Thesis Statement

Thesis

VINO POPULI: AN URBAN WINERY IN AN ABANDONED STREETCAR STATION

Patricia Anne Troendle Interior Design

In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Art Corcoran College of Art + Design

THESIS STATEMENT

For fifty years 100,000 square feet of abandoned Streetcar Station has rested dormant beneath Dupont Circle, one of the District of Colombia’s most popular neighborhoods. It’s underground location makes it an ideal space for an urban winery. This proposal creates Vino Populi, Washington DC’s first urban winery and informal wine school with a small restaurant, lounge and tasting room to be located in this abandoned Streetcar Station where anyone who is interested in wine can learn and taste not only wine but the experience of creating wine.

ABSTRACT

An urban winery holds a unique allure its own paradoxical existence by offering both a novel experience to an urbane audience, but also by permitting its visitors to learn while they eat and drink. The city-dweller, especially in the

Washington Metropolitan area, whose citizens are some of the most traveled, educated and highly paid of the whole United States, seeks specialist knowledge, anything that might separate them from the masses by enhancing their own cultural urbanity, anything that will provide a memorable and different experience.

Through sheer accessibility an Urban Winery will allow for repetitive access by visitors to the wine facilities, gustatory lessons and thereby demystify wine. The abandoned Streetcar Station beneath Dupont Circle remained largely vacant for nearly fifty years, but the underground space would be ideal for the needs of an urban winery. Visitors could access far more than a typical wine bar allows, they could actually experience the allusive world of wine making.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

5 Introduction: A forgotten region, an abandoned tunnel, and a love of wine.

13 America and Wine: An increase in wine drinkers and a market full of individuals.

20 The Rise in Wineries: The value of the grape, artisan wineries and the elixir of life.

25 Marketing Luxury: Connotations, a safe risk, and general confusion.

32 Older than History: From wine skins to the California explosion.

38 The Process: An act of god to chemical equation, from grape to yeast to wine.

43 Visitors and Wineries: An Agreement is made.

49 Virginia’s Plight: A look at a few vineyards and wineries.

54 An Urban Setting: Defense of an atypical but sensible solution.

60 Conclusion, From Tunnel to Winery: Fragility in bottle, and the history of a tunnel. 63 Appendix 70 Notes 73 Bibliography

Who does not love wine, wife and song, will be a fool for his whole life long. Strauss

A print from Kimmel & Voight, New York 1873.

www.tenementmuseum.com

INTRODUCTION:

A forgotten region, an abandoned tunnel, and a love of wine.

In 2008 America passed Italy to become the second largest per capita

wine consumer on the planet, second only to France. Experts predict that by

2012 Americans will drink more wine even than the French. The number of small,

artisan wineries in the U.S. has doubled in numbers since 20041. Americans love

wine. It has become the drink of celebration, passion, love, holidays, reunions

and shared secrets. Indeed, fifty years ago wine drinking was reserved only for

older, more established, wealthy Americans. Few others could afford it, or

elected to purchase it. Today wine sales are up and beer sales are down.

Indeed wine has become the national drink of choice for consumers age twenty-

five to forty.

Wine has become so pervasive an addition to modern American life that

wine bars have been opening throughout the country, offering visitors a refined

dining and drinking experience. Wine is offered, and often encouraged at an

increasing number of venues like airports, ballparks, museums and circuses as

an alternative to the more traditionally American beer. It, “competes with other

drinks on the strength of its taste and quality, as well as on its reputation as the

most civilized of beverages, and it appears to be holding its own against the

competition.2”

Wine is the most popular alcoholic beverage for young American consumers, due to this emerging market. More Americans drink wine than ever before and those who drink wine are drinking more wine, more often than ever before3.

Washington, DC has more than twenty self-proclaimed wine bars4.

These bars connote elegance, wealth, culture and class. The large international population, the higher-than-average education and salary rates of

Washingtonians augment Washington, DC’s population of wine bar visitors.

Visitors feel as though they do more than drink and socialize at a wine bar, they are expanding their social mores, refining their palette, broadening their experiential memories. The visitors to these wine bars are after something a bit different than beer and companionship. They expect luxury, quality and an elite style.

This new market is comprised of highly educated and cultured

consumers. Studies have shown that wine-drinkers, on average, are more educated and wealthier than the rest of the population, they are savvy consumers and trendsetters to the marketplace5. They see themselves as living the good life, they have travelled or dream of travelling. They are eager to spend money in order to enhance their own vision of themselves. The children of the children of the baby-boomer generation, these wine-bar visitors are accustomed to wealth and privilege and they want something more for their money than the large steaks their parents preferred. They want something imported, something that has a story behind it, they want to understand the origins of the products they purchase6. They want to feel as if they have built profound, unique experiences that convert themselves into profound and unique individuals, rather than the large, united market that they have actually become.

They are willing to pay for what market analysts refer to as intangibles, novel experiences, emotions and status.

Wine embodies all these needs. The novel experience is the tasting of a new varietal, or a fine vintage, the emotions swirling inside the liquid, the feel of it on the tongue. This generation enjoys spending money on wine, whether as a means to impress their peers, because their parents did so when dining out, or because they revel in their ability to spend money on something as luxurious and indulgent as wine and the esoteric art of wine tasting. Wine tasting is:

a branch of enology and is more correctly called sensory evaluation: the use of the senses of sight, smell, taste and touch in a disciplined, systematic way to learn about some of the chemical and physical properties of wine. Those chemical and physical attributes of food and wine that affect our senses are called organoleptic characteristics, and sensory evaluation is sometimes called organoleptic evaluation.7

The very verbiage that is used by wine connoisseurs and educators serves as a road block to a large portion of the population especially in older generations, denying them the confidence to enter the world. But to the new generation of wine drinkers these obscure words are like a dangled carrots, tantalizing them with the promise and potential for elite knowledge. It’s a strange balance that wine has developed for itself, encouraged by film, books and critics, on the one hand it rejects many people through intimidation, on the other it lures more in through its seemingly exclusive ranks.

Despite its popularity, wine resides in a unique sphere in modern culture.

Although most Americans drink it, few possess confidence or genuine knowledge about the subject. Perhaps this is due to the relative impossibility to prove right or wrong in references to one’s taste buds. Perhaps it is because movies and films often depict individuals who mock wine faux pas, or perhaps individuals fear appearing pretentious.

Regardless of the reasons, many consumers lack a general confidence in their abilities to choose wines for dinner, to recognize different regions or varietals, and even their ability to taste the wine itself8. This market craves elitist

knowledge, anything that sets them apart from their peers. Wine bars offer a chance for them to seek out this knowledge.

Just miles outside of the city Northern Virginia vineyards and wineries are growing and producing internationally competitive Viogniers and Chardonnays.

Yet the region is suffers from difficult growing pains. Although they have won international taste tests against French Viogniers (Viognier is a French grape varietal that is named for the region where it is grown, Viognier, France) there is a general lack of disseminated information and lack of support in the marketplace.

Food and Wine, Wine Spectator, Wine Business and other wine periodicals have taken note in recent years of some very fine Virginia wines, but the Northern Virginia region sits in the massive shadow cast first by California, then by Oregon, Washington and more recently by New York. Virginia wine growers consider themselves to be about fifteen to twenty years behind Oregon.

The reality is that although they produce a few good types of wine, buyers tend to buy what they are comfortable with and a Virginia Viognier sounds too risky for many consumers. So Virginia wineries grow the varietals of grapes to make wines that people buy like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, and they do not make these as well as their competitors. The wines they do make well like Viognier and Petit Verdot sound too unfamiliar. Many local consumers associate Virginia wines with the less expensive, lower quality wines that are offered at liquor stores in the area and thus consumers have had bad experience

with Virginia wines.

The relatively unknown wine community does not provide a large enough draw for numerous visitors and few Washingtonians have the time or the resources to routinely drive out to the countryside, drink wine and drive back.

Aside from the fact that it is not advisable to drive after drinking wine, it is also a trip that requires nearly an entire day. Most of the DC population works long, hard hours, and balks at the prospect of an entire day trip to tour wineries about which they know relatively little.

The solution is simple - bring the winery into Washington, DC, so that people can have easy and repeated access to the wines and the wine making process. In this way, they can learn while they drink, eat and socialize and have the novel experience of touring a winery, all as easily as going to their favorite wine bar.

An Urban Winery is not a novel idea. The French have been doing this in

Champagne since the 1600s where the grapes are brought in from the surrounding countryside to be processed in the caves beneath Epernay. They use caves because it is a naturally cool, dark environment where wines are safest while undergoing the delicate process of aging.

Washington, DC has no caves, but we do have one space that would provide the necessary criteria for an urban winery. 100,000 square feet of

abandoned Streetcar station lies beneath Dupont Circle, just waiting to be converted into an Urban Winery. Dark, controllable entrances, centrally located, easy to access and large enough for all the machinery and storage, architecturally interesting enough to add its own flair to the design, and historically important enough to cater to the district’s penchant for all things political and historical, relatively unknown enough to provide a desirable novelty to draw visitors.

The Abandoned Streetcar Station has has been left largely unused since the 1960s when the District Trolley line was closed in favor of the more modern, more popular Metro system. The underground, turn-around-station has remained a large question mark for the city’s planners, architects and designers. No one has successfully solved the problem with how to utilize a large, narrow underground space – until now.

An urban winery would be a natural repurposing of this space. The industrial nature of the space lends itself to the functional use of a production facility. Vino Populi, the proposal of this thesis, would be the District's first Urban

Winery with a small restaurant, a lounge and of course, a tasting room where anyone who is interested in wine can come, learn and taste not only wine, but the experience of creating wine.

Vino Populi, an urban winery designed to showcase the abandoned station beneath Dupont Circle, as well as wines would solve the Northern Virginia region’s need for proactive marketing, offer an educational experience for visitors, through an urban dining and socializing scene provide enough draw and dollars to sustain itself, and offer the district a chance to appreciate and recognize a historically important, abandoned space.

A play on the Latin phrase, vox populi, meaning, “voice of the people,”

Vino Populi literally means the, “wine of the people.” This urban winery would serve to educate visitors, as much as they choose. If they prefer they can take a tour of the facilities with an educated staff member, or they can simply sip wine in the lounge, take part in a full wine-tasting, attend nightly wine classes, become wine-club members, work with a vintner to create their own special blend, visit the bottling, corking and labeling areas and generally interact with other wine-lovers.

What is the definition of good wine? It should start and end with a smile.

William Sokolin

Cartoon from University of Oxford Wine Club

www.ox.ak.uk

AMERICA AND WINE:

An increase in wine drinkers and a market brimming with individuals.

Consumption of wine in America has risen by thirty percent in the last

three decades9. From the 50s through to the 80s few Americans drank wine until

they reached their thirties, or even their forties. While beer dominated the

alcohol market for men below forty, in the post 90s however, wine has gained

increasing popularity. The portion of the U.S. population drinking wine has risen

as well, to fifty-seven percent in 2007, compared to forty-five percent in 200010.

“The proportion of consumers of wine who drink wine at least once a week has

also risen, reaching 55%,” indicating that not only do more Americans drink wine

than ever before, but those who drank wine previously, now drink even more of

it11.

Washington, DC has more than 20 bars that proclaim themselves devoted to wine12. They are dedicated to the enjoyment of wine, the tasting and learning of wine, but more so they are aimed at a very specific target market

Their market is educated, traveled, cultured, and intriguingly, “on the cutting edge of trends,” making them increasingly interesting to marketing analysts13. Despite that fact that the market is so large and united in so many commonalities one of the most important aspects of this market place is the desire for individuality. Polls find that in general, these young American wine consumers are likely to:

• Be open to new experiences • Follow their own path in life • Be information-saavy and confident consumers • Desire intangibles such as experiences or emotions • Have their life priorities in order • Eschew brands as badges14

The consumers who seek out wine bars over sports bars or other bars are in pursuit of the finer things in life, they desire a sense of individuality, novelty, and growth. A wine bar offers more to these consumers than other bars because it offers a chance for the individual to learn about the process of creating wine, gain cultural knowledge about other countries, and broaden the horizons of their palettes while they perform the relatively mundane task of eating and drinking.

The, “desire for intangibles,” is the most mysterious part of the findings15. The idea that consumers are willing to pay more money for an experience or an emotion, is nothing new, marketers have long taken advantage of the human desire to seek a better life, however, expensive dinners and wines were once reserved only for the very wealthy or the older consumers and even then, often only for special occasions.

Today, twenty and thirty year olds are as likely as fifty and sixty year olds to regularly spend upwards of one hundred dollars on a single weekend dining experience. They chose to spend their money on food and wine for a variety of reasons.. The go out to fine restaurants to impress their peers or the opposite sex, because their parents did and they are accustomed to eating in this manner, or simply because they enjoy the experience, regardless of the current economic turmoil. "As the world economy slumps, one consumer segment will grow faster than ever: the middle-aged simplifier…. ,16 " John Quelch, Professor at Harvard Business School predicts that, “tomorrow's consumer will buy more ephemeral, less cluttering stuff: fleeting, but expensive experiences, not heavy goods for the home.17 "

While attendance at a sports bar is perceived as little more than an outing to drink and socialize; attendance at a wine bar is seen as the pursuit of an intangible experience, elite knowledge hidden within the glass of wine and the

cheese pairing. They seek novelty, an elusive commodity to a jaded urban population as inured to museums and events as are Washingtonians.

The image of a place is as important or more important that the reality of a place, in reference to the value that people ascribe to a destination or experience of that place. The “image may be defined as the sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person has regarding a destination. It is a personal composite view of a destination’s… potential, and where prices are comparable it is often the decisive factor… [in the] selection process.18” People choose to visit a location based on personal connotations that the place holds, wine bars have adopted all the inherent cultural connotations to wine and as such are proving to be a popular addition to urban life. Why an individual chooses to go to one place over another is a combination of many different stimuli. Often the most important part of their decision, however, is how they wish to be seen by others and to see themselves. Wine bars have become the modern day equivalent to the push- button washing-machines of the fifties. The ability to pay more money for less proves status, this is an imported cause of the massive trend towards wine. This generation of wine drinkers sees wine as elite, expensive and therefore highly desirable.

Attendance at wine bars, however is different than simply the purchasing and consumption of wines. Many Americans buy wines to enjoy in

the privacy of their own homes. Superstores like Total Wine in Virginia are made popular by such wine drinkers as are interested in paying a lower mark-up on their wines. The more traditional demographic for wine still holds, but has simply been augmented by the newer younger market. Wine drinkers share a variety of other social trends that haven’t changed however:

• 75 percent of frequent wine consumers are married, compared with 61 percent of most households. • 87 percent are homeowners, concentrated in the highest value home communities of the country. • 51 percent are between the ages of 35 and 55; 74 percent are between the ages of 35 and 65. • 64 percent have household incomes over $100,000, compared with 16.9 percent of the general population. Three-quarters have household incomes over $75,000 per year, compared with 28.5 percent of the general population. • Nearly 47 percent have completed college, compared with less than 34 percent of the general population. A further and remarkable 34.8 percent have completed graduate school, while less than 16 percent of the general population has done the same. A recent Gallup study found that these are the consumers most likely to practice "daily drinking” • More than 28 percent of regular wine consumers have upper management positions, compared with just 10.2 percent of the general population. Of these consumers, 51.3 percent have professional or technical occupations, compared with 37.9 percent among all American adults. Another 23 percent are entrepreneurs compared with 14 percent in the general population. • Two-thirds of these households are two income families. Thirty-seven percent of

spouses have managerial, professional or technical careers or have their own businesses, compared with 22 percent of the general population. The share of homemakers in this population, 23 percent, is fairly representative of American households. • Two-thirds of wine consumers enjoy foreign travel, cultural events and active sports, and a majority indulge in some type of active sports: golf, skiing, tennis, sailing or jogging19.

Although there is likely no direct correlation between drinking wine and living a healthy, successful, happy life, the image implied by the above statistics has pervasive cultural effects. Wine has become linked to an image of wealthy, happy people who live a life that is better than average. Wine drinking appears to follow wealth and education. The newer, younger demographics that wine bars target, seek to emulate or recreate this lifestyle for themselves.

Consumers who visit wine bars may seek to expand their knowledge of wine the reality is often that they have little more than a cursory knowledge of wine, nor are they likely to learn when the bartender is too busy to communicate with them at length. Wine bars offer access to wines, but they don’t necessarily offer an education about them. Yet most people are interested in learning more, which is shown in the increasing frequency of descriptions boasting the flavorful notes to be found in the wine. For example, five years ago airport restaurants were mostly sportsbas and fast food. Dulles Airports International Terminal now boasts it’s very own wine bar aptly named, Vino Volo, meaning Wine Flight.

Wine flight is a term traditionally used for a quick wine tasting, typically three 3 oz. glasses of three different wines to be enjoyed by the customer. Prior to boarding, visitors to Vino Volo can wait in incredibly long lines for a seat and sip wine flights while waiting for their own flight. Each taste comes with its own description of the grape, expected flavors and recommended pairings. The connection is straightforward while waiting to board a flight to Paris, Seoul or

Sydney, flyers can sip wines from around the world, immerse themselves in cultural hedonism and generally applaud themselves on their impending vacation.

Additional proof of American interest in wine is the profitable returns of agritourism within the states, the most popular and profitable of which is in fact the wine tourism industry20. Wine tourism, defined as, “visitation to vineyards, wineries, wine-festivals and wine shows for which grape wine tasting and/or experiencing the attributes of a grape region are the prime motivating factors for visitors,” attendance.21 Americans flock to the popular wine regions of Napa and

Sonoma paying exorbitant fees for the pleasure of standing in crowded tasting rooms, and tasting tiny sips of wine. Even less popular regions boast crowded tasting rooms22. The Virginia wineries are, however, draw relatively few district residents are interested in repeat visits. More attention will be paid to the

Virginia wineries in a later section.

Despite this plethora of wine related activities flooding the country, the general lack of available information at these wine destinations is surprising.

While the bartenders at wine bars are knowledgeable it is nearly impossible to glean any of their knowledge while they are busily tending a packed bar. An urban winery, especially one that offered wines schools to educate about international wines and styles rather than simply its own product would allow visitors to have hands on experience with the processes from crush to bottling, the stages of fermentation and aging as well as the varieties of regions and varietals of grapes.

Vino Populi has an even greater advantage over wineries in that visitors could have easy and repeated access to the winery. Any question could be answered with a quick metro ride or walk down to the winery.

No poem was ever written by a drinker of water.

Horace

Ad for Hall’s Cocawine, 1916. www.imagewelcomecollection.con

THE RISE IN WINERIES:

The value of the grape, artisan wineries and the elixir of life.

While more Americans drink wine than ever before, more Americans

produce wine than ever before. The number of small scale, artisan wineries in

the United States has doubled since 200123. The reasons behind the upswing

in American wine consumption are multifold and their effects on American

Wineries are vast.

All wines begin their lives as grapes that grow in vineyards. The nature

of the grape itself is such that harvests are dependent upon yearly climate

changes and the bounty of each year’s harvest determine each year's wine

supply and prices. “The global wine industry has been oversupplied with

grapes in recent years, after record harvests in 2005 and 2006.24” Grape prices

were deflated due to the over surplus of grapes. Increased competition among

producers of wine was made more intense by increased American wineries to

the market.

In 2007, Europe and Australia had especially weak harvests which

proved good news to American wineries whose goods were more competitive

and American purchasers who could buy good wine without importation taxes

passed on to them25. France, Italy, Spain and Australia’s wine production decreased and forecasts predict a continuation of this trend26. French production, especially, has continued to suffer, which has permitted American wines to take a more prominent role in the wine market over the last half decade.

Artisan wineries have emerged as a viable force in the wine industry.

U.S. consumers have a larger number of options available to them than previously due to the plethora of small-scale wineries that produce limited supply reserves and blends, manufactured in a wider variety of ways, for a relatively low price-point. Despite large-scale wine consolidations, winemakers like Mondavi or Copola who purchase other wineries, the new independent, artisan or boutique wineries that open frequently have excelled at targeting the experimental, new market of younger consumers, described in the previous section27.

624 small artisan wineries opened during the year 2004, a trend that has continued throughout the first decade of the 21st century. These wineries have labels designed by graphic designers and artists in bold colors, humorous names, new experimental methods of the winemaking process that have pushed the wine industry in new and exciting directions.

During weak economic periods, as in recent years, wine sales are at risk of suffering decreases in demand because of its role as a discretionary

consumer product. Despite popular jokes to the contrary no one needs wine to survive and as a luxury good, as opposed to oil or wheat, rationale would indicate that economic downturns would affect sales of wine. High-end producers, especially, are often concerned, because a higher-priced products can easily be substituted for a less costly alternative. “However, so far, wine demand has stayed strong despite recessionary. The US wine market rose 8% in value to reach about thirty billion dollars28” annually. Premium wines sales have not suffered as a result of economic depressions.

An effect on the population’s wine drinking that cannot be ignored are the notorious claims to health that emerge periodically. The proclaimed effects of resverotrol, an extract from the skins of grapes, which stain red wine, and supposedly if taken in large quantity have been associated with everything from weight loss and prolonged life, to anti-aging and diabetes cures29. Additionally, various studies have found significant health benefits from moderate consumption of red wine as an antioxidant, anti-allergic, antihistamine and antiviral30. Studies show that among the population, those who claim to drink one to two glasses of wine per night, are healthier.

Wine producers have sponsored private studies on the possible curative powers of wine and have lobbied in recent years for increased government research as well. However it should be noted that Danish

Researchers have discovered that the health of individual who drinks wine

each day can be more reasonably attributed to the better eating habits of wealthier individuals than the impoverished31.

Regardless of the veracity of any claims to red wine’s effect on health, the increased publicity is believed to have increased the demand for wine, if only because consumers have a justification in pouring just one more glass.

The trend in wine drinking shows no signs of imminent decline. The question is less why are Americans drinking wine, than what should we do about it. The first response in the public’s demand for wine has been wine bars, the more innovated, more encompassing approach to educate and satisfy the wine- loving public is an urban winery where they can see, feel, smell, touch and taste all aspects of the process from grape to glass.

Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.

Henry Van Dyke

University of Sydney, Life by Clare Gavin. www.universityofsidney.com

MARKETING LUXURY: Connotations, a safe risk, and general confusion.

Compared to other alcoholic beverages, wine resides in a unique cerebral location. It connotes celebration simultaneous to intimacy, passion simultaneous to family, culture simultaneous to fun. Famous quotes from major thinkers and philosophers of human history are on the covers of each of the sections of this thesis, few other foods or beverages have compelled the power behind so many human minds to wax poetic. There is, undoubtedly something special and unique about wine that ranks it at the top of hedonistic delights. Wine is a loaded concept, a history of indulgence, and elegance, an aura of celebration, the intimacy of shared secrets. It means something different to each person in each individual situation, like chocolate or caviar it something generally treasured and savored.

Appreciation of wine is like understanding fine arts, ballet or a Russian literature. It takes devotion, practice, study and repetition. Beyond all that, however, perhaps most it takes a genuine love for the subject matter. Karen

McNiel, wine critic and educator writes:

to have both a subjective and an objective opinion of wine is one of the most rewarding experiences. It allows you to separate your

liking of something from its quality… it’s entirely possible to love a wine but know its not a great wine in the scheme of things… Each of us has a subjective opinion, of course. Having a valid objective opinion, however, requires experiencing a particular wine and understanding how it classically presents itself. Achieving this sort of discernment is possible only if you expand your sphere of tasting beyond the wines you already know you like. 32

It takes more than casual drinking with friends at the local wine bar to gain this level of expertise and experience. For an individual who want to actively learn more about tasting wines, they must have a chance to learn and discuss the subject with other knowledgeable or simply interested individuals. Wine books use descriptions like violets and black cherries, white peaches and leather, many consumers balk at such descriptions and give up. Discussing wine in that manner is so unapproachable as to act as a discouraging force, which is why strong sales staff is necessary. People want to drink and know about wine, but not if they feel as though someone is talking down to them. The direct contact with an educated server would encourage a visitor to Vino Populi to ask questions, to have conversations with other wine-lovers.

Marketing is a difficult proposition for wineries as a means of promoting notoriety. The reasons for this fledge back to the public’s understanding of wine and their general reactions to wine itself. Unlike beer, the advertisements which have gained a soft spot with the American public from commercials during the

Superbowl and other sporting events, the public seems to believe that wine

should be above or separate from the need to advertise. Indeed, if a winery is so unpopular as to necessitate television advertisement, the public seems to believe that they must not be any good.

Research reveals that wine consumers prize a personal recommendation for either a label to try, a winery to visit or varietals to favor over any other form of marketing. “Trusted friends and family, followed by the sommelier or server when in a restaurant setting, are mentioned as the top information sources. Nearly forty percent of wine consumers report receiving wine information from publications including newspapers, wine sections or columns and lifestyle and wine magazines33.” As a testimonial to the prowess of wine tourism and the importance of a tasting-room’s staff, wine tourism is the most powerful influence upon decision twenty percent of purchasers. In fact, “winery websites were also found to be as popular as other wine and lifestyle websites among those interested in on-line information34.”

Seventy-four percent of wine purchases at bars and restaurants are by the glass, indicating either a preference for personal taste, a fear of committing to a bottle or a desire on the consumers part to change their minds35. Even those consumers who regularly spend upwards of forty-five dollars per bottle are more likely to choose to purchase wines by the glass, according to Yankelovich, a premier market analysis monitor. The popularity of by-the-glass purchases,

according to Yankelovich’s findings correspond to the current American wine consumer’s desire for a "safe adventure" a chance to be bold without taking any serious risk, a chance to seek something new36. Wine consumers who are generally more confident in tasking risks find by-the-glass purchases ideal for experimentation.

While the emerging market discussed in the previous section shows that wine is an increasingly common beverage for American’s age twenty-five to forty, there is a large portion of this market that has been excluded. Among wine’s market, it is most popular with women. Wine is now the drink of choice for women ages thirty and up37. While most marketing analysts agree than men are often the more decisive purchasers in the marketplace, women are the more confident when it comes to wine. Female American wine consumers, especially,

“who account for the majority of wine purchases in most price segments, enjoy wine in small, intimate gatherings and choose it for reasons that speak to enhancing an experience,” or augmenting a desired atmosphere38.

However, less than twenty percent of heterosexual men report wine as their preferred alcoholic beverage. Of the market, it is young men who exhibit the smallest inclination to select wine. Focus group studies of young men age twenty-one through thirty, questioned the reasons behind this tendency. Apart from the cultural issues like football, beer, male companionship and social

expectations of masculinity, the study reveals that men feel insecure due to the general marketing practices of the winery industry. The study also revealed that of these heterosexual men those with a higher education were more likely to choose wine in social settings39.

The wine industry excels at intimidating its customers. Wine, regardless of the price-point, represents status to male consumers. Many men never feel they know enough about wine or have enough confidence in their decisions to choose wine in a social situation. They fear making a social blunder, a cultural mistake, and some chose to avoid the whole process of selecting a wine in general. Beer or alcohol orders are far more straightforward without the obscurity of foreign names, regions, varietals, vintages and reserves. The men of the twenty-five to forty market often choose the simpler option of beer or spirits.

This represents a blockade for the wine industry because men drink more often and in greater quantities than women and exhibit a willingness to spend more money on their drinks. In order for wineries to continue to grow their market, they need to make wine more accessible, less confusing for male customers who fear embarrassment.

There has been a recent effort to amend the intimidation factor of wines.

“Brand managers understood the customers’ need for a simpler approach to wine culture. There is no need to know terroir and winemaking techniques to enjoy a

wine. The language of wine also changed and went from a technical approach to a more hedonistic perspective.40” This is not necessarily easier for a male who typically drinks beer to stomach. This tactic has not convinced the average beer drinker to switch from nachos and Bud Light to Gewurztraminer and blue cheese drizzled with honey, but it may have snagged the man who drank whisky neat.

The new marketers and brand mangers “talked about taste, wine and food pairing and enjoyment, even when their wine got its qualities from a specific place or choice of winemaking method,41” when attempting to seel their brand.

Vino Populi would seek to build on this changing “language of wine

…because of and along with the new trends and new strategies invented by marketers and web marketers.42” The informal wine school aspect of the tasting room would seek to address these issues. With nights devoted to tasting classes on individual grapes, for example Chardonnays from around the world. The goal being to help visitors fine tune their own preferences, gain confidence in reading wine menus and recognizing tastes as well as find wines that they feel comfortable ordering in social settings. The intention would be that after coming to Vino Populi a visitor would understand how to read a wine menu. Rather than seeing hundreds of foreign sounding winery names, they could establish that they like Bordeaux from 2005, or Oregon Pinot Noirs, and feel safe with that decisions as a starting point. After that, they will not feel separated from wine and can choose to take another step in the tasting process. The whole process of

selecting wine would become less mystifying, easier, and more fun. Vino Populi

after all is aimed at making wine and the enjoyment of wine easy for everyone.

If God forbade drinking, would he have made wine so good?

Cardinal Richeleue

Carravagio’s Bacchus, 1595 www.bc.edu

OLDER THAN HISTORY:

From wine skins to the California explosion.

Wine is literally prehistoric. Mankind was producing wines long before we had writing with which to pass on information to the next generation. While writing was developed in Mesopotamia in 3,500 B.C.E. there is archeological evidence of wine traces in China from 7,000 B.C.E.. Evidence suggests wine creation in Iran and Geogia in 6,000 B.C.E. and many archeologists argue that humans were probably creating wine even earlier than that in a variety of wineskins, amphoras and clay vessels43. In fact evidence at Lac Leman (Lake

Geneva) proves that Neolithic man was eating grapes, and may have been converting them into wines44. Regardless of the actual date, the ancients must have enjoyed wine as much as we do today.

The same intangible quality in wine that inspires man to write about it, speak about it, which elevates itself beyond the simple consumption, has long inspired religions. Man has incorporated wine into profound and momentous religious rites like burials, births and marriages. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians brought wine into the afterlife with them in clay pots. Christians partake wine as a representation, or in some cases the blood of their God. The bible tells how

Moses and his followers came across Vineyards in the promised land and of the panic when the wine disappeared at the last supper.

To the Greeks, the drinking of wine was akin to an art form. It was the source of divine inspiration from the Gods Dionysius and Apollo for philosophy, music, sculpture and poetry. Druids used wines as medicines and the Romans elevated wine to a drinking and dining experience that could last the better part of a day.

Through the Middle Ages, however, little changed in the world of wine.

Wines were consumed for breakfast, lunch and dinner, watered down and sugared or spiced to mask its taste when it went sour or vinegary. In the 17th century, Dom Perignon, who’s job it was to prevent the second fermentation process that occurs after wines have been bottled and produces the bubbles that generate Champagnes and Sparkling Wines, tasted the beverage and, according to legend, proclaimed, “come quickly, I’m seeing stars.45” The recognition that bubbles in wine were desirable spawned a new sect of wines that have been much loved ever since.

Wines have long been reserved only for the wealthier classes while the poor were left with grog and ale. It was only due to the inventions of the 20th century that mass production of wine, due to metal wine vats, enabled the price of wines to come low enough for poorer populations to have access to wine more regularly, although wine is still considered a rich man’s drink.

Despite the advents in technology and the plethora of European

countries that produced wine ie. Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal, it was the

French who were considered the world wine connoisseurs and experts. It was not until forty years ago that other wine growing regions had a chance to become international competitors in the wine market.

It was at the so-called Judgment of Paris that the French wine supremacy was questioned enough to make way for other growing regions. The story of modern wine begins in the 1970s. Henry Urbach of the San Fransisco

MoMa sums it up best:

In 1976… at a blind taste test, nine French wine experts pronounced a number of northern California wines superior to esteemed French vintages. However apt the decision, later criticized and repeatedly restaged, the event released shock waves across the globe as it gave the nascent California wine industry, as well as winemakers in many other parts of the world, new confidence, credibility, and visibility. This, in turn, had multiple effects including the expansion of wine markets, growing popular awareness of wine, the birth of wine criticism, vineyard- tourism, and a host of other manifestations. From this moment forward the culture of wine began to accommodate and valorize new priorities such as innovation, diversification, globalization, marketing and accessibility.46

From that moment forward a bold competitive market was born, in which

innovation, novelty, individuality has been prized and appreciated over the

ancient French tradition of winemaking that had remained largely unchanged for

hundreds of years.

It was not only California that was put on the map, it was every region that had been making wine for years without recognition. Until this event, wine regions like Virginia, New York, Oregon would never have had a chance to become recognizable, competitive wine growers and producers. Today, “there is no frontier in the virtual world. The most obscure winery located in the most secluded part of the most unknown country can access potential wine customers through the Internet. The winery does not even need a web site. A mention on a search engine or in a blog is enough for its name to pop up in front of the eyes of a wine drinker. Then word of mouth or viral marketing will give it more visibility.47”

Wine is sunshine held together by water.

Galileo Galilei

Image from still of I Love Lucy TV show.

THE PROCESS: An act of god to chemical equation, from grape to yeast to wine.

It is only through the advent of science and biochemistry during the late

nineteenth century that we understand the process that converts grape juice into

wine. In previous centuries, the fermentation process was considered to be an

act of God, a spontaneous act of nature set into motion by man.

In fact, however, “wine is a meta-stable substance; it is halfway down

the slope of decomposition from grape juice to carbon dioxide and water…the

product of the microbiological attack of grape juice, the same process that

reduces all living mater to water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and a few mineral

salts. In reality, wine is a small part of one of nature’s cyclic processes, the

carbon cycle.48” It is the same process that converts all sugars into alcohols, yeast consumes, process and excretes sugars to create alcohol.

Grapes are harvested, crushed in order to release the juice and placed into some form of fermentation vessel. Throughout history this part of the process has undergone changes along with science. Anything from animal bladders, pottery, barrels to modern day aluminum vats are used, the only requirement is that the vessel be airtight. When fermentation is completed, the wine was and is pressed to separate the liquid from the skins, pips, stems and pulp. It is then stored for aging until ready, finer wines are aged longer. This process, as old as time immemorial, has changed little, despite the advents of technology. The mechanics, the understandings have changed, but the process has remained largely the same for thousands of years.

Fermentation, the process that converts sugar-water into alcoholic liquid, is a completely natural process. Undisturbed the grape would naturally ripen until the skin ruptured and the juice fermented. It is only necessary to involve man in order to control the flavor and quantity of the wine. Wine is largely the sum of choices made by the winemaker during each phase of production, because each small deviation can drastically affect the outcome. From the farming and cultivation of the grapes to the final aging in the bottle. “The application of the pricinciples of good quality control and quality assurance will

ensure that the potential of the grape is upheld until the wine is consumed.49”

Each choice can determine the style, flavor and aroma of the wine.

Fermentation is possible due to the presence of the microscopic, single- celled fungi called yeast. Yeast populations are naturally present in the air, especially in winemaking regions where man actively engages them and are referred to as wild or ambient yeast. Often winemakers do not need to add yeast to their crushed grapes in order to begin the process. Through in locations where wine is not often made, or in climates not conducive to yeast populations, winemakers do add yeast.

Once the yeast has been introduced to the grape juice, or any sugary juice, it begins to consume the sugars inside of the juice, and to reproduce.

There are approximately 6000 cells of yeast in each ounce of fermenting juice, called must. The yeast secretes alcohol and carbon dioxide.

This process could, without intervention, continue until all the sugar has been converted into alcohol and the yeast starves, or until the process produces so much heat that it kills off the yeast. Winemakers can control the sugar and alcohol levels at this stage in the process.

The fermentation process is two-part. The first part of the process is aerobic meaning that the must has been in contact with oxygen. The yeast follows its biological drive and reproduces rapidly. This part of the process lasts

two to four days. After that comes the anaerobic part in which all the oxygen has been used up and the yeast reproduction slows down. The yeast continues to feed on the sugars and creates alcohol. This process can last anywhere from three weeks to several months. All that a winemaker has needed to create wine until this point in the process is the crusher or hopper, a fermentation vat, a cooling system, and of course the grapes themselves.

A wine that is described as dry, result from a longer fermentation process in which the yeast consumed all the sugar in the must. Sweeter wines result from an interrupted process in which some residual sugar remains. The interruption of the process can be effected in several ways, but the goal is the same, kill the yeast before it can consume all the sugar. This is done by adding alcohol, for port of sherry, by adding sulfur dioxide, illegal in many countries, chilling the must, or by filtering out the yeast.

Grapes naturally have clear juice regardless if they are green or purple,

French winemakers refer to them as blanc or noir, meaning black or white. The color of the wine is derived from the pigments of the skins left in the must, rather than from the color of the grapes itself. Many white wines are made with black grapes, but all red wines are made from black grapes. Regarding Champagnes, one will often hear references to Blanc de Blanc or Blanc de Noir, meaning that the sparkling white wine was created using only green grapes like Chardonnay,

or only black grapes like Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier in which the skins were separated out immediately. Rich dark red wines, result from longer contact with the pigmented skins of the black grapes.

After fermentation, the aging of the wine begins in order to refine the flavors. In most cases the varietals have been mixed together before fermentation. For instance the Cabernet Sauvignon that one purchases at a restaurant is usually a blend of some kind rather than purely the wine made from the juice of only cabernet sauvignon grapes, in which Merlot and Pinot Noir grapes have been added into the mix. The only requirement to call a wine by the name of a varietal is that it is comprised of more than seventy-five percept that varietal in the U.S., in Europe it is a more strict eighty-five percent.

Some wines are made by creating pure wines from only one type of varietal and then mixing them together post aging, this is how Champagne is produced, the wine-master comes in after the first aging process is complete and tastes the pure Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier wines and decides on the perfect ratio to be mixed. The wines are then combined and rebottled in order to begin the second fermentation process that adds the bubbles and the magic to Champagne, or Sparkling Wines.

These are processes that are relatively non-threatening to the public.

The worst that could happen with public witnesses involved would be an broken

filtration hose that could spray someone with wine, undesirable but hardly life-

risking. The most interesting part of the wine process is the initial crush, which

happens in the fall immediately upon harvest, or in the case of an urban winery,

the arrival of the grapes. After the crush, in which the grapes are chipped and

split, they go into a vat and the only major events that happen are the filtration

and the movement to smaller barrels for aging after this completion, followed by

the bottling, corking and labeling at the end of the aging cycle.

Burgundy for Kings, Champagne for Duchesses, Claret for gentleman.

Anonymous French Proverb

Photograph by Adam Southwold

VISITORS AND WINERIES: A tacit agreement is made.

Although marketing has historically been a problem for wineries, they have several powerful tools available to them that have evolved quite naturally.

The first is their wine itself, and the general aura of wine. Research has shown that people love wine, they love drinking it, they love looking at it, and they love the envisioned life associated with people who drink it. Wine exudes the promise of a lifestyle of the rich and the happy that happens quite naturally.

The wine that an individual winery creates is already rife with these connotations. And good or bad, wine is still wine. If a winery’s existing wine is not the finest, there is no immediate solution available to them, except to change their tactics and hope for a better crop the next year.

The second powerful tool available to a winery or tasting room is their staff. A good wine sales-person can convince most of the population that a mediocre wine is worth buying. In fact such a sales person can convince the average visitor of almost anything because few visitors to a winery are confident enough to argue with a proclaimed wine-expert. Moreover, the visitor wants to believe that the wine is good, after all they have travelled and spend money to visit the winery, the want to believe that the wine is good. Their confident, knowledgeable, enjoyable salesperson fulfills this desire. Wine tasting is an activity that enables a person to cultivate knowledge, to enjoy something just beyond most people’s realm of comfort, its elusive and very personal, because everyone had different palettes and tastes. The best wine-tastings often have

the best sales people because they have provided the most informative and entertaining experience to the visitor.

For example Alpha Omega Winery has emerged as a premier artisan maker of high-priced boutique wines. They sell fewer than a thousand bottles a year and most of these bottles are purchased before the wines have even finished the aging process. Investors and collectors purchase the wines as futures, while still in the barrel. They opened their first year in a crude structure reminiscent of a trailer and visitors simply stumbled upon it while driving down

Napa’s notorious Route 29. Their secret; a great sales-staff selling a great wine with a great story. Word of mouth carried their product to the top of one of the most expensive and elusive markets. Another winery called Black Stallion is able to exist only through visits to their winery. The do not sell to restaurants, nor do they export. All their sales are completed onsite at their winery.

The third tool available to a winery is the design of their tasting room and winery. The gustatory sense is the least powerful of all the senses to inducing memories. This means that few visitors will be able focus their minds three weeks after a visit and perfectly remember the taste of a winery’s wine.

However, most visitors will be able to envision the tasting room.

There is a silent and unspoken agreement between a visitor to a winery and the winery itself. The visitor’s role is simple, they have already made the effort to come, quite simply they want to enjoy themselves, so their

only job is to taste the wine. The winery, however, has to convince the visitor that the wine is good. A crumbling old winery that looks as if it hasn’t sold a bottle of wine in twenty years and never had much style to begin with, sends a powerful message to a visitor – our wine isn’t good enough for us to afford a decent building. “As with all wine tourism regions, quality wine is the core product, but the setting for and ambience of the tasting room also appears to be critical in attracting, satisfying and retaining wine tourists50.” Most importantly in their eventual continuation of advertisement by recommending the wine to their friends. This conditions their expectations, setting an aspiration level or evaluative image, against which actual… opportunities are compared.51”

The visitor sees and unattractive, outdated or ugly structure and their expectations for the wine have automatically been lowered. No matter how good the wine is, most visitors will not appreciate it as much as they would have if the facility were more impressive. The wine itself has been devalued before the visitor has even seen it. This is a problem for many local Virginia wineries in which, they quite honestly do not have the capital to build new structures that will impress their visitors. Their buildings often look like exactly what they are, beginning businesses, struggling with the myriad difficulties of any new business.

Sunset Hills, located near Hillsborough, VA recently completed an extensive renovation project of an old barn. The builders were traditional

Amish carpenters brought down from Pennsylvania. However, the interior was never finished by a designer. The owners have added their own personal style and local farm goods for sale and the entire space has devolved into a gift shop. Breaux winery located in Northern Virginia has visitors pay first for a tasting. This means that a visitor who wishes to purchase a bottle must wait in line a second time. The lines become long and many visitors either resent standing in line a second time or don’t bother buying a bottle. This is neither good for in-house sales or for visitor’s memory of the sometimes cramped or awkward space.

A visitor to a winery wants to feel indulged, impressed. They want to believe that the have done something interesting, gained anecdotes with which to regale their friends and family. If the winery does not give the visitor a sense of power, wealth, prominence, luxury or beauty then the winery has not done its first and foremost duty. It has diminished the value of that wine before anyone has even tasted it.

Studies have shown how susceptible even the most educated of wine critics are to the smallest of changes to the atmosphere of their tasting. Music radically influences our purchasing habits: classical music increases the amount we’re willing to spend. “Motivations and perceptions combine to construct each individual’s image of destinations and attractions and the associated series of expectations regarding the experience at the destination. The image created is of

utmost importance because the appeal of the attractions arises largely from the image conjured up, partly from direct of related experience and partly from external sources and influences. Mental images are the basis for the evaluation and selection of an individual’s choice of a destination o attraction.52”

Color affects the brain’s response to odors; as demonstrated when an odorless red die was mixed with white wine and wine critics described the nose

(wine term for the flavors perceived only through the initial smelling of the wine) using standard descriptions for red wines. Describing a wine has a drastic effect on how we later perceive that same wine, as shown when non-experts matched experts in identifying wines during blind taste tests.

Perceived price influences the amount of pleasure we derive from wine. MRI scans have shown that people experience more physiological pleasure when tasting a wine labeled as more expensive that those at lower prices, even though it was the same wine throughout the study.

The bottom line is that the winery and more specifically the tasting room come to represent the wines. The tasting room becomes the visual memory for the wine itself. Regardless of the quality of the wine, the tasting room’s function must be to promote the sales of the wine. That being said in addition to cleanliness, functionality and organization, the wineries must be aesthetically impressive.

To happy convents, bosomed deep in vines/ Where slumber abbots,

purple as their wines

Alexander Pope

Photograph from www.virginiaisforlovers.com

VIRGINIA'S PLIGHT:

A look at a few vineyards and wineries.

There is a winery in each of the fifty United States, a testament not only to the durability of a vine that can thrive in both Alaska and Hawaii, but to the determination of the owners of the vineyards that cultivate them and the patrons who make it possible. California still dominates the wine market, but states like

Oregon, Washington and New York are producing more and more wines.

A general misconception must be addressed, vineyards grow grapes and wineries make wines. Vino Populi will not grow grapes beneath the Earth’s surface. It will use grapes, harvested at Northern Virginia vineyards, in order to produce wine.

Northern Virginia boasts many vineyards that grow good grapes and

many wineries that create good wines from those grapes. Most of them produce the wines on a site very near to the Vineyards. Thomas Jefferson was an early proponent of Virginia’s grape growing. He said of it, “wine, being among the earliest luxuries in which we indulge ourselves, it is desirable it should be made here, and we have every soil, aspect and climate of the best wine countries.” In fact today his Monticello wines are considered to be very good.

Despite their success in international wine-tastings, the Virginia wineries suffer from many issues that lower the public’s regard and estimation of them.

Firstly, Virginia suffers the growing pains that young wine regions suffer. They do not grow fabulous Cabernet Sauvignon or Sauvignon Blanc grapes, that consumers recognize and desire. Most consumers when they enter a wine store or scan a restaurant’s menu look for what they know. They are comfortable with Cabernet, they know what to expect. They do not feel as comfortable with more obscure names like Viognier, Tannat, Rousanne and Petit

Verdot. Virginia grows all these grapes and uses them to create their wines. The result is that people are hesitant to purchase a Virginia wine with an unfamiliar name when they could purchase one that they know they will like.

Virginia vineyards and wineries respond by producing wines from varietals that will sell instead of what is good, which results in people assuming that all Virginia wines taste bad. They have a conundrum, they want people to

come to visit their wineries and taste their wines so that they can prove their wines are good. However, they cannot convince people to try their wines at all.

A second problem for the Virginia Wineries is the state of their facilities.

When a visitor goes to a winery they want to feel as though they have just entered a space that is rare, luxurious, privileged. Too many of the Virginia wineries appear run-down or unsanitary. Visitors subconsciously judge the wines as inferior because the degraded state of the facilities themselves, as mentioned in the previous chapter.

Some of the Virginia wineries appear as though the interiors were not planned by professionals, they lack the aesthetic qualities that enhance visitors’ perception of their environment. Many of the wineries, Sunset Hills Winery and

Hillsbourough Vineyards included, have local products for sale, hand sewn placemats and oven-mitts, that remove the focus from the wines.

Virginia wineries have responded in a variety of interesting ways. One of the most intriguing responses is by Boxwood Winery in Middleburg, VA. The winery opened as Jack Kent Cooke’s hobby project, and escalated fast into one of the largest forces in Virginia wine production.

Boxwood’s vintner Stephane Derenoncourt, 2010’s winemaker of the year, according to Wine Spectator, and who consults more than thirty wineries on four continents, is working hard to raise the quality of Boxwood’s wines. It is their

unusual response to consumer’s needs that has made them so influential.

Boxwood has placed their tasting rooms in cities where people can access them.

They have three off-site Tasting Rooms in urban settings. The Tasting Room, as they are called, allows visitors to taste not only Boxwood wines, but wines from all over the world.

Boxwood’s modern drink distribution system where visitors serve themselves acts as sufficient novelty to intrigue visitors. However, it seems that they are missing an important link, in the wine tasting experience and that is the power of the salesperson to influence the visitor’s experience. The Tasting Room operates so that a visitor can theoretically visit and taste wines without ever interacting with a server or salesperson.

Wine Spectator, Food and Wine and Wine Business have lately featured many of the Virginia wines, including Chrysalis’ 2009 Viognier and Kluge’s 2009

Chardonnay and consumers have become increasingly interested in supporting local businesses and consuming regional foods and beverages. Virginia’s wines’ popularity is on the rise. Virginia wineries rather hopefully proclaim themselves to be about fifteen years behind Oregon on the wine scene and are optimistic that their popularity will continue to grow more popular and allow them more freedom to produce according to their strengths rather than to the market’s desire for name recognition.

The life of our city is rich and poetic and marvelous.

Baudelaire

Photograph from corbisimages.com

AN URBAN SETTING :

Defense of an atypical but sensible solution.

Wine can be made anywhere, the only necessity is grapes. “Many

winemakers, both amateur and commercial, begin by purchasing grapes, in one

of the following forms: 1) fresh whole grapes, (2) machine-harvested grapes, (3)

fresh juice, (4) frozen whole grapes, (5) frozen juice, and (6) concentrates.

Fresh, whole grapes, which permit the best control of the winemaking process,

are usually preferred when the winemaker lives close enough to a vineyard to

have them delivered soon after picking. With refrigeration, whole grapes can

even survive a cross-country trip.53”

Twenty to thirty years ago a trend of microbreweries, located in urban

settings cropped up across the country. The trend has finally hit the wine

community. Urban wineries have opened in cities across the country, including

San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Brooklyn, and Denver. There are

three major advantages to an urban setting for wineries, rent is expensive in wine

growing regions, a winemaker who purchase rather than grows grapes has a

variety of grapes from a variety of regions available to them, and the presence of

so many people interested in wine who can visit with ease. Many of these urban

wineries select interesting buildings to add an additional cache to their winery.

Abandoned submarines stations, old factories have been retrofitted to meet the needs of an urban winery, I propose an abandoned streetcar station.

From the 1970s through the 90s most wineries have been opened by millionaires as a pet-project, with mammoth budgets to hire a retinue of architect and wine experts, in order to fulfill a dream of becoming a winemaker. The newer artisan wineries opening in recent years are run by young, passionate, self- educated individuals risking their life’s savings in order to purchase high quality grapes and create a unique wine. They have not spent fortunes to buy expensive land in the countryside, and to build large facilities. Instead they rent cheap warehouses in poorer sides of town, in order to fulfill their own dream of making a living by producing wines54.

The capital outlays required for buying land and building a winery are prohibitive. Only a small fraction of individuals interested in making wine can afford to do so. Tim Patterson, wine business analyst explains that:

the success of the founding generation of modern winemakers has frozen the next generation out of the market. Buying and developing 20 acres of vineyard land, enough for 3,000-4,000 cases of wine, at $50,000-$75,000 per acre--if you could find it at that price--and $30,000 per acre for land preparation, irrigation and trellis, means starting with $1.5 to $2 million in expenditures before a single grape is picked. Add the cost of building and equipping a bare-bones winery--at least another $250,000--the recurring costs of wine production, and the salaries of two to four employees, and you're out somewhere between $2 and $3 million before a single bottle is sold.55

An Urban winemaker can produce three to four thousand cases of wine for less than one hundred thousand dollars, and then put the income back into the next year's expenses. The rental costs for their space and the price of grapes for an urban winemaking venture are higher than their rural counterparts, but the entry costs to the world of commercial winemaking are dramatically lower.

“Creative arrangements are the order of the day, starting with making use of custom-crush services, cooperative winery facilities, or rental space in neighborhoods zoned for light industry,” are ways in which these new artisan urban winemakers have kept prices down56.

Most of these city boutique wineries are opened with the support of family and friends who loan money, the owner’s personal savings and people who continue to work day jobs for the first few years of the business. They plan to keep production limited to less than a few thousand cases in order to keep quality high. Their focus is primarily on red wines because the returns are higher. The price point is around thirty-five to fifty dollars a bottle because logistically in order to turn a profit on eight dollar wines, one has to produce many of them. These wineries do not have the space, resources or desire to produce lots of cheap wine. Nearly all of them use the internet as a primary source of marketing.

This trend of making wines in cities is not new phenomenon, though it has only become popular in the last five years. Early in the 20th century, the

California Wine Association had a large wine plant in downtown San Francisco but it relocated after the 1906 earthquake to Richmond. “Pierre Lafond started the modern wine industry in Santa Barbara County with his urban Santa Barbara

Winery in 1964; in the mid-1980s, Edmunds St. John, Rosenblum Cellars and several other labels were established on the eastern, urban shores of San

Francisco Bay. With nearly 20 wineries, the East Bay is the epicenter of the most recent wave of city wineries, and Seattle isn't far behind.57” Traditionally bottled wines are shipped into cities for consumption, by this new urban winery process, the product is simply shipped into the cities prior to processing, while still in grape format.

What is a city, but the people; true the people are the city. Coriolanus III

Photo taken by Mika Altska, 2009 www.dupontunderground.com

CONCLUSION FROM TUNNEL TO WINERY: Fragility in bottle, and the history of a tunnel.

Wine, even while it ages in a bottle, is surprisingly fragile. It must be

kept somewhere cool and dark, so the flavor doesn’t sharpen, so the color isn’t

altered. Wine must be kept someplace safe from jostling. Wine can suffer from a

draft of cold air as much as from heat. According to a French saying, wine can

catch a cold, from which it can never recover if subjected to a recurrent draft.

Indeed wine is even susceptible to smell. One restaurant owner tells a

story or keeping his wines in the restaurant cellar during renovation in order to

save money. The painters painted all around the aging bottles. Weeks later, the

renovation process was completed and patrons began to complain that the wines

tasted of chemicals. The restaurateur was forced to throw away the entire

contents of his cellar because the wine had taken on the airborne flavors of paint.

This can be used to advantage, often wines stored in caves will have the terroir

(a term that refers to the earthy flavors that make a region’s wines unique) that wine connoisseurs praise for its connection to the earth, but proximity to onions or potatoes can also kill the flavor.

There is a very good reason why wine storage takes place in cellars; because it is safe there. Underground spaces are naturally cool, dark, odorless and controllable in terms of access. The most famous place where underground caves are used is in Epernay in the Champagne region of France. Moet et

Chandon has more than sixty kilometers of underground cave networks where all the processing, storage, bottling and tasting takes place. But caves are also used in California, Mexico, Turkey, Spain and Germany to name a few as the ideal location to create wine. In fact an underground cave is the ideal space to produce wines both for the manufacturing cost and the wine itself. Rather than spend energy to cool a space that sits on the surface of the earth absorbing the sun’s rays, a subterranean environment in naturally cool. The sensitivity of wines to the sun is eliminated in an underground environment as well.

Washington DC, lacks underground cave networks that would fulfill the needs for cool and dark. However, there is a place that would function extremely naturally as a winemaking space. A place that is centrally located within the city, accessible by Metro, bus and car, as well as in close proximity to many neighborhoods. The neighborhood is a popular destination both by day and by

night. It space itself is cool, dark, dry, odorless and draft-free. The abandoned streetcar station beneath Dupont Circle would be the perfect location for an

Urban Winery.

The Dupont turn-around station for the DC streetcar system (more commonly referred to as the Trolley system), was completed in 1923 when streetcars served as the primary mode of public transportation in DC. The station was officially closed in 1962, when DC metro passed the Trolley system in importance and popularity; the tracks are still visible in small Georgetown streets. During the Cold War the station was stocked with food and set up to act as a fallout shelter, parts of the station were even sealed shut and stocked with supplies for local residents. The space has remained largely empty since, with the exception of a failure to place a cafeteria in it called, The Dupont Down Under in 1997.

The space is long and narrow, which for a winery and tasting room is actually desirable. One of the most difficult aspects of any public space is controlling the public’s access to specific areas. In a linear floor plan, the space can easily become more private as one ventures further into the space.

Additionally there would be immense opportunity to expand when the operation proves successful, by simply opening up a larger leg of the back of the space to be used for storage of bottles and barrels.

The space has remained unused and inaccessible to the DC community for too long. An urban winery would provide the perfect combination of industry, entertainment and production for the Dupont area. Vino Populi would fulfill a need in the district for a more hands-on approach to learning about wine.

It would provide a much-needed opportunity for Northern Virginia vineyards and wineries to educate the public about their products. Vino Populi would fulfill all three of these problems; create an exciting new venue for DC wine entertaining and learning, use and enhance an interesting space and offer a chance for Virginia’s wines to come into the light.

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SECTION:

FOOTNOTES:

1 Jack Heeger, "US Wine Consumption Up." Napa Valley Register, Jan. 2008. http://napavalleyregister.com 2 Evelyne Resnick, Wine Brands: Success Strategies for New Markets, New Consumers and New Trends. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 11. 3 Jack Heeger, "US Wine Consumption Up." Napa Valley Register, Jan. 2008. http://napavalleyregister.com 4 List of winebars in DC and surrounding area, compiled by author. Bars may have closed since list was compiled, bars may have changed their market, or may have been omitted. Proof, Veritas, The Tasting Room, Vinafera, Sonoma, Redwood, Grapeseed, Mendocino, Vinoteca, Cork, Poste, Zola, CityZen, Enology, Room 11, OpenCity, Ardeo, Bardeo, Sova, Cure, Matchbox, Oya, Urbana, Bistro Lepic, Dino, Tallula, Vermillion, Eve, Dickson 5 Yankelovich Partners for the Wine Institute Market Development Task Force, 2005 “Understanding and Enhancing the Market for California Wine in the U.S.” 6 Ibid. 7 Karen McNiel, The Wine Bible. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 2001. 8 Evelyne Resnick, Wine Brands: Success Strategies for New Markets, New Consumers and New Trends. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 36. 9 Jack Heeger, "US Wine Consumption Up." Napa Valley Register, Jan. 2008. http://napavalleyregister.com 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 List of winebars in DC and surrounding area, compiled by author. Bars may have closed since list was compiled, bars may have changed their market, or may have been omitted. Proof, Veritas, The Tasting Room, Vinafera, Sonoma, Redwood, Grapeseed, Mendocino, Vinoteca, Cork, Poste, Zola, CityZen, Enology, Room 11, OpenCity, Ardeo, Bardeo, Sova, Cure, Matchbox, Oya, Urbana, Bistro Lepic, Dino, Tallula, Vermillion, Eve, Dickson 13 Yankelovich Partners for the Wine Institute Market Development Task Force, 2005 “Understanding and Enhancing the Market for California Wine in the U.S.” 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid. 16 John Quelch. Blog for Harvard Business Review. Blogs.hbr.org/quelch 17 Ibid.

23 Peter E. Murphy, Tourism: A Community Approach. New York: Methuen, 1985.11. 24 Fred Tasker, "Wine attracts more customers." The Miami Herald. February 18th, 2008. 25 Michael Hall and Others, Wine Tourism Around the World: Development, Management and Markets. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Butterowrth-Heinemann, 2002. 26 Kathy Fisher. “Number of U.S. Wineries Reaches 6,223,” Wine Business Monthly, February 15, 2010. 27 Ibid. 28 Barbara Insel. “Understanding Wine Democraphics in a Down Market,” Wine Business Monthly. February 15, 2009.

29 The Associated Press, ABC News, “Red Wine Promotes Longevity,” Washington, DC. November 1, 2006. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Karen McNiel, The Wine Bible. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 2001. 33 Jack Carlson and Stephen Charters. Global Wine Tourism: Research, Management and Marketing. Caimbridge, MA: CABI North American Office, 2006. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 36 Yankelovich Partners for the Wine Institute Market Development Task Force, 2005 “Understanding and Enhancing the Market for California Wine in the U.S.” 37 Ibid. 38 Yankelovich Partners for the Wine Institute Market Development Task Force, 2005 “Understanding and Enhancing the Market for California Wine in the U.S.” 39 Ibid. 40 Barbara Insel. “Understanding Wine Democraphics in a Down Market,” Wine Business Monthly. February 15, 2009. 41 Evelyne Resnick, Wine Brands: Success Strategies for New Markets, New Consumers and New Trends. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 11. 42 Ibid. 13. 43 Patrick E. McGovern Ancient Wine: The Search for the origins of viticulture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. 44 Ibid. 45 Common knowledge, learned while travelling in France. 46 Henry Urbach, interview with Michelle Wu of Wallstreet Journal. 47 Evelyne Resnick, Wine Brands: Success Strategies for New Markets, New Consumers and New Trends. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 11. 48 Kenneth C. Fugelsang and Others, Wine Microbiology. New York: Springer Science + Business Media, LLC, 2007. 64 49 David Bird, Understanding Wine Technology: The Science of Wine Explained. San Fransisco, CA: Wine Appreciation Gild, 2005. 256

50 Jack Carlsen and Others Global Wine Tourism: Research, Management and Marketing. Caimbridge, MA: CABI North American Office, 2006. 8 51 B Goodall, 1988 How tourists choose their holiday. In Marketing in the Tourism Industry, edited by B. Goodall and G. J. Ashworth. Beckenham: Croom Helm. 5 52 Michael Hall and Others, Wine Tourism Around the World: Development, Management and Markets. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Butterowrth-Heinemann, 2002. 28 53 Phillip Jackisch. Modern Winemaking. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1985. 56 54 Tim Patterson, “Urban Economics; A City Winery,” Wines and Vines, Nov. 2007, www.bnet.com 55 Ibid. 56 Ibid. 57 Ibid.

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