Overspeculation in the Wine Industry

I have already stated that greed will be the downfall of domestic wine and I believe the meltdown of our domestic wine landscape is not to far around the corner. All it will take is the right set of labeling laws and everyone will lose faith in what they thought to be an honest forthcoming industry.

I had a conversation with one of my guests at the restaurant last night about all the things that were being done to wine these days. I brought up concentrates that can be added to a wine to make it taste more varietally correct. He could not believe such a thing exists, but oh it does. Not only does it exist, but I am sure we would all be shocked to find out how many wines we have drunk that contain these concentrates or any number of other additives available to winemakers. His next question was if Parker had ever rated such wine. I told him most likely yes, because like most major publications Parker does not care how a wine is made and does not have the time to find out when he blind tastes 300 wines in a day. His response was that he would lose all faith in scores if this were the case.

He is close to realizing what is really going on in our wine industry today. Charging outrageous prices for wines that are not really authentic or naturally made can only last so long. Sooner or later what is being done in the darkness will come to the light and it will be the same kind of backlash that we have seen on Wall Street. Kudos to those who are already striving to make wine in an authentic manner and are not trying to pull the wool over the eyes of those of us who love and support the domestic wine scene.

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I still need to read that book. Time will tell. Hopefully with knowledge and a crunch on our finances we will take a little more time to look at who we are supporting with our money and why we should support them.

Posted by: Adam | October 31, 2008 at 05:48 PM