AnuvaBlog

Argentine growth in wine exports to the US has been remarkable during the last seven years: 2003-38M, 2004-48M, 2005-67M, 2006-92M, 2007-132M, 2008-183M, 1Q 09–51M. It is estimated that Argentina will close out the 2009 calendar year with $ 220.000.000 in shipments to the US.  During April 09, Argentina exported, in value, $ 18.737.976 vs. $ 11.380.587 in April 08, an increase of 64.6% and in volume it exported 5.906.462 liters in April 09 vs. 2.782.652 liters in April 08, an increase of 112%. The FOB cost per liter in April 09 is $ 3.17 vs. $ 4.09 in April 08, a drop of -22.5%.

During the 1st four months of 2009 Argentine Customs reported US exports of 1.966.955 nine-liter cases totaling $ 64.902.928 at an average price of $ 33 per nine-liter case. US Customs reports that for the same period Argentina exported $ 70.340.285 (including BTW) and 30.006.359 liters, or 3.334.039 nine-liter cases. The difference between the Argentine Customs Report and the US Customs Report is $ 5.437.357 and 1.367.084 nine-liter cases…this is the BTW amount for the first four months of 2009. There is a small variation in the four-month report of the two Customs due to timing issues. Argentine customs reports all shipments leaving its ports as of April 30th, while the US Customs only reports shipments landed at its ports as of April 30th. As we can appreciate 1) a number of the April 09 shipments from Argentina will not arrive on US shores until May 09 and 2) a number of shipments that left the Argentine ports on December 08, will not arrive in the US until January 09. Therefore, the timing issues will cause the two four-month reports to vary slightly. The 1.367.084 nine-liter case equivalents for $ 5.437.357 gives us an average of $ 0.44 per liter of BTW, which is not too far from the 2008 results of $ 0.46 per liter.

It still boggles the mind that a product that is so ubiquitous as wine would be ILLEGAL to ship anywhere. It’s not like we’re talking about explosives or anthrax. It’s wine. Anyone, anywhere, anytime can go down to their local supermarket and buy as much as they want. So why the big deal? Why waste millions of dollars in legislation and man power fighting this?

Distributors.

I can understand that the point of view of a distributor is that direct to consumer shipping, especially from domestic wineries, will steal market share from their businesses. The flaw in this argument, is that most of the wineries that are truly interested  in making their small business work through D2C shipping are too small to work with many distributors. They simply don’t have the volume. Even if they could afford to supply many different distributors with a pallet per month, they run the risk of running out of inventory for territories where they sell well and being ignored by or buried in the portfolios of bigger distributors.

Wine will never stop being put on shelves. And just as this will always remain the main model for buying wine, the distributor will have his place. It’s just that the precise description of that place needs to be revisited to account for small producers to sell D2C.

That said, if a distributor can pay attention to lower volume wineries and develop their brands with an understanding of their inventory levels and marketing budget, this should actually reinforce business for both the winery selling D2C and the distributor selling on the shelf.

This is not rocket science, people, its just selling wine bottles. The harder we make it for everyone, the more the consumer suffers and the smaller the overall marketplace.

Often people have trouble pinpointing exactly what they are experiencing in a wine. Putting the scents and tastes into words can feel awkward at first. Embarrassed to be wrong or to sound stupid a lot of people hold back when approaching wine.

I suggest finding other ways to describe the wine. While browsing the web to satisfy my inner nerd I often find many a great wine-geek friendly sites.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Chateau Petrogasm puts a fun spin by using images as wine descriptions. http://www.chateaupetrogasm.com/ . For example a 2006, Murphy-Goode Liar’s Dice Zinfandel, Sonoma County, CA. $18 might be a lion chasing a zebra on a moped. So next time you feel at a lost to describe a wine take a stab at expressing your reaction with a photo or drawing. Browse through the site to check out for some inspiration.

How about haiku? Maybe you remember writing them in middle school. These short poems offer a quick impression and leave a lot of room for creativity.   The web site Red Wine Haiku http://redwinehaiku.blogspot.com/ is written by Lane Steinberg who found his own outlet to wine notes.

 The point is be creative and make your own rules. Wine is something everyone can enjoy and doesn’t always need to be coated in technical mumbo-jumbo.

Put it back in the horse. Sometimes all it takes is a whiff of barnyard funk to identify the presences of Brett in a wine.

Brettanomyces, better known as“Brett” is a yeast found in many wines. During production wines are at risk for developing “guests”. Brett often invites itself in and grows eagerly inside barrels and all over wineries with less than pristine sanitation.

A horse is a horse but there are 5 different strains of Brett, which run a gamut of aromas, from wet saddle, to medicine, Band-Aids and even hickory BBQ. Some feel that Brett is a flaw and is indicative of poor production. While others feel a little Brett does the body of a wine good.

Caramello Patti’s beloved Cabernet Sauvignon has a bit of that familiar twain. Anyone who has been to visit his winery would imagine Brett is growing in every nook and cranny. But his wine is undeniably one of the best in Argentina.

Traditionally Brett was mistaken for unique terroir in many European wines and has attributed to the styles and flavors of many old world earthy wines. Today the debate is heated.

Tim Watson’s article, When Sanitation Meets Wine Style on BNet http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3488/is_9_85/ai_n6245126/?tag=content;col1 explains the controversy around this pesky little minx.  Wine critics tend to jump to one side or the other.

But regardless of what Robert Parker or any other Tom Dick or Harry have to say, you have the final word. If you try a wine with that old familiar something, it’s probably Brett, you be the judge, wine friend or foe.