Wine Wars MP3 CD – Audiobook, June 21, 2016

This is not a wine-rating book like Robert Parker’s or Oz Clarke’s books. It does some of that but not on specific vintages of any wine. It evaluates how wines are valued and why some countries just do not produce wines that other countries do in terms of the retail value of those wines. Germany is an example. Veseth calls it the ‘Curse of the Blue Nun’. He traces the history of the two mass market wines that dominated the scene in modern times – the Black Tower and the Blue Nun, and how the association of those wines as cheap bottom cellar wines stuck. The chapter on the cons[iracy theory of cheap wines (Veseth calls them ‘McWine’) is interesting and amusing. On the other hand, he explains how Tesco is making money selling Tesco brand house wines at low prices. Veseth explains the success of America’s ‘Two Buck Chuck’, a popular wine at $2. He explains how judging wine is a bit like judging a figure skating contest mixed with the objective testing of a long jump competition. Veseth looks at the consumers of wine today and how almost everyone has become a wine critic with so many books and magazines on wine. If he had a choice, his personal preference is for ‘Decanter’, the British wine magazine. The macro economics of wine making and wine consumption are explained in careful and enlightening detail. Even the future of wine bottles and corks are postulated. The story of the rise, fall, and resurrection of Languedoc wines form the context of the American, Robert Mondavi’s invasion of France. That is told in the chapter, Mondovino and the revenge of the Terroirists’. Veseth says that the future of wine is good and he ‘has grape expectations’ though his taste may not be the same as ours.

This is not a book about picking wines to drink by rating and evaluating them individually, as wine expert Robert Parker would do. No, the book is oriented towards the economics of wine production, marketing and distribution. It discusses historical trends and makes predictions about global wine growing and consumption patterns.Mike Veseth brings us along on journeys that took little-known, little-production wine countries and regions to world prominence in wine production and distribution. He notes that there's a geographical wine-growing belt. Two of them actually, from the 30 to the 50 degree longitudes north and south. They encompass such wine growing nations as France, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, the United States, parts of southern Australia, the far tip of southern Africa.. But climate change, meaning global warming, is shifting the prime wine growing regions closer to the south and north poles. Champagne might eventually be best grown in Great Britain or Norway. Napa Valley wines may come to be best grown in British Columbia.Napa Valley wines, once playing second fiddle to the great wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, came into their own in 1976 at the Judgment in Paris, a blind tasting face off of France's best red and white wines against their Napa Valley counterparts. The judges were French wine experts. The red wine competition was won by Stag's Leap with its cabernet sauvignon. The best white was was a chardonnay by Chateau Montelena from Napa Valley. This blind tasting made California wines world famous and much sought after, a trend that continues today.Australia rose to global significance in the 1990s, though the author thinks that country eill be dried out and largely useless for producing quality wines except for perhaps its southern most area, in Tasmania.There are many countries that produce wines, which the author doesn't discuss. Uruguay, a small country, makes some good red wines with the malbec varietal. Bolivia, closer to the the equator than Uruguay, produces some fairly good red and whites wines, from my experience. Maybe its high altitude allows for the cooler climate found farther south in South America. Peru is producing wines, that are not good in my opinion. The country isn't far enough south.In the northern hemisphere there are wine-producing regions in Morocco and Tunisia, among other countries. Moroccan wines are okay, nothing special, so far as I'm concerned. They don't sell well globally. Tunisia does produce some nice wines, though they'll never compete with French wines. I've tried wines from Lebanon, Serbia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey, among others. There are some good wines, red and white, from Croatia, though they are hard to find globally. Bulgaria is hit and miss as to its varietals and growing regions. Same for Turkey. Greece produces some nice wines, especially whites, from the assyratiko varietal, grown on the volcanic soil of Santorini.Whether you're just wine curious, or a wine aficionado, or even a connoisseur, this book will educate you. It's an easy read.

I have been in the wine industry since 1972 (the height of Blue Nun) working in four countries over that time (in California at the start of 2$Chuck), so I found many of the observations made by Professor Veseth fitted with my own experiences. In some cases he reinforced my own observations, in others it was many of those "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" moments.Positives.Over all the book has been well structured and entertainingly written. I found the 'updates' of the original text put in at the end of each section, making sense of events that have happened especially since the influence of the GFC.Less than positives.Many of the points made, though very valid, were often repeated or heavily laboured. I guess that repetition drive home the point in learning, however I found it unnecessary. My personal observations vary from the Professor's - the causal impetus for the popularity of Blue Nun and 2$Chuck might have been expanded on (we need to learn from experience) as might the causes of huge expansion of wine-drinking in the previously non-wine-drinking sections of our communities. I would have liked more of his insights into the possible future.Overall, a good read, with good insights and would be especially valuable for people starting in the industry - both in production and in marketing.

Mi ha aiutato ad avere un diverso punto di vista sul mondo dei vini anche all'estero. Vi sono elencati fenomeni più o meno noti, ma sicuramente da tenere in considerazione se si è interessati al mercato estero del vino e avere un'idea sul suo futuro. Certamente è uno spaccato che va integrato con maggiori informazioni, ma è un buon punto di partenza.