Dan Berger Speaks on Harvest and Market

Dan Berger speaks with Daedalus Howell about the state of harvest and the wine industry right now on California Wine Country. He is occasionally the featured guest, the last time was this show from last May with his personal picks from Bottle Barn.

Dan reports that the crop is very light this year. Especially Cabernet Sauvignon is looking “ratty” and there is virtually no fruit. The growers are facing a dilemma. Some grapes look sound and others don’t. They have to pick something, but when? On the eastern side of Sonoma County the Cabernet Sauvignon looks horrible. We had a lot of rain in the spring that caused some shatter. That is when the buds that are being formed are damaged by heat or rain or hail. There was a lot of uneven bloom. But the weather wasn’t warm enough to help the vines recover. Champagne grapes were being picked in June. Some Sonoma County Cabernet growers finished harvesting in late August, which is very early.

Oversupply and Alternatives have lowered wine consumption.

The slowdown in sales right now has many origins. Covid trained people to order wine for home delivery. People ordered more wine than they needed. Now people have more wine at home. Then trends moved toward reducing consumption of alcohol. Some people quit drinking and others looked for low alcohol or zero alcohol or alcohol removed wines. There are also pre-mixed cocktails with moderate alcohol and low sugar levels. So, overstock plus more options has made wine consumption drop.

Dan thinks the next category of buyer has yet to discover wine. The Sonoma County Wine Library in Healdsburg has a presentation scheduled for February about next generation families in the wine business. They will hear from young people in winemaking families and why they stayed with it.

High-quality wine is expensive to produce, and it can’t be sold for less than $60. They just opened a bottle of 2021 Black Kite Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. Jeff Gaffner is the winemaker and he has been on CWC before on this episode. It still has “that youthful pizzaz” but is also starting to show some creaminess and richness. The oak flavors are not over the top.

Dan Berger’s International Wine Competition

This coming December, Dan Berger will hold the 45th consecutive annual edition of his international wine competition. His judges are mostly winemakers and some wine columnists. He is adding canned wines and ciders to the competition this year.

Dan is also interested in judging quality wines in half bottles. He thinks that half bottles will be important for the future of the wine industry. It comes to about two glasses and that is convenient for a lot of diners. It also allows the buyer to get a high-quality wine because the purchase price can be about half. Trader Joes has a line of half bottles. They are often a source of new ideas for low-priced options.

Dan says that California brands don’t want to discount too much because they don’t want to depress prices in the future. Red wine blends are also a very popular trend. The key to a consistent big selling brand is good blending. One of Dan’s favorite blends is Old Patch Red from Trentadue. Miro Tcholakov makes it. Dan says Miro is a great blender. There isn’t a lot of it and it’s not widely distributed. One that is widely distributed is Gallo’s brand Barefoot. To Dan, they are “incredibly reliable.” The most important thing is they are consistent.