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Feature Article
The Third Wave ushers in consumers with more discerning palates and demands for dry Rieslings and sensuous Pinot Noirs.
The Third Wave
While fine wine accounts for only 10 percent of all wine sales, Senior Editor Dan Berger foresees a crescendo of change as American wine consumers are discovering the pleasures of Pinot Noir, dry Rieslings and rosé.
by
Dan Berger
June 19, 2008
California wine, rated the best that America produces and now (largely because of a weak dollar) reaching across oceans to enthrall newcomers, has enjoyed 130 or so years of fame using, first a generic approach, and then a varietal one.
Now, at the commencement of the 21st century, it appears that a third wave of success is imminent. The concepts that are slowly developing will broaden consumers’ choices and strengthen the platform from which fine wine emanates. The road between now and when all the pieces are in place could be bumpy. But for now, since fine wine accounts for just 10 percent of all wine sales, the success of the Third Wave may well be limited to those few visionary wineries willing to delve into the future with guns blazing. I fully expect a few well-financed mavericks to attempt to push their way into this field with low-priced versions of the real thing, so we must remain vigilant to the intruders.
But the benefits for consumers are everywhere.
xcept for a few interesting efforts in Southern California earlier in the 19th century, wine in the state started in the north, in the 1870s, around the town of Sonoma, and was based first on local grapes that made interesting generic wines. Among the grapes of the period was Mission, a grape that remains little more than a historic memory today. And that was the way it stayed for the most part, through the mid-1960s.
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