Regards, Ivan
Posted on 07/13/2004 10:38:24 PM PDT by MadIvan
Not one of the top ten wine brands sold in British supermarkets and off-licences is French, a survey showed yesterday.
The growing market is dominated by New World brands, with the Australians taking six of the 10 places.
Their domination of the premier league is challenged only by the Americans, who take two of the top places and are enjoying the fastest growth in the £3.6 billion take-home market, which is expanding by six per cent a year.
The Australians' success is attributed to strong branding which offers buyers dependable value at reasonable prices. They hold first and third places, through Hardys and Jacob's Creek, with America's Blossom Hill in second.
Australia commands 23.8 per cent of the off-licence market (meaning almost anything not consumed in restaurants or pubs), followed by France (19.2 per cent), the United States (13.5 per cent) and Italy and South Africa (both 9.9 per cent).
Jonathan Ray, the wine editor of The Daily Telegraph, said he was slightly depressed by the results of the research by the analysts A C Nielsen.
"It is a shame that so many dreary wines are being drunk when a little more enterprise and money will get you something much more interesting," he said.
"The Australians and Americans are doing well because they use strong, recognisable branding, relying on grape type. So if you have enjoyed a chardonnay before, you will see chardonnay on the bottle and think, 'I liked that and I'll have it again'.
"The French insist on geography and pedigree in marketing their wines, which makes it harder to know what is coming if you are a novice."
Mr Ray's recommendation for a really pleasant bottle obtainable at not too extortionate a price is a German riesling in the £9 range.
Top Ten Brands: 1 Hardys (Aus), 2 Blossom Hill (US), 3 Jacob's Creek (Aus), 4 E&J Gallo (US), 5 Stowells (various), 6 Kumala (S Africa), 7 Lindemans (Aus), 8 Banrock Station (Aus), 9 Rosemount (Aus), 10 Wolf Blass (Aus).
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
French wine these days is crap. Their lousy work ethic and their snotty attitude make it into the bottle. Australians are excellent; also great wines for good prices come from Italy, Spain, Chile, and Israel. As patriotic as I am, however, I don't think California wines are very good at all; like the French they are overhyped and overpriced.
I still like DeBoeuf Beaujolais.
Other than that, French wine is spotty. I've always liked Italian wine better anyway.
Best whites i've had in the past year have been Kiwi whites. Agree wholeheartedly.
France is crap... all of it. the entire country, I mean Province, from Brussels down. =o)
Blossom Hill makes very nice wines. I'm more of a beer drinker myself.
OH Ivan Rack Aussie Wines I went to restaurant recently that their house wine
Also dont' forget here in good ole US Wines from California infamous Valley NAPA Valley
I love Australian wines. They are my favorite by far.
Even their grapes have gotten bitter.
I don't appreciate wine at all, so it is political for me. The Aussies make some great ale.
If France was the only country that made beer, then I would become a wine drinker and learn to like it.
Blessings, Bobo
What is Blossom Hill? Never heard of it. Jug wine?
But they still make the top ten whine list.
This is the best, wine on the planet; and it only cost 15 bucks a bottle: 
Australian wines are awsome.
The wines here in Texas should do pretty good through the next two years.
<< French wine these days is crap. Their lousy work ethic and their snotty attitude make it into the bottle. Australians are excellent; also great wines for good prices come from Italy, Spain, Chile, and Israel. As patriotic as I am, however, I don't think California wines are very good at all; like the French they are overhyped and overpriced. >>
Pretty much every Australian winemaker is a graduate scientist -- and his wine reflects it. Aussie vineyards also enjoy around roughly ten good seasons out of ten.
The FRench, on the other hand, as often as not but guess at what they are doing post-harvest -- and have maybe one good season's weather in ten.
'Course, some FRench companies own some big chunks of some Aussie winemakers so they're slowly catching up with Australia's lead. Maybe another hundred years or so -- if their mullahs permit -- and they'll be competitive.
Best ones -- Brian
Chile makes some pretty good wines also.
I have never tried any Texas wines. Do we make them good here?
It depends on what you are after. The Napa/Sonoma California wines are absolutely top-notch in some areas e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon, plus a couple more obscure varietals. The problem is that California wine is relatively expensive, on par with the French when it comes to an cost. The French also produce very good values in the $20-30 bottle range.
That said, the Australians are doing quite well, and are producing some very good bottles in the varietals that work well there. Same with the Chileans, who have excellent vineyards and are quickly learning the ropes of producing a quality bottle. The Italians have also gotten markedly better at producing quality low-cost wine over the last decade.
But at the end of the day, if one wants a spectacular red in an absolute sense with cost no object, California and Bordeaux are really at the top of the heap. For Pinot Noir, Oregon has effectively crushed Burgundy in my opinion and produces spectacular bottles. The Australians are still spotty but can produce some very good bottles, as are the South Americans. The "developing" region that interests me most is South America currently. The pinnacle of their capability is produced in scarce bottlings like Montes Alpha "M" (Chile), which is a gorgeous and lush red with a spectacular character that is unlike anything produced in either France or California. Currently, bottles like that run at a premium ("M" runs about $60), but if they can learn to make their more mass market bottles taste like that, they will kick ass.
Interesting!
Must be all those Black Swan commercials ;-)
Why you must be from the East Coast- we don't make Night Train out here but some folk still drink Strawberry Hill- 7-11's aren't the best place to buy wine.
Well I wouldn't call it jug wine, but it is reasonably priced, and tastes good.
When I have the choice I always pick Australian! That way I know I'll be drinking good quality wine at an excellent price. European wines, especially from France and Germany, are over rated and overpriced. For the price of a "crappy" bottle of French wine in Sweden, you can buy two excellent Australian wines. Now maybe I'm just being patriotic, being Australian, but than again, quality is quality :)
Try a Washington State wine. Leonetti is making Cabernets that you could once only find at BV or Stag's Leap in Napa. Oregon's Willamette Valley has got some incredible wines as well.
The Aussies and Trader Joe's Two Buck chuck are kicking the rear ends of many of the California elitist winemakers.
Don't feel sorry for them. Most of them are big time donors to the Rats at the local, state and national level.
Thanks to them the California wine counties have been invaded with illegal aliens to tend their crops and the rest of us pay for the costs of having the families of the illegal aliens here.
Wine that sold for $35 to $70 a bottle before 9/11 can be bought for $4 to $10 per bottle with the name and label still on the bottle. Private bottlers are selling it for 6 to 8 $'s for a half gallon and even less for a gallon with a different label on it.
The Australian and Chili wines are very good. Viva la competition.
Just wait until they learn about "Two-Buck Chuck"!
I remember having some a few years back. It always surprises me the CA wines that get marketed on the east coast and elsewhere. Guess we're keeping the good stuff close to home.
Charles Shaw- Give me Corbet Canyon!!
OK, FReepers. What's your favorite wine?
Post 15.
Yeah, I saw that. I'll have to give it a try.
I've done Australian as well. Haven't yet found a favorite, though.
What I'm looking for is a kind of red wine that is perfect right before bed.
Box?
The Aussie shiraz will never hold a candle to an old-vine, dry-farmed, and head-pruned zin from Paso Robles.
Eschen vineyard, dry-farmed, old-vine Zinfandel no younger than 5 years.
There are some good wines here.
Heck, Grapevine,TX is named for vino efforts. Then there is the stuff that comes from places south of the metromess.
You just have to know what to look for. When I was in high school, I dated a girl whose father owned a Bud distributorship...so her mom knew how to look for really good wines due to the connections they had. I know a couple of gals now that help me out when I need to buy wine. Its not like burbon, rums, scotch, and custom beers...I am better at picking those out than I am wines.
There is a place in Denton (Just north of Dallas/Fort Worth) on the downtown square that is a really good place to buy wine.
Cline Ancient Vines Zinfandel, 1997.
I Cannot believe you all! Zee 1918 cabernet we drank in zee trenches while zee Yankees were saving our derrieres was tres magnifique! And zee Bottle of 1940 burgundy with which we toasted our surrender to zee Germans was Marvelous!
Capt. Jaques Aas
French Veteran
In the last decade or so, there has been a huge resurgence in grape-growing here; and many wineries have sprung up. Apparently, some of the first to start are really taking off...after some...uh...experimentation. I don't drink wine, so wouldn't know if they were "good" or not. I just have to laugh, thinking of Iowa becoming a wine capital!
In the Hudson Valley in Highland NY they have some of the best wine in the world. The problem is they only produce a few thousands barrels per year so nobody knows about it unless you go to Aspen or Vail !
Wild Horse Merlot, Peachy Canyon Merlot, Eberle, or J Lohr Los Osos Merlot (MMMMMMM Good)
I think we share tastes in vino.
Ha! Got your Paso Robles beat in Amador!
Vino Collapso
Doubt it mightily. :-)
Hey! You got good taste. Done any touring lately?
Aspen or Vail- them mountains are so small that true Californians laugh at Colorado.... Sierra Summit and a pack of Natty Light- the only way to go (with a splash of Tahoe for the pizza)
Night Train Express 17.5% alc. by vol.
Don't let the 0.5% less alcohol by volume fool you, the Night Train is all business when it pulls into the station. All aboard to nowhere - woo wooo! The night train runs only one route: sober to stupid with no roundtrip tickets available, and a strong liklihood of a train wreck along the way. This trainyard favorite is vinted and bottled by E&J Gallo Winery, in Modesto, CA. Don't bother looking on their web page, because they dare not mention it there. As a clever disguise, the label says that it is made by "Night Train Limited." Some suspect that Night Train is really just Thunderbird with some Kool-Aid-like substance added to try to mask the Clorox flavor. Some of our researchers indicated that it gave them a NyQuil-like drowsiness, and perhaps this is why the put "night" in the name. The picture (above right) shows that the subject that drank Night Train is down for the count, while the Cisco guzzling subject is ready to rock. Guaranteed to tickle your innards.
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