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January 25 2009
Odds and ends from the wine notebook …
Anybody who watches Top Chef, or any reality show or movie these days knows that product placement is ever-present.
I recently watched Sex and the City, the Movie and there was a very clunky inclusion of an iPhone in the wedding scene. I watched Iron Man and there was a very overt inclusion of a Burger King cheeseburger when Tony is rescued from Afghanistan.
I watch Top Chef and there are “beat you over the head” inclusions of Glad containers, GE Monogram appliances, and Diet Dr. Pepper.
Then, on a more subtle note, I saw a very brief glimpse of the Tamari Reserva Torrontes during the “Restaurant Wars” episode on Top Chef this past week. A lingering camera shot on the Cuvaison Pinot Noir followed it.
The good folks at Terlato Wine Group are doing a nice bit of marketing. I knew the Tamari, because I received a bottle as a sample.
No review here for the wine as my palate has been wrecked this week as I grappled with the flu, but suffice to say it’s a pleaser and an up and coming varietal at nice price (US$13)
This whole product placement notion does have me interested, however. I read a recent article that discussed the positive effects of unconscious exposure to advertising, and, well, product placement works is the take-away.
One of the most surprising aspects of visual exposure effects, according to Changizi, is that they are enhanced when visual exposure occurs without conscious recognition.
Advertising that takes the form of apparel branded with company’s names, and products strategically placed in movies and television shows often go unnoticed by consumers, capitalizing on our brain’s mechanisms to modulate preference based on non-conscious exposure.
Changizi’s research suggests that such advertising tactics work because they tap into our non-conscious mechanisms for optimal preferences, hijacking them for selling a company’s products. The research could hold potential for marketers interested in optimizing their advertising for the human mind, Changizi says.
I tried to connect with Steve Singerman, PR Director at Terlato, via another PR team member at the wine company, but was unable to do so. Specifically, I am curious what a relatively small wine company sees as the value of product placement.
In my opinion, as we continue to see a consumer backlash against mass media advertising, with a desire for organic “discovery,” product placement will become even more important because it places the wine in context, in the case of Top Chef, it put it in the context of dining at a restaurant, for example. If shopping at the store for a wine to enjoy with dinner, according to the research mentioned above, who knows what can act as a trigger for our purchase decision. Some vague recollection of having seen the label before might be enough to sway a purchase, all things considered equal.
The Wine Makers TV Update
After a receiving a recent verbal tongue lashing from The Wine Makers Producer Kevin Whelan (noted in this post), he indicated that the press kit for the show would be available on Friday, January 16th. After an extensive online search for it, the press kit does not appear to be online and the web site http://www.thewinemakerstv.net is still down, with the URL in a state of flux.
Thought of the Day
As a matter of principal, I do not take sides in the ongoing “terroir” debate. I can appreciate terroir and I can likewise appreciate a large production Chardonnay with national distribution, like the Toad Hollow, for example. I understand the difference between the French view of a vigneron (wine grower) and New World winemakers.
I was struck, however, by a quote from musician Ani DiFranco was she was talking about musical instruments – she said:
“A guitar doesn’t come from the factory with a soul, so a lot of the guitars I play on stage are earning their soul right now.”
What if a wine’s soul did not come from the ground it grew in, but from the people and the circumstance in which that wine was drunk? Like a guitar earning its soul …
January 24 2009
After being laid-up with a wicked virus and sleeping, literally, 55 out of the last 60 hrs, wishing that the evil gnomes living under my bed would stop beating my body with baseball bats while I slumbered (maybe that’s the TheraFlu talking), all pounding migraine and body ache, I am happy just to be sitting at the computer typing with some level of functional normalcy today.
Credit caffeine. As of this morning, I could not tell where the head and body ache flu ended and the caffeine withdrawal started. Five cups of Joe later, some normalcy has seeped into my brain, if not a vague clarity of thought.
Thankfully, at this point, my engine is running on three of its six cylinders so I can now break my arm patting myself on the back – something that has become wine blogger de facto standard around blog birthdays. That as a preface, I would like to note that today is Good Grape’s 3rd birthday.
779 posts and almost 400,000 words later, it has been an interesting period of my life, sometimes a bit consuming, but all of it has been fun and educational.
To be honest, I am not sure where wine blogging is headed – over the course of the last 14-15 months social media has become so omnipresent that it at once has distracted people from blogging, while making blogging a foundation from which social media engagement springs. Undoubtedly, the next year to year and ½ will bear continued changes, but I am sure I will be doing this come b-day number four and five.
Overall, there have been dozens and dozens of lessons learned, and certainly I have learned a lot about wine in the process, but, perhaps, the biggest take-away is that the community around wine on the Internet is special (and make no mistake, the wine industry in general is the most genial group of people I have ever interacted with, making technology people seem like self-serious librarians at the dance). The relationships that I have forged in this community have and continue to be a source of inspiration, and one of the primary drivers of why I am certain I will be writing a birthday post in years four and five.
The other perhaps simpler lesson learned is anybody can write a book. Exhibit A is the fact that 400,000 words is roughly the equivalent of five or six reference guides, the likes of which are published in the wine category every year.
Without too much ego-induced mania, or navel-gazing, I would simply like to say thanks to the good folks that have happened across this site, left a comment, or who read regularly. It is appreciated!
January 21 2009
When it comes to music, my taste tends to run very analogous to my taste in wine – I prefer the under-appreciated, below the radar, non-mass produced variety.
My musical muse of the moment is a Jersey punk band called The Gaslight Anthem who have channeled Springsteen into melodic, driving punk anthems that is impossible not to like. With the release of their album last summer, The Gaslight Anthem graduated from bars and opening act to main stage at clubs, the next level in the pecking order.
Before The Gaslight Anthem, I had a two-year love affair with singer-songwriter Brett Dennen from the Bay Area who went from coffeehouses to clubs with his critically acclaimed album called So Much More.
Interspersed over the years have been many other folks, as I am always looking for an unknown gem, music being my passion after wine and being a lifelong learner.
Sometimes these bands make it to a bigger stage, sometimes they don’t, breaking up and moving on because they were chasing a big dream that was elusive, thereby left as a musical footnote. Either way, it is never easy.
Cowboy Mouth, a bar band if ever there was one, the best live band I have ever seen, a band so good in concert they make a simultaneous orgasm seem like a trifle, have never gotten past the club stage.
The Hold Steady, a Brooklyn band who has gained critical acclaim on their way to national attention call themselves the “best bar band in America.”
For many bands, however, kind of like wineries, sometimes the breaks just do not come your way, the 95-point score from Parker is not delivered, or it was not meant to be.
But, that is not a reason to forsake what you are or what can be considered successful based on subjective qualifiers.
As Americans, we are brainwashed to think big – if you are not growing, you are dying as the saying goes.
Is this correct, though?
There seems to be a pecking order to bands on their growth ascent—it goes something like – local bars, regional clubs, national theaters, national amphitheaters, and then arenas.
Roughly speaking this is akin to a winery being tasting room only for a few dozen fans at a time or a winery distributing nationally in 40 states to hundreds of thousands of people.
Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against the vast majority of bar bands ascending the ladder to play the arenas.
Life is fickle like that.
However, even if a band never makes it big, never scores critical acclaim, I am still loyal to them, keeping them as my “thing.” I think a lot of people are like that.
My overall point is this – wineries do not have to graduate from bars to clubs to theatres to amphitheatres to arenas.
It seems like there are a thousand and one wineries going in a million different directions trying to grow. Sometimes, maybe, the most obvious answer is the one right in front of them. Growth for growth sake is not always the answer.
Doing 15 different things half-ass is not nearly as good as doing two things splendidly.
I hope The Gaslight Anthem never graduate from clubs, slaying audiences in every small club they play, and I hope they continue to put out great album after great album, vintage, year after year.
Wineries, too, can just be a bar band, playing out of a tasting room to a small, loyal, devout group of fans.
Just make sure you are the best damn bar band around.
January 20 2009
On this momentous Inauguration day, surely I cannot be the only one who views drinking inexpensive wine as something akin to a blind date—i.e. prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Most private label wines at TJ’s inspire such feelings ... and hence the irony with a certain CNN headline from today that invoked the words “sober” and “hope.”
Nor, can I be the only person who went to college and intermingled with people who were inhaling their time in school with extracurricular activities ... a lot of extracurricular activities ... not all of them legal. That’s what I immediately thought of when I saw the Wine & Spirits Daily report that the NBA was going to allow in-stadium liquor advertising. I must be David Stern’s worst nightmare to do a mental free association of “NBA” and “liquor” and come up with “Cognac” and “drugs.” Smith & Wesson didn’t come to mind, that’s the province of the NFL. Just the same, well, hey, a lot of kids in college carry their drugs in a Crown Royal bag ... and Altoid tins ... don’t believe me? Google “crown royal bag and dope.” The police blotter review commences. You know, we do legit research at this blog, too.
January 19 2009
Recently, I have had the opportunity to see the wine world through a different set of lenses, a newer perspective then the unfortunate, but endemic nonplussed air that sometimes permeates practiced enthusiasts.
I have been enjoyably hanging out with people that enjoy wine, but are coming at it with a relatively slight base of knowledge. In other words, they fit into the same category of millions of other people in this country who are trying to crack the wine code.
While good for my ego because I know the most in the room, it is not a healthy situation for the wine business, in general.
Last week, John Gillespie, released his annual Wine Market Council research. Gillespie was one of the very first to get in front of the Gen. Y/Millenial movement in wine, calling his hand with pocket aces, as the Gen. Y demographic gathered steam five or six years ago.
According to a Winebusiness.com article on the most recent report:
The most positive trend, Gillespie reported, was among the younger generational segments: generation-Xers and millennials. The greatest growth and the most optimistic conclusions from the survey come from millenials, ages 15 to 32. They and the generation-Xers accounted for what Gillespie described as “stunning growth in the core wine-drinking population.” In 2008, nearly half of the millennial segment reported a net 23 percent increase in wine consumption—double that of generation-Xers against minimal or declining figures for the aging baby boomers. Gillespie described this trend as a “trade-off” phenomenon, where better than 10 percent of wine drinkers, primarily generation-Xers, are increasing total wine consumption at the expense of beer and spirits.
I can attest to this growth in both the Gen X segment, as well as the top-end of the Gen. Y demographic.
Having recently become a part of a small, monthly gathering of growing, young wine enthusiasts, I know there is a rippling fascination with wine that is enduring. This is not a flight of fancy or something that eventually gets set aside for the next “thing” du jour.
However, here is where the wine industry is failing them—now and for the future.
Wineries and the wine industry have long ago forgotten what it’s like to be new to wine and the bridge that needs to be traversed between enjoying wine and understanding what you are drinking.
Many of us have diligently worked at it, tasting, tasting, tasting, keeping notes and practicing sensory evaluation. Yet, there are millions upon millions of core wine drinkers who love wine, drink wine all the time who cannot pick out and break down components on the nose or on the palate.
And, that is a shame because nobody makes it easy on them. It is like a secret society that needs to be penetrated and many (most) regular wine consumers do not care to do the studying.
And, it is not their fault.
Ironically, the same core enthusiasts who drink a bunch of wine, but cannot discern the nuance in a wine never likely advance beyond the grocery store, drawing the ire of staunch and practiced enthusiasts for perpetuating industrial wine.
It is a catch-22. Not everybody who enjoys wine and drinks it frequently is built to know how the watch is made, many just want to know what time it is. Just the same, the wine industry is partly responsible and needs to ensure that newer core wine drinkers do not turn into mindless digital clock readers, unable to track the sweeping second hand at a glance.
And, all of this could be alleviated with the handy use of some consumer tools.
What the wine industry needs to provide now, more than ever, is a predominant de facto standard for flavor components like the AC Noble Wine Aroma Wheel, but more consumer-oriented. A complete re-tinkering of this in order to be accessible by consumers is necessary.
In addition, somebody at Le Nez Du Vin needs to get their head out of their ass and realize that if they drop the price on their wine aroma kit from $400 to $100, they will increase their sales volume by 8x. It’s a volume play, not a luxury play. Nothing like the French to screw up a sales strategy on an ongoing basis.
And, yes, I know Wine Enthusiast makes a lower priced point kit; a kit that I promptly sent back for quality reasons, so I cannot recommend it.
That is it, perhaps simplistic, but in order for wine to continue to grow in an orderly and disciplined fashion, with the consumers growing in knowledge, there needs to be an understood tool that acts as an accepted mile marker for wine fans whereby they can lightly study to cross the bridge from frequent and avowed wine drinker to knowledgeable enthusiast. The wine world needs a flavor component tool and study aids in the form of something visual in addition to an affordable Le Nez du Vin.
Is this simplistic? Yes. But, so are politics. Save the domestic car business = write them a check.
Having seen it first hand, and having sent out a half dozen requested emails on what to do to learn more about wine and understanding flavor components, I am convinced this is the single biggest obstacle to more studied appreciation for millions of wine drinkers.
What do you think? Have your say and leave a comment.
Recommended Links
Delong Wine —has a nice sensory evaluation/ wine tasting guide
Essential Wine Tasting Guide—This is my fave and well worth the $12
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