All I know about alcohol is that I like pinots, ports, porters and stouts, (well okay and Bordeauxs but those are expensive and if you don’t like those you probably just don’t like wine) and there’s a local winery that does free tastings if you have a local zip code on your driver’s license. Which is my way of saying I don’t have the requisite knowledge to evaluate whether this is a legitimate international competition. All I know is the local German biergarten is the best bar in the, uh, what is the English word for 17 counties. Larger than region. Smaller than state. Superregion? Beyond their bier selection they have excellent sauerkraut and serve my favorite mustards.
I guess, the Bordeaux-thing is also more of a location bias. Here in Germany I can get Bordeaux for 4€ a litre and I’m pretty sure that is not a very good wine. But if you’re from Minnesota, the Bordeaux you can get there will probably be of higher quality because it makes no sense to transport a 4€ wine all around the world to sell it for 9€, if you can get a cheap wine from California instead. If you incur the whole effort, you do much rather do it with a better, more expensive wine for a higher profit margin. People won’t pay 5€ shipping cost for a 4€ product, but they are willing to pay 5€ shipping for a 30€ product.
For the same reason, you won’t find a lot of cheap Californian wine in France: If cheap is the goal, the cheap local product will suffice.
All I know about alcohol is that I like pinots, ports, porters and stouts, (well okay and Bordeauxs but those are expensive and if you don’t like those you probably just don’t like wine) and there’s a local winery that does free tastings if you have a local zip code on your driver’s license. Which is my way of saying I don’t have the requisite knowledge to evaluate whether this is a legitimate international competition. All I know is the local German biergarten is the best bar in the, uh, what is the English word for 17 counties. Larger than region. Smaller than state. Superregion? Beyond their bier selection they have excellent sauerkraut and serve my favorite mustards.
I guess, the Bordeaux-thing is also more of a location bias. Here in Germany I can get Bordeaux for 4€ a litre and I’m pretty sure that is not a very good wine. But if you’re from Minnesota, the Bordeaux you can get there will probably be of higher quality because it makes no sense to transport a 4€ wine all around the world to sell it for 9€, if you can get a cheap wine from California instead. If you incur the whole effort, you do much rather do it with a better, more expensive wine for a higher profit margin. People won’t pay 5€ shipping cost for a 4€ product, but they are willing to pay 5€ shipping for a 30€ product.
For the same reason, you won’t find a lot of cheap Californian wine in France: If cheap is the goal, the cheap local product will suffice.
oh, minnesota goddam is a nina simone reference i’m from near napa