Lot of Barefoot and PL wines go thru Dollar General and others.
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This is kind of an underwhelming article, IMHO. He basically collects all of the reasons why Napa is hurting that this board has been talking about for years, and everyone in the industry already pretty much knows (too much sameness, too expensive, rich owners can easily sustain losses), and then suggests that the answers are:
- plant something other than Cabernet in Napa (I mean, sure, this makes more sense on the outer parts of the county, but who in their right mind is going to replant their cabernet in the Valley?)
- sell or downscale production (oh, okay)
- lease out your owned vineyard (not sure how that fixes the macro problem)
- sell your vineyard into a conservation easement (that’s a tax play that really only benefits those who can really make use of the tax play)
- get the county to allow for more tourism through on-property events (never in a zillion years is Napa County going to allow this)
So, in other words, make less wine and boost tourism?
These all sure sound beneficial for Ted’s Long Meadow Ranch, and Mayacamas where he’s a Managing Director.
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It’s also fairly underwhelming because it smells very AI-generated. Sentence structure, tone, the dreaded em-dash, etc. Not 100% sure but there’s a lot of signs
Edit: Yup
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And the source for THAT is “fruitsnacks - Two Door Cinema Club” ?
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I agree with the outcome of the program that it’s probably AI generated.
The text was presented as being written by someone other than Mary Shelley so the program correctly identified it was not created by that individual.
You’d get the same result if you submitted a verse from the bible as your own work.
I just copied and pasted a paragraph from the book into an AI detector and it said it was 99% human; I think that twitter account is just bs-ing.
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It’s just a joke guys.
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I am going to challenge this point. I think its quite the opposite: what Napa grower in their right mind ISNT considering replacing at least a block of cabernet in their vineyard with a different variety. Obviously there are edge cases and specific and historic sites, but there is factually a massive over production of cabernet. We can see the numbers and we can see how much was left unsold hanging on the vines.
On a side note what varieties would people like to see planted more in Napa? I have been loving the Ridge Frediani Valdiguié so I would love to see some more of that or some Gamay.
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Wouldn’t it just be easier to lower the price of Cabernet to whatever they might get for a bottle of Napa Valdiquie?
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in a sense, but cabernet and valdiguie are different wines. I am not just making this as an economic argument, I am making a style, flavor, and consumer preference argument. There is literally more than enough acreage to satisfy all of the worlds Napa cab needs and still produce other varieties
Eric, that’s a fair point. But if all grape prices are dropping, not just cab, then it makes less sense to make that investment into a different variety. From what I understand, that’s not happening.
Grape prices are dropping because the demand for cabernet/wine is down, but i think Cab is disproportionally struggling. Planting other varieties would reduce supply and increase prices theoretically.
Additionally the demand for cabernet is down but demand for other varieties seems to be better. There might also be market that can be created for a new variety that has success
In theory, maybe. But I think that’s a fairly expensive risk for Ted Hall to ask the many small farmers in Napa to take.
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Definitely not an easy time to be making these difficult decisions!
I thought it was a very good article - discussing all of the things we talk about all the time here - but I agree he was a bit flippant about saying “wine makers should just do X” like it’s easy.
Maybe 5 or 10 years ago one of the flash sales sites shipped me some of his Long Meadow Ranch wine instead of what I’d ordered. Maybe he can scale up that channel + technique?
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The risk of planting something other than cab in Napa is huge - unless it’s another bordeaux variety that can be exchanged or blended with it - especially cab franc these days. How many tons of, say, syrah or grenache are actually planted in the area.
Folks on this board may want ‘the unusual’, but will the general consumer? And again at what ‘opportunity cost’ to the winery/vineyard?
A fun conversation to have - and glad that I’m not in this position right now . . .
Cheers
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Umm, Sauvignon Blanc?
Negatives: Retail can’t be anywhere near the price for Napa Valley Cabernet.
Positives: Market is actually growing, you can crop at higher yields.
The answer is not to replant. The answer isn’t to leave grapes on the vine.
The answer is for the price for Napa Valley acreage to come out of outer space and to correspond to what people are willing to pay for the wines.
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