Once upon a time, the finest wines came only from far-away places, across oceans and continents, and were mainly consumed by a select few. Fortunately, those days are gone. California changed all that many years ago by showing the world that fine wines can be made right here in America.
Today, we are seeing, and tasting, great wines made all over America as the next frontier of winemaking takes hold: distinctive, world class wines emerging from the most unexpected places. As the book Wines Across America informs us, for the first time in history, there is a winery in each of our 50 states.
In his New Yorker article called "New York Local" Adam Gopnik describes his quest for spending a week eating only foods grown or raised within the five boroughs of New York City. A very interesting concept (and very funny article). There are even web sites like backyardchickens.com dedicated to helping the everyday person raise their own foul. The concept of localism or "locavore" eating, however, is certainly nothing new, as the author points out, but it was new to me and the thought of this movement eventually working its way into the world of wine seemed to make a lot of sense. Even Time magazine has captured the "local" is the new "organic" mantra in a March 2007 article called "Eating Better Than Organic."
I own and operate a small winery in Massachsetts called The Neighborhood Cellar and have often wondered while spinning one of those plastic world globes with my two daughters, what could possibly be so special about wine from a place like New Zealand, for example. When one considers how far that wine has to travel to get to your table here in America it is simply amazing. I have a lot of respect for wines from New Zealand, but there is so much good and often great wine right around the corner for most of us here in America, that you just wonder how much longer it will be until people start finding and drinking these local wines. (Not to mention all of the obvious economic and environmental benefits of buying goods locally. Consider the natural resources consumed to get a wine from New Zealand to the United States. It is approximately 9,000 miles from Wellington, New Zealand to New York City.) One could understand, of course, if there was something so special and unique about wines from New Zealand or Australia that warranted such a journey, but I just don't see it - or taste it.
With the rising cost of oil and sinking dollar one estimate by prominent wine importer Bill Deutsch, quoted in a New York Times article predicts anywhere from a 10 to 30 percent rise in European wine prices in the coming year. So, with real economic reasons to buy locally on the horizon consumers are likely to start looking at more domestic wines, and it appears that this trend is gaining real support.
In many states consumers are now able to visit wine shops that are specifically dedicated to local wines - and often foods as well. Of course, there are many of these shops in California but now you will also find these specialty wine shops featuring local wines in states like Colorado (yes, Colorado), North Carolina, and elsewhere as the Wall Street Journal article , "No Place Like Home: Why Stores That Sell Locally Produced Wines Are a National Trend" details.
If you live or visit an urban area - you are not only going to find wine shops, but you are very likely to find a winery. Urban wineries (where grapes are brought in and the wine is made on premises) are popping up in cities across the country. According to the USA Today article "Urban Wineries Include Everything but the Vineyard" there are wineries in at least a dozen cities across the country. Not only are our palettes changing and becoming more open to local wines, but the image of what a winery is or should be is changing as well.
Here are just a few:
City Winery (New York, NY)
Henke Winery (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Portland Wine Project (Portland, Oregon)
Red Hook Wine Company (Brooklyn, New York)
When many of us think of wineries we think of bucolic settings of rolling hills, vineyards, and châteaus. While that image will always prevail in some form, it is clear that the quintessential vision of wine, and how and where we drink it, is expanding significantly - and while that is good news for local wineries - it is great news for local businesses, tourism, and consumers.
Our winery has been using a blend of California and Southeastern New England grapes in our wines for years. Just bringing in grapes from California seems like a stretch - never mind from halfway across the world. (Starting in 2007 vintage 100% of our grapes will come from Massachusetts.) Of course, the next question is about quality. Can New England, and myriad of other regions in America, produce wines that people will want to drink? In my opinion, they can, and they will. Take Ohio, for example. The trade magazine Wines and Vines (Sept. 2007 issue) reminds its readers in the article "Vive la Vinifera" that Ohio was once the country's leading wine-producing state - producing more than twice the wine of California. In 2007, Ohio boasts 92 wineries, up from 56 in 2000.
In his New York Times article "All Over America, Wines Search for Identity" (Jan. 31, 2007) the Times wine critic Eric Asimov details very clearly many surprising and delicious wines from places like Massachusetts, Michigan, and others - further commenting:
"Regardless of the particular wine, these three bottles and more like them have convinced me that credible wines at the least, and often enough really good wines, are emerging from the most unexpected corners of North America, and now is a good time to start paying attention to them." -Eric Asimov, The New York Times, Jan. 31, 2007
Another reason that, eventually, local wines will take hold is a gastronomic one. At a restaurant several years ago, I ordered some salmon from Washington State. On the wine list that night was also a bottle of Pinot Noir from Washington State, which I ordered. There was something very special about the combination of that wine and that salmon. One can imagine being at a restaurant in Boston, for example, and ordering a dish made from local cod and drinking a Massachusetts Seyval, Vidal Blanc, or locally grown vinifera varietal. There are New England wines on menus today, of course, but it is rare.
Just like any sea change in any industry it will take time for these trends to reach consumers who will begin to demand more local wines, but it will happen. As long as wineries all over America keep pursuing, experimenting, and mastering grape-growing in their particular region and match that effort with great winemaking this will be the Golden Age for local wine in America.
