Vintners Form a Sparkling Society

A society has been formed to help market sparkling wines made by the French methode champenoise .

Based in San Francisco, the group is called CM/CV, which stands for Classic Methods/Classic Varieties. Founding member wineries are Domaine Chandon, Domaine Carneros, Mumm Napa Valley, Maison Deutz, Piper Sonoma, Roederer Estate, Scharffenberger and Culbertson. All but Culbertson are foreign-owned.

Robert Finigan, former wine columnist and author, was appointed executive director of the group.

The group is limited to vintners producing only methode champenoise sparkling wine and who adhere to rules such as the use of cool-climate grapes; light pressing of the grapes; minimum aging on the yeast ( en tirage aging), and guidelines for varietal composition of the traditional Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noir wines.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it would permit use of a chemical that kills fungus on grapevines, a move that should end the import barrier of some high-quality wines from Europe.

The proposal would set a tolerance level--seven parts per million--for the pesticide Procymidone, manufactured by Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Co. The agency expects to make this interim proposal final in the spring, to expire in four years.

“This initiative would help restore exports of EC vintage wines to the United States to the normal level,” the European Community said in a statement in Washington.

The pesticide is not used on vines in the United States, so no established level of tolerance had ever been set. After residues were found in imports a year ago, all shipments containing them were stopped.

This became a major trade issue between the United States and the 12 countries of the European Community. Imports of wine from France, Italy and Spain have been hurt by the ban, which may have cost European exporters as much as $200 million in lost business, the EC said.

William K. Reilly, the EPA administrator, said the measure would give relief to the wine business.

“Our review of the data base available,” Reilly said in a statement, “indicates that the levels of residues of this pesticide that have been found in wine should not pose a serious risk to consumers.”

Decanter Magazine, a British publication considered the best in literate coverage of wines, has been available in the United States only by subscription. But now it is being distributed to newsstands here by the Wine Appreciation Guild of San Francisco.

Thirty-seven California wineries--the largest number ever--have said they will attend France’s prestigious Vinexpo 1991 trade show in Bordeaux in June.

The wineries hope their attendance at Vinexpo will give them exposure to European buyers and will be a springboard to further exports of U.S. wines at a time when domestic sales of wines are in a slump.

California wine exports currently account for only 5%, or 9.3 million cases, of total annual sales. The value of U.S. wine exports, which is almost all California wine, is expected to reach a record $120 million for 1990, according to figures from the Wine Institute, the California trade organization in San Francisco. Exports of all U.S. wine have been increasing in recent years. Exports for 1989 were $98 million.

“We are aggressively pursuing new markets with confidence in the long-term prospects for California wine overseas,” said John De Luca, president of the Wine Institute. He said the figures “also fulfill the pledge made to Congress in 1985 that, with the passage of the Wine Equity and Export Expansion Act, we would become serious international competitors.”

To encourage exports of wine and other agricultural products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided support for exports since 1985 under the Market Promotion Program (MPP). It provides matching funds for category and branded marketing activities involving dozens of California wineries.

A record $15 million was allocated in 1991 to wineries marketing wine in more than 40 countries, including rapidly growing regions such as the Pacific Rim and such traditionally strong markets as Canada and the United Kingdom.

Export promotion activities as well as a favorable foreign exchange rate have made the market for U.S. wine overseas attractive. On a dollar value basis, the ratio of U.S. wine imports to exports will move from 37 to 1 ($1.01 billion to $27.6 million) in 1985 to about 7 in 1 ($900 million to $120 million) estimated for 1990.

Still, analysts say the export market for American wine today is trivial. For decades, and even today, most of the California wine sold overseas is inexpensive generic wine, though the emphasis in recent years and especially at this year’s Vinexpo is on premium wine.

The Institute said the growth of export value outpaced volume growth in 1990, suggesting that American vintners are increasingly competing at the higher end of overseas markets.

Among the California wineries attending Vinexpo are Beaulieu, Beringer, Cakebread, Chalone, Chateau Woltner, Christian Brothers, Clos du Val, Cuvaison, Dry Creek, Fetzer, Freemark Abbey, Glen Ellen, Inglenook, Iron Horse, Raymond, Robert Mondavi, Sebastiani, Simi, St. Supery, Schramsberg and Trefethen.

(A number of the California wineries are owned by non-American multinational companies. Cuvaison and Beringer are owned by Swiss investors; Simi, Beaulieu, Inglenook, Christian Brothers and St. Supery are owned by Europeans; Raymond is largely owned by Japanese interests.)

One of the first top California exporters was Mondavi, which started shipping in 1977 to Hong Kong, Japan and England. It now does business in 41 countries, recently having added Indonesia. Mondavi’s export business was 11% of its total production last year.

Cuvaison leads the California contingent in export percentage, shipping 19% of its production overseas.