Saturday, December 24, 2016

Last poll

While the number of responses has been small in relation to my readership, let alone the wine drinking world at large, it has been a little larger than on some occasions. And my life long experience with statistics is this: trends tend to emerge early and mostly do not change much.

Based on this, what do the results suggest:

1) The biggest trend is away from Shiraz to Pinot Noir. This reflects a couple of things: a shift towards lighter wines, and the fact that the quality of Pinot Noir has improved a lot in recent times, both in Australia and the US (where a lot of my readers come from), while Shiraz is suffering from sameness.

2) Cabernet Sauvignon may be staging a bit of a revival - again, quality is driving this.

3) The major surprise to me is the shift to white wines, both Chardonnay and Riesling, and there is also shifting between these two varieties. As I have a readership of interested and sophisticated wine consumers, the shift to Riesling is not too surprising, but the overall market is certainly not there yet.

4) Other varieties do not feature much. Maybe because I just called them 'other', but my impression is also that 'alternative varieties',hyped by wine critics, are not often the wine of choice.

Thank you for participating. I hope that some of you who have not, find the results interesting and are encouraged to take part next time.

Christmas Eve is fast approaching, so I would like to thank you all for following my blog and commenting. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas time, plenty of exciting drinks, and a healthy, happy and successful 2017.

I will now step into the cellar and work out what to drink over the next few days. This I will share with you, and hopefully some of you will tell me about your wines and champagnes of choice.

No comments: