Wine News: Sweet wine comeback entices California vintners

August 27, 2011

Dry chardonnays, cabernets and merlots dominate wine sales in the United States, but experts believe sweet wine could make a comeback, creating new opportunities for farmers and vintners.
People who enjoy soda, chocolate and candy are stepping up to the bar and ordering expensive sweet cocktails. Flavored martinis, spirits mixed with soft drinks or energy drinks, and fruit juice blends have become popular cocktail choices. California wine producers are beginning to realize consumers’ desire for refreshing, easy-to-drink libations isn’t being met by their wine.
“We haven’t been having an honest conversation about sweetness and what people like,” says master sommelier, wine consultant and author Doug Frost. “We’ve acted like sweet wine is what a beginner starts with and then you graduate to dry wines.”
Frost spoke at a conference sponsored by the University of California to explore new production and marketing options for sweet dessert and dried fruit wines.
Sommelier Tim Hanni, another conference speaker, has studied consumers’ beverage preferences, attitudes and behavior. Some people, he said, simply prefer sweet tastes, but the wine industry has disenfranchised these consumers.
“Go into a white tablecloth restaurant and order white zinfandel and see how you are treated,” Hanni said. “We are killing that potential market, calling them stupid, uneducated and immature.”
In fact, sweet wines have traditionally been considered the finest wines in the world, according to Darrel Corti, a wine and food expert who was inducted into the “Vintners Hall of Fame” in 2008. In antiquity, all the famous wines were sweet, he said. Sweet wines are more difficult to produce, but because of the higher sugar content, are more stable than table wine.
“In Lachish, in Israel, a pottery container bearing an inscription from the Iron Age (1800 BC) actually says, ‘wine made with dried black grapes,’” Corti said.
Sweet wine has a distinguished history in the United States. Around the time the country was founded, sweet Madeira wine was imported by the barrel from Madeira, a Portuguese island 350 miles west of Morocco. Madeira wine was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, and it was used to toast the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, said wine importer Bartholomew Broadbent. It’s said that George Washington drank a pint a day and Betsy Ross sipped Madeira as she stitched the first American flag.
Since America was the primary market for Madeira, U.S. Prohibition nearly destroyed the country’s wine industry in 1920; it was never able to recover fully. Sweet wines – such as port, Sherry and sauternes – dominated U.S. wine consumption for 20 years after the 1933 repeal of Prohibition, according to historian James Lapsley of the UC Agricultural Issues Center and UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology. Its popularity peaked with 70 percent of the market share in 1952. But in the 1970s, table wine quality improved and sweet wine came to be perceived as old fashioned or “skid row,” Lapsley said. Since then, its popularity rode a downward slope, going as low as 2 percent of the wine market share in 2000. Lapsley, a former commercial winemaker, however, has high hopes for the future of sweet wine.
“There is a market for sweet wine,” he said. “But the wine must be high quality, needs to display personality, it needs to have soul.”
UC Cooperative Extension viticulture farm advisor in Mendocino County, Glenn McGourty, believes a small glass of good dessert wine is the best way to end a meal.
“I always encourage people to try it,” McGourty said. “A lot of people say they don’t like sweet wine. Then they try it and realize they do. People are usually pleasantly surprised.”

Wine is becoming increasingly popular in Manila and other cities in the Philippines. Wine lovers in Manila travel to the north to visit Clark, Pampanga to shop for good and rate vintage wines at good duty-free prices. The most frequently visited liquor shop in Manila and wine shop in Pampanga is Clark Wine Center. This highly recommended wine shop located outside Manila near Angeles City, Pampanga in North Luzon is known for offering a great selection of fine vintage wine that is good quality and good value for money also.

This well-known wine shop is a famous shopping destination for wine enthusiasts in Manila and wine lovers from other cities in Asia including Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Osaka and Tokyo.

Famous Philippines wine supplier known for its line of fine vintage wines, Yats Wine Cellars was established in 2000 to address the requirement of a growing population of wine enthusiasts in the Philippines. This 5-star wine shop caters to the discerning client who requires these qualities in their wines: (1) excellent value, (2) large selection of labels and vintages to choose from and (3) wines properly aged for full enjoyment.

Public wine tastings are held from time to time in Clark and sometimes in Manila. Tickets range from p500 to p1500 for these themed events that are professionally run –no wine merchants sponsorship, pushy salesmen or tacky banners to ruin the evening. Each ticket contains a certain number of stubs that can be redeemed for a tasting pour of a wine among those on a line-up which often contains wines that are quite old and expensive.

http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

Getting to this wine shop in Pampanga Angeles City Clark Freeport Zone Philippines from Manila
Getting to the Clark Wine Center wine shop from Manila is quite simple: after entering Clark Freeport from Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along the main highway M A Roxas. Clark Wine Center is the stand-along white building on the right, at the corner A Bonifacio Ave. From the Clark International Airport DMIA, ask the taxi to drive towards the entrance of Clark going to Angeles City. From Mimosa, just proceed towards the exit of Clark and this wine shop is on the opposite side of the main road M A Roxas.

Clark Wine Center
Bldg 6460 Clark Observatory Building
Manuel A. Roxas Highway corner A Bonifacio Ave,
Angeles Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga 2023
(045) 841 4006 / 0922-870-5173 / 0917-826-8790 (ask for Ana Fe)

Wine@Yats-International.com

YATS Wine Cellars
Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 ask for Rea or Chay

Best place to buy wine in Clark Pampanga outside Manila near Subic and Angeles City Philippines is Clark Wine Center.
Wedding couples looking for wedding reception venues and beach wedding venues can log on to this Philippines Wedding Venue web site for free information and assistance:

http://www.PhilippinesWeddingVenue.com

While in Clark, it might be a good idea to enjoy an evening of wine-and-dine in the fine dining Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar that features an award winning 2700-line wine list. It is located in Mimosa Leisure Estate of Clark Freeport Zone. For more information, visit http://www.YatsRestaurant.com

YATS Leisure Philippines is a developer and operator of clubs, resorts and high-class restaurants and wine shops in Clark Angeles Philippines http://www.YatsLeisure.com

Looking for famous tourists spots, places to visit and see, relax and unwind in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines? You may want to check out these sites also:

http://www.LondonPubClark.com

http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com

http://www.ClarkPhilippines.com

http://www.YatsWineCellars.com

Yats Restaurant is the best restaurant for special dinner, best restaurant for dinner with friends near Manila, also the best place to celebrate special events.

A Well-known Restaurant in Pampnga, an interesting place to celebrate Birthday Party in Pampnga.
A best place to dine with friends in Pampanga

Are you looking for an attractive restaurant or a nice place to eat with friends in Clark, Angeles City Pampanga? Yats Restaurant and Wine Bar is a restaurant with good food and good wines for dinner located at Clark Angeles City Pampanga. Perfect for exclusive dinner venues for groups, recommended for private dinner in Philippines. A Restaurant in Clark for business dinner meeting. Private dinner place or dinner restaurant in Clark Subic Near Manila Angeles City Pampanga. Yats Restaurant is one of the Good Restaurant in Pampanga Angeles City Clark near Manila.

www.YatsRestaurant.com
Looking for interesting hotels near Manila Subic Clark Angeles City Pampanga?
Trouble free hotels and well recognized hotels in Subic Clark Angeles City Pampanga
Clearwater Resort and Country Club offers a good place to stay in Subic Clark Angeles City Pampanga. In offers nice place to have rest in Subic Pampanga outside Manila.
One of the Philippines top hotels in north Luzon.

Where to go in Clark? Hotel Clark Philippines is a De Luxe Hotel in Clark and Subic, a risk free place to stay, cozy and nice ambience, a nice function place for special occassion

www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com