Well I?m back, with many changes on the way?too many to report on here. The move was predictably stressful, complete with long waits at the police for foreign national registration, idiot bank employees who don?t do what you ask them to, negligent estate agents only interested in their miserable commission?and that?s if they?re still employed, considering the global financial meltdown that ensued, seemingly occurring right after I physically landed at Heathrow and cleared the baggage claim. Oh well, at least the internet service provider finally showed up and set me up, so on towards the more exciting, positive bits of news...I look forward to coming back more often to post, particularly on my own domain. Look for updates on that soon.

Onto the wine?one of the final remaining, seemingly recession-proof products around, particularly if you?re a wine producer from Argentina or South Africa, or perhaps a wine importer in China, but I?m getting ahead of myself again.

I find the UK wine marketplace, from the consumer?s perspective, incredibly fascinating in ways that would make importers and distributors from back in the US think twice and want to look hard and long on certain matters. After all, this is the market from which, time and again, I?ve seen trends emerge, subsequently reaching American stocklists, on average and depending on the specific trend, around 12-18 months later. Whether we?re talking organics, fair-trade wines, an upsurge in country/region-specific wines being consumed (Austria, Bierzo, NZ Pinot Noir, Chilean takes on Alsace, Argentine Tempranillo, and many more ), or even a specific craze for wines that single out a particular grape variety, it always seems like it all begins here first. A small clarification of course, we always need one of those?when I discuss market trends, the proportions I am are referring to could well be regarded as ?mainstream? or en-masse. Leaving aside the handful of enlightened, forward-looking importers, distributors, retailers and agents involved in the US wine trade, I?m thinking of trends that American consumers simply haven?t embraced in mainstream fashion.

What trends am I talking about, then, in terms of the ?here and now?? The recently sudden and intense interest, expressed particularly by some of the largest retail entities in the US (Target, Walmart, etc?), in ?certified organic? and ?fair trade? wines, has been preceded by all sorts of retail outlets here in the UK by almost five or six years. In fact, the revered wine education cathedral of sorts, Vinopolis, recently hosted a consumer-oriented Fair Trade tasting featuring South African and South-American wines. In terms of the prevalence of ?Fair Trade certified? wines in the marketplace here, even large supermarket chains maintain extensive production relationships with wine producers in Argentina, Chile and South Africa that intend to compensate the grape farming coops that supply them fairly and ethically. The venerable Trainsfair USA, I believe, is just beginning to crank the gears that will soon establish an American Fair Trade certification scheme in the vein of its successful coffee program. One recently elaborated section of its website seems to be calling all potentially interested retailers, importers and distributors of Fair Trade certified wines, complete with legal advice and guidelines to becoming approved agents.

I don?t have much in the way of a formal set of closing thoughts on this, but a few questions come to mind in terms of this apparent phenomenon where certain trends poke their heads out in the UK first:

1) Could this simply be attributed to there being an altogether greater sense of open-mindedness here in the UK? I?ve seen many food products here, ingredients easily available at mainstream chain supermarkets for very reasonable prices?meats, spices and foods for which I used to have to trek all the way to a Whole Foods in the US, sometimes fifty miles each way, just to get in line and pay frighteningly exorbitant prices, given that my purchases didn?t consist of the bland crap available in most stores.

2) The second question revolves around economic irony: Why is it that the UK is at the forefront of wine consumer trends, as far as imports, when it is actually the US market which the latest reports point to as being the most profitable market to export to, on a per liter of wine basis? This should be taken into account in addition to the US being ranked the second largest export market (by volume). Would the people at the American Association of Wine Economists have a paper on this?

Whether I am here or there, from now on I will be posting recommendations and pieces such as this one on both the American and British wine market environments. More to follow in the near future?

Well I?m back, with many changes on the way?too many to report on here. The move was predictably stressful, complete with long waits at the police for foreign national registration, idiot bank employees who don?t do what you ask them to, negligent estate agents only interested in their miserable commission?and that?s if they?re still employed, considering the global financial meltdown that ensued, seemingly occurring right after I physically landed at Heathrow and cleared the baggage claim. Oh well, at least the internet service provider finally showed up and set me up, so on towards the more exciting, positive bits of news...I look forward to coming back more often to post, particularly on my own domain. Look for updates on that soon.

Onto the wine?one of the final remaining, seemingly recession-proof products around, particularly if you?re a wine producer from Argentina or South Africa, or perhaps a wine importer in China, but I?m getting ahead of myself again.

I find the UK wine marketplace, from the consumer?s perspective, incredibly fascinating in ways that would make importers and distributors from back in the US think twice and want to look hard and long on certain matters. After all, this is the market from which, time and again, I?ve seen trends emerge, subsequently reaching American stocklists, on average and depending on the specific trend, around 12-18 months later. Whether we?re talking organics, fair-trade wines, an upsurge in country/region-specific wines being consumed (Austria, Bierzo, NZ Pinot Noir, Chilean takes on Alsace, Argentine Tempranillo, and many more ), or even a specific craze for wines that single out a particular grape variety, it always seems like it all begins here first. A small clarification of course, we always need one of those?when I discuss market trends, the proportions I am are referring to could well be regarded as ?mainstream? or en-masse. Leaving aside the handful of enlightened, forward-looking importers, distributors, retailers and agents involved in the US wine trade, I?m thinking of trends that American consumers simply haven?t embraced in mainstream fashion.

What trends am I talking about, then, in terms of the ?here and now?? The recently sudden and intense interest, expressed particularly by some of the largest retail entities in the US (Target, Walmart, etc?), in ?certified organic? and ?fair trade? wines, has been preceded by all sorts of retail outlets here in the UK by almost five or six years. In fact, the revered wine education cathedral of sorts, Vinopolis, recently hosted a consumer-oriented Fair Trade tasting featuring South African and South-American wines. In terms of the prevalence of ?Fair Trade certified? wines in the marketplace here, even large supermarket chains maintain extensive production relationships with wine producers in Argentina, Chile and South Africa that intend to compensate the grape farming coops that supply them fairly and ethically. The venerable Trainsfair USA, I believe, is just beginning to crank the gears that will soon establish an American Fair Trade certification scheme in the vein of its successful coffee program. One recently elaborated section of its website seems to be calling all potentially interested retailers, importers and distributors of Fair Trade certified wines, complete with legal advice and guidelines to becoming approved agents.

I don?t have much in the way of a formal set of closing thoughts on this, but a few questions come to mind in terms of this apparent phenomenon where certain trends poke their heads out in the UK first:

1) Could this simply be attributed to there being an altogether greater sense of open-mindedness here in the UK? I?ve seen many food products here, ingredients easily available at mainstream chain supermarkets for very reasonable prices?meats, spices and foods for which I used to have to trek all the way to a Whole Foods in the US, sometimes fifty miles each way, just to get in line and pay frighteningly exorbitant prices, given that my purchases didn?t consist of the bland crap available in most stores.

2) The second question revolves around economic irony: Why is it that the UK is at the forefront of wine consumer trends, as far as imports, when it is actually the US market which the latest reports point to as being the most profitable market to export to, on a per liter of wine basis? This should be taken into account in addition to the US being ranked the second largest export market (by volume). Would the people at the American Association of Wine Economists have a paper on this?

Whether I am here or there, from now on I will be posting recommendations and pieces such as this one on both the American and British wine market environments. More to follow in the near future?