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by Putnam Weekley
ine is art. Its free trade should be guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The public ring leader of the forces deployed against liberty, Nida
Samona,
claims to defend children from alcohol. More interesting is
her
defense of illegal, secret meetings with government-enabled
monopolies, monopolies that have a financial stake in limiting
interstate wine shipping. Will anyone fall for the deception?
Wine blogger
Tom Wark says “Retailers Will Fight Hardest Against Opening Up
States to Direct Shipping.” That may seem logical. What retailer would
want to compete in a bigger, faster marketplace? Well, I would for one,
and I believe there are others.
Here are some of my
reasons, as a hired Michigan retailer, for welcoming, nay, demanding a
liberated trade in wine, beer and spirits.
1. Taste Renaissance.
I foresee a renaissance in wine appreciation as consumers take control
of their own buying decisions. For example, a deep inventory of properly
aged wine can be supported only by a few national outlets and auction
houses. Free access to older stocks may enlighten consumers to the
benefits of buying and cellaring those products on release, and that’s a
business that wine shops like the one where I work can do pretty well.
2. Dumping.
Occasionally I see a retail price for a wine in another state that is
below my non-negotiable Michigan wholesale price. In other instances, my
retail price is the lowest in the country. Extreme price variations can
often be the result of dumping. With 50 discrete state wine markets, a
supplier may unload any volume of excess inventory at any price in one
state and not spoil the market for that brand at full price in the other
49. Dumping may be good for those who “ride free” on deeply discounted
wine, but it’s bad for anyone forced to pay full price.
I welcome the opportunity to hold suppliers responsible for their prices
nationwide (just as I am sure they would welcome an uncluttered
regulatory environment.) Either a wine is worth what they charge me in
Michigan or it is worth what they are giving it away for in North
Carolina. Not both.
A year or two ago, several retailers around the country were selling
some of our favorite Kermit Lynch
wines at well below Michigan wholesale prices. When asked to explain, my
state-approved Kermit Lynch dealer replied: “That’s another state. That
shouldn’t affect you.” Now it would appear that it does. Note to brand
builders: When choosing a price for your product, be sure to choose one
that is attractive enough to actually deplete your inventory. And if you
don’t offer the same deal to all of your customers, be prepared to lose
some of us. Dumping inventory anywhere now means exposing false claims
of value everywhere.
3. The Boutique Hustle.
Scams will proliferate with free trade; I’m a Darwinian on this issue.
Wineries with more tourist appeal than original wine in their bottles
will resort to cliché tactics to keep gullible consumers on the hook.
“Buy this to get that,” they will explain in their newsletters. “Decline
your allocation of a poor vintage and get axed from our list when we
offer a good one.” Some patrons of my shop will undoubtedly be sucked
into this vortex.
On the other hand, I am weary of being hit up by neurotic “collectors”
for boutique monstrosities. I learn plenty about such vogue, bepointed
curios thanks to afflicted friends who proudly smuggle them in and serve
them when we break bread. Their prices seem to be entirely a function of
carefully planned scarcity and credulous national media coverage.
To collectors of Pride, Sine Qua Non, Turley, Araujo, Colgin, Abreu
and Harlan, not to mention myriad European cognates, this is your
intervention. Some of you can only hope for rehabilitation through tough
love; after all, being a compulsive boutique wine chaser is impossible
without indulging in layers of denial. I don’t enjoy having to say this,
but snap out of it!
Sure, as a common retail worker I seldom obtain such souvenirs to trade
and today’s rumblings of liberalization won’t change that, but at least
I might plausibly refer obsessive weenies to websites where they will
now be invited to wait in line for a shabby allocation of these
trinkets, right along with all the other reciprocal state dwellers. If
anyone wants something to drink, something that can be explored freely
with all senses, call a wine shop.
Mailing lists with strings attached are for suckers, but tourists,
dabblers and dilettantes should submit to them rather than bother a
serious retailer. I refuse to join the rigged and grotesque hunt for
Beanie Baby flim flam. For the sake of everyone, laws must not be used
to force anyone to shop where they can’t possibly get satisfaction.
4. Math
and Physics.
Free trade will not put good retailers or wholesalers out of jobs.
Traditional wholesalers and retailers have one large natural advantage
over winery-direct and mail-order outlets: the cost of shipping and
handling. Wine bottles are heavy. We’re not talking about polar fleece
here folks. The cost of consolidated transport from the west coast to a
typical Midwest wholesaler ranges from $2.50 to $6 a case. UPS charges
$35 to $85 per case for door to door service.
Plus, wholesalers typically buy 50 cases at a time, qualifying them for
huge volume discounts. Add it all up and a good wholesale/retail team
can offer prices below those offered at the tasting room door, not to
mention selectivity and accountability.
5. Taste is Local.
Why haven’t wine shops disappeared in so-called “reciprocal,” free trade
states such as California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon and
Washington? Residents of those states are permitted to buy wine directly
and have it shipped from wineries and shops located in any state on the
same list. Even if the cost of shipping weren’t an issue, there will
always be a demand for a good, local wine shop. Wine shops are the
academies of taste. Just ask Londoners. Only in a bricks-and-mortar shop
can wine lovers browse, try a bottle and speak directly to a person who
may be familiar with his or her taste.
6. Wine is Art.
According to James McNeil Whistler,
music is the poetry of sound and painting is the poetry of sight. So I
say wine is the poetry of taste.
Not all wine is art of course. Most wine is mere calories and chemical
euphoria. But then, most works of painting, music and literature are
mere entertainment.
Examine any criterion for art and wine fits it.
Art is what nature isn’t: the orderly rows of vines, the selection of
grapes, and the selection of barrels are all guided by an artist’s
experience, intuition, judgment and taste. Sure wine emerges from the
sun and earth but wine is not nature. Wine is a soul-inspired
intensification of nature.
Satisfied that wine isn’t nature? Skeptics want you to believe that
wine, rather than an art, is nothing more than a consumer product, that
it can be formulated, that its merit can be precisely measured at every
step from bunch to bottle. Wine is design they argue, not art. Just
because this may be true of most wine, as it is true of most works of
music and literature, that does not make it true of “wine.”
Wine, real wine, has internal contrast, spontaneous inner logic and deep
emotional significance. It offers its appreciators originality and
insight with every taste. As with the best art, the significance of the
best wine increases the more one experiences it.
Friedrich Nietzche said “for art to
exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity or perception to exist, a
certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.”
Wine is the purest art form of them all. Legalize it.
Previously in Putnam's Monthly:
Jonathan Nossiter's Mondovino
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