Just completed reading the rather nifty/interesting book. He is an authority on the subject of wine economics. That Mike is an admitted practitioner of the "dismal science" and still able to write an interesting & readable book is to his credit.
The book continually focuses on the "wine wall" that we find in any supermarket, WholeFoods, or TraderJoe's. It describes the impact of Two$Chuck and other commodity wines on the wine world from both a wine afficianado's viewpoint and an economist's view; contrasting the globalization of the wine market and the terroirist's approach. The book is free of vast tables of numbers, and usually just uses numbers to support trends in the wine market...not at all "dismal".
So....is the 2$Chuck phenomena and globalization going to drown the terroirist's approach to wine?? Mike is optimistic that it will not, that both ends will be represented and there will always be a place for the terroir-driven wines that most of us love; that 2$Chuck will allow the bottom-feeders of the market to, perhaps, move up into our sort of wine world.
Bottom line.....this is an informative, well-written, and interesting book that I would recommend to any wine lover interested in what a wine economist has to say.
Tom