Despite earlier problems with the 2011 harvest due to adverse weather, California has pushed ahead with its production. Fresh on the heels of this, Barbara Banke (of Jackson Family Wines) is to launch her company’s three best cuvés in the UK, and announced that Californian wine was moving away from its old, stuffy image.

California has carefully cultivated a new image for itself, shedding its ties with the Old World and sticking by its own terroir, according to Ms Banke. The three wines she’s pushing for a UK release are created by a French wine producer but are not replicating a French style, instead “[showcasing] the terroir and [having] a more refined sensibility”. These wines seem to be representative of a greater shift towards respect of the California surroundings and the notoriety they’re increasingly demanding.  Fine & Rare merchants said that they were “delighted to get availability of top American wines” as they’re often “too expensive to sell on”. The wines appeal to a clientele that is usually loyal to Bordeaux and Burgundy wines, as their pedigree is so high.

Ms Banke’s company, Jackson Family Wines, said that despite the wines being produced by a Frenchman, they “are not French wines by any means. They have a different profile, different harvest times… character” and that they were “standing by the California terroir”. In the long-run, this sounds like a wise strategy, with consumers increasingly in-tune and in demand of different regional wines for their own unique taste.  With California on the ball to its own unique terroir, the market is only going to increase in size and specificity.