Moving “Other States” Wines Into the Mainstream
While California wines dominate cosumption of domestic wines, other states across the country have seen their wine industries reallly take off. A combination of high quality bottlings and the attraction of a local wine country seem to have spurred this "other state" explosion in wine production.
The question is, how to get more people to try wines from "Other States".
I like what Ohio did recently.
They recently staged the Ohio Wine Challenge. Taking a page out of Robert Mondavi’s early book, the Ohio wine industry pitted that state’s wines against wines from CA and France. As might be expected, a number of Ohio wines bested the French and CA wines.
The best thing about these sorts of "tastings" is that it gives inspiration to Ohioans to choose their own state’s wines. This is the key…convince the locals and you’ve got ambassadors who will take the news outside the state.
Tom: Just wanted to let you know that I wrote about this on Uncorked the day before the Cincy Enquirer reported on it in the story you link to, to wit: http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/wine/entries/2006/06/20/three_ohio_wine.html … The Uncorked link also includes a link to the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s summary of the event. Ohio’s Ag folks waited 15 years between Ohio Wine Challenges — I helped judge the 1991 version, in which Ohio wines fared even better than in 2006 — and I sure hope they don’t wait another 15 years before they do it again! But I agree with you — this is a great idea.
Mark Fisher
http://bestof.charlottecritic.com/the-right-wine-for-anytime/
Why is is so hard to get any Finger Lakes NY wine love anywhere in the US.
Bully Hill, how I do miss you here.