BKWine Brief 67: French and Swedish folies

Welcome to the BKWine Brief nr 67, February 2009

French folies

”Ils sont foux les romains” is what Asterix and Obelix says about the old romans. It may now seem more apt to say “ils sont foux les français”. They are about to vote on a law proposal that may lead to that restaurants cannot serve all-included menus, including wine. Or that you cannot organise wine shows where the visitors are served samples after paying a simple entrance fee. Or that wine producers cannot serve tasting samples at his winery without charging by the glass. (What about barrel samples?)

There’s an anti-wine lobby in France that is surprisingly strong and this is only latest folie. Wine production is a major agricultural industry and wine is one of the more important exports from France, so one would have thought that it would be more positively treated. But that is not the case. Many wine producers are today more in great need of support, rather than hindrance. In particular on the marketing side there are lots of things that could be done to improve the situation. That’s not an area that the French and wine producer in particular, are good at. But the French government is actually more inclined to help the wine producers outside of the country rather than inside. They have for example the Sopexa international marketing support organisation (albeit not particularly effective when it comes to wine). Read more about the recent developments further down in the Brief.

Swedish folies

We just read that the Systembolaget (Swedish alcohol retail monopoly) has plans to implement on-line shopping towards the end of 2009. That is, of course, great for people living in Sweden. Only … why has it not been done long ago? Can you imagine a major and dominant retailing business that has not since long started offering its customers on-line shopping. Retail is a monopoly in Sweden, but import of wine is not. There is a thriving industry of independent importers, but they all have to sell to consumers through the monopoly. Curiously, many of these independent importers have created small web applications that allows consumers to place an order on-line, that is then forwarded automatically by the system, e.g. by fax, to the Systembolaget… Since the Systembolaget didn’t do anything the importers, with minimal resources, did it themselves. There are also a few on-line wine shops that sell direct to consumers and even deliver the wines directly to the door. That’s possible thanks to an EU regulation that has forced Sweden to accept that individuals are allowed to privately buy from e-shops located in other EU countries. So a few enterprising Swedes have opened an eshop based in Denmark or Germany and are selling direct to consumers in Sweden. And providing home deliver. Home delivery is not part of the Systembolaget plans, as we understand it. That’s the joys of a monopoly. Wonderful customer service.

France and Sweden are not the only oddball countries of course. Take England: if you are serving wine by the glass you are not allowed serve it in whatever quantity you like. The wine glass must have a certain measure. Small tasting samples? No, no.

Or the USA, the beacon of the free market (one would have thought): due to archaic rules and regulations (partisan corporative self interests and pork?) the wine trade is strictly controlled and it is virtually impossible to sell to a consumer from one state to another. The big e-tailer Wine.com recently pulled out of, was it Michigan (?), for this reason. Admittedly, these rules seem to be loosening up a little. A little. Or take the wine shop (in New York?) that was recently fined ($10 000?) because it provided a nice gift bag to carry the bottle in. And you even have some states with almost a monopoly situation. Just like in Sweden. You wouldn’t have thought the Americans to be such Socialists would you?

I promise…

It is perhaps too late with New Year’s vows but it can anyway be a good time now in winter to think about how to improve one’s wine year 2009. Here are a few suggestions for vinous vows for 2009:

1. Buy six different bottle in stead of six of the same. In some “buying advice” you read that you should always by a case of 6 or 12 to see how the wine develops with age. But it can be even more fun to discover a new wine instead. And anyway, how many of us have the possibility really to lay down wine? In our own wine cellar there are very few wines that we have more than a single or at most a few bottles of. And then we do have a cellar with more bottles than most.

2. Spend a couple of extra euros/dollars on the bottle, at least for the ones for the weekend dinners. It’s not more than the price of a latte/pint/hot dog but it will give you a faaar better wine experience.

3. Don’t choose the house wine in a restaurant. Select something else. It doesn’t have to be expensive but at least you know what it is. If you insist on taking the House Wine, at least ask what it is first. And if the answer comes back as “oh, I think it’s some nice and fruity red”, then I know what I’d choose.

4. At least once (or twice) a month choose a wine that comes from a district that you’re not very familiar with. Pick a Vouvray, or a wine from Austria, Alto Adige, Jura, Uruguay or something else that is not BBC (*).

5. Choose a wine that is not on recommendation from an ”expert”. There’s nothing wrong with good advice but taste is so different. “Recommended producer” by BKWine, 90/100 from Robert Parker, five stars in Decanter… all depends on personal preferences. Don’t look at someone’s recommendation and then apply rule #4. (You can’t image how often we’re not d’accord with each other or with some ”expert” on a wine.) Why not occasionally pick a wine because it has a pretty label?...

6. Discover a new wine region in situ. This is of course our final and best suggestion. Look at our travel program below…

Britt & Per

(*) BBC: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne

Read all of the BKWine Brief 67 here!

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