My wife and boys headed off to Allentown this afternoon to go visit some relatives, and since I had to work, I stayed home. There was a plethora of opportunities that awaited me: I could go for a long bike ride without guilt, I could go to any of a dozen restaurants that I have been wanting to try, I might just come home and sleep or watch a movie or two that I had recoded on the DVR.
Well, I have been nursing a bad back the last week or so, making the bike ride out of the question. My wife took the car, so going out to dinner was limited as well. I basically can’t sleep while it is still light out and most of the movies that “I” recorded are chick flicks so watching them without my wife would not be a wise move.
So I did what any red blooded, suddenly single, middle-aged man would do: I grabbed a stack of singles and headed for the strip clu heated up some leftovers and grabbed the heirloom tomato on the counter.
It was by no means a gourmet meal but the wine was OK, the house was quiet, I had the couch to myself, and I had also recorded a replay of the 2012 Michigan-Ohio State game (the good guys won).
Perfect.
Then I started to reflect a bit about the wine. It was a 2007 Demuth Family Vineyards Pinot Noir that I picked up from the PLCB (the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board–the state run monopoly/disaster) for $14. While certainly not a household name, Demuth Vineyard in Anderson Valley carries a bit of caché with Pinot-philes as it is one of the highest vineyards (1700 feet) in the appellation and is known for producing high quality cold climate Pinot. For years, the Demuths typically sold off most of the fruit, but kept a bit of it for their own label. The Demuths retired in 2011, selling off their vineyard to another winery.
It took a little while for the wine to get going–there was a stewed aspect initially that was a little worrisome (this is the eleventh bottle of this wine we have had and the first that had this issue). After a while, the wine settled down and was quite pleasant (no doubt aided by the fact that the Buckeyes were on the screen), but by no means a blockbuster. Still, a really good wine, and a steal at $14.
That is what got me thinking. I do not know the entire story behind the sale of the winery, and I have not tried any of the wines being made by the new owner (Knez Winery–they have apparently retained the “Demuth Vineyard” name), but the Demuths spent 30 years or so farming the land and making wine, and it seemed rather sad that the PLCB swooped in and got these wines for a fraction of the price.
A bit like vultures.
I know, I should not really care all that much, after all, we live in a capitalistic society. I likely would never have even tried this wine (and certainly would not have bought an entire case) would it not for the deeply discounted price. But in an industry that has its roots in tradition–in Europe wineries have often been passed down for countless generations–it seemed to be a rather abrupt and mournful end.
I am probably reading far too much into this: I should just drink the inexpensive juice, be thankful that I got it for that price and move on to the next winery that meets a similar fate, right? Or is there something greater at work here? Can the smaller, tradition-rich wine culture that exists in Europe be replicated in the U.S.? Or does our “bigger is better” Darwinian approach to business (and even “culture”) impede a similar structure from developing?
Perhaps an even better question: Would we even want it?
the drunken cyclist 
really good questions. and applicable to lots of small businesses, too. sometimes i want to go online and buy my running gear, cycling clothes, yarn, fabric for next to nothing at some discount retailer, but instead i save my pennies and splurge less frequently at my LRS (local running store) or LBS (local biking store) or LYS (local yarn store) or LCS (local craft store) because I want them to be there because they make the downtown community so vibrant and my town a good place to live in. but is it sustainable? that being said, I’m less fussy when it comes to where I buy my beer and wine.
LikeLike
I get the desire to keep the local bike shop in business, but if you live far away from the winery, is there the same urge to keep the little wine producer in business?
LikeLike
I for one, prefer the small family owned wineries and if one gets purchased, I find the wine often changes for the worse. I think it is a market that can sustain both, because consumers seem to seek out one or the other more often. It will be interesting to see what happens, as new wineries keep popping up and it does make me think about the point where the market will be saturated. We just don’t know when that will be!
LikeLike
All excellent points!
LikeLike
I think that is the beauty of a capitalistic society. The consumer will purchase what they think tastes best. sure, the little winery was bought. But as the larger corporation lessons the quality, consumers will be less prone to buy their wines. they will support another small winery. I think this is why the craft beer industry is flourishing. Consumers are tired of this s*** produced by large companies. the voice of the consumer will be heard.
LikeLike
But as with the craft beers, does the average consumer know the difference? In the end, won’t the average consumer be more swayed by price than “quality”?
LikeLike
I don’t know. It sure doesn’t seem that way right now with the explosion of growth in craft beer. Lets not forget that this also occurred during the worst recession since the Great Depression. Down trodden, consumers were still shelling out extra money for quality beer. I want to be optimistic that attitudes have changed in our country. That our experience during the recession has led us down the path of anti-corporation. Look at the restaurant and food movement. The trends are quality and local and not TGI-oh-my-goodness-another-chain-restaurant. That to me is the power of capitalism. The consumers are speaking and they’re saying enough! We want local, we want quality, and we are willing to pay for it. Our economy can only flourish with this model in mind.
LikeLike
Great little “mini-rant” and I sure hope you are right!
LikeLike
this can be a long and interesting discussion over a glass (or two, or 10) of wine – yes, I know I said it many times before. I think open market ( or capitalist) model is the only one working – if you can create something which people want, they will buy it. I’m sure that for every X people buying a bottle of wine for $10, there is at least one other person who will be buying the wine at $100 – otherwise none of the California cult wines would exist by now. In your particular case, the Demuth had a good run of 30 years (!) and then the owner retired and was able to sell the winery – what is here to regret? If the new owner will not be making the wine which people want to buy, he might disappear – but someone else will take its place… I think we are doing just fine with the open market, whether the product is wine or bikes…
LikeLike
I agree with all that you state here, but I think (at least for me) part of the enjoyment of a wine is the story (or stories) behind it. Over the course of his 30 years in the vineyard, the Demuths learned a lot about its peculiarities and all that is now (seemingly) lost. A wine, again for me, becomes more interesting when there is some history behind it—which is not “we bought the vineyard a couple of years ago when XXX went out of business/retired/died.”
LikeLike
The history doesn’t necessarily ends when the winery is sold? There is a good chance that the history will continue – yes, it will not be a Demuth family history, but there is a good chance that the people who bought the winery want to make their own history. I think ( call me a romantic) that owning a small winery is a work of love and passion – so there is a good chance that the history and tradition will continue, even under the different label…
LikeLike
Excellent point. You’re right, I tend to first see “buy-outs” (for whatever reason) as de facto negative. They are not always so….
LikeLike
I am guilty of the romantic attachment to the notion of the small family-owned winery, a business which carries on happily into perpetuity. It is not a realistic expectation as hard work accompanies the love and the passion to which talkavino referred, and a labor of love is still, after all, labor. Will someone take on the daunting task of a 30-year learning curve? Gosh I hope so.
LikeLike
I agree. I guess I am a hopeless romantic…
LikeLike
Great questions and discussion. My contribution: the New World will never be Europe and Europe will never be the New World (strange concept–it’s not really a new “world,” there’s only one world). Although they do and will continue to influence one another (in the one world), they’ll remain separate traditions, and even the subcultures within them will always have their own personality/values/traditions/goals. I’m glad there is all that variety. The New World is so much about change and innovation, and Europe is so much about continuity. I think they balance one another. That’s what I think about wine-making and drinking.
On the other hand, I do think there is a egregious loss of wealth (and not just monetary, but also the spiritual wealth of wisdom and a sense of familial and cultural history) when an “inheritance” is sold rather than passed on through generations of family. But the notion that we have a duty to keep and treasure our heirlooms is just not a priority (and rarely even a consideration) in western-hemisphere culture. We’re a nation of movers, and very few people are deeply rooted in “place” in the European or the Indigenous way. I don’t think that’s, from a multi-generational perspective, healthy for people or for the earth; and it makes me sad.
Interesting that you were eating an heirloom tomato while drinking this wine and pondering all this… The good news is, there are and always will be pockets of people, even in the U.S., who preserve heirlooms.
LikeLike
I think your observations about Old World and New World approaches to “tradition” are spot on. I guess there might be those in Europe that would argue that they could use a little more turn-over and influx of new ideas….
LikeLike
Oh, but haven’t the Americans pushed some of them to turn-over and accept some new ideas? It’s just that change happens more slowly over there.
I’m not at all convinced that faster is necessarily better, although jumping on the speed wagon does position a person to be better able to take advantage of a booming trend, for those who are trend-opportunistic. But that’s not a trait I excessively admire either.
LikeLike
Clearly, there is not a “right” answer or someone would have come up with it, but I tend to lean more towards tradition when it comes to wine….
LikeLike
I agree that drinking a wine when you know the story, and the hard-working people, is infinitely better. I love having that connection to what I’m enjoying and knowing that I’m supporting someone who I really believe in.
Perhaps the problem is that there aren’t that many young Americans waiting in the wings to apprentice and then take over these vineyards when the owners are ready to move on?
A friend of my husband’s from college now owns a winery — http://wiemer.com — but he was lucky enough to stumble into wine making because we went to a nearby university that had a course on wine tasting and then he landed a job at a winery upon graduation. He has a crew of interns constantly rotating through the vineyard, but, at least the last time I was there, they were all German or French. I assume this is because there aren’t programs in American colleges and universities that are training people in the art of wine, or even really cluing kids in that it’s an option.
I know my career path might have been a little different had I learned more about the art of wine before I racked up a huge mountain of grad school debt…
LikeLike
Great points! I guess I was just born into the wrong family! My father worked in the auto industry in Detroit and I had no interest (even though there was no family “business” to inherit). Had I been born in Sonoma….
LikeLike
Ye cats! Too much to read right now — leaving for church in 10 minutes. BUT (having NOT read and digested all of the above), may I make a couple of comments?
1. The state swooping in and gathing up all the Demuth family wines is NOT capitalism. That is the government. I’m a captialist. I wish I had the capital to be a real capitalist, but I do believe that people should be free to reap the fruit of their labors without government intrusion.
2. Old world v. new world is a subject dear to my heart that I do adress occasionally on my own blog: http:phyllisdillerandwine.wordpress.com (shameless plug, I know). I am a firm new world wine lover (sorry — can’t spell oenophile off the top of my head!) I am looking forward to coming back and reading all the above, but gotta go now.
And hey, about that math …
LikeLike
Thanks for stopping by the blog, but I am afraid that I have to disagree with you. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has no jurisdiction nor authority over a winery in California. PA comes in with a very large checkbook (it is the largest purchaser of wine in the country and only second to Ontario in the world). They often name their own price and cash strapped wineries have few if any options: they need $$$ and PA has it. It is no different than an individual with deep pockets doing the same thing. Those with the capital determining the price of goods–the very heart of capitalism. This has nothing to do with government intrusion either whatsoever. The sellers in this case could have simply refused the deal and it would have been the end of the story.
LikeLike
So, you’re saying that the state of Pennsylvania is using YOUR tax money to buy up wine and then resell it? And what else do they buy with your money?
LikeLike