Good Grape Wine Company

November 19 2008

News, Notes and Dusty Bottle Items

… Random flotsam and jetsam from a life lived through the prism of wine …

From the Grandma Funk File (if you ain’t Cheating, You ain’t Trying):

A thief in Denver had been systematically stealing expensive wines from retail stores by wearing an elastic back brace, sliding bottles into his waistband and then reselling them online.  A store manager who was checking sales against inventory alerted the authorities who found the stolen wine for sale on WineCommune. 

I have met Michael Stajer before and I am guessing he was not too stoked about this …

See the full story and news channel video package at this link.

From the “Not All of Gen. Y Drinks Wine” File

Headline writing, long the province of cub journalists, is apparently still a young man’s game, though we can now verify that not all Gen. Y drinks wine.  Witness: the headline from the Colorado Springs Gazette with the headline stating, “California penoit noir ideal for Thanksgiving.”

Good Grape makes Wines & Vines

In print media, I have a column in this month’s issue of Wines & Vines.  Thanks to Jim Gordon for the opportunity!  You can read the column, which is slightly revised from a previous blog post, at this link.

Why Didn’t I Think of That!

Sometimes there are just head smacking moments … wine palate cleansers … duh!  Why didn’t I think of that?

Over the last couple of weeks, I have seen Vino Chapeau, a wine aroma concentrator, a wine wand, customizable wine neckers (a clever and charming idea), and a couple of other items.

In terms of coolness, just ahead of the bottle neckers, is the idea to create a palate cleanser.  SanTasti is a bottled, slightly fizzy palate cleanser.  Early accounts are positive.  It is a niche of a niche, but a good idea.  I wish I had a bottle at the Wine Blogger Conference. Check out the SanTasti at this link.

Speaking of SanTasti, I turn the page on another year this Friday.  On tap for the birthday is a nice California Pinot line-up:  Bouchaine, Green Truck, Patz & Hall, William Selyem, Cellar Rat Pinot (Crushpad), and some other less expensive wines.  I am going to want a palate cleanser after that … Birthdays (and recessions) are a great excuse to drink nice wine!

Some partially finished bottles will probably be going home with a couple of friends.  That in mind, I have mentioned it before, if you want to buy an incredibly cool handmade gift, then head to www.etsy.com and search “wine.”  All kinds of cool stuff, including wine bags for gifts.

On a separate, but related note, if you are at a wine party and want to immediately buy a wine that you have tasted, Richard Shaffer, the man behind Israeli Wines Direct, is getting ready to launch a new service called mywinetxt.com.  Check out a recent post at his blog for more details.

All a Twitter

At a Wine Blogger Conference after party, El Jefe had some fun with me by proclaiming to a room full of people that I was going to start Twittering, as a previously avowed non-Twitter’er.  I have not lived up to my promise to get going, but I will by the end of the year.  Sigh! 

I was at a conference last week and listened to a breakout session by the founder of ShareThis. He related that the guys at Facebook had more than a passing concern about Twitter.

And, I do have to give legitimate and due credit to Tim from Winecast who really lead the Twitter movement in the online wine space when he started almost a year and ½ ago.  Tim has a real knack for being an early adopter on the social media tools that seem to prevail, so kudos to him. 

Speaking of Twitter and technology in the wine related space, video is exploding in wine online and I am not talking about Vay-ner-chuk.  In my next post, I will look at a couple of interesting things that are happening and on the horizon.

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