A Journey Through Global Wine Trends

Ready to elevate your wine knowledge and discover hidden gems? Join us at the Bonita Bay Club as we sit down with Clubhouse Operations Manager Scott Manard and Wine Director Melissa Hemmingway. We'll chat about our latest wine promotions, including enticing discounts and complimentary options with dinner entrees on select nights. Melissa takes us through the success stories of our Thirsty Thursday events, where members have relished themed wine tastings such as those from the Rhone Valley and affordable selections from Caymus. Plus, get a sneak peek at our upcoming tasting of Niner wines from Paso Robles and learn how Melissa's recent trip to Greece has inspired some unique offerings at the club.

Curious about the changing trends in the global wine scene? Discover why wine enthusiasts are now turning their attention to regions like Australia, South Africa, and China, and what this means for the future of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons. As we delve into the rising costs of Napa wines, we'll unpack the growing fascination with exploring wines from diverse regions. You'll also be intrigued to hear about China's remarkable rise to becoming the largest wine-growing region in the world. This episode promises to keep you informed and excited about the dynamic world of wine. Tune in for insights, trends, and plenty of wine wisdom!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Hello, bonita Bay Club. Welcome to another edition of our podcast here at Bonita Bay Club. Today our guests are Scott Menard, he's clubhouse operations manager, along with our very popular Melissa Hemingway, wine director. Thank you. Today we're going to be talking about a couple of things that's going on at the club. This summer, you know things are a little quieter, but they're still pretty busy. I know we have a big promotion going on. Scott, maybe you'd like to chime in on that.

Speaker 3 0:33

Yeah, so we restarted the wine promotions we've done in the past. So with the purchase of any two entrees for dinner, you can get either 50% off any bottle of wine up to $100, complimentary corkage or a complimentary bottle of house wine, and so that's available on Thursday, friday or Saturday nights, again with the purchase of two entrees.

Speaker 1 0:55

Wow, that's a great deal.

Speaker 2 1:00

It seems to be already really well received. We've had people come in and enjoy it right away really well received. We've had people come in and and and enjoy it right away. We've had reciprocals come in and just be floored that they, you know, are being offered this and can't wait to come back. And it's been really nice.

Speaker 1 1:13

Right Cool.

Speaker 2 1:13

It's been a nice promotion it was great Scott.

Speaker 3 1:15

That was a good idea.

Speaker 1 1:17

Melissa, question for you. I know we've been doing a lot of thirsty Thursdays all summer. How have they been going?

Speaker 2 1:25

Really well. Last week we had 26 people. I want to thank everybody who was there for that. That was a really special Thirsty Thursday. We did the wines of the Rhone Valley in France, kind of piggybacking on the theme Everybody's enjoying the Olympics right now, so we did French. It was usually we do all of France, but we did a specific region. Again, we had 26 people. That really added great energy. And then to the dining room afterwards. So thank you for all of the participation. The fun thing about Thirsty Thursday at Bonita Bay Club is that we do it every Thursday except for Thanksgiving except for Thanksgiving. So it's a very consistent thing, even if we have 10 people, which sometimes we do in the summer because people are traveling or they have other things going on. But I love the fact that if it's five o'clock at Bonita Bay and it's a Thursday, there is a tasting happening. So this week we're featuring our everyday wines of Caymus, which are really exciting. They're kind of more approachable in price than our normal Caymus wine.

Speaker 1 2:30

I didn't realize that we had like everyday wines for Caymus.

Speaker 2 2:33

Yes, they do. They make quite a few wines. We usually do five wines. We're going to do six this week, including their new California designated Cabernet Brand new to their portfolio, brand new to us. It will be the first time we've tried it this week. What's the price line on that one? It's actually we're getting a great price on it. It's $25 for the California Cabernet Again, that's not the Napa Valley designated Cabernet that we're used to seeing. It is sourced from four different regions in California and we'll be trying it for the first time this week. I'm excited to roll that out with five of their other very popular wines.

Speaker 1 3:13

All right. Well, I hope members are listening and they come.

Speaker 2 3:21

I know they will be wonderful. Next week we're doing another really fun winery. We're doing a winery from Paso Robles called Niner. In the past it has been very popular. It really flies under the radar. Members really enjoyed the tasting we had a couple of years ago with Niner. We did have the winemaker here. This time we won't have the winemaker but we will be featuring their great wines.

Speaker 1 3:39

I think you do such a great job. I mean, it's such a wonderful experience for the members to come and really learn a lot about wines.

Speaker 2 3:46

Well, thank you.

Speaker 3 3:46

It's a fun, fun event every week and it's a really great social opportunity as well, especially for newer members who haven't had a chance to meet anyone yet. You can come in and everybody's having a glass of wine. Everybody mingles and introduces themselves.

Speaker 1 4:04

So it's a really good way to foster new and old relationships. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, so if you know, if any of our new members are here in the summer or they're just staying for a couple of weeks, coming down, take advantage of Thirsty Thursdays. I think it's a great, like you said, a great opportunity for them to network themselves and to get to know other members.

Speaker 2 4:20

I agree, I so strongly agree. I always say that if you're not going to meet people at Pickleball or at golf, or if you do meet people in those areas, then you come to Thirsty Thursday and you have this whole cross section of people who also enjoy food and wine. It's just another really nice group of friends to have at Bonita Bay Club.

Speaker 1 4:39

So thank you. Let's talk about any trips that you've taken this summer.

Speaker 2 4:44

Anything that members would be interested in, or I just was lucky enough to go to Greece and I did take a wine class with the sommelier in Greece.

Speaker 1 4:52

It was really fantastic.

Speaker 2 4:54

We do have three Greek wines on our list. We have two red wines and a white wine on our list. Currently, greek wine is very good. It's come a long way. I know it still has a long way to go, but it's come a long way. The wines that we have are very interesting. They're very good and I encourage people when you come in especially with the 50% off on a wine bottle try them. They're really really nice. You'll be very surprised. If you like Pinot Noir, we have a wine that's very similar to Pinot Noir from Greece. It's a different grape. It's an indigenous grape to Greece. I think you'll enjoy that. If you like a really nice refreshing white wine, we have a Syritico and for all of my wonderful Greek members I know I didn't say that very well, but that's the grape. It is difficult to say. A lot of the grapes are indigenous to Greece and unusual to us, but they're really tasty and they're just getting better every vintage.

Speaker 1 5:48

I don't think I've ever tasted a Greek wine.

Speaker 2 5:50

A lot of people say that they're nice, they're coming a long way.

Speaker 1 5:55

Might be a good Thirsty Thursday to do Greek night one Maybe down the road.

Speaker 3 6:01

You did one a long time ago, didn't you? We have? We've done them before. Oh, you did.

Speaker 2 6:05

And we were lucky enough to have Kirill, one of our wine reps here, who studied in Greece for a long time and he speaks Greek and he's really passionate about Greek wine. I'm sure he would love to come back and we'll invite him back to do that. I also have an upcoming trip in September for a week to go to the Rheingau region of Germany, and a lot of great Pinot Noirs are now coming out of Germany. We always feature a Pinot Noir from Germany at our Oktoberfest every year. I'm looking forward to discovering some new wines in Germany, and we'll have a German night, certainly, and we'll also feature those wines at Oktoberfest. Wow, that sounds great, I love.

Speaker 1 6:45

Pinot Noir, so I'll definitely have to try one.

Speaker 2 6:48

They're so great. Every year people are so surprised how much they like the German Pinot Noir.

Speaker 1 6:55

Wow.

Speaker 2 6:55

So fun things to look forward to, and one of my favorite events every year is our Oktoberfest.

Speaker 1 7:04

Okay, well, I just wanted to get together to talk about our promotions, talk to you, melissa, thank you, to make sure, and you too, scott, to just let members know what's going on in the summer. And then we're still busy, we're still plugging right along, we're getting ready for season, putting all the events together and all the wonderful social events that are coming up, and you know, we'll keep every you know all the members updated on everything that's happening. We'll have more of these podcasts with you, because it's I always find it very interesting to learn more about wine. Are there any new trends that are coming up?

Speaker 2 7:42

I I think I've said this before and I don't know if Scott Scott knows a lot about the trends that are happening to. He gets out a lot and always reports back to me things that he's seeing in different places he travels to and different areas of the country he goes to. More and more are people interested in lower alcohol wines because the wines are getting so high in alcohol because of just grapes getting more ripe, having more sugar, the sugar converting to alcohol, so the alcohol is getting heavier and heavier and I'm having people ask me for lower alcohol wines just because they're becoming so heavy.

Speaker 1 8:26

And are they just as good? Absolutely.

Speaker 3 8:30

Well, a lot of them are.

Speaker 2 8:31

Yeah, I think they're pretty well balanced. They're able to balance them, but what are you seeing, scott? Are you seeing more?

Global Wine Trends

Speaker 3 8:38

I'm seeing that and then a renewed interest in old world wines. So back to European styles and some of the newer new world regions. So you're seeing a little bit of spike in Australia, south Africa, compared to the like Napa cabs that used to be all their age. A they're getting a lot more expensive and B people are just expanding their worldview of the world of wine. It's wines grown basically everywhere, and so it's nice to look at new regions and see what things taste like and differences yeah, it really is.

Speaker 1 9:10

I'd love to try different wines from, like, south africa, australia, I mean. They're just and I know china's having a lot of new wines coming out of there they are.

Speaker 2 9:20

They are. That's right now the the largest wine growing region in the world. That blows my mind, yeah yeah, yeah. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 9:28

All right, well, thank you so much for joining us, melissa and Scott. We hope to have another one coming up soon, or maybe in a couple months and you're welcome to join us anytime If you want to anything new that you want to say to the members about wines. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 9:42

Thank you.

Speaker 1 9:42

Great to be here, thank you.