Word: wines
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...adage has it that the way to make a small fortune in the wine business is to start with a large fortune. For all its aura of romance, making wine is an enterprise fraught with woes -- both man-made and natural. Government regulators have been acting lately as if wine were as much of a health hazard as tobacco. Even in sunny, bountiful California, frosts can shrivel vulnerable young grape buds. Untimely rains can ruin a harvest. And periodically, vineyards are assaulted by plagues of voracious insects...
...plagues could not have come at a worse time for the California wine trade, whose annual sales exceed $3.6 billion. The Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which regulates the wineries, appears to be following a neo-prohibitionist agenda. The bureau requires wine labels to carry warnings about drunken driving and the danger of alcohol to pregnant women. At the same time, the bureau refuses to allow vintners to promote or advertise research indicating that drinking wine in moderation has some health benefits...
Some wineries have found ingenious ways to boost sales and instill brand loyalty. Traditionally, wineries have been financed by bank debt or their owners' wealth. Now a few vineyards are selling stock to the public. A pioneer example is the Chalone Wine Group. In addition to Chalone Vineyards near Monterey, Chalone owns Acacia, Carmenet and part of Edna Valley. Although the shares have never paid a dividend since they were first marketed in 1984, the 10,000 or so stockholders have become enthusiastic ambassadors for the group's wines. One reason: anyone who owns at least 100 shares is invited...
...more popular way to reach the public directly is through winery-sponsored "clubs." Sterling Vineyard's Collections Club and Grgich Hills' Pre- Release Club, for example, publish newsletters that provide subscribers with discounts on newly released wines and "library" selections of wines in limited production. Sterling, which is owned by Seagram's, recently offered its club members two new Italian wines that the company represents and markets in the U.S.: a white Pinot Grigio and a red Sangiovese. "We're trying to 'loyalize' our customers," says Samuel Bronfman II, president of Seagram's Classics Wine Co. "We also want...
...always been that way. But it's a bummer. I just planted 350 prune trees that host the wasps that prey on the sharpshooter." He pauses to sip from a glass of his 1991 reserve Chardonnay and laughs. "Now if I can just figure out how to make prune wine...