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February 6 2007
Ran across a triple-threat of interesting articles from last week, all found online, covering a wide spectrum of items in the wine industry and all having something of an element of equalization.
Over at The Pour by Eric Asimov, the New York Times writer comments on some regional wines as an entrée into AppellationAmerica.com (AA), a web site dedicated to, as they say, the “appellation-ization of North American wine culture.”
You have to give credit to Asimov. In addition to wading through spin about the “appellation-ization” of anything, he’s acting as something of a wine equalizer. Many in his position would use the bully pulpit to espouse the wines of California, or France or something more mainstream; wine that resonates with a literate, well-heeled reader. But, he frequently goes off the beaten path to discuss wines from less-known regions far a field from Napa or the rolling hills of Burgundy.
Asimov is slowly but surely building a body of work that celebrates non-California wines and wine regions, and he does so with evenhandedness that might be wrought maudlin by other less gifted writers.
In the article, found here, he also quotes Alan Goldfarb and Roger Dial from Appellationamerica.com. Goldfarb had this tidbit on AA:
“documenting terroir from the ground up and doing radical surgery on appellations to give them ecological authenticity.”
Or, this gem from Roger Dial:
“We’re here to establish an alternative place-force, an alternative understanding of producing wine.”
Did I say that Asimov comments with an evenhandedness that might be wrought maudlin by others? Ahem. I meant to say “hyperbolic.”
Good stuff, though, from the NYTimes and Asimov for allowing this sort of thing to be “All the news that’s fit to print.” Appellation America is doing good work and many newspapers would eschew their business and position to market in favor of something more mainstream.
On the other side of the island that is Manhattan, the New York Sun has a really terrific feel-good write-up (found here) on a guy named Jonathan Grossweiler, D.W.S. Grossweiler, one of only 98 Americans to hold the D.W.S designation, received his “Diploma in Wine & Spirits” from the British-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
The fact that Grossweiler is a Marine and a prison guard somewhere in New Jersey is the human interest angle to the story. The writer refers to Grossweiler as an ex-Marine, but really, once a Marine, always a Marine, I think. The fact that he is a prison guard at prison that houses sex offenders is unique enough to warrant a story.
Grossweiler started out in 1993 with a bottle of Carlo Rossi accompanied with Macaroni and cheese before moving to Chateau St. Jean chardonnay at Thanksgiving a couple of years later and finally moving to Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World Wine School in ’02.
He has a really simple, but brilliant quote in the article as well. While he admits in the article that wine was once intimidating, he notes now:
“I think that wine is one of the great equalizers of the world. Everyone has a nose, a palate, and so you meet all kinds of people and you drink wine together and talk about what you’re tasting.”
Grossweiler continues when asked a lame ass question about giving wine advice to the inmates,
“Not the inmates. But, I’m the resident wine geek for the other corrections officers. They’ll be lots of questions now that Valentine’s Day is coming and I’m glad to answer them. Why would you get knowledge and not help people out?”
Welcome to the wine world, Jonathan. We can use a few more good men like you.
Over at Wines & Vines they have an interesting business-oriented article on consumer direct wine sales—the great sales equalizer for many small wineries.
With recent statistics suggesting that the number of wineries in the country has doubled since 2000 to over 5,000 US wineries you would think that smaller winery owners would heed the call of consumer direct sales. Most small business people would LOVE to manage and interact with all of their customers, as ecommerce or consumer direct sales online allows you to do.
But, interestingly, surprisingly and shockingly this poll indicated that fully 34% of respondents agreed with the following statement:
“I should improve my company’s direct sales, but don’t know what changes to make.”
I think I know a couple of people in the business of wine technology that can help out here.
It takes a load of money to start a winery—winery owners are getting this dough from someplace. Here’s my question, for this great equalizing opportunity for small wineries: Why is marketing and technology in the wine space such a difficult concept to grasp? Why are the winery owners that have made money, obviously, in other industries so completely aloof in the ways and means of actually selling their juice to an actual customer, in a DIRECT way via ecommerce, for example?
Joe Consumer i.e. ME wants to buy the stuff. I think the answer may have to do with Amazon.com starting in 1996 and the Internet mania really occurring during the latter half of ’98 to about March of ’01.
Ahead of the curve …
But, please comment if you have other ideas or comments about the lag time between wine industry economic indicators and execution.
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January 22 2007
I guess I’m not too different from any number of millions of people that set New Year’s resolutions for themselves and then proceed to not heed the call of the gym, forsake dessert, and let lapse the desire to reconnect with the friend from high school that you haven’t talked to in 20 years.
One of my New Year’s resolutions was to be a part of Wine Blogging Wednesday every month this year. #1, I think it’s a great learning opportunity to share with your blogging peers, #2 It drives you into wine drinking areas that you may not have previously considered and #3 It’s fun
Alas, I missed my first Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW) this month, Wednesday, January 17th, and I’m a little bummed because it was related to Biodynamic wines—an area that I also set a resolution to learn more about in the coming year.
One of the significant challenges I had with the BioD selection is pure availability of wine—there are not too many producers doing the clearly disciplined BioD farming, a subset of those that farm organically, which is already a small selection out of the total amount of available wine and producers.
Earlier this month, at a Sunflower Market, which is something like a Wild Oats, or a Whole Foods Market, I picked up the Bonterra Syrah—not BioD, but certified organic. I figured Bonterra would be an interesting juxtaposition to BioD given Bonterra’s leadership role in organic and sustainable farming. In fact, I think they are converting some vineyards to BioD, as well, though the Syrah I selected was regulated under the certified organic foods act in California, 1990 and not approved by the Demeter Association, the BioD approving body. My post would then, therefore, be about the difficulty in locating BioD wines and an interesting tasting about wineries that operate in the organic domain—a net that is cast a bit wider than the quirky BioD.
Then, I was talking with a fellow wine blogger and mentioned the certified organic and he said, “Dude, it’s Biodynamics this month for WBW, not Organic.” Ah, details, details … Well, yeah, but maybe I can cheat a little bit …
Therefore swayed and not happy then with my initial wine choice, I went to one of the best wine shops in the city and they had one Biodynamic wine—a Sineann Pinot Noir that was $40 + a bottle and to boot, I had already tasted it at a tasting and found it interesting (lively even), but I was hoping to branch out in a different direction instead of plowing the same earth, so to speak. Plus, I really have to pick and choose my spots regarding impulse buying of $40 wines given that Mrs. Good Grape keeps an eye on the cellar and the checkbook.
Two trips searching for a BioD, I decided to scrap it—I could, ahem, always write an ipso facto post … related to BioD.
So, I guess this is something of a problem with the BioD wines—you really have to search them out. A quick scan of the wine posts at Fork & Bottle, the hosts for this months edition, and I think scarcity is proven as it’s a diverse lineup of wines, many of them foreign producers. Dr. Vino, though, did, in fact, taste and write about the Sineann Pinot from Resonance Vineyards that I had tasted at a separate function in November.
My overall take on BioD, given my limited tasting, is that there is something lively and refreshing about it—it’s the difference between drinking water and Gatorade to me. If I’m thirty, I really like both, but water is fresh, lively and invigorating while Gatorade is the same, but it’s more viscous, more overt, touched by the hand of man, perhaps.
I’ll continue the learning curve on BioD, for sure. In the meantime, I urge you to check out the posting reviews for this months WBW at Fork & Bottle—I think many people had some interesting discoveries around the freshness of these wines.
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January 9 2007
Somewhere in my wine blogging notebook, the one stuffed full of clippings, scrawlings and half-baked ideas that I use when I need inspiration for a blog post (which usually creates three ideas that I try to jam into one post that then becomes an unwieldy 1000 word essay, but enough about my pathos), I have the notion to create an all-star sitcom episode with the denizens of the wine blogosphere.
For example, Beau at Basic Juice would be Chuck from Happy Days—he is Richie’s wise older brother who appears on the scene occasionally to drop some pearls of wisdom and steal a home cooked meal before heading off into the night for some adventure.
Alder from Vinography might be Judge Harry Stone from Night Court—young, friendly and popular.
And, Tom from Fermentation might be Dr. Johnny Fever from WKRP in Cincinnati—the veteran, unaffected, cool, and laid back disc jockey at the station.
These are, of course, based on perceptions because I’ve never met Beau, and have only had fleeting digital contact with Alder. Tom and I have exchanged professional pleasantries, but we haven’t had the opportunity to break bread.
It might be a lot of fun to put people in categorical buckets based on perception, and have a little fun along the way, all in the spirit of fun and cooperation for a loosely organized, frenetic, all-over-the-map band of people doing something in the name of passion.
And, I guess that’s the intention of most awards, as well—create some order out of what can be quite chaotic—and to recognize those that are doing a good job.
So, many kudos have to go to Tom Wark at Fermentation for his development and launch of the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards.
The press release hit the wire and is getting a lot of traction as he points out here. There are six categories: Best Winery Blog, Best Wine Podcast or Video Blog, Best Graphics on a Wine Blog, Best Review Wine Blog, Best Single Subject Wine Blog and Best Wine Blog Writing.
It’s a shame that Tom cannot win, because pound for pound, with consistency and thoughtfulness, Tom’s blog wins hands down. It was Fermentation, in fact, that was a shining beacon of inspiration for this site in terms of being able to do a high-cut, general interest wine site without delving too much into reviews.
If Alder is the elder statesman of wine blogging, Tom is certainly your favorite uncle.
Nominate your favorite blog or blogs on the left hand navigation at Fermentation: http://fermentation.typepad.com
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December 17 2006
I should know by now that there are no new ideas.
I was stuck in an airport this past week suffering through a seven hour delay, ingesting Shipley’s donuts, McDonald’s, Skittles, Powerade and other comestibles best left to guys 15 years my junior.
Somewhere in between my sugary nutrition-less disposable food consumption and phone calls to be productive during a work day was the current Entertainment Weekly that had, curiously, a full page ad for Sunset Magazine’s Wine Club.
This was on the heels of reading the current issue of Wines and Vines magazine that gave a rundown of current wine clubs—California Wine Club, Avawines.com, Celebrations, Sunset, and several others.
Prior to this I had driven past a Blockbuster store in Houston that was shutting down with gigantic banners indicating to pay a visit to blockbuster.com.
Ah, the “Netflix Effect.”
Primed and attuned with my radar focused on wine clubs, I took a note down for a potential future blog post, “The Netflix of Wine.” I figured it might be a stretch, but what the heck—I’ve written about crazier things before. Sometimes I write some wacky ideas just to see if anybody is paying attention. Maybe this would be another opportunity.
Then I got home and started reviewing the Menu for Hope III wine prize lineup to see if anybody had bid on my Cal-Mid prize offering.
{Brief Aside: Please bid on my prize offering here. The current bid is $10. This is a brand spanking new book purchased expressly for this fundraiser ($30 value); a bottle of Oliver Winery Cabernet purchased expressly for this fundraiser ($20 value) and a bottle of the ’99 Heitz Cellars Martha’s Vineyard designate (at least a $130 value). I’m inclined to bid on my own prize offering so I don’t have to send that Heitz off for $10 bucks. Please help support a good cause and bid for WB13}
While checking out the Menu for Hope III program I ran across a prize offering from a new wine start-up called Wineq.com. They are new as in squeaking new as of this past week—Launch was December 11th.
Wineq is a start-up that has modeled itself after Netflix (a transferable business model) for the world of wine. And, they don’t make any bones about replicating the model. My genius idea, yeah, um, it launched on the Monday before my Thursday note to self. Better late than never, I suppose.
Their premise is simple: turn the modern wine club upside down.
And, for the most part, I like it.
In a perfect world, a wine club acts as a personal sommelier that delivers quality wines that you’ll like to drink straight to your door. In the new millennium I’m not so sure that a new paradigm isn’t called for and the Web seems like the most reasonable means to deliver service and selection.
Wineq does this. They are focused on the small, boutique, artisan wines, but their model uses their site to customize preferences for shipment—the frequency, the actual wines (just like NetFlix), quantity, etc.
So, if you want to receive 2 wines once a month for 6 months, you would queue up 12 bottles, pay your monthly fee and wait for the wines to come on your determined timetable.
I did say monthly fee because like NetFlix, they also charge a monthly service fee. According their web site, the fees mostly support free ground shipping on orders over $35. 2nd day air is a reasonable $5. Orders under $35 are charged a $5 shipping supplement.
I’ll have to see this in action, but if they are able to get customers to buy into the monthly fee and forget about the shipping then that will be a masterstroke. Research I’ve seen indicates that wine shipping costs are a tremendous online consumer wine shopping inhibitor and this serves to remedy that circumstance.
Overall, as you would expect from a launch, the number of wineries are few, but they indicate they will be signing up at least two a month. If they create any kind of Internet ripple, though, I suspect that will not nearly be enough to satisfy consumer lust for diversity.
Good luck to these guys, for sure. Anything that helps support the small winery is something I fully endorse. But, just as Tom at Fermentation recently noted that the number of wine blogs doubled in 2006, so too have the wine related Web based businesses. There’s likely fallout somewhere in the next 18 months as some of these businesses contract. I just hope that some of these small wineries are cultivating multiple channels of business and spreading the love around to a lot of different places. There are no new ideas, but winery sales channel diversification is a novel idea that most should be following.
Check out Tim’s post at Winecast.net, as well.
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December 11 2006
Led by the venerable Alder Yarrow at Vinography.com, I am participating in an online-based charity event for Menu of Hope III.
The excellent food blog Chez Pim is the catalyst for the event and 2006 marks the third year for leading a global charitable engagement—last year raised well over $17,000 for UNICEF.
This year’s recipient is the UN World Food Programme, which provides hunger relief for needy people worldwide.
November and December mark the annual high point for awareness for those that may be less fortunate. I encourage all Good Grape readers to support and engage in philanthropic activity in your local community as well as our global community.
And, please give if for no other reason than the fact that pride is a powerful motivator. Alder has thrown down the gauntlet—he believes this years event will earn double last years total to make a donation totaling almost $35K dollars.
How to Bid and Wine … er … Win
The campaign is a raffle for prizes. Browse the prizes, determine which one(s) you would like to try to win, and then you buy “virtual raffle tickets”—one for each $10 of donation you make to the cause on the special web site set up for that purpose.
When you make your donation, you simply specify the prize number(s) (each prize should have one) and the “number of tickets” your donation is buying. Donate thirty dollars and you will receive three tickets; use them for one prize, or for three. Please specify the prizes you are interested in winning.
I will blog on this at least weekly to encourage traffic to the site for bidding, please help do your part not only for my prize offering, but those of my fellow wine bloggers and Chez Pim’s organization around foodie sites. To see the entire line-up of great wine-related offerings, point your browser to Vinography.com and this link.
My offering for the Menu for Hope is a fabulous Cabernet gift pack: (photo found here)
Please reference prize offering WB13 when buying your raffle tickets.
You’ve heard of Cal-Ital’s? This is a “Cal-Mid” wine gift pack. Mid as in Midwest. This fantastic offering includes one bottle of the ‘99 Heitz Cellars Cabernet, Martha’s Vineyard designate. Scoring a 92 by Wine Spectator, this legendary California Cabernet can be found on various sites on the Internet for $130 + dollars a bottle. From WS: Spicy mint and bay leaf aromas mingle with ripe currant and black cherry fruit, turning smooth and elegant on the palate while displaying richness, depth and concentration; finishes with a full chorus of ripe fruit flavors and firm yet supple tannins. Drink now through 2012.
Complement your Napa Cab experience with a bottle of the 2004 Cabernet from Oliver Winery in Bloomington, IN. The winery crown jewel of the Midwest, Oliver creates compelling value-based wines using estate grown fruit and grapes from long-time contracts in California. Priced at $22 a bottle, you’ll get a wine that tastes like a $50 bottle priced for the Midwest market. Previous vintages have been medal winners at the Indy International Wine Competition, the 2nd largest wine competition in the country. Enjoy this brooding wine with moderate tannins and dark fruits after decanting for 1/2 hr. or use it as a conversation piece—a superb wine from the home of basketball that is barely in distribution.
While you’re pouring yourself a glass, turn the pages on Cabernet by Charles O’Rear. A beautiful coffee-table style book with color-drenched photo’s of the vine, the grape, and the people that make the wine this book will find a welcome spot in your home for you and guests to browse through for a 15 minute vacation. A $30 value.
All the Best,
Jeff Lefevere
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