On Sunday, April 25^th wine writers, bloggers, winemakers, growers and wine enthusiasts will meet at Landsdowne Resort near Leesburg, Virginia for the 2010 Drink Local Wine Conference. With the conference only two days away, I began to reflect on the meaning of drink local wine as interpreted by restaurants.

I have a few observations after eating in many restaurants. Some restaurants simply do not understand the concept of drink local wine. To them the term local is a country rather than a state or an area within a state. When asked to see a list of local wines, they think of local as the United States and present a list of California wines. Restaurants need to be educated as to the meaning of drink local wine. A second observation is that many of the restaurants that do understand the terminology simply do not want to risk putting local wines on their menu. A restaurant that serves people from out of the region, such as a restaurant close to an international airport, incorrectly assumes that they need an international portfolio of wines. They want to present a wine list that their patrons will recognize rather than a wine list that suggests trying the local wines. When I travel to anywhere in the world, I’m more interested in the local cuisine including local wine than having the familiar.

Education is obviously one of the methods to change perceptions of local wine. The DrinkLocalWine.com website helps. Their conference in the spring and regional wine week event in the fall help to gather wine writers and bloggers. In addition, wineries should consider approaching restaurants and introduce their wines. There was a time not that long ago when a California wine was unheard of in a New York City restaurant. Wineries can’t assume that if they make wine in a community that people and restaurants in that community will come and discover their wines. There are some wineries that do a good job of educating restaurants and have had success in getting their wines on restaurant wine lists. However, it seems that the winery must approach the restaurant rather than the other way around. Education is a key concept if the drink local wine movement is going to gain momentum.