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need wine ted jansen hourglass wine murphy-goode wine trading down dip johnnie walker chateau latour planet bordeaux sherry wine paul clary blog 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 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 andy warhol quotes 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 bledsoe amazon.com wine california cabernet paso robles wine sales hailey trefethen park avenue catering fine wine marketing wine tasting journal wine competitions national beer wholesalers association
June 26 2011
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass …
Wine Wars
Mike Veseth, author of the respected wine blog, The Wine Economist, and author or co-author of more than a dozen books, is a professor of International political economy at the University of Puget Sound in the state of Washington and he’s released his first wine-centric book, Wine Wars – a clear-eyed and expansive take on globalism and big business in wine.
It’s a welcome addition to the wine book shelf.
A good portion of my early wine and wine business POV was informed by Lewis Perdue’s very accessible 1999 wine business book, The Wrath of Grapes, still a fine read if you can find it used. Veseth’s book is a worthy next generation heir to that tradition.
For many writers, the wine business is handled as a dry, academic subject, but in the hands of Veseth (like Perdue before him) it’s interesting and zippy reading (bordering on a fun vacation read) and an incredibly helpful primer for not only the newly wine interested to help them understand the wine wall at their grocery store, but also savvy veterans who have, perhaps, focused their learning in specific regions, not looking at the wine world in totality and from a business perspective.
I wrote a jacket blurb for Wine Wars, so my opinion is obviously biased—as such this isn’t a formal review per se, but if you’re interested in reading Wine Wars, I have two publisher supplied copies to give away to readers – simply leave a comment and answer this question: Wine from which emerging wine region is more interesting to you? Baja California, Mexico, Niagara, Ontario or Eastern Bloc countries like Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia and Romania?
FedEx and the Wine Pick-up
Take the growth of the global wine world, combine with hegemony in U.S. distribution, add in the growth of wine shipping to consumers and stir it up with niche wine ecommerce sites like Winemonger, Canadian Wine Shop, and Israeli Wine Direct and a couple of things become obvious: 1) We’re all likely to source wine from niche sites in the future and 2) We’re all going to deal with the hassle of providing an adult signature on our wine shipments.
I use a UPS store for my wine shipments for the convenience of delivery on the first try with packages sent via any shipping company (wine and multiple days on a truck equals a potentially bad outcome) and because store personnel sign for the, “Over 21 signature required” package in my stead. However, that convenience does have a cost – about $200 a year to have a parcel box, equivalent to a postal service P.O. Box. It’s worth it to me because I’m not at home during the day to accept and sign for packages and because I choose not to make my employer a part of my wine enthusiasm by having them observe me receiving a steady stream of wine packages on a weekly basis.
Into this fray comes FedEx Office (formerly Kinko’s). They are now offering a service where consumers can receive packages at a FedEx Office location where it will be signed for and held for your pick-up.
There are some initial limitations to this program – FedEx Office isn’t offering a free service AND a personal mail box like I pay for that accepts packages from anyone. The free service is limited to shipments that are sent by FedEx – you’re out of luck if a package is coming from UPS or the USPS. In my experience, the overwhelming majority of wine shipments are made by UPS.
However, a consumer can use a FedEx location for their shipping address if a package is being shipped from FedEx or a package that is in transit can be re-directed from a residential address to a FedEx Office store location, a convenience that FedEx previously charged for.
This is a prescient move by FedEx and a service that is likely to incrementally improve with additional consumer benefits in the months and years to come for wine consumers.
For more information on this service, I’ve created a PDF that can be downloaded here.
Don’t Forget your Dreams
I was recently turned on to Kickstarter.com, a crowdsourcing investment site, when a friend of a friend was looking for money to finish a short film. For a $10 dollar donation I’ll get my name in the credits of the movie. More than anything, as an entrepreneur at heart, it’s nice to inexpensively help somebody out on a project that is a labor of their love and passion.
To the extent that Kickstarter.com is interesting to the wine enthusiast, there are a couple of wine-related projects in the midst of seeking funding, one of which is Boxxle from entrepreneur Tripp Middleton from North Carolina.
Middleton is seeking to solve a dual dilemma with box wines. First, box wines aren’t very aesthetically pleasing. Middleton solves this with a sleek, polished stainless steel house for spigoted bags of wine. Second, and more importantly, bag-in-a-box wines are gravity fed and the spigots are universally at the bottom of the box requiring the edge of the countertop or a hoist to get the wine in your glass. Middleton solves this with a patent-pending process that is sufficiently vague enough that I can’t explain it, but allows the wine to dispense to the last drop with the spigot pleasingly raised for correct countertop pouring within the housing of the Boxxle. While you can donate as little as $5, a donation of $75 or more effectively acts as a pre-order for the Boxxle when it goes into production.
To watch a video on the Boxxle and the project, check out the Kickstarter site here.
June 21 2011
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass …
Crossover Hybrids
When wine coolers were introduced in the 80s they broadened the appeal of the good grape at the same time that wine was undergoing a revolution of interest amongst Yuppie Baby Boomers, creating a more egalitarian perception for the nascent west coast wine business that was burdened at the time with inherited, stuffy, legacy east coast Euro-centric leanings.
Flash forward 25 years and wine in California has self-actualized and we’re living in a global wine village, fully in the throes of another sustained interest and growth cycle. Yet, this time, instead of wine coolers, we’re seeing new and different attempts at broadening the appeal of wine.
I call these new wine beverages, “Hybrid crossovers” – like the half car, half SUV, half gas, half electric cars that are rapidly gaining popularity in the U.S.
For the purists that can barely stand the thought of the new wine brands hitting the market with residual sugar, I’m firing a friendly observationally-based warning shot across the bow – when ChocoVine (a sort of cream liqueur meets wine sipper), is projected to sell 1M cases this year, now is a good time to buckle up for the changes that are coming.
Besides ChocoVine and its emerging competitors, we’re seeing Pomula Wine Spritz (available exclusively at the trend forward Cost Plus World Market chain of stores), Courvoisier with wine, Ritzling, a carbonated Riesling from New Zealand served with a lime (Like a Corona) and other permutations.
My guess for the next wine hybrid crossover to get packaged and find a wine audience? The Kalimotxo—the Spanish name for a half cola, half red wine concoction that is consumed around the world with different monikers.
If the thought of Baker’s Dozen Chardonnay gets your dander up, if the name, “Wine Cooler” is a pejorative in your vocabulary, hang on because you haven’t seen anything yet.
The Longtail: Not so Long?
A recent press release from Wine.com offered an innocuous statement from CEO Rich Bergsund who was quoted as saying, “We look forward to growing further by offering an increasingly compelling blend of selection, service, value and information that’s impossible to get in a store.”
The “selection” part didn’t get my attention – that’s throwaway wording. More interesting was the, “… Service, value and information that’s impossible to get in a store.”
Three of Bergsund’s four stated criteria have little to do with sourcing small wines and everything to do with using ecommerce to improve upon the in-store wine shopping experience. This is key because over the last five years the wine business has largely viewed online wine sales through the lens of the “Longtail,” a pop-economic philosophy that says that the Internet can be a boon for niche products like wine because it enables small quantities of niche products (read: boutique wines that aren’t in distribution) to be sold in a manner that could never be duplicated by inventory at physical retail.
The Longtail is/was to be a growth haven for small producers.
However, what I’m gleaning from Wine.com, the #1 online wine retailer for seven years running, and what their annual top selling wines list bears out, is not an attempt (nor the results) of selling small boutique wines àla the Longtail to a thirsty audience who can’t find these small wines at their local shop, it’s selling readily available wines to an audience who may very well be intimidated by the wine aisle at retail or unsatisfied with notoriously poor wine retail merchandising.
This notion is reinforced when viewing Wine.com’s top-selling wines. Their #1 selling wine of 2010 was the d’Arenberg Stump Jump Shiraz from Australia. Chateau St. Michelle Chardonnay was at #5. A Louis Martini Cabernet at #6. These are all big brands in national distribution and readily available.
And, while I’m not intending to besmirch anybody, I’ve long held the belief that Conundrum and Silver Oak are luxury brands for people that are heavy in the pocketbook, but light on wine knowledge, the exact same consumer who could or would be intimidated in the wine aisle despite their purchasing power. Sure enough, Conundrum is #16 and Silver Oak is #35 on the Wine.com top 100 sellers list.
And, if you look at Wine.com’s channel-based positioning and top-sellers contrasted against recently released VinQuest direct-to-consumer (DTC) wine sales research (all direct channels, not just online), it’s interesting to note that VinQuest indicates that the second fastest growing category in DTC sales, neck and neck with online wine sales, is event sales – at 37%. These are in-person sales, consumer direct.
Hmm.
The data suggests that when direct-to-consumer wine sales are spread out across all wineries, DTC is still a micro-channel of business for most, if not all U.S. wineries, no panacea for the small vintner and nearly equaled in ‘10 growth by offline direct sales.
Looking at a separate piece of data, Silicon Valley Bank research indicates that less than 4% of the domestic wine business is using a customer relationship management (CRM) software tool.
The problem now facing small wineries is betting on the right trend using anecdotal information: Is online consumer wine sales growth going to come from an online ecommerce provider that facilitates an easy shopping experience, at the expense of conventional wisdom that says that online wine sales are small, hard-to-find brands? Or, does the proverbial rising tide raise all ships?
Life sure isn’t easy for the small winery, but if I were making decisions for a 10,000 case brand I would double-down on a CRM software tool, and start building my one-to-one marketing capabilities, from both a digital and an event perspective because it sure looks like consumers are sowing the seeds of a trend that is independence-oriented, self-service online wine shopping while seeking a personal winery touch at events.
In the next “Field Notes” edition – FedEx makes it easy for consumers to pick-up their wine, the “Wine Wars” and more …
Wine & Cola photo credit: Jorge Negreros
Longtail photo credit: Chris Anderson
February 16 2011
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass…
Pizza in the Crosshairs
If you’re a foodie you like wine. If you’re a wine enthusiast you appreciate good food. Regardless of which side you lean, you appreciate the other side. And, in my estimation, the common ground for wine enthusiasts and foodies is pizza.
I’ve never met a single person who couldn’t wax philosophic about their favorite pie. From New York thin crust to Chicago deep-dish to California-style gourmet pies, everybody loves pizza. And, pizza, in a foodie society that rightfully denounces our Fast Food Nation, generally gets a hall pass. It’s like M&M’s. The locavore/whole foods/white table cloth person who swears to never eat junk food will bottom out a bowl of M&M’s, right? The same thing happens with the foodie and their favorite pie.
Yet, despite the wino/foodie familial alignment, a distressful situation happened a couple of weeks ago: On January 31, the USDA released the 2010, “Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” In typical, “Good enough for government” fashion, the 2010 guidelines were released in 2011, and noted in not so subtle terms that pizza is public enemy #1 in battling the near epidemic levels of obesity and diabetes in the US.
Ahem. I liked it better when the devil’s spawn was McDonald’s and not the staff of life … a slice of ‘za.
Aside from the truly scary fact that pizza is the number two source of calories for kids aged 2-18 (link initiates download of the entire report), it seems that pizza has everything that is bad for us – saturated and solid fats, sodium, added sugar and refined grains.
All I can say is I’m glad I’m on the wine side of the foodie/wino equation because Resveratrol, the little wine miracle compound, has been shown to have great potential in reducing obesity and diabetes. So, to the USDA and Obama’s Victory Garden I say, “I’m in your corner more often than not, but don’t demonize pizza, my man. All things in moderation, and paired with a nice red.”
You can read the Dietary Guidelines at this link. Mark Bittman and his book Food Matters is the antidote (if you’re interested) and Resveratrol research is as prevalent as pizza joints in the suburbs.
Speaking of Junk Food
Palate training for a wine enthusiast is a process that is fraught with challenge. No two people are necessarily going to get the same secondary or third-level notes on the same glass of wine so training is often a singular pursuit measured by much trial and error – bottle after bottle of wine, an aroma list by varietal and many tasting notes cross-referenced against a wine critic whose palate you respect.
But, what if you trained your palate not with wine, but with a soda and what if you knew the list of ingredients so you could test your palate in a quantifiable manner?
I saw an NPR news report earlier this week that noted the proprietary recipe for Coca-Cola was revealed in a 1979 Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. With the republished recipe, the NPR report isn’t so much news as it is a consumer interest piece – secret recipes the likes of the Colonel’s 11 secret spices or the 23 flavors in a Dr. Pepper always garnering attention.
The recipe itself is a bit of an aha moment for those that grew up in a Coke household, as I did – allowed one glass of Coke a day. Containing a number of essential oils, a glass of Coke and a review against the alleged recipe allows for a simple palate test, as I did yesterday.
Give it a try. I wouldn’t use a fountain Coke, but any old bottle from the convenience store will do, probably better if you go to a Mexican grocery store to get the version with pure cane sugar for purity of flavors.
I picked up the lime juice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and Neroli which is similar to orange peel, offering an orange-tinged bitter note in my own palate exercise. The lemon oil presented itself on the latter portion of the mid-palate. Though, coriander and vanilla eluded me. How will you do?
The alleged original Coke recipe (from NPR at this link):
Fluid extract of Coca 3 drams USP
Citric acid 3 oz
Caffeine 1 oz
Sugar 30 (qty. unclear)
Water 2.5 gal
Lime juice 2 pints
Vanilla 1 oz
Caramel 1.5 oz or more to colour
7X flavour (use 2 oz of flavour to 5 gals syrup):
Alcohol 8 oz
Orange oil 20 drops
Lemon oil 30 drops
Nutmeg oil 10 drops
Coriander 5 drops
Neroli 10 drops
Cinnamon 10 drops
February 13 2011
Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass …
The Best Blog that’s not a Blog Pt. II
I’ve mentioned Garagiste and their daily email wine sales offers in the past. The Seattle-based wine purveyor is notable not just for their wine offerings (which are stunning), but also for how that offer is presented—their long-form daily email missives represent some of the best wine writing found anywhere.
For entirely different reasons, you can add Bottlenotes to that list as well (subscribe to their email at this link). If you’re not already a subscriber to Bottlenotes daily email, The Daily Sip, you should be. Since hiring Eric Arnold (ex-Wine Spectator and author of First Big Crush) as Editorial Director in April of last year, Bottlenotes has come to represent one of the best daily wine-related reads anywhere.
Taking a less wine-specific approach and focusing on wine people, personalities and stories, Arnold has proven he has a nose for interesting angles while asking the right questions. His writing leaves a reader satisfied with something they didn’t know beforehand, a neat trick given that every single wine-interested reader comes at the subject with a different point of view and knowledge base.
Case in point: Recently, Arnold featured a little known documentary making the rounds of screenings that features Julian Faulkner, a young Provence winemaker, and his struggles in the global marketplace. Arnold’s interview with Faulkner’s New York-based importer (Brian DiMarco of Barterhouse) caused me to pluck my wallet out of my pocket and buy the DVD. The documentary called “Escaping Robert Parker” uses Parker as the foil for the idealistic Faulkner, perhaps not as successfully as Arnold’s writing intrigues, but the documentary is wholly satisfying none the less.
In the documentary, Faulkner discusses a good wine not as a vehicle for critical acclaim, but as being good when it, “Gives pleasure.” It’s an oft-repeated phrase from the anti-Parker set, but Faulkner’s earnestness sells it as meaningful.
Overall, Arnold’s daily writing and the documentary are both satisfying ways to spend time if you’re a wine enthusiast.
Escaping Education
Speaking of “Escaping Robert Parker” and wine that, “Gives pleasure,” Elin McCoy (author of The Emperor of Wine), is featured in several vignettes in the documentary discussing the state of popular wine criticism – a part of wine appreciation that she describes as a declining need for younger wine consumers.
The role of the wine critic is a complicated subject, not easily placed within a neat box and a subject in which any opinion could be held up as having a shred of truth to it. Yet, in general, McCoy’s notion that critical scores are less important to younger wine consumers rings true.
I believe that not only is the role of the critic changing, but so too is the notion of education.
Historically, the wine business has lived off the “core” wine consumer – the small percentage of wine drinkers that drive over 90% of wine sales. So, when you see research from the Wine Market Council that indicates 1 in 2 Millenials are coming into wine as a “core” consumer it’s easy to see why the industry is excited.
By sheer numbers, life is good and going to get better ... from a volume sales perspective.
However, the wine industry in a macro sense encompasses more than just wine – it also includes all of the peripheral activities that educate about wine, as well – magazines, books, events, etc. and the entire picture can’t be viewed through rose colored glasses.
It’s the education portion that I think is in for the most dynamic change over the course of the next decade.
In large part, wine enthusiasm is a singular pursuit and serious wine lovers are known for being inveterate learners – reading books, educating themselves, tasting, traveling and then reading some more.
However, anecdotally, I’m seeing significantly less interest in younger consumers learning about wine as avocation, and instead merely looking at wine as something that, “Gives pleasure,” as Julian Faulkner so noted.
Last weekend my wife and I held an engagement party for my 26-year-old sister-in-law, her fiancé and their wedding party, all the same age, all 25 or 26 years old. The party was wine themed. Everybody was wine-interested. A lot of wine was drunk. My takeaway is that the importance of wine in that setting is its role as a social beverage. Education or knowledge aside from the correct pronunciation of names and regions and whether or not the wine is good (or not) is about all that matters, even amongst people with the same interest.
The implications for this can’t be understated. There was no geek talk. No discussions of alcohol percentages, styles, or anything remotely deeper than enjoying each other’s company with a glass of vino. This amongst a wine crowd.
I might be crazy, but if I were a wine educator, or a wine writer that focused on education, I would shift my focus not on the minutia of wine appreciation, but on the mechanics of how to say Chateauneuf-du-Pape without looking like an idiot alongside reviewing wine faults. That’s it.
How do you pronounce it and is it good, bad, or flawed?
Everything else is details, and, well, nowadays, there’s enough going on without needless detail…Right?
January 31 2011
After earnest (albeit sporadic) reading since early December, I finished Vertical, Rex Pickett’s book sequel to Sideways, this past week. To say it’s a wine-soaked Bacchanalian romp is an understatement akin to saying Screaming Eagle wine is “kind of” expensive.
While I won’t review the book formally because I don’t possess the bona fides to critique fiction, suffice to say that “ambivalence” is how I would describe my feelings about it. However, in that ambivalence I should note that I’m going to read it again – I’m just persnickety enough that I can’t invest time in something without walking away with a definitive opinion. A re-read on my part should give the impression that my initial take is leaning towards, “Glass half full.”
Vertical leaves a couple of doors open for a third book to round out a trilogy, and like other sequels that try to capture lightening in a bottle (no pun intended) a second time, the story does amp up Miles and Jack’s hijinks AND the wine references.
There are A LOT of wine references…
As Pickett says on his Author’s Note page, “No winery or winemaker or anyone in the wine trade (in) any capacity influenced the wines or wineries that appear in Vertical. As part of my research for Vertical I held several large tastings with non-wine professionals and solicited their opinions. The wines that appear are a result of those and other efforts, and were picked as appropriate for the characters and the story. Please celebrate the hard work and achievements of all vignerons in the spirit of the Vertical journey.”
Given the impact Sideways has had on the wine world I thought it would be fun to point out the wines that Miles, Jack and others drink in the book. This is not a comprehensive list; many other wines were mentioned, but only glancingly. The wines I’ve listed below all figure into Vertical as name-checked plot detail from Miles. The links for each wine go to either the winery or retail where the wines can be purchased and I’ve added the retail price for those scanning.
A nearly complete list of wines from the book Vertical
2009 David Family Pinot Noir | $70
2007 Bonaccorsi Pinot Noir | $50
2008 St. Innocent Freedom Hill Pinot Blanc | $20
2008 Witness Tree Vintage Select Pinot Noir | $40
2007 Witness Tree Claim 51 Pinot Noir | $48
2007 Sokol Blosser Goosepen Block Pinot Noir | $70
2008 Bergström Vineyard Pinot Noir | $78
Alma Rosa Chardonnay (No vintage mentioned) | $19 - $28
2008 Foxen Tinaquaic Vineyard Chardonnay | $32
2008 Foxen Bien Nacido Chardonnay | $32
Justin Vineyards and Winery Isoceles (No vintage mentioned) | $62
2002 Domaine Mugneret-Gibourg, Grand Cru, Echézeauz | $256
2008 Hilliard Bruce Pinot Noir | $80
1999 Domaine Carneros Vintage Brut | $24.99
Steele Chardonnay Dupratt Vineyard (No vintage mentioned) | $26
2008 Ayoub Pinot Noir | $52
2009 Harper Voit Strandline Pinot Noir | Price N/A
2008 Van Duzer Estate Pinot Noir | $30
Soter Sparkling Brut Rosé (No vintage mentioned) | $48
Amity Vineyards Late Harvest Gewurztraminer (No vintage mentioned) | $15
WillaKenzie Estate Pinot Gris (No vintage mentioned) | $19.99
Raptor Ridge Pinot Noir (No vintage mentioned) | $35
Anne Amie Pinot Noir (No vintage mentioned) | $35
1996 Gevrey-Chambertin Grand Cru Clos de Bèze | $155 avg. / auction
2004 Arnoux Romanée St. Vivant | $296
2008 St. Innocent White Rose Vineyard Pinot Noir | $60
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