Poge Eight THE MICHIGAN DAILY Saturday, June 1, 1974 Wine: A flourishing local favorite By SANDY HAUSMAN Although the nation's wine producers report a major slump in sales, four major local wine dealers say sales are on the in- crease.- From 1969 to 1972, the Califor- nia wine industry grew an aver- age of 10 per cent a year. In the 20 years before that, the growth rate was closer to three per cent. BUT LAST YEAR, the indus- try was startled by a drop to only 1.9 per cent. Industry observers speculate that the drop may have come in response to higher prices of wines. Over the past five years, consumers have had to pay from 25 to 200 per cent more on a bottle, depending on its la- bel. Yet wine buyers at the Village Corner, the Campus Corner, the Main Street Party Store and the Wine Shoppe report that, if anything, wine drinkers here are leaning toward a higher quality and price range. GONE ARE the days of pop wines which sell for about a dollar. "When I came into the store three years ago, Boone's Farm was king," says Steve Warren, a wine buyer for the Campus Corner. "We were also selling wines like Paisano and Bali Hai. But as sales started falling off, we quit carrving as much. "And instead of going away to look in other stores for the cheap wines, people shifted to higher-priced wines. They found out they could get some- thing better for fifty cents more." AT THE VILLAGE Corner, the situation was similar. Some time last summer, Boone's Farm began to lose its wide- spread popularity, not just here, but around the country. The Campus Corner now sells 75 per cent less of the Apple and Strawberry vines. The Vil- lage Corner has dropped by 50 per cent. One reason for the national slump in wines, some say, is a leveling off in the drinking pop- ulation. Over the past five years more than 20 states lowered their drinking ages. Wine, like the other alcoholic beverages, got a share of the action as millions of new drinkers entered the market. Although the ntmber of new drinkers has leveled off around the country, Ann Arbor con- tinues to introduce large num- bers of young people to the world of wines. All four stores surveyed agreed that their wine buying clientele was predomi- nately young people. EVEN THE connoisseurs of wine here seem to be college age people. "I had a man come in yesterday," says Robert Lit- tleton, owner of the Wine Shoppe. "I don't know if he was a student, but he looked like one. He bought two bottles of 1961 Bordeaux that came to $240. I don't think he was col- lecting. He was planning to drink them." At the Main Party Store, part- owner Ruth Davis says she re- cently sold a 1971 German wine for $160. The buyer - "just a young guy!" Steve Warren (Campus Cor- ner) points to the store's most expensive wine, which sells for about $80, and remarks, "Sur- prisingly enough, we're selling a lot of this stuff. And it's not to gray-haired old men pulling up in Cadillacs. It's to people who come in off the street wearing blue jeans and san- dals." BUYERS are not only looking for better wines, but for differ- ent wines. While the Campus Corner and the Village Corner list customer favorites like Paul Masson, Christian Brothers and Almaden, they also mention a number of imported wines as big sellers. On Main Street, Tom Davis, co-owner of the Party Store with Davis, says he sells most- ly white German wines and Bordeaux reds. But he adds that people are branching out into Lebanese, Israeli, Spanish and Polish wines. The growth in popularity of imported wines here also con- tradicts major trends in other parts of the country. U. S. DEPARTMENT of Com- merce statistics show that ship- ments of imported table wines declined 13 per cent in the first quarter of 1974. What's anybeetter? Probably not. All thingsconsidered you do what you do pretty doggone well. After all, no one has taken your job. And you're eating regularly. But... But have you ever considered what doing your job just a little better might mean? Money. Cold hard coin of the realm. If each of us cared just a smidge more about what we do for a living, we could actually turn that inflationary spiral around.Better products, better service and better management would mean savings for allof us. Savings of much of the cash and frayed nerves it's costingus now for repairs and inefficiency. Point two..By taking more pridein our work we'll more than likely see America regaining its strengthinthecompetitive worldtradearena. When the balance of payments swings our way again we'll all be better off economically. So you see-the only person who can really do what you do any better is you. Amedca taonlyworks more, whie American wine prices have been leveling off, import prices continue to climb. Why has Ann Arbor defied the trends? Clearly, the presence of a major university makes the difference. "Either is makes people more cultured or it drives them to drink," says are wine dealer. "Ann Arbor is an unusually good wine market," says Tom Davis of the Party Store. "We sell twice as much wine here as in a place like Flint which is bigger. I'm sure it's because of the University." Expressing the delight of many wine dealers in the area, Lee Thompson, a wholesale dis- tributor, comments, "It's pret- ty hard not to be up in the wine market here. The only way you could miss is by not coming to work." Gallo wine boycott cuts sales By SANDY HAUSMAN City wine dealers disagree about the impact of a nation- wide boycott of wines produced by California's E. J. Gallo company. But the Wall Street Journal has listed the United Farm Workers boycott as one cause of a nine per cent drop in Gallo shipments last year. AS PART of the local boy- cott, the Farmworkers Support Committee continues to leaflet and picket the Village Crets store and a nearby Wrigley su- permarket on Friday afternoons and Saturdays. From 10 to 30 pickets are in- volved each week, according to support committee Director David Super. "We hope more people will be free to join this summer. Some public school students and teachers will be coming out," Super says. A meeting for present and prospective members will be held on June 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Michigan Union. The com- mittee plans a slide show of national strike activities along with a talk by one former strik- er from California. The strike end boycott against Gallo began last Mummer when the company recognized t h e Teamsters Union over the Unit- ed Farm Workers. A boycott called earlier against non-UFW table grapes is still is effect as well. THIS WEEKEND 8:30 $2.50 FRI.-SAT. KATE and ANNA McGARRIGLE wrote the "Wrok Song" and others as recorded by Maria Muldaur, Lot don Wainwright, Linda Ronstadt, etc. 14UR1 i EE .4. '1M Na mal Cominfm (w .. WaIsa5O ~mD.C.