Between The Wines Between The Wines
October October 2023 2023
Hidden Hidden Treasures Treasures
and was so taken with it, he decided to buy it and start his own brand there…and Bodega Noemia was born.
hidden Treasures
Thoughts & observations
What's New
In Argentina, 620 miles south of Buenos Aires and 280 miles west of the Atlantic, in northern Patagonia’s high desert lies the Rio Negro Valley. Long known as an excellent environment for growing apples & pears, someone in the 1930’s figured that grapes would thrive there as well. This was proven out when renowned travelling winemaker Hans Vinding-Diers was summoned to Argentina around the turn of the millennia to consult on a new project. Once there, he started hunting for older vineyards and found the 4 acre beauty Malbec planted in 1932 to be exact
These wines are not your typical Argentinian/Mendoza-type Malbecs; These wines are from a much cooler climate with different soils, etc. They are singular and unique and awesome. The A Lisa is the entry level Hans calls it his “100 point wine”, since it so over-delivers at its price point (about $27 retail).
The J. Alberto is an 11 acre, singlevineyard beauty. It clocks in at around $60 retail and outperforms most anything else we sell which retails at a similar price.
If you think you know Argentine Malbec, you don’t know the whole story until you try these…
quotation of the Month:
“When it comes to wine, I tell people to throw away the vintage charts and invest in a corkscrew. The best way to learn about wine is the drinking ” –Alexis Lichine
October October 22023 023
Thoughts & Thoughts & Observations Observations
Calling all Millennials!
There has been a steady drumbeat over the past few years declaring that Baby Boomers the bread & butter consumers for premium wine--are beginning to ‘age out’. And the following generation Gen X (1965 to 1980)-isn’t picking up the slack. Boomers in particular (born 1946 to 1964) are the group that fueled our dramatic increase in wine consumption in the U.S. .Of course it is logical that as people reach a certain age, have fixedincomes---or die they will consume less wine Or perhaps they ‘trade down’ Its inevitable. But the other part of the equation is that Millennials and Gen Z are not consuming anywhere near the same amount of wine. And the wines that they tend to drink are not the sometimes pricey, trophy wines Boomers love so much. They are much more into small-production, ‘authentic’ wines and ‘natural’ wines…not to mention seltzers, RTD’s cocktails and now even non-alcoholic beverages.
What is the industry to do to bring in younger wine drinkers? We’re not sure. As distributors, we do not create brands or market them really. We try to find products that our customers are looking for to service their customers. For example, we went from offering two or three RTD-type brands in 2019 to around sixty in 2022 because that’s what the market was looking for.
We always keep an ear to the ground, travel regularly, and try to anticipate/be ahead of the curve. And we do communicate with our winery partners about what we hear from our buyers and see in our travels
We’re not sure what Gen Z (or any other group will be looking for in 2024 and beyond, but rest assured we will have whatever it is our customers and their customers’ desire.
We’re here to help you grow your business!
quotation of the Month:
“When it comes to wine, I tell people to throw away the vintage charts and invest in a corkscrew The best way to learn about wine is the drinking.”
Alexis Lichine
Between The Wines Between The Wines
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Between The Wines Between The Wines
October October 22023 023
What's What's New New fitVine
We have written previously on these pages about ‘lifestyle wines’. The category is about wines that for ‘healthier’ for consumers due to reduced alcohol, less residual sugar, fewer ‘additives’ , reduced use of sulfites, or all of the above. They bare sometimes referred to as ‘clean wines’. However, many of these wines fail in one important aspect: they don’t taste good! Enter FitVine. FitVine, first & foremost tastes good. Most notably and this might be why these wines show better than most the alcohol level on FitVine wines is the same as most traditional table wines: 13% to 14%. Indeed, the reason many of the wines in this category are ‘healthier’ is because they have fewer calories due to having reduced alcohol. Sometimes significantly less. The problem with that however is that, say a person has one or two glasses of wine a night to enjoy the flavor and the mild medicinal effect of the alcohol. But if a wine goes from 13.5% to 9.5% that person would likely need to have two or three glasses to achieve the same results.
FitVine’s main point of difference is the reduced residual sugar Almost all table wines have some residual sugar: even wines that do not taste sweet at all have some R.S., but below the taste threshold. FitVine ferments their wine to almost total dryness. A typical glass of California wine will have approximately .9 to 1.4 grams of sugar per glass FitVines wines average .09 grams per glass; that is significant. So…even though the alcohol level on their wines are at a normal level hence the calorie contribution from the alcohol is about the same, the absence of sugar reduces the calories quite a bit, sometimes by half, depending on what your normal wine of choice is. It sounds like a good formula to us. And did we mention they taste good?
quotation of the Month:
“When it comes to wine, I tell people to throw away the vintage charts and invest in a corkscrew The best way to learn about wine is the drinking.” – Alexis Lichine
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