I thoroughly enjoy the wide range of wine questions regularly posed to me and the wine discussions that I have on a weekly basis. Several questions were recently posed to me about the quality of certain wine brands because of locations and events where the products were sold. There was another discussion, also around brand quality, but this time it was related to the target market that was buying it. The thing is that some of these people were making decisions NOT to buy a wine because their wine-lover friends were not buying it, even though they liked it when they tasted it previously.

Product brand vs Appellation

After posing several probing questions, I realised that some persons were confusing a product’s brand with its appellation or its varietal. So I tried to educate them with old world and new world examples.

Most of the old world (Europe) wine regions have very strict rules with regards to how wine is made. So French wine producers have to adhere to the classification system of wine, which has underpinned their industry since the 1930s. Designating wine according to geographical origin, the system specifies which grapes can be used, where they can be grown as well as permitted alcohol and sugar levels. A French producer like Barton & Guestier makes wine in 19 appellations from six of France’s main wine-growing regions (Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Rhône Valley, Languedoc) in addition to Gascony and Corsica. Every region has its own style and taste, therefore, their objective is to make a wine for all types of consumers — from the occasional wine drinker to the connoisseur — to offer them a journey through France. So when someone says to you that they don’t like Barton & Guestier wines, and this then influences your purchase decision, you are denying yourself the opportunity to discover a wonderful new wine.

Revisiting Cupcake

I recently selected the Cupcake Riesling from Germany as one of my summer wines. The Cupcake Vineyard brand is a great example of how a new world wine producer, not restricted to the rules and regulations of the appellation system in Europe, can choose grapes from where they grow best anywhere in the world, and produce and bottle wines under one brand. This has allowed Cupcake Vineyards to become America’s number one premium wine brand by volume. They offer wines from the pre-eminent vineyards in California and they also travel the world to source grapes from the most important global wine-growing regions, including Argentina, Australia, Germany, Italy and New Zealand.

Both these producers make a wide range of really great wines. A wine lover will have preferences for the style of wine they like, but please don’t make a wine buying decision strictly on what someone else may say about a producer.

Taste and drink what YOU like, and also keep trying new wines.

Christopher Reckord – Entrepreneur & Wine Enthusiast. Send your questions and comments to creckord@gmail.com. Instagram: @chrisreckord Twitter: @Reckord