On Saturday, I shot an episode on aging budget-friendly wines. It will go live today at 8 am. The last episode I did on this subject three years ago has garnered close to 10,000 views. It’s obviously a hot topic, so I crawled under my house and dug through my cellar to find some of the older wines I tucked away that were under fifteen bucks. This has been a passion of mine, which started early in my wine career. I love to see how inexpensive wines age. That being said, I don’t just put any wine in my cellar that’s cheap to see what will happen. The wine has to have components that indicate it could improve with age. What are those components? Structure is the key! It has to have a balance of three key ingredients. Acid, fruit and tannins. Acidity is super important as it is the backbone of aging. Alcohol, acidity and tannins act as preservatives in wine to help it age. However, they have to be in balance with each other. If these components are in harmony, the wine should age nicely regardless of the price. I have had a lot of success with this over the years. This latest episode, which comes out today, will be a two-parter. Check out the episodes, I think you will find them very interesting. Here is a link to my channel so you can find it easily.
I am working with Andrew Januik on a time to run down to Woodinville and interview him for my YouTube channel. His father Michael, is also going to be part of the show, which is very exciting! The main subject will be kids who follow in the footsteps of their winemaking family. In Europe, it is expected that the children will take over the winemaking duties of their parent or parents, which goes on for generations. Not so much here in the U.S. Andrew has taken over the winemaking at Januik and Novelty Hill Wineries with the mentoring of his father. Michael still has a part, of course; he, like so many of us in the wine world, has to be around it. I am looking forward to interviewing both of them on this subject. Stay tuned.
I’ve read recently that wine consumption is flat or down in the U.S., a trend that seems to be gaining momentum. I believe this is somewhat deceptive for a very good reason. As we all know, the Hispanic population is burgeoning in the United States. Most of my Hispanic friends are not wine drinkers. As I’ve observed in my department, they are not that interested in wine. Maybe a sweet wine like Roscato or Moscato every now and then, but that’s about it. I think the real indicator of what is going on in this regard is the fact that Modelo Beer is the #1 brand in the U.S. right now. The increase in the population of Hispanics who do not drink wine would dilute the stats. Based on my observations in my department, wine drinkers are still drinking as much wine as they always have. Of course, Dry January puts a dent in sales (although, this seems to be losing steam). It could be, in the future that the Hispanic population in our country will eventually gravitate towards wine consumption as they meld into our customs. Who knows, the future will tell the story. I’m waiting for someone to come out with some real-time statistics on this. I’m just going on what I see happening in my world.
Coming up on my YouTube channel this month and February will be a blind Petite Sirah tasting, a review of the wines from Sage Rat, my winery of the year, and, of course, my interview with Andrew and Michael Januik. I recently did a food and wine pairing on my channel. It was a pizza and wine pairing that seems to be a popular subject matter. Not necessarily because it was pizza, but I think many of you are interested in wine and food pairings. It’s a little tougher to put together such episodes, but I think I will try and do a few more of those in the future. What are your thoughts? If there are any other ideas for episodes on my YouTube channel, I would love to hear from you.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
