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How the Coronavirus is affecting the wine and restaurant industries?
I want to know if you’re changing your wine buying or dining out habits?
Are you still traveling to wine regions or attending wine events?
Let’s talk.
Pour yourself a glass of wine, relax and chat with me.
You can also join me in a free online wine and food pairing video class here.
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Cause I do indeed know it’s live. I just hope you’re hearing me. Oh, here we go. There we go. Already there is a crowd here. Yay. Good Lori’s here. Jim is here. Great. Loud and clear. Oh, I love it. I just need to be a bit more patient sometimes because I don’t always know if the technology is working. All right, let me mute myself. Do not need to hear me in stereo. All right guys, now I can see all of you. David Smith is here. Hello and he’s drinking Laura’s red. Dwayne Orville Foster is here. So Dwayne, Jim, Laurie again, what is in your glass? Either what’s in your glass now or if there’s nothing wine wise, what have you been enjoying lately? I would love to know what’s been in your glass that you’ve loved and you can also give us any advice on what to avoid.
I welcome that as well. I am going to take a sip. Oh, you are enjoying, you know what Lori? We are birds of a feather. So Laurie is one of my core students and this is the wine we’re going to be tasting tonight. As you can see, I already started with it. My partner and I, It is a beautiful wine. So after this Facebook live, Laurie and my other core students, including David and Dwayne, we shall be gathering in our private Facebook group for a tasting of not only that, burgundy but also, Zinfandel, Murphy Good Merlot. These are such good wines for the money, I think, and a really special Burgundy We’ll be talking more in detail about that tasting that wine. , in our private group. Adam is here. Hello Adam, I’m glad you could join us. What’s in your glass? So as I mentioned, guys, we are going to be talking about the impact of the Coronavirus on the wine and restaurant industry. And this is not meant to be a downer, nor am I taking it too lightly. But I wanted to share with you some interesting facts and, trends and things that are happening in the industry. But also I want to hear from you has news. , first of all, where are you on the planet? Tell me where you are and what news have you heard about the Coronavirus in your community? And what’s your reaction to it? Are you worried? Are you, is I hope you’re staying calm no matter what.
is it changing anything? Why is food-related for you? Thank you for all the hearts and thumbs up guys. Lynn is here and Michael. All right guys, tell me what’s in your glass. But I’d want to hear from you. Are you changing anything you’re doing? Wine wise? Are you dining out less often or does it have no impact? Are you stocking up on wine and toilet paper? Oh my goodness. Have you seen the rush on toilet paper? I went to Loblaws the other day or grocery store and it’s just one whole aisle was empty. It’s crazy. Just insane. I don’t know why the rush on toilet paper and not some other things. Purell I can understand, but toilet paper. Come on. I would grab up Pinot noir before toilet paper and won’t go down that rabbit hole. Anyway. , Jim says, , PM we’re going as well all getting a head start.
You are a plus student gym. We will be tasting more of that in the private group. Lynn buying as much Barolo as I can. So Lynn, is that associated at all with the Corona buyers or you’re just stocking up on Barolo? Alaina McLeod is here. Hello? Atlanta. What’s in your glass tonight? My dear Paula Hollander’s here and that probably means Patty as well from Virginia. What do you folks sipping on? Jim is in Markham, Ontario. So Jim, are you hearing much news there? We are. I’m in Ottawa as, as many of you know, so we have not had a confirmed case yet. , but I am hearing about these, some, some cases in, the greater Toronto area. I think. , I’m heading to Toronto on, well tomorrow actually cause I’m going to be on Global morning show on Friday and we’re talking about the price of wine and that sort of thing.
It’s, it’s, it’s a lighthearted topic. , but yeah you start to think twice about travel and dining out. I mean, personally, I’ll share with you what my approach is right now. I’m staying calm, of course, listening to vetted new sources, which often does not include the internet unless it’s from a reputable source. , but my partner Miles and I are still dining out as we usually do. We are just washing our hands like crazy. That’s all like, you know, washing her hands and you know, doing some of that personal distancing. I know these are such word weird terms, aren’t they? But, we’re avoiding shaking hands and I don’t know if you saw on Jimmy Fallon on the late show, there’s now the foot shake so you just tap feet, shoes. Anyway, it’s bizarre. Hello Steven, I’m glad you’re here.
What’s in your glass, Stephen? I want to hear from the rest of you as well, so glad you’re here. , so yeah, in terms of precautions, that’s what we’re doing. And we’d already taken some personal travel to Florida and Turk’s and Caicos so we have not planned anymore, travel. , but I am still going to travel back and forth to Toronto when, you know there’s a, I need to be on TV. I’m not going to be dissuaded from that until I hear an official health advisory not to do that. But there is news in the wine world about how the coronavirus is, is having to start to have a more serious impact. And I wanted to share some of those details with you, but I’d love to hear from you, is, are you changing your dining out habits, your wine buying habits, your travel to wine regions?
What’s, is anything changing or you just sort of in a wait and see mode? Are you going to events anymore? Tastings? Why? Maker dinners? Guyanne says so far, no changes besides eating more at home and, nodding to people instead of shaking hands. I like the foot touch wave. Yes. All right. Isaac. James Baker is here. Hello. And welcome Isaac, what’s in your glass? Elaine Peters is here. Hello, Elaine. All right, perfect. , so let me share some of the info with you then about, what I’m hearing in the wine industry about what’s happening. And I will come back to you, but please in the meantime, have a sip, relax, breathe. , let’s everybody stay calm, right? So Robert Herzer is here and Lynn and Tom Singleton are here. Great. Terrific. So glad you could join us guys.
This we’re going, Oh my goodness. I can not wait to jump into that. , in the course of a session. Okay. Let me share some details. First of all, if you are enjoying this conversation or think you’re going to enjoy it, please take a moment to share this video with your friends and followers and let them know why, why they might find this interesting. , as you know, we gather every second Wednesday at 7:00 PM Eastern just to share a drink and a chat in our favorite wines and talk about the news of the day when it comes to wine, food, restaurants, travel, mostly wine. All right, so let me share it with you some of the details that I’ve been reading. First of all, some of the silly stuff, so I’m sure you’ve heard by now that a poll found that 38% of people thought Corona beer causes or is linked to Coronavirus.
And that’s just silly, right? Oh my gosh, how can people even think that? But anyway, not true fake news. But here’s an interesting thing that I came across as I was doing my research for our session today. , there are a lot of people starting to use certain brands of vodka to wash their hands thinking that’s more sanitary. And in particular, Tito’s vodka, which is an Austin, Texas-based vodka, has been selling out in liquor stores in Texas and they’ve been trying to convince people on social media, ‘s actually not preferable to hand sanitizers like a pure owl. The alcohol by volume is only 40%. And so, apparently, a sanitizer hand sanitizer to be effective, it needs to be 60%, alcohol to kill viruses, especially those that make up the coronavirus or I’ll just call it Covid-19, because as you know, the Coronavirus is a collection of viruses.
So Covid-19 needs a much stronger dose of alcohol, in the blend. But, so of course, some people are turning to things like Bacardi rum, which is over 60% and others, but I dunno, I just found that a little bit of silly info, that I’d share with you. Elaine says I’m a member of the Ontario wine society and Niagara chapter of the international wine food society. And so far our scheduled events are going ahead. All right, well good to hear. That’s good to hear. Elaine. , let me back up here. Laurie says her trip to California wineries in early April is still in the works trip to Paris. Okay. Interesting. Laurie London and Amsterdam. April 30th to May 12th is still on at this point. Okay, so you’re not canceling those plans. Interesting. , Elaine says we’re, we are noticeable, we’re experiencing a noticeable drop in numbers at our winery.
You are broken line winery, right? Broken lines are broken lines. Elaine. , ah, that’s interesting. Yeah. People are not going to the tasting rooms. That’s something else I had been reading about in response to the coronavirus. , Jim says went to a Leafs game with two thousand twenty thousand others, no issue. Wash your hands was the key. Yes, absolutely. And just wash them frequently. It was a good video and a CTV’s Your Morning and they say, wet your hands first? Then put the soap on, withdraw from the water. That’s when you do 15 to 30 seconds, not in the water. Then wash them off and you want to get under the nails and you want to get in here anyway. Public health service message for you free. , but it’s really important. Laurie says, Oh yes, I got that comment. Dwayne says we have Chateau respite Valley, 2011 and blind Creek collective consensus from the Okanogan.
Tell us about those wines. Dwayne, those are interesting choices. Rick Dalderis hello from Los Gatos. Hello Rick. Enjoying 2000, I thought you were saying emptying, emptying out in 2015 enjoying in 2015 Testarossa Pinot noir from Santa Lucia Highlands Doctor’s vineyard. No events over 250 people in the San Francisco Bay area. Yeah, I used to be in the high tech industries to work at a computer company. It was always based in Canada, Canada, but then, campus or the main office was where Google is today. So it was in the mountain view, California. So I still have friends in high tech and what they’re saying that the streets of San Francisco are empty. Right. And it’s just, it must be spooky and it’s a little concerning. Meanwhile, in Beijing, in China, from China, we’re getting, I think more positive responses in terms of, seemingly if the news is, if the facts are real, they’re containing it there, but Beijing restaurants are empty.
the streets are empty and there are also rules in Italy, which is now a contained zone that if you go to a restaurant, you have to be three feet away from the person in Beijing. You need to, there is a maximum of three people per table. So there are some real impacts in addition to just, business plummets. So, Janet is here. Hello. Janet, what’s in your glass and Heather Proctor? Same question and it, or if you’re just joining this conversation, welcome, welcome. Let me know. Is the Coronavirus changing the way you dine out, the way you buy wine? Are you stockpiling, are you still traveling to wine regions? If any of you are from wineries, like Elaine Peters, let me know what you’re noticing in the tasting rooms. Wine sales. I’d love to know. Caroline is here. And Kevin, sorry, I don’t have my glasses on.
Kevin Lovullo hi. And welcome. Tell us what’s in your glass between the lines, right? Not broken lines between the lines. All right, lane, thanks, Jane Staple is here. Hello Jane. She says I’m glad I traveled much last year, so much last year. Just putting travel on hold right now. There’s always the cottage. Very smart choice. Jane Tony Shaffer is here, just returned from Napa wine tour in Los Angeles. Well attended. Well, that’s interesting. , Carolyn Coster is here. Hello Carolyn. Welcome. Janet says I flew into San Francisco last night. Pretty empty plane. I’ll bet this morning, the nearby mall and the public transit were also void of many people still. , hoping to get in some wineries while we’re here. , that, that’s good. Janet, I’m glad you’re, you’re going to do that. Deb is here from van or from BC, I should say. Welcome, Deb. My dear. What’s in your glass? Elaine says hello. All great instructions for washing up. I’m concerned as I do have another trip in June. Yeah. Wait and see and hope for the best for all. Absolutely. , Thomas showing is here. I’m so glad you all are here. , this feels like a nice table chat. I’m going to take another sip of this wonderful Burgoyne that many of you have tonight, especially my core students since when tasting this afterwards in our private Facebook group. But I just need to, take another sip.
that’s like pausing for station identification. Right? All right. , so yeah, let me, put on some pretty pictures that have, as usual, nothing to do with what we’re talking about. Well, they do their wine-related food-related, but I’m gonna share some more details and facts from the industry, wine, restaurant, travel, what’s happening right now, in response to the coronavirus. And I want to hear from you. Are you changing your habits or your behaviors at all? All right, here we go. Let’s see. There are some nice vineyards and I assume you can still hear me just post in the comments if you cannot, if suddenly I went silent. All right. So, so I told you about the handwashing with vodka, which seems really silly. , restaurateurs, you know, in some of the more major, in some of the cities, us cities that are reporting higher incidents of Corona are saying that their business is down up to 50%.
and it’s interesting in New York City, the modern, which is associated with the modern museum, in New York, they are owned by Danny Meyer who is just famous in the world of restaurants. And, they apparently had a visitor, a diner who tested positive for Covid-19, and they shut down the restaurant for a whole day and did a top to bottom sanitizing. Interesting. , if any of you are in the high tech industry as I used to be, you know, that, South by Southwest was canceled in Austin, Texas. That apparently brings in $350 million to that local economy. So that’s gotta be, hard, especially in the restaurant industry. Who would depend on that? And then meanwhile, in terms of wine events, if any of you are familiar with some of the more major wine events like pro wine in Germany, VIN, Italy, in Italy, of course, they’ve been canceled.
let me come back to you. , so yeah, it’s kind of major, major, major. , there was a raw natural wine event in London and canceled of course, and even the dreamer, the tasting of the new Bordeaux vintage that involves about 6,000 key wine buyers and journalists that are supposed to happen March 30th to May, April 2nd. I believe that might be canceled. They’re saying not yet, but you can imagine the impact on Bordell, although Bordeaux doesn’t seem to have a problem selling itself through, again, you know that that event has been going on formally or informally for about 200 years now. And now they’re saying that you know, it might not happen this year.
let’s see. Dwayne foster says it was chosen, he chose his wine because it’s close to burgundy, not much available in the cusp. Sorry, I don’t have my glasses on cause it gives a glare from the lights I use. But so forgive my pronunciations and when I glide over words. So he says, Wayne says, so we went to our cellar. Beautiful line opening up with us. That’s great. Deb says she’s got GARS on Alberico from your gray. Lovely Zippy. Found it in the bank at the Vancouver wine festival. Dad, tell us what the Vancouver wine festival was like. Like what, what were you impressions? What were your favorites? What did you enjoy? , who was the theme country? I need to get there. Was anybody else at the Vancouver wine festival this year? I want to hear from you. Tom Nolan is here. Welcome Tom in Atlanta. McCloud.
She said she went to Italy last year. I loved finding Brunello by the glass. What a luxury. I Alana. Oh my goodness. And you know, I should tell my Canadian friends, the California wine fair is coming up in late March, early April and there are four cities, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. And I would suggest, you know unless we get a public health warning not to attend, I would strongly encourage you to go. It is one of the best events, on the, on the schedule for wine events, across this country. And I’m just going to put the URL w. dot. Cow wine.ca. There are both, consumer events in the evenings, and there are ticket prices. It’s modest for what you get, all the wines you can taste. And then, there’s a trade media portion in the afternoons that is free to members of the media and trade.
So if you are a writer or a restaurateur or some Lea, get in touch with me. I can connect you with how you can get into the events for free. No sneaky consumer so you’re not in the industry. Pay up, go in the evening. It’s worth it. And I think proceeds in each of the cities, or at least a portion of them, go to a really good charity like in Toronto at second harvest, which provides meals to, those who need that support, that food security, especially right now, right. , Tom says I had a beautiful Perseco tonight with mushroom crab quiche. Oh, you’re making us hungry, Tom. All right, so let me share some more. Again, let me know. Are you changing your habits and response to the coronavirus? Are you canceling or putting on whole travel trips? , are you still dining out as much as you used to?
Let me share some more details with you that I’ve been researching. , so I mentioned some of those events that had been canceled, but of course here in Canada, I still would urge you to go to the California wine fair. , in China, they’re calling virtual tastings now over the internet, like what we’re doing, cloud wine tastings in tasting in the cloud, so to speak, which makes a whole lot of sense. , what else was I looking at? Yeah, some optimists. So, you know, some of that news is pretty gloomy, but I just loved the optimist who said, , well, people are staying home. They’re cocooning. There’s not as many, , you know, celebrations right now, weddings, group gatherings, reunions, anniversaries, birthdays. But let’s hope there’s a baby boom in nine months. They’re hoping for a new raft of children to be born in nine months as a result.
So that’s pretty optimistic, I’d say. , Jane says last summer while in Finland, I discovered a couple of wines made from Forrest berries. One made from lingonberries and the other made from blueberries. How interesting. Excellent. In Croatia last November I fell in love with Plavic, Mali. Plavic Mali. Is that the one that they first thought could be Zinfandel or it is Zinfandel cause there’s prima TiVo, which is Italian and there’s Plavic Malley. I’m not sure if, it was since proven or disproven to be a colonial cousin of California Zinfandel. Maybe you can let us know Jane, and of course in our group tonight, our group, private tasting for students, we are going to be looking at this amazing Zinfandel, biodynamic and organic Bonterra. Oh my goodness. We’re getting some great comments, friends, while Alondra has joined us. Hello friends. Whoa. What’s in your glass? Gray. I’m going to have to put on my glasses.
You guys are starting to write novels, which is great. I love, love, love the participation. Grace Greg says I’m a wine exporter from Australia. Oh, and sales do not exist in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea. This is for two reasons, but the main reason is that the offices in these countries that are closed, people are being compelled to work from home. And let me see. This is very interesting, compelled to work from home and more importantly, there are no containers available to pack the wines to export. Oof. So make no bones about the impact on the Australian wine industry. You know, that’s a great point, Greg. You know, it’s not just a matter of getting the wineries still produced to the line. It’s if demand plummets because you can’t export whether no one’s going to restaurants and buying the wine, then definitely the impact is, is real.
Add to this, the fires in Eastern Australia and the extremely dry conditions in 2020 will not be the greatest year for much of the country. Wow. However, I might add that not all of Australia is smoke affected. This was a very strong misconception. It was one of the main questions asked of me at the Vancouver wine festival. Be rest assured that there will be some great wines produced, still produced in Australia. Excuse me. Some wineries will not be producing wine this year due to smoke taint. Most native, most notably Colona Kyla from the Canterbury region. Greg, great update. Thank you. I love that we’re gathered globally here and can update each other. Greg, I’d also love to hear from you what you thought about the Vancouver wine festival. What did you take away? What were your favorites? , and so, Tom says I’ve had some of my volunteer events canceled this month for marriage.
I visited a nursing home with a certified therapy dog. Oh my goodness. Wow. That’s, yeah, I guess, you know, nursing homes especially have to be super, super careful cause they’re the most vulnerable, aren’t they? Dead says about the Vancouver wine festival. France was the lead country of the theme country and she drank lots of bubbles. But the great lines from the US Oregon Pinot noir, lovely. She says, so the very elegant Spanish lines, Canada had a great showing. Lots of good representation there. Went into the vendor’s brunch as well. If anyone goes to this festival, the vinegars brunch on Sunday is a must. So many good food and wine pairings for the three hours South. America’s a theme country next year, 2021 fantastic. Thanks, Deb for that update. Back to station identification.
All right. Janet says the U Janet’s from the Yukon, in Northern Canada, was host to a major circumpolar sports and arts event. This month it was going to attract thousands of young athletes from around the Northern world. Oh, it’s been canceled because of the virus within a major impact on a restaurant hotel. Yes. And you know, it’s even more impactful to for restaurant workers is often they’re either hourly paid and they don’t get paid if there’s no business. I mean, staying home is a luxury that can’t afford and or they’re highly dependent on tips. So you know that base salary or base income is not what pays the bills. It’s the tips if you’re out front serving the customers. Deb says, love volunteer and Zinn, absolutely. Paula called deal says, I sell wine and my New York and Washington distributors have both canceled my upcoming market visits.
My Washington distributors said that downtown Seattle is a ghost town and restaurants are closing. Oh my gosh. I don’t know if this is just, , rosy-colored glass thinking, but I’m wondering if there’s any upside to this whole thing happening with restaurants developing more infrastructure for home delivery. You know, I know it’s not the same thing and it can’t replace in restaurant sales, but I wonder if that will pick up as a result of this by necessity that there will be more of an infrastructure to develop and to distribute meals, to homes directly. , and I guess perhaps services that are already in place, like skip the dishes or Uber eats or whatever might benefit from this. , who knows, right. Who really knows. And then there’s the, all the meal kit deliveries that, you know, blue apron and good food. I’m not sure what they all are, but, I guess they might be on an upswing too during this.
I know, certainly, personally, as I’ve mentioned, I teach courses online. So, I mentioned this not to be opportunistic, but it is a good time to reevaluate gathering for physical courses, especially when there’s so much hand touching and you know, I know that you’re not eating during the class, but food like bread and crackers and stuff, I consider online courses, I think as a viable alternative. And I think if you’ve never taken one online, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how communal they can be. , and I mean look at our Facebook group here, how much fun we’re having, but with the course, you know, you can also get together in a much smaller intimate group setting, but online and you know, we all also do zoom, video conferencing and that sort of thing. So I’ll put in another link here just in case you are curious.
I offer a free class, a parent class five wine and food pairing mistakes that can ruin your dinner and how to fix them forever. That’s a free video class online from the comfort of the home safety of your home. You can take that and then decide if you want to continue on with my, my full course, which is a paid course. Anyway, just for your consideration. Let me get back to some of these great comments. , Brenda Brennan did is drinking Patrice Pinot noir or one of my faces. She says that’s a great peanut. Great for the money to Brenda Jane. They first saw plastic Malley was related to Zim, but it’s different. That’s what I thought. And delicious. Stina is a great one. Oh, Maryland’s law losses here. Hello Maryland. Am I pronouncing your last name correctly? Sloss give me a pronunciation guide. And Marie Walsh is here.
They’re both, students of mine and we’ll be gathering in our private group. Oh, I’m going to have to wrap this up soon because we’re gathering soon and 10 minutes from now. So let me get through the rest of your comments here and then I’m going to have to close this off cause I need to go find my peeps. My core students. , Elaine Bruce picked up the [inaudible] premier crew, , closing in here. I wonder if that’s the one I have. Nope. A slightly different one. We’re tasting tonight in this private group lane. But tell me what you thought. Oh, you’re going to have beef Bergen young. Well, I’ll report back and let us know what that one was like for you. , Diane Sheridan is here. Hello Diane. So nice of you to join us and folks, if you join us midway through, you’re just joining us now.
You can watch the replay. Similarly, if he couldn’t make this live tasting and you’re watching the replay, please post in the comments. I want to hear from you. Is the coronavirus having any impact on the way you dine out by wine and traveled wine regions? Greg says the Vancouver wine Fest was amazing. We poured some amazing wines and he listed a bunch of them there that I’ll let you folks read cause I’ll get tongue-tied if I try to read them all. The event was well attended and the interest in knowledge is amazing. Many repeat visits, I encourage you all to attend. Wonderful. Greg or someone maybe put the link to the Vancouver wine festival in the comments, please. So people can find that too. Dan says, good point. With the delivery of food, I must admit I joined hello fresh last month and I am even still a member of good food, so I have many choices.
Fantastic. Well, guys, this was a great discussion. I really love hearing from you and, and it is as interactive as it was tonight. So we will gather again in two weeks’ time for another chat. I like to try to pick up on whatever is newsy, in the world of lying and restaurants and wine travel. So feel free to suggest topics for our next chat and for my students. I will see you , in the private Facebook group, for course. Members. All right, take care guys. Thank you so much for joining me here this evening. I really, really appreciate it. , good night. Stay safe and stay healthy. Bye for now.
