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Lit Life Everybody should be so lucky as Mike Veseth — his lifelong intellectual passion is also his job. Veseth, an economics professor at the University of Puget Sound,specializes in international economics; subspecialty, wineeconomics. An award-winning teacher (he won the 2010 WashingtonProfessor of the Year designation by the Carnegie Foundation forthe Advancement of Teaching), Veseth studies, writes and teacheswine. He runs a lively blog ( wineeconomist.com ) and has a recent book out: "Wine Wars: The Curse of the Blue Nun, the Miracle of Two BuckChuck, and the Revenge of the Terroirists" (Rowman & Littlefield, $24.95). I don't even like wine, and I found Veseth's book lively andengaging. He agreed to answer some questions about the changingworld of wine: Q: Why did you decide to study the wine industry? A: I teach international economics, and every single issue that comesup there shows up in wine. Wine is a great example of somethingthat can be the same, then be transformed very quickly. I grew upin Tacoma and graduated from college in the 1970s. The wholehistory of Washington and Oregon wines has unfolded in the span ofmy adult life. Q: Compare a retail wine shelf of the 1960s with a wine shelf oftoday. A: The choices today are broader in every respect. Today we have morewine by the numbers, we have more types and styles of wines, wehave wines from more and different parts of the world, and at moredifferent price levels. There's something to be said for choosingsomething you like, but that has trade-offs — to experimentis to sometimes be disappointed. Q: Why is "Two Buck Chuck," the cheap wine sold at Trader Joe's, botha good thing and a bad thing? A: It's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned, because it has broughta lot of people into the wine market and wine culture. What do theyhave to lose? Two or three bucks ... many people taste it andthink, I like it just fine. Then they might try other things. The negative side is that some people think it will lead toarrested development, that people will think of Two Buck Chuck andnot go any further. But if people are happy with that, I can'treally criticize it. Q: In "Wine Wars" you talk about how protectionist policies canresult in bad wine. Give an example. A: In Washington state, (until 1969) we had protective measures tokeep California wines out of the state. People didn't have acomparison for what a better wine was like. Taverns were allowed tosell sweet wine of up to 18 percent alcohol content. WhenWashington opened up its wines to California, people could tastefine wines, and it forced Washington winemakers to move up to abetter wine. Q: In "Wine Wars" you talk about environmental impacts on the wineindustry. One is the high cost of shipping in heavy glass bottles,which some producers get around by shipping wine in giganticbladders inside oceangoing containers. A: Yes, they're 24,000 liter bags — you can see them on my blog( ). The international trade in wine goes more and more to these bulkshipments (the wine is later repackaged in bottles or boxes). Q: That kind of takes the romance out of it! A: (Laughs). Yes. Q: The other factor is global warming. You write that most of theworld's wine growing regions are between 30 and 50 degreeslatitude, north and south. In the northern hemisphere globalwarming could shift that 300-500 miles north. Could you go out on alimb and say what this portends for Washington state? A: It seems to me that it presents a mixed bag of effects. On the onehand, improvements to the growing season (longer) have so fartended to be positive and will be for some time. But there's alsothe increased variability in the seasons. A lot of Washington wineis quite susceptible to freezes. In the good years it (climate change) will make wine even better,in the bad years it can create a lot of uncertainty. It createsextremes that can be devastating for Washington wines. Mary Ann Gwinn: 206-464-2357 or. Gwinn appears every Tuesday on TVW's "Well Read," discussingbooks with host Terry Tazioli (go to /shows/well-read for archived episodes). On Twitter @gwinnma. I am an expert from laseriplrf.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Excimer Light Manufacturer , RF Beauty Equipment, RF Beauty Equipment,and more.
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