Professor Karl Storchmann’s office, right off of New York’s Washington Square, functions as a workspace, library of wine history and culture, and his own personal cellar. Decades of editions from his publication, the Journal of Wine Economics, are piled in neat stacks, alongside a few cases of his favorite wines. “It just all goes together,” he says.
Storchmann serves as a clinical professor of economics at New York University, but much of his current work is dedicated to statistical analysis of the wine industry. The title “wine economist” is a modern term coined in the last decade or so thanks to scholars like Storchmann, who realised the potential for the wine industry to be analysed within this scope.
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VinePair chatted with Storchmann about his work as a wine economist, the trends wine lovers should be paying attention to, and more.
Why do you think that people tend to scoff at the term “wine economics?”
If you think back like 15 years ago, it was not a term and, and frankly, I don’t know if it is a term now. For us, it is a term and our meetings are global.
I think it’s frowned upon because it’s a mixture of work and pleasure. But over time, looking at wine from a quantitative point of view has become respected and even somewhat “sexy.”
How do your students react when you say that your specialisation is in wine economics?
In most cases, the first reaction is an amused smile. I think they all think it’s funny.
I teach all kinds of classes: microeconomics, urban economics, industrial organisation, and public finance. Although I do not teach an explicit wine economics class at NYU — I do in Bordeaux, though — I use numerous examples from the wine world in those more generalised classes.
What are some trends and problems in the industry that you think deserve more attention?
I think climate change is an important issue that is now getting its deserved attention. However, most studies draw on average temperatures and rainfall data, when the extreme may be more relevant. There is scope for more in-depth analyses.
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This insightful article was curated by Pieter van Niekerk, chief intelligence officer of Vintelligence. He is an ocean-loving cowboy who has built a successful career as an agricultural economist and agribusiness manager in the beef, horticultural, banking, and wine industries of South Africa. Born in Johannesburg, he holds a degree in BSc Agric Hons Agricultural Economics. He currently lives in Cape Town with his cattle dog, Thomas.