Good Grape Wine Company

May 22 2007

Wine Library TV Fathers Bastard Video Children

On the heels of my post on Wine Library TV and their acquisition/partnership with Cork’d, comes a couple of more wine-related video blogs.  I present to you two new viewing options for your consideration:  WineTaste TV and Taste of Wine TV. 

Got that?  If you’re mildly dyslexic and a wine lover welcome to Dante’s 7th circle.  The only worse thing they could have done is called it “Lesley sips Sauternes and Swims Sweetly in Sweden” TV and tortured some folks with lisps, too. 

WineTaste TV/Taste of Wine TV.

So much for creativity. 

I’m reminded of movie producers and television executives.  By gosh, if one disaster movie about an asteroid hurtling towards earth gets a green light (Armageddon) than two movies (Deep Impact) must be absolute consumer gold.

Nonetheless, there are now a couple of wine-related video blog Internet viewing options separate from Wine Library TV.

The first and clearly superior option of the two new entries is WineTaste TV.  Lo and behold, it’s a similar set-up to Gary’s.  If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Gary should be blushing.  Brought to us by the good people at Zachy’s, the premiere wine retailer in New York, their vlog is a polished production with occasional appearances by Karen MacNeil, a noted wine expert and author.

Based on the couple of episodes I watched with Oriel Wines founder John Hunt, Richard Betts from Betts & Scholl, and Karen MacNeil it might be a little too slick and produced.  Or, maybe it’s not authentic enough—hard to put my finger on it.  But, in regards to authenticity, to quote former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart describing hard-core pornography, “I know it when I see it.”

The overall site is nicely set-up with the ability to buy the wines that are discussed within an easy click, but, strictly from a consumer perspective, occupying real estate in the wine space on the Internet, I’d like to see them be a little less overtly sales-oriented and slick. 

Blogging and online communities thrive on transparency and while the folks at WineTaste TV aren’t hiding the fact that they are trying to sell you something, it seems like a little more do-gooder-ism and less sales bludgeoning might help them out.  Case in point:  underneath the video screen is an area that says, “Contact WineTaste TV about content and sponsorship opportunities.”  Huh?  I mean, c’mon guys.  Bury that somewhere in the navigation, not underneath the area where you watch the content.

Another major faux pas is the fact that a quick check of iTunes indicates that you can’t get the content on iTunes.  No additional comment necessary … it’s just a major gaffe and unfathomable that it occurred.

According to the site, a blog, message board and additional content is pending.

Check it out at: www.winetastetv.com

The other bit of online video content is re-purposed content from a Taste of Wine TV, a show based in So. California that features wine, food, people, and places from the region.  It’s much less polished than the Zachy’s vlog; even though the segments appear on actual television. The show has a regional PBS feel to it.  They do get it right in that their content is available on iTunes, though they chose to use Google video when YouTube or blip.tv might have been a better choice.

Kudos, in general, to them as they get some insightful and engaging guests, too—Mick Fleetwood and Marc Mondavi show up for interviews that end up as podcasts that can be found here and here.

If you’re wine video blogeth cup isn’t quite filled up enough with Gary from Wine Library TV, check out WineTaste TV or, er, Taste of Wine TV, er, both of them. 

Gary, for his part, though, might tell you to take a Passsz.

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