New Wine, Old Doubts: A Négociant's Dilemma

As a négociant, I'm wary of the word "new." While I try to give new wines a fair shot, slow sell-through rates can tie up valuable capital. Completely dismissing new offerings, however, could mean missing out on the next big thing, like an Orin Swift or Mark Ryan. It's a delicate balance. Recently, a new wine caught my attention, primarily because of the producer: Cakebread's new label, Bezel. The fact that it's sourced primarily from San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles is also intriguing.

Frankly, if this wine wasn't connected to the Cakebread name, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. I probably would have tuned out the sales pitch before the rep even had a chance to pour me a sample. (Although, I would have definitely devoured any literature; sell sheets are a major source of my wine education.) The Cakebread brand--their Dancing Bear Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon being a cult classic--carries a certain weight and reputation that made me willing to try something new, even though I'm generally cautious about new wines. Without that established name behind it, it would have just been another new bottle vying for attention, and likely lost in the shuffle. While the reports of wine's demise have been greatly exaggerated for a couple of years now, there is no shortage of new wines hitting the market. The wine downturn is bad for business, but it has been a boon for R&D departments and mavericks like Dave Phinney. They are tasked with figuring out which wines Millennials and Gen Z will finally embrace.

Most of what I've gleaned from the doom-and-gloom surveys of the wine market is that younger generations simply want wine to taste good. To any wine drinker, this suggests they are still developing their palates. Once they've had their last Truly, they will gravitate to wine. I hope it's not a Cabernet Sauvignon too soon, though. Why? Because Cabernet Sauvignon is generally tannic, with a curious mouthfeel. I recommend nascent wine drinkers start with Sangiovese, or, if they have a high-paying work-from-home gig, maybe a delicious Barolo with a silky finish. These are really just details. What is paramount to the wine industry generating free cash flow like a semiconductor company is the natural aging process of Millennials and Gen Z. I am reminded of the sage words of Chris Indelicato, the CEO of Delicato Family Wines, who, you can tell, hasn't lost a nanosecond of sleep over the lukewarm wine market by his comment that as the large Millennial population ages, they will gravitate towards wine, just like previous generations. In college, I was a Jameson drinker, and then, when I turned 40, my liver would run the other way any time a shot of Jamie was offered to me, so I started to drink wine—mostly Italian wine, and especially Barolo and Brunello.

This was supposed to be a blog post about Cakebread's latest product offering. How this devolved into a rant about the supposed misery surrounding the wine market, which will surely surmount any temporary challenges, I don't really know. But that's what happens when you have a glass of good wine; you never know where it will take you.