Today it seems like all of America has a little piece of Napa Valley in it. While California remains America’s wine king, more than 40 states are now producing wine–15 of them with wineries of sufficient quality to rate a mention in wine guru Robert Parker’s buying guide. About 25 percent of the wineries in this year’s Orange County competition were from outside California–and a Virginia white captured gold. Elsewhere, a Texas red won a gold medal at San Francisco’s National Wine Competition and an Illinois wine finished second in a national tasting of some 120 whites. “The future of wine in this country is people realizing that good wine is being grown in their region of the country,” says David Rosengarten, editor of Wine & Food Companion. “We’re looking at the very beginning of the regional wine market in the U.S.”
As gratifying as medals are, however, they don’t necessarily sell wine. In Europe, sophistication may be defined by drinking the local wines. But Americans, despite their increasing relish of indigenous cuisines, haven’t yet developed an appreciation of local wines. Fred Koehler, who has run Lynfred Winery in suburban Chicago for 13 years, is frustrated by his inability to persuade local restaurants to feature his award-winning wines. “If it doesn’t have California or France on the bottle, [people think] it isn’t very good, " says Koehler, whose concessions to a less sophisticated market include pronunciation guides (“Pee-no NWAHR”). Prairie, an upscale Chicago restaurant featuring Midwestern fare, tried to serve only Midwestern wines but soon pronounced that concept a failure. Crosswood’s Hugh Connell says it took relentless selling to overcome the “Connecticut smear.” He adds: “I don’t bother to argue anymore. I just tell people, ‘Taste it.’ If they know anything about wine, they’ll be convinced.”
A few states like Texas are sufficiently chauvinistic to sustain a wine industry. While Texans consume less wine per capita than the average American, John Lowey, president of Llano Estacado Winery in Lubbock, says, “We’re blessed with a lot of Texans.” He concedes it may prove more difficult to convince the rest of the nation that Texas’s “brash frontier image is not inconsistent with that of fine wines.”
Some public skepticism is warranted. Originally, this latest breed of vintners appeared more interested in new cash crops and new lifestyles than in great wine. Less than ideal climate and soil conditions, as well as lack of experience, have plagued these new ventures. Parker believes that regional wines will be hard pressed to fare well in today’s global competition. They are too often mediocre at best, he says. Moreover, they don’t even have the virtue of being inexpensive because the wineries are usually small and undercapitalized, pushing up production costs.
Better grapes: Still, vintners are hoping that the ’90s will be as kind to local wineries as the ’80s were to a slew of fine regional beers. Earl Samson of Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton, R.I., says regional wineries should stop competing with California’s prized Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons, and find grapes that fare better in their climes. Llano Estacado’s Lowey agrees: “My kids will know what grapes grow here, and then we’ll really see quality wines from this region.” Ironically, one who would truly welcome such success is California wine maker Robert Mondavi, the premier marketer of his state’s wines. Mondavi is well aware that Americans are drinking less alcohol, including wine. As he sees it, only when people are enjoying and talking about wines from their own region will wine become a valued part of the American way of life. And that, of course, would only benefit California wines.
