|
New York Wine & Grape Foundation
The Wine Press
Canandaigua (January 23, 2008) – “TIPPING POINT” is how John Gillespie, President of the Wine Market Council, recently described 2007 for wine consumption trends in the United States, referring to the phenomenon described in a best-selling and fascinating book about rapidly spreading, unstoppable “social epidemics” that catch on and take off. The “tipping point” concept is that one or more factors occur that suddenly propel a product into stratospheric growth, much the way a medical epidemic spreads uncontrollably through the population. In the case of U.S. wine consumption, 2007 marked the first year that sales exceeded 300 million cases and annual adult per capita consumption topped 3 gallons. The U.S. also edged out Italy to become the world’s second largest wine-consuming nation, with expectations that it will soon overcome France to become #1. Among the promising demographic factors were gender equality, with men now equaling women in wine consumption; the first-ever dominance of core (frequent) drinkers over marginal (occasional) ones; and the younger age of core drinkers, reflecting the surge of consumption among the “millennial” generation (21 – 30), a huge population bubble who are the kids of “baby boomers” like me. In fact, the millennials are actually starting as “core” wine consumers rather than evolving to that level; are eager to learn about wine; aren’t shy about spending money on higher priced wines; and are drinking less beer and spirits, but more wine. Another major change has occurred among consumers of alcoholic beverages (of all types): In 2000, 57% didn’t drink any wine, while 43% did, but in 2007 the reverse was true—43% didn’t and 57% did. Part of the reason, according to this very sophisticated market research, is that people now consider wine appropriate for more occasions, and not just for special occasions. These are just a few of many points made by Mr. Gillespie and several colleagues during a symposium at the New York Public Library on Wednesday, in one of the most uplifting and encouraging science-based presentations I can remember seeing in 25 years. But now, just as wine is taking off, the American economy is imploding. Oh, well, have a glass of wine, it’ll make you feel better. (FYI, John and his partner at Wine Opinions, Christian Miller, will provide a special presentation on consumer attitudes toward Riesling at the January 31 meeting in Sacramento of the newly established International Riesling Foundation. More information about Wine Opinions is available at www.wineopinions.com)
GRAND CENTRAL OYSTER BAR in the historic and exciting Grand Central Terminal, where we had lunch afterwards, is a great New York experience, and a faithful supporter of New York wines. Both the menu and wine list are huge, with the “Today’s Catch” menu including over 30 separate items but representing only about a sixth of the total menu, complemented by a couple hundred wines, including several from New York. On the menu page (front), they featured “Riesling Specials”—the only type of wine featured on the front page, echoing Jancis Robinson’s recent observation about Riesling’s burgeoning popularity— including Castello di Borghese Long Island Riesling, with several other New York wines on the general wine list. Matching the copious menu and wine list is just the experience itself—a bustling restaurant in a caverness but somehow cozy space with truly professional waitstaff. Next time you’re in New York, experience the experience.
VITICULTURAL SPACE MAP of New York State is one of the many exciting projects in our $400,000 “Total Quality Focus” research program which literally starts from the ground up, travels through the vineyards and ends up in the bottle. This project, coordinated by Cornell’s Dr. Alan Lakso in collaboration with many other scientists, is a highly sophisticated system of site selection—where you can grow grapes, where you can’t, and where you’d be rolling the dice. Among other things, it is based on historical weather data each day for the past 27 years in order to develop a long-term high resolution climatology system. Supplementing the expertise of researchers from Cornell and Cooperative Extension is the Institute for the Application of Geospatial Technologies (IAGT) in Auburn, NY, which provides the incredible space-age technology to make this happen. The project is well under way, and when completed here’s how it will work: You’re sitting at your computer with a glass of wine, interested in planting grapes and maybe opening a winery, so you log on to a web site and see a color-coded space-based map of New York State that shows the length of growing seasons and seasonal “degree days”. The color key tells you that the areas in yellow to red are preferred locations with adequate seasonal heat. You zero in on a region and get the temperature data for a specific site in a 3 x 3 mile grid. You follow the same simple process to get a statewide view, and then close-ups, of key parameters like geology, soil composition, an overview of the current New York grape and wine industry, and links to relevant web sites. When you finally select a specific site within the region, you get a very high resolution “bird’s eye view” of Virtual Earth that will also give you information on topography, soils, slope and other key variables. If you decide that site is of interest, you click on it to receive a downloadable spreadsheet scorecard of all the key parameters that will give you “suitability” scores for each of the values generated. You have basically done in 10 minutes what could have taken 10 weeks or 10 months before, and you’ve done it without even leaving home. If by then you’re still interested, you should contact the local Cornell Cooperative Extension expert to go over the data and actually visit the site; as wonderful as space technology is, there’s nothing comparable to human knowledge. This will be an incredible resource that could accelerate the growth of the New York grape and wine industry in future years by saving potential investors time and money, as well as very costly mistakes. This project, and the others under our Total Quality Focus program, were made possible by the leadership of Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Catharine Young and her colleagues, with support from Assembly Agriculture Committee Chairman Bill Magee, and approval by Governor Spitzer. It’s an investment that will pay handsome dividends to the State of New York.
RESEARCH FUNDING provided by the U.S. wine industry is pitifully small compared with our friendly competitors in Australia, according to a superb comparative analysis in the current edition of Wines & Vines magazine. The total production value of U.S. wineries is $11.4 billion, but the total amount for Research and Development (R&D) is only $2 million ($1.2 million from industry, plus $.9 million from government). Australian wineries’ production value is only $5 billion (less than half of U.S.), but R&D investment is $23.7 million (nearly 12 times the U.S. total, with $10.5 million from industry and $13.2 million from government). In other words, counting just the industry figures, our Australian friends produce less than half the wine we do, but invest 5 times the dollars that we do in research. While currently suffering from a long-term drought which no one wishes on them, our colleagues in Australia have served as the model for the world in terms of having their act together about the importance of research, of investing in it, and of working together. They created a very ambitious 20-year strategic plan but had to retool it after 5 years because they had already met their 20-year goals. In the U.S., everybody wants research, but few want to pay for it—perhaps because “research” seems so nebulous and long term. Just as ominously, Cooperative Extension—the professionals who communicate the research results to the growers and winemakers who need them—gets far less support than is needed to bridge the research gap. This problem is being addressed head-on by the National Grape and Wine Initiative (NGWI), currently headed by Tom Davenport of National Grape Cooperative (Welch’s), so that the U.S. grape, wine and grape products industries can become more competitive and contribute ever more to the economy. In addition to Tom Davenport, Jim Finkle, John Martini and I serve on the NGWI Board representing New York, working with our colleagues from all across the country to set national priorities and seek funding to meet them. While government funding is important, the bottom line is that the industry needs to finally step up to the plate and dig into its pockets for research to improve its own future. This point is underscored by a looming federal cutback in funding for the Viticulture Consortium, which for years has been a vital component of grape growing research across the country.
“It’s essential that we establish a mandatory program for industry contributions that leverages funding sources to direct research into areas that industry feels most important.”
- Bill Nelson, President, WineAmerica, in Wines & Vines
|
