Vancouver, B.C. -- Northwest wineries may not be expecting slower sales over the holiday season, but they do expect to move product differently than they did a year ago.

Speaking to media during a conference call regarding this year's harvest, Sam Tannahill of A to Z Wineworks in Dundee, Oregon--a winery that boasts "Aristocratic Wines at Democratic Prices"--said October was its best month ever. Consumers are opting for wines priced under $20 per bottle, Tannahill said, noting that distributors indicate sales are shifting to reflect consumers' lower confidence in the economy. Restaurant sales are down in favor of retail sales, and premium wines priced between $20 and $50 per bottle are moving a bit more slowly.

 

Cleveland, Ga. -- White County in North Georgia has in the past year taken giant strides, with the planting of significant new vineyard acres and the opening of a new winery facility near Yonah Mountain, north of Cleveland. To support this progress, growers, wineries and allied businesses formed the Winegrowers of White County (WWC). Together with the existing Winegrowers Association of Georgia, WWC hopes to contribute to the marketing and development of North Georgia's wine trail and agri-tourism plans.

 

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I did a column a couple months back ("Winemakers Play With Fire--and Win," September 2008) about intentionally edgy winemaking--slowing fermentations down almost to the sticking point, exposing wine to overdoses of oxygen, and so on. Maybe it's because I'm neck deep in my own garage fermentations as I write this, but I'm still preoccupied with that narrow band of winemaking styles between the classically clean and the completely out-of-control.

Wine and cheese. Wine and chocolate. Wine and tourism? If you are not blending wine and tourism, you should be. Wine is the most elegant and marketable of all agricultural products. I once heard a spirited debate between a vineyard owner and a university extension agent, in which the vineyard owner said: "Soybeans are not sexy, wine is."

In the past month, news about the American economy has sunk from bad to worse. At the same time, many wineries confirmed that their sales are softening, if not dropping. As experts in government, banking and the stock market talked about the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, it seemed like a good time to look around for anti-depression measures for the wine industry.

As another harvest comes to an end, growers should think about how they are going to manage their vineyard floor next year, particularly if they are going to plant a cover crop. To be honest, writing a column on vineyard floor management is an excuse for me to discuss what many growers do not seem to want to hear, that frequent tillage is bad for soil quality. Despite all the talk about how cover cropping has been widely adopted, I am surprised how many disced vineyards I see around California during the growing season.

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