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Howard W. Hewitt

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Howard W. Hewitt

Tag Archives: Drouhin

Trump’s tariffs hit wine sales

05 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by Howard in France, Uncategorized

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Drouhin, France, tarifs, wine tarifs

How does President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs impact the average consumer? We saw it up close Wednesday at the small wine shop where I work part time in retirement.

We’re big fans of Beaujolais wines and sell quite a bit of the gamay-grape wines to our customer base. We’re constantly looking for new and exciting Beaujolais Cru. Yesterday the La Pierre Morgon Cuvee’ arrived for a tasting event.

Most Cru level Beaujolais cost around $20-$25 with the very best maybe hitting $30-$40. This wine can be found online for about $40. But when the wine arrived yesterday the per bottle cost including the tariff, plus our standard markup, drove the price to more than $60.

Frankly, that’s going to be a tough sell. Sure, we sell many wines costing more than $60. But no one expects to pay $60 for Beaujolais.

While not earth-shattering headline news, it’s a real world impact of how a tariff can drive prices in your household.

Maybe you’re not a wine drinker or buy only value wine and see this as much adieu about nothing. But the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) estimates the 25 percent tariffs will cost each American household approximately $2000 next year. And recently the President has threatened to increase the tax to 100 percent.

Laurent Drouhin, of the famed Burgundy house, said Tuesday his family is very leary of the tariffs and any increase to 100 percent. Drouhin has exported wines to the US for decades and have not followed popular trends of shifting their sales to China.

“If the 100 percent tariff goes into effect that’s going to big a big thing,” he said. “Maybe we have to pick up the phone.” The reference was to selling wine to China.

So the tariffs aren’t something effecting someone else. Eventually it will effect all of us.

Regardless of politics, the tariffs will impact all of us. Using tariffs to negotiate trade deals is like using a hammer to open a bottle of wine – pretty hard to swallow.

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Chablis Changes Chardonnay Bias

02 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by Howard in France

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Bernaud Billaud, Chablis, Chardonnay, Drouhin, Pure Chablis, Vaudon

An ABC wine drinker often wears the badge proudly while earning the derision of others. Woe is the wino who shuns Chardonnay in others eyes!Anything But Chardonnay – according to our good friends, often accurate occasionaly way out there, Wikipedia: Acronym for “Anything but Chardonnay” or “Anything but Cabernet“. A term conceived by Bonny Doon‘s Randall Grahm to denote wine drinkers’ interest in grape varieties.

Guilty as charged! Unoaked Chardonnay can be palatable for my taste but I can hardly choke down the oaky California version of one of the world’s most widely planted grapes. I’ve tried, I’ve failed.

Until …… I visited Chablis. Many will argue Chablis is the greatest white wine in the world! And yes, for the dearly uninformed – you guessed it, Chablis is Chardonnay! But you would hardly recognize her, particularly if your a novice, and no one tipped you off to the cross-dressing vinifera.

Chardonnay becomes an entirely different wine when grown at the very top of Burgundy. The soils, slopes and limestone create a refreshing white wine of depth with crisp acidity and beautiful minerality.

urlI learned such magic during a fall press trip to Chablis and was reminded again this week with a simple $18 bottle of Joseph Drouhin 2011 Vaudon.

For you real geeks here is all you could ever want to know from the good people at Pure Chablis. That’s also one of the best sites you find for all things Chablis.

How does a little minerality and acid change a wine that everyone knows and everyone has probably tasted? It’s the magic of terrior. I remember the aggravated words of Bernard Billaud who said (and I paraphrase) …’if you are talking Chablis it has to be about the minerality and acidity, and if not …. you are just making Chardonnay.’

Chabis icon Bernard Billaud

Chablis icon Bernard Billaud

He spit out the last five words as though he had swallowed some bitter, over-oaked Chard from some far corner of the world.

Now, why the riff on all this. Aaaa, back to the Drouhin, my $18 bottle of France I enjoyed with Chicken Lyon. The dish is essentially braised then baked chicken with lots of garlic in a cream and red wine vinegar sauce.

Drouhin’s Vaudon is aged in old oak barrells and comes from Valley of Vauvillien, nestled between the Mont de Milieu and Montée de Tonnerre Premier Cru vineyards. The name “Moulin de Vaudon” comes from the watermill nearby, owned by the Drouhin family and straddling the Serein River. (from Drouhin website).

For you geeky folks there is lemon and lime and restrained minerality and acid. I love it because it’s a finessed wine with a full mouth feel. It is one of the mostly wonderfully round and balanced white wines I’ve enjoyed in a long, long time.

Wine critics and other popular sites consistently rate this wine around 88-90 points. It doesn’t have the two traditional characteristics of mineral and acid to please a purist. But for wine newbies and people looking for great wine under $20, I’d give Drouhin Vaudon a 91-92. I paid $17.99 for the bottle at Kahns, Indianapolis. On the net, I found a price range of $18-$25.

For more on my October 2012 visit to Chablis click here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.

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To Bordeaux and burgundy for this weeks Saturday Sipps at the Wine Shop, 11-4 pm. Taste these great wines and you can buy them Saturday only for 20% off.
Panko, breaded, shrimp and Michigan, Leelanau, peninsula, Shady Lane cellars” Chardonnay. Pretty great small dinner after a night at the Wine Shop. #shadylanecellars

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