April 6 2006
The issue of terroir in the wine world receives a great dealof ink. The simmering debate over thenovel concept of wine as a function of time, place, climate and circumstanceversus wine as a part of a mechanized process is running in parallel to asimilar movement in the food industry. The Slow Food movement strives to return our foodstuffs to a morenatural state and by doing so it also normalizes our lifestyles, as well.
This Alice Waters meets ConAgra debate is developing quicklyand in response to the production agricultural companies that create chickennuggets in the form of smiley faces for the 3 year-olds of the world.
I use the food illustration to really draw an immediatecontrast because some would have you believe that the concept of terroir inwine is that stark.
But, it’s not really. If I were to use a political analogy, I would be the disaffected in aswing state. I’m not sure. I tend to like the bracing undercurrent ofminerality in an Old Vine Zinfandel, but at the same time, I think some labelsare doing some very nice things with blends that do not have a strict lineage.
Just as I prefer local Mexican, sometimes Taco Bell can doin a pinch.
And, frankly, the other reason that I’m on the fence aboutthis whole thing is because of my geography. I live in the Midwest. Mostwineries here get their start either by buying grapes in bulk and beginning thewinemaking process or by buying wine in bulk and blending up a Table Red. Then, after some of their hybrid vines takehold, we see some estate bottlings of varietals like Chambourcin or Chardonel,or the “Soft Red” or “Soft White” that typify the slightly sweeter wine palatefor wine newcomers in the Midwest.
But, here’s the rub, in my estimation on the terroirargument for wines that are made outside of the wine growing stronghold statesof CA, WA, OR, NY—in my opinion, if you are a fine wine drinker, Chambourcinisn’t going to cut it for you. It’sjust not that inspiring. You can make adecent wine out of it, but its not going to knock your socks off. But, that doesn’t mean the winery isn’tsomehow doing work that doesn’t deserve merit. And, therein lies the rub—I’m all for local, small wineries, butsometimes their wines are just not as good (at $16.99) as a Californian wine at9.99. But, I don’t want to penalize thewinery or tasting room experience here in the Midwest based solely on that.
But, what’s really interesting is something that’s happeningon the wine kit side of the business. For many home winemakers, they buy their juice from concentrate and gothrough the winemaking process in a couple of steps in their basement—the results,at least what I have had, tend to be quaffable, but not remarkable—equivalent tothe thin uninspiring wines that can be found at the grocery store for $5.99.
But, I ran across this the other day.
You want to talk about a paradigm shift—especially if andwhen this makes its way into a retail channel or some other mass-consumeracceptance.
From the Blog: Mass-Customization
So I was very much surprised when I learned about Elite Vintners, a Canada based companyproviding custom wine on the internet. While wine may only classify as food inFrance, it is a product perfectly suited for customization for the same reason,given all the different preferences and taste. And I was really impressed bythis company’s approach to customization. They created an online configurator,a real toolkit, to customize your next bottle of wine: www.elitevintners.com. This toolkit isremarkable as it is one of the very few toolkits which enter the field of tastewhich is much more difficult to describe and customize as fit or functionality(a similar toolkit is IFF’s toolkit for industrial food flavors, described in apaper byStefan Thomke and Eric von Hippel). In the US, Crushpad from San Francisco offersa similar service, but based on personal selling, not an internet configuratorof the kind of Elite Vintners. While for Europeans this kind of blending and mixing of wine concentrates,yeast, an oak "flavors" is still a bit strange, the system just replicatesthe normal way of wine making in many "new world" wineries.
If you want to get a wine guy that is keenly interested inthe concept of terroir and the “New World” versus “Old World” argument alltwisted up in a furor, talk about alcohol content. And, here, you can manipulate your alcohol content. Wouldn’t it be interesting if, particularly with the loosening of shipping requirements in the states, Yellowtail replaced their grocery store end-caps with a kiosk--a kiosk that leverages their brand to allow customers to create--based on Yellowtail recommended "recipes" a customer blend that would be delivered to them in the next three days. Do you think a progressive twentysomething who is wearing Nikes, Jeans, and a T-shirt all micro-created for him or her would be interested? I’m guessing the answer is yes.
The whole concept of customized wine is interesting, as isthe entire argument of terroir versus wine with no discernible sense of place.But, for now, I’m going to remain politely neutral enjoying both terroir-basedbottles of poetry along with a quaffable table red for my pasta.
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April 4 2006
From The Office, 2005:
DwightSchrute:In the wild, there is no health care. In the wild, health care is, "Ow, Ihurt my leg. I can’t run. A lion eats me and I’m dead." Well, I’m notdead. I’m the lion, you’re dead.
When I was coming out of school in the mid 1990s, I needed healthcare, and a steady income--the parental umbilical cord having been cut. Before graduating, however, I took a mediaresearch class where, for approximately 100 minutes, spread out over two classsessions, we reviewed what was previously known as the Information Superhighway that was then manifesting itself as the World Wide Web (WWW). We talked about using the WWW as a tool forjournalism research—Yahoo! and Webcrawler were amongst the highlights. Later that year, while doing an internship Ihad Internet access from my computer—albeit at 2400 baud—which was effectively22X slower then a 56K dial-up modem which is too slow now if you have DSL whichis too slow if you have broadband at home. It was slooooooooow.
The highlight of that Internet access during my internship was -–regrettably— gettingmy first job at a small and forgettable advertising agency in Indianapolis, IN thatwas designing web sites in addition to seeing the object of my youthful affection, AlyssaMilano, nude from a recent movie she was in, Embrace of the Vampire. The latter far outweighing the former in thrill.
But, this Internet access essentially sent me in the direction of technologyas a career path and abandoning, for the most part, the advertising career Ihad previously just gone to school for. I haven’t regretted that decision.
In the ongoing chronicle of the wine youth movement, acouple of recent articles highlight this ongoing trend--wine--a passion, or a new personal interest for many of these young post-collegiate students, who are coming of age as a “Core” wine drinker, numerous reports show that they are pursuing a career inwine.
This jives with what marketers say are stereotypical characteristicsof Gen. Y as employees:
Unlike thegenerations that have gone before them, Gen Y has been pampered, nurtured andprogrammed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they areboth high-performance and high-maintenance, Tulgan says. They also believe intheir own worth.
"GenerationY is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type ofmanagement still popular in much of today’s workforce," says JordanKaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long IslandUniversity-Brooklyn in New York. "They’ve grown up questioning theirparents, and now they’re questioning their employers. They don’t know how toshut up, which is great, but that’s aggravating to the 50-year-old manager whosays, ‘Do it and do it now.’ "
Thatspeak-your-mind philosophy makes sense to Katie Patterson, an assistant accountexecutive at Edelman Public Relations in Atlanta. The 23-year-old, who hailsfrom Iowa and now lives with two roommates in a town home, likes to collaboratewith others, and says many of her friends want to run their own businesses sothey can be independent.
"We arewilling and not afraid to challenge the status quo," she says. "Anenvironment where creativity and independent thinking are looked upon as apositive is appealing to people my age. We’re very independent and techsavvy."
This 25 yearold from Ohio is starting a wine store called WineStyles. I’ve studied their model and also that ofVino 100, which is a wine concept by the same folks that did the Tinder Box atyour local mall. Personally speaking, I’mnot a fan of either concept—not that either is bad at its core, but my beliefholds steadfast that an independent store will fare better then a franchise—in therealm of wine. Note to readers: if you have a strong urge to spend $25K on afranchise fee, please let me know. Iwill write your business plan and create a compelling value proposition in yourmarket for a lot cheaper. The upside,however, is the pooled buying, which, of course, gets you access to wines witha scaled economy for price alongside wines that might not be in your localgeography.
An Excerpt fromthe Cincinnati Post:
WineStyles isdesigned for anyone who’s ever walked into a wine shop convinced that everyoneelse in the store - including the guy stocking the shelves - knows six timesmore about wine than he or she ever hoped to know.
The company has sold102 franchises in 16 states and has 47 stores open, including two inCincinnati’s northern suburbs owned by Jesse Weaver.
Weaver is aHenderson, Ky., native who was looking for a business opportunity after hegraduated from Belmont University in Nashville with a degree in finance.
"It’s aconsumer-friendly way to buy wine with a format that’s easy tounderstand," said Weaver, 25. "I’m learning about wine along with mycustomers, and I was smart enough to know that I didn’t know enough."
Weaver said hecompensated for his lack of knowledge by hiring two store managers who have adepth of knowledge about wines. Carolyn Thorne runs his store in West Chesterand Craig Madding is in charge in Mason.
WineStyles estimatesthat the start-up costs for a new franchise - including a $25,000 franchise fee- will run somewhere between $149,000 and $235,000, depending on real estateprices, renovation expense and fixtures expenses and the cost of permits andlicenses.
The company says thatthe rapid growth of the chain can be linked directly to America’s rapidlygrowing interest in wine.
Interesting, in this other story, however, that an MBAstudent, having the benefit of the extra education, would decide to put his orher own shingle out for their own business concept.
Excerpt from Business Week Online:
In 2005 wine overtook beer as the most common alcoholicbeverage consumed in the U.S. The U.S. is predicted to surpass Italy and Franceas the largest consumer of wine in the world by 2010. Per capita, U.S.consumption of wine was up by over 9.5% from 1997 to 2001, according to theWine Institute, a trade association of California wineries.
Not only U.S. consumption is increasing: The wine business is poised forcontinued growth worldwide. As more MBAs learn to appreciate wine for itsflavor and complexity, they have also noticed fertile ground for businessopportunities and a slower-paced lifestyle than they would have withtraditional MBA careers.
Courtney Ann Cochran, a certified Sommelier, started her ownbusiness. Link for her blog is below. It’s not too bad—a bit L.A.-ish, but notbad, on the whole.
And this from another Business Week article that highlightedMs. Cochran:
I’m the founder and principal of Your Personal Sommelier, awine-consulting company which offers personalized wine services to individualsand businesses in San Francisco and Los Angeles. These services include winetastings, cellar management, and personal wine shopping. In an effort to targetthe growing number of young, urban wine drinkers, I recently founded HIP TASTESEvents, a special-events firm through which I offer stylish wine tastings tothe general public in San Francisco.
As sole proprietor, my current job responsibilities encompass everything fromsourcing new business and forging partnerships to servicing client needs and overseeingmarketing and advertising. I’m my own IT staff, marketing guru, accountingstaff, and operations manager.
http://www.courtneycochran.com/blog/
In any period of revolution, it is always the unempowered that rise up to seize the opportunity. With Baby-Boomers retiring in droves, Generation X’ers having shaken off their malaise and stupor to move into parenthood, will the revolution occur in wine led by our youngest generation--Gen. Y?
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April 3 2006
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April 3 2006
Recently, a wine blog started that has regular contributors from the influential wine bloggers in the community and it also accepts some freelance contributions.
When you get a moment, check out Wine Sediments and my guest article posted yesterday:
Is there Wine at the Bada Bing?
I’m flattered to be able to put a couple of thoughts together and have it on their site.
Mark, the wine writer for the Dayton Daily News and the writing voice behind Uncorked acts as Editor and all of the content is fresh from the writers main blog.
You’ll find a diversity of opinion and thought that runs the gamut on wine and the wine industry and for that reason, it’s a good, regular read.
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April 3 2006
Speaking with a forked tongue really bothers me. We’d all be a little bit better off,especially in the corporate world, if we said what we meant and meant what wesaid and provided fair context to our opinions.
But, duplicity lives on--especially in magazines with contributors and freelancers and diverging opinions.
Forbes Magazine ran an op-ed piece last month that is, tosay the least, frightening. In the onepage column, Veronique de Rugy, economist, theorizes that funding smallbusiness is bad—at least small business for the sake of small business. She instead posits that growth companieslike Google should really be the funding targets.
The danger in this article is her denouncement of the SmallBusiness Administration—a program that guarantees up to 85% of the bankslending value in the event of a default.
Because everybody loves small businesses, everyone wants to dosomething for them, whether it’s targeted tax credits, specialregulatory treatment or preferential access to government contracts.Thus it is that we have an agency specifically designed to addresstheir needs, the Small Business Administration. The President’s latestbudget proposes to shower a budget of $605 million on the sba, whichincludes money for counseling and training targeted at a myriad ofsubgroups, such as women, Native Americans, veterans and Spanishspeakers. In addition the sba has arranged for $28 billion in bankloans to small companies, guaranteeing repayment of up to 85% if theborrower defaults. These are not loans that the banks would have madeon their own. Congress appropriates no money for this program. Instead,small businesses are charged fees, but if the economy tanks and thedefault rate shoots up, taxpayers are on the hook for the balance.
The real danger here is, besides the academia/think tanknature of this that doesn’t take the real world into account, and the fact thatall businesses have to start somewhere and the VC-backed Google’s of the worldserve to act as example of the exception, not the norm, but, again, the realdanger here is the fact that 95% of all wine produced in the world is producedby a small business owner. Ms. de Rugy attempts a grab at sympathy from the reader indicating that ‘taxpayers are on the hook for the balance.’ Unfortunately, for that to resonate with taxpayers, they have to have a correlation in between the taxes they pay and where it goes in spending. That, however, is a function of our society that stopped existing with FDR, really. And certainly every politician likes a good pork project.
If wineries all over: California, New York state, Ohio,Virginia, and elsewhere were denied lines of secured credit or protected loans,how many people would chuck their corporate job for a chance at beingpassionate about something? This nottoo mention the fact that even starting a winery is one of the most capitalintensive risk endeavors that an entrepreneur could undertake.
This inherent disrespect for the risk involved in starting abusiness is enough to create some incredulity.
But, the real smack your head moment comes when Forbesstarts pimping it’s wine club that features—from, yes, you guessed small,boutique vintners that, without a little help either A) would have never gottenstarted or B) would have never grown to build a reputation.
Or, this article that extols the virtues of the smallproducer from said magazine.
On the other hand, Tom Eddy of Tom Eddy Winery looks “exclusively tohillside vineyards to produce a rich, intense, structured CabernetSauvignon showing both the complexity derived from differing vineyardsand the consistency of hillside locations.” Blending vineyards withsimilar characteristics (such as hillside locations) will produce winesexhibiting specific characteristics while taking advantage of themultiple contributions each property offers.
One thing can be certain, in a The World is Flat kind ofway, boutique winery fans can count on me being critical and providing criticalanalysis of French educated economists living in America downplaying the absolute significance of entrepreneurs with a passion having some help side from a loan program.
Oh, and by the way, I don’t really know if Tom at Tom Eddy Winery has an SBA loan, but I did some curosry research on the winery and they do well under $1M a year in sales with 3 employees. And, that’s the S in SMB business if I’ve ever seen it.
Like Casey Kasem in the infamous "snuggles" outtake--it’s just ponderous.
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