WineInk: Location, location, location

I was in the wine shop at Roxy’s recently where I ran into an old friend who is a successful realtor in this valley. He was looking for a bottle of wine to give to a client who was about to close on a property. Of course, he selected a bottle of Champagne. There are times in life when the provenance of a wine matters. And this was one that clearly called for a French sparkler.

But for the most part, does it matter to you where your wines come from? When you go into a wine shop, do you read a label and make decisions about what wine you are going to buy based on its place of origin? In general, would you be more inclined to purchase a wine just because it comes from France? Or Italy? Or Napa? Or even Calistoga?

Many in the wine industry have long believed that there is economic power in a wine’s place of origin. That consumers take into account where a grape is grown and the wine is made before they put their money down to purchase it. Research bears this out, and it’s clear that a wine labeled from the Napa Valley can fetch more than a similar bottle from say, Paso Robles, on the basis of the wine’s place of origin alone.

In Aspen, realtors, like my friend, know that location is everything. And where a particular winery is located and the source of the grapes that winery uses for their wines may be the most important factor in what those wines can sell for. That is to say that, like a house located on Willoughby Way or in Five Trees or atop Red Mountain may garner higher prices than those that are located elsewhere, so, too, do wines that originate in Burgundy, Napa, or Piedmont get a price boost based on their location.

In wine, as in Aspen real estate, location is exploited. Wine producing countries create regions and classifications with the dual intent of providing information to consumers about wine quality and, perhaps more importantly, creating perceptions about the quality of particular wines that will amp up their worth.  

The first classification systems for a wine’s origins were created to help identify the quality of what was in a bottle. As far back as the 1730s, the Hungarians had developed a system ranking vineyards based on sun, soil, location, etc, the things that we have since come to refer to as terroir. Since that time, the French, Germans, Italians, and just about every other wine-producing region in the world have put designations in place to help consumers understand where a wine comes from and the qualities that have gone into making that wine.

Perhaps the most famous and important of these was the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, which established a pecking order for the wines of Bordeaux that exists to this day. Emperor Napoleon III of France wanted to promote the wines produced in Bordeaux in a way that would create a hierarchy for what was the world’s most significant wine producing nation. This was to coincide with the Universal Exposition in Paris, a gathering of nations somewhat akin to a world’s fair.

The powers that be in Bordeaux, i.e. the business community, responded by convening a group of local wine merchants to “rank” the wares of the region and they proceeded to create “an exact and complete list of all the red wines of the Gironde that specifies in which class they belong.” This listing rated the wines of 58 châteaux, deeming four to be first-growths, 12 seconds, 14 thirds, 11 fourths, and 17 fifths. While the criteria for the ranking was a bit sketchy, the quality of the wines as determined by the merchants was the stated measure for inclusion.  

In the U.S., we have a system where an arm of the federal government, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), designates certain geographical regions as American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs. Currently, there are 277 AVAs spread over 34 states. These are also referred to as “appellations of origin.”

California produces close to 90% of all the wines in this country and, as expected, has the most AVAs, with 154  areas so designated. The largest American AVA is the Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA, which spans 29,000 square miles across portions of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The smallest is the Cole Ranch appellation in Mendocino County in Northern California, which measures around 150 acres, or about one quarter of a square mile.

The first American Viticulture Area was identified in 1980 by the TTB in the seemingly unlikely locale of Augusta, Missouri. The region, which is on the North bank (would that be the left or right bank?) of the Missouri River is west of St. Louis in St. Charles County. Perhaps half a dozen or so wineries operate in the region producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and wines from the official Missouri state grape, Norton.

TTB laws state that if one is going to identify an AVA region on a bottle of wine as the place of that wine’s origin, then at least 85% of the grapes must come from that AVA. There are other restrictions and variations on these rules, but they are largely in place to help protect consumers from being misled about the origin of a wine.

Where a wine comes from may not be as important as how a wine tastes. But as consumers become more savvy about the origins of the things they consume — not just wine, but their food, as well — it is good to know that it is easy to tell where you wine was grown.

Simply read the label, and picture the place. It may help you enjoy your wine just a little more.