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sherry wine argentina wine zephyr adventures barolo santana dvx au revoir to all that formula business ordinance .wine geocaching brigitte armenier rockaway wine red bicyclette social media topps augmented reality rancho zabaco zinfandel woot wine the new frugality patio wine bryan q. miller andy warhol quotes fermentation anthony dias blue home winemaking consumer shopping research the best pinot noir food & wine magazine a year in wine apple iphone man's search for meaning st. helena catholic church new zealand wine sanford chardonnay lettie teague nba liquor advertising noble pig award of excellence ericca robinson secret sherry society cult wines wine video game russian river valley pinot wine appellations reset "old world wine darwinism wine star awards tastingroom.com bruliam wine generation y. wine april fool's day wine snooth karen macneil music and wine german riesling clos lachance dr. oz yellow tail wine jon fredrikson wine blogging wednesday climber red priceline.com drew 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videos inexpensive wine jay miller keep walking wines that rock ani difranco peru wine trip barbaresco michael steinberger value wine jamie oliver paul blart: mall cop phillip armenier red bicyclette pinot noir wine blogosphere ge smart grid augmented reality trefethen family vineyards california zinfandel wineshopper aspirational marketing clark smith wine book publishing russian river valley sylvester pinot noir goodguide korbel wine blobbers oregon travel tokalon winery not-for-profit jess jackson massale selection wine & spirits magazines kenny shopsin next generation apple the psychology of wine the vintners art australian wine vinexpo jay mcinerney the gaslight anthem the pioneer woman james laube chimney rock elevage cornell enology wine tycoon game stavin kelly fleming national wine & spirits kurt andersen " "new world wine" poseurs macari vineyards sette 7 swanson vineyards sunbox eleven wine winery sponsorship champagne sales wine criticism cork'd 2008 vina mar reserva sauvignon blanc randy caparoso wine + music midwest wine culture hunningbird wine beaux freres jon bonne the wine case climber white agency nil charlie weis sugar free wine a very goode job 2007 sean minor four bears pinot noir trefethen generation y and wine 2009 auction napa valley sonoma county wine wipes san francisco wine competition clary ranch tim hanni discoveries pathfinder wine bar bets the winemakers tv australia wine fantesca judgment of paris women in wine oregon pinot gris three-tier carmenere wine heist purpose-idea rose wine sales vincellar dominic foppoli 1% for the planet wine industry news negociant wine business monthly 2008 food & wine winemaker of the year eric asimov travel oregon jordan winery amy poehler wine micro sites umami chris phelps vegas wine qpr wines jimmy clausen winery hospitality 2007 forty-five north cabernet franc alpine for dummies 2008 honig sauvignon blanc journey three dollar koala pinot noir reviews chronicle wine ed mccarthy wine to relax erobertparker little zagreb wine magazines howard schultz paul mabray wine blogging ethics youtube cheap wine wine bard weds wine dj klinker brick maria thun bad wine mumm napa slate wine columnist wine pricing wine blog awards 2010 bottle shock movie sketches of spain red bicyclette court paul gregutt trefethen oak knoll cabernet sauvignon zinfandel reviews tasting note desciptors natural winemaking wine content sensory evaluation petite sirah wine points the press-democrat oregon cuisinternship winner blog contests preakness stakes pork tenderloins wine & spirits restaurant poll 2010 eat me kenny shopsin amazon kindle wine politics what is terroir wine purchasing wine nose good wine under 20 the hold steady paste magazine patz & hall sonoma coast pinot noir notes on a cellar book wine tycoon video game oak alternatives cabernet bottle shock economy chronicle wines vignoles wine columns mirror wine joe roberts e-myth revisited bennett lane winery champagne and business a history of wine words marco capelli music + wine indianapolis wine industry zap wine jr. san francisco chronicle wine ice wine c.g. di arie radiohead doubleback wine chateau thomas wine parker defamation blackstone wine trefethen fallow obama napa valley auction sonoma county wine french wine marketing vino chapeau wine medal winners petaluma pinot
September 10 2009
The end of August quietly came and went like any other week in the online wine world—a stark contrast to the fiery events that occurred just a year ago in what some called the, “Rockaway Follies.”
Last year at this time a marketing experiment in conjunction with the launch of an allocated brand from Rodney Strong Vineyards created a tsunami of attention online with bloggers and observers taking sides about the correctness of bloggers engaging in coordinated activity even if under the freedom of their own editorial choice.
One year later, what was learned, what has changed and how can the Rockaway skirmish act as the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” as online wine media continues to evolve? Provided in four parts, this is part three.
Part Three: The Bloggers Post
As summarized in parts 1 and 2 of this review, the Rockaway program had seven total participants, including me. There were 6 bloggers and one guest author (posting on my site), a Master Sommelier candidate.
Again, my motivation was simple, I wanted to help create a splash to advance blogging credibility and in doing so other bloggers and I would have the chance to work with a high-end wine brand launch.
The stipulations for the bloggers participating in the program was equally simple – acting as the program organizer, I requested that in exchange for receiving a wine sample from Rockaway, the wine blogger would agree to write about the wine in a post with a word count between 300-500 words. They were free to write anything they wanted. It could be good, bad or indifferent. In addition, I made the call, in order to gang up exposure, that the bloggers would publish their blog post in between August 18th – 21st, 2008.
Robert Larsen, the PR Director at Rodney Strong, provided winery press materials, made suggestions for story angles and availed himself to the group of writers for questions.
We were off to the races.
On the Sunday the 17th I kicked off the program with an introductory post on my site saying (amongst other things):
In a bold and prescient move, what I believe is a first for an allocated wine, Rockaway, a high-end $75 Cabernet release from Rodney Strong’s new winery-within-a-winery concept, is including select wine bloggers as a part of their release strategy.
It will be an exciting week with each of these bloggers taking their own unique perspective on the wine, the release and the story. Keep an eye out for blog posts from each of these bloggers between Monday, August 18th to Thursday, August 21st.
In the very first comment to that introductory post Ryan Opaz from Catavino.net said:
How is this not allowing bloggers to be bought? Wineries should not use bloggers as tools to publicize, at least blatantly. If we want to be treated like real press then we should get samples like real press. This smells like a buy off to me.
I responded to Ryan encouraging him to read the back-story that would be posted on Tuesday. To say the least, it was a curious beginning. I thought to myself, “This might not go as well as I thought.”
The next day, Monday, Arthur Black, the Master Somm. candidate, reviewed the wine on my site. He has a highly skilled palate and I figured his review would set the table for the program and the other blog posts that would follow – yes, the wine is good. Arthur wrote a reasoned and accurate review of the wine, providing a flawless technical assessment.
The next day, Tuesday, I wrote the back-story to the program, detailing the same information that I have detailed in this current set of posts. You can find the original post here. Still, there was a string of mild cynicism in the comments to the post mostly of the benign, “what’s the big deal?” type.
Each of the other writer’s blog posts published in the determined time frame and were mostly positive shading to enthusiastic. Each writer, in an uncoordinated fashion, linked to the allocation sign-up list. The linking to the allocation sign-up is a small factor that was unprompted and unrequested, but taken together with the general positive tone of the posts may have led to the belief that there was some promotional collusion occurring.
Throughout the week, Robert from Rodney Strong/Rockaway responded to comments. Generally, I was feeling mildly ambivalent about the program as the week went on. It had met my goal of coordination, yet the impact, in situation, seemed impotent—until the weekend hit, and temperatures started to rise, not in the way that I had hoped.
On Sunday August 24th Mike Duffy from The Winery Web Site wrote a short post covering the coordinated sampling and the wheels started coming off the cart.
It started with a comment on Mike’s post from Wine Enthusiast critic and wine blogger Steve Heimoff who said:
Maybe the early release to bloggers will prove to be a good move on Rodney Strong’s part. But when I started seeing all these online reviews of Rockaway I really had to wonder. Why did all those bloggers give it free publicity? Don’t they get free wine every day? So why write about Rockaway? I haven’t had the wine (plan to review it tonight) and I have no idea if it’s any good, but it shows how easily some parts of the blogosphere can be manipulated into providing free publicity to wineries.
I took issue with Steve’s comments mostly around the word “manipulated” and noted in a subsequent comment that I thought his thoughts were “misguided” and made in a “vacuum” given that I had detailed the program in full on my site and his opinion was based on circumstances that weren’t factual.
I can’t be sure that he ever did read the source posts on my site because the next day he wrote a post titled, “Did Rodney Strong manipulate bloggers, use clever marketing, or both?”
The tenor of the conversation took a sharp turn based on Heimoff’s post where he noted, while providing incorrect speculative context on Rodney Strong’s motives, that:
The problem from my perspective is that those who participated were manipulated, and happily embraced their manipulators.
78 often angry comments later, mostly from bloggers taking sides, and Steve had softened his “manipulated” stance, while moving into the defense that the posts were “overly triumphant.”
The in-fighting didn’t stop there, however.
On Tuesday, August 27th Tom Wark from Fermentation weighed in with a post on his site titled, “On Press Sampling—Giving and Taking and Ethics.”
In hindsight, Tom’s piece is a well-reasoned analysis and a good piece of writing warning of ethical implications of bloggers working in concert with their subject-matter. His message, however, lost in the immediacy and raw nerves of the situation, not able to be seen with 20/20 hindsight, is the fact that, in addition to Heimoff’s “manipulation” messaging, Tom had played the “ethics” card—the blogging equivalent to a Scarlet Letter.
With a 114 comments on Tom’s post, the conversation officially devolved away from the realm of the program or the wine into defensiveness and grandstanding on both sides.
At the time, I had issue, major issues, with both of the pieces from Heimoff and Wark because neither seemed to have a grasp on the program, or the back story that I laid out. Given both of their relative places of influence, I thought these posts were irresponsible particularly because throughout the heated debate nobody, not a single person, reached out to me to ask any clarifying questions or to understand my viewpoint or that of the participants, which included a professor, a lawyer, a book publisher, a Master Sommelier and other educated professionals.
The program that has been called the “Rockaway Follies” and “Rockaway-gate” had officially made an impact. However it was definitely a schism in the community and not positive influence for the wine. In fact, in online circles, Rockaway will forever be linked to this imbroglio.
In my final post, I’ll review the last bit of lingering impact the program had on the online wine community, summarize the reviews the wine received from bloggers and traditional media and offer a postscript for lessons learned and what I believe the future holds for wine, online wine writing and the blurring lines between editorial and marketing.
August 14 2009
Lost somewhere in the ongoing wine world debate about the validity of wine ratings and the validity of those wine ratings coming from enthusiasts who don’t have 20 years worth of tasting experience with historical antecedent is the simple fact that people on both sides of the debate are focusing on the wrong thing.
This is the topic that won’t go away—a bad rash on the wine glass of life: the “my palate or yours” notion of whether experience is a legitimate arbiter for the ability to competently provide a wine review, particularly when there are few barriers to entry to providing an opinion on wine.
The cacophony of who exactly is qualified to provide wine reviews smacks a little bit of our current healthcare reform debate. Democrats nor Republicans want to find the essential truth. Instead, they’d prefer to decamp to the fringes to yell at each other. As related to wine, this is too bad because the essential truth is close at hand.
Unequivocally, it’s not about the score and it’s not about the tasting note, mine or yours, it’s the sensory evaluation that goes into that score and that tasting note. Unfortunately, these days, the lack of true sensory evaluation across the board goes beyond a bad rash and moves into epic plague territory.
Dr. Maynard A. Amerine, the creator of the UC Davis 20 Pt. system should be rolling in his grave. Designed in 1959 to be a critical evaluation tool for reviewing experimental student wines, the UC Davis system has been THE baseline for critical analysis for decades.
In my worldview, where I strive to be pragmatic, reaching across the aisle as it were, if you’re educated and/or equipped to do sensory evaluation than the rating and the tasting note is the logical end result of the evaluation. I view sensory evaluation and the tasting note to be inclusive of each other and the end result shouldn’t be exclusive.
Make sense? Basically, if you can analyze a wine, you can analyze a wine. The end result should be a holistic view of the wine and NOT the distillation that equates to a score and a flavor descriptor.
The biggest problem the wine world faces with thousands of “citizen reviewers” isn’t the score or the experience. No, the problem is nobody who reviews wines provides a sensory evaluation for a wine, including major magazine critics to whom citizen reviewers are respectfully looking to as models for behavior.
We’ve moved away from sensory evaluation with the growth of wine criticism and the ensuing cult of personality it has spawned, not to mention a focus on points scoring.
However, I believe firmly that stripped of this “cult of personality” the fact remains that tasting notes, by and large, all suck. Yours suck. Mine suck. Parker’s tasting notes suck.
They suck because they say nothing to nobody.
And, that’s a problem that can’t be solved by me or anybody adding 20 years of mileage to my nose and tongue drinking library verticals.
If all of the tasting notes in the word were nuked tomorrow, nobody would miss them. They are 60 words of nothing staring into the deep abyss of emptiness because they don’t provide enough context. Absent meaningful context, we get lazy—hence the rise of the score as the end-all be-all, almost a deductive offset because tasting notes are so bad.
Now, many will argue that CellarTracker, who just registered their 1 millionth tasting note, might be a good indicator of the validity of consumer tasting notes, but this just isn’t the case. Absent a “cult of personality,” tasting notes only have value in that what people are really looking for when they go to CellarTracker is enough collective wisdom that says a wine is worth trying.
Four years ago, as published in Wine Business Monthly, George Vierra and a team of students at Napa Valley College presented a revised sensory evaluation form called the Napa Valley College 25-point score card. This scorecard offsets some of the more technical deficiencies of the UC Davis scoring methodology which has limited consumer usefulness.
As excerpted from the article:
Taking the history, analysis and use of existing wine rating systems into account, a new scorecard was created by the Napa Valley College class. Because a rating system has to accommodate a multiplicity of functions, the NVC Scorecard is designed to allow the user to wear two hats: The wine can be objectively and thoroughly analyzed as is done under laboratory conditions, but the rating sheet also allows for findings that can advise the wine buyer and fulfill the historical role of the wine merchant. For example, the wine style, character and recommended aging windows can be noted as well as how the buyer might locate the wine and what it costs.
I like this model and I’ve used it in the past on this site.
Another model, as taught in a four day seminar called Discovering the Professional World of Wine at The Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies, at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley, is the process of evaluation using Body, Acidity, Texture, and Aroma as a baseline for the physical construct of the wine and then discussing Aroma, Flavor and Finish. If done correctly, this kind of review of a wine gives a holistic presentation of the attributes of the wine while not reducing it to raspberry, crème de cassis and vanilla. 88 pts.
If the wine community is really earnest about righting the perceived wrongs of the wine review, and the empirical correctness of who is giving those reviews based on experience, they should focus not on the granular and arbitrary nature of a rating with a couple of flavor descriptors, but instead focus on moving the conversation to the higher ground of sensory evaluation. This higher ground also happens to be common ground, a place where healthcare debates and reasonable expectations about wine reviews can co-mingle.
*Note*
This post trades on ideas presented by Arthur Przebinda from the wine blog Winesooth. Arthur’s post called, “It’s Not About You, It’s About them” will be posted at Palate Press in the next day or so. Tip of the cap to Arthur for his always well-reasoned approach to wine issues.
June 10 2009
My wife has a saying, something along the lines of, “Don’t Boo my Wow.” She likes to convey the equivalency of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” particularly when my sunshiny and warming brand of pragmatic idealism dances the fine line of disdain.
Depending on the perspective, it happens either very seldom (my perspective) or all the time (her perspective).
Understanding that, I hate to be a party pooper, but “wow” am I experiencing Murphy-Goode fatigue.
This program has officially turned into the boorish, loud-talker at the cocktail party that goes on for an hour talking about their boy-genius 1st grader, but fails to ask you your name.
Is this Murphy-Goode thing a promotional earned media opportunity or a genuine social media engagement program?
I honestly can’t tell which it is.
Murphy-Goode has gotten so much ongoing, persistent press out of this deal it almost obscures the fact that some really good, really talented people genuinely want the opportunity to work for them.
It’s almost like the Super Bowl when you realize on that early February Sunday that, yes, besides the hype and the commercials, there is actually a game to play.
And, in playing this game, the Murphy-Goode winner has to relocate, effectively leave their existing life and earn good money (not great money) for a six month temporary gig.
At the end of the day, it’s presented as a temp. job.
I dunno. Maybe I just don’t have enough vision for how that six month gig might parlay itself into something better. Maybe I’m not in tune enough with the zeitgeist that makes this so newsworthy.
And now VinTank layers on by offering $100K worth of pro bono consulting. To be fair, I like Paul Mabray from VinTank, I used to work with him, and I think he is a classic entrepreneur – he has a vision for things that are still 250 miles away and very, very hazy for people until much closer to the destination.
That said, Paul is also a born marketer who knows when to catch a wave and when to beg-off on snaking a wave.
He also doesn’t shrink from a dissenting viewpoint which is why I don’t have a problem calling “bullshit” on the consulting offer, his catching a wave, so to speak.
I’d rather see him offer $10K of pro bono consulting to 10 wineries then to pile on this Murphy-Goode media reach-around. It shouldn’t be hard – Paul can check out his Twitter followers for wineries that don’t also have a blog and/or a Facebook fan page, those that are toe-dipping and not fully engaged, and really help them grow a focused presence based on some actionable planning and in doing so measure their mindshare and sales increase.
That would be genuinely helpful to the wine industry, spreading the seeds of positive progress. It also helps build measurable case studies which the wine industry desperately needs, with many wineries adopting Missouri’s unofficial state motto for most things.
So, as I’m “Booing the Wow” here it was with interest that I saw a job listing for Italian Wine Merchants in the current issue of the Sommelier Journal.
To me, this gig, a Sales Portfolio Manager position, is a really good job (pun intended).
Maybe it’s appealing to me because I love Barolo but only get to drink it every full moon during a leap year. Maybe it’s because the opportunity to penetrate the secret society of high-end collectors while acting as the equivalent of a trusted financial advisor is fascinating to me. Regardless, Italian Wine Merchants (who didn’t respond to several inquiries for comment on the job posting) seems to have a good opportunity, natch, a great opportunity for the right candidate.
To boot, it’s a permanent position with openings in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Connecticut, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Washington DC, Hong Kong, Mexico City and London. So, it’s in a neighborhood near you.
They are looking for (according to the job posting):
Ambitious, self-motivated and industrious sales professionals. The successful candidate will have a proven record of success in fine wine, luxury goods, wealth management, financial trading or exclusive real estate sales. The candidate will be responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with high net worth individuals, while simultaneously managing a portfolio of fine wines and other luxury products and bringing them successfully to market.
With the following attributes (edited):
• Highly motivated individual; thrives in a competitive environment
• Active learner with initiative, drive and salesmanship
• Demonstrated professional demeanor
• Refined communication skills, both over-the-phone and face-to-face
• Strong knowledge of, or interest in the fine wine industry
• Experience making phone/face-to-face sales calls (cold calls included)
• Capacity to work with a client base of high net worth individuals and to grow that client base
• Ability to identify high-level clients from large lists of leads
• Strong presentation skills to both small and large groups (20 — 100 people)
• Ability to formulate, present and implement selling plans and work within a CRM system
You can tell from the job posting that this is a serious job, for serious candidates, with the opportunity to make serious money, while being immersed in the wine business. The previous job history they are looking for in a candidate virtually ensures a six-figure income opportunity.
Call me crazy, call me Shirley, call me whatever you want, but the longer this Murphy-Goode thing goes on with the stroking of the press, and the candidates inducing themselves into a Darwinian game of social media chess, the more my skepticism (and my empathy for the participants) increases.
They won’t be a social media consultant, they’ll be a monkey in a Twitter zoo.
If the 500 or so Murphy-Goode candidates are serious about a career in wine, the opportunities exist for a really goode permanent job, no gimmicks attached.
May 26 2009
There are a couple of laws of nature that, if observed, help make life just a little bit more enjoyable because they are the keys that unlock the mysterious.
Now, this isn’t Murphy’s Law whereby whichever checkout line you choose will inevitably be the slowest. I wish I could crack that mystery, though. Instead, these are laws that seem to prevail regardless of human intervention like the 80/20 rule, known scientifically as the Pareto Principle, a theory that says 80% of the effects of something occur as a result of 20% of the inputs. Anybody that has been a part of any team-based project knows this one by heart. Another is the “Gaussian distribution” which is better known as the “Bell Curve” or “normal distribution.” This basically says distribution of a large number of basic random processes follow a general and natural symmetry, akin to the shape of a bell.
Think about the normal distribution in terms of any pop culture item—a music band, an actor, a phenomena like the DaVinci Code, etc. There’s a slow build up, there’s a peak (critical acclaim or popular opinion) and then there’s a descent.
That’s life.
This becomes important because the Wall Street Journal article about Robert Parker today rekindled last months kerfuffle about Parker and his influence. Now, mind you, on the surface, this was about Parker and ethical standards, but below the simmering surface this becomes an issue of anti-Parker hostility and sticking the shovel in the dirt to get the first toss of earth.
Is Parker’s influence on the wane? Of course it is, he’s been at the peak of his game for 20 years. Bloggers have nothing to do with it, if bloggers didn’t exist it would be some other form of communication that’s beginning its ascent up the normal distribution curve. Yes, of course, Parker’s on the slide down the other side of the curve. But, that’s where legacy comes in, and it cannot be understated—his legacy will prevail long after he’s gone.
Who the eff is Carl Friedrich Gauss? I have no idea, but his normal distribution idea lives long after he does.
Methinks those that use Parker as a lightning rod and dump bucket for a larger conversation on his influence and the 100 point scale might be better off letting the law of normal distribution continue its natural course while assailing just the 100 pt. scale. Parker will fade soon enough.
Previous post on this topic:
On Legacies, Music and the 100-pt Scale
What I Wrote About a Year Ago:
Vin de Napkin - R.I.P. Wine-ing 2.0
Elin McCoy, Author of The Emperor of Wine, on Parker:
Via Viddler and David Horowitz
May 6 2009
A couple of quick notes and thoughts …
The May Edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday
Wine Blogging Wednesday is next Wednesday, May 13th and I am hosting the affair. The theme is “California Inspirations.”
Inspired by the 1-year anniversary of Robert Mondavi’s passing, please choose a California wine that has acted as a memorable mile marker on your wine journey, re-taste and share your story.
It can be anything – but, surely, most of us have a memorable occasion, event, meal or circumstance that involves special people in our life, which acts as a wistful, or perhaps even funny, memory where wine acted as a lead or supporting character, a catalyst for the event. It is that story that I hope to see.
As a fan of a columnist or narrative-based blogging approach, I am not mandating any particular writing style for your post, but I think storytelling, particularly in blogging, is a powerful way for wine enthusiasts to share their passion in an engaging way.
The best blog post as determined by Lenn Thompson and me will win a 1-year subscription to Sunset magazine, the lifestyle magazine for California and the West Coast.
In addition, if you want to badge your site up with the “Robert Mondavi Day” badge, you can find the code snippet on the right hand navigation.
Please post your WBW entry and leave a comment and a link on this post, the previous announcement or send an email to: jlefevere(@)gmail dotcom
I wish you Goodness and Godspeed as you recall the grape.
Wine Blog Research Participation
With all of the fascinating research coming out of the wine industry the last couple of days (Silicon Valley Bank’s 2009 – 2010 State of the Wine Industry and VinTank’s State of Wine Industry Social Media) now is a good time to participate in what has an opportunity to be a seismic piece of research.
Tracy Rickman, a PhD candidate in consumer research at Auburn University is working on her dissertation about wine blogs as an information source.
Transcending secondary research and analysis by adding primary research, her work could be a watershed moment for wine blogging, or not.
Really, it is up to people to participate in the survey function.
As all good research is conducted with a neutral hypothesis, she is not taking any bias into the study, so her conclusions should prove very interesting for both wine bloggers and traditional media.
Though the survey takes about 20-minutes, and requires a level of consideration, I encourage all readers to start and complete the survey at this link.
A Really Goode Job
I have had a lot of fun following this Murphy-Goode story … they are fielding applications for a 6-month gig at $10K a month in which the winner gets an immersion into the winery and business while blogging and Twittering about their experiences.
It’s a nice promotion that is already earning them more than $60K in earned media. Smart play on their part.
However, it is also a nice opportunity for a passionate enthusiast to learn the business in an accelerated fashion. People kill for these types of opportunities because it comes with allegedly nice accommodations.
Ask a harvest intern about their experience and they may have loved it, but it didn’t come with 10K a month, bandwidth and comfortable accommodations.
There is no good way to handicap the field of applicants, but you can go to their YouTube channel and view the candidate videos (another smart move by Murphy-Goode to impose a 1-minute time limit). My money and my good wishes go to Hardy Wallace from Dirty South Wine to win – given the nature of the position, it seems only right that one of our own gets the chance to win the opportunity. It’s almost icing on the cake that Hardy is very passionate about the opportunity ... seems like a no-brainer to me.
Until next time … Celebrate the Good Grape …
What I blogged about a Year Ago
Vin de Napkin - eHarmony and Wine
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