Swirls: Twitter wine, sweet German riesling, elephant crushes grapes

SWIRL: You’ll recall that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, recently announced a $100 million grant to the Newark, N.J. school system. Well now comes word of another literacy initiative  involving Twitter and wine. Twitter has teamed up with Crushpad, a California custom winemaking facility, to offer a pinot noir and a chardonnay under the Fledgling by Twitter label, each priced at  $25. For every bottle sold, $5 will go to a non-profit group that promotes literacy in developing countries. Read more about it here.

SWIRL: As a riesling lover, I was struck by Eric Asimov’s excellent column in The New York Times today on German rieslings, specifically the spatlese category, which refers to a ripeness level that allows the grapes to be made into sweet wines. Such wines can be sublime, and if the sweetness “is carefully balanced by other qualities, like a lively acidity,” Asimov writes, “you end up with a high-wire balancing act in which the tension between sweetness and acid is refreshing and thrilling.”

SWIRL: If some of the wine produced by one Oregon winery comes off as a little “heavy handed,” it may be understandable. That’s because Reustle Vineyards used an elephant named George this past weekend to crush some of its grapes. Read the full story here.

Technorati Tags: Fledgling wine,Twitter wine,Twitter,Facebook wine,Mark Zuckerberg,German riesling,Spatlese,Reustle Vineyards,Elephant grape crush,Edward Deitch,Fledgling by Twitter,Oregon wines

Swirls: the top imported wines for quality and value – consumers and the wine trade weigh in

In terms of wine quality, which countries stand out the most to consumers? The question was put to more than 600 wine consumers in a survey by Wine Opinions, an Internet-based research firm. Wines were divided into four categories: whites/rosés under $20, reds under $20 and reds in the $20 to $50 range. The results:

• When it comes to under-$20 whites and rosés, more consumers rated the wines of Germany, New Zealand, France and Italy “outstanding” than those of other countries.
• For reds under $20, the wines of Italy, France, Spain and Argentina came out on top.
• For reds in the $20 to $50 range, France and Italy got the highest marks, with each rated outstanding by fully two-thirds of consumers, while roughly half gave the reds of Spain, Australia   and Argentina top marks.

What countries do best when it comes to value? Wine Opinions put that question to more than 200 members of the wine trade.

• For whites and roses under $20, the leaders were Argentina, Spain, Chile and Portugal. Despite a lot of lower-priced Australian whites on the market, Australia was at the bottom of the value chart in this category.
• When it comes to reds under $20, Argentina led the way, followed closely by Spain and Chile. Italy and France were somewhat lower.
• As for more expensive red wines, those priced at $20 to $50, Spain, Argentina, Italy and Chile were the value leaders. All were  considered “good” or “outstanding” in this regard by about three quarters or more of the respondents. France’s rating was relatively low, at 59 percent, “an indication of the difficulty France is having in this price category,” according to Wine Opinions’ analysis of the results.

del.icio.us Tags: Wine Opinions survey,Wine Opinions,Edward Deitch,Quality wines,Value wines,Wine quality,Wine values,Argentina wines,Chile wine,France wines,Italy wines,Australia wines,Spain wines,Portugal wines,Germany wines,New Zealand wines

Swirls: Free case of wine? Which region would you choose?

I know I’m going a bit heavy on the surveys this week, but I was stuck by some of the results in a newly released study on attitudes toward imported wines. It was conducted by Wine  Opinions, an Internet-based research company that focuses on attitudes and preferences of frequent U.S. wine purchasers and consumers  and members of the wine trade. Among the findings:

• Argentina and Chile have seen major gains among consumers buying their red wines over the last couple of years, leading all other countries  in growth.
• Italy, New Zealand and Australia, saw significant increases in white wine and rosé purchases and, along with France and Germany, are the leading countries consumers turn to for these imports.
• Respondents from the wine trade say they’ve been selling a lot more wine under $20 from Argentina, Chile and Spain since the start of the recession in 2008, which is not surprising given the emphasis on value wines from those countries. Also not surprising: roughly a third or more say they are selling less wine in the over-$20 category from just about every country.

So, a lot of growth, it appears, in New World wines over the last couple of years. However, on the intriguing question -- from what country would consumers want to receive a free mixed-case of wine? – the Old World wins hands down. France was the first choice among 30 percent, Italy second at 26 percent, followed by Australia at 13 percent and Spain at 10 percent.

The results were based on responses from 642 consumers and 214 members of the wine trade. I’ll have more from this survey in coming days. For more information about the survey you can contact Wine Opinions at info@WineOpinions.com.

del.icio.us Tags: Wine imports,Wine Opinions,Wine Opinions survey,Under-$20 wines,Edward Deitch,Chile wine,Argentina wine,Spain wine,France wine,Italy wine,Australia wine,New Zealand wine,Wine survey,Imported wine,Germany wine