Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

Wine Conversations

When it comes to wine blogs, I tend to be biased toward those that make me think, make me self evaluate and which offer something different.

Wine Conversations hit those marks for me. Robert MacIntosh, the man behind the blog, describes his motivation this way: "Having experienced the peripatetic lifestyle I am now keen to promote community where I can, be it in wine, or locally around my home."

His posts have of late been evaluative of the wine blogging and wine social networking communities. What's interesting is that in his latest post he hits on the notion of Blogging Fatigue, something that I tend to see hit newcomers somewhere around their sixth month of blogging.

Robert focuses on that original feeling the new wine bloggers get...the one that makes them think they'll really get into this. Then a community of sorts arises around their blogs and they find themselves commenting and working the social networks and finding less and less time to blog.

I hadn't thought about this side of the equation. What I tend to see much more often is the optimistic blogger who, likely because the readership or community hasn't developed, drops the project except for occasional posts.

Robert, however, seems concerned that the various wine social networks start getting their members to do the real work of wine enthusiasts: "buy, drink, rate and write about their wines". This seems to Robert more important than the networking...the work of keeping up if you will.

Robert's own blog seems to be on a weekly posting schedule at this point. If he bumped that up to twice a week his already thoughtful writings would be twice as good. I'll be satisfied with once a week, however. Robert has that kind of mind that tends toward exploration rather than reportage and that results in his readers being forced to think rather than be informed.

I wonder if he is getting burned out. I hope not. I hope he keeps exploring the ideas that sit between wine, community and culture. There aren't that many blogs that do this.

SimVin

In a post yesterday I ran on at the mouth about the kind of fun a winemaking and wine marketing simulation game would be to a very limited number of people. Of course I assumed nothing of the sort existed.

Richard A. was kind enough in the post's comment section to set me straight. Something of a simulation does exist.

SimVin is a very rudimentary simulation of the winemaking and wine marketing experience with the emphasis on rudimentary. However, it is something of an interesting experience. In the end, the whole simulation hinges on who makes the most money as a winemaker and wine marketer. Players need to be concerned with costs of grapes, cost of vineyard and winery upkeep, winemaking costs, where you place your winery, costs of grapes and how you market your wine. There's also the problem that on occasion your wine will undergo bacterial spoilage...and that's not good for business.

My best score after going through SimVin a couple times was 5001. All Time Top Score is something around 31,000.

Simulating Wine

Word is that Nintendo is about to release a new "wine game" for the Nintendo DS. According to Decanter, "the educational game features a glossary of wine terms, several quizzes, wine advice and tips on etiquette."

Somehow I don't think the Nintendo folks have any hope of creating much of a stir with this game, nor much of record of sales.

If any of the game console folks really want to create something cool they should create a winemaking and wine marketing simulation. While this kind of a game would, like the soon to be released Nintendo "Beginners Wine DS", fail to make any kind of a significant audience, it would be an interesting thing to try and create.

I remember some time ago the folks at Maxis that made the SimCity games put out SimFarm. One of the crops you could grow and sell were grapes, which you sold to wine producers. But that was the extent of it. I recall playing the game and thinking it worthy of a 7/10 score. It just didn't rise to the level of SimCity, which of course does get a 10/10 score as one of the most innovating and time sucking games every created.

What variables could a real wine making/wine marketing sim include?

-Where to plant?
-Cost of land
-Cost of winery vs. custom crush
-How's the weather?
-What's the market like for various wines
-How do you plan on selling your wine?
-What scores do you get from reviewers?
-How much do you spend on marketing vs. winemaking?
-Pricing.

Admit it, this would be fun...albeit for a very very small group of gamers. Any game developers in among the readership that want to make me happy and lose a great deal of money??

A Crack Addict in the Crack Factory

The idea of putting 30 roses on your wine list is really quite absurd...unless you are ready to promote the hell out of rose to your patrons. I assume that's exactly what Campanile does. For this kind of courage and this kind of contribution to the wine industry they should be given some sort of an award.

I flew down to Los Angeles on Sunday for a meeting on Monday. I'm not an LA kinda-guy. I have friends and a wife that extol the virtues of this place, but I've never been able to embrace it outside of my over exuberance for Disneyland. However, it did give me an excuse to spend some time at the Commerce Club where they play low limit poker like it's a contact sport and where they seem to believe that 10-8 off-suit is a raising hand every single time.

After a few hours of patience and sticking the easiest money I've ever won in my pocket, I returned to my hotel to prepare for the Monday meeting. One thing that hadn't been worked out was what wine to serve those in attendance at the meeting that would occur in the upstairs private room at Campanile the next day. I should have called ahead to work this out, but figured I could easily just pick the wines when I arrived.

When I did arrive the next day early enough to look over the room and pick the wines, I was confronted with a beautiful wine list that did include the previously mentioned 30 different roses from around the world. It took longer than I planned to pick the wine because it turned out a NUMBER of those roses were being poured by the glass and it just would not have been right to not taste though...a few.

For those who have been reading FERMENTATION long enough, you know I love rose. So, to be confronted with more than the 1 or 2 deep red, fruity California versions and the obligatory Domaine Tempier on a wine menu is something of delight for me. But 30 roses? That's like asking a crack addict to work in the crack factory.

I did not get a chance to meet Campanile's wine buyer. But I can make some assumptions them. They certainly must understand the benefit of matching their wine selections to the climate they live in, a context not always considered by those who build wine menus. They also must have an over abundance of love for the pink wines among us. They have a strong personality that can stand up to an owner's push back that surely sounds something like this: "What the F*ck are you doing putting 30 roses on my God Damned wine list?!!" And, they likely enjoy being able to look someone in the eye and say, "see, I told you so!" as their project looks back up at them from the glass and says, "wow....that IS great!" (the last trait is probably a character flaw, but if it helps get 30 Roses on a wine list who am I to criticize.

Bloggerview #4: Alder Yarrow

Bloggerview
Name: Alder Yarrow
Blog: Vinography
Where: http://www.vinography.com

When I began FERMENTATION back in 2004 I looked around the Internet, looking to find
those bloggers that were taking the medium seriously. Alder Yarrow was among the very
few I found. What was most interesting about Alder's blog was that with the exception
of the unique medium, he appeared very similar to most of the other very serious wine writers I'd known for years. Yet I'd never heard of him. Today Alder still ranks as among those who take the idea of blogging very seriously. That is to say, his concern seems to be both his audience and giving it something serious to chew on. I'm pretty sure that Vinography has the largest readership among all the wine blogs on the planet. Alder has won an American Wine Blogger Award, been a featured speaker at the Annual Wine Writers Symposium in Napa Valley, and is fast becoming one of the better known members of San Francisco's wine and food community.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
I started blogging in January of 2004. January 15th to be exact.
Essentially, I started Vinography to get my friends off my back. I had been
drinking wine pretty seriously (ok, maybe compulsively is the better word)
for about 10 years, keeping notes on what I liked and didn't like, and had
become the go-to guy for all my friends. "Which new restaurants are good in
San Francisco?" they'd ask me. "Will you order the wine for dinner?" "What's
your favorite Chardonnay?" I found myself dispensing the same advice over
and over again, and thought to myself, "there's got to be a better way." I
knew a thing or two about the Web and wanted to learn more about the
phenomenon known as blogging so I went to Google and typed "wine blog" into
the search field and hit "Go." Two results came up, and both were blogs that
had been abandoned five or six months before. So I thought, "well, there's
room for me here." I thought for a couple of hours about the name, typed
"Vinography" into Google, came up with zero results, and that was, as they
say, the first day of the rest of my life.

2 In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
Vinography focuses broadly on the love of wine, with some lesser emphasis on
dining. I review wines and restaurants, write editorials (OK, rants) about
the wine world, and offer up the bits of news and miscellany from the world
of wine that I think my readers will find interesting.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
Well, three things, really. The first, and the one that I'm certain of, is
that I've been doing this wine blogging thing longer and more frequently
than anyone else in the world. The second one, and this is just my opinion
of course, is the quality of the writing and ideas. I like to think that I'm
a decent writer and that I choose interesting things (wines, events, news,
etc.) to write about. Finally, I hope that I have a palate and a point of
view wine that all sorts of people can relate to and find useful in their
own explorations of the wine world.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
Well, it was logarithmic for the first two years, and now it's leveled off
to a steady climb, with little upticks as I get mentioned more in the
mainstream press.

5. Do you accept sample for review?
Yes. When I first started the wine blog, I will admit that I had a bit of a
fantasy that someday, just maybe, someone might send me <gasp> free wine to
review. I have to laugh at myself. These days I'm quite over the idea. The
amount of wine that arrives on my doorstep is quite overwhelming at times.
It's hard sometimes for me to keep up with it all, but I manage to do it.
It's important to me to keep my promise to taste everything that anyone
sends my way.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
I employ what I like to call an "approximate 10 point scale" with half
points. I say approximate because often I'll give a wine a score like 8.5/9
which means it's somewhere between an 8.5 and 9 out of ten. Even when I give
a wine a score like 9.5, it really means, oh, somewhere around 9.5 out of
10. I'm deliberately vague in a way, because, well, I couldn't possibly tell
you the difference between a 92 point wine and a 93 point wine, for
instance. Originally I was going to give my wines letter grades, but I
realized that eventually there might be people from outside the US reading
my blog, and they wouldn't know an A -minus from a hole in the ground. So
(in my mind) I crossed the letter grading system with the old 10 point
Olympics scoring system, and voila, the Vinography rating system.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
I have no idea. I cram it in wherever and whenever I can, much to the
detriment of most of my other hobbies, and occasionally to the detriment of
my sleep. Here I am talking to you at 9:30 PM on a Saturday night, for
instance. When people ask me how I've managed to keep up blogging daily for
nearly four years I tell them that I don't watch TV and I don't have kids
and I have a lot of self-discipline. All of which are true.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
No. Got any tips for me? I've honestly done near zero marketing of
Vinography. I've issued one or two press releases, like when I started
featuring Michael Regnier's vineyard photography on the site, and just to
learn about how it works, I placed a couple of Google text ads about a year
ago. But other than that, the attention that the site has gotten has been
entirely happenstance.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
Like I would know? I've never written about wine for print in any
professional or serious way. Obviously blogging is more immediate, and it is
also mutable -- if I get a fact wrong I can go change it -- and for me it's
completely free from any editorial oversight. Whether that freedom is a good
thing or not, my readers will have to judge, but I certainly have the
opportunity to write about whatever I want whenever I want. Oh, and I can
swear.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
I read over 175 different wine blogs regularly just to see what people are
up to.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
Oh, certainly. Just look at industry statistics for the Millenials, which
shows that blogs and the Internet are rapidly overtaking traditional paper
media as sources for wine information. But on a more specific, personal
level, I know that when I like a wine and write good things about it, it
sells. I certainly can't claim to have the power to ruin or make people's
fortunes, like some of the major critics (and hope I never do), but the
number of bottles that show up at my door every month and the number of
industry people who read my blog (and others) means that Wine Blogs are
definitely having an impact. I mean, really, the frikkin Wine Spectator has
blogs now. They're changing the way that wine journalism gets done, and
therefore they're going to change the wine industry and wine culture.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
Paris. I'm SO not a lie on the beach person (though I do like to Scuba
dive).

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Neither. Between my wife and I we don't even have time to keep plants alive.
They'd put us in jail for neglect.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
New Yorker, or even better Harper's Monthly.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
BMW. I'm all for green, but dammit, when I want to pass someone, I want to
pass someone.

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
99% of the time, Chablis. There are a few stellar California Chardonnays out
there, but if I had to choose blind, I'm going French every time.

17. What would you have for your Last Meal?
A 480 course tasting menu at Manresa in Los Gatos that lasts 10 years.

18. What is Heaven Like?
I don't know, but I hope they have wine.

19. If you could invite 4 people dead or alive to your fantasy dinner party, who would they be and who would you have bring the wine?
I'd have Ben Franklin bring the wine -- early vintages of Bordeaux. And then
how about Salman Rushdie, Stephen Pinker, and George Washington, off the top
of my head.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
1. Only do it if you are compelled by your own passion to find an outlet to
write. 2. There are way too many wine blogs out there right now for you to
ever get noticed unless you have a niche or a gimmick. Don't just start a
wine blog, start a specific kind of wine blog. 3. Write well and write
often, and for Pete's sake, use a spellchecker. 4. Did I mention write well
and write often?

Wine Blog Ratings?

I had the happy opportunity to give a talk to a gathering of Wine Australia  yesterday in San Francisco. Wine Australia is the promotional arm of the Australian wine industry. You've heard of this industry, haven't you? That's right, it's the industry that might be the most innovative technically and marketing-wise of any national wine industry on the globe.

They had me to their gathering of Australian wine marketers and executives to talk about the issue of blogs. I choose to talk about blogs as part of wine media, rather than the issue I think many of them have thought more about..."should I start a blog". The latter is a much more complicated issue than the former. Where blogs sit in the context of the global wine media is a much simpler, more straightforward issue. So sue me, I took the easy route.

I've been getting a number of such invitations of late. It's a compliment. But let's not stop there. It's really indicative of a realization of those in the wine industry of the importance and significance of what's happening with wine blogs.

I started my wine blog in November 2004. By my count there were about 50 to 75 wine blogs on the Internet at that moment in time. Today, by my best estimate, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 600-700 wine blogs on the Internet. What's going on is something of a snowball effect.

-Blogs are easy to create
-People see other wine blogs and want to join in
-Wine Blogs start to get recognition
-That spurs more people to start wine blogs.

I don't think we are going to see a slowdown in the number of wine blogs that are create. I think we are in the middle, rather than the end of the initial burst of wine blog creation. By this time next year I'd bet we see at least 1000 wine blogs on the Internet.

After yesterday's talk someone I respect greatly came up to me and made a suggestion that was very very interesting, but if carried through would certainly piss off a number of bloggers who thought the act was presumptuous:

"Someone needs to start a rating system for wine blogs."

He he he he he....

"How would you rate them?"
"Who are you to say what's good and what's not?"
"What qualification to you have to do such a thing?"
"It's just exclusionary!"

Indeed...to all of those things. However, let's at least admit that wine bloggers who review wines consider all these issues then go right ahead and review wines.

The suggestion was made based on the fact that it's nearly impossible to sift through all the wine blogs on  the internet to determine which are worth pursuing and why. And this, of course is the exact same rationale for reviewing wines. The person who suggested a Wine Blog Rating System told me that last years American Wine Blog Awards were very helpful to them in ferreting through the vast array of choices, but it really didn't scratch the surface. He's right.

There is already a Blog Rating System out there, but the system is admitedley quantitative, not qualitative.

The idea of a Qualitative Blog Rating project does speak to me positively for reasons that are surely indicative of real personality flaw I carry with me that has something to do with ego. However, the time it would take boggles the mind. Nevertheless, I'll say straight out that it's a great idea.

The Wine Australia folks were just great. Very inquisitive and thoughtful when it came to the subject of blogs and where they fit into the realm of wine media. They, like others, are right now beginning to figure out how to deal with them and why to deal with them .

Former Wine Magazine Editor is FUNNY

Former Wine Magazine Editor is Funny..And Fantasizes About Sex:

Then, check out THIS site.

Interestingly, I've been coming across a few folks who work in or around the wine industry that are choosing to approach wine in a comedic manner. In fact, I heard that one very insightful wine industry watcher did a set at the resent Wine Financial Symposium and killed.

Maybe wine is funnier than we give it credit for. Or, maybe wine geeks really are funny...(Funny "ha ha", not funny "strange")

Meaninglessness

I've not commented on the recently announced alliance between Martha Stewart and Gallo, who it appears will make wine for the doyen of all things domestic under the new "Martha Stewart Vintage" line of wines.

It just seemed so obvious that this announcement had very little meaning. Who knows, maybe some meaning will emerge. Maybe that meaning will be the creation of a new wine brand that produces and sells over 1 million cases annually.

However, today in Dan Berger's weekly Vintage Experiences newsletter, we get a perfect explanation of the meaning of Martha's new line of wine. The meaning is meaninglessness:

"But how on earth can anyone take the MSV line of wines seriously? Why would an MSV wine be any better than a Gallo of Sonoma bottle? What bothers me most about this is that it is yet one more new brand that clearly has no particular meaning … except, perhaps, to Martha Stewart fans."

Of course the thing about Dan's interpretation of these new wines that I really appreciate his his emphasis on the idea that a wine should have meaning that goes beyond meaninglessness. This view, of course, really only has meaning to those who take wine seriously. There are those who will assess the idea that wines should have meaning will a big roll of the eyes and say, "yea, and my soap needs to have meaning too."

This should tell you a couple things. First, it should tell you that if you do believe that wine should have meaning then Dan Berger's newsletter is probably something you should be reading. It should also tell you that meaning is in the mind of the beholder. Dan knows this and he knows his audience too.

If you are so inclined, here is the best article that attempts to eek out some sort of meaning of the new line of Martha Stewart wines. I'll settle for Dan's interpretation of it's meaning: meaninglessness.

"All In...Oh, and a vodka straight up please!"

I've never had a problem with drinking folk...that should be obvious. Fact is, I think drinking and even drinking to the point of getting that warm glow is probably a pretty nice experience for most people. It's hard to deny the metabolic effects of alcohol and based on the amount of drinking that goes on people seem to like this effect just as much as I do.

But yesterday I ran into a situation that made me NOT appreciate a that bit of social drinking that I generally think is a good thing. I'm still, this morning, bothered by it.

Last night I decided to play in a Poker Tournament. There were about 90 folks playing in a $50 buy-in, No-Limit Hold'em Tournament. This was hardly my first such tournament. I used to play a lot more poker than I do now. I enjoy it. I enjoy the camaraderie a the table, I enjoy the rush of stack chips after pulling a large pot, I enjoy the feeling of outplaying someone and I enjoy mental aspect of the game...the way it forces one to be disciplined, analytical as well as judiciously  hopeful.

The fact is, I'm not bad at this game at all. I've placed in the money in tournaments on a number of occasions.

Last night I won the tournament.

The problem, however, was this: It came down to me and one other opponents. We were about equal in chips. After playing head to head with this older gentleman for about 15 minutes I was pretty confident I'd beat him. At first I thought, "well good for me, I'm out playing this old guy." Then, after watching him do a few stupid things with his cards and betting I realized that he had been drinking.

In fact, he was on his second straight vodka in the past 45 minutes.

He wasn't a danger to anyone or anything like that. And he was hardly stinking drunk. But it was the only thing I could see that might make him make those stupid moves he did at the table. In other words, I think my victory in the tournament was robbed of the satisfaction it should have brought by virtue of "Vodka, Straight Up, Please!"

Not Just Another Bomb...But, Much More.

I hesitated to provide the quote below. The reason is that it suggests that the article written by Clark Smith at Appellation America is not the best, most thoughtful exploration of "The Big Wine" phenomenon yet written. In fact, that's what it is. Rather, by providing this quote, it suggests that Clark's "Some Like It Hot" article is just one more lobbing of a bomb. It's not. It's much more.

However, this small piece of Clark's article, which does indicate his bias, is also the conclusion of one man who has been at the center of the move toward The Big Wine. It is the perspective of a man who, you will see if you read this article, clearly understands the trajectory of the California wine industry and how it came to be that 16% California Pinot Noir is not a scandal:

"If there is no appreciation of depth, longevity and balance, we won’t seek it. Alcoholic toasty butter bombs may be the destiny corporate wineries have chosen for us, but that’s certainly not the limitation of our styles, and such wine speaks absolutely nothing about our terroir. But I fear we are creating the opposite impression among consumers, and losing the best of them. If California is not to be doomed to typecasting as devolved Muscle Wine, winemakers must redouble their efforts to explore alternative styles outside the mainstream and recapture the magic which our wine carried before bulking it up actually dumbed it down."

The state of wine from California, particularly it's "bigness", has been the focus of a great deal of thought, words and debate over the past 2 or 3 years. Dan Berger, for example, has written extensively on the subject. It seems to me that to the extent that Clark is putting out a clarion call for change, it is a call not for a reversal of style back to balance, but simply to diversity of styles. This is wise.

This long article also confirms one other thing that should be of importance to serious wine lovers, those in the American wine industry and to the American wine media: Appellation America has become the best source for articles that explore the edge of contemporary wine thinking. There is something of a "counter culture" approach to its editorial vision due mainly I think to three things:

First, is its mission of exploring ALL of the American wine industry. This gives validity to the remarkable range of styles and varieties that can be achieved in America's varied growing region. Second, the approach is due to its stable of writers, many of them very committed wine lovers, who think about wine deeply. I'm pointing here to Dan Berger, Alan Goldfarb, Thom Elkjer and Ray & Eleanor Heald. Finally, the editorial direction of Appellation America seems to have been firmly set by Roger Dial, the publisher. Roger (disclaimer: Wark Communications has consulted for Appellation America in the past) is so committed to the idea that diversity of style and territorial exploration is the real prize of wine appreciation that this view colors the entire website. It's a vision inevitably leads to the necessity to publish articles like the Clark's "Some Like it Hot" as well as a number of other exploratory pieces that have come to define this adventure in redefining the focus of wine journalism.

It strikes me that the state of American wine writing has never been better. This is not the case because Appellation America is on the scene or because there are wine blogs. In fact, the various wine newsletters, wine magazines and various other journalistic explorations into wine are all better today than they've been for years. This is certainly due to the fact that more people are drinking wine. It's due to the fact that there are more people who need basic wine buying advise as well as there being more people who want in depth education. Plus, the growth of the American wine industry into every state and resulting in there being more than 5000 wineries here in the U.S. means that we have many more tradespeople who can appreciate far reaching articles on the subject.

Clark's is just such an article. The type you would not have seen published 15 years ago.  For those who read "Some Like it Hot" it will color the way they understand the stylistic evolution of California wine. That's a good thing.

Bloggerview #3: Josh Hermsmeyer

Bloggerview #3
Name: Josh Hermsmeyer
Blog: Pinot Blogger
Where: http://www.pinotblogger.com

My first impression of Josh was occurred when I discovered Pinot Blogger. "What a great idea," I thought. Chronicle the birth of a winery.

My expectations were low. Frankly, there just weren't very many wineries at the time who either understood blogging or put much effort into their blogs. Today, Josh's winery (Cappozi Family Winery) is one of the few wineries that has jumped into the Wine 2.0/Web 2.0 arena and made the best of it. Josh is someone who I think will be around the wine industry for decades to come.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
I started blogging in November of 2005. I figured it would be a fun way to chronicle the ups and downs of creating a winery from scratch and an excellent way to market the winery cheaply.

2 In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
Blogging the birth of Capozzi Winery in the Russian River Valley. And giving away organic cotton tee shirts!

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
As far as I know we are the only winery to blog about starting up a brand and production facility in real time. Initially I think that was definitely a source of curiosity for some readers, and still is for quite a few of them. More recently I've been focusing on providing wine related information that folks visiting our blog will find useful whether they are interested in the building of a winery or not.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
Very small and stagnant at first, then a huge spike and tremendous growth after about 9 months of blogging. Since then growth has slowed to a steady and hopefully sustainable pace. In truth I've been extremely pleased and humbled that so many folks actually find the blog worth their time. The whole experience has exceeded all my expectations.

5. Do you accept samples for review?
Nope, but I provide them - or at least I will in the near future.

I don't think it's appropriate for me to review other winemaker's hard work. I do sometimes recommend a wine I'm particularly passionate about and won't hesitate to recommend local Russian River producers to anyone who asks, but I don't give proper tasting notes or scores.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
N/A. See above.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
I make it a priority. I'll be provocative and say that given good grapes, almost any monkey (myself included) can make good, technically sound wine these days (great wine is another topic altogether). The real trick is selling it. I spend roughly 7 hours a week either writing, researching or brainstorming posts for pinotblogger. Except for right now that is. During crush, since I refuse to make my wife a crush widow, currently it's the blog that's suffering.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
A few, and they've all been extremely fun, rewarding and interactive. About a week or two into the blog I solicited suggestions for our winery name. I believe you even chimed in on that one Tom, suggesting the name "Insomnia Winery" since my posts were routinely being written in the wee hours of the night.

Later we had a vote to determine our wine label and asked for reader opinions on designing our tasting room. In both cases the feedback we got was incorporated directly into our plans. The label that won is now our official wine label and reader suggestions are going to be incorporated into the design of the tasting room. It's been a wonderful collaborative process and this experience is main reason I'm such a cheerleader for blogging in the wine industry. Folks out there are tremendously passionate about the product we make and sell, and will gladly share their ideas freely to be a part of what we do. We just have to ask them.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
Since I'm not, nor have I ever been, a print journalist I don't feel I'm exactly qualified to answer. I will say that the most commonly noted differences between the two media mostly favor blogs. Blogs are more conversational and make writers more accessible, which in turn builds community. Some people who like to name things call this information disintermediation.  I think it's a substantial advantage over print, and more than makes up for whatever drawbacks might accompany blogging.

The major benefit of print wiring is that it actually pays, whereas blogging is much harder to monetize. And if you are a professional writer obviously that's a pretty big consideration.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
Dr. Vino
Vinography
Good Grape
The Wine Broad
Winecast
El Bloggo Torcido
ReThink Wine blog
Zinquisition
WineAbout
The Cork Board
Jamie Goode's Wine Blog

and Fermentation of course.

I also have over 60 wine blogs in my feed reader that I keep up with on a daily basis. There's really a great community of writers and wine enthusiasts blogging now. Folks are generous, passionate and intelligent across the board.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
Honestly, not really. There have been some notable things. Gary on Conan O'Brien. Alder of Vinography presenting to "real" wine writers at a recent convention, and other similar signs of acceptance. But nothing that could really be described as a tipping point.

That could change any day though. I think it will be a slow and steady process, but eventually bloggers in food and wine will become as influential and respected as their print counterparts.

Or maybe I'm just OD-ing on the blogging kool aid.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
Paris reeks of culture. We've got plenty of that in Napa Valley already. I'll go with the sun and fun.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Dog. While I like cats as well (all cat lovers should check out icanhascheezburger.com), dogs and vineyards just pair well together. Like pinot and, well...everything!

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
The New Yorker if Malcom Gladwell has an article. People magazine if there are any Jessica Alba pictures.
If my wife's reading, I'm kidding of course (not really).

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
BMW...I'm sorry but aesthetics matter. On that count the Ultimate Driving Machine beats the pants off the Toyota "Pious". I'm still waiting for a hybrid so well designed that it's lick-able. When it hits I'll be the first one in line.

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Somewhere in the middle, leaning slightly toward Chablis.

17. Last Meal?
Pizza and a Hefeweizen.

18. What is Heaven Like?
J.C. is the executive winemaker, Noah (the first vintner) is running the press, and all the wines score 100 points. Plus there's the whole spending an eternity in commune with God thing, which is nice.

19. If you could invite 4 people dead or alive to your fantasy dinner party, who would they be and who would you have bring the wine?

Thomas Jefferson, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, and Jesus. Obviously the only way to ensure I didn't run out of wine with this crew would be to put J.C. in charge of the vino. It's the prudent choice I think.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Just do it. Especially if you have a winery. If you fail no one will notice, and it costs from nothing to 20 bucks a month to start. What do you have to lose?

1956, 1961, 2001...What's the Difference?

I was watching the latest episode of, Mad Men, the best new drama on Television, and I swear I saw something very interesting and very wine related.

Toward the end of the latest episode, Mr. and Mrs. Draper are having a quiet late dinner together at home. Mrs. Draper, the consummate housewife, admits to having "thrown the dinner together with what's leftover." Mr. Draper assures her is a wonderful dinner.

On the kitchen table sits, I'm almost positive, a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild. If anyone watches this great series take a look at the last ten minutes and let me know if I'm right.

One of the most satisfying things about this series is the authenticity of the set design and it's fidelity to the details of 1960. Did upper middle class couples drink Lafite with their dinner of leftovers in 1960?

I'm not complaining that the set designers got it wrong, and I might even be wrong about the identity of the wine. What it made me think about is the degree to which a wine can be used in dramatic productions to set the stage or the era.

We know that wine is often used in film and TV to tell us something about the characters. Most often a character's relationship with wine is used to indicate their degree of snobbishness or their socio-economic position or, in some cases, to indicate they are a poser. That use of wine is what it is, and hard to complain about. But I wonder if wine can ever be used as a prop to simply indicate a time period?

We most often see this done in the form of wardrobe, the cars on the streets, surrounding historical events or the type of popular entertainment the characters indulge in. It seems to me that wine is a very poor item with which to try to indicate the time period of a story. The reason is that the packaging of wine has changed so very little over the years. Take a look, for example at the difference between the 1961 and 2001 Lafite labels.

Tough to tell the difference. And this is par for the course with wine packaging. Now, there are exceptions. Mouton, with it's new art on each new vintage, would be a perfect example of defining the time, but only the most sophisticated wine drinker would notice the implications. Add to this the fact that you can't assume the vintage of a wine indicates the year it is being drunk and you see the problem with using wine to help set the era in drama.

This is all rather obvious, I know. But I can't help but think the wine for this "Mad Men" was surely chosen carefully by the set designers since every other item in the frames are very carefully chosen to recreate 1960. So, here is my question. If you did want to be really anal and choose a very specific wine to portray an upper middle class married couple eating a late night supper in their suburban home in 1960 east coast America...what would you put on the table?

First, I think it's clearly French. In 1960 California wine really hadn't penetrated the American culture. Second, I think the wine is probably from around 1953-1956. Let's face it, why would you have this couple opening a wine that is older, given the impression then and now that older wine is more special wine and this is not a "special" dinner. Third,  well, there is no third. There is not much else a set designer could do to use wine as a time indicator given the degree of interest in wine that existed in 1960 and given the degree of knowledge of wine that the average American currently possesses. They'd be wasting the nuance of using the 1956 Mouton with its Pavel Techelitchew label.

In other worlds, "Mad Men" set designers got it right again. Damn...those folks are good.
 

Pinot Noir & the Holy Grail

There seems to be no stopping Pinot Noir. Years after "Sideways" put the variety on the map for the average wine drinker and sales of the wine soared, we still are seeing healthy year over year increases in its sales. When Americans discover something new, and something they like, they tend to embrace it, don't they.

One of the better Pinot-centric events is "Pinot On The River". One of the ways by which one can be confident an event will be worth the money, is to look at who is organizing it and ask yourself, "do they really care?"

Greg Walters really cares. His Pinot Report, a newsletter dedicated the variety has won a number of accolades and a following among those who in particular want an early glimpse at what's new in the world of Pinot Noir.

Greg is the mastermind behind Pinot On The River, scheduled this year for October 26. 27 and 28. As with most events of this sort there will be a tasting of Pinots from a number of wineries. Over 80 Pinot producers have signed on to pour at the even that will be held in and about the Russian River Valley in Sonoma County. Among those wineries set to pour:

A.P. Vin
Annapolis Winery
Bien Nacido Vineyard
DuNah
Etude
Halleck Vineyards
Kastania Vineyards
Keller Estate
Kosta Browne
Lucienne
MacPhail Family Wines
Moshin Vineyards
Papapietro Perry Winery
Roessler Cellars
Sokol Blosser Winery
Tandem Winery
Testarossa Vineyards
W.H. Smith Wines
Windward Vineyards

While I love tasting wines, I tend to get so easily distracted at large tastings that my evaluative powers disappear fairly quickly. I've come to appreciate them mainly as a way of getting to know folks. What I really enjoy about these events are the seminars. Greg has put together some interesting ones:

SATURDAY OCTOBER 27
Seminar #1: Regional Focus: Russian River Valley
Seminar #2: The Rising Stars Of California Pinot Noir
Seminar #3: Vineyard Focus: Bien Nacido Vineyards.
Seminar #4: Winery Focus: A Tale of Three Verticals

SUNDAY OCTOBER 28
Seminar #1: Alcohol And Pinot Noir
Seminar #2: Small Winery Focus
Seminar #3: The Science of Pinot Noir
Seminar #4: Small Winery Focus:

There is a holy grail quality that propels the purchasing patterns of Pinot Noir lovers. There seems to be something about the variety that suggests just around the corner something will be discovered that overthrows our previous notions of what great Pinot can be. Today, the grail might be discovered not just in California and Burgundy, but in a number of other regions from New Zealand to Tasmania. This event seems to have attracted the best of the California lot, or at least many of the most sought after producers.

For more info on Pinot On the River: CLICK HERE or call: 707-922-1096

Two To Spend Time With

I still get a real kick out of discovering new wine blogs by folks who are doing it well or have real potential to do it well.

I tend to judge blogs on a variety of criteria, but mostly it boils down to 2 things: 1) do they have interesting things to say and 2) do they say them in a compelling way.

Two such blogs have crossed my radar of late. Both are nicely designed, both have a casual air about their prose and both are written by folks with a good deal of wine expertise.

WINE SCAMP (A good name) is the product of a Society of Wine Educators Certified Wine Expert who gets around...geographically. Currently a Texas gal, the Scamp writes nice, long, contextual and informative reviews of wines that have a breezy, easy, well-informed quality to them. One of the signs that I like a blogger's writing style is that I read the posts, rather than skim them. I've been reading the Scamps posts. She appears to be on a twice to three times per week posting schedule.

The casually named TIM'S BLOG is an extension of Wine Expert, a leading supplier of home winemaking kits with a market that appears to be mainly in Canada. There are very few parts of the wine industry that are better suited for a blog than the home winemaking sector. Talk about the potential for community.

Tim's is a surprisingly wide ranging blog given the focus of the business he is involved in. He prose are casual and filled with opinion. Tim's posts appear to be inspired by his own approach to the industry combined with a regular communing with other bloggers and writers. He's on a regular schedule of blogging too which is admirable.

I'd bet we are up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 wine blogs by now. I come across a lot of them. These two are keepers.

The Danger of Focusing on the Past

The anniversary of 9/11.

I slipped onto FOX News this morning and was told that it is important that we "remember the meaning of this day for the rest of our lives" by some very nice looking, but stern, house-motherish anchor.

I grew up in a household where the mother and father both lived through the Depression and where the father fought in WWII and lived through a prison camp experience, a set of circumstances that colored the advice my parents gave to me and the way in which we lived. During the annual July 4th parades in my home town the WWII veterans were out in full force, marching just ahead of the Shriners. Pear Harbor Day by the 70s had become a minor day of remembrance. Noted, but not really invested with solemn meaning. All in all, as I grew up, the idea of "remembrance" was a mixed bag.

And now we sit at the 6th anniversary of 9/11.

It's still fresh. However, it is slipping into that strange place where one's reaction to the topic is often, "where were you when you heard"? This is the same place where the assassination of JFK and the death of Elvis sit.

Here in wine country, a number of vintners answer that question by explaining what they were crushing when the planes hit the Towers. At Mayo Family Winery in Glen Ellen it was Sauvignon Blanc. At Frog's Leap in Napa it was Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot. Do we and do the vintners really want to invest these wines with that kind of meaning? Probably not. But after six years, 9/11 is becoming something that has melded into our every day existence and mingles with our every day activities. Hence, there are the 9/11 SBs.

Most of the 9/11 SBs have or soon will be drunk up and gone save for those that are kept in libraries as every good vintner should do with each of the wines they produce. The fact that at least these wines will soon be emptied from our memory and cellars is a good thing. It's an even better thing that this particular anniversary comes at harvest. Harvest has, at least for me, always been about the prospect of something new, the prospect of something promising, about the future.

There is a danger that comes with living and focusing on the past similar to the danger of not learning from history.

Bloggerview #2: Terrence Hughes

The Bloggerview #2
Name: Terrance Hughes
Blog: Mondosapore
Where: http://www.mondosapore.com

Terrence Hughes is the author and proprietor of MONDOSAPORE, probably the best and most erudite wine blog on the net that puts emphasis on the wines of Italy. His choices of subject matter, while usually focused on Italian wine and culture, can stray off into the eclectic and person. This makes Mondosapore what a good wine blog should be—something of a sidecar into which the reader can jump as the blogger heads toward their chosen destination. MONDOSAPORE is well worth a regular read and a subscription. Reading this interview you get a sense that this wine blogger is in it not just to inform and entertain his readers, but for his own sanity...

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
Until March 2005 I didn’t think about blogs.  Then I did a search of wine blogs.  A number of them popped up on the screen, notably yours, Vinography and an Italian one called Aristide.  I started reading these and a few others, and soon I was posting comments.  So I slid into blogging sideways, so to speak. 

Very soon I started writing articles in Italian from a NY point of view for Aristide and in October 2005 decided to begin a blog of my own.  For the record, the first use of the word “mondosapore” was on Aristide.  The idea behind the name is that Italy offers an astounding array of wines, all types and colors and uses and flavours (sapori).  The country is a wine world (mondo) in itself. 

The why of it is more complicated, of course.  The most important motivation was to immerse myself in two subjects that have always fascinated me, Italy and wine.  I was teaching school in the Bronx at the time, and what with that daily misery and grad school, I needed an outlet.  (Healthier than porn!)

Quite soon I had formed “blogships” all over the world, had started meeting interesting people in wine, and felt myself going on a new path.  Which was good, because I hated the one I was on.  (Long story short: I had lost my advertising job after 9/11, didn’t work for two years, went through all my money and went into teaching as a way to get health benefits and a truly meagre salary.)

When I finally met Giampiero Nadali of Aristide in August 2006, things really started to click.  We got along famously, I met a lot of really smart, wonderful people in the Verona area, and I began to encounter more and more wine producers, big and small.  All of my usual sarcasm aside, mondosapore has been a magic door for me.  And through it I’ve come to realize that people in the world of wine are not only very interesting but lovely, warm and open-hearted as well.  You know, on the whole.

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
Anything to do with Italian wine or wine topics that are somehow newsworthy, like the health benefits of wine, consumption trends and developments in Italy  -- it’s all grist for the mill.  I also like to write about some of the things I get up to in New York, especially good places to eat that are off the tourist path and reasonably priced, because I want visitors to see more of this fascinating town than Fifth Avenue, Times Square and sad, cornball places like Little Italy.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
My Italian friends, like Giampiero Nadali, call me “the Ambassador” of Italian wine in America.  It was originally said in a joking way, but it hit a nerve.  I do feel a mission to make Italy’s wines, cuisines and ways of life better known to North Americans.  Not that it’s all mandolins and moonlight over there; there are aspects of Italian culture that are peculiar, funny and sometimes deplorable (the way they treat extracomunitari (illegals), their genius for uglifying any stretch of seafront, their bourgeois dourness, etc.)

Anyway.  Back to topic:  I have a good and growing network of bloggers, print journalists, producers and other people over there, and I find out a lot about what’s going on over there in certain zones.  Someone just wrote me, saying that the focus on Italy (wines and everything I dump onto these virtual pages), with its mix of Italian and English, was “unique” and it is clear I love my subject.  I sought that, accept it and am grateful someone else sees it too.

One more thing.  I write this blog because I need to.  Sometimes it feels like a lifeline. 

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
So-so.  It started at something like 200 hits a month (like, who the hell was I? and what’s all this stuff in Italian??).  It’s still not great – 4000 – 4500 hits a month.  My Italian readership has fallen off precipitously since I stopped writing much in Italian.  The UK and US readership has finally begun to take up the slack.

That switch-over was something I did intentionally.  While it was great having a lot of Italian readers, I did feel I wasn’t doing enough to reach the people who really needed the info, namely us in Canada and the United States.

5. Do you accept samples for review?
Yes. 

My rule is this: If I buy a wine with my own money and don’t like it, I’ll write about it.  If it’s a sample and I don’t like it, I maintain a discreet silence.  I will write to the producers and tell them why.

If I like it, no matter its provenance, then I’m happy to share impressions – impressions, not an official, point-totin’ review.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
I don’t.  I prefer to describe my reaction to the wine, with greater or lesser detail depending on my excitement over it, and let the reader draw his own conclusions.  If it’s something he’s eager to try after reading the post, great.  If not, OK.  The world’s awash with good wine these days.

And of course even the crummy ones have their story. 

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
When I was teaching I snuck an hour’s blogging here and there.  Now that I’m on a leave of absence, I can devote as much time as I want or can to it.

This is a little hard for me to write about – it’s something those closest to me know – but accumulated stresses in my life, especially many traumatic events since 1990, combined with the difficulties of teaching in the NYC  system, sent me into a deep depression last Christmastime, and I haven’t been able to return to work.  Certainly not and never again as a teacher, at any level.  For long periods this year the blog was the sole constructive activity I was capable of.  When I say it was or is a lifeline, I mean it literally. 

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
No.  Posting comments on Asimov’s blog seems to do OK.  Also on the Gambero Rosso one.  I’d like mondosapore to be a gateway to a new career, but I’m not going to make any money from it directly.  What the hell – it’s a labor of love.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
It’s quite different.  It’s more personal, less “political” and guarded most of the time, less afraid of consequences (angry advertisers, etc.).  The very fact that you can immediately post a public comment and begin a dialogue with the blogger and other readers is the decisive innovation. 

The downside of this is the cultishness that’s developed in some quarters, where if you’re suspected of dissing Parker, for example, the members of the community (cult) will trash you, demean your manhood and/or your patriotism, etc.  It gets so weird.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
Aristide, Bigger Than Your Head, The Pour, Fermentation, Jancis Robinson – these head the list.  I hit another dozen or so less often.  A couple of years ago I followed many more – several dozen.  I devote more time now to writing and other wine-related pursuits.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
Not as much we as bloggers would like to believe.  It seems to me that we’re mostly preaching to the converted. 

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
Truth to tell: Paris bores me.  It’s very staid, isn’t it?

Now if you’d said “Rome or Maui?” I’d be at a loss.

On the whole, I much prefer to travel in countries where they make lots of good red wine.  That’s what interests me.  And the food’s better there too.  Much. 

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
They make very fine eating.  Cat tastes like chicken.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
People.  I appreciate its lack of pretension.

Mostly, though, I’d either watch TV shows (always comedies) on my iPod or PC, or listen to jazz and read Inspector Montalbano mysteries of Andrea Camilleri to get myself into my Italian frame of mind.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
Tom, buddy, if I could afford a car in Manhattan, it wouldn’t be some shitty Prius. 

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Chablis.  Chablis.  Chablis.

17. Last Meal?
Like if I were on Death Row?  Jesus, what a question.

OK, I’ll play along.  I’d eat a dozen Big Macs so when they came to get me, I’d be glad to go.   

18. What is Heaven Like?
Koeppel gave the best possible response theologically.  My typical smart-ass answer:

In heaven I wouldn’t need Lexapro and I’d never never get a hangover.  Oh, and I’d be living in a place that strongly reminded me of Italy.  Far from my family.

19. If you could invite 4 people dead or alive to your fantasy dinner party, who would they be and who would you have bring the wine?

Oh I wish Steve Allen were here to help me! 

Lessee…they’d have to be winelovers…literary is good…dead is real good because they wouldn’t have to reciprocate and I wouldn’t have to incur the cost of renting a car…here we go:

Homer, Boccaccio, Joyce and Christopher Marlowe.  By the end of the evening we’d all be shit-faced and there’d probably be a fight. Homer would be thrashing Joyce with his lyre.  Marlowe would beat the crap out of Boccaccio.  (If Boccaccio already had a date, I’d invite Chaucer.)

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Focus on something you’re passionate about or else it will peter out.

Post all the time so the reader can get to know you; every post needn’t be a masterpiece or even on topic. (And post all the time so that you can get to know you as Wine Writer.)

Dare to be an asshole.  Say what you want, take risks, invite discussion. 

And keep a sense of humor because it ain’t religion.

It's Not Due to Drinking...It's About The Math

Any math wizards....Please, keep reading.

I've begun thinking about the 2008 Wine Blog Awards. I've decided I want to determine winners in each category by using a combination popular vote and a panel of independent judges. This approach seems like a good one based on the comments I've had from a variety of readers as well as thinking about it for some time.

However, I'm having a bit of difficulty figuring out the mathematical formula for determining what will be the winning blog in a category. Here's what I'm thinking:

1. There will be four finalists in each category
2. The popular vote in each category will be given 70% of the input toward the category winner
3. The public will vote for one blog in each category
4. The Independent Panel will be given 30% of the input toward the category winner.
5. The Panel will rank the four finalists 1st to 4th (favorite to least favorite)

HOW DO I MESH THESE TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF INPUT WITH THE DIFFERENT WEIGHTING?

In the popular vote I want to take into account the total votes for each finalist, rather than just doing a "winner take all" scenario a la: top vote getter is 1st place, second most vote getter is 2nd place, etc, etc.

As I said, I'm having a difficult time finding the correct mathematical formula for combining these two types of input and taking account of their different weights. There's a good reason I took an MA in History and not Finance.

I will forever be in the debt of those of you who can help with this.

My Sense of Wine Blogging: An Update

I sense a change or perhaps "evolution" in the world of wine blogging.

It's not so much a change in the way wine bloggers are blogging, but rather a change in the way observers of wine blogs are observing.

In part this sense I have comes from the fact that I am now receiving upwards of around 5 press releases or story pitches sent to me on a daily basis. I have to admit it remains a bit weird for me, a PR Guy, to get the story pitches and press releases rather than being the source of them. Nevertheless, these press releases and story pitches are coming from wineries, event producers, restaurants and those who produce products that relate to wine. I still receive at least one offer of samples per week. I've tried to be clear that I don't do wine reviews. Still, I get the offers.

I suspect that other bloggers are also receiving more and more press releases and story pitches.

This all adds up to the realization that more and more people who are concerned with what the media has to say are treating wine bloggers more and more like legitimate media. And of course we are.

One of the interesting things about the wine blogging community is that there is a severe camaraderie among the bloggers. I always thought this was case because wine bloggers were, together, setting off on a path that had not been trodden as the world of wine blogging was relatively new. There is safety in numbers. But this has evolved, it seems to me, into something different...something that has always existed: a camaraderie among writers/media.

There has always been clubby connection between writers, reporters and media types. They all do the same thing: they watch and observe as a profession. That's a pretty weird profession when you think about  it. What's weirder is that the "writer" has always been something of a celebrity in our culture and most cultures because they acquire an audience for the results of their observations. This also makes them attractive to marketers.

It was Gore Vidal I believe who once said, "A little part of me dies every time a friend succeeds." There's an ugly truth in this personal observation of Vidal's that most people can understand. But Vidal's comment on his insecurities doesn't remark on the other effect of a friend's or colleague's success: it creates motivation, as well as a little pain.

Any wine blogger that takes their blogging seriously doesn't mean it when they say, "I just like to blog for my own satisfaction." And I hear this from time to time.

As this evolution I sense takes off and becomes something more, as it becomes a state of affairs where bloggers' words and commentaries have a measurable effect on buying habits and opinion making, I suspect we will see a real separation of the wheat from the chaff. Those who take their work and their growing audiences and their significance seriously will be viewed as even more serious and significant by folks like me—PR and marketing folks. They'll also be taken very serious by their readers and even by casual observers of the world of wine.

The 2008 wine blogging season is going to be very, very interesting. The evolution I sense now will, I think, coalesce into a state of affairs where wine blogs become the center of attention to a great number of people in the wine industry. That's going to be exciting for a lot of wine bloggers who choose to make a grab at the prize.

Gimme MORE, MORE, MORE Appellations in America

I love American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). They help make a PR Guy like me busy.

That's why my heart was wounded when the Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB) of the U.S. Treasury Department, the agency that approves and regulates AVAs, announced a few weeks ago that they were suspending all new approvals or consideration of new AVAs...pending some sort of review of the process

I've been wanting to write about this wound to my heart for some time but have been waiting for the right moment and the right inspiration. I got that today in thinking about the French appellation system and after reading Alan Goldfarb's article and interview at Appellation America about the TTB's recent decision.

The implications of re-evaluating the AVA system are vast. Goldfarb sums it all up nicely when he writes:

"There are concerns as it applies to domestic as well as to worldwide commerce and also pertaining to the viticultural significance of wine grape growing areas. There are serious implications for geographically named wineries and brands. Overriding it all is the very meaning and future of AVAs in this country.

What conclusions will TTB make after it opens yet-to-be-announced public hearings on the matter? Will there be drastic changes? Will the broken AVA system - which some say is being used merely as a marketing tool as opposed to the delineation of real climatic and soil distinctions – continue to exist as we know it?"

I really wish the Treasury Department and TTB would just consent to leave the whole matter in my own personal hands as I could easily clarify the meaning of AVAs in America. In fact, let me save them some time and money right now.

1. FACT: The specific soils and climate of a well defined area has an impact on the character of wines made from the grapes grown in these specific "terroirs". The soil and climate won't dictate the character of the wine, but it will have a consistent and identifiable impact on it. If you don't believe this, ask yourself why they don't make Cabernet Sauvignon in Germany.

2. An AVA, to have any meaning at all outside that which marketers and PR folks like me give it, must identify areas of consistent soil and climatic characteristics.

3. It is much easier to identify areas of consistent soils and climate when you are talking about much smaller geographic regions. In other words, 500 contiguous acres are more likely to have consistent soils and climate than 40,000 contiguous acres.

THEREFORE, it should be the mission of the TTB to encourage the creation of many more much smaller AVAs and sub-AVAs. We need more Green Valleys, Rutherfords, Mt. Veeders and Atlas Peaks.

THEREFORE, a winery's brand name should be allowed to include the name of the AVA if it makes 90% of its wine from grapes grown in that AVA

THEREFORE, Any winery that has a placename in its brand name that is then later used as the name of a new AVA should be allowed to keep that brand name and not be forced to make 90% of its wine from that AVA: They were there first.

Up to this point the vast majority of AVAs have had very little to do with consistent soil and climatic factors except in the most meaningless of ways. As a result, these bigger, meaningless AVAs have become simple marketing tools that form the raison d'etre of local "regional associations" such as the Russian River Valley Winegrowers, the Napa Valley Vintners and the Carneros Quality Alliance.

Does anyone really believe that the climates of the southwestern and northeastern regions of the Russian River Valley really have much in common with each other? Or course not. All you have to do is observe where the fog comes in first and stays longest to figure that out. And what about the soils of the Russian River Valley. The RRV Winegrowers own website puts to rest any notion that there is anything consistent in this vast AVA's soils when they write on their website: "Each of the various soil types has a sometimes subtle, sometimes profound effect on the grapes growing upon them."

There will be those that will object to the notion of creating more sub-AVAs inside larger AVAs and to the idea of creating more and more AVAs altogether. The argument is that we'll just confuse the consumer even more.

I'll grant them that.

It will be more confusing to have more and smaller AVAs inside larger AVAs running amok on the maps. The problem is that anything less is just a license to hoodwink the consumer by continuing to push the idea that the terms "Napa Valley" or "Sonoma Valley" or "Carneros" or "Russian River Valley" have any meaning whatsoever when it comes communicating what's in the bottle that carries those AVAs on their labels.

My hope is that the TTB will be grateful I've cleared all this up for them and saved them the time of holding costly hearings. I'm not holding my breath.

Anyone who wants more insight into this very important issue should read Alan Goldfarb's Appellation America piece. It lays out the issue wonderfully.

Why I Divorced My French Wife

Now here's something that would never happen in America:

A French consumer group is making a serious complaint that wines from AOC-approved regions in France don't taste they way they think they are supposed to, leading to recommendations that stricter standards be set for identifying wines that can actually carry said appellations on their label.

Yet this is exactly the claim that a French consumer group is making concerning the country's AOC wines. Specifically, the group—UFC-Que Choisir—claims that pressure to produce more wine and and the  non-impartiality of the AOC's local overseers have led to reduced quality and wines that aren't "typical" of the appellation the wines hail from.

Let's be real clear about what this consumer rights group is claiming: They don't particularly enjoy the style of wines being produced by various winemakers.

Behind all this whining is the very French notion that the soil in which grapes grow is the overwhelmingly defining factor determining the character of wine from a particular region. This idea completely isolates the role of the winemaker to one of rule-follower and nothing more. For in the French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée system, everything from ripeness to trellising to pruning is dictated by regulations. The winemaker need only stand by with a clip board and assure that the rules are followed.

Without getting into the true absurdity of such a system, one can say only this: God Bless the French for making it so easy for New World wineries to take over the wine world.

The consumer group is suggesting that a new category of AOC wine be recognized on top of the current AOC categorization. This new category of AOC wines will be the "quality" wines that adhere strictly to certain conditions and have a very specific character and style associated with each region. Again, let's be clear what the organization is suggesting: "You may have this new AOC designation as long as the wines you make taste exactly like this. And we will call this style of wine 'high quality' "

How much really great and interesting wine has gone unmade because of the French fetish with regulations and rules?

I am a fan of a style of wine that isn't made that much anymore. I like a somewhat more austere, less extravagant, less fruit forward, lower alcohol style of wine that was made far more often many years ago. But I'm content in having to seek these out, rather than demanding that they be made.

For those of you who wonder why I divorced my ex-wife (she was French) all you need to do is think about this tendency of the French to impose ridiculous rules upon their winemakers.

Bloggerview #1: Fredric Koeppel

THE BLOGGERVIEW #1
Name: Fredric Koeppel
Blog: Bigger Than Your Head
Where: http://biggerthanyourhead.net/

Fredric Koeppel has written about wine professionally since long before there was an Internet or e-mail. In 2006 he launched "BIGGER THAN YOUR HEAD", a wine blog meant to "gazes critically at the creating and preparing, the marketing and selling, the truth and the hypocrisy, the issues and the language behind what we eat and drink."

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
I launched BTYH in December 2006 because I wanted to reach a wider audience than I get for KoeppelOnWine.com, which is a "magazine" style format for wine reviews and commentary. Not that KOnW isn't personal, but it's rather formal in composition and educational by policy, and I wanted a voice that was more personal, more direct and snarky. BTYH is a forum where I can be a little weirder and take on other issues related to wine and food, wine lists, peeves, wine industry silliness and so on. It's ok to be a little bit of an asshole if you do it with a pure heart.

2 In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
BTYH is primarily about wine, not in the sense of a series of reviews (or the "wine of the day" format) but in making connections among styles and genres of wine and of making their contexts and even their reasons for existing clear. I also want to make connections between wine and food and the eating experience, including "the good, the bad, and the rest of it."

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
I think, first, the design, which is clean and elegant and easily navigated.  Second, while not meaning to disparage the efforts or blogs of people who are newcomers to wine and writing or new enthusiasts, I have the knowledge and experience of having written about wine since 1984, first for 20 years with a weekly, nationally distributed newspaper column and then on the website. Third, I bring the skepticism of a full-time journalist; a lot of wine-writers and bloggers are too respectful an