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January 5 2009
Cleverness used to be the province of advertising copywriters who used a smart turn of phrase to spark a grin, in whatever format – advertising, sales copy or collateral.
These days, however, most anybody can user their punditry to turn themselves into their own publisher.
Just a scant two years ago, SmartsCo had the corner on a niche related to intelligent fun with wine-related trivia and games, and now days you can barely turn around without seeing a new publisher turn up.
I am all for it, frankly. The proletariat nature of consumer goods creation that doesn’t require an engineering degree, from people that are those same consumers, can only mean items that tend to resonate with the intended audience.
For example, as an ardent wine enthusiast, if I see another wine t-shirt in a winery tasting room that says, “I love to cook with wine … and I occasionally put it in the food, too,” I am going to get sick.
Who wears these shirts? The answer is nobody that actually enjoys wine regularly as an enthusiast.
I went into a new wine chain, WineStyles, here in Indianapolis and was faced with panoply of this garbage schwag.
So, it is with some interest that micropublishing and products companies like Cerebral Itch, Knock Knock, and Popptags come to market.
All of them have pithy, fun, interesting items like removable wine labels for gifting, tasting note pads and wine bottle neckers.
Pair one of those up with a handmade wine charm from Etsy and you have the makings of a nice, inexpensive gift, all without the typical cliché—that is something I will drink to; now if we can just eradicate the grape bunch cheese knives from existence we will be getting somewhere.
Oh, Press Releases …
While I am on my curmudgeon kick, if you want a good laugh, there is no need to surf YouTube for silliness.
You see, when my wife wants to take a quick five minute mental break, she heads to Facebook or Petfinder to look at cute puppies, I, however, head to press release distribution outlets and search for wine.
If you think the stuff you read from blogs and newspapers is sometimes moronic, you should see what does not make it through the filter.
And we wonder why the popular wine press is out of touch and whether advertising influences editorial. Well, duh, of course it does, even if subconsciously. How many press releases can be sent out about a new solar array at the winery before your eyes glaze over?
PR Newswire, Webwire, PRWeb, Wireprnews.com all will do the trick.
The Best Wine Book You Have not Read (x2)
If I had a small wish for anybody that reads wine blogs, it would read two wine books that I’m virtually certain are off the radar – Decantations by Frank J. Prial – a collection of his essays from the New York Times dating back to the early 70’s and Wine Style by Mary Ewing Mulligan.
Prial’s essays / column and the ensuing book are essentially blogging before there was blogging (or the Internet).
And, upon re-review of this title, I think it is fair to say that a number of prominent bloggers have been influenced by his writing style, me included.
Wine Style by Mulligan, no connection to the wine retail operation, is simply, a beautiful primer on palate development – it should be a preeminent book in wine enthusiast libraries right next to Jancis Robinson, but, alas, I think bad promotion killed it before it got out of the gate. If you get a chance, buy it used on Amazon. It is a gem.
La Historia
My good friend, Dan, formerly of Inertia Beverage Group, made a Cabernet Sauvignon last year using grapes that did not make the harvest cut at Dutcher Crossing. He borrowed cellar space on borrowed time (getting booted early when the wine was on the skins, too), borrowed barrels, sourced free bottles, got some corks from the rubbish bin at Clos du Bois and had a friend make a label.
Of course, this wine is not intended for sale, and only a barrel was made. It will never see the light of day outside of his Sonoma county friends and family … except for me.
I bid and bid on that case of La Historia at a silent auction last year and won it for a $150 donation to the Napa Food Bank.
You know what, this being Dan’s first vintage, and *everything* being free for the wine, this is, perhaps, the most satisfying wine I have had in ages … it’s vin de table for sure, with an askew label to boot, but you can’t beat the back-story and the wine is surprisingly full bodied and delicious.
I gave away nine bottles of the wine during the holidays, the story being too good. “You will not be able to find or buy this wine anywhere, ever.” And, the quality is satisfying as a gift.
I need to hit Dan up for some more of his ’07 personal history in the bottle with La Historia, but my overall point is that sometimes it is about the story as much as it is about the wine.
I do not have a big fantasy about living in wine country, visits do me just fine, but if I did have a wish, it’s to run into more of these garage wines that never see the light of day for any type of commercial sales.
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January 4 2009
On Blogging, Twitter and Social Media in ‘09
Just as I start my Twitter account, my lingering and long hesitation to doing so being “something else to manage,” I begin reading multiple accounts of “lifestreaming” – the notion of simplifying social media engagement.
Great.
Now the flotsam & jetsam bumping around in my head will not have a righteous outlet in order for me to share the brilliance that many a boss has likewise failed to recognize.
Based on what I am reading, I would not be surprised to see FriendFeed have a meteoric rise this year along with more disciplined focus from bloggers who want to continue to use their blog as a personal branding platform.
Over the last week I began to make some slight changes to this blog –most will not be noticeable, but they were long overdue, and one thing I noticed while cleaning up links is the absolute massive turnover in wine related blogs that have been abandoned.
In the wine blogging niche, we like to talk about how many blogs there are as a signal of growth – what we do not talk about is how many crappy wine blogs there are and how many of them are abandoned after a short time.
Here is my prediction for wine blogging in 2009 – wine blogging has peaked.
We will not see as many new entrants, or good entrants as we have over the last two years. Many blogs will turn dusty and abandoned.
Social media like Twitter and Facebook is too easy to engage in the online wine conversational jetstream without having to do the messy hardwork of actually writing.
We will see a sharp contraction in the number of wine blogs and wine blogs will more clearly demarcate this coming year into unspoken, but known tiers based on traffic and influence.
As a sidenote, the best quote I have read that brings social media into focus is (paraphrased), “Social media is nothing more and nothing less than customer service – the only difference is the people you are interacting with aren’t customers yet.”
The Best New Wine Blog You Aren’t Reading
My predictions on wine blogging aside, there is one new entrant on the wine blogging scene that is doing a fantastic job with frequency, quality and authority.
Over two years ago, I wrote a post about who might emerge as a wine celebrity and I suggested that Alpana Singh, a Master Sommelier in Chicago, would be my bet – she mixes exotic good looks with serious wine chops.
Alas, that has not come true, just yet, but she is doing a fine job blogging, which she started in November of ’08.
What would Alpana Drink? is everything an engaging blog should be – light, pithy, funny, smart, educational, frequent, local, but national, slightly personal and non-offensively promotional, with a point of view.
Recent highlights include a Trader Joe’s wine review (from a Master Somm.!!), travelogue posts from a trip to Argentina as well as hilariously pointing out an absurd Sandra Lee video from the Food Network.
Thoughts on Things that are Interesting to Me at THISVERYMOMENT
The 2004 Dry Creek Vineyard “Endeavor” Cabernet Sauvignon is fantastic wine. Rich, silky, and balanced. It is a PERFECT combination of fruit and earth. If I drank it last week instead of this week, it might have been my wine of the year for 2008.
I received it as a sample, but for $55, this wine is a price performer. Not sure if there are any ratings on the ’04 as it was just released in December, but it is not hard to see this is a 93 – 95 point wine from Spectator.
Other bits of randomness from my “lifestream” are:
1) As much as I have tried to eliminate magazines from my life, it is a difficult habit to break. I have found that I now just want to replace the ones I cancelled with magazines I haven’t had before. Maghound.com at least lets me subscribe to “magazines” on a monthly basis, like Netflix … kind of.
2) Antennae magazine is a nicely produced magazine and not overwrought given its subject matter – trendspotting.
3) My wish is for every state to have their own guidebook to local comestibles. Homegrown Indiana is a nice book and inspiring to me to eat with a local bent because I can see how easy it can be.
4) The best new band I have heard in ages (two + years) is The Gaslight Anthem and their album “The ’59 Sound.” I love, love, love this album. It is impossible to listen to this album and not get a shot of energy. Plus, they cover a song from Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise, who are very underappreciated.
5) Not sure what to make of it, but the books that I am planning to read all center around three themes – digital marketing, self-discovery road trips and sustainable living
6) Saveur.com is an underappreciated magazine with a great web site – and the web site has a nifty winery directory
7) I am enamored with my new iPod Touch. I already have a iPod and a phone, but I got the Touch to see what the future of computing looks like. Yes, it looks like the future of computing …
8) I have always been fascinated with “scenes.” Right now I am reading Hotel California about the singer-songwriter movement in LA in the mid-to-late 60’s and early 70’s.
9) I am eagerly awaiting the annual release of “Hopslam” Ale from Bell’s Brewery on January 7th
10) The New York Times online archive is an underappreciated tool.
11) A couple of my resolutions for this year are to continue to try to eliminate as much fast food out of my diet as possible. That said, McDonald’s double cheeseburgers and Taco Bell are good … and nearly impossible to resist
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January 3 2009
I have always been fascinated by movie and tv pitches—the stuff of lore whereby millions of dollars are ponied up based on a three sentence summary. Movie pitches are the elevator pitch distilled to just 15 seconds.
Typically comprised of three short sentences, the movie pitch has become something of an art - first sentence is premise, second is conflict, third is resolution, all are succinct.
Given that most wineries focus on their backstory, one wonders why wineries haven’t been cheekily reduced to a movie pitch before ... though one can argue that James Conaway has mined that territory in long, book form ...
Two side notes—Conaway has a new book out called Vanishing America that touches on Napa Valley. Bottle Shock the movie is out on DVD on February 9th.
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December 30 2008
I was going to give this post the headline, “How not to be an assh*le in the New Year, but figured that might be a touch strong; just the same, I put it in the lead. Magnanimous of me (and subtle), I know.
I have several pet peeves, and unfortunately, they cannot all be solved at once. I will forsake a diatribe on people who do not return shopping carts to the corral and (usually the same) people that drive Range Rovers and tote their Whole Food groceries in reusable bags, but don’t recycle at home, and the absolute scourge that is bottled water, which these non-cart returning, Range Rover driving people are usually hauling, as well. Instead, I will focus on two things that everybody can do in the New Year that will positively affect your wine life.
1) Learn something new
2) Throw away your nice wine glasses
Learn Something New
Alice Feiring said something that has stuck with me. At the Wine Blogger Conference she noted (and I am paraphrasing) that magazines are going prosaic and blogs are going polemic.
It was an astute observation.
In the three years that I have been doing this blog I have seen some marked changes. Besides the fast food culture of blogging proliferating, we are now seeing a visual fast food to boot. Before long, a long form blogger who writes 500 – 750 words a post without eye candy graphics will be an absolute anachronism. However, more disturbing to me is an undercurrent of position taking on what is right and what is wrong.
This “taking sides” issue is prevalent around new world vs. old world, wine ratings, biodynamics, and many other positions.
In my humble estimation, it would be nice if we all assumed the position of independent voters and took reasoned issue with the issues. We can be socially liberal, fiscally conservative, believe in the death penalty, be pro-choice, and for guns. Positions are not mutually exclusive of on another.
I can dig on California wines, but not be for +15% alcohol wines. And, I can change my opinion from week to week, as context is revealed to me.
Before long, the whole world will be broken out into polemic camps ala MSNBC liberal media vs. Fox News railing against that liberal media bias, or at least those that opine will be broken into those camps.
That said, one of the things that I strive to do on a frequent basis, to inform my opinion, is take up a subject that I have very little knowledge of and I attempt to understand that information niche. It helps round out my perspective.
However, I have little doubt that most people do not venture very far afield from who they are as a core person, not growing very substantially outside of their comfort zone.
My challenge to all who read this blog is to be intellectually curious. I have my Mom to thank for this, as she never stops learning and growing. Go to Border’s, Barnes & Noble or even Google Blog search and look for magazines, books and blogs around topics that you have a glancing interest in. Spend the next 12 months learning about it with as much depth as possible. Move on to something else. Regardless of what the subject matter is, it will inform your worldview, which will inform your passion (wine).
My subject matter for 2009 is outdoor adventure (think Outdoor magazine and National Geographic Adventure magazine). I am not a big workout-at-the-gym person, but whenever I commune with nature, I always feel good about life and myself. I am not sure what I will learn by jumping into this outdoorsy niche, but I already know that Redwood Creek wine focuses on this special interest group. Leave a comment and tell me what you have a tertiary interest in learning more about.
Give Away Your “Nice” Wine Glasses
Just as I rant against the polemics of blogs, I am guilty of the same. However, I must unabashedly confess that expensive stemware is the bane of my existence.
The thought of spending money on Waterford, Riedel or Spiegelau (or glassware that is even more expensive) for certain varietals is completely ludicrous to me.
If you are telling me that a nice Chardonnay or Burgundy is made more enjoyable by proper presentation in the proper glass then I will show you a person that does not deign to purchase a Toyota Camry because a Lexus is a better-made vehicle. Alas, they are essentially the same car, at the end of the day.
I drink wine every single day out of one of four vessels – Dollar Store wine tumblers, glass coffee mugs, handmade pottery tumblers, or cheapy wine glasses from winery tasting rooms.
These wine delivery vehicles, as far as I can tell, do not affect the aromas or enjoyment of said wine.
Drinking wine ‘paisano style’ in a tumbler is the way to go with me. Regardless of how big a wine dork you are, your less enthusiastic wine drinking acquaintances will immediately mark you as one of the bunch and not an assh*le if you drink your beverage of choice in the humblest and least pretentious way possible.
January and February are great months to throw a dinner party – weekends are generally quiet before spring and people clamor for the opportunity to get together. Those nice wine glasses you use everyday or have in the china cabinet can be donated to Goodwill for a tax write-off. Go to the Dollar Store and replace them with two dozen wine tumblers for a buck apiece. Revel in the fact that you are not a wine snob in the New Year. Even better, revel in the fact that you are not a wine snob while you converse with friends about new found topics …
Auld Lang Syne.
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December 23 2008
Swirl, practically speaking, isn’t confined to a wine glass.
For example, this week, as I was traversing the interstate here in Indianapolis, I was randomly thinking of my most embarrassing wine-related moments—mental swirl, if you will.
... like the time I went to a holiday party and the hostess gave me a glass of red wine on the rocks. Not my embarrassment, but just the same …
Or, the time I was re-gifted a bottle of wine that I had given six months prior. Not my embarrassment, but just the same …
No, my most embarrassing wine moment was much more grimace-inducing.
Mind you, I am a lapsed Catholic. Being a Catholic is the surest thing there is to a birthright to enjoying a good tipple. And, in that insular Catholic kind of way I guess I assume everybody enjoys a cocktail.
About 10 years ago when I was a budding, yet neophyte wine lover, I flew solo on an out of town meeting to visit a tech company in Utah. For reasons unbeknownst to me, Utah has a vibrant business culture, particularly around technology. In this case it was a tech company that had a Linux distribution.
After our meeting, we went to dinner at a nice restaurant whose name now long escapes me. It was probably a steak joint. I was 26 at the time sitting with a bunch of guys (seven of them) who were all in the family-and-gray-hair-age-range.
I’m often amazed these days at the grace, poise and wherewithal of twentysomethings. Many are so well-spoken and mature for their age. Um, 10 years ago, I was not one of those guys. The gents I was about to enjoy dinner with didn’t seem like peers to me as much as they seemed like elders.
Despite my youth, I did have the sense that as the host of the dinner, it was incumbent upon me to order wine for everybody. And, folks, therein lay the folly in this story from my “never to be spoken of again” memory vault.
As I was examining the wine list, I did a spot-check around the table to see what everybody was going to order. Meanwhile, the waiter was taking drink orders while I perused the wine list.
I found it odd that most everybody was ordering a coke or some sort of soda. “Typical Utah,” I thought. They drink soda and wine together at the table. “They’ll probably drink red wine with fish, too.”
Undaunted, I proceeded to order four bottles of two different reds and two bottles of a white in that medium price point that denotes “special occasion” or “expense account” without being too extravagant, or cheap.
We proceeded to plow into appetizers, while the gang merrily slugged away at their soda.
Then, a phalanx of table service folks arrived at the table with stemware and corkscrews. Three glasses each because we had three different wines and, of course, ceremoniously, I had to ensure that the bottles were fit to drink, which I approved with a swirl, sniff and sip.
Imagine my surprise as the waiter/sommelier started in on pouring for the guests and one after the other, every single person declined a glass of wine, until the waiter got to me. The wine bottle(s) from which I sampled, still untouched.
My pour was agonizingly slow and loooooooooong as the waiter seemingly thought I was either an idiot or I was going to be drinking a lot of wine.
Now, most people who are reading this, based on my physical geography at the time, can now deduce that I was seated with a bunch of Mormons, yet my cluelessness went one step further.
As I proclaimed in mock protest, “What? No wine?” “C’mon guys,” the gent seated to my left leaned in politely to say, “We’re Mormon. We don’t drink alcohol.”
And, at that point in time I turned as crimson as the glass of freshly poured wine that sat in front of me. I wanted to drink all four bottles of wine, or crawl under the table, one of the two.
And, in one fell swoop, there went the plans to take them to the strip joint after dinner, too.
The morale of the story? I would like to say it is to have better social graces, but, frankly, I think the morale is to defer to the most senior person at the table, assume you’re with teetotalers in Utah and, yeah, well, don’t tell your boss that 3.5 bottles of wine were left at the table on the company dime.
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