Good Grape Wine Company

September 14 2006

News, Notes & Dusty Bottle Items

Herein the Midwest, in addition to absolutelyhorrible allergy seasons, we get pretty noticeable jet streams that indicate achanging of the seasons. Somewhere alongthe 3^rd week of August, sinus and allergy sufferers (ME!) werefelled when much cooler weather started moving in. Asmany folks know, it feels like your head is going to explode while your eyelidsinvoluntarily water and you feel like somebody sucked the last bit of energyyou had straight out of your body. For acouple of days, it isn’t pretty. We’reabout three weeks in and experiencing un-seasonably cool weather, and thank goodnessthat whatever was happening meteorologically is now over with. The worst part of it is not the fact that you feel like you want to crawl into thefetal position, it’s that wine doesn’t taste good. Around the same time in August, I ordered the Wine Enthusiast Wine Bouquet Kit—a kitthat contains 36 vials of the most commonly found scents in wine. When I first got it, I took a deep whiff of vial after vial not getting *any* smellwhatsoever.  Thankfully, I’m now able to smell the violet vial and it’s truly useful to have a referencepoint for cedar, fig, clove and other scents commonly found in wine.
I would recommend the wine scent kit or something similar for anybody. While I have the Wine Enthusiast kit, if Ihad to do it over again, I would probably buy this scratch and sniffversion.

Yourcall, but I think it the 36 scents have, in a short time, allowed me toidentify some bouquet nuance that I was aware of, but not able to identifycleanly. 

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SinceI started my blog in January, I’ve been trying to figure out a way toincorporate a Notre Dame reference. As adyed-in-the-wool Notre Dame football fan, I’ve linked to pictures when makingesoteric football references and the like, but nothing ever really jumped outto me as a way to make a meaningful connection between ND and the wine industry(aside from Catholic mass as a youth and the wine at services which dreadfullytastes like a thin Chianti aged in oak within inches of its vinous life). 

But,now, I have my very slight, slightly meaningful connection.

JenniferMontana, who I recall fondly from my youth, as Joe’s wife and partner fromtheir stints on the 80s game show Win, Lose or Draw!, now has a wine related TVshow called, “On the Vine.” 

JoeMontana, known to most wine country fans as the greatest quarterback to everplay the game, is, obviously San Francisco 49’ers royalty. But, to me, he’s the quarterback that rosefrom the 4^th team to take the reins at Notre Dame in the 70’sleading the Irish to a National Championship in 1978.

Montana also lived on the samedorm floor as current Notre Dame Head coach Charlie Weis.

Theshow is on local cable affiliates that pick up content from the PAX network andit’s on the Oxygen Network at 5:30 am on Fridays.

Ihaven’t seen the show, but I’m guessing “On the Vine” is not getting any helpfrom the less than fantastic time slot on Friday mornings. Maybe Meredith Vieira watches it as she tunesup for her new morning gig on the Today Show. Probably nobody else is up at that time thinking about wine as aconsumer, though.

Tomorrow’sepisode features Clos Pegase in Napa Valley. I’ll set the Tivo.

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AsI keep an eye on Stormhoek winery from S. Africa, It also strikes me thatQuara wines, from Argentina, is doing lessInternet-centric, but still interesting wine marketing. I’m not sure if the wine is worth a darn, butit likely falls into the same $8 – $12 category that Stormhoek and a lot ofother guys occupy. Their web site artfully uses flash technology to good effectand their tagline of “Be fun. HaveSuccess” is brilliantly simple and aspirational for EVERYBODY. The fact that their Llama logo is interestingin a Picasso kind of way and not annoying in a “Little Boomey” kind of way is abonus. 

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Isanybody besides me on the email mailing list for WineOpinions.com? Wine Opinions is co-founded by John Gillespie,President of Wine Market Council, and they do Internet based consumer marketing.

Gillespieis a smart guy. He keeps his full-timejob and then does research on the side for wineries using technology, andlikely based on relationships cultivated from his day job.

It’sall innocent enough, but sometimes these surveys are like taking the Wonderlictest—the test that a lot of technology companies like Microsoft use toascertain problem determination skills and analytical ability.  NFL players have to take it at the Combine every spring, as well.  Rumors of bad test scores have sunk some players draft positions.

So, I now have some empathy when posed with some head-scratcher’s. 

Ifyou innocently click the box at the beginning of the survey saying that youhave recall of Rodney Strong wines as a super premium brand, you will then beasked to name all the varietals that they produce and a lot of other thingsthat most people are not in tune with.

Um,does Clos du Bois do a Pinot or a Shiraz, or both?  I know they do a chard ...

Or, how about this gem:

Please rank the following wine regions for the quality of wine they produce:

California, Russian River, Alexander Valley, Central Coast, Napa, Carneros, Sonoma

If I rank California wines #1 in quality, but then rank Alexander Valley and Russian River #2 and #3, but those regions are actually in #4 Sonoma county, what does it all mean?

Hmmm ... I feel like my draft position is sinking ...

Maybeit’s scientific, but I have to believe that online surveying is better offacting as a focus group and not nearly as much as empirical survey. 

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It’sgood to be the King! After enduringyears of slackerdom stereotyping (despite damn near carrying the dot-comrevolution) my generation is finally getting some credit for being … championconsumers.

GQreleased a report that indicates that Generation X men love to spend money onluxury goods—including a 31% greater likelihood then Baby-Boomers to spend apremium on wine, spirits and beer.

I’mguessing this research commissioned by GQ will make its way into their mediakit in which their target--luxury advertisers--want to find premiumspending men in their 30s. Call mecrazy.

Gotta go.  Ihave to take off to the wine shop and buy a $40 bottle of wine for the hell ofit.

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