Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

The Solution is At Hand...Rejoice

"It's just a matter of time before we all end up in court"
—Mike Wittenwyler, Attorney for Wisconsin Wine & Spirit Distributors

What would Mike and the Wisconsin wine and spirit distributors do without me? Luckily, I'm on job and can explain in simple terms how they and the state of Wisconsin can avoid ending up in court. But first some background.

In Wisconsin it was legal for Wisconsin wineries to sell and deliver wine directly to retailers. they were not forced by law to sell their wine to a wine distributor who may or may not have sold the wine to retailers and who don't know nearly as much about the Wisconsin winery's brand and wines and who most of the Wisconsin wineries wanted nothing to do with..thank you very much.

However, Wisconsin did not allow out-of-state wineries to go around the wholesaler and sell directly to Wisconsin retailers. That's a constitutional "no no".

The wholesaler's solution? Make it all fair by taking away the Wisconsin winery's right to sell directly to retailers and force them to sell their wine to wholesalers. The Wisconsin wineries will make less profit. They'll have far less control over the marketing of their wines. But, Wisconsin would be in compliance with the constitution and Wisconsin wholesalers would make more profit.

The Governor of Wisconsin vetoed this approach, which led Mr. Wittenwyler to offer his dire prediction that "It's just a matter of time before we all end up in court".

Fear not, Mr. Wittenwyler. I have the solution:

Allow all wineries, whether in Wisconsin or outside Wisconsin to sell and ship directly to retailers. This approach has a number of benefits:

1. It is an embrace of free trade.
2. It rejects commercial restrictions.
3. It rejects protectionism.
4. It helps Wisconsin wineries
5. It assures greater selection for retailers and customers
6. It is not unconstitutional

There you go Mr. Wittenwyler. Sleep soundly tonight. The answer to your worries is hence offered.

More on this issue can be found at the Specialty Wine Retailers Association Blog, "Wine Without Borders".

Is Wine Gay?

Yeah, I'm in PR. A marketer. At heart, I'm a salesperson (hell, I once made a good living selling vacuum cleaners door to door). So I understand the importance of getting the consumer's attention and setting yourself apart.

I understand the idea of market segmentation. I understand the idea of looking at the market by age, by ethnicity, by geography and by mindset and catering a product or pitch to the difference that exist between the market's segments.

I understand too the benefits and potential of catering to the gay marketplace. I've worked with wineries that have specifically catered pitches to a gay demographic.

But there is something about Risquesommelier.com that gives me the heeby Jeebies(sp?).

Is it still necessary to appeal to the purely sexual when marketing to the gay community? Must a product or sales pitch to the gay community assume that  my neighbor down the street  is primarily concerned with getting laid? From the look of Risquesommelier.com you'd think this is the only thing on their mind.

The site describes its focus this way:

Sommelier is a Wine Interest style BLOG site targeting the Gay consumer that goes far beyond the basic “Wine Critique” into detail riche experiences in Wine, Cuisine, Travel, Luxury Goods, Art and Music… all with a little lighthearted risque mischief."

Is there a wine blog that peddles sexual insinuations along side wine that is aimed at straights? Someone point me to it. I can see the benefits of a blog post on how to incorporate wine into the art of seduction. I can see the idea of a blog post that highlights the nexus between sex and wine. I can even wrap my arms around the idea of a blog that chronicles how a person incorporates wine into their love life. But a blog that insinuates that gays must see some kind of connection to sex in order to get interested in the content simply strikes me as too stereotypical to be of use.

Maybe I'm wrong.   

Bloggerview #9: Gabriella & Ryan Opaz

Bloggerview #9
Name: Ryan & Gabriella Opaz
Blog: Catavino
Where: http://catavino.net

Like Lenn with NY and Josh with developing wineries, Gabriella and Ryan have sent a standard in wine blogdom: it is for coverage and commentary on the wines of Spain at Catavino. They are somewhat unique among wine bloggers as they are a team. But what's interesting about this duo at the moment is the way they've recently used a number of social networking services to become much more prominent members of this wine blogging community. But even so, that's not as impressive as their leading blog on Spain and its wines.


1. When did you begin blogging and why?
When we first moved to Spain in 2005, our resources were limited at best. We had a few thousand dollars in our bank account, four duffel bags full of clothing and some pictures of friends of family. To make matters more interesting, we came without a job, contacts or the ability to speak Spanish. A brilliant idea? Probably not, but when we realized that our dream to live in Europe was being usurped by excuses and justifications, we decided that we'd rather follow our dreams and fail than not to follow them at all. While Gabriella taught English to bank executives, Ryan looked for work in the wine world through the Internet. What's interesting about this is that Spain was, and still is, far behind the technology curve in effectively utilizing the Internet to communicate information. So Ryan did what any good entrepreneur does, he filled a need and started a blog. The blog was a way for him to stay fresh and up-to-date on the world of wine. With time, however, he noticed that people were genuinely interested in what he had to say, motivating us to take the idea a step further.

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
A comprehensive website on Spanish and Portuguese wine with the occasional commentary wine blogging in general. This can and often does include news, and history about Iberia's foods, culture and ex-pat life!

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
We are unique because we are a husband and wife team living in Spain, tag teaming the blogosphere. On a good day, we hope to provide a unique conversation on wine from both the wine geek (Ryan) and non-wine geek (Gabriella) perspective. Additionally, we feel that by focusing on a specific regions, or set of regions, that we can give you a more personalized and profound insight into Iberian wine rather than trying to take on the whole world of wine!

One last note, and a very exciting thing for us. We are now Certified Sherry Educators! This past week we've been the guests of DO Jerez, learning all there is too know about sherry(a personal favorite underdog of a wine), so that we can educate others. I believe that makes us the first Wine Bloggers with Sherry Certification, anyone need any classes? ;-)

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
Up and down and all around. Currently we're gaining readers are a larger rate. For the first 2 years it was slow but this year with our starting of www.WineBlogAtlas.com and beginning to talk more about what exactly wine blogging means to us, we have found that we are creating more of a community. We do know that we have a high percentage of our readers interacting with us, and this is what we really appreciate. Big numbers don't mean much if most of the people just read us and move on. What is exciting is when our readers send us emails, meet with us during their travels, and comment on our site! Currently the best stat in our inbox is the "time spent on site" which right now is around 2:30 minutes, which means that people are actually reading out content and hopefully listening to what we are saying!

5. Do you accept sample for review?
Yes! We feel that samples allow us to try wines that we might not otherwise come across on our own accord, and since most of our readers are in the USA (85% or so), we often need samples of the wines being exported to the USA that are not available here in Spain. We won't review a wine we don't find worth our time, or yours, for this reason most of our reviews seem positive. We really are just trying to find things worth the time to taste!

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
We have used a 5 grape system for about 2 years now, but we are about to fully convert to a "recommended" scale. We'll explain this all in more detail soon but for us, detailed and expressive notes on wines we recommend are key, aiding our readers to focus on wine we suggest based on our experience. Our new focus will be the exact same model as Ryan implemented in his wine shop based in Minnesota. Trust was the main ingredient to build relationships with his customers through solid recommendations. They felt safe in his opinions and trusted what he recommended. It was personal, individualized and based the overall context of the situation and not his "rating" of the wine. This also held true for Gabriella when she worked in high end restaurants, influencing us both to consider a new approach with Catavino. If our readers trust us and like what we write, then why not recommend wines we feel are worth seeking out? Ratings can't tell you much information about a wine, and Ryan never remembers selling a wine by simply giving a score, instead each wine was sold after a conversation. Wine blogging allows us to have this conversation, and we think that by writing about wines that we like, and telling you why we like them, you'll learn more than by seeing a point value.

Also we adhere in our daily lives to a model of "Drink what we find interesting". When we go to wine shops we look for new wines, styles, grapes and regions, knowing that we won't always love the wine we buy, but we will enjoy the exploration! Our new scale will be based on wines we recommend, and maybe a special category for wines to fall in love with, or something like that!

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
Easy, we've split our resources to cover more ground. It was just this year that we began helping wineries, who approached us, in their efforts to use the internet better in their marketing. Because of this Gabriella was able quit teaching English to commit her full attention to both the site and to our growing start up business. So basically, blogging is the center of all we do, in one way or another. In fact, we've found that although we don't make any significant money from blogging, it has given us the credibility that our clients look for.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
A bit of Adsense here and a bit of viral marketing there. In reality though it's by being part of the community that has helped us to grow. Being a part of the wine blogger world and participating in online events and discussions that has really helped the most!

One other thing: FACEBOOK. Out of all the sites/promotion techniques we've used, this is becoming the most important business tool and conversation starter I've seen in awhile. It has really helped us to get more exposure and find new readers.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
We think it's more personal. When something happens in the wine world, we can not only talk about it immediately, but then start an intriguing conversation, that allows others to join in. This is the most important part of blogging, conversation. If you are a wine lover/geek, then blogs are the only place to go to get up to date and personal content. A good example is the number of requests we get for stories. Although we are not always successful in obtaining the story, unlike wine rags, we can actually a shot at it. Try sending WS a letter requesting a particular story based on your personal interests. Also as a result of the large amount of wine blogs out there, you can really find most wine niches covered in detail. By the way, anyone have any questions they need answered about Iberian wine? As Frasier Crane is wont to say, "We're listening".

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
Lenndevours, Fermentation, Tempranillo, Blame it on Rioja, Vinography, Bigger than Your Head, Spittoon, Dr. Vino, REThink, DeLong Wine Moment, Tinto y Blanco, A Passionate Foodie, plus quite a few others that we scan from time to time. Ryan thinks he has 50 or so in his reader currently.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
We've been asking this question a lot as of recent. I suppose we feel that our influence is starting to be taken a bit more seriously, but the road is long and bumpy. We feel confident that eventually wine blogs WILL have a significant influence, regardless of the wineries who continue to place them in the "eccentric" corner, but we're unclear as to when this shift will take place. When we started Wineblogger.info a few months ago, we had a few wine blogs sign up. Now, we're having trouble keeping the list up to date. We hoping that as this number grows and wineries see events like WBW grow; they will find that they NEED to acknowledge the impact of wine blogs. For example, Robert Parker started as merely a "print based blogging amateur" at one time, a wine lover who wanted to write about wine. Hard to argue that he hasn't made a change. The wine industry needs to wake up and see that there are many soon to be Robert Parkers out there, but this time they will be giving away content and changing opinions.  If it hasn't changed the wine world yet, it will soon, and in a big way!

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
Every 4 months Gabriella would love to enjoy the warm clear water of the Caribbean as long as we could spend the rest of the time feasting on fabulous Parisian food and wine, hiking through beautiful scenery, and above all, butchering their language. While, Ryan would take Paris all year round just so that he could find a way to try all the amazing wines and foods.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Cat. When we first met, we combined forces and gathered a small herd of 5 cats. Consequently, a home had always consisted of small furry friends. In fact it wasn't until we got our current cat Txarli (Charlie) that we really felt at home here in Spain. On the other hand, we've realized that Spaniards seem to connect through their dogs using parks as their social meeting ground. And as much as we'd love to have a dog, the reality of traveling to vineyards with one sounds a bit treacherous.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
New Yorker! If "People" covered individuals who were actually interesting, we might reconsider our choice, but we can't subject ourselves to yet another article on Brittney's sobriety.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
Ideally, neither. We love public transportation after living the past 3 years without a car, and are simply walking or biking. However, if we had to choose, we'd choose a Prius. So far we have lived very comfortably without a car for 3 years and never realized how little we would miss it!

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Chablis or rather Chablis style Chardonnay, this way we can fit in some of the fabulous Spanish Chardonnays we've tried in the past year.

17. What Would Your Last Meal on Earth Consist of?
This is where we part. While Gabriella would be happy eating mounds of fresh sushi with a seaweed salad and a bottle of Cava, followed by Pedro Ximenez Viejo 20 year VORS with Cabrales cheese.

On the other hand Ryan would start with a sushi appetizer paired with Manzanilla Sherry, followed by a 20 course tasting menu prepared by Jacque Pepin. Of course all courses would be paired with wines from around the world, ending in a flight of sweet wines from France, Hungary, Spain, Portugal and Germany all paired with cheese. Oh yeah, and a cup of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee with an Armagnac and the inevitable cigar to top it off! Ok so this meal might need a few short intervals for napping and such!

18. What is Heaven Like?
Boring. Reality is always more interesting than fiction! Why wait for heaven when you can create it on Earth with good friends drinking great wine while laughing and chatting around a grill full of food. This is our version of heaven!

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?
Allow us to preface this by saying that we combined our given numbers to make one big gala event. Our rational was that we not only wanted people who could mix and mingle among others, but who also had the wit and sarcasm to enjoy great conversation and food. Hence, we've chosen Julia Childs, M.F.K Fischer, Terry Thiese and Jacque Pepin for their passion for food and wine along with their humbleness; and Alan Alda, Robin Williams, Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Black for their unbelievable intelligence to take reality and twist it into humor. As for wine, Terry Thiese and Jacque Pepin, probably could find some nice things to pair with the meal!

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Just do it! But remember it's not worth doing if you aren't willing to commit to 2-3 posts per week. Also remember to ALWAYS respond to comments and to join the community that already exists and DON'T make the mistake of not linking to others, acknowledging the bloggers who came before or after you. Blogging is about community!

The Nexus Between Golf & the Tasting Room

Professional golf came to Sonoma Wine Country this week. Specifically, it came to Sonoma Valley in the form of the Champions Tour and Charles Schwab Cup at the Sonoma Golf Club. Jim Thorpe won for the second year in a row. So did the wineries.

Based on what I saw of cars on the roads and from talking to a couple tasting room folks and owners, sales were way up at tasting rooms this week.

It was a bit of a perfect storm weekend for tasting rooms and a perfect example of why there may be no better asset at a winery than a well placed tasting room.

A lot of things came together for wine tasting rooms:

1. The Golf Tournament came to town bringing with it a fairly affluent, wine drinking crowd
2. Harvest is still happening, though just finishing up, which also brings folk to town
3. The weather was beautiful, attracting day trippers from around the Bay Area

The benefits of having a tasting room, particularly in a destination like Sonoma Valley, can barely be counted.   Sale are all at full retail. The very existence of the tasting room is a form of ongoing advertising. The tasting room is the best source of wine club memberships—the gift that keeps on giving to wineries. The Wine Club that results from a tasting room and the ongoing visitors allows a winery to make any number of small and unusual bottlings, which often can be very profitable.

The problem of course is getting approval for opening a tasting room anywhere near Highway 12 in Sonoma Valley. The community isn't exactly in favor of it, believing it brings more traffic to the region. Then there is the concern that one more tasting room in Sonoma mars the beauty of the Valley. Yet, the fact is Sonoma Valley from Kenwood to Sonoma would have to add a tasting room a day just to begin to reach the level of such establishments that exist in Napa. And I'd also dispute that additional tasting rooms, particularly in the incremental pace at which they arrive, do anything to affect traffic.

All that said, I have to tell a story about a long time client and their approach to tasting rooms to give a flavor for the extreme view that tasting rooms are the key element to one path to success in the wine business.

Mayo Family Winery opened in 1990. They geared up to do what others do: Make wine, sell it to distributors, repeat. After about five or six years of this Jeff Mayo was burnt out trying to manage his distributor force across the country. Most of all he was tired of getting fifty cents on the dollar for his wine, the price that distributors demand. He decided to try the tasting room route and opened in one of his family's properties in Kenwood what would be the first co-op tasting room in Sonoma Country. He invited five other wineries to pour at the tasting room.

Immediately, Mayo saw 30 percent of it's wine now sold direct, at 100% of the wine's retail price. In addition, the wine club memberships began to trickle in. All of this was good news.

Being someone who thought repeating what worked was a good thing, Mayo opened a second coop tasting room in a new Sonoma luxury hotel a couple years later. For this co-op room, Mayo invited in 3 other wineries but also created two new  brands. Again, percentage of sales to distributors dropped, direct to consumer sales increased.

All this convinced Jeff that he needed his own tasting room and winery directly on Highway 12. A piece of land on the corner of Highway 12 and Arnold Drive (the entrance to Glen Ellen) came up for sale and they bought it. It took a while but they got the county approvals to build a 10,000 case winery and tasting room.

This was a very expensive proposition. It meant financing a great deal of it. However, five years after its completion, Mayo is selling 95 percent of nearly 10,000 cases of wine direct. He has a wine club of nearly 2000 people and you can't drive through Sonoma Valley without seeing "Mayo Family Winery".

But wait, there's more. Mayo opened another tasting room on Sonoma Plaza. Here folks who visit tend to buy one bottle at a time, tend not to join the wine club as often as at the winery, but it proves an amazing source of marketing for the winery since the Sonoma Plaza is inundated with visitors.

But wait, there's more. What about a different kind of tasting room experience? Could something different increase further the reputation and bottom line of the brand?

The Reserve Room was born. In the first co-op tasting room Mayo opened a little visitor room where you cold sit, taste seven reserve wines, and taste them next to seven bites of tremendous culinary creations put together by the in-house chef. This worked out. Today that small, seven table tasting room with food results in twice as many wine club memberships per visitor than than the tasting room. Mayo went on to repeat this idea in a Healdsburg location.

Today, Mayo sells wine to one distributor and only because he likes the guy. They are friends. Everything else is direct. About 10,000 cases worth. He has five tasting room sin Sonoma Valley. But here's the kicker:

With this many tasting rooms Jeff Mayo and his wine maker Michel Berthoud are able to indulge their winemaking inclinations. That is too say, they can make a lot of different kind of wines and at very small production levels because they do not have to worry about trying to sell 200 cases of a strange wine to distributors.

Today, Mayo Family Winery produces upwards of 30 different single vineyard wines annually.

This would be impossible without a tasting room. In fact, it would be very hard to survive selling the same 10,000 cases of wine  to distributors who buy it at 50 cents on the retail dollar.

But there is one other thing. Mayo does not send his wines into reviewers to obtain ratings. He used to when he had to satisfy distributors, but not now that all he has to do is satisfy wine lovers. He did fine when he played the ratings game. But he simply does not have to play now.

The moral is this: if you can afford to build a tasting room on a well traveled wine route, and if you make less than 30,000 cases of wine annually...you must build it!

"For Immediate Release"

We send out press releases at Wark Communications. Of late, many of them and for various clients. I don't like press releases very much mainly because they are 1) impersonal and 2) even when the list of those folks you are sending them too is well vetted and well developed over time, it still feels like using a shotgun to blast a whole in the door when a simple knock will do.

But to this feeling I have to add that I really do enjoy writing them if only for the challenge of having to accomplish so much with them. For example, I need to satisfy the client who themselves often must see that various people and entities are included in a press release if only to cover their political bases.

In writing the release I have to be conscious of the fact that no matter how compelling the or interesting the content, many folks will never get past the first paragraph. That puts a lot of pressure on that first paragraph and the headline.

The press release, as an information piece and stylistically, lies somewhere between the used care salesman shouting in your ear over the TV and the sober "just the facts" reporting of the daily paper's business section. That's not an easy balance to achieve. So I do enjoy that challenge too.

Then of course there is the challenge of writing a press release that needs, to the extent it can, to draw the eye of a variety of reporters, writers, and bloggers who while they all clearly have some interest in the wine media also have a different audience of general approach to writing about wine. If you can't do this with a single press release, then you need to write two, possibly three release on the same subject that will appeal to different types of wine journalists. Or, in lieu of that, you need to find a nifty justification that you can use to convince yourself that this single press release will appeal to everyone.

After more than 17 years of writing, reading and editing and receiving press releases I have a decent idea of what kind of subject matter will really get attention. But in all honestly, it's only "a decent idea".  For example, a couple days ago I helped write and released a press release about a lawsuit that a winery had won here in California. It was an obscure lawsuit that in effect staved off the creation of a defacto "franchise law" here in California. I used BusinessWire to distribute the press release electronically as well as sent it to a small, but specific set of wine writers that tend to be interested in industry news.

Later in day, after it was released, I get a call from my account manager at BusinessWire who tells me that this release was the third most most read and most accessed and read release sent that day. That's a pretty impressive accomplishment. Hundreds of releases are sent over the wires by BusinessWire daily and only two were accessed and read more often than this one about an obscure California lawsuit. This just goes to show that even when I do my job well, I'm not always clear why it was done well. Just writing the previous sentence and looking at it gives me the willies. But it also indicates that the art  craft of the press release just might be an example of abstract art, rather than realism.

I worry too about the reputation of the press release. In fact, I worry about writers having this feeling about press releases:

"Inherent in the press releases is an assumption that a writer can be enticed not only into tasting the wines, maybe also into visiting the winery, and possibly into blithely believing in what the release says. The intent is to get the writer to write about the winery, favorably of course. I know that press releases are supposed to perform the function of promotion and to impart information—I know it because in the past I’ve gotten paid to write them. But that did not stop me from feeling insulted by the press releases coming my way.

I’ve even had unsolicited wine sent to me. I cannot imagine how to explain having written a tasting note that agrees with a press release concerning a free bottle that I had received, even if I knew that I hadn’t cheated—to me, the perception of a conflict of interest is damning enough."

These are Thomas Pellechia's words, a write, teacher and blogger at Vino Fictions who I read religiously because he thinks so well and communicates his thoughts even better. Thomas has very, very little respect for the press release. Though I think Thomas' view of function and usefulness of the press releases is tied of too closely to his own concern for his integrity, I do think his general view on what the press release is and can be, I also think his view of the press release is not too uncommon.

So, I thought I'd lay out exactly what I think the press release is and what I think it can do, at least from the perspective of a wine publicist.

1. The press release is a way of saying the same thing to many people at once.

2. It can be influential, informational or simply promotional. (most are the latter)

3. The press release needs to be intrusive in order to be effective. People need to see it.

4. The press release should give the recipient pause and force them to reflect...if only momentarily,

5. A press release MUST further a larger goal of the issuer of the release.

6. A press release should have a point of view, otherwise it's a probably a bad news story.

7. At its most tactical, a press release can counter the developing conventional wisdom.

8. Usually, the most you can hope for with a press release is to keep the the issuer on the media's radar.

9. Often times, a press release is used only to satisfy an organization's internal political needs.

10. The best press release inspire the reader to do something.

Fighting Back By Blogging

The number of blogs on the internet that cover the issue of direct shipping and consumers rights and shipping regulations is few and far between. There is the blog you are reading, the ShipCompliant Blog and Inertia's REthink blog.

NOW THERE IS A NEW ONE....dedicated to covering this issue particularly from the perspective of retailer-to-consumer shipping, but delving into the world of wine shipping issues on a daily basis.

WINE WITHOUT BORDERS is the new blog created by the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, for which I act as Executive Director.

Wine Without Borders will be the second blog I'll be maintaining on a regular basis, but this time I'll have help from the various members of SWRA who will also be posting commentary.

One things is clear: if the wine industry including retailers, wineries and consumers don't support efforts to make wine shipping easier and more open, then it simply won't happen. Today, retailers can ship legally into only 15 states. Wineries may ship into roughly 35. Why not all of them?

But here's how I hope Fermentation Readers can help...
IF YOU MAINTAIN A BLOG OR A WEBSITE, JUST PUT UP A LINK TO WINE WITHOUT BORDERS.

Help us get the message of free trade in wine out to a larger audience. One link per blog/website....That's all we ask!

Wine Without Borders will try to do some heavy lifting by being the ongoing communication vehicle for issues surrounding direct shipping. That means keeping you up to date on legal, legislative, political and philosophical issues concerning this issue. It turns out that the the interests of retailers are the interests of consumers. It's this conversion of interests that allows retailers to be always on the side of consumers on this issue.

So help out the cause if you can. Read the blog from time to time. Spread the word. Link Up. Please.

How will I maintain two blogs? I've committed to reducing my amount of sleep. But no tears for Tom. He don't need no stinking sleep!

Didactic Marxist Ideas and Wine....Hmmm, Yum!

In the comments section of an earlier post this week about a new book on philosophy and wine, Richard from A Passionate Foodie made note that there was in fact a second book recently published that also deals with the convergence of wine and philosophy: "Questions of Taste: The Philosophy of Wine", Edited by Barry C. Smith.

I obtained that book and like the earlier one I posted about, "Wine & Philosophy: A Meritage of Ideas", it tills deeply into this topic with essays on is wine art, the objectivity of taste, wine vocabulary and language theory and "wine epistemology".

Two books in one year on what might be the most obscure wine-related topic that exists: wine and philosophy. The audience for these two books is small and as obscure as many of the points made in them. Yet, there they are. It borders on a trend.

What combination of forces would lead to this mini rush of wine and philosophy books?

I think it must largely be due to the huge increase in interest in wines, and wines from a variety of sources, as well as the increase in people working in a way that is connected to wine: it means more people are thinking about wine. And when more people are thinking, there are a portion of those folks thinking about things obscure.

Now, these two books, published so near each other, simply could be an example of chance, a coincidence. But it's not fun to attribute things to chance and coincidence if only because it offers no good reason to write about it on a blog. So, let's stick with: more people think about wine.

Let's be clear though. The publication of two books on philosophy and wine will not necessarily lead to any upsurge in the number of folks thinking about the meaning of wine.  Let's face facts, when you have the phrases "didactic Marxist or Christian Ideas of art", "a wine may 'speak' of terroir" and "it has no intellectual or cognitive content" all in the same paragraph you just aren't going to convince too many devotees of wine to read further. Where the hell are the wine ratings????

Nevertheless, I'm going to advocate that you at least try one of these books. After all, wine is too interesting to simply be a hedonistic pursuit. My argument is that the joy it brings is heightened if it brings you intellectual stimulation also and helps to further define the meaning of life.

Who Will Plant Alicante Bouschet?

Nick Frey at the the Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission is reporting that 1) Pinot Noir plantings are set to overtake Cabernet Sauvignon plantings in the County, 2) that the price of a ton of Sonoma County Pinot Noir has overtaken a ton of Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon and 3) that poor Merlot has seen its price drop to a "dismal" $1550 per ton.

Regarding 1: I'm surprised it took this long
Regarding 2: Behold the natural migration of money toward quality
Regarding 3: This  should mean some much better prices on excellent Merlot from Sonoma.

The fact that Pinot, long known to do so well in the western and southern reaches of Sonoma County, only now has over taken Cab in total acreage has to do, likely with the former attitude of Californian growers to plant the most popular grape variety wherever they happen to have fallow land, no matter what conditions are. Those days are long gong. I think we must be seeing the slow development not merely of monocultures in wine growing regions, but also mono-varietal-cultures. Fifty years from now will there be much of anything besides Pinot and Chard in Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast, Cabernet Sauvignon in Alexander Valley and Pinot and Chardonnay in Carneros?

It turns out there's good money today in planting varieties where they produce the best grapes. That wasn't necessarily the case 25 years ago. Witness the mass plantings of Cabernet in the far too cold Monterey appellation.

Finaly Merlot. I'm aware of a number of killer Merlot vineyards here in Sonoma Valley. One produces incredibly tiny berries year in and year out that produce intense, structured, fruit forward wine. If the price of grapes in these Merlot vineyards continue to fall we'll see some great prices on the wines made from them. But we won't see the wines for long. They'll eventually be replaced with grapes that bring in more per ton. That's a shame.

It's a shame because while it is a good thing that we are planting what grows best in different regions, that also means that many other varieties will be lost to those regions. How much Petite Sirah will be re planted in Russian River Valley when the old vine Petite has given its all and doesn't want to produce much any more. Chenin Blanc can do just great in parts of Napa, but I dare say probably no more than an acre or two has been planted in that Cabernet haven for years. Will anyone plant Alicante Bouschet anywhere in the North Coast?

The Most Important Wine Blog Is New Again

I think it's worth noting when the most popular wine blog on the Internet undergoes and launches a re-design. That's what Alder Yarrow has done at his Vinography.

Redesigning and launch a site as well populated with posts and information isn't an easy chore. As Alder puts it, "It's been a long road to get here. Like remodeling a house."

What's noteworthy is the organization of all this information. There is a subtle balance to be considered between using organization to communicate importance and using organization to communicate aesthetics. One thing that Vinography now does is list only a portion of the copious links it provides. For example, in the "Wine Blogs In English" section Alder lists only 10 blogs on the home page. To see the rest in this section you must click on "View All". This is an improvement from a purely design perspective. But I'm willing to bet there was some significant thought that went into taking all those links off the page. I think he did the right thing.

But what's interesting is that the blogs that do show up in those initial ten appear to be the ten newest added to that section. In case anyone doesn't realize this, it's a real gift to those blogs. Alder's site gets lots of traffic and here are the newest blogs Alder has found right there in front. This more than anything about the redesign is indicative of the publisher. Well Done Alder.

I like the new design. It's clean and remarkably easy to navigate. The ads are incorporated well. And the posts, the real meat of any blog, stand out nicely and draw you in.

Cheers to the most important wine blog on the Net!!

Bloggerview #8: Lenn Thompson (Lenndevours)

Bloggerview #8
Name: Lenn Thompson
Blog: Lenndevours
Where: http://www.lenndevours.com

Lenndevours was one of the first blogs I looked at, leaned back and said, "Wow"....I want to do it that well. I still don't think I do but Lenn Thompson's blog provides wine bloggers with an great model. Lenn has also been an important player in the Wine Blogging community. His founding of "Wine Blogging Wednesday" worked to tie the wine blogging community around an ongoing event. There hadn't been such a thing prior to Lenn starting it all. And for those of you who wonder what kind of seam exists between online wine writing and the traditional publishing world and if one can move between the two, Lenn is a good example of how it can happen. But it takes a certain talent and a desire to do so. Lenn has both.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
I first got into blogging over four years ago. At first, I just had a 'general' blog called Slingin' Ink that I started as a creative outlet because my day job wasn't all that interesting or creative at the time. My creativity was stagnating, so I tried blogging.

Little by little, I realized that I was writing more and more about food and wine, so I decided to do a spin-off blog devoted to those topics. I guess you could say that LENNDEVOURS devoured Slingin' Ink, and that's the blog people know me for today.

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
How about in one: LENNDEVOURS focuses on everything about New York wine country--the wines, the people, the restaurants, the life.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
Well, for one, my blog occupies a very small niche in the wine blogosphere--New York wines. I'm one of only a handful of NY wine blogs and I'm the only one that regularly covers Long Island wine and tries to cover the whole state. I also think that I'm one of the more prolific bloggers (in terms of post frequency) consider I cover a relatively small region.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
It's funny, at first I really didn't care, and it probably showed. My family read it of course, but it didn't do them much good. They live in Pennsylvania, one of the most backwards states in terms of alcohol and shipping laws. They can't even get the wines I write about! But as time wore on, I tried to make LENNDEVOURS the kind of blog that I would want to READ as someone interested in New York wines.

And it's really exploded since then. I'm always amazed by my little community of diehard readers. And of late, I've realized that a lot of people in the local wine industry read it too. One such person told me this week that she and her staff read LENNDEVOURS because "it's the one place we can read the truth" about the region. That's cool to me. And it's exactly what I try to do.

Traffic seems to increase every single week and I'm thankful for every reader I gain.

5. Do you accept sample for review?
I do. I taste just about every Long Island wine that is made every year and I certainly wouldn't be able to afford to do that without the samples. I also write for several local papers and publications, and cover Long Island and the Hudson Valley for Appellation America, and I taste wine quite differently when it's a sample a winery sends me. I take tasting those wines very seriously. Wine that I buy myself, I may write about, but most of the time I'm drinking it for my own enjoyment.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
As you know, this is always an interesting topic among wine bloggers. When I first started LENNDEVOURS, I used the same A through F system that many of us are used to from school. Then for a long time I didn't use one at all, because people do get too caught up in ratings. But just recently, I've adopted a 5-star rating system proposed by Tim Elliot as a blogger standard. I know that wine blogs will never all use the same system, but I like it. It gives people who REALLY want ratings something to look at, but I also bury it at the end of my reviews, which tend to be several paragraphs long.

In short, I guess I see the value of ratings to some people, but I don't want my readers to focus on the little stars and ignore the story I'm telling them about the wine.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
Daily schedule you say? I have a 9-month old son. My schedule is his schedule. Seriously though, I just blog when I can. In the morning before leaving for work. Late at night when Jackson and Nena are asleep. On my lunch break at work. I also sometimes write several posts when I have time and set them to publish over the following few days when I know I won't have much time.

And, I've also added several like-minded contributors to my blog, which has been a great experience. I really think it improves the blog to have voices other than my own chime in on occasion. I guess it takes away from the "Lenn-ness" of the blog a little, but I think they are great people and I wouldn't let them post on my blog if I didn't like what they were doing.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
I haven't done any intentional, hard-core marketing per se. Founding Wine Blogging Wednesday has certainly helped by getting my name and blog in front of people who probably couldn't care less about New York wines. It's even led to my blog being mentioned in Food and Wine Magazine, which was great. The blog URL also ends up at the end of many of my print stories, so I'm sure I've garnered some readership that way. Beyond that, I think it's just longevity. It's funny to evoke longevity about a blog that is less than four years old, but in the blog world, I think I'm one of the granddaddies...or at least an eldest uncle.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
This is something I actually think about quite a bit. If a story idea pops into my brain, I have several places it can end up--my print columns, AppellationAmerica or my blog. First, I think about the audiences, because they are quite different and diverse. I think that my blog readers, the regular ones anyway, tend to be really into wine and actively seeking out the information and ideas I have to share. My print column readers probably happen upon my column, but I doubt many specifically seek it out. Second, I think about whether or not what I want to say is going to get me in trouble if it's printed in a newspaper or magazine. I have a lot of strong opinions about a lot of things and I can express them much more freely on LENNDEVOURS than anywhere else. There aren't any editors to deal with or advertisers that I need to worry about offending. I think in that way, LENNDEVOURS is the more honest medium. Those are my thoughts as a blog WRITER.

As a blog READER, I find blogs so much more personal. So much more real and almost tangible that if I read about Wine ABC on a blog that I've been reading for a while, I'm much more apt to seek it out than if I read about it in Wine Spectator or another glossy. I count most of the bloggers I read as friends and there isn't any better way to learn about new wines than from friends, right?

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
There are way too many to list really. There's the old standbys like Vinography, Catavino, Dr. Vino, Winecast, Spittoon, Obsession With Food (not technically a wine blog I guess, but still a daily read) and the Pour. But then I also like to seek out smaller, lesser known blogs, some of which cover NY and other small regions. I'm talking about blogs like Virginia Vine Spot, Finger Lakes Weekend Wino, NiagaraEscarpment.net.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
I think it's ridiculous to suggest that they haven't. Long Island (and New York State really) is only a small piece of the world wine scene, but I don't think anyone would doubt that blogging has had an impact here.  I think blog and Internet-savvy wineries are going keep growing in number and in success. We've seen it already with Stormhoek and I'm sure others will follow suite.  When I first started blogging, you'd never see a blogger's wine review in the "press" section of winery websites. Now I see it all the time. When a winery cares, I think that means that the consumers will too.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
That's a tough one, but I'll say Paris only because I've never been there. And I want Clotilde ( http://chocolateandzucchini.com/) to cook me dinner and tell me where to eat.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Dog all the way. Our beagle, Ben Roethlisbeagle is the best.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
New Yorker. Not even a question.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
Prius. I'm not a big "car guy" so why not reduce my carbon footprint if I can?

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Do you really have to ask an East Coast wine lover this question? Chablis.

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
This would have to be a big meal. I'd want my wife's apple pie for sure, and her turkey pot pie. I'd want duck and lamb and steak. I'd want pork dim sum and Thai basil chicken. Oh and crispy pork belly. And lots of cured meats and fine cheeses. Fresh heirloom tomatoes and good, fruity olive oil. And local wines to go with all of them. And bourbon.

18. What is Heaven Like?
I don't know, but I bet I find myself living on a vineyard with lots of wine and food around.

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?
If I have to answer that right now, I'd want to have dinner with Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher, two former Steelers coaches, Mike Tomlin (the current coach) and my little son, Jackson.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Only do it if you're dedicated, passionate and can cope with addiction, because it's become one for me. Of course, it's a labor of love too. Also, pick a narrow band of the wine world to focus on. I think that most of the best blogs have a focus, a precision, that is really endearing. That's another advantage that blogs have over traditional print media.