Charlie Leary's articles on Panama and wine
Charlie Leary, PhD, regularly writes about the wine market in Panama as well as how Panama's history has intersected with the wind industry.
 The Angelo Petri wine tanker
The Tale of the Angelo Petri
Charlie Leary In 1966, the US Senator and presidential candidate John McCain’s father, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr. spoke about wine in congressional testimony: Gallo’s “Thunderbird,” to be exact. Yes, that “fortified” wino’s wine (20-21% ABV) that floated Gallo’s boat to such a degree it came to submerge competitors in the California wine industry. The 4-star Admiral berated the contemporary head of federal maritime affairs, Nicholas Johnson, who stated when appointed in 1964 that he “knows nothing about shipping.” Speaking with a Stars & Stripes reporter at a Japan Embassy event amidst the Vietnam War, Johnson had started rambling “about handling bulk cargos in shiploads […] and mentioned the wine tanker Angelo Petri.” The reporter asked whether he “drinks that lousy Thunderbird wine?” “No,” Johnson replied, “It tastes like it went around in a tanker.” Beside himself, Admiral McCain specified: To this committee, I cannot help but observe that any young man . . . who engages in this hind of undignified childish prattle simply does not have the judgment to carry on the duties of his office. . . . Our people built [the Angelo Petri], and have repaired and overhauled annually each year [….] This tanker is a matter of some pride in our merchant navy. It is the only one of its kind under our flag. Probably the only one in the world exactly like it, with stainless steel tanks, piping, and valves, so that the wine never touches anything but stainless steel, a very expensive ship. The owners are proud of the ship, and very jealous of the quality of their product. You could eat a meal off the bottoms of those tanks, and this young man has the gall to point out that wine which he terms “lousy” tastes like it was transported in a tanker. During the growing renown for finer-quality California “table wine,” American wine’s, and with it, the nation’s, Cold War reputation lay in the balance, publicly besmirched by the ineloquent maritime administrator (and to the troops no less). “This at a time,” continued McCain, “when President Johnson has ordered that all wines served in American embassies must be American wines.” The Angelo Petri, however, did not belong to Gallo; nor did it regularly haul sticky Thunderbird through the Panama Canal Zone, where three generations of McCains once lived. Getting wine out of California to the rest of the country was the issue. Read the full article at Tim Atkin MW . . . |
Scandals and opportunities: how the Panama canal changed Bordeaux
Charlie Leary No two 19th century worlds could have contrasted more sharply than Bordeaux and Panama cities: the former bourgeois, stolidly urban, bordered by vineyards bathed by a cool maritime climate; the latter poor, tied and bound by humid jungles, scorching heat, and disease, a mere appendage of a larger former Spanish colony from which it was isolated by the impenetrable Darien province, a vast wilderness known as the ‘Darien gap’. The former represented the Old World and the latter the New World. Both were wine markets. One knowledgeable observer described Panama in the early 20th century: “Panama . . . had already developed a personality of its own. Its culture was the result of Spanish traditions, French inspirations and some North American imitations. The country’s upper class reflected most fully these trends. The lower class was composed of native blacks, Indians, mulattoes and mestizos that found a common link in the Spanish culture. As a result, the latter was enriched with the contributions received from the influx of these different groups”. Read the full article at Inside Bordeaux . . . The Panama Wine Scene and Market
Charlie Leary Panama is a small (4.1 million persons) Central American country bordered by Costa Rica, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and Columbia. It is home to the Panama Canal and the second largest free trade zone in the world after Hong Kong. In 2018, Panama’s domestic wine market was about $24.1 million USD, having increased dramatically from about $16.4 million in 2017 (to be fair, 2016 was about $22.1 million). Panama has no domestic wine production due to its geographical location. The top wine importing countries are Chile (24%) and Spain (23%), followed by Argentina (15%), France (13%), and the United States (12%) (2018 figures). Looking at a 5-year history, Spain is a standout for import growth, having increased from 18% in 2014 to 23% in 2018. Italian wines, as well, seem to be experiencing a burst of popularity (8.4% in 2014; 9.8% in 2018). Australia remains surprisingly low (1.4% in 2018). Imports from the United States appear stagnant, which is also somewhat surprising given the existence of a free trade agreement, close links, and geographic proximity. France captured 52.5% of the $2.4 million sparkling wine market in 2018, followed by Spain (16.9%) and Italy (13.2%). Read the full article at LinkedIn . . . |
