Between the Wines January 2023

Between The Wines January 2023

Hidden Treasures Wines from Alsace are great. They’ve always been great frankly. And they have long been referred to by most wine writers as ‘under-rated’ and ‘under-represented’.

For a little while in the 80’s and 90’s these wines were downright fashionable, mostly because of one person (well, maybe two): Olivier Humbrecht of Domaine Zind Humbrecht.

With his freshly minted ‘Master of Wine’ (received in 1989—the first Frenchman to earn the title), Olivier took over the family domaine and the quality and notoriety of their wines soared. It didn’t hurt that Robert Parker—then at the peak of his influence—was in love with Olivier and his wines. Happily, all these years later, the Z-H wines are as good as ever.

Focusing on site-specific cuvees— including several bottlings from Grand Cru sites—Z-H offers something for just about everyone— various styles, varietals, levels of sweetness—a virtual masterclass in white wines from Alsace (they make almost zero red wine).

hidden Treasures Trends & observations It is worth noting also that Olivier was among the very first wineries in the world to fully embrace biodynamic viticulture, a practice now routinely practiced by many of the world’s leading wine estates. Olivier was also on the leading edge (20+ years ago) of having a ‘sweetness scale’ on the label for Alsace wines, something required by law commencing with the 2021 vintage (global warming means some wines will be either 16% alcohol or have a bit of residual sugar…the scale lets buyers know what to expect). And the wines are very fairly priced, considering the quality and stature these wines represent.

Continued....

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Quotation of the Month: “Best friends don't care if your house is clean. they care if you have wine."

Between The Wines January 2023

Hidden Treasures Continued..

Yet, Alsatian wines continue to be overlooked by many. Irrefutably great at the table. Labeled by varietal— something American consumers are comfortable with.

And the wines from this area are almost always delicious, even the ‘entry-level’ bottlings. For those of our clients that pride themselves on offering everything from A to Z…you haven’t gotten to Z yet. Anyone looking for bright, fresh, delicious, somewhat unknown wines to share with their guests, look no further than the Zind Humbrecht.

We don’t understand why there aren’t more cheerleaders for these wines. So, we will be.

Quotation of the Month: “Best friends don't care if your house is clean. they care if you have wine."

Trends & Observations canned beverages: the battle continues...

The boom in ‘Ready-to-Drink’ adult beverages---seltzers, canned cocktails, and RTD’s—has blurred the lines in some of the traditional ‘categories’ in the beverage industry. We now refer to this entire group as ‘Canned Beverages’. The reason for the fuzziness is that some of the drinks get their proof from malted grains (just like beer), some get it from added spirits, and some get it simply from fermenting cane sugar, and our Government therefore has historically put these into different categories (mostly due to tax considerations), so we in the trade have simply followed suit.

But due to the immense popularity of the category, and the never-ending innovation in products produced (such as Coca-Cola’s plans to release an alcoholic Fresca), it became cumbersome to make sense of it all, so—against much pushback from certain stakeholders (beer)—the taxing and categorization of these products has flattened, both at the Federal and State levels. For example, as of last year Michigan’s SDM licensees can now sell these products up to 13.5% alcohol and it no longer matters where the proof comes from.

Between The Wines january 2023

Interestingly, though the genesis of the recent boom in these canned beverages can be credited to the two big ‘seltzer’ products, it appears the products that are canned cocktails, i.e., those getting their proof from the addition of vodka or rum, or another spirit are quickly climbing the leader board. GLWAS’s High Noon—a ‘hard seltzer’ which contains vodka + fruit juice—is now the #2 scanning product in the industry… gaining on #1 White Claw.

We currently carry dozens of entrants into this category---from hard seltzers to ranch water to gin & tonic and everything in between---and there are dozens and dozens we don’t carry. Many are doing well, but we are starting to see a bit of shakeout: the top brands will continue to grow, but the also-rans will fade away. Get behind the winners and you make your customers happy, and you’ll make some $$ along the way.

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Roco Winery Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of sitting thru presentations from hundreds and hundreds of educational presentations from various wine personnel. Some good, some not so good, and a few were absolutely great.

Though it was about 20 years ago, we still remember one of the very best presentations ever: Rollin soles, then of Argyle and Roco Winery.

Though full time winemaker (and partner) at Argyle, Rollin and wife Corby started their own label Roco (bet you can guess where the name came from) in the early 2000’s. As their label grew and required more and more attention, Rollin eventually handed off his role as chief winemaker at Argyle (though he still consults there and at several other spots, including Domaine Drouhin’s Roserock Winery). In our eyes they have done virtually everything right, and apparently we aren’t the only ones that think so: recently Rollin and Corby sold a controlling interest to the well-known and uber-successful Santa Margherita winery. Since we are SM’s Michigan distributor, we now have the privilege of selling Roco wines!

Between The Wines january 2023

Texas-born Rollin’s persona typically fills any room he is in—he’s brilliant and he’s a hoot—but when people turn their attention to the wines, they do the talking. As is no surprise to anyone that knows him, Rollin’s wines are generous and ample, yet they are very light on their feet and typically have fascinating aromatics… great juice! Note too that Argyle was founded as a sparkling wine house (they added still wines to their roster five years after their founding), and now Roco offers sparkling wines.

We’ve not yet tried their bubbles, but we’re pretty sure they are awesome. Roco’s wines have been on the Wine Spectator ‘Top 100’ list several times. Also of note: Roco is LIVE certified sustainable, a member of ‘Salmon Safe’ as well as a member/practitioner of IOBC (another organization that promotes practices sustainable, environmentally safe vineyard practices. These wines not only taste good, they make you feel good.

Welcome Roco!