Customer Reviews

Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink

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I finally had a chance to give serious face time to Tyler (Dr. Vino) Colman's newest book: WINE POLITICS: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. A book of this sort is so long overdue and I had been looking forward to it with such great anticipation that I nearly wet my pants when it finally arrived at my door.

I cracked it open somewhere over Nevada on my way to the National Conference of State Legislatures where a panel of industry folks moderated by Senator Sanchez from New Mexico was gong to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court decision, Granholm v. Heald. Apropos, no?

Here's the thing: If you write about wine and don't know the political history of the drink, you owe it to yourself and your readers to read this. If you are a lawmaker at the state level and deal with alcohol issues, you owe it to yourself and your constituents to read this book. If you are a wine lover and find yourself frustrated by the various laws that seem contrived to keep you from enjoying wine then you need to read this book.

What I was most interested in discovering was how an even handed treatment of the subject of wine politics would look and read like. I don't deal in evenhandedness when I approach and work in this area. I've seen enough to know that it accomplishes nothing to give those who work the system the benefit of the doubt. But Colman, in tackling this subject, is obligated to be evenhanded. And he pulls it off quite nicely.

The very first chapter asks, "What is Wine Politics". The answer Tyler provides is telling and explains the need for such a book:

"battles over the politics of wine are more often fought on the ground--sometimes literally. Where are the lines of the best growing zones drawn? Will society stigmatize wine or praise it? How can consumers buy their favorite wines or discover new ones? Is wine 'made in the vineyard,' as the industry likes to claim, or is it made in the lab and tested on focus groups for its consumer appeal? At stake in these battles are not only the livelihood of those in the industry but also the prestige and the profits of an industry whose sales reach $25 billion in the United States alone."

After offering a brief history of wine in France and the United States in Chapter two we move on to the meat of the book, an examination of critical issues in the wine industry that play out in a political framework: Appellations & Quality, American coalitions for and against wine, who dictates tastes and styles of wine, and the politics of environmentalism and wine and where they meet.

Naturally, I was most interested in how Colman dealt with the issue of direct shipment of wine, an issue that has been among the most public of political wine battles in America for the past 20 years. This discussion falls into the chapter appropriately named, "Baptists and Bootleggers". The term is a reference on the one hand to the odd coalition that supported Prohibition and on the other hand to the more recent coalition of social conservatives often driven by religious imperatives and alcohol wholesalers that demand economic protection, both of whom have no interest in, and are willing to work furiously against, allowing consumers alternative channels to access the diverse and growing number of wines available in the country beyond the sacred three-tier system.

It would have been all to easy for a lesser writer to indulge in demonization in this chapter. It would have been very easy to write unflattering things about the nasty, disingenuous and heavy handed actions of American alcohol wholesalers' attempts to screw wine consumers and game the political system for their own economic benefit. Tyler will have none of this.

Rather, he simply lets the story of direct shipping and its political battles play out in his pages in a fairly matter of fact way. Tyler's reporting on how the direct shipping battles progress goes just deep enough so that we are told how and when giant wholesaler Southern Wine & Spirits first asked in response to direct shipment of wine, "Is there any way to stop this". On the other hand, his explanations of the politics of direct shipping do not descend into esoterica, a real possibility where this subject is concerned.

Every state politician in America should at least be made to read the "Baptists and Bootleggers" chapter in this book. It Tyler_colmanprovides a simple and straightforward answer to the question I think too many of them have, but don't know the answer to, when confronted with alcohol-related legislation: "Why is this a big deal and why are consumers jamming my phone lines over a bottle of wine?"

Tyler's book is foundational in the sense that it provides an excellent though not overwrought introduction to the critical issues that surround wine politics and the business of wine. Anyone in the business who does not know this stuff now has a resource where it is all laid out. Those wine lovers who have delved so deeply into the world of wine that they need context to satisfy their mind will also find great value in "Wine Politics".

On Tyler Colman, let me say this: If he chooses to, Tyler could make a very long career out of reporting on wine, educating both wine lovers and the industry, and writing more books on all manner of subjects revolving around wine. This is not an easy thing to do, which is my round about way of saying Tyler Coleman is among the leading pens of a new, younger generation of wine writers who will, hopefully, take those of us who grew into wine with the old guard of writers into our old age happily satisfied with the state of American wine writing and reporting.

It is said that to really appreciate wine, one must understand its context. When some talk of "context", they often focus on what is in the bottle, such as a wine's varietal makeup, the vineyard from which its fruit was sourced, and/or the vintage which serves to describe the growing season. Even still, there are some who extend context further to include the historical and cultural influences shaping a wine, specifically those factors that have served to guide viticulturists and enologists in a singular fashion within a particular region.

Tyler Colman has now broadened this notion of context with Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, a book that should appeal to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of wine.

If you have ever wondered why certain wines show up on some store shelves but not others, or why specific wines appear on certain restaurant menus while others do not, then you should read Wine Politics. The book not only explains how politics influence the distribution of wine here in the U.S., but also reveals how these same forces direct each bottle's production and eventual consumption. The best description of this book is offered by the author in Chapter 1::

"In this book I follow the travels that a bottle of wine takes from the vineyard to the dining-room table. Along the way it may encounter flying winemakers, humble vignerons, dull regulators, passionate activists, and powerful critics. I tell the neglected backstory of wine, which, as with Hollywood movies, can often be more interesting than the finished product."

Tyler Colman, a.k.a. Dr. Vino, approaches this topic by following the wine histories of France and the U.S., with a focus on winemaking in each country's respective, and most venerable, region, Bordeaux and Napa. This comparative treatment offers the reader a variety of useful insights and revelations throughout the book. Tyler extends his geographic coverage to include other regions of the world, including mentions of specific politics, policies, and practices in the Pacific Northwest.

I enjoyed the second half of the book the most, which includes chapters such as, "Who Controls Your Palate?", and, "Greens, Gripes, and Grapes". What Michael Pollan did in such great detail for food in "The Omnivore's Dilemma", Tyler Colman has now provided for wine, albeit at a cursory level, in these two chapters. For it is in chapters five and six that Tyler exposes the downside of the industrialization of wine, while contrasting this approach with the upside of "natural" winemaking practices.

After reading Tyler's book, I now have a deeper understanding of the public policies that influence the wines I am able to buy and ultimately enjoy at my table. As a result, I am a much more informed consumer, citizen, and most importantly, voter. I highly recommend Wine Politics as required reading for anyone seeking to enlarge their understanding of wine.

If Wine Politics is any indication of the path Tyler Colman is on with future books, then I am confident he will continue to increase my appreciation for wine in the years ahead.

There are so many wine books out there this summer, many of them by retailers who have veiled advertorials in the fabric of "passion." It's truly refreshing to see a book like Dr. Coleman's, written with serious thought, using original research, and addressing one of the most important -- and often overlooked -- issues facing the contemporary wine drinker: how do the powers-that-be affect the market and our palates? Where most "wine writers" are erstwhile marketers who treat wine with undue snobbery and elitism, Coleman has delivered a genuinely useful piece of journalism that dispels many of the superfluous mythologies surrounding the world of wine today with empirical data.

As one reviewer put it, this book is sure to become "required reading for any serious wine education program."

Coleman's spare, economic writing style evokes an era when writers (think Hemingway) were not afraid to use words as instruments of thought rather than the other way around. An A+ for readability...

I enjoyed this book immensely and learned a lot. The chapters about the shipping laws within the United States and how they came to be after the repeal of Prohibition were very interesting. It helped me to understand the current debates between the wholesalers, retailers,various states and their shipping laws. I thought the book would be very technical, but it was a very good read and any technical terms were explained very well. It also was illuminating on the aspect of how big business impacts the wine industry and how critics play a role. All in all a very good book. Would recommend this book highly.

Wine Politics is a book that tells us how wine is made. It is not about pruning, grape selection, fermentation methods or blending. It does take a tangent that is often set aside by most wine drinkers. The author explains and exemplifies, in a manner that makes it very clear that adjacent decisions to wine making are sometimes more influential on the styles of wines that we drink than the actual transformation of fruit into wine. It tells you about the conditions on which farmers and winemakers have to conform to practice their craft. Its approach is sober and it does not rely on a fatalistic or demagogic rhetoric as it portrays the matter of winemaking and its history in a holistic manner. It pictures the cause and effect of political, economical and marketing decisions on the wines we drink.

Tyler Colman's purpose is to enlighten the consumer about the political forces that all producers have to be subjected by, even those seen as celebrities. As he says: it "illuminates how distributors, mobsters, environmentalists, regulators, and critics all have a hand in producing, selling and delivering the glass of wine we will drink tonight". In doing it so, it also helps to demystify the common dogmatic approach to wine, as choices in wine making, more often than not, are a fruit of impositions of political and marketing realities.

This book takes on the USA and French markets as examples and set them "side by side, studying the different paths taken by winemakers ... to produce the quality wines we enjoy today."

In France he draws a picture of the early rise of Bordeaux and fall of La Rochelle due to marriage ties between Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Henry II in 1152, the influence of négociants and the early creation of brands with the classification scheme of 1855, the tragedy brought by the phylloxera aphid in the mid 19th century and rebirth of an industry with new plantings and the renaissance of old Midi (Southwest of France) with advent of the railroads and the consequent crisis of oversupply and falling prices, the fraudulent production of wine and the creation of the restrictive Appellacion System to protect those known areas.

In the USA depicts the importance of the Californian Gold Rush with the arrival of immigrants and their thirst for wine, the formation of large conglomerates which valued quantity other than quality and the temperance movement to ban alcoholic consumption. He exposes the loopholes of the 18th Amendment (The Prohibition), the rise of home winemaking and the consequent image problem after the Repeal, the rise of the new American viticulture after the Paris Tasting of 1976 and the bureaucratic growth of a viticultural area after its success.

It is a book about the "booms and bursts" of the wine business. It is a historical account that helps us understand the mechanisms that trigger changes and trends that are often are not understood by the unsuspecting consumer. It is a must read book for everyone interested in the trade and the history behind this beverage that some are so passionate about.

This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys wine. It is a concise and precise explanation of how and why different drinks from different places end up at our tables. The most valuable insight one takes away from this informative book is that we can and should trust our own palates and preferences, and not concern ourselves with the mythology of wine, which as it turns out, is often self aggrandizing if not outright fraudulent. Distinguishing among categories of wine we learn the mass produced "factory" wines from Australia and elsewhere pretty much guarantee that one bottle will look, smell and taste like the next 5,000 bottles of that varietal, just as we learn that the "farmer" produced wines of Burgundy, Bordeaux, Oregon and parts of California can vary significantly not only from year to year but from bottle to bottle. Finally we learn of the undue influence some critics have on what is grown and we learn that clever vintners are designing their wines to appeal to these critics regardless of how they really think wine should be made. With backstories about the politics of wine in France and the United States and with charts and tables showing us the massive control
a very limited number of companies, mostly privately held, control just about everything we get on average store shelves the book teaches one important lesson. Drink what you like, search out obscure wineries, explore on your own, and trust your own judgment.

On my list of "summer readings", there was Wine Politics. How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and critics Influence the Wines We Drink by Tyler Colman. Quite a program! And a surprising one! I knew DrVino blog and enjoy reading it. I never commented - being a little shy but always liked the spirited and hot posts and debates. I knew Dr Vino was an academic and a fellow teacher as well as a fellow doctor since he holds a Ph.D.

Because of all those similitudes I read with a lot of interest his opus and especially enjoyed the picture of the author with the Paris Notre-Dame cathedral in the background! Tyler Colman is an expert on French and American wines, laws and marketing strategies. His constant parallel between the two worlds is very enlightening and brings a few surprises. French-born I usually rant about the French administration, its stupid regulations and how the system slows down (and even prohibits) any kind of initiatives. Guess what? America is not any better: the pages on how the environmentalists prevented the development of many vineyards is absolutely amazing. And don't even mention the war between "Baptists and Bootleggers" - a fascinating chapter - or the Prohibition days.

In this book, everybody will learn something: marketers, wine lovers, winemakers, corporations and consumers. After reading the book, you'll know how the bottle you bought ended up on the shelf of a supermarket or a very exclusive wine store, why the wine you heard one of your friends say wonders about is not available in your area and why this wine you know is plonk is all over the stores.

Please make sure you read this book - especially if you're French or American. Knowing very well your side of the story, you'll be amazed by what is really behind the scenes in your country or the other one. Having a foot in both, my heart went back and forth as well as my compassion for the two industries and the consumer. But I refuse to be pessimistic and I agree 100% with Tyler when he writes: "Any producer who can sell wines for $500 a bottle, or a company such as LVMH that can sell almost 600,000 cases of wine for an average of $44 a bottle, certainly has something to teach wine marketers in other parts of the world. But William Deutsch, who sold 7 millions cases of Yellow Tail at $6 a bottle in 2005, also has lessons to teach the French. This global exchange of learning helps make winemakers more efficient as well as helping artisanal winemakers make their products more distinctive."

Enjoy life, good wines and good food!

... well this is a lot of those answers.

This was a short but well researched dive into the history and complexity of what goes on behind the scenes of the ever confusing wine world. It's written from an (ironically) sober perspective that gives the reader a chance to gain a sense of the immensity that is wine politics. From prohibition to repeal, natural winemaking, AOC struggles, and critics weight, it lays out the effects of these events as well as what the wine world was like before them.
Anyone interested in wine and/or history will take great pleasure in reading this. My only hope is that we get a follow up from Mr. Colman, I got the sense reading this book that he was holding back for something bigger...

An interesting take on the intersection of wine and politics. Written in quite a scholarly manner, suggesting it may have been based on a dissertation. It gets a little dry and even boring when slogging through the intracacies of France's "Appelation Controlee" laws, but then it picks up the pace.

This book is a great read and definitely recommended to any Wine
aficionados. In the preface, Tyler does mention that if you are
looking to resolve your personal conflicts between the Red / White
wine or find your political orientation, then this book is NOT for you.
To an extend I agree but again I encourage all wine lovers of all kinds to go ahead and pick a copy of this book.

To be honest, my opinion might be a bit biased as I have had the
pleasure to take a Wine course with him at NYU and had been looking
forward to this book for a bit now. It was great fun to be part of
Tyler's class as he took us on wonderful journey of Wine Culture and
Tasting. His ability to take a very intimidating topic of Wine and make
it very easy for amateurs is amazing. He does the same in this book as
his passion and knowledge of the subject is palpable.

Kudos to Dr. Vino on this book. To many more years of exploration of
Wine world.

Cheers

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