“Constellation had independent experts test the French pinot noir shipped in 2009. It was confirmed to be pinot noir,” Gossin wrote in an email to AFP. The pinot noir the group received last year was the 2008 vintage.

She wrote that, despite the French court’s conclusion that Sieur d’Arques shipped phoney pinot between 2006 and 2008, the wine Constellation received in those years was “tested internally and found to be pinot noir.”

That wine has already been sold and is no longer available in the marketplace, she added.

Gallo, a major US wine producer, said after the court verdict that it had bought less than 20 percent of the falsely labelled pinot noir and was no longer selling any to customers.

Pinot noir became popular among American wine drinkers after the 2004 film “Sideways” about two friends who go on a wine-tasting trip in California.

The US federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said its agents were not involved in the affair because there was as yet no evidence that a fraud had been carried out on US soil.

But a spokeswoman said the ATF would investigate Constellation and Gallo if it were suspected that they were aware of the scam by the French suppliers and then knowingly sold cheaper wine as pinot to US consumers.

Those convicted by the court in the southwestern French town of Carcassonne included executives from wine estates, cooperatives, a broker, wine merchant Ducasse and the Sieur d’Arques group.

The judge said the accused made seven million euros (9.8 million dollars) in profits from the scam, with Ducasse raking in 3.7 million euros and Sieur d’Arques 1.3 million euros.

On edit…

This is what happens when you buy and drink, cheap,  mass produced wines…and it is one of the main reasons why I started Rad Grapes – to give consumers options in purchasing and drinking really great, quality artisanal wines, sourced from real farmers, at a great price point -0therwise, you really don’t know what you are drinking…Pinot Noir for $9 a bottle? Really? I have always told my customers that it is impossible to produce a Pinot Noir at such a price point….and I guess I was right, because it is not real Pinot Noir.

If you are buying wine only based on price point at your local wine shop this is what you end up with – not exactly what you expected and paid for – and that is exactly what NY consumers will end up with if Supermarkets are allowed to sell wine in NY – garbage and plonk at great price points….Good luck with that one, because they are also greasing the political palms in NY, while selling fake wine… what am I talking about?

Victor, N.Y. —

Constellation Brands Inc. denied Thursday that its $25,000 campaign contribution to the re-election of Gov. David Paterson was tied to Paterson’s proposal to allow wine sales in grocery stores. Interesting huh? read more…

So there you have it: selling what amounts to fake, cheap “not Pinot Noir”, while contributing $$$ to the NY Governor and lobbying to push allowing wine sales in supermarkets…Really? There are just so many thing wrong with this story on so many levels, that I don’t know where to begin. Real wines come from farmers and not factories…keep that in mind when shopping for wine next time. Cheers…

Tagaris Malbec 2007 and some IT work…

For those who may not know it, I am a serious tech geek. I am talking managing 3 servers and two networks type IT work. My wife thinks I missed my calling, but for me its just anther fun and therapeutic activity and it certainly helps me save a few sheckles…it also gives me much better control and understanding of what is going on with our networks. Anyway….tonight I changed our router at home. We’ve had no problem with the Linksys BEFSX41, but it is a 5 year old router and I knew we could have some better speeds without spending much money.

Several months ago I picked up a D-Link DGL-4100 gaming router on sale at Newegg for a steal, but never got around to installing it. Well for what ever reason, I got around to it tonight. It was actually pretty simple to set up, even though I had to do a little tweaking with the IP and port set up for our home server. Once I had that part down I plugged it in a few minutes ago and voila! Admittedly  the newly arrived Tagaris Malbec 2007 has been essential in keeping me on task (yes, wine is part of almost everything I do)…I love hen a plan comes together.

Analysis of NY’s proposed “Wine in Supermarkets” Law…

N.Y. Governor Patterson has proposed a few changes in the current NY SLA law, to allow sales in supermarkets, it seems mainly in an attempt to raise extra funds through the additional licensing vs. for the sake of changing the law for someone’s true benefit. The idea has been attempted before, but has yet to yield any success in Albany. This is a thorny issue for many, but a more thorough analysis would be fair and informative.  To date, some of the best analysis and comparative work has been done by Dr. Vino. Without elaborating much further on the subject with my opinions ( and I do have them since I own a small wine import & distribution business that sells exclusively in NY)…here’s a link to Dr. Vino’s post…read on

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