Good Grape Wine Company

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Groundhog Day with Wine Topics If you are a wine lover, and you are online, than chances are good that your view and review of the world of wine includes more than just the simple appreciation of the grape.  Simply, it is hard not to look behind the curtain and see wine as the industry that it is, a venture to make money. To that end, one of best things you can do, if you are a consumer of wine-related information, if you do not do it already, is sign-up for the daily Wine Business Monthly news summary. You can find it here: Wine Business Montly Daily News Summary I bring this up because over the course of the last couple of days it has helped me keep track of a number of stories that pretty fairly encapsulate all of the re-occuring story themes we see not only in the blogosphere, but also some mainstream wine press. I’m making no comment about how the standard topics get recycled, just merely stating that if you want to stay on top of these, then signing up for the Wine Business Monthly daily email is a pretty good bet.  See how many of the below stories you recognize by generic description. Stories like: Entry-level wine consumers are frequently overwhelmed Distributors protect their turf Gary Vaynerchuk is a HOT commodity Millenials like wine Wine is a green product Global warming affects the world of wine Celebrities like wine Look!  New Wine Research The new, new thing about understanding your palate And, finally, what is not listed above about the industry of wine is found in an article in which the author punctures the remaining 10 things about wine that we talk about when we are not talking about the above—it is funny, in a good way. After 40 years in wine – here’s all I know The Next Topic Du Jour I do have a small prediction about a subject that I think will get significantly more airtime over the course of the next couple of years—bottle shock. There seem to be two separate strains of the same term, too.  One has to do with the “dumb” stage that wine goes into shortly after bottling and the second is a “dumb” stage that a wine goes into if it is shipped – i.e. to a consumer in a FedEx box. Slight problem in that one is a winemaking term and the same term is applied with a need for consumer understanding. I have been doing some informal polling over the last year—talking to wine people, distributors and retailers about their definition of “Bottle Shock” and whether it is valid.  Two interesting things emerge #1) Common belief is it is very valid #2) Nobody has the same opinion on what it is, how long it lasts, or what to do about it. I had lunch with a distributor a couple of months back and he was talking about getting a container into the states and not being able to sample for a few weeks as the wine settled down.  He indicated that just simple domestic shipping is a problem, too—especially for wines with some delicacy like a Pinot.  If you Google “Bottle Shock” you will see, about 99% of the returns are for the movie of the same name and then 1% is related to the actual term. My two cents here, with Amazon.com entering the wine game and consumer direct shipping taking off on a rocket sled, the wine industry will need to do some education around what “Bottle Shock” is and how to address it.  Do you think consumers will be able to let their wine mellow in a cool, still place for two weeks to let the wine settle down?  I dunno either … Mother, Mother My wife is on a kick for our household to tighten things up.  She is closing in on the leaky checkbook (mostly my doing and mostly wine purchasing) and she has a desire to help me not have five bottles of wine going in the fridge at any given period with the inevitable waste.  A lot of money goes down the drain because of my predilection to want to taste wine as opposed to drinking wine.  I open many bottles, and if a bottle is just “okay” I’d prefer to open up something different the next night … it is a bit wasteful, I know, but since my wife doesn’t drink a whole lot, it is a lot more responsible than trying to tackle the whole bottle myself.  A generous one glass is about what I am good for on a nightly basis, and a one to one ½-bottle week is just too damn boring.  We have thought about getting some ice cube trays to freeze wine for use in reduction sauces and other cooking, but instead we are honing in on the red wine vinegar idea. I will not go into a ton of detail about it, because a quick search of the internet will yield all you need to know about it, but I have been promised that the next gifting opportunity for me will be some sort of vinegar crock and a vinegar Mother. Check out Gang of Pour for a primer, if you are interested. http://www.goodgrape.com/index.php/616/