Support Your Local Locapour!

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

Recently, I ran across this question on a message board (if you can call LinkedIn that):

Should the “Eat Local” ethic apply to wine as well?

Not surprisingly alot of the commenters couldn’t see the point of extending that philosophy to what they drank. Some because “freshness” isn’t exactly a quality sought in wine, others because of economics of the restaurant business or the wine business. Naturally, I have a point of view. Here is what I wrote:

What would you think about a San Francisco restaurant that REFUSED to sell California wine?

That is exactly what local wineries all over the country face.

And by wineries, I am NOT referring to ambitious hobbyists making wine in their basement (like I do) but rather licensed and bonded wineries which exist in every state of our nation. Without retail and restaurant exposure these wineries remain undiscovered gems. “Local” may be seen as environmentally friendly and good policy when it comes to foodstuffs, but in the wine world has become synonymous with “inferior”. Why? Because there is no recognition for these wines because the distributors control all the marbles. Without distribution, the chances of a wine ending up on a restaurant menu or in your local liquor store are close to nil. And of course, without name recognition, most distributors won’t be bothered with a winery.

What bothers me are people who recognize the positives that come from supporting local producers but drawing the line a local wine. If you are going to promote locavorism then you should support locapourism too.

Think about the restaurants that you frequent. Do they serve local wine? Do they talk about “local” produce? If they do, ask for a local wine pairing. And tell us if they have one. I would love to start a listing of restaurants that carry local wine.

This entry was posted on January 4, 2010 at 6:16 am and is filed under local food, local wines, Locapour, locavore, my own opinion, wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.