champagne discount generic+trademarks heidi+barrett howell+mountain+cabernet lamborn+vineyards napa propaganda tasting tour wine wine+blog
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.
Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print |
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
Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (6) | Print |
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.
Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print |
January 2 2009
With the nebulous term “value” being bandied about these days like a badge of honor, I thought it might be interesting to look at two “value” wines from the same winery.
Of course, “value” is a term that means 100 different things to 100 different people.
Value, to me, constitutes a wine that is (generally) under $15 that offers nice drinkability, but also a level of craftsmanship that is quality indicator denoting it as a wine that with some complexity and interest.
One-note fruit wines with a layer missing in the tasting profile, need not apply.
Sadly, over the course of the last two to three years, most domestic wineries abandoned the $12 - $15 category to move upstream, only to wish they could beat a hasty retreat now. The wine aisle is rife with $17.99 US-based wines that once occupied the $13.99 price slot.
Imports from South America seem to dominate this vacuum, even dipping down to the $9 range with some mildly interesting “value” wines.
Other rippling trends we continue to see is the West Coast butter-bomb backlash in Chardonnay with the the oaked vs. stainless steel trend seeing some nice growth along the lines of stainless.
And, of course, organic, sustainable, green and the like continue to see strong consumer interest, even if nobody really knows what it all means; sustainable means what exactly?
These burbling, bubbling trends makes Snoqualmie from Washington even more interesting – besides the fact that I have always liked the name Snoqualmie, which seems to me to be like Ketchikan, AK – a name vaguely exotic and interesting even if the towns themselves aren’t as interesting as their names.
Snoqualmie offer wines in national distribution, frequently in grocery and liquor stores, at the sub - $15 price point, and have an oaked and an unoaked (organic) chardonnay. They have got their bases covered. And, generally speaking, the popular wine critical press have marked various Snoqualmie varietals as good values over the last couple of years.
However, in reviewing their oaked and unoaked Chardonnay, color me surprised when the oaked Chardonnay came out as the better wine to my palate. And, if you consider that national distribution means a movement to a “house style” you can consider this review fairly consistent despite year-to-year growing differences.
It is not often that predominate notes of “pineapple upside down cake” will interest many wine folks, but their oaked Chardonnay is a tasty treat, particularly compared against their unoaked organic Chard which is more expensive and not as good.
If given a choice between the Snoqaulmie Oaked Chardonnay versus their organic unoaked (naked) offering I would say, “Drink This (Oaked), Not That (Naked).”
My Tasting Notes can be found below:
2007 Snoqualmie Naked Chardonnay
Posted in, Good Grape Wine Reviews. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print |
January 1 2009
What is the old saying, “Don’t cook with any wine you wouldn’t want to drink.” I am glad to note that the ’07 Hall Sauvignon Blanc makes a fine cooking wine and even better drinking companion.
Over the last two days, my wife made a delicious risotto called Risi Bisi (filched from Emeril Lagasse, I think) and a fondue. Both called for a cup of wine and both subsequently paired beautifully with a glass of the same Sauvignon Blanc.
One of the small joys and bits of laughter that makes everyday a discovery with my wife is the accidental happenstances that occur with her as a virtual teetotaler with amazing sensory capacity.
For example, she does not know that classic Sauvignon Blanc has notes of cat pee, though her nose may tell her.
So, it’s with no small amount of good humor that I have to explain to her that its all right as she stirs the risotto and exclaims, “This wine is off—it smells like Lulu (her cat growing up).”
Despite my wife’s infinite olfactory sense, it is difficult to pin Hall winery down with any level of finite finesse. This is a winery with many things going on, all seemingly successful.
If you didn’t know any better you’d think they’ve been doing it since the 70’s, but the reality is they are relatively new to the Napa Valley wine game – acquiring vineyards over the course of the last 20 + years, but the release of the Hall Cabernet coming in 2001 with the Sauvignon Blanc following in ’04.
Spend any time reviewing the web site or press materials that came with the wine sample and one thing that becomes very evident is that no expense is spared in any phase of Hall. This is a first-class operation – from the ongoing Frank Gehry designed winery and tasting room to the vineyards that have been acquired to fuel production growth, to David Ramey as consulting winemaker. Everything is done with high quality execution and winning in mind.
Hall is doing it right because the Sauvignon Blanc is delicious, hitting all the right notes – varietally correct on the nose, with abundant acidity and ripe California fruit—the standard by which other CA Sauvignon Blanc’s can be compared.
And, it went great with the risotto, too.
My tasting note can be found here.
Lindsay’s Risi Bisi Risotto recipe:
Posted in, Good Grape Wine Reviews. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print |
Enter your email address for a monthly summary of posts, additional news and information available only to email subscribers. Your email is never rented, nor sold to anybody else!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Design by The Blog Studio
