WILSON on WINE - Wine Love
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WILSON on WINE What a joke! No, not the latest knee-slapper you heard at the Opus 1 tasting. It's the myriad of laws, restrictions, red tape and vintage BS that prevents wine lovers in the majority of these here United States from ordering/receiving wine shipped directly from the winery and many retail wine shops, too. Naturally, the standard refrain from the choir of regulation supporters: “We're doing it For The Children” (insert very adult expletive here). The real reason just about everyone east of the Mississippi can't get or has to jump thru innumerable hoops to get most of the smaller California wines has nada to do with kiddies ordering and guzzling cases of BV's Reserve Cabs and Chards after school and everything to do with controlling the access and supply- thus protecting the profits of Big Distributors. This is a fact. My son works for one of the biggest in these parts. The usual drill goes like this: Small Excellent Winery: Hey, Big D! How ‘bout distributing my wine? Big D: How much ya got? SEW: We made 982 cases of this killer Zin! Bid D: Not even close to enough to bother with. SEW: But I could use the profits to grow more vines, more grapes, more cases, more profits you get the picture? Big D: Go away, kid. Come back when you've got more cases. And the beat goes on…SEW can't make it to the Big Time because Big D is doing just fine with Berringer, Kendall-Jackson, Mondavi, Sutter Home, Gallo the giants of the wine biz. Meanwhile, there's Mayo and Roloson and Lockwood and many more, rolling out these killer wines that can only be bought if you take a right at the second light, go past the hardware store, then 3 miles…. This is bad, wrong and un-American! If you don't work to stop this, “the terrorists will have won”! Restricting trade (what this seems to be) is illegal. And even if this doesn't technically qualify as “restraint of trade”, it sure smells like it. And that's not the “bouquet” we're looking for. Monopolies are bullies and bullies are bad people whether in kindergarten or as a corporation or federal regulatory agency. Un-American speaks for itself. Two other “problems”: #1- There are those boutique wineries that are just orgasmic being small. They do it for the love of the grape and the pride of turning out a quality product. Naturally, their fans insure a regular sell out so there are no inconvenient “leftovers” to worry about. Getting bigger is not part of the game plan. Small is good. #2 Many reading this have the joy of living in California or those 8 or 13 other states that treat citizens like adults and “permit” wine shipments to individuals. Bully for you, he wrote enviously. All Things Considered (no apologies to NPR) my on-going problem getting groovy California wines isn't gonna go away anytime soon. It's a numbers game: there aren't enough wine lovers with the time, energy or concern to mount an effort of sufficient size or strength to fix it. They probably do as I do: make a pilgrimage to Napa, Sonoma, Alexander, Paso Robles, Russian River, et al, hitting as many tasting rooms time will allow, maxing out the Visa to stock/re-stock the cellar and shipping it all back to themselves which is still legal somehow. Failing the In-Person Shopping Binge, we must impose on friends and family who are willing to make the Trip & Ship effort for the poor WDEC's (Wine Deprived East Coasters) like me. (Insert heart wrenching sniff and sigh here) Of course, Big D couldn't care less! Written as I sip the last of my Mayo Zinfandel-Port….(sob!) Brian Wilson
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