America's wine choices in restaurants
What wines are people in America's restaurants drinking today?
Wine & Spirits magazine recently published the results of its 22nd annual restaurant poll. The magazine solicited information from more than 2500 different restaurants, but only 216 responded with information.
This list included some of the finer restaurants in the country, and their responses would seem to be indicative of people's wine preferences in the restaurant scene. The Wine & Spirits report described a number of different wine trends with regard to the most popular brands of wine, what wines are the favorites by the glass, and information about individual wine categories or varietals.
The article's report on the top 50 favorite wine brands was not altogether a surprise, since many of the same wines that have been on top have retained their position and appeal with the restaurant crowd.
Thirty eight of the 50 top wines were from California, with 19 of these from Napa and 10 selections from Sonoma. Wines like Sonoma-Cutrer and Cakebread Cellars were at the top of the list.
Interestingly, only nine of the 50 top wines were from international sources like Italy, Argentina, New Zealand and France. Italy and France each had three wines in the top 50 while New Zealand and Argentina each had only one winner.
I think this information is telling us something about the appeal of California style wines and the growing loss of appeal or interest in international wines. In many cases, the grape varietals are the same. But there is obviously some intrinsic quality or character that we associate with California chardonnays and cabernets that makes them more appealing.
When it comes to wine by the glass, there were a few surprises. Ferrari-Carano fume blanc beat out Sonoma-Cutrer chardonnay in this category. Of the 27 wines that were included in this report, 13 were white wines and 14 were red wines, which gives me a little hope that people still enjoy a good white wine in the evening.
The report suggests that many consumers are opting for wines by the glass rather than ordering a full bottle of a single varietal. This makes good sense since it gives the customer a chance to try different wines with their meal. According to the report, the average price of a glass of wine was about $12-$13 depending on the varietal and the origin.
The most poplar wines by varietal and country category offered a few surprises. In the sauvignon blanc category, U.S. wines were preferred over France and New Zealand. Honig and Cakebread Cellars took the top two spots over the wines of Sancere and New Zealand's Cloudy Bay.
When it came to pinot gris and pinot grigio, Italy was the favorite choice with Santa Margherita as the number one selection and Oregon's King Estate's pinto gris in the number two spot. In the chardonnay category, California won hands down. Only three of the 20 chardonnays came from France and Argentina. Once again the California style appears to be most appealing to the restaurant crowd. In addition, there appears to be a trend towards more unoaked chardonnay styles that expresses fresher more vibrant character.
I was most interested in the results of the survey regarding consumer choices with regard to pinot noir. Twenty-nine wines were rated in this study with 15 of the 29 coming from California. Twelve wines were from Oregon and only one wine from France.
What does this say about our love affair with all things from France, especially from Burgundy? And what truly surprised me was that the top five pinot noirs were from California, not Oregon. Merry Edwards was the top pinot noir followed closely by LaCrema. The average price reported for U.S. pinot noirs was around $64-$65, while the French counterpart went for around $84-$85.
Not surprisingly, when it came to cabernet sauvignon, California wines dominated the scene over French or Chilean wines. Napa cabernet sauvignon wines were preferred over wines from Sonoma, and Bordeaux-style cabernets were very low on the list. It would appear from the reports in this study that many wine lovers are beginning to look for cabernets that offer finesse and not power or high alcohol levels.
If you are looking for merlot figures, you will have to remember the hit this varietal took from the movie "Sideways" and the dramatic downturn it had on merlot sales. The top merlots in this study were from Duckhorn Vineyards, followed by Frog's Leap, both priced at around $76-$80 a bottle.
On a personal note, I feel that this type of survey should be taken with a grain of salt in view of the limited number of response. Many American wine lovers often are afraid to try something new. They tend to stick with what they like and are familiar with. Also, a lot of America's wine drinking has to do with what the sommelier recommends and what the wine list has to offer.