Future of the Wine Industry Since COVID-19

By Karen MacNeil
April 17, 2020

In response to a question posed to me by a wine blogger regarding the future of the Alcohol Beverage Industry in the wake of the corona virus outbreak, I said: “My fervent hope is that there’s a silver lining here. For 8,000 years, wine has brought us together and nurtured us. Wine is not just pleasure; it’s solace. In the modern era, we’ve too often neglected to appreciate wine for the deep emotional sustenance it provides. Maybe staying at home and having a glass of wine with someone else (even if they’re on a screen), will renew our love of the world’s greatest beverage.” I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know here.

Great French Sancerre, made from sauvignon blanc in France’s Loire Valley, has a racy minerality, making it very different from most sauvignon blancs made elsewhere around the world. What gets credit for that prized flintiness?

A. Le Mistral—a bracing spring wind that also dries out the air

B. Terres Blanches—white soils that combine chalk, limestone and clay

C. Sur Lie Aging—leaving the wine for a long time in contact with yeasts

D. Terra Rossa—a soil that combines sandstone and limestone with oxidized iron deposits

Terres Blanches. Terres Blances (“white earth”) is the name the French give to the soils in Sancerre’s western hills. That white earth drains well keeping the grapes from getting too plump in wet years, but it also holds moisture so that the vine has access to water in dry periods. By the way, Le Mistral is a wind common in the Rhône Valley, sur lie is sometimes used in nearby Muscadet to add roundness, and Terra Rossa soils are reddish, iron-rich soils that exist everywhere from Australia to Italy.

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Value (in billions—yes, with a “b”— of U.S. dollars) of beverage alcohol sold by Costco, one of the largest retailers of wine, beer, and spirits in the world. Wine makes up roughly half of those… Continue reading

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