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Admin
With the announcement this week that 7-Eleven Stores will begin selling wines in some 15,000 of their outlets, I have had to re-think the way I present wine as a product we can trace all the way to its origin. In classes and discussions over the years I have pointed out that we can almost never tell where our beef or chickens or lettuce come from, but that we always know the locale, often the very vineyard, from which our wine comes from.
Even without checking, I can be almost certain that a search for “Yosemite Road,” the label on 7-Eleven wines, will not reveal a winery or even a specific wine district. I can be almost certain that Yosemite Road wines will not be available except in 7-Eleven stores. I can be very certain that there is no wine grower anywhere tending vines specifically under a “Yosemite Road” umbrella, though the company has employed two superb palates to select grapes for the brands. And at $4.00 or so for a bottle of Yosemite Road Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, should I care? It’s an affordable price, and, if I like it, what more matters?
Perhaps nothing. We’ve been consuming assembly-line wines for quite a while without worrying about pedigree. (Ever wonder which ranch or ranches grew the beef for a Big Mac?) Peruse the shelves at Trader Joe’s, then look for some of his specials in other retail outlets. Join a wine club and try to trace the route to the specific winery whose name is on the label.
Before you express outrage, consider your big name Champagnes. Moet & Chandon, for example, owns vineyards and uses its own grapes in its wines. But the firm also buys grapes from dozens of growers in the Champagne District. Same for most of the other Grands Marques, but the label never lists a name of a specific vineyard. We take our comfort in knowing that all the grapes in a Champagne were grown in accordance with the laws and traditions of the authorized district.
In all likelihood, the nonspecific names on club wines and some national chain stores will indicate that the wine is “California” or “Bordeaux” or wherever. Many of our Indiana wineries bring in grapes from the West Coast or even from other Midwestern states, so there is no stigma attached to wines made by producers from grapes grown by farmers elsewhere. We once bought wine in a French grocery store named “Chateau Nowhere,” from the south of France by a producer who seemed to prefer anonymity.
If you really want a specific source, read the label carefully. If it’s been produced and bottled by or Mis en Bouteille au Chateau, it has a traceable origin. But if many 7-Eleven outlets are like ours in Bloomington, Indiana, sales will not match expectations. Our outlet could not get a license to sell wine.
3 comments
Not listing specifically which vineyard grapes come from is a strategy winemakers use to protect their source. Also, to complete your thought about tracing origins, if a bottle says “Cellared and bottled by…” that means the winery bought wine made by another manufacturer, cellared it for 6 months and sold it as their own.
Point well made. Quite right about protecting sources.I just don’t want our wine producers to become like those beef providers who lose their sources in feedlots.
To me, it’s not important how grapes turn into wine. If the result is delicious, then I’m happy.