Petrus, legendary wine of noble distiction, is produced from 100% Merlot Grapes, of which you may have read in the last post ‘The Sexiest Loser’, was demoted to ‘sub-standard’ in the world of California wine by the B-rated wine movie “Sideways”.

In fact, the 2020 harvest proved that if you were a grower of Merlot (as opposed to Cabernet Sauvignon) you were much more likely to be rejected for ‘smoke taint’ from the California fires in wine country this year.

Why? Well, I suppose it’s part politics and part market forces that drive reputation and value into a variety of wine….as well as particular brands. Petrus vs. the ‘forever-shamed’ California Merlot is a test case in comparing uber-quality in world class wines with excellence in consumer purchase value.

Hopefully a few of today’s readers will go out and purchase one of the many exceptional Merlot’s from California’s sub-AVA’s (scroll to bottom of article for several of my personal recommendations for excellent Merlots for under $50).

Remember, Petrus sells for $2,500-5,000 or more per bottle…..it’s 100% Merlot for many vintages now. This article establishes the fact that Merlot is a key target for excellence and value and that consumers around the world can purchase near-quality (within reason) without having to spend the kind of dough you’d have to shell out for Petrus.

This article is not about “Merlot”, per se. It is about establishing the excellence in particular wines and how to locate exceptional value without having to sell your Hawaiian condo to do so.

I’ll not make the claim that you will acquire the nuances of the depth of Petrus for under $50 bucks, but I will share a simple purchase philosophy for a few short tricks to make your wine purchases much easier and rewarding.

In the next 3 minutes of reading, I’ll lead you to the ‘how’ to buy a great wine of “world-class” quality in 4 easy steps….and yes, it will take just a few more minutes to save big $$$ but WELL worth it!

How a Fine Wine Was…and IS Determined

Is petrus worth it?

Why The Year 1855 is worthy of remembering?

Nephew to Napoleon, Napoleon III, sought to establish a ‘principled hierarchy of quality’ within the wine production forces of France. Well known to the world was the excellence and prowess of wines from Bordeaux but to codify ‘quality hierarchies’ of wine, Napoleon III requested from the organizers of the 1855 “Exposition Universelle” (somewhat of a “Worlds Fair”) that France’s wine regions categorize themselves (through a system of legal regulations) by proving (with historical evidence) of ‘why they had the reputations they already possessed’. Of its many regions, they should build a structure of regulatory legality that would allow consumers all over the world to ‘locate’ wines of a particular quality. A ‘system of classification’ (known to many of us as the ‘1855 Bordeaux Classification’.

It was a very methodical outline of research conducted by classifying the qualities through records of ‘reputation and pricing’ greatly through or predominantly through historical wine shipping records.

Poor, poor Petrus….NOT!

Petrus, a red wine made almost exclusively from Merlot grapes, is a French wine from the region of Bordeaux which did not make the ‘list’ in 1855 during the ‘Classification’.

Of course, we know that anything of ‘potential’ quality or excellence may not show itself obviously if the ‘product’ or topic of excellence has never been developed into that ‘great thing of quality’ (at least up to that point in time, and for whatever reasons, Petrus had not).

This began to happen for Petrus in 1878 at the Paris Exposition Universelle when Petrus won a Gold Medal helping to establish very high pricing equivalent to what was the second most highly prized and ‘priced’ wines in France, the ‘Second Growths’ (categories of ranking called ‘growths’ in English, “First” being the highest quality throughout the vineyard history up until 1855).

Being a ‘non-classified’ wine, the purchase pricing for Petrus today is much higher than most of the ‘First Growth’ classifications of Bordeaux (example: Highly prized First Growth Chateaux Haut Brion may sell for $400-$500/bottle compared to Petrus at $3,500-$4,500/bottle!).

Value Creation…..Same Old Story

Ask the question, “What can the market bear?” and you’ll come very close to many if not most of your answers on the topic of wine pricing.

Availability, rarity, reputation, consistency of quality, historic pricing, etc., are several of the criteria for establishing the ‘value of a brand’.

It should be noted that anyone in the U.S. can acquire licensing to produce wine so long as the applicant has no criminal record and qualifies by submitting the particular applications and license fees. Our marketplace and shelves are strewn with inexperience and ‘mediocrity’ simply because ‘self-professed’ skill or personal desire allows a citizen or non-citizen alike to ‘get into the wine business’.

This ‘double-eded sword’ is both the blessing as well as the ‘bane’ of the wine industry as it allows for either mediocrity in quality and/or mediocrity in professional ability. Either way, dilutes the ability of the consumer to wade through the web of ‘unqualified producers’.

(Noting that this is and always will be one of the great challenges and prices of personal liberty within a society: each of us is given a proverbial gun and we are allowed to point it at our own feet!)

Sonoma’s Petaluma Gap is now part of Nicholas Karavidas’ wine portfolio with Burgundian style Pinot Noir with California flair.

The ‘holy grail’ for most winemakers (including yours truly) is to produce wines of world acclaim from either a region of historic significance OR to establish or “trail-blaze” a bottle of wine with new-found notoriety which the region, vineyard, or producer had not established in the past. The ultimate idea is to establish excellence in the present where it had not been done in the past (kind of like the Astronaut ‘test pilots’ of the film “The Right Stuff” .

Here’s Where We Get to the Details…

Although there are many opportunities to purchase very good to great wines around the world, I’ll focus on California or the Western US as there are many more opportunities and much simpler for the average consumer to search and find ‘gems’ without a tremendous amount of work.

Don’t get me wrong, asking a wine sales expert at your local wine shop or chain wine seller can and will gain you very good purchases and recommendations but they will ONLY lead you to “What they Sell”……and that, my friends is simply that……limited to what they sell.

To find excellence in the ‘not so distributed’, you can find super-generous wines in places that are right under your nose.

Experimenting is a good way to get introduced to a new varietal but when you would like to find that “hidden gem”, slow down and be methodical.

Here’s my recommendation to help you on your own journey.

1) Categorize your own ‘likes and dislikes’…and if you don’t have them, go to #2 on this list;

Over the course of 40 Vintages, one goal continues to dominate ‘life-objective’ topics: Simplification.

When you start with categories of wines that you enjoy, the process is simplified simply because you are not experimenting with new varietals or regions. If that is your objective, i.e.: experimenting or exploring, I’ll suggest that you start with going to a reputable retailer with an educated wine steward team that can direct you to a good buy in a new category you are looking to explore……but this is not about ‘exploring’ per se as it is specifically about finding world class quality in wines that you already enjoy.

Say, for example, you are a Pinot Noir lover. You already have an understanding of what a good Pinot tastes as you have established a ‘pattern’ of purchasing, evaluating and isolating certain qualities and producers that you already enjoy. Now, the objective is to ‘lead you’ to wonderful wines that will fulfill your understanding of that particular variety, category or place of origin and refine your palate with ‘opportunities’.

If you’re a Pinot lover and would like to explore Tempranillo, then stacking several producers and regions in your rack from a reputable retailer who can make recommendations is eventually going to lead you down the same path of locating that “$5K” wine for under $50……once you develop an opinion about your likes and dislikes of the ‘particular’ category of wine.

One of my favorites from Oregon, the Dundee Hills of a fave Pinot, Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir at $45

2) Look for new producers from reputable growing regions;

Newer producers from reputable growing regions such as Napa Valley, Lodi, Sonoma or the Santa Barbara County in California or Dundee Hills, Ribbon Ridge or the Umpqua Valley in Oregon have many reputable producers with established brands. These brands are typically already selling for high pricing for top-rated wines of 90 points and above (the threshold for excellence in the 100 point rating system common to wine magazine and online rating systems).

The idea is to ‘mine treasure’ by looking where all the other ‘gold miners’ have not already ‘mined for gold’.

Simply type ‘up and coming winemakers of Oregon’ or ‘unknown small wineries of Sonoma’ and you will begin the path to finding truly unique and super high value to price.

Peer reviews are a great way to find wines on some of the new “App-based” review systems like Vivino or Delectable but don’t think you’re going to get a wine ‘expert’s’ view of what connotes real quality in wine other than ‘someone you may or may not know as ‘Joe Consumer’ stated they really like the wine.

To clarify, there is something very ‘revealing’ about 100 people who consistently say things great about a particular producer’s wine as peer review can be a great ‘competition’ leveler. If you have not already downloaded one of these apps, it is worthwhile. NOTE: If the wine producer is new or not distributed in mainstream channels, then peer reviews are going to be thin, inconsistent many times, and not a reliable path to locate a ‘rare-find’.

Here are a couple links below to help you on your journey to find new and upcoming producers in great regions. This may get you started but there are many more once you start down this path.

https://www.foodandwine.com/wine/california-new-gen-wine-producers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theworldwineguys/2020/05/26/is-oregon-the-new-burgundy-ask-a-wine-producer/?sh=381389a05c98

https://www.thewinecountry.com/blogs/latest-news/great-new-wines-from-oregon/

https://www.winespectrum.com/best-deal-on-cabernet-10-cabs-under-50/

3) If you have a friend who buys a LOT of wine (meaning a total wine geek), ask them;

Ask them what the best wine is that they’ve had that compared to $100 bottles of wine…..I know, not $5k, but in reality, 99% of us can NOT distinguish a ‘better’ wine when it gets into $100+ bottles….certainly not $500 bottles.

“The nuances of greatness are as finicky as human senses of humor”

The harsher reality is that not very many wines above $100/bottle (that are rating highly favorable) are ‘better’ in the sense that outside of ‘preference’, qualities are not necessarily ‘better or worse’, just more preferential to an individual palate or matching to a particular menu. The nuances of greatness are as finicky as human senses of humor.

Remember, research shows that there is not necessarily a difference in quality between a $50 bottle and a $3,000 bottle outside of the rarity of the bottle of which many times is coupled with a consistent and historic reputation over many vintages.

4) Avoid The “Sales Agenda”

Yes, that would even include wine producers like myself. Obviously, when I send out an email campaign to promote “The Narcissist” from Paso Robles or “Rabbit Ridge O.V.Z. Zinfandel” from Lodi, these are wines I specifically produce and sell……..so I’m promoting and ‘selling’ what I have. That’s what we do as producers and sales people. We sell what’s ‘in the bag’.

This article, however, is to help you find great wines for less than $50 that can be as sumptuous as that $5,000 bottle that carries the greatest of reputations over the course of over 250 years (like Petrus). I will not guarantee that my own wines will not be more expensive than the majority of competition if they grow and last 200+ years, but it is more likely that there will be much more expensive players in that category based on the only 3 criteria that matters when wines are over $50; 1. Reputation; 2. Rarity; 3. What the consumer is willing to pay.

Being smart in your buying habits for wines isn’t much different than your buying patterns for denim jeans. You can buy a great pair of jeans from the big box store that ‘does the job’ or you can pay a great amount of $$$ for a pair of Dussault jeans……..well, because you can.

Nick’s Short list of favorite California, Oregon & Washington Merlot’s

1) MONTICELLO VINEYARDS MERLOT ESTATE OAK KNOLL - 750ML - $34.99 - Can be purchased from Total Wine & More across the US (214 stores across 26 U.S. states)

Monticello was established by the Corley Family in southern Napa Valley as the first ‘themed’ winery in Napa Valley (if not the western U.S.) It is designed after Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello Estate and offers highly skilled and hand-crafted quality by winemaker Chris Corley.

Notes: Oak Knoll, Napa, CA- Bright fruity aromas of cherry and raspberry with subtle tones of vanilla, cola and mocha. The palate is filled with crushed red fruit and dark berry flavors.

2) SODA ROCK - DRY CREEK VALLEY SONOMA MERLOT - WILSON FAMILY - SMITH ORCHARD - 750ML - $30 - Although the current release of 2017 is not available (sold out), I for one will remain on the lookout of for the next available release.

Ken and Diane Wilson are the proprietors of several small winery productions such as Matrix, Mazzocco, & Pezzi King of which Soda Rock is a historic property they have passionately restored as a testament to their energetic wine lifestyle.

Notes: Simply this: Hand-harvested, native fermented, 30 months on French Oak, unfined-unfiltered. Bright inviting Bing cherry and dark plum aromas merge with striations of vanillin oak. The velvety smooth entry and mouthfeel reveal delicious black raspberry and cherry laced with hints of cigar box, rhubarb and pomegranate. Ribbons of supple tannin, integrating oak and spice notes weave through the scrumptious, expressive flavors. 

Enjoy this delicious Merlot with Parmesan-crusted pork chops, or grilled leg of lamb with pomegranate molasses served with an herbed couscous pilaf.

3) L’Ecole No 41 - 2017 Walla Walla Valley Washington Estate Merlot - $36

Notes: 94pts James Suckling
91pts Wine Enthusiast
90pts Jeb Dunnuck 

L’Ecole No 41 is recognized as one of Washington State’s top producers of premium Merlot and this estate vineyard blend represents our highest expression of this noble varietal. The elegance and old-world structure of Seven Hills Vineyard adds complexity to the power and minerality of Ferguson.

This serious and structured Merlot reveals intriguing aromatics of dark fruit, tobacco leaf, cedar, violet, and rose. Its rich texture is elevated by flavors of black cherry, peppercorn, grounded by Ferguson’s graphite minerality carrying into a flavorful persistent finish. 

4) Darioush Napa Valley Merlot - Although this wine sells for $60 at the winery, you can occasionally find a good bottle at Total Wine and other select retailers for mid-$40’s. The current release is sold out at the winery so you’ll have to do a little searching but well worth it for 90+ rating wine in the $50 range.

Notes: Juicy plum, black cherry, and blackberry liqueur are lifted by a snap of tart pomegranate to introduce this classically styled, mountain-grown Merlot. Black licorice and fig mingle with savory pipe tobacco and finely ground Italian-roast espresso, and are wrapped in warm notes of cocoa dust and toasted nuts. Hints of cinnamon and clove spice carry across the lingering finish and are anchored by fine, ripe tannins.

5) Stonehedge Collection, Haven’s Napa Valley Merlot - $55 at Winery, $34 average at selected retailers in the U.S.

Notes: Vivino users have comments such as the following with many bottles of older vintages sitting out there that are what I would consider as ‘very fun’ wine discoveries. “A wine that has well out-lived its intended drink by date When it was released it was said to be drinkable and would get better for the next 3-4 years. Well, 15 years after the vintage it is perhaps a year past its best but still very good. It still has the mid-palate lushness which is typical of Havens”

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Vintage Nicholas Karavidas producing Lodi Zinfandel & Petit Sirah from his favorite AVA’s of Lodi: The Clements Hills & Mokulumne River

About the author: A student of wine business strategy & consumer preferences for 39 years, Nicholas has been mentored & influenced by many early California wine greats including Joseph Filippi, Sr., Davis 'Class of '54' (mentored by Joe Heitz, first Davis class of '51), Dr. Fred S. Nury, "Wine Analysis & Production", Fresno State University, Champagne Master Primo Scorsatto of California Bonded Winery #1 & many more. For 25 years, Nicholas has been a professional wine judge & educator along side of the late Peter Sichel of Blue Nun, Wilfred Wong, Nick Goldschmidt, Darrel Groom of Groom Wines, Darrel Corti, et al. Nicholas is founder of Consulting Wine & Wine Concepts & Design, Intl. providing business development & wine intelligence solutions to the US & International wine trades.

Sideways: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

Headline: B-Rated Movie Thrashes Bordeaux Classic

How A Wine Industry Reeled From Sideways, The Movie

Merlot, the classic French Bordeaux fave of which 66% of the 280,000 acres of France’s top reputation wines originate, is Merlot (yes I said 280,000 THOUSAND acres [Napa Valley is 45k acres]). There is more Merlot in Bordeaux FRANCE than there are total acres of grapes in the entire Napa Valley, in fact, 4x the acres of ONLY Merlot.

“Waaaat!? I thought Merlot was crap because I watched this movie in 2003 that everyone told me I had to watch because I wanted to learn more about wine?”

This is where the psychosis begins……..

from sweetheart to cinderella’s step-sister

In 2003, Merlot was the sweetheart of red wine sales in the US capturing roughly 18% of all wine sales (as opposed to Cabernet S. at the time at roughly 8%, supposedly the ‘King of Reds’).

Merlot, from a growers perspective in CA, was a fairly easy grower, not as thick skinned as Cabernet Sauvignon, was a little more susceptible to disease and pests such as powdery mildew and ‘mealybug’ (yuk! you don’t even want to look at a grape cluster infested with mealybug….believe me), and had a world class reputation of being a great grape, producing fruit-forward medium-bodied red wines.

Descriptions of good Merlots from California were described like this 1999 Pahlmeyer, Napa Valley:

“A mouthful of wine that packs in lots of rich, deep, plush and concentrated flavors, with tiers of currant, blackberry, raspberry and wild berry fruit. Well-integrated tannins smooth out the finish.” ~

James Laube, Wine Spectator, October 2002

&

"Impenetrable and inky – purple in color, the nose offers aromas of ripe, smoky plum, cherry, anise, oak, and port like sweetness. The palate is full bodied and structured with a finish that has length and intensity." 

~ Erin Green, Winemaker September 2001

So what happened?

What do $5,000 per bottle wine vineyards look like? Petrus, Pomerol, Bordeaux Franch. One word, “Excellence”

In 2003, US wine consumers were going through a very fast wine-learning curve. Most consumers really didn’t know much about wine and some of their biggest memories came from the ‘wine cooler’ era of the late ‘80’s. White Zinfandel (taboo to the wine snob) was still something like 22% of the total market share of wine consumed in the United States (not to mention the EU’s rising love affair with it, of which we called ‘Vin Rose’ in the 70’s).

Along comes a “B” rated film (you know the one) that takes poor Merlot, slams it up against a wall, kicks it to the curb for the movie’s favorite, ‘Pinot Noir’ (yes, of Royal lineage) and literally overnight nearly SINKS the reputation of California Merlot, fast-pacing it down to under 10% of wine consumption in the US. Whoah! Merlot overnight becomes a worthless commodity for a large part of the market and Pinot rises to meet its destiny among the jet-setting wine aficionado’s of America. (growing from 2% to over 7% almost overnight)

Petrus - A giant among wines

Being blown away by this b-rated phenomenon, I was so irate as a commercial winemaker (with 100,000 gallons of bulk Merlot in tanks, now un-sellable), I wouldn’t even go watch the movie! My thought? “You are kidding me! Petrus (95-100% Merlot) is one of the most highly regarded wines of the world, selling at upwards of $4,000-$5,000 per bottle and we’re now saying ‘Merlot is a has-been!?”

Ah, yes. The power of media to sway the minds of a consumer. Almost ‘magically’, Merlot hits a rock bottom and Pinot Noir skyrockets into fame (BTW, it IS worthy).

The fact is, that more ‘mediocre’ Pinots were being made in the US at that time than mediocre Merlots…..so the facts of the movie were, well, ‘just storyline for entertainment’. Who knew that it would take such a toll on an industry, shifting the entire focus of red wine production, nullifying the value of one grape and accentuating the value of another instantaneously.

Miles, now infamous for his one-liners regarding the quality of California Merlot

Merlot vs. Pinot:maturing our palates

In an era of consumers identifying marketers and advertisers as ‘liars’, it can be tough to get across your message when everyone thinks you’re just trying to “sell them” (Read ‘All Marketers are Liars’ by Seth Godin). So what do you do when you really have something good to sell being drowned out by the ‘noise’ of every other Joe selling their wares?

How about you seek out someone with long term experience? Well, maybe that doesn’t always work (noting our current political races these days). How about you look for that fresh face with youthful ideas and fun product designs? Yeah, but then again, new ideas without great experience end up with much greater risks that the ‘new’ organization or product may not be around very long.

Here’s the point; there has to be both. Both experience and youthful ideas and energy and great quality (excellence)…….and we’re talking about maturing our ‘business palate’ that we are prepared for B-rated movie phenomenons to change our wine world approach. Hey, think about it. Retailers made a quick change and instead of buying more Merlots at great pricing (and some really good ones), they started buying up what ‘people were asking for’ from a dumb movie….ok, yes it had some funny one-liners.

In the end, those who were able to adjust quickly were positioned to take advantage of an instantaneous advertising schema using a B-rated movie platform to build a business!

two-buck chuck, planting booms & international trade

perfect storms

So, here’s this new phenomena of Pinot Noir taking center stage. An immediate response from one of the largest California wine producers responding by planting massive amounts of Pinot Noir in the Central Valley of CA to dominate the new demand of Pinot Noir on the shelf space. Yup, they were successful in plating and responding to the Pinot Noir craze with one problem:

The Pinot Noir grapes being planted & grown were ‘generic’ grapes destined for ‘generic’ wine of which the entire premise behind the what may be the greatest movies’ one-liner “If anyone starts drinking Merlot, I’m leaving!!” (or another one liner I won’t repeat, watch the clip above), ended the popularity of Merlot and placed Pinot Noir, and many say ‘rightfully’ so, as the Queen of Red Wines for all time.

Now, here’s an oversupply issue with Merlot plantings in California in 2004-5, the CA wine industry is reeling already from all the plantings that took place between 1992-2002, and in fact a massive sea of vineyards were planted during this time (Lodi alone planted upwards of 60-80,000 acres during that time, I think Sonoma doubled it’s acreage in the same period, the Central Coast came alive with major plantings in Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo County).

from one phenomena to the next:beware of bait & switch

Along comes ‘Charles Shaw’, a Napa wine program purchased from Charles Shaw by Bronco Winery and ends up selling millions of cases per year through the Trader Joe’s specialty chain across the US. In addition, the still massive oversupply of wine in CA resulted in major exports of bottle-ready bulk wine being shipped to the UK, Germany, France and other parts of the EU for VERY low pricing, initiating a major new appetite for CA wine around the world.

Merlot - the most expensive wine in the world is a big loser!

For growers in California, Merlot has become mainly a ‘generic’ red wine selling for mostly low pricing on the US retailer shelf. It has long since lost its luster as a sweetheart of the consumer world (thanks to the movie clip above) and has all but died a nondescript death in the annals of California wine.

Fast-forward past the 2005 wine glut (having been one of the largest vintages in Ca. history) to 2008-10. What a roller coster! Right when you got to the point of, “ok, that’s over”, 2008 hits in the US economy and literally draws the life’s blood out of any chance for a booming wine-recovery. Little encouragements of increasing per-capita consumption, an appetite for wine in China, the EU and Canada, made a small impact, but pricing……well, it sucked (to put it mildly). Wineries in California were selling 100,000 gallon lots of bulk wine for $1.00/gallon and sometimes less (in fact one-such sale of a Napa Valley Chardonnay at 75 cents/gallons made it into one of those $2 wine programs garnering a 92 Wine Spectator rating solidifying the slogan “bad ratings die fast but great ratings live forever!”).

Merlot, this grape of greatness in Bordeaux, now sitting as a generic red wine blender on the bulk wine market in the US for pricing well below the ability to grow the grape and make wine for a profit. The entire world with its hand out asking for $2 wines from California had effectively removed much of the luster and impact of the 1976 Paris Tasting (the phenomena that led to the reputation boom for Napa Valley and California wines).

Yes, it was and is true, that is, that many California producers are producing products that my small-lot winemaking friends would say are not worthy of the name “wine”, but that being said, so are many of the cheap Italian and French wines flying off our US retailer shelves.

Disneyland, or rather the reputation of excellence in service, quality of entertainment, professionalism and integrity are marks of a great organization.

Regaining composure: reputation & Quality

One word: Excellence.

Excellence in Quality; Excellence in Presentation; Excellence in Professionalism; Excellence in Integrity.

This is the way to regain reputation composure from the effects of a low budget (yes, at times, funny) B-rated movie phenomenon and place an industry back onto a trajectory of greatness!

Excellence! This is where I’ve failed….or cut corners……or simply let this ideal get set aside for the “immediate need”. This is where most of my friends and their businesses suffer. At whatever price point; Excellence.

Commodities respond to B-rated movies. Excellence is defined outside of the scope of commodity ideals.

As a winemaker and life-long trader of wine, I am stupefied by the actions of those try to portray ‘generic’ products or services as ‘world class’ trying to compare the legitimacy of “Pinot Noir” from the great Burgundian vineyards of France or California’s Russian River or Petaluma Gap with the wines made from grapes grown in Fresno or Bakersfield.

Don’t misunderstand me, there is a place for those wines and there is a need for making ‘less expensive’ products, but where movie punch-lines are made and reputations are won and lost is when cheap quality, cheap presentation, lack of professionalism and low integrity visits an industry as though a ghost, having a resultant effect of that of a scary movie or literal haunting.

In the world of wine, as in just about any other service or product business, a brand is all about reputation and reputation is all we have when it comes to consumers, citizens and the relationships we have with one another. When we make poor quality products or our integrity is low or our presentation is less than polished, we make our products fodder for B-rated movies to monetize our lack of excellence…….and the result. The “Consumers” laugh.

One word: Excellence. It is the tool, the ammunition, the beauty, and the focal point of what makes life enjoyable and worthy to be lived. The legacy of who we are, the industry we represent and the product & services we produce will go down in history as either a B-rated plan to produce revenue or a ‘establishments of excellence’. The choice is ours.

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Nicholas Karavidas is owner and winemaker of Élever Vineyards & OneMaker Wines, Principal Consultant for Consulting Wine, Intl. and the Designer of Wine & Food Pairing tool “Flavor Shapes”. 2020 marks 40 vintages of wine production as a winemaker with the majority of his time designing and managing winery designs as well as vineyard and wine family business strategies. If you can’t find Nick analyzing wine, you will certainly find him analyzing his market, reading more on technical topics of wine & wine marketing, the impact of international trade on his craft and last but certainly not least, how to be a better father and husband to his wife Heather, his 6 children and 8 grandchildren.

Purple Happy - Notes from Winemaking’s Edge

“Oh the harvest of 1980……I was 18, filled mostly with singular thoughts of the best surf, ski or skateboarding move…or how much money I needed to earn to get to Mexico for the weekend to eat lobster burritos while surfing K-38, a popular surf-spot for ‘gringos’ 38 kilometers south of the US boarder. Those first harvest shifts were filled with the act of scrubbing the purple stains from my hands after handling red wine grapes….in fact 1,000’s of tons of grapes, and learning how to flush wine hoses from tank to tank by ‘slurping’ the dripping wine from transfer hoses to determine when it was time to close the valves…..and it was also the year I discovered a few ‘dirty little secrets’ about commercial winemaking.”

~ Nicholas Karavidas, Winemaker/Proprietor

Surfing Newport Beach jetties in the late 70’s, early 1980’s

“The most beautiful gift of nature is that it gives one pleasure to look around and try to comprehend what we see”

— Albert Einstein

The Psychology of Color

Not long into my juxtaposition of surfing & wine, I checked a book out of the San Bernardino public library called, “The Psychology of Color”. My interest was to understand the impact of colors and color combinations on the human mind, most importantly on the minds tendency to respond to colors in advertising. I was now 21 in 1982 and as a young winemaker, I had other passions…..mostly adrenaline focused sports such as Alpine Skiing. In an effort to create an effective flier for a ski trip that I was sponsoring, I stumbled upon this concept of how impactful color was on the human psyche.

Boom! I was awestruck at this idea. Why were the fast food giants of McDonalds and Burger King all arrayed in Red and Golden-Yellow? Because that was the most effective color combination known to capture the attention of a consumer and bring them in! No brainer……but wait. How do all the other colors affect the human mind and that of ‘human decisions’? Sweet success, I discovered a new love: the marketing impact of colors in advertising bit me like a surprise scorpion in my sleeping bag!

For you wine tech geeks, technical compilations like this one are among my most treasured library pieces.

““Messieurs, c’est les microbes qui auront le dernier mot.” (Gentlemen, it is the microbes who will have the last word.)” ”

— ~ Louis Pasteur

Hedging Your Bets…..Why Color?

Studying color has led to many other discoveries. Color isn’t just color…….color is so much more when attached to the topic of wine chemistry. In an article in “Chemistry of Wine Flavor” (photo above), “Phenolic Composition as Related to Red Wine Flavor”, the authors expound on the dependency of phenolic composition for overall wine quality. Particularly how color associated compounds such as ‘anthocyanins’ (think cyan [blue]) combine with other compounds to build greater, fuller or rounder mouthfeel. The science isn’t simple but we can simplify some of the jargon to simply say, “Color isn’t just Color”. Color is mouthfeel, color is tied to aroma compounds and anti-oxidant values to protect the wine in the aging process. Color is anti-bacterial and so many other things so it’s hard to ‘pigeonhole’ color into just being a visual thing that is pretty or deep or a ‘hue’.

This blog is beginning with this topic as it is timely in the commercialization of wine and the consumer’s attention to wines color, specifically red wines, whereas there is an automatic connotation regarding depth of color to associate it with overall quality of the wine as a whole….and this is not altogether wrong or inaccurate, it is simply correct……and not so correct. The fact is, deep colored red wines have become a driver of consumer acceptability and therefore attractive to the commercial buyer.

Delivering high quality, deep-colored wine at a low consumer price has become a driver in the marketplace creating an environment where winemaker ‘toolbox tricks’ now proliferate.

So Why “Purple Happy”?

So the consumer tastes a wine that is ‘really, really’ tasty….and the color is deep and laden with oak character and the Somm’s rate it high and the buyer places it on the shelf and then……the average consumer can’t afford……say, “Booker” or Dauo from Paso or Far Niente, Phelps or Cardinale or any number of $100+ wines, the descriptors invariably describe something “dark”. Black cherry, roasted leather, boysenberries, black raspberries, etc. There is an overwhelming majority of these highly sought after wines that are simply ‘big’ and big means deep color and tannins and rich and ripe and concentrated.

Deep red and purple are colors that we tend to see most notably. Without getting into the hue variances of different red grape varieties (Merlot has more of a blue hue, Zinfandel more red), producers of last 10 years have begun to utilize what I would call “toolbox tricks” of using wine grape concentrates to align less expensive wines with their very expensive counterparts….at least in the ‘darker color’ department. In this effort, many have overdone a “good” thing with using so much of these color concentrates, that the wines produced with them can literally stain your glass and your teeth dark purple……unnaturally so.

“…producers of last 10 years have begun to utilize what I would call “toolbox tricks” of using wine grape concentrates to align less expensive wines with their very expensive counterparts….at least in the ‘darker color’ department.”

Purple is happy…purple is ripe…Purple is good

But there’s more to this. Let’s go back to the “good” of what color really is in a wine. This would be the same for the topic of oak character in $10/bottle wines. It is literally impossible to produce wines from high quality grapes, age the wine in new oak barrels and sell the wine for $10 or less a bottle. So how do we get to “Good” in this outline? Deep color in wines is an attractive attribute in which sommelier's and critics recognize as ‘good’ so long as it is ‘real’ color. The problem lies in this analysis that the color concentrates are ‘real’ grape concentrates from wine grape varieties that have very deep red or purple pigments to them. Historically, the varieties we used before these ‘color concentrates’ (and still today when not using concentrates in more expensive wines) are varieties like Petit Sirah or Petit Verdot or Alicante Bouchet or going even further back in time, Salavadore.

Purple, or dark colors have an impact on the human psyche as much as the visual color depth has an impact on overall quality of wines. Simply put, purple makes us happy. Purple is a happy color. Purple is a color of royalty and gives us a senses of pride and accomplishment. Purple and dark red hues are signs of strength as well as physical-chemical contributors to overall quality and, depending on the price of the wine or the consumer’s pocketbook, there are many ways to acquire color, and I would argue, ‘legitimately’.

Although a consumer is not going to find a lot of ‘tool box tricks’ in wines of $30-$50 or more but for the wines that you might find ‘delicious, ripe, jammy, concentrated’ or even having the ‘umami’ effect in the $10-$15 range, natural and pure grape concentrates can and will certainly enhance the quality of lower priced wines without falling into the category of ‘natural and artificial flavors’…….that, my friends, is another “Purple Happy”.

Deep color is an attibute of fine wine, historically high valued materials, and has always held a value as “rich”.

Nicholas Karavidas is owner and winemaker of Élever Vineyards & OneMaker Wines, Principal Consultant for Consulting Wine, Intl. and the Designer of Wine & Food Pairing tool “Flavor Shapes”. 2020 marks 40 vintages of wine production as a winemaker with the majority of his time designing and managing winery designs as well as vineyard and wine family business strategies. If you can’t find Nick analyzing wine, you will certainly find him analyzing his market, reading more on technical topics of wine & wine marketing, the impact of international trade on his craft and last but certainly not least, how to be a better father and husband to his wife Heather, his 6 children and 8 grandchildren.