Senel Wine

Great wine selection and much more.

I’ve always found it fascinating to see how industries develop over time. Be it reading about the emergence and growth of the American wine industry, witnessing the transition of the print media and auto industries, or being brought-up in the aftermath of the regression and subsequent death of the Midwest steel industry, it’s surreal to watch them all go on a relatively human trajectory of birth, maturation and potentially death. We’re currently witnessing the birth of another industry, one that’s exceptionally similar to one we’ve already experienced. In order to appreciate it, I think we should revisit our story first, the birth of America’s wine industry.

Viticulture in the US has surprisingly deep roots (pun intended). Dating back to times even before the days of missionaries planting vines in San Diego for communal wine and Thomas Jefferson trying to grow Bordeaux varietals on his property Monticello, the US has had a rich history of the vine from which to start. In fact, it’s American rootstock that proved resistant and subsequently saved European vines in the later 19th century from the catastrophic outbreak of phylloxera, the vine destroying microscopic insect. Yet with all this history, the US wine industry only emerged as a viable industry, in earnest, towards the middle-to-later part the 20^th century. But why?

Through my studies of American history, I’ve come up with the conclussion that the US simply wasn’t ready to start embracing its Europe roots. Italian, Irish, German, Slovak and other ethnic communities were viewed through xenophobic-tinted glasses by a vehement  Anglo-American society that looked down at holding on to the Motherland’s traditions as backward and whose distrust of things European is rooted in pre-revolutionary and Puritanical bias. It took something significant to begin to soften this antiquated way of thought. The initial transition began with the return home of servicemen from Europe after WWII. During their time abroad, they saw a different way of life, became educated in different cultures and saw the side of a deeply historic continent that was largely misunderstood. Part of the culture these servicemen and support staff were exposed to was wine. They witnessed the role it played in family and society as more of a communal drink than as an evil as deemed by Great Depression era Prohibition. 

Another significant development was the emergence of the relentless marketing genius Robert Mondavi, who’s exposure to wine was shaped completely by his immigrant parents. With his upbringing in the early years of the biz in Napa, he focused his energy and charisma on making wine approachable (thus the advent of the term Fume Blanc which was easier for Americans to pronounce than Sauvignon Blanc) and exposing Americans to his ideal of gracious living. Mondavi’s passion of living a gracious life showed a deep appreciation for music and the arts, fine cuisines of the world and fine dining, in which food and wine play the lead. It was on his trips to the largely French wine drinking East Coast that he was able lay the inroads that would begin a nationwide revolution.

Eventually, as with other populations of growing wealth, American consumers began to embrace the gracious living notion and reach to wine for its aspirational qualities instead of beer or liquor. This didn’t take hold over night; however once the initial European pretension was cast aside, Americans began favoring the more mild, food friendly and female-palate-pleasing beverage. The stage was now set for the American wine industry to take off; however it was still looking for that final impetus to send it into orbit.

Gracious living at its finest, welcome to Napa!

Like any significant development, it takes a seminal moment to change the trajectory of history, be it for a nation, or in this case an industry. The combination of Robert Mondavi’s promotion and the beginnings of a fundamental shift towards accepting wine laid the foundation, but The Judgement of Paris set things on its irrevocable course. The stunning victory of two Napa wines over a field containing greats from Bordeaux and Burgundy, helped to create what we now know as America’s wine industry by instilling a level of patriotism into wine. Prior to the blind-tasting, in which a  ’73 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet and the ’73 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay took top honors, the California wine industry was inaccurately viewed by many as being manned by a bunch of unsophisticated hick farmers attempting poorly to beat the French at what they do best. This tasting set the record straight as they prove everyone wrong and in the years that followed emerged as one of the World’s greatest winemaking regions, with Napa now serving as its new benchmark, not Bordeaux or Burgundy. This event had such an impact that French wine houses began partnering with American wineries (most famously Opus One, the joint-venture between Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Bordeaux First-Growth Château Mouton Rothschild) and in some cases starting wineries of their own (Domaine Chandon in Napa and Domaine Drouhin in Willamette, Oregon are two terrific examples).

Fast-forward 35 years and we are witnessing a foundation waiting for its own seminal moment. Thanks to the progressive mentality of Deng Xiaoping during his time in power from 1978-1992 and Hong Kong’s exposure to English culture, the door was opened for China experienced a period much like post-WWII America in which it began to open up to those things foreign and becoming more and more accustomed to the finer things in life thanks to its burgeoning wealth. Mondavi’s concept of gracious living is running rampant amongst China’s emerging middle and upper-middle class; however in this case it’s not due to the Chinese ancestral ties to Europe. Rather, it’s their extreme appetite for perceived luxury, especially Bordeaux wines, that’s driving this movement. The Chinese’s lust for the best wines from Bordeaux is well-documented and this will likely not change on the high-end; however as a whole, their growing consumer base is open to wine experiences from Spain, Australia and the US, including mid-tier wines from these regions. With this growing appetite for more accessible, value wines, it’s only a matter of time before domestic wines begins to supplant foreign wines on the table.

Grace Vineyard, from the Shanxi appellation, currently sets the standard for Chinese wine; however it will have to pick up its game with more "flying winemakers" and foreign investment coming to town!

The Chinese government has taken strategic steps by slowly integrating the Western dynamic into their Sino-centric culture. The Chinese wine industry’s pro-growth movement is one such beneficiary. Beginning in Hong Kong early last decade, the government gave up tax revenue on wine with a progressive vision of generating a wine consuming culture. How did this end up being progressive? Well, the government at the time had enough foresight to realize that once wine is embraced and even embedded in the mainstream, there’s a real opportunity to establish China as the chief supplier of wine to its own consumer base, thus creating a thriving industry. It seems only logical that this take place, especially in a country that has an army of farmers, some of whom are dying to experiment and broaden their scope, which will prove useful in this endeavor. This all sounds all too familiar. Where have we heard this story before? Oh yes, in the US, only this time the industry’s emergence is being largely orchestrated as opposed to emerging organically.

With China’s massive consumption in the world’s wine auction and Bordeaux en primeur scene (which is eerily similar to the tech bubble years in the US), partnerships are being forged between government-run agricultural firms and foreign wine houses (primarily French houses) especially in the most familiar regions of Xinjiang, Shanxi and Ningxia (the last of which recently witnessed Moët enter the market in a partnership to make a sparkling wine), the foundations are being set for a significant industry. They aren’t there yet; however we’ll likely see this fledgling industry begin to take its first significant steps soon and then be ready for the moment that makes it boom.  I only wonder what fateful event will galvanize the Chinese around their domestic wine industry. I have one theory; however it spells anguish to those who are currently benefitting, and in some cases relying on this nation of unimaginable wealth by selling their wines to its consumers.

In the end, it’s wine that’s proven once again to be the gracious host of dreams that’s leading yet another massive world player to embrace it, learn from it, and then make it its own.