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July 15 2007

Wine Genie in a Bottle

I had a dream that I opened a bottle of value wine from Trader Joe’s and out popped a Wine Genie, a “Trader Genie,” if you will. He offered to grant me 10 wishes, plus five additional wishes, if he liked my first wish, but only seven total could be wine related and all had to be related to the betterment of mankind. I jogged a quick note, told the genie that he was awfully particular and made my first wish:

Here’s what I asked for:

1) I wished that buying inexpensive wine from Trader Joe’s was more reliable and less crapshoot

My wish pleased the genie and three additional wishes were granted

2) I wished that all people would return their shopping carts to the return corral instead of leaving them free to catch a wind gust and bang into my car

3) I wished that the “green” movement would quickly move to trend and get out of “fad” territory while at the same time teaching people how to simply recycle before moving into discussions about carbon offsets.

4) I wished that budget hotels would stop installing granite surfaces

5) I wished that the whole “mixologist” and cocktail hype would come to a merciful end

6) I wished that Axl Rose, leader singer of Guns ‘n Roses would either finally release “Chinese Democracy” or just go away

7) I wished that I wouldn’t have to pay for $3 bottled water at the airport after being forced to first dump whatever liquid I had before entering through security

8) I wished that an “A” – list celebrity would raise the bar on star-related wine offerings

9) I wished that wine blogs would ascend in influence to the top of the online blogging pyramid

10) I wished that “fruit-bomb” would be stricken from every wine writer’s vocabulary.

11) I wished that my palate was as sharp as my wife, who is only marginally interested in wine (this does not benefit mankind, but the Wine Genie was still trying to get his head around “fruit-bomb” when I slid this in).

12) I wished that Indianapolis, IN had one ground-breaking food and wine institution on par with Berkeley’s Chez Panisse or Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant.

13) I wished that one medical researcher would combine ALL of the wine-related medical research and health benefits into one document, for easy publicity and marketing for the industry and saving people from tracking down 76 different press releases and research papers.

14) I wished that a wine marketer would then get smart, take that wine medical research and brand an adult wine-tasting party game of “Operation” with wine’s medical benefits

15) I wished that almost 40 years after the counter-cultural movement in the 1960s, we didn’t have history repeating itself in the new millennium

Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (1) | Print | Email This

July 13 2007

Change This: Manifestos for the Wine World

Change is constant, as is call for change—the wine industry is no different, perhaps even more so than in other areas of industry, particularly other areas of manufacturing, where the tugs of progress against legacy ways of doing business aren’t as consumer-facing or as demanding.

In the world of wine, especially the domestic i.e. US wine industry, there are so many competing dynamics creating change in the industry—from imports to technology to generational divides to name but a few of the dozens of factors that are constantly evolving.

Being an information hound for new ideas, I was pleasantly surprised to find a web site called “Change This.” Their mission is to bring careful thought leadership back to the landscape of our information consumption. Summarizing the current state of affairs on their web site, they say:

In the old days, we had the time and inclination to consider the implications of a decision. Everyone wasn’t in quite so much of a hurry. At the same time, most conversations (and most arguments) were local ones, conducted between people who knew each other.

Today, it’s very different. Television demands a sound bite. A one hundred word letter to the editor is a long one. Radio has become a jingoistic wasteland, a series of thoughtless mantras, repeated over and over and designed to fit into a typical commute.

Read the whole Change This manifesto at this link.

Part and parcel with this is a slight change on Good Grape—I’ve changed the masthead to read Good Grape: A Wine Manifesto, going back to my original moniker when I started the blog and away from the confusing and inaccurate “Good Grape Wine Company.”

Wine is represented on the Change This site, too. Besides Hugh Macleod, the marketing guy for Stormhoek wine and the author of http://www.gapingvoid.com having published on this site, there is a slew of other insightful papers covering a range of topics, most of which would be interesting to anybody that works in and around the wine industry, or is a passionate enthusiast.

I read a paper called “Turning the Generational Dial: A Plea to Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y” by Carol Osbourn, PhD that was particularly insightful and starts off with an anecdote about Italian Swiss Colony to boot. The author notes that in the 80s when she was part of a team that “retired” Swiss Colony’s trademark “Little Old Winemaker” it was then a move to appeal to the yuppies of the day; those over 40 were not seen as a market force.

Fast forward to today where the Yuppies of then, the Boomers of today, have done little to yield their power as a market force to be reckoned with.

The authors general theme is that the generational passing of the torch from a marketing perspective is always inevitable, but there’s something different about the aging of Baby Boomers—who have pioneered a non-hierarchical approach to marketing, mostly because they haven’t allowed themselves to be usurped by younger generations.

Coincidentally, earlier this week, I was visiting a winery; the General Manager is a sharp, bright 29 year old female. I asked who their p.r. representative was because they seemed to have a knack for earning cover shots on magazines of the General Manager. She replied that she was her own representation, deferring credit not to her ability, but simply to the fact that she wasn’t in her mid-50s and a male, a dominant representative in the wine industry.

We laughed and I thought fleetingly about the mass of Boomers in the wine industry, alongside a healthy dose of those in their twenties and thirties.

Osbourn notes in her paper that,

This is the first time in our history when multiple generations are simultaneously competent to handle the business of running our society.

This has interesting merit for the wine industry as we see the fragmentation in wine labels—the Boomers occupying the high-end markets worldwide while Gen. Y has shown a propensity for imports at a much lower price point, not too mention the “critter” labels which sell at supermarkets, to whom I’m not quite sure.

Osbourn ends her paper with the following:

The truth is that the generational dial will flip to a new channel soon enough. And when it does, there will be something society has never before witnessed: generations in power who will not have grown into adulthood anticipating the marginalized, invisible, powerless future boomers once expected to have—but rather, the promise of a lifelong vitality, relevant entertainment and the thriving careers at midlife and beyond that boomers pioneered.

What does this mean for the wine industry? Change is constant. And any winery interested in the business of not only making wine, but also selling wine is going to increasingly have to be versed in knowing their audience in great depth—and tailoring their product to that audience—age, demographics, social segments, etc. And, they’ll have to do this to a degree that is currently just a niggling notion, not a need.

Change This is a good thought-provoking site and worthy bookmark for those that call progress a good thing and recognize it as a necessity.

Posted in, Wine: A Business Doing Pleasure. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This

July 11 2007

Wine Blogging Wednesday: Spain by Way of Birmingham, AL

It doesn’t get much better than this—a hotel room, a hotel room microwave, a trash can turned ice bucket, Trader Joe’s chicken sausage polenta lasagna, a goat cheese and walnut salad and a bottle of $4.99 wine—all in honor of Wine Blogging Wednesday #35.

Fresh to market with an ‘06, my choice for Wine Blogging Wednesday wine—featuring a “Passionate Spain” theme—is the 2006 Marqués de Cáceres white wine.

It was a safe choice.

Marques de Cáceres is one of the well-recognized Spanish brands, and one of its most well decorated, as well. The Rośe, especially, has earned a tremendous amount of positive press and reviews recently. Had I known beforehand as opposed to after the fact I most certainly would have picked it up and tested my own mettle against a well reviewed Rośe to determine if I truly had been drinking bad Rośe or just simply don’t care for it, as I mentioned in a post yesterday. Alas, the white it is. And, it comes with good chops at the price point--the ’05 white received an 88 from Wine & Spirits. Marqués de Cáceres subsequently went on to become a part of the Wine & Spirits Hall of Fame last year on the strength of being named an International Winery of the year an astounding eight times.

This ’06 is too new to market to garner any reviews, but my guess is the positive reviews will continue.

Hailing from the Rioja region and made from the lesser known Viura grape, planted with significant acreage in Northern Spain, it’s a rounder and less green varietal than Sauvignon Blanc, but sharing some of the same characteristics. The unoaked ’06 shows a light nose with notes of white peach and lime zest with some earthiness and lemon on the palate, supported by a bracing acidity begging not for the chicken sausage polenta lasagna I ate with it, but a nice hunk of tilapia. The finish is medium-long and certainly longer and richer than you expect at this price. It’s a tremendous value—a value at $4.99 and a value if it were $10.99.

The Marqués de Cáceres is a best-seller for good reason, it’s reliable, it’s good and it’s cheap.

Most interesting to me in this whole tasting is not getting a good value on a Spanish white, or participating in Wine Blogging Wednesday, it’s the fact that this blockbuster import is handled by an importer from Birmingham, Alabama. Vineyard Brands, the importer, isn’t a small company, either. Despite a web site that has remain unfettered from the tug of progress for, oh, probably the last eight or nine years, they handle a ton of imports. Color me surprised, but Birmingham, Alabama, one of the bottom-rung states in wine consumption and a “control” state in regards to distribution wouldn’t be in my top 10 guesses for importer location. But, just as $4.99 wines can surprise you with quality so too can the location of their American home.

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July 10 2007

News, Notes & Dusty Bottle Items

God is in the details

I read the July issue of Decanter magazine on my plane trip out to Napa for some work this week. In a curious choice, perhaps inspired even, based on the U.K./Int’l focus of the magazine, is the selection of Al Gore at #48 on the Decanter Top 50 Power List. Undoubtedly, without Linda Murphy’s influence, Gore would have never been chosen. The magazine cites Gore’s influence in bringing global warming to the table as a topic of discussion and its long-term impact on the wine industry. Decanter says,

We were tempted to include God as the arbiter of global warming, but man is responsible for much of the climate change now affecting the world’s winemakers. No winery is immune from its effect, though they can temper it. Even so, the long-term impact will be substantial, meaning the likes of Gore, whose Democrat party may well be back in power in 2008, will need to continue to drive home the message in order for action to be taken. His book,An Inconvenient Truth, has replaced the bible in one Napa Valley hotel-room bedside table, so maybe we were right saying God’s influence is on the wane.

Actually, the hotel that I stay at, Gaia, an eco-hotel that attained LEED certification, is the hotel in question, because I’ve had a copy of An Inconvenient Truth in my hotel room before. Not every room, but several. It’s also incorrect that there’s no bible in the room--a trusty copy of the expected Gideon bible is resident in the nightstand. Interestingly enough, though, in my room this stay the bible is nestled next to a copy of The Teaching of Buddha. I’m not sure where the Dalai Lama comes down on wine within global warming, but Buddha might have it right when he says on page 42 of my handy copy that,

Blossoms come about because of a series of conditions that lead up to their blossoming. Leaves are blown away because a series of conditions lead up to it. Blossoms do not appear independently, nor does a leaf fall of itself, out of its season. So everything has its coming forth and passing away; nothing can be independent without change.

It is the everlasting and unchanging rule of this world that everything is created by a series of causes and conditions and everything disappears by the same rule; everything changes, nothing remains constant.

Rośe: One Notch Up, One Notch Down

Every summer I try iced tea. Every year I come away disappointed that I’m just not a tea guy. But, it seems like I’m on the outside looking in because everybody else drinks iced tea in the summer. I can’t even be cool and order an “Arnold Palmer” when out to lunch. It’s still too tea-y for me.

I’m kind of the same way with Rośe. Man, I’m trying. Everybody is drinking the pink this summer. Rośe wine is, without question, hot. I’ve tried a Syrah Rose, a Merlot Rose and Pinot Rose. I’m just not into it. I hear people say how great it is, what a nice deck wine it is, how it’s a great summer sipper. Maybe I’m not trying the right stuff, but to me it’s a notch less sweet than White Zin with a notch more acid. I’m not a White Zin guy, and sadly, I’m not a Rośe guy, either.

For my money, I’m on the next trend in town, Lambrusco and Moscato d’Asti. If I’m looking for a summer sipper when the thermometer breaks 90 degrees, I’m pulling the cork on a nice demi-sec Lambrusco or Moscato and I think Dr. Vino is with me.

But, in regards to Rose, maybe I’m simply not drinking the right wine. Somebody help give me a pointer to a decent bottle or three that has wide availability (i.e. available in Indianapolis).

The culture of snippetry

If you haven’t taken the current survey at Fermentation, head on over and spend the two minutes it takes to complete. Personally, I’m curious to see the results. Tom is asking a number of questions around the meaning of wine blogs, and it drives at questions of reading habits as well as how readers use the information, touching on blogger wine reviews and more. As an adjunct to this survey, Tom also has a post about the “culture of snippetry” a term he uses to refer to skimming content, the act of reading offline and online content (like blogs) by headline and glance. Here’s where I’m fearful for the results because while most bloggers blog technically correct, for a culture of snippetry, I’ve stuck to the columnist model, in long form, with a beginning, a middle and an end, and occasionally a point. What do you think—short form or long form in blogs—newsy analysis or pot-stirring opinion?

To me, this is a most important question because while our print media articles are getting shorter and shorter, our televised news is moving towards more contextual backstory. Blogging sits somewhere in the middle of this. If you made it to the end of this post (all 860 + words of it) Leave a comment here or at Tom’s post with your thoughts on information consumption.

Posted in, News, Notes & Dusty Bottle Items. Permalink | Comments (3) | Print | Email This

July 10 2007

Wine Not? U Vint Wine

Two years ago, as a wedding gift to me, my wife gave me a gift certificate to a wine U-vint place in Indianapolis—it was something that we could do together and it was a show of support for her glancing concern for wine juxtaposed against my near mania. I thought the wine idea was a fun and thoughtful gift, and not inexpensive, either. The store in Indianapolis, Grape Inspirations (insert wordplay groan here), is a franchise from a Canadian operation called “Wine Not.” The gist is you taste through the wines that are available at a tasting bar, decide which one you prefer and then you participate in the “winemaking” process. I chose an Amarone, mostly because it was the most robust of the reds and unfortunately, in this situation, I drink a disproportionate amount of red to white. Here, as is the case with “real” wine the whites shine much better at this quality level.

The “winemaking” process is pretty simple since it comes from concentrate—you basically put it in a sterile container, sprinkle some yeast on it and then come back to bottle—the store personnel do all of the racking and any maintenance on the wine, including administering the oak chip soak bag.

It was a nice gift, but I was getting nervous. It produces four cases of wine and the wine, initially, was thin and, frankly, not all that great. When I say “not that great” what I really mean is I wouldn’t use it for a Coq Au Vin, either. They say to give it six months in the bottle. I waited six months and, again, it was thin and, frankly, not all that great. Meanwhile, while I didn’t mention anything to my wife, I continued to pull bottle, after bottle, after bottle of purchased wine for through-the-week consumption. I knew she was biting her tongue, and she knew she was biting her tongue, but I wasn’t owning up to the fact that the four cases of wine in the basement kind of sucked and I don’t like to waste my bottle chooses on something I wouldn’t really enjoy. I waited another year and, well, it was kind of thin, not offensive, but, frankly, not all that great.

My nervousness was reaching a nadir because this is not wine meant for the long haul. Three years is probably the top drinkable shelf life for this stuff. So, imagine my delight, when this past weekend, after two years, I pull a bottle and lo and behold this Amarone, while tasting more like a $12 house blend than a $50 Amarone, is now perfectly quaffable. It’s a pretty simple wine, nothing profound, but in terms of bringing through the week pleasure, it’s perfect.

I remarked to my wife that this wine was now drinking pretty well and I revealed my “secret” fear that I was going to have to make the wine disappear. She laughed, expressed similar concern and then gave her implicit approval that I could now make the wine disappear—properly—because I think I’m going to have to drink all of it in the next 6-9 months. Ah, such a burden. If anybody wants to try a bottle ask nicely and I’ll send you one to kick the tires on.

Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This

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