Why I’m Only Buying American Wine For 60 Days
Small wineries are suffering the most from a widespread reduction in wine comsumption. For 2 months, I am spotlighting small production American winemakers for you to try.
Good morning and happy Monday, my dear enjoyers. Buckle up! This is a longer letter than usual. Read it intermittently throughout your day, have an extra cup of coffee for me, and let me know your thoughts in the comments.
I was compelled by a video I saw last week on Instagram addressing the topic of American wine sales. It caught my attention for a couple of reasons: I sell American wine for a living and I see myself being a part of the wine industry in some capacity for the rest of my life. Most of all, I love enjoying American wines and learning about new places and people through them. Small producers, concerned with sustainability are on the forefront of innovation in regenerative farming that could change the future of our food system. Did I mention how fun it is to share a bottle of wine with someone you love?
Here’s the video:
So, I decided to do an American wine challenge of my own: buying and drinking only American wine for the next 60 days. This may not seem like much but, as I have mentioned before, I typically drink European wines at home and in my free time. More than ever, I am aware of how every dollar I spend contributes to a larger societal framework; for that reason I’m focusing on small, independently owned wineries that share similar values of environmental and social consciousness.
I live in Michigan where there is an exciting, relatively new wine scene bubbling with high quality wines, so I’m putting a lot of energy into supporting the producers raising the standard and reputation in Michigan. Though, I will be drinking plenty of wines from California and would love some recommendations from Virginia and the greater eastern US (comment below!). This will be my first semi-paywalled post as I will be writing about wines I spent my own money on for the purpose of sharing on this platform. Additionally, any money earned from paid subscriptions over the next two months will be used directly, in full to purchase wine from small, American producers (directly from the winery when possible). This idea was born after my husband told me he couldn’t see the value in upgrading his subscription to paid. Love him for that.
TLDR - Wines with soul that I’ve drank so far:
2018 Birichino ‘Scylla’ California Red Wine purchased at Old Woodward Cellar
2018 Shady Lane Cellars Chardonnay, Leelanau Peninsula purchased at Mongers / buy direct
2021 Folklor ‘Bramble’ Leon Millot, Tip of the Mitt purchased at Mongers / buy direct
2018 Post & Vine Field Blend, Mendocino buy directly
2022 Boathouse Vineyards Pinot Blanc, Leelanau buy directly
2017 Burgess Contadina, Napa Valley shop new releases
For more details and the irreverent commentary you come here for, read on.
This begs a few questions…
Are sales down because there are just better options from other countries?
I got this comment on the TikTok of mine I linked above, and at first I thought it was hilarious because this commenter really missed the whole point of my video. Then I remembered that most people haven’t devoted their life to studying wine, so it would be easy to grasp onto misinformation spread by someone using fear tactics to sell their mass-produced, industrial wine without additives. *cough* Avaline *cough*.
To clear things up: There are over 70 additives approved to be used in winemaking (this is worldwide though some classic regions have stricter laws) and they serve many functions: stabilizing, acid control, tannin enhancement, color enhancement, fining, etc. It is important to remember that additives being allowed does not guarantee their use. Furthermore, not understanding the chemical names or uses for certain additives does not mean they are “scary” and “untested”. Lastly, cheap European wines that are mass produced use the same methods as wildly popular, budget American brands.
Wondering whether a wine is industrialized juice hiding behind good marketing? If it is stocked en masse on every end cap at every grocery store in your area, there is a strong chance it is mass produced. Typically with wines like this, additives may be used to ensure a consistent product each year, in contrast to the wine showing vintage variation which happens due to the unique climate events of each given growing season.
Where do value and quality intersect?
Though many of us have been taught that the best value wines are from lesser known European regions, I think it is time to give the less popular regions stateside a chance. Start with wine local to you! This could mean looking to the Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley if you are in NYC; Walla Walla and Columbia Valley in the PNW; North and Central Coast for the Californians, and for me it is looking to NW Michigan and the Lake Michigan Shore. Often you may find higher quality wines from “local” regions for the same price as mass produced, lesser quality wines from famous regions because it has saved costs in transportation, distribution, and/or lower land/grape costs. You need to know where to look and if you don’t know, I’m going to help you with this.
Why are many wine drinkers unfamiliar and hesitant to drink “local” wine?
I grew up in suburban America disconnected from where my food came from. Truthfully, I never considered where my food was grown or who grew it until I started working in a “farm to table” restaurant in 2016, I was 19. That’s kind of a shocking thought now. I see this as a reason why drinking local wine feels so foreign to people, maybe like me they had never considered why supporting local agriculture is important. I’m sure many American wine drinkers have never seriously considered wine grown locally to them, largely in part due to the scarcity of high quality wine in secondary regions compared to the mass produced wines of lesser quality. For example from the Finger Lakes, the most visible brand is Taylor Wine Company (think grocery, liquor store, convenience store), but this prevalence does not subtract from the quality of wineries like Hermann J. Weimer, Dr. Konstantin Frank, Ravines, Boundary Breaks, Red Tail Ridge, Weis, the list goes on indefinitely, that are much more scarce and difficult to find in distribution. In Michigan, I see wine drinkers struggling to get past the widely available, sweet wines in the grocery store when there is a wide world of fine Michigan wine to be discovered. My goal over the next 2 months is to shine some light on lesser celebrated regions, producers, and grape varieties made by authentic and exceptional people. This is really where the joy of wine lives for me.
Summers as a kid were always spent in Northern Michigan on the lake. Our little red cabin had been in the family for 70 years and was probably another 50 years older than that. It was built of wood, painted red, with a paved porch that wrapped around three quarters of it. The screen door always slammed shut with a wap, there was no power or running water, and all our beds were in the one room on the second floor, except for Grandpa’s on the main level. The turquoise waters of the lake reflected life into this little old cabin on the hill and my dearest memories live in the land around this house. Between it and the water was prairie grass, to the south a cedar swamp, and to the north a patch of wild blackberries surrounded by a natural fence of sumac. I remember tucking my pajama pants into my tube socks, pulling on a hoodie, and sweating perfusely as my siblings and I ran toward the berry patch to forage, “protected” from the prickly bushes by our layers of mismatched clothing. Brown bags filled quickly with the smallest, sweetest berries we had ever tasted. By the time I was a teenager, the sumac had completely overtaken the wild berry patch and I never picked berries there again.
I hadn’t thought of this specific childhood memory in a very long time, that is, until I tasted Bramble, a wine produced by Folklor Wine & Cider, a newer project in Charlevoix, MI by Izabela Babinska & Derrick Vogel.
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