Artist or Mad Scientist? The Folly of Label Disclosures
If it were up to me, I'd want no information to be required on a wine label except that which I deem useful. In particular, I would not want to have to disclose any particular ingredients or winemaking methods on a label. It's not that there's some stuff going in our wine that's harmful. It's just that some of the stuff that does go into the wine and some of the methods that are used to make wine don't sound good.
A new survey (PDF) by WineRelease.com confirms my suspicion that consumers don't like the sound of a the things winemakers do to wines. The survey asked both consumers and members of the wine trade to respond to various wine manipulation techniques by saying "those are ok", "those are ok, but need to be disclosed or those should not be allowed.
As you can imagine the consumers and wine trade folks had different ideas on these subjects, substances and techniques.
For example, 87% of consumers said that using oak staves (planks of oak basically) inside a stainless steel tank to give the wine an oaky character was OK to do. However, 52% of consumers said this practice should be disclosed on the label. What I find really interesting is that 13% of wine trade respondents also think it should be required to disclose this technique. Fully 13% of consumers believe that using oak staves in a tank should not be allowed at all.
This kind of result leaves me with a lot of questions. It appears that 52% of consumers believes there is something about using oak staves in a stainless steel tank that demands the practice be disclosed. You have to assume their view of this technique is so negative in some way that consumes need to be warned about it. Here I think we run into two things that are perceived as negative. In some case consumers must think something about this is bad for your health. That of course isn't true. This goes to why I'd like to see no requirement on the labels for anything. Many winemaking techniques are so misunderstood that they can only have negative connotations to those who don't understand them.
Meanwhile, there is so much misunderstanding of the use of oak staves in stainless steel among 13% of respondents that they don't even believe the technique should be allowed at all. Now it's possible that some of these folks are simply offended aesthetically by the idea that wine would be flavored with oak by staves rather than barrels that can't see their way to allowing such an anti-natural technique. These folks are crazy.
A variety of other techniques are examined in the WineRelease.com survey including the use of oak chips, the acidification of wine, the addition of sugar to wine, the addition of dyes to wine and the dealcoholization of wine among other techniques of winemaking.
I'd like to have seen more folks included in the study. The opinions of only 469 consumers and 123 wine trade folks were examined. However, the results in most cases confirm my suspicion that putting many sorts of winemaking techniques on labels is likely to confuse consumers who don't understand the nature of the technique.
It's a pretty interesting survey that should give pause to those folks who make wine about various moves to require that more and more information be put on wine bottles.
This was the first year in 10 that our house was not the scene of a multi-TV Oscars party. Instead we went to the home of a friend with about 8 others for a wine and Oscars party. Really it was a chance for him to break out many wines he'd been waiting to share with others. 
Valley here in CA, the Yalumba Muscat from Australia. On the other hand, they are both that rare breed of wine that Robert Parker Jr., estimated to be rated in the upper 90s. The SQN got 96 points, the Yalumba got 98 Points.
There's something about good, solid, honest passion for the subject matter that can take a blog a long way. Combine that with thoughtfulness and a dab of keen insight and all of a sudden you've got something that I find really attractive.
It has been quite a while since I dated. I've been off the market for a long time. Yet, it hasn't escaped my notice that the "market" has changed. Or at least the way people interact in the marketplace of coupling has changed.
The two things I was hoping to demonstrate with the American Wine Blog Awards was the diversity of voices and the excess of talent that exists in the world of Wine Blogging. This was important to me for a number of reasons.
It would be easy to easily suggest that "magazines come and go in the wine industry" in a cavalier fashion. But the fact is, magazines rarely come to the wine industry. When they do, it's a big deal. It was a big deal when Wine X came to the industry. 
were motivated by the idea that wine is serious business, that it should be treated as such and anyone who dared strip away the veil of conceit was probably a miscreant who needed some manhandling. In fact the attacks on the magazine were very similar to this position, taken from a Letter to the Editor writer at Decanter Magazine positioned below their story on the demise of Wine X:
Voting in the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards is now closed. I want to thank all 2,846 of you for voting and making this celebration of wine blogging a HUGE success.
I recently received an e-mail from a person who works in the alcohol trade. It was an e-mail in response to 
Eric Quanstrom not only knows on-line information delivery, he knows wine. This is make him perhaps among the very best suited to be a judge for the American Wine Blog Awards. When you add to that the fact that he is a daily consumer of wine blog content and you get the perfect storm of judgeship qualifications for the American Wine Blog Awards.
Voting for the winners of the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards is coming to an end.
Yesterday was one of those days in which everything about the day DEMANDED you get out the good stuff, pop the cork, and celebrate.
Cyril has been the Editor-in-Chief of 
It would have been so easy for Michael De Loach to simply take up with the near-empire that his father, Cecil, had built at De Loach Vineyards. Sure, as a teen and young man he worked in the vineyards and wineries but in the end, he chose to go it alone. Michael De Loach left the family business and took off into the Advertising Industry in Florida and made quite a name for himself, winning numerous awards for his efforts and running accounts of some significant girth.
What exactly does it mean when a group of talented folks can release a wine brand upon the world that at once delivers wine that is the clear equal in quality of wines priced at double and three times their wines, and yet they can make a good living selling this wine?
Now here's a career progression: bottle shop sales person to Editorial Assistant at the Wine Spectator to Senior Editor at the Wine Spectator to President of the Wine Spectator to Proprietor of his own publishing house.
The folks over at 
I recall reading somewhere, probably in one of his books, that Robert Parker did not consider Zinfandel a "Noble Grape". What a great debate this would make. But that's not my point. What I'm getting to is that if Zinfandel is not a "noble grape" then Petite Sirah probably can't even claim courtesan status.
It was a "Sonoma County Merlot. Vintage 2003. Price: $32.00. It was a wine that stood out for one main reason: It had noticeable "herbal" qualities in the nose that was followed up by the same slightly "green" character on the palate.
I think it's significant that some of the wine world's most important movers and shakers sat through a presentation that argued Blogs are a phenomena that need to be heeded.
analysis of trends. Marc's specialty is wine. At Wine Evolution he sat on a panel that explored the question: "How to Improve your Sales & Marketing strategy in the World's biggest market? Others on the panel included Patrick Merrill of Merrill Research, USA, Laurent Guinand of GiraMondo Wine Ventures, and Vic Motto of Global Wine Partners LLC, USA
