Twenty Ten: Ten Wine Predictions

January 8th,2010

Author: Kevin Ecock
Final Year: 1974
Biography: Kevin is a wine critic, consultant and runs his own wine school from Celbridge Co.Kildare. " I work wine, think wine, write and whine wine. I've been at this for 25 years now and thank god but the whine has all of it's enthusiasm intact. I look out into the wine world and report back to my fellow islanders. Then we drink wine and enjoy wine. The best juice often flows from the first pressing of the grapes. But it's the Free Run juice that gives the most exciting ideas and flavours."
URL: http://www.kevinecock.ie/

I'm finally waking up after Christmas! The delay was forced onto me! by our current mini ice age. Who'd have thought we'd see folks skating on the canals! Just goes to show that we often confuse Global Warming with Climate Change. Global Warming does not mean we will grow grapes in Ireland any time soon - Climate Change will scupper that one!

So, if we're not going to begin looking at vineyard sites this year what can we expect to happen in the wine trade?

1. Many restaurants and small wine distributors will pull the shutters down for one last time. This will be dictated by what has happened over the past few years. I'm afraid that no amount of honest endeavour over the next six months can change that. As I have said before, look to your strengths, diversify and amalgamate; don't hang around hoping for things to 'turn a corner'.

2. Riesling will make a long awaited varietal breakthrough. Here we go again. Every year myself, and many others, hope for this. These hopes have been dashed time and again. Why? I reckon because people don't actually like the grape! At my School of Wine last year I subjected my students to Riesling time and again. With Enthusiasm. As they began to give me a strange look I realised the battle was, once again, lost. So, why will they like it this year? I have no idea, but I'm going for it again just so I don't have to serve inferior Albarinho, immature Pinot Gris and rubbish Pinot Grigio.

3. Argentina will not make its long awaited breakthrough. The wines are brilliant and offer fantastic value but no-one seems able to sell them. Even Dunnes Stores who championed the sector only two years ago has drawn its horns in - remember that fab event on the tall ship 'The Libertad' with Felipe Contepomi in attendance? Clearly something more is needed. No marketing = no sales. Sales depend on pull through as much as push out.

4. Pinot Noir from Chile will do well. One thing I hate is anyone telling me that Chilean Pinot Noir (especially the cheaper stuff) is just not the same, and therefore not as good, as 'Burgundy'. I get this a lot. What a load of codswallop. Chile seems to have brought Pinot Noir along so that it can ripen the grape very well, year on year. This is what good viticulture does. Wine making is a separate issue. Inexpensive varietal Pinot Noir from the likes of Cono Sur is delightful drinking.

5. Australia will have a bumper year. Stocks of the inexpensive sort still seem to be available. Wines of Australia and John McDonnell have put a lot of work into education last year so that we are happy to trade up and to experiment across the varietal feast on offer.

6. Wine schools will prosper. Here's hoping!! I say this because my own bookings have been very strong this Springtime. Let's a face it a six week wine course for €180 will show you about €600 worth of wine, give you six Wine Star glasses for free, provide you with twelve hours worth of entertainment and learning and give you a wine tasting road map that should last you a lifetime. If you're not getting all of this then you're at the wrong school of wine! http://www.kevinecock.ie/

7. Short haul wine travel will take off. It still amazes me that almost no one has been able to stitch the following together
• Most revered vineyards in the world are only two hours out of Dublin airport
• Both Ryanair and Aer Lingus offer fab deals out of Ireland to these regions
• We have no vineyards to speak of in Ireland
• Marketing bodies spend a lot of money every year bringing wine makers and their wines to Ireland for wine fairs that are of little use and are poorly attended.
 

8. Lots of wine initiatives will be launched with a green agenda. These have been on the go for a while now with marsh and bog land initiatives; lightweight bottles; barges and wind sail delivery of wine; eco friendly closures; weekly, Nay Daily, organic and biodynamic announcements; zero carbon wineries; recycling and on and on and on. This will begin to be appreciated by consumers. It' s only a shame that our large distributors won't embrace this sort of thing until they see its not going to affect their bottom line. Money grabbing in the Irish wine trade is still confused with good corporate governance. Social and moral responsibility would appear to be words best kept out of our wine board rooms - let's force a change.

9. Hopefully we will see more emphasis placed on bringing wine and food along together. By this I don't mean food and wine matching (which by the way I really feel is overdone and on many occasions a completely pointless and futile exercise! Some of the apps and widgets being pushed around web sites are just plain stupid!). No, I mean more cooperation between qualified food and qualified wine writers. How often do we see food writers venturing into wine with no more than a wine menu and a wine book being married together as critique? Equally when some of our wine writers get going on how to prepare their fave food styles they do so with the assurance of someone learning to fry an egg!
 

10. One of our super markets will change its symbol either through a sell out or through an amalgamation forcing through an extraordinary change in the Irish winescape. This has been on the cards for some time now with rumour and counter rumour. As NAMA settles into our economic reality so will realism. Remember the demise of H Williams, the rise and fall of Quinnsworth, the changes in Superquinn? Yes, these are the new 1980's. This will be good for the wine trade. It was in the past. Many good guys fell but the trade grew and grew into areas unthought of. The same will begin all over again in 2010 or two thousand and ten or whatever you're having yourself.

Happy New Year

Kevin