Kids from the Sticks
Defending the Legacy of American Wine
This month, California’s wine industry celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also known as the Judgment of Paris, when Chateau Montelena put California wine on the global wine stage. In a blind wine tasting contest, a Napa Chardonnay beat out a world-class French Chardonnay. This historic story was dramatized in the 2008 movie Bottle Shock.
In 1976, Time magazine wrote about the Judgment of Paris and quoted Jim Barrett, Montelena’s general manager and part owner, “Not bad for kids from the sticks.” Barrett was proudly speaking about how, in the 1970’s, the French wine industry arrogantly viewed California’s small wineries and growers.
California’s wine story began when the first winery in California was built in San Juan Capistrano in 1783, making winegrapes one of the first agricultural commodities grown in California. But it wasn’t until the 1976 wine tasting contest that California wine received the global respect it deserved and was launched competitively into the global wine market.
Over the next fifty years, California’s wine industry grew at a tremendous pace. Today, California is home to more than 4,600 wineries and close to 6,000 growers producing around 80% of all United States wine, ranking behind only Italy, France, and Spain in terms of global production.
Most of California’s growers and wineries are family-owned small businesses that rely on local production and local sales. Many are home-grown, boutique operations. Others, however, are large multinational beverage corporations with international distribution. Those companies are diversified in both the products they produce (much more than just wine) and the locations of their global operations (extending far beyond California or even the U.S.).
While the challenges facing California’s wine industry apply to the entire industry, those challenges fall hardest on the small growers and wineries that are going out of business. While there is no simple solution to address the challenges facing the industry, growers and wineries support even small steps that can be taken to give California’s wine industry a fighting chance.
AB 1585, now pending in the California Legislature, is one of those steps. The bill would require that wine labeled with the “American” wine designation have 100% American grapes in the bottle, rather than the current 75% requirement. This 100% standard is used around the world for national wine designations. AB 1585 enjoys the support of 18 regional wine associations, bipartisan co-authors in the legislature, and hundreds of letters of support from growers and wineries across the state.
Yet, this straightforward measure is opposed by the largest multinational beverage corporations - the same corporations that produce and sell “American” appellation wine, which can range in pricing from $10 a box to $700 a bottle. The wine is sometimes marketed with stories of American heritage, the Liberty Bell, the flag, and other information that the average wine consumer would see as an indication that the American wine is made from American grapes.
However, “American” wine is often actually a blend of California wine and wine from South America, Italy, or Australia. That blend can vary wildly from wine to wine, even with wines bearing the same identical label and coming from the same exact winery. Consequently, wine consumers really have no idea what grapes actually made the wine they are buying when it is labeled “American.”
AB 1585 does not ban imports. It does not prohibit blending. Wineries can continue sourcing globally if they choose to. The bill changes one thing: if imported wine is blended into the bottle, the product should not be labeled “American.
That matters because wine consumers rely on trust and authenticity. If the California wine industry is going to recover from today’s historic challenges, it will be due in no small part to the connection between the grower, the winery, and the consumer. That connection is directly reflected in the honesty of the label. Wine consumers know that wine is grown, and where those grapes are grown matters greatly.
In opposing AB 1585, the Wine Institute has made an outlandish and condescending claim that this legislation is a threat to the California wine industry. This is the same organization whose member corporations already comply with 100% national origin standards in countries where they operate abroad. They know the standard works. They follow it elsewhere. Nonetheless, they are fighting it here.
In their own words:
“The wine industry does not need that cloud over it right now. It needs demand. It needs consumers who trust what is on the label and feel good about what is in the glass. AB 1585 does not build that trust. It erodes it.”
That statement seems to imply that the industry just needs consumers to believe that American wine is made from American grapes; it doesn’t really matter what is in the glass. Such a statement is diametrically opposite to the industry values shared broadly by California growers and wineries.
Today, the kids from the sticks are asking the same question all over again, whether the people building California wine from the ground up are being dismissed in favor of global interests that are not fully aligned with the agricultural foundation that built the California wine industry in the first place.
Nonetheless, AB 1585 continues to gain bipartisan support in the California Legislature and is rightfully seen by lawmakers as a commonsense measure rooted in transparency and consumer trust. This is in large part because Chateau Montelena and other wineries and growers all over California are raising their voices in strong support of AB 1585.
The kids from the sticks did it once. With your support, we can do it again. Contact your legislator today and ask them to vote YES on AB 1585. Take Action here.