Good Grape: A Wine Blog Manifesto

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June 15 2006

I met a guy that knows a guy that is friends with Robert Parker’s Dry Cleaner

I’m in the Baltimore area for work this week. I thought it might be like going to Memphis where everybody has a second cousin that used to drive for Elvis, or something similar.

Not so much.

I haven’t tried too hard, but I did talk to a customer that has a nodding acquaintance with Robert Parker.

On the plane ride out, I bought the latest issue of Wine Spectator and read through Suckling’s 600 barrel tastings.

Suckling also has a very flattering article on famed wine consultant Michel Rolland. It does round out the laughing, corpulent light as a feather image of Rolland portrayed in Mondovino giving instead very strong credence to his ability to blend wines expertly.

Not a bad issue--the juxtaposition is curious as the next feature after the Bordeaux is on Sebastiani & Sons--the negociant who does Smoking Loon Wine and Pepperwood Grove.

While I pick up wine Spectator probably every third or fourth issue, I am noticing a very gradual and subtle change in the content and it’s aiming at a still affluent customer, but probably more aspirational then truly wealthy.

While here in Baltimore, I didn’t even have wine at dinner, though I did have a crisp Peroni beer at a fabulous Italian restaurant called Sabatini’s.

I did get a chance to hash out 2005 futures with my customer who, by all accounts anecdotal and conversational, knows his French wine and he says he’s not buying 2005 futures--for two reasons:

1) Price inflation—he believes that wines are selling at premiums outside of the first growths that are exorbitant relative to what they might cost when they hit retail--he speculates there might actually be price deflation when on the market

2) He said to drink through a case of futures correctly you have to drink it over the course of 25 years saying, "I’m 55. I don’t have the time to wait 25 years for something."

Fair enough. I’m still on the fence and I might pick up a couple of alleged "sleepers" that are within my budget.

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June 14 2006

Cluetrain #7-Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy

Monologue from the movie "School of Rock" starring Jack Black

The Man

written by Mike White

Dewey Finn: You want me to teach you something? What? You want to learnsomething? Alright, here’s a useful lesson: Give up! Just quit! Because in thislife you can’t win. Yeah, you can try, but in the end your just gonna loose,BIG TIME! Because the world is run by the man!

Frankie (Angelo Massagli): Who?

Dewey: The man. Oh, you don’tknow the man? The man’s everywhere: in the White House, down the hall, MissMullins; she’s the man! And the man ruined the ozone, and he’s burning down theAmazon and he kidnapped Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank! Okay! And thereused to be a way to stick it to the man, it was called rock ‘n roll. But guesswhat? Oh no! The man had to ruin that too with a little thing called MTV! Sodon’t waste your time trying to make anything cool or pure or awesome ‘causethe man’s just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So doyourself a favor and just give up!

Despite Dewey’s intrepid submission to ‘The Man’ --from Foie Gras to South African wine, it’s amazing how quickly black, white and shades of gray can find an audience on the Internet.

http://www.southafricanwine.org/home

http://www.stopforcefeeding.com/page.php?module=home

These examples are all over the Internet, and the real point here is that communication no longer rolls down hill in a one way manner. It’s a conversation and the little guy is finding his voice. This is no more evident then in the world of wine where there are over 200 + blogs and 95% of them are by complete and utter rank amateurs with a voice on taste.

If you want to try and get your head around something, what about some of the people based wine engines like Cork’d or Logabottle that are like ‘American Idol’ meets the quaffable.

For a listen to an NPR radio segment on a the book, ‘An Army of Davids’ about the rise of the common man go here.

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June 13 2006

Ode to a Summer Love

Iwrote a couple of weeks ago about this sublime Barbaresco that I had while in New York—the 2000 Cascina Morassino.

Itwas the only red in a seven course tasting menu and the definite standout. I had to have more of this wine. Even five glasses of white wine into thismeal (healthy pours, yes) this wine clearly stood out heads and shoulders fromthe rest.

Thebest way I can describe it is it was the difference between your girlfriend/boyfriendin high school and than your first summer fling.

Lifeis all good and you can click along without any troubles and then you realizethis deeper, more sophisticated … natch … more mysterious, exotic person iscompletely making you a bucket of slobber and you know you can’t go back.

Youcan never put the genie back in the bottle.

Lifehas changed.

Oh,I had that revelation.

And,to make it even more curious, it’s not like I’m some wild-eyed rookie. I’ve been on an expense account for 10years.

Loand behold Crush Wine & Spirits in New York happened to carry it. Had I known, I probably would have snatchedit up while in the city instead of trying to go through the shipping game.

Nonetheless,I ordered it over the phone--breathlessly mentally calculating if $200 bucksfor six bottles or $400 for a whole case was going to be defensible with thewife as an impulse purchase. “A mementoof the trip,” I resolved to say. Ichewed my lip. They never tell you howmuch shipping is … another $35 bucks. Ahem, “Yes, I’ll take just a half case.”

Acouple of months ago, in the midst of the shipping laws turmoil, I decided to shedmy wine shipping virginity and order some wine from a company in California,just to see what happened. The wineshowed up on my doorstep. This happeneddespite the fact that I live in a “felony” shipping state.

Itwas a colossal pain because they made me fax my driver’s license to verify agewhich meant that UPS didn’t require a signature.

Thiswas also a pain because it meant that the UPS guy could or would drop it off at10:00 am and it would sit baking on my front porch for thenext seven or eight hours. Then,compounded by the fact that I then had to go out of town and I had to call infor the assistance of a friend that’s also neighbor whom then started asking amillion questions about the wine prompting me to give him one of the bottles …

Longstory short … it was scarcely worth thehassle.

But,the Barbaresco. I had to have theBarbaresco.

Youhave to like Crush, ordering from them was like going to the locals bar whenyou’re nineteen and pulling up a stool next to the grizzled guy that’s beenholding down third base on the corner for the last 14 years: if you play itcool, so will they.

But,and this is a big but, they didn’t ask for me to fax my ID, so I had to signfor the package at UPS. I regrettablyfound this out when I started to get the dreaded slips on the door, “Sorry wemissed you.”

Meanwhile,I’m having horrible visions of this wine cooking in the back of a UPS truck …this “sorry we missed you” thing happened for three days … and then I had to gopick it up … taking a lunch hour in order to trek to the other side of town.

Sufficeto say, I had expectations for this Barberesco in the climes of my home and nota Batali restaurant in New York City and the least of it washoping it made it through the shipping.

And,from NYC to Indianapolis, IN and three day trips on theUPS trip, I finally got my package and cracked open a bottle.

Notwanting to take any chances, I decanted it. The nebbiolo grape is famous for being burley and I didn’t want to takeany chances on it being a little rough.

Anhour in the decanter and 20 minute chill to knock it off room temperature and Ipoured. I swirled. I sniffed. I supped a taste.

Nohigh schooler was this wine.

Asupple pro, she was built for summer romance. Beautiful. Elegant. Nice legs. Nice body. Nice nose.

Unfortunately,that’s where this story ends. As Imentioned, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. And, as I write this supping something that’smore in line with my everyday drinking—an Estancia Pinot Noir--, I thinkfondly of the Cascina Morassino and the five bottles that remain.

Justlike summer love and memories, except I get to experience it five moretimes.

The Cascina Morassion sell sheet can be found below:

http://www.summavitis.com/p/CMBM00.pdf

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June 13 2006

A Drink in the Hand is Worth More Than Two in the Bottle

I received my limited edition, signed prints from Stormhoek Winery and Hugh at Gapingvoid.com. My wife was bewildered and confused when I was opening this gigantic envelope--this wine blogging thing is kind of like having a mistress (I think) except she’s got partial information which makes her more dangerous--and then she said, "Oh, those are cute."

Wait til it shows up in a frame looking for wall space ...

Cute is her parlance for, "I don’t hate it. Can you hang it in the office."

And, in the office it will go, where I usually write and drinkwineanywaythankyouverymuch.

Hugh at Gapingvoid can be seen here signing said limited edition prints for the Stormhoek promotion.

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June 13 2006

Cluetrain #6--The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possibl

The blogging book Naked Conversationsby Robert Scoble and Shel Israel quote a German philosopher named Arthur Schopenhauerwho says:

“Every truthpasses through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it isridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded asself-evident”

Forthose living in the Internet Age, and for those living in the Blogosphere ofthe Internet Age, Cluetrain #6 might be viewed as self-evident.

Forresterresearch, as found on the Web 2.0 marketing guru Steve Rubel’s Micropersuasionsite, has aggregated a nice matrix of all of the various companies occupyingthe very real and very tangible ‘social networking’ space.

And,social networking, at its core, really means that we are meeting and creatingrelationships in ways that are facilitated and enabled via the Internet.

Takefor example the Wellfed Network and Wine Sediments. Dayton, OH based news reporter and wine columnist, Mark Fisher,edits the site. Mark and I have arelationship. If I email him, he willanswer me and vice versa. We exchangecommunication probably three times a week on various and sundry things—he anacquaintance around a hobby of mine and I’ve found him to be a nice, warm,engaging chap. I likely have a betterand warmer digital relationship with Mark then I do with some real lifecolleagues whom I’ve worked with for the past four years. But, the rub is, I’ve never met Mark—inperson, or on the phone. I don’t knowhis voice and I might miss him on the street. There is a 98% likelihood that we would have never met in the real world.

Thesesorts of things are happening all around us and they are changing the way wework and play. While possible five orsix years ago via message boards and the like, and even really 10 years ago viaBBS’s, digital relationships are now coming to the forefront as center of gravityfor our life slowly moves around us.

Forthe blogosphere this is the third-stage—it’s self-evident to us.

But,the implications are much greater for wineries. Within the wine community, blogs probably aren’t evenridiculed—that presumes a level of understanding to create derision. I think blogs, for the most part, are metwith confused non-understanding or indifference.

AlderYarrow, a similarly nice chap whom I’ve also exchanged emails with, writes theseminal wine blog, Vinography. His sitelists approximately 22 wineries that have blogs. 22. There are at least5000 in the U.S. alone, according to Wine Business Monthly. Really, that’s a shame because asinformation breaks down the barriers of the Tower of Babel, you hope that morethan a handful of wineries seize the agenda to win new customers and grow theirreputation.

The conversation ishappening. It’s happening all aroundus. Are there any wineries, save for a handful,--the folks that desire and want new customers--listening?

For a twenty page, engaging, white paper look at this same topic, click here.

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