Does the market make the wine or the wine make the market?
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:17 am
The following is an excerpt from an article on SFGate.com about the winemaker, Andrew Murray. It's interesting, but not surprising that he admits to adjusting his wines to perceived market preferences.
About the 15 percent alcohol that is almost common in his reds now, Murray passes on the blame. "I believe in low-alcohol wines, but they're not commercially acceptable." He says his distributors began to express discomfort when he released a 13.5 percent Syrah. And distributors, he says, go by wine critics. The fault is in the system, he believes. "If you taste a low-alcohol wine after an afternoon of in-your-face high alcohol wines, it tastes flat."
He adds, "Wine critics have killed softer wines. If they taste 50 to 100 wines at one sitting, the high alcohol ones will come out on top." In some ways, he intimates, he can't argue with the results: "Robert Parker Jr. has been generous to us. We certainly make some unabashedly big Syrahs that collectors love." His own heart, he suggests, lies with lower alcohol levels.
The whole article is here:
Man, 35, seeks grapes for serious relationship: Central Coast winemaking whiz kid Andrew Murray splits from his parents and strikes out on his own.
About the 15 percent alcohol that is almost common in his reds now, Murray passes on the blame. "I believe in low-alcohol wines, but they're not commercially acceptable." He says his distributors began to express discomfort when he released a 13.5 percent Syrah. And distributors, he says, go by wine critics. The fault is in the system, he believes. "If you taste a low-alcohol wine after an afternoon of in-your-face high alcohol wines, it tastes flat."
He adds, "Wine critics have killed softer wines. If they taste 50 to 100 wines at one sitting, the high alcohol ones will come out on top." In some ways, he intimates, he can't argue with the results: "Robert Parker Jr. has been generous to us. We certainly make some unabashedly big Syrahs that collectors love." His own heart, he suggests, lies with lower alcohol levels.
The whole article is here:
Man, 35, seeks grapes for serious relationship: Central Coast winemaking whiz kid Andrew Murray splits from his parents and strikes out on his own.