good grape daily: pomace & lees free run: field notes from a wine life around the wine blogosphere wine: a business doing pleasure good grape wine reviews new world red wine influences wine white wine wine blog news robert parker wine bloggers notes & dusty bottle items wine sediments wine business wine blogs historical wine book excerpts tasting safari: wines you can buy online cluetrain manifesto revisited winecast: a year in collaboration wine spectator robert mondavi wine blogger wine marketing indy food & wine vin de napkin vinography alice feiring wine blogging dr. vino appellation watch: midwest regional review new vine logistics american wine blog awards wine critics wine reviews cameron hughes wine books luxury wine tom wark natural wine gary vaynerchuk tyler colman steve heimoff oregon pinot noir wall street journal wine best wine blogs wine writers best wine bloggers biodynamic wine a really goode job california wine robert mondavi day robert mondavi winery fermentation blog 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tinybottles 100 point system vineyard church communion wine mark squires wine and music scheurebe sherry wine tycoon healdsburg terroir wine branding jackson-triggs vidal ice wine clif winery name your own price mirror wine company indiana gourmet food allocated cabernet the wine line core wine drinkers janet trefethen bruce reizenman luxury wine marketing wall street journal wine columnists "frankenwine" wine authors nbwa old vine zinfandel cluetrain manifesto down under by crane lake unified symposium texas bbq wine pairing prince's hot chicken king estate guinness advertising 2007 stoneleigh pinot noir wine pr wineamerica wine wisdom lewin's equation 1winedude chacha rudolf steiner wine expedition fat tire beer mothervine supplements continuum kelly fleming cabernet the new yorker ted lemon whyte horse winery iphone wine apps. palate press wine blogging strategies wine certification the traveling vineyard wine and art jason kroman alloutwine.com wine mou hess collection wine social media expensive wine trends wines and vines ted jansen hourglass wine murphy-goode wine trading down dip johnnie walker chateau latour planet bordeaux sherry wine paul clary blog gracianna wine wine cartoons alan goldfarb fusebox wine moms who need wine 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 argentina wine zephyr adventures barolo 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 andy warhol quotes fermentation anthony dias blue home winemaking reset "old world wine darwinism wine star awards tastingroom.com bruliam wine generation y. wine april fool's day wine snooth karen 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adler fels wines & vines bodeans mitch schwartz hourglass cabernet italian wine merchant dependable wine sutter home videos inexpensive wine jay miller keep walking wines that rock steve perry aussie wine glut clary ranch pinot noir john tyler wine wine economy mary ewing-mulligan non-profits and wine ebob 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 ani difranco peru wine trip barbaresco 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 sylvester pinot noir goodguide korbel wine blobbers oregon travel tokalon 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 chimney rock elevage cornell enology wine tycoon game stavin 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 hunningbird wine beaux freres jon bonne 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 discoveries pathfinder wine bar bets the winemakers tv 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 1% for the planet wine industry news negociant wine business monthly little zagreb wine magazines howard schultz paul mabray wine blogging ethics youtube cheap wine wine bard weds wine dj journey three dollar koala pinot noir reviews chronicle wine ed mccarthy wine to relax erobertparker 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 klinker brick maria thun bad wine 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 sensory evaluation petite sirah wine points the press-democrat oregon cuisinternship winner blog contests 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 patz & hall sonoma coast pinot noir notes on a cellar book wine tycoon video game oak alternatives 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 wine industry zap wine jr. san francisco chronicle wine wine reality show wine label design duane hoff resveratrol woman in wine organic wineries oregon wine snobs wine is the new black expensive wine will hoge wine spies gapingvoid rose summer wine corkd foppoli wines tamari torrontes dirty south wine firestone contest doug frost whuffie factor celia masyczek jim koch pinot main street winery obama wine digital signage wine retail the fifth taste dominus bellagio wine the wine blue book conundrum winery customer service julie and julia texas for dummies wine collection shorttrack ceo vintage of the decade markham mark of distinction sonoma wine company spike your juice party of five theme song wine spectator restaurant awards zig ziglar drvino.com wine direct shipping wine humor altar wine good wine livingston cellars persimmon creek vineyards liberty school cabernet sauvignon german wine oh westside road scott becker randall grahm 2007 waters crest "night watch" late harvest wine clif bar wine cheap wines rick mirer indiana miss america lewis perdue pbs john trefethen elliot essman wine intelligence research steroids in baseball publishing trends wine laws biodynamic wine health research rachel alexandra 500 things to eat before it's too late wine & spirits guinness beer 2006 brancott pinot noir wine public relations facebook + wine millenials and wine penner ash deb harkness cowboy mouth wine evaluation dark & delicious biod alpana singh dos equis commercials wine and sense of smell tim mondavi kelly fleming wine mike hengehold traminette wine mobile applications rick mirer wine wine blogging tips professional culinary institute adobe road the the lost symbol wine stories wine 2.0 schotts micellany hugh johnson alloutwine cooper's hawk winery triple bottom line jim gordon
December 20 2009
*Sigh.*
An online analytics service called PostRank offers a scoring system that measures “engagement” for any form of online content. It’s kind of like rating a wine, but it happens automatically based on some sort of unknowable algorithm related to how interesting the content is; specifically, how much other people interact with and share that content, a sort of popularity-oriented online court of public opinion.
Mind you, I’m deeply ambivalent about PostRank and I imagine it’s a conundrum similar to what many winemakers go through, as well.
Do you make wine for others or do you make wine for yourself?
If you want to keep your soul intact you make wine for yourself and hope others like it, I think.
In my case, the question is: do you write for others or do you write for yourself?
I believe in the latter, not the former. It seems like a real slippery slope to write something that I think will appeal to an unknowable audience of others. Therefore, it’s easier to write something that I’m interested in, and let the chips fall where they may.
That said, to me online wine writing and writing posts is NOT like having kids. By that, I mean—I don’t like them all. I like a lot of them, but I don’t like them all. In fact, the ones I like most are frequently the ones that I imagine other people find the least interesting. So it goes because a number of the posts that PostRank lists as most “engaging” aren’t posts that I’m particularly proud or fond of.
Herewith, the top 12 “most engaging” Good Grape posts from the last six or seven months of this year. And, no, I’m not going to say which of my babies I think are ugly …
1) News, Notes and Dusty Bottle Items - Wine Marketing Edition
3) The 2009 Best of Wine Online Awards Pt. 1 (1-10)
5) Can Wine Enthusiast Magazine Woo the ‘Silent Majority’ Pt. II of II
6) Publish or Perish. The Changing Meaning of Wine Book Publishing
7) Thinking about Drinking ... Wine
9) An Insider’s View of the Wine World
11) Field Notes from a Wine Life - Harvest Edition
12) The Closed Loop
December 16 2009
A highly subjective, non-comprehensive look at my opinion on the best of the online wine world in 2009 … Pt. II of II
• Best Story of the Year / Consumer
This category begins and ends with the Murphy-Goode “A Really Goode Job” story. What could have been a blip on the radar as a copycat derivation of a similar campaign started four months earlier (originated by the Queensland Australia tourism board in January, prior to the M-G launch) instead turned into a mainstream media frenzy and word-of-mouth campaign that will go into the annals of wine marketing history. “A Really Goode Job” was the sort of campaign that would have made a career for a PR practitioner just 10 years ago, prior to the Internet (and life in general) turning non-hierarchical and viral. As it stands, M-G was THE national wine story of the year, as covered by mainstream media.
Of course, continued congrats go to wine blogger Hardy Wallace for spiritually leading the contest from the get-go and ultimately landing the prize – the six month job at Murphy-Goode and the handsome $10K a month salary. However, the real winner is Murphy-Goode for earning public relations mojo that money can’t buy.
• Best Story of the Year / Industry
A train wreck in slow motion, the New Vine Logistics / Inertia Beverage Group / Amazon.com story unfolded over the summer and held the winery side of the industry in rapt attention. It was a “Medusa” story with eight snakes waving menacingly off the head of the logistics portion of the wine business. Who would be turned to stone?
Unfortunately, there weren’t any Perseus-like triumphs here. New Vine is no more, investors lost cash, credibility was questioned, nefarious “deep throat” quotes were offered up and winery customers were held in limbo all before Amazon.com exited the wine segment before they even started.
If Murphy-Goode was yin, this story was the yang.
• Best Wine / Winery of the Year
Dry Creek Vineyards. My interest in Dry Creek Vineyards goes back a decade with a visit to their tasting room and a side of mouth whisper from a friend of mine who lived in Healdsburg at the time. “The Chenin Blanc is always a terrific value,” he said. He was right then and he’s still right today.
To me, Dry Creek represents what is good about California wine – medium-sized, family-owned and operated, well-priced with very strong quality and value up and down their wine line-up. It’s a nicely branded winery with history and a back-story as well as national distribution for a segment of their portfolio. In a brutal economic climate like 2009, this is the kind of winery to root for.
In addition to my natural affinity for Dry Creek Vineyard, the best wine I drank this year actually came from Dry Creek, as well. During the first week of January I had the Dry Creek 2004 Endeavor Cabernet Sauvignon. At the time I said I thought it would likely garner a mainstream review in the 93-95 range. Steve Heimoff and Wine Enthusiast gave it a 93, others were slightly lower. But, relative to everything else I drank this year, this wine was tops – earthy, complex, well-structured and not overly extracted in that Napa Cab way. And, at $55, I’d call it a value. Today, the Endeavor represents a wine style that California will evolve toward in the future – a balance between fruit and earth, short-term pleasure versus long-term patience with some overall restraint. The 700+ cases for the ’04 are gone according the Dry Creek web site, though the ’05 was just released.
• Best “I Knew You When”
CellarTracker has had a very good year – they hit 1 million consumer tasting notes and they’ve been creating strategic alliances for content, iPhones and such with amazing pluck. A revised look and feel is still on the near-term docket, improving an already very usable service.
Usually, I’m pretty good at reading between the lines and analyzing potential outcomes. That said, with CellarTracker I can’t call it. I have no idea where founder Eric Levine’s tasting notes site is going to go, and I’m not sure he does either. However, I have a very high degree of confidence that in the future CellarTracker will be as integral to the wine marketing and consumer landscape as Parker is today. You can go along for the ride, too—use CellarTracker as your tasting notes tool. It’s probably a good idea because at some point in the near future we’ll say, “I knew Eric when …”
• Best “Shaking the Malaise”
Crushpad wine. I tend to fetishize the things I like. Crushpad falls into this category. Separate from their innovative business model, they continue to build out programs and initiatives that are novel and unique to the wine business, shaking off what can be an industry wide “by the book” approach to market engagement. There is significant business risk involved in these efforts, but there is significant opportunity that can be captured, as well. Their Fusebox blending kits and Brixr tasting packs (50ml sample sizes) are simultaneously cool and useful. The Crushpad challenge, however, is cracking either direct-to-trade or traditional distribution and figuring out how to do so within their cost structure because the things they are doing deserve to find a larger wine audience, an expansion beyond those that are online wine habitués.
• Best Winery Blog /Written or Video
Judd’s Enormous Wine Show. Produced by the folks at Judd’s Hill Winery. This is pitch-perfect video blogging. It’s scripted, yet utterly natural and completely original. It’s funny; it’s quirky and has very skilled production values. On the winery side, Judd’s Hill has set the video blogging bar for all others.
• Best Blog Post of the Year / General
Generally speaking, naming a single blog post the BEST of the year is an exercise in futility akin to going to the Playboy Mansion and playing the “who is the hottest?” game. That said, my criteria is based strictly on what individual post implanted itself in my memory bank the most strongly. This honor goes to Tom Wark at Fermentation and the living eulogy he gave to his Mom for Mother’s Day. It’s personal, it’s poignant and it weaves in wine throughout the narrative. This is a fine example of wine blogging at its peak.
• Best Blog Post of the Year / Events & Reporting Related
The best example of wine blogging vis-à-vis reporting goes to Tyler Colman blogging under the nom de plume Dr. Vino. You know you’re on to something when the venerable Wall Street Journal writes a story based on your work while Parker lashes out in one of his (now) trademark rebukes on the eBob message board. Credit Tyler and his investigative work in breaking a report about inconsistencies with Robert Parker’s ethical standards and the standards that his team members follow. This was a high water mark for the reasonably quiet and serene online wine scene.
• Most Improved Player
Mutineer magazine. They’re active bloggers at http://www.mutineermagazine.com, supporting the printed magazine with daily content. This newer and nationally launched beverage magazine has a heavy skew on wine and is an ardent supporter of wine blogs. In addition to providing a legitimate outlet for wine bloggers to earn print writing credits, they win Most Improved Player for coming so far, so fast. Launching a magazine is tough business, launching it in the last two years on a shoestring requires nothing short of full-on admiration.
Yet, Mutineer gets the award not for business fortitude, but for quality in product. Last fall I read the inaugural issue of Mutineer magazine and, charitably, it was rough around the edges. Flash forward to the current issue and it’s a sight to behold in terms of layout, aesthetics and quality of content. It has taken a quantum leap forward.
Credit to Alan Kropf and his editorial team for not just supporting online wine writing, but also creating an ever-improving magazine that speaks to wine and beverages the way most people under 40 want to read about it – culturally literate, smart and interesting.
• Wine Person(s) of the Year
Similar to Time Magazine who named “You” person of the year in 2006 for the move towards community and collaboration facilitated by the Internet, I’m naming winery PR – the whole category—as my person(s) of the year.
In 2008, an online wine writer receiving samples was reasonably cloistered to a few and part novelty as good fortune called your name in the form of an email asking for your mailing address.
In 2009, it’s a manifest reality.
Online wine writers can kibitz about the mainstream wine press ad nauseum, but the reality is that it’s not wine writers –online or offline—who decide who or what is important, it’s wine marketing professionals who peek into this world and deduce quality in the attempt to achieve goals for their clients.
The amount of sample disclosures on wine blog posts speaks to the changing nature of our media environment more so than anybody can express in practical terms.
In summary, 2009 has been a difficult year spent lamenting the economic realities of a miserable business climate. Yet, there have been silver linings – inexpensive wines with high quality seem to be here to stay and luxury wines seem to be adjusting with saner pricing structures in accordance with legitimate housing values and people spending within their means. There’s not much to complain about from a consumer perspective when the value equation increases positively.
But, what will the wine year 2009 be known for in hindsight aside from the economy? 2009 is our Time magazine person of the year, three years later; which is about right for the wine business. It’s “You” and it’s “Us.” It will be the watershed year that changed evolved the way people view wine media and where and in what form that media is consumed.
December 14 2009
A highly subjective, non-comprehensive look at my opinion on the best of the online wine world in 2009 …
• Best Wine Blog / Professional or Industry
Steve Heimoff. You have to sit in amazement at Steve’s ability to take subjects, provide compelling commentary, and stay above the fray as his opinion elicits responses (a lot of responses) in the form of comments. Being thought-provoking and staying above the fray is an art that only a skilled writer can pull off. Likewise, I pay close attention to the daily curation of wine blogs by Wine Business Monthly (http://www.winebusiness.com) and Steve has absolutely dominated this with the lead post if not daily, then multiple times weekly.
• Best Wine Blog / Consumer
Joe Roberts at 1WineDude (http://www.1winedude.com). I pay close attention to traffic for top wine blogs and Joe has ascended into the very upper echelon in 2009. Traffic is one thing, but the really impressive thing about Joe’s blog is he has grown his site free of agenda and with an engagement-oriented, populace-style approach that isn’t replicated by other top bloggers. Plus, he does frequently laugh out loud funny posts. Named top wine blog by FoodBuzz and mentioned in Forbes this year, Joe is one to watch.
• Best Wine Blog / Multiple Contributor
NY Cork Report (http://lennthompson.typepad.com/lenndevours/). Anybody who is paying attention has surely noticed that the quality at the former Lenndevours site has gone from very good to great over the course of this year. Full of very frequently updated and interesting content from a wide range of contributors, Lenn Thompson and his team of correspondents are doing professional level reporting on the NY winery scene that can’t be found anywhere else.
• Best Wine Blog Newcomer / Multiple Contributor
Palate Press (http://www.palatepress.com) Launched in September of this year, Palate Press is the vision of David Honig. Offering a wine-centric online magazine with all contributions receiving a quality brush via a pro’s editorial hand by W.R. Tish or another editor, Palate Press has breezed onto the scene and published significant content with a very high quality level. Traffic and attention bear this out, as well. Palate Press is one to watch in 2010.
• Best Wine Blog Newcomer / Consumer
Gonzo Gastronomy (http://www.gonzogastronomy.com) by Katie Pizzuto. Though technically started in September of ’08, she hit her stride in ’09. Written authoritatively with insight, humor and a personal voice, Katie does a fantastic job. And, to boot, every post offers a riddle in the form of a headline taken from a song lyric. Gonzo Gastronomy is my favorite new site for the year.
• Best Wine Reviewer / Consumer
Megan at Wannabe Wino (http://www.wannabewino.com). It takes some “sticktuitiveness” and consistency to develop a strictly wine review web site that garners respect from peers and readers. Megan scores on that count. Wonderfully prolific and delightfully down to earth, Megan represents the best notion of what consumer-based wine reviews means to the online wine scene.
• Best Wine Reviewer / Professional
Bigger Than Your Head (http://www.biggerthanyourhead.net) . Frederic Koeppel is a former syndicated wine columnist and journalist at Memphis’ The Commercial Appeal. Pure and simple, Frederic writes reviews the way you wish you all reviews were written – a little bit of context, a little bit of description and a recommendation. He uses exactly the right amount of words to get his point across. And, his palate is reasonably undefined – meaning he’s as likely to review a $12 wine as a more expensive wine – New World and Old World—giving every wine the same evenhanded treatment without overt palate preference. This is a well-done site from a class act.
• Most valuable new commenter
If comments didn’t exist, you wouldn’t have blogs, pure and simple. It’s the two-way feedback that drives the quote/unquote “conversation.” For that reason, it’s good to know that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Therefore, I bestow most valuable new commenter to Charlie Olken. Charlie is the publisher / editor of the Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine and was a newcomer to blogs in ’09. You can find him hanging out and offering sage wisdom in the comments at Fermentation, Steve Heimoff and other blogs with a wine business skew.
• Wine Blogging Impact Award
TasteLive (http://www.tastelive.com). The concept is so simple you wish you would have thought of it. An online wine tasting in real time. Duh. Gathering wine bloggers and those in the online wine scene for coordinated tastings, Craig Drollett has the recipe for wineries / brands / country associations that want to build mindshare while providing real value to the people that participate. I expect his business to continue to grow as more and more wineries figure out that gathering a small group of people together online to talk about their wine provides not just real-time feedback, but a meaningful connection tool.
• Best Blog that is not a Blog
Garagiste Wine (http://www.garagistewine.com). It takes a skilled wordsmith to build a business based on email sales offerings, yet that’s exactly what Garagiste does. Jon Rimmerman and his team offer two or three wine offerings daily that read like a Harlequin novel if the subject of love and romance were a bottle of wine. Focused on small producers of fine wine, you get the sense that Jon is your personal guide down the road to a hardcore wine obsession. Of course, it helps that their curated offerings also deliver in the bottle. Their daily missives are some of the best wine writing going. Anywhere.
In my next post, I’ll look at 10 other “Best of’s” from the online wine world looking more broadly at the events and developments that mark 2009 as watershed year in the changing dynamic of how we learn about and love the grape.
December 12 2009
It’s stock in trade for practitioners of polemic rhetoric to appeal to the basest instincts of their audience. Why resort to reason when half-truths and pretzel logic will work just fine?
You just hope that your audience is either dumb enough or lazy enough to not call B.S. on what you’re spoon feeding them.
So it goes with the Marin Institute and their latest assault on reason. Only this time, their spin defies the suspension of disbelief that can occur with a carefully constructed story. They have significantly undermined their credibility now and into the future.
Caricature has officially turned into a cartoon with a chorus of dissent raining down that sounds (if not smells) curiously close to the cacophony of people yelling, “B.S.”
The Marin Institute is a watchdog organization that advocates for social responsibility from alcohol organizations. They run several annual campaigns designed to raise awareness about the business practices of beer, wine and spirits businesses with a specific focus on the societal implications wrought by alcohol abuse.
It’s certainly a noble mission and one that any pragmatic person can see as valuable advocacy work for the greater good. In fact, one of their notable organizational campaigns is called, “Charge for Harm” supporting efforts to dedicate some percentage of alcohol taxes to alcohol-related support services.
My first question, however, is: do we really believe that wine, a beverage of inherent moderation, should be a target of the Marin Institute? Forget the poor judgment in decision-making for those that decide to drive after having one too many cocktails; I wonder who at the Marin Institute had a BAC above .08 and thought it was a good idea to pick on the California wine industry and the Wine Institute?
Besides wine being the least likely alcoholic beverage to be abused, the fact is that the allocation of tax dollars is a state decision, and while the Charge for Harm program is noble, it is a business obligation to protect your interest from further taxation. That’s America.
The latest Marin Institute effort takes an unoriginal page directly from the September news cycle in which a soda tax was bandied about to help pay for the healthcare related costs of obesity and diabetes. This caused the likes of Coca-Cola and Pepsico to foment their own consumer movement. In their incarnation, the Marin Institute has set their sights on the Wine Institute as a bogeyman for harboring corporate wine and spirits businesses (“Big Alcohol” they call it) who supposedly lobby against new taxes that can also support alcohol-related social programs.
The report, written by Sarah Mart, focuses on the rubric of, “The Myth of the Family Winery.” Mart, who stayed on message in her email communications with me while being evasive in answering questions directly, is a career policy advocate and not a marketer – that much is clear by reviewing her poorly conceived report replete with more holes than a block of Swiss cheese.
Their press release indicates:
The report details how global alcohol giants promote the California winery storyline while steadily working to deregulate alcohol nationwide. Big Alcohol exploits California wine imagery by exerting undue influence on the political process, including massive lobbying against federal and state alcohol taxes and fee increases to balance budgets and reduce over-consumption.
Okay.
In actuality, the report (if you can call a 10 page PowerPoint using bad logic and Internet research a report) is absent any thought more considered than what an underclassman in high school debate would do while also lacking any meaningful persuasion by presentation of fact or narrative. Mart and the Marin Institute allege that the Wine Institute and “Big Alcohol” perpetuate the myth of California wine as:
• Local
• Small
• Family-owned
• Exclusive
• Healthy
• Integral to California lifestyle
In doing so, Mart focuses on the seven wine companies that represent over 80% of the domestic wine market by market share. She elaborates on the global nature of these companies who (in many cases) have other lines of business that include beer and spirits.
She supports her premise by elaborating on the leadership of the Wine Institute as being from “Big Alcohol” and then enumerating the various lobbying efforts directed by these large wine companies to various California politicians and ballot measures.
Yet, when I posed the question to Mart about stratifying her focus based on what people are drinking that causes societal ill i.e. beer and liquor, she gave a non-sequitar before subsequently following up and acknowledging that beer represents 80-85% of California and national alcohol sales.
There you go.
Why pick on wine and the lifestyle when the fact of the matter is that California’s contributions to California and the country include all of the things that Mart represents as a myth – wine IS local, small, family-owned, and occasionally exclusive, offers health benefits and is a significant part of the California lifestyle. In addition, very significantly, wine is a beverage of moderation, a companion to food on the table.
Those are facts and while it is true that the wine industry does have an 80/20 rule in effect related to large wine company sales volume relative to small wineries, that’s the case in any industry and a virtue of distribution, not intent.
Mart’s attempt at Karl Rove-like spin of taking a strength and turning it into a weakness is certainly poorly conceived.
Why?
Because for all of this focus on the large wine companies the whole argument comes crumbling down when you look at the supposedly “massive” amounts of money these large wine companies contribute to politicians.
Let’s see. California wine does the following:
• Produces $58.9 billion dollars for the California economy
• Pays $12.3 billion in wages to California employees
• Pays 14.7 billion in state and federal taxes
• Has thousands of small, family-owned wineries
• Generates $2.1 billion in tourism dollars from over 21 million visitors
• Gives over $101 million dollars to charitable organizations.
So, if you take the supposedly “massive” contributions that “Big Alcohol” makes to politicians (approximately $1M as calculated by the Marin Institute) and juxtapose it against the value California wine has on just the state economy it comes out to an infinitesimal percentage – tenths of one percent. I mean, it borders on the ridiculous it’s so small relative to the revenue generated. Relative my personal income, it’s like me giving a homeless person a dollar on the street—which is an apt analogy given the wine industry gives over $100 million dollars in goods, services and cash to charitable organizations!
The good news is that outside of a glancing mention in the San Francisco Chronicle it appears that this story hasn’t garnered any sympathetic coverage. I strive to be fair and balanced and I want to be careful not to make this a referendum on the author of the Marin Institute report, but the results of this campaign will surely equal its quality and that’s a lesson learned for everybody involved, particularly those that make ill-conceived assaults on reason.
December 10 2009
Technology is coming hard at the wine industry – harder than the first few waves of the Internet, eCommerce, and social media over the last 12-14 years. The technology innovations that are forcing change will make previous technology iterations look like the halcyon days of simplicity. However, at the core of all of this technology progressiveness is data – not just data that helps run a wine business internally, but also data that helps the sales value-chain sell, too.
But, here’s the rub – mobile applications, third-party eCommerce sales and all of the other technology-related opportunities that can have a positive impact on the bottom line while creating new customers for the wine business all run on a very important thing – the ability to have clean, re-usable information about the wines that are available for sale in the U.S. Unfortunately, that data is very difficult to come by and its cloistered by individual companies with propriety. Gathering this data is so difficult, it could almost be its own currency.
Very simply, wine industry data standardization needs to occur—a mechanism in which all selling information for all domestic wines for sale in the U.S. (direct or distribution) can be accessed, including label shots and selling copy, in the same format. For that reason, services like OwnIT by Cruvee, which is attempting to create a free winery-supplied storehouse of this information, and the AVIN, similar to an ISBN for books, are very, very interesting.
But, here’s the rub. I mentioned in part I of this post that any large industry-wide standardization that has occurred (in any industry) has typically been done so by a non-profit that didn’t have commercial interest outside of benevolence for the common industry good. Typically, these associations are member-supported – like any association or consortium. Without the support of a swath of leadership and influencers in any industry, the collaboration that is necessary to get to a standard and drive action that benefits everybody doesn’t happen. Period. End of sentence.
This would all be well and good and another rhetorical “what-if” conversation best enjoyed three glasses into the evening were it not for a very pregnant opportunity unfolding.
Custom Top-Level domain (TLD) names, the equivalent to .com, .net and .org are now going to be made available for sale – there are a couple of stipulations, however. It’s not easy to get an extension and it’s expensive. Reports indicate that securing a Top-Level domain like .ibm or .fedex will cost north of a $500K. If it’s a general extension like .wine for example, the registering party will have to demonstrate some greater value for the domain than capitalistic interest, amongst other things. Net-net, this is a perfect time for the industry to come together in collaboration to secure the domain .wine, for the benefit of all.
Of course, the practical application of this would still be a mystery to me if I didn’t see and hear what the plans are for the domain extension .jobs.
The .jobs domain is being administered by a non-profit employer/HR association called DirectEmployers. As an industry consortium they count most of the Fortune 500 as members. And, they are administering the registration of the .job extension to companies like IBM and others who are listing all of their job openings at the domain extension.
Are you interested in working for IBM, but tired of sifting through Monster.com and the rest of the job boards that are populated with “work from home” ads? Likewise, are you having a hard time navigating seven layers deep into IBM’s mammoth web site to even find their jobs page? Ah, instead just go to IBM.jobs where their career section is directly navigable.
In addition, DirectEmployers is also creating a vast data-driven web presence that will aggregate all of the jobs that are listed on .jobs domains. So, they’re opening up what has previously been closed off via competing job board web sites. As a part of this development they are setting up the job data such that “Joe Consumer” can search for a job by virtually any criteria – nurses.jobs, floridanurses.jobs – it’s all there.
I’ve been working professionally around the Internet since ’96 and while I occasionally get hyperbolic, not much gets me excited. I had a mouth agape moment when I connected the dots on the Top-Level domains, .jobs and the translation to the wine industry.
You should have a mouth agape moment, as well. Why? Because if direct-to-consumer and direct-to-trade sales are the future of the wine business given the woeful state of three-tier distribution then what I’m talking about makes the universe of U.S. wine for sale much more navigable, findable and useable, for the benefit of the industry.
It’s would be a utility service like other infrastructure that we can’t imagine living without – um, like city sidewalks and running water.
In simple terms, here’s what it could mean (emphasis on “could.”)
• A wine industry consortium secures industry-wide support and develops a central repository for domestic wine data
• This same wine industry consortium applies to ICANN for the .Wine extension
• Once approved, the wine industry consortium allows domestic wineries to register their .wine URL – like drycreekvineyard.wine, for example
• Dry Creek Vineyard places their eCommerce store on this domain
• The wine industry consortium uses the central repository of domestic wine information to start slicing and dicing it based on the 1001 ways you can search for a wine
• The wine industry consortium creates a web-based application like jobs.jobs is creating (American.wine, for example) to act as an open interface for wine searching.
• A consumer searches for “Sonoma, Dry Creek, California Zinfandel” and ALL wines that are available for sale direct from the winery appear, with unified, standardized copy, label and selling information. Consumer decides between a couple of choices and buys the Dry Creek Vineyard Zinfandel by clicking through directly to the winery web site.
• Consumer is very happy having navigated the universe of domestic wine into a smaller pool of wine and finally to the wine he wants to buy, directly from the winery.
• The wineries and the U.S. wine industry is very, very happy with this, as well
Now, admittedly, there is much work that needs to go into this in order to make it happen, but my fundamental point is this – the wine industry has a very real opportunity to not hew to the vagaries of market development, but rather lead it for the benefit of all, untethering itself from the feeling of lack of control – the wine industry has always been benevolent and altruistic for the common good, now is a great time to apply that same social philosophy to itself.
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