I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.

I'm Levy Dalton.

I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, What makes one grape variety better than another?

This is a good question to keep in mind as we watch the dynamic wine world change over the next several decades.

It's also a question to keep an open mind about.

I imagine we all have our own personal hierarchy of grape varieties, and for centuries the notion that one grape variety is supreme to another has shaped entire economies.

People with political power, kings in particular, and more recently presidents, have long pushed their personal drinking preferences on the regions under their control.

Louis the 14th, he really liked burgundy.

Thomas Jefferson imported Bordeaux to the Americas.

The SARS were into bubbly champagne.

And Philip the bold hated Gamey, so much that he banished it because he found it to be evil.

Gameh has a different place on my hierarchy of favorite grape varieties.

And in much of the EU today, American grape material is forbidden.

Well, just the scion part of it. Over the centuries, grape hierarchies have been

determined and driven by differing agendas.

The growers perspective often differs from the drinkers perspective.

In particular, when a region is dominated by large buyers who purchase fruit from smaller growers,

the way those growers are paid will affect which grape varieties become prominent.

For instance, if they're paid by weight,

growers will likely opt for higher yielding varieties.

But if they're paid by sugar content,

better ripening grapes may become more popular,

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