June 16 2008
Okay, so I still don’t get Twitter. Be that as it may, I keep trying. In lieu of my understanding, and perhaps because of my naivete, I give to you my version of Twitter--1908 postcard style; a quote from a greek dramatist and the father of comedy some three hundred years before JC.
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June 6 2008
I had an “ah-ha” moment the other day about the allure of wine as a rock in the stream of life.
First, I should say that I have never understood the staunch critics of progress in wine. To me, it just never made sense. You have to keep up with the times. Like a shark, if you are not constantly in motion moving forward, than you die.
But, a recent turn of events caused me to take a moment and look contemplatively, a brief respite from a life on the go, a life that isn’t that different from millions of other people, our days simply markers in a rush of a turn of events.
One of the many memories that I hold dear is a childhood spent at my family’s rustic lake cottage in NE Indiana.
When I say “rustic” I mean, rustic—outhouse, pump well for running water and the whole bit. The cottage was a relic from the 1920’s, stick frame, no foundation, two-bedroom shotgun-style place. In fact, many of the furnishings that I grew up laying about on were from the sale of the place to my grandparents in the 1940’s. They are not antiques if you use them, that is for sure.
Despite the lack of modern day amenities, I have some of the fondest (and priceless) memories from the lake—meals full of summer harvest vegetables, fishing for bluegills with my Grandpa, Dad and brother, swimming, running and around and just being a kid; playing innocent games with water and empty dish soap containers, not toys from Target, before rushing inside to eat the other half pan of brownies.
Ah, those are sweet memories, every single one of them. It was a childhood of abundance.
However, over the course of the last 15 years or so the cottage fell into a state of disrepair that was not recoverable. Time and age had taken its toll, very similar to the peaking of a wine. It had been on a steady decline for a number of years prior, but was still serviceable and still enjoyable. The view, the location and the calmness making up for what was not present in a physical state.
Then, one summer, it just kind of died—not literally, but figuratively, in terms of its usefulness.
After laying relatively dormant for a good number of years, my mother very graciously passed the deed to the cottage down to my brother, sister and me, leaving the fate of the cottage in our hands—good, bad or indifferent. After much contemplation, consideration and teeth gnashing, we decided to tear down the cottage that had been in my family for the last 60 + years and build anew—not a small decision, particularly when my grandmother, who is 99, is still around—the matriarch of a family that is hidebound by tradition. There is a real need to be respectful to the past.
That said, this past Memorial Day, my Mom, brother, sister and I moved into the new cottage, Lake House. It is a three bedroom with two full baths, stainless steel appliances and all of the modern amenities you could want, with plenty of room for all.
What a blessing, what a luxury.
However, it was not until the “golden hour,” the weekend of the move, when the sun was setting, others were out for a boat ride, and I watched the sun fade visibly in front of me, that I realized that the mystery with wine is not flavor profiles, technology, old ways versus new ways, or any other issue; it is the simple fact that for so many millions of people wine is their marker of passing time.
At that moment, at approximately 8:48 pm on May 24, 2008, as memories washed over me, each with a timeline associated with it rooted in the new place that I was, that used to be really old, I realized that traditionalists in wine are traditionalists because they don’t have a cottage, they have a winery, or an affinity for a sensibility from a winery.
As I was rooted in calm, glass of wine in hand, I realized what exactly the lake meant to me and I realized that this human need, this desire to have a rock in the stream, a sense of rooted-ness denoted by place, hidebound by tradition, was unique to every single one of us.
Wine is a time marker, the thing that denotes the eloquence of passing time.
I understood. And, the next Monday I went to buy some French wine.
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May 21 2008
The wine book category continues to be one of the most oft published categories in the book world. Large publishers have published six wine-related books in the last five weeks alone. Yet, have you ever wondered if these books actually sell?
Thanks to a couple of dollars out of my pocket and the graciousness of a couple of publicists, I have five out of the six books in my possession. They are in the reading queue behind “The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I saved the World from Parkerization” by Alice Feiring, a title that I am dog-earing because there is a years worth of blog fodder contained within—inspiration for me offering up scathing counterpoints and beseeching requests for an acknowledgement of conventional wisdom while imploring rationality, mostly.
The recently published books include the aforementioned and the following:
Reflections of a Wine Merchant by Neal Rosenthal
The Wine Trials by Robin Goldstein
The Billionaire’s Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace
Passion on the Vine by Sergio Esposito
And
Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World by some dude named Gary
Based on legitimate (albeit confidential) industry data, it looks like all are performing admirably, though I have to keep the actual sales data under wraps. Herewith, your wine book leader board based on actual cumulative sell-through sales (this is what a consumer actually buys, not what is sold to a bookstore):
1) Passion on the Vine – a likely bestseller the way this title is moving
2) The Wine Trials – Strong performance with big numbers in the last week or so
3) The Battle for Wine and Love – narrowly beat out by The Wine Trials, good performance overall and trending upward
4) Reflections of a Wine Merchant – overall good performance on this title, as well. However, it has a couple of bad Amazon.com reviews, which can stop book sales in their tracks
5) Gary Vaynerchuk’s 101 Wines - Gary has a couple of weeks less sales opportunity and having 9 or 10 Amazon.com reviews bodes well as this gathers momentum
6) The Billionaire’s Vinegar – This title is coming out of the gates slooooooow despite a ton of promotion. Not quite a stinker, but not helping any Editor make their bonus, either.
If you asked me ahead of time, I would not have guessed that Passion on the Vine would have started so strong, but I think it is because it is a crossover title that appeals to armchair travelers in addition to wine fans.
Two additional things are interesting to me, and, of course, they have to do with Vaynerchuk. The first is that if you look at the “Customers who bought this also bought” listing on Amazon.com you will quickly see that Gary is appealing to a whole ‘nother demographic. Amongst items that customers also purchased from Amazon.com alongside his book include video games like Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii and Grand Theft Auto.
Another interesting aspect of Vaynerchuk’s promotional tactics for his book is some of the marketing tactics he is employing. Consider this promo in conjunction with an Internet marketing consultant (Full post here and you do want to follow the link):
Hours after the day’s activities had come to a close, I was walking past the empty ballroom hours and happened to glance inside.
There were maybe 10 or 15 people still there, all gathered in a tight group.
Some were scribbling furiously on notebooks, others watching and listening intently to the person who was holding court.
That person was Gary Vaynerchuk.
I wandered in and whispered, “What’s going on?” to a friend.
“They’ve been here since he finished this afternoon,” he said. “He’s been peppered with question after question about social media. And he answered them in great detail without a break. Literally no one has left–they just keep asking questions. And he keeps on going.”
I looked at my watch. The conference had ended nearly 6 hours earlier.
The post from the Internet Marketer continues with the following offer:
–If you purchase 2-4 copies of Gary’s new book, you’ll receive a special invite to an exclusive invite-only call I’m holding with Gary on May 27th at 3:00 PM Eastern time to talk about social media.
This call will pick up where he left off in Orlando, revealing new and powerful ways to market your products and establish your “mavenship” through the power of social marketing. And it’s exclusively for those who purchase 2 copies of Gary’s book.
But wait! There’s more! (sorry–had to go there)
–If you purchase 5 or more copies of Gary’s new book, you’ll not only get exclusive access to the call, but you’ll have the opportunity to ask Gary direct questions about how to apply social marketing to your business.
This is all interesting to me. I’m not sure if Gary’s social marketing is going to work, but if I had to bet my money it would be on the crossover title – Passion on the Vine—that appeals to a wide swath of an audience—Italianates, travelers and wine lovers and not on sweaty palmed guys that buy five books to listen to a conference call and ask questions.
As somebody who feels like they have a book inside them, I wish all of these authors continued best wishes and hopefully I will get through all of these books before Dr. Vino’s two books hit the shelves.
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May 19 2008
I have been eagerly anticipating Alice Feiring’s book, “The Battle for Wine and Love or How I Saved the World from Parkerization.” Then, however, I started reading it.
And, while the book is eminently readable, it is very memoir-ish and very much in the mode of “chick lit.” It is not at all the erudite dis-mantling of “Parker’s palate” that I that I was expecting. It is smart, but also personal with much allegorical reference between her love life (not that interesting) and wine.
My personal tastes in non-fiction aside, I do have to diverge from Feiring’s agent provocateur approach to book promotion. With her op-ed pieces in the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle whereby she paints the entire California wine industry with the same brush, I have to note the hypocrisy in doing so.
How can you rail against homegenization in New World wine, leveraging Parker as your foil, and then write op-ed pieces in California’ two largest daily newspapers deriding virtually the entire California wine industry?
It’s a very subtle point here. But, if you’re going to attack Parker for his influence in creating a “house style” for wine, touting nuanced wine in France, for example, you better damn be sure you’re not pimping your own book in a fashion that is similarly dogmatic in opinion.
It’s like she’s saying, “Parker’s palate be damned. Hail my similarly one-sided opinion, and I’m taking California down with me.”
It rings a little hollow for me. Instead of rattling cages, it might be better to cite chapter and verse in well-reasoned opinion.
Isn’t there a difference between reasoned analysis that leads to provocation and broadside slanted opinions? I think so. That’s where Feiring is falling short. She may be able to write, but she needs a better publicist.
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May 17 2008
The day that a nation of passionate wine lovers feared, arrived yesterday morning as Robert Mondavi passed away at the age of 94.
It is incalculable to measure his influence. It is not without reason to include him in the same sentence with institutional change agents like Henry Ford and other scions of U.S. -bred leadership and vision that had a global impact.
If the wine industry stands on the shoulders of giants, Mondavi was our giant.
God bless him, his family and the future of wine without his presence.
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