Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

Bloggerview #18: BrooklynGuy's Wine & Food Blog

Bloggerview #18
Who: Neil From Brooklyn
Blog: BrooklynGuy's Wine Blog
Where: http://brooklynguyloveswine.blogspot.com/

Neil's BrooklynGuy's Wine & Food Blog always struck me as the prototypical wine blog. What's you've got here is someone relating their every day experience with wine. You are discovering what they discover. Tasting what they taste. But...This Guy really does do it so damn well, in large part because his writing is so filled with an authentic voice that it's very difficult to simply dismiss as another wine blog. The posts tend to be long. Anybody who has spent any time at Fermentation will know I'm not opposed to long posts. But as a reader, the article needs to be compelling for me to following down the page. I never fail to follow The BrooklynGuy's words down the page.

1.  When did you begin blogging and why?
I started in September of 2006. I was reading a lot about wine in my down time and I wanted to learn more about the wines of the Loire Valley and Burgundy, but I wasn’t seeing a whole lot about those areas in blogs. I remember thinking “maybe I could write about those wines,” but I didn’t, because who am I to write about wine? I found myself wanting to participate in Wine Blogging Wednesday, and that was the final push for me to start my own blog.

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
My blog focuses on my experiences as I learn about wine and I try to make it as personal as I can by including whatever details are (and sometimes are not) appropriate from my life. I drink more French wine than anything else, and I try to identify and recommend good wines at various price points.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
I wrote and rewrote the answer to this question like 6 times, literally. I wrote about how I am a systems thinker and I try to bring that to the blog. About how I care about healthy food and unprocessed wine. About how my blog is better as a marathon and not as a sprint. About the lighter style of red wines that I prefer. And then I realized this: what really sets it apart is the same set of contradictions that define me in real life. I take things very seriously but I make fun of myself and of everything else if I can. I’m respectful but I’m also a real smart-ass. I believe in the establishment but I also think it can go get bent. I cry at the movies and generally am a real softie, but I can scrap with the big boys if I have to. I love the idea of luxurious dining at fine restaurants but I hate shaving and prefer messy clothes. I feel confident about what I know but I love to ask questions and to learn. I’m not into standing on a soapbox but I believe strongly in eating and drinking healthy, and I’ll tell you so every chance that I get. This stuff shows up in my blog somehow – I hope.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
Slow growth for a while, but then Eric Asimov included me on his blogroll and things picked up. Then stayed level for a while, until for some reason things picked up again last summer, and after a few notable bloggers mentioned my blog in their Fermentation Bloggerviews, things picked up even more. But you know what - high readership isn’t my goal. I didn’t start blogging with the fantasy of having lots of people watch me. My goal is to learn, and to interact with other people who also care very much about learning about wine. If other people find this interesting and want to follow along and interact with me, I welcome that.

5. Do you accept samples for review?
Yes but only if I get to write or not write whatever I want regarding the wine.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
I don’t use ratings on my blog. If I did I would be suggesting that I have the breadth of tasting experience to rate a wine among its peers, and I most often do not. And in the very few instances that I actually do have that experience, I prefer to tell whatever story I have with the wine, and let that speak for itself. There are plenty of other places to go for ratings.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
I run my own business out of a home office. The boss inside of me is usually pretty cool about allotting a little time each day to the blog.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
Nope. I’ve done nothing other than actually writing the thing.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
I don’t read much traditional wine writing for print except for NY Times tasting panel articles, so I cannot say for sure, but blogging is different in that it should offer an assessment of wine that is completely free from any outside interests of any kind. Wine writing in traditional print is like any other job – you have to maintain relationships with people in order to be successful. That probably precludes people from writing negative reviews.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
I look at lots of blogs regularly, including all of the usual suspects. But the ones I read most carefully, the ones that most inform my learning about wine include The Pour, Alice Feiring, Rockss and Fruit, McDuff’s Food and Wine Trail, Wine Terroirs, and The Wine Doctor (not a blog, exactly, but close enough). Everyday reads also include Doktor Weingolb, Joes Wine Journal, Fork and Bottle (also not a blog exactly, but close enough) and Lenndevours as I’ve become friendly with the authors over time and I like to see what they’re up to each day.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
No one who I drink wine with cares about Parker scores, or any other scores for that matter. The scores are important, but mostly because they help retailers sell wine to people who do not have the time or inclination to actually think about wine. Maybe bloggers are speaking to the rest of us.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
Is this some sort of joke?!? Paris, bien sur.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Dogs are like big California Cabernet, always wagging their tails and slobbering everywhere. Cats are more like Chambolle-Musigny, soft, regal, mysterious, and far more complicated. And you can’t herd cats. I prefer cats.   

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
C’mon, gimme a break. The New Yorker.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?   
Walk

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Is this some sort of joke?!? Chablis. But lately I’m more into the wines of the Mâconnais.

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
It wouldn’t matter what I eat, as long as my wife and daughter are with me. But hopefully there would be some oysters involved, some interesting charcuterie, a simple soup made with home made stock, good bread and cheese, and lots of wine. And ice cream.

18. What is Heaven Like?
People on the subway hold onto their chicken bones and newspapers and put them in the garbage instead of dumping them on the floor of the train, and they turn their headphones down so I don’t have to listen to their music with them. Not high-minded enough for you? I’m a non-practicing reform Jew – what do I know from 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?
First of all, when I have a dinner party, I like to pick the wine. I would invite Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Theresa, and César Chávez. Just kidding! I am not one of those people who imagines having dinner with other famous people. Maybe I would invite Alice Waters over, and President Bush too, and we could shop and cook together, and hopefully the Prez would have an epiphany and devote the rest of his term and then his life to making sure America’s children have healthy and fresh food to eat in school.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
I will quote Alice Feiring here “Have a point of view other than what you drank last night.” 

1997 Whatever....

"most Americans were satisfied with the system as it is except for a small, very vocal segment who say they can’t get their bottle of 1997 whatever.”

Count me in as part of that small, vocal segment of folks who really do love the "1997 Whatever". What a great wine that was, huh! I'd loved it's fruity component of So What. And who can forget that wine's firm and crisp Too Bad. And the wine was legendary for it's long, smoky Nevermind.

The wine that all vocal wine drinkers will be looking for today, the 1997 Whatever, is the creation of Craig Wolf of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association. Mr. Wolf made note of this very hard to fine legend of a wine in a New York Times article by Eric Asimov. In the article Mr. Wolf pull off a pretty neat trick as he responds to the movement to open up direct shipping laws: He very capably denigrates both consumers and wine producers in once sentence. That's not easy to do...you have to work at it.

The implication of his "small, very vocal segment" is that these wine lovers, the ones that purchase LOTS and LOTS of wine from retailers, restaurants and wineries, really don't matter to him and the wholesalers he represents. And I can understand that. It's awful difficult to really pay attention to this big spending, influential, but small, group of wine lovers when your main concerns is making sure 15 year-old Lisa Schoolgirl isn't ordering 1997 Whatever on her laptop while hiding under her bed covers at night (a trick that is always followed by her faking sickness the next day so she can stay home from school and convince the delivery person that, yes, she really is 21 years old even though she lost her drivers license. Craig Wolf is worried about this group not getting wine, as well as worrying that the small, vocal segment of adults don't get their 1997 Whatever. He's a busy guy.

But Mr. Wolf also finds a way to denigrate the producer. "Eh...it's just 1997 Whatever". I suspect the owners of Chateau Whatever work pretty hard to make and sell their elusive bottling that Craig has now made famous. In fact, I'll bet the VP of Marketing at Chateau Whatever spends a GREAT DEAL of time begging his few distributors across the country to PLEASE sell the wine they said you would!! Who knows, maybe the folks at Chateau Whatever decided to drop their wholesalers and start selling their wine direct to retailers and to consumers. After all, why give away margin to a distributor who is so willing to denigrate your wine and wines of other small producers right there in the NEW YORK TIMES!!!!

If you ever wanted a pure explanation of how the wholesaler community views fine wine lovers and producers of fine wines in America, all you need to do is re-read Craig Wolf's statement today in the New York Times. Make no mistake. He knew he was talking to the NEW YORK TIMES. He knew he was talking to a reporter who's article would be read by millions including the vast majority of the winemaking community and the fine wine drinkers in the United States. He chose his words carefully. So let me remind everyone what he carefully chose to say about wine drinkers and fine wine producers:

"most Americans were satisfied with the system as it is except for a small, very vocal segment who say they can’t get their bottle of 1997 whatever."
Craig Wolf, Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association

The Next Wine Movie (trailer included)

One of the two forthcoming films about the 1976 Paris Tasting, Bottle Shock, has made its debut at the Sundance Film festival. Below is the official trailer for the film. There are initial reviews of the film out too. Not many of them are terrific

FROM VARIETY: "A peculiar demand placed on the cast, from Farina in Paris to Pine, Rodriguez, Taylor and Pullman in Napa (and Rickman in both locales), is credibly reacting when tasting vintages, sending the visual clue that a great wine is at hand. Rickman plays the snob to human scale and never to exaggeration, while Miller lets Pine and Pullman go overboard with unevenly calibrated perfs. Taylor and Rodriguez, despite one ridiculous love scene, pull off big-screen charm. Production is slick on a budget (though using Napa spots as a location substitute for France is an obvious flub), and plenty of visuals serve as little more than commercials for California wine country."

FROM CINEMABLEND: " Is there room in the world for yet another movie about wine?  If the movie is Bottle Shock… then nope. Director Randol Miller has assembled an amazing and talented cast, but he uses them on a disjointed script which never seems to find its focus."

FROM FILM.COM: "With the runaway success of Sideways you just know the general public is ripe for a good wine movie. Even better, the concept here (at first blush) is even better than Sideways and the filmmakers have gotten Alan Rickman involved too. So how did things go so terribly wrong? Well, they violated rule No. 1 of storytelling: they forgot what story they were trying to tell."

FROM PHILLY.COM: "Director and co-screenwriter Randall Miller insisted in a phone interview that Bottle Shock is "as close to the truth as possible."

 

In that case, the screenplay from June that I read must have undergone major surgery before shooting started in August. Even so, big chunks of truth apparently have been jettisoned for wider cinematic appeal, and an invented love triangle has been added."

I for one plan to withhold judgment until I see "BottleShock". What I do know is that one more film about wine is nothing but good for the wine industry in general. 

Wynton Marsalis & The Traditions of Wine

It occurred to me as I watched Wynton Marsalis' Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra offer a musical history of Duke Ellington's ballads that there is a distinct lack of exploration into wine's history and traditions here in America. Is this because there is no interest in such a thing, because there is no money in it or because there is very little tradition and history of American winemaking to warrant the effort?

Marsalis will certainly go down as one of this era's most important and most accomplished jazz musicians. But when his story is told, it will be his devotion to educating the masses on Jazz history and the traditions of jazz that mark him as among the most generous jazz musicians that ever lived. Marsalis brings a 14 piece orchestra across the country. Though the leader of this remarkable group, Marsalis is in no way the focal point of the group. Instead, he generously gives the spotlight to all the other members. More importantly, between each piece, Marsalis delivers short tales about the song just played and the next on the docket, providing the audience with something of an historical context for the evening's playbook. It is a wonderful experience for anyone with a curiosity about jazz traditions and history.

Does anyone care about the history and traditions of American wine?

Is anyone inclined to make a career, or even a practice, of celebrating the traditions and history of American wine? We have Copia in Napa Valley, but this not so much an organized effort to communicate the history of American wine as it is a celebration of culinary pursuits in general.

What might a celebration of American wine and its traditions look like? What could possibly be said?

-There is a distinct ethnic character to the history of wine in America that tells the story of what was brought to America with the Italian, German, French, English and Portuguese immigrants. In fact, some have pointed out that the various field blends planted throughout California can be separated out by the ethnicity of those who planted them; that is to say,  an Italian field blend would be different than a German field blend

-Social policy in America clearly could be explored through wine by looking at the response to Prohibition by winemakers across the country.

-The westward movement could be explored by looking at how vineyards moved across the country

-There are of course a number of individuals helped move forward the wine industry in America who are fascinating folks.

It's not as though there is nothing of substance and interest to look at when considering the history and traditions of American wine. I simply suspect there is no interest in making this effort by those that could do it well and little interest to boot by Americans in general in learning about the history and traditions of wine. There is, in short, no call for an evangelist for American wine.

This will change. But I think it will be a couple decades before there is room in American's minds and the kind of market to support an effort to educate and celebrate. I'm hoping I'm around to see this turn of events.

A Graphic Display of Wine

Logos!

Over the years we've done more than our fair share at Wark Communications. We're pretty good at it. The real key to creating a good logo is to understand perfectly the idea that a simple image is supposed to convey and who you are primarily going to be communicating to with the logo.

Why do I note this?

Well, your chance to prove your Wine-Related-Logo-Creation-Skills are upon you.

The venerable Wine Blogging Wednesday folks are having a logo design contest that will result in a new logo for the group. We don't know what the prizes might be yet, but consider it a challenge any good, self respecting, graphically inclined wine lover might want to pick up and run with.

To get you started, here are my "Thinking Tips" for your approach to logo creation:

1. Determine the top two ideas associated with the thing the logo will represent

2. Before you begin creating, play a series of word association games (words represent ideas)

3. Know how the logo will be used (will it be reduced in size in places, will be primarily in a 72dpi format)

4. Try to stay away from think fonts when creating an logo to be used on the Internet

5. The logo should have a color and black and white format

6. Try to present variations (The name spelled out, just the initials, black and white, color, vertical, horizontal)

I've never participated in Wine Blogging Wednesday because I don't review wines. However, I follow its results religiously as do numerous other folks. I also consider Wine Blogging Wednesday one of the most successful Internet-based group wine efforts every.

NOW....GO LOGO!!

Bloggerview #17: Thomas Pellechia

BLOGGERVIEW #17
Who: Thomas Pellechia
Blog: Vino Fictions
Where: http://www.vinofictions.blogspot.com/


This man produces some of the most lucid, well-written and well-informed wine content on the web. The bonus is that he's terribly opinionated. Thomas Pellechia has a background born for blogging. Winemaker, writer, wine salesperson. It's all there. His blog, VINOFICTION, is somewhat subversive to the cult of wine due mainly to Thomas' somewhat skeptical and cynical nature. Yet what you can count on is a very unique perspective on the issues that swirl about the wine industry. VINO FICTIONS is one of the few wine blogs That I actually place in browser's tool bar, making it always accessible immediately. That's precious real estate. But VINO FICTIONS deserves it.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?

I started the blog at the beginning of 2007. I got sick of the stuff I was reading on the wine forum sites. Too many people think opinions are facts and way too many people don't know the difference between the objective and the subjective. Plus,  the same subjects keep going around those sites, and the same misinformation, too, or maybe it's disinformation!

When it occurred to me that some forum moderators are gaming the participants, I decided to create my own outlet.

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
My aim is to impart information about wine and the wine industry. I know, that's only one sentence, but that's what happens to a columnist--be concise.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
I don't know. I only hope that I am meeting my goal to impart information. I do think that I offer a unique background among the bloggers; it includes commercial winemaking, owning and operating a winery, working as a distributor sales rep, owning and operating a wine retail shop, and a wine and food writing career.

The fact that I haven't the time to blog daily, gives me more time to think about what it is I want to say. I craft my entries as if they were going to be paid for, by a real editor. I try hard to make the entries readable, and maybe even lucidly thought out.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
I started with zero readers and I ended the first year averaging 6,000 hits a month. I have no idea if that means success, mediocrity or failure, but I characterize it as growth, especially since the numbers increased each month in 2007.

5. Do you accept sample for review?
We had this discussion on your blog a few weeks back. Right now, the wines that I talk about on my blog I buy at retail. Not that I don't accept samples--just that I'd rather be up front over who's paying for the wines that I talk about. Having said that, I must have pissed people off, because samples have diminished over the past year but, sadly, inane press releases have increased!

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
The only time I rate wine is when I serve as a judge at a competition. Then, the rating is technical and usually under the Amerine/UC Davis 20-point scale. Of course, to evaluate technically, one should have had at least some technical training.

Rating wine in a subjective realm makes no sense to me--anyone, trained or not, can do it. Over my lifetime, I've tasted many highly critically acclaimed and rated wines that  either failed or squeaked through a technical evaluation.

To me, the worse part about ratings is that the general consumer seems to think the numbers indicate a technical measure of quality, when of course that's not true. And I don't buy the disingenuous statements of critics who say that their descriptions are more important than the numbers they assign. If so, then why assign numbers at all?  The answer is that in the numbers game, there's an implication that a wine critic is the arbiter of subjective perfection, and whether they are gaming the geek or really believe they are the arbiters of perfection, I find each concept distasteful.

I've never understood the notion of "calibrating" my palate to someone else's and then tying a number to it. To me, the exploration is the fun part--my exploration, not someone else's. In truth,  I'm uncomfortable telling people what I subjectively like or dislike about a wine. I don't know why anyone should care what I like or don't like.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
I'm a writer, so I sit at the computer all day. When I take a break from whatever it is I am working on, I check my email, my blog, and other blogs, etc.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
Nothing specific. My name stays out there thanks to the three newspaper columns that I write, my magazine articles, my two books (I'm writing a third), and posting on blogs and other wine sites. It helps that I usually speak my mind. Anyone dumb enough to do that will definitely get free publicity, whether it's good or bad.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different than traditional wine writing for print?
Well, a blogger works on his or her own schedule. Although I am my toughest editor, there's no editor to answer to as a blogger, no deadline, no subject forced on the blogger, as well as no length and pace requirement--of course, there's no pay either...The other thing great about blogs is that people have a voice and we don't have to listen to only the self-ordained arbiters of taste.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
Well, let's see, there's that one called Fermentation and then Rockss and Fruit, Bigger Than Your Head, Good Grape, Diary of a Picky Eater, Wineanorak, The Wine Guy, Vinography, Asimov's blog, and some I can't think of right now. I don't post on all of them because I just don't have that much time.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
Truth is, I've never thought about it. I hope that we have. I hope we are better than the wine forum sites simply because we are each speaking from an individual perspective instead of hosting what often turns out to be a free-for-all pissing contest. I also hope we are making a positive impact on the wonderful world of communication.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
My blood and my sentiments are definitely geared toward the Mediterranean.  Both my parents were Italian, and I grew up in an insular Italian community in Brooklyn.
Having said that, I do love Paris and Trieste.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
My wife and I play host to a handsome black, large standard poodle named Henry, who thinks he's smarter than I just because he can type better. Our cat recently died and hasn't been replaced.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
The New Yorker, it's just about the only magazine that I read these days, although their fiction editor needs to know that the short stories are beginning to sound the same to me and the poems generally suck!

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
We own a Honda Civic Hybrid and a Subaru Outback. The Honda is for the frequent drives to New York City (300 miles one way) and the Subaru is to navigate our home turf--the Finger Lakes region.

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Chablis, so long as it is in the steely, minerally style.

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
This is the toughest question of all. I'm a food as well as wine loony, and my taste in each is spectacularly (for me) eclectic. I know that after choosing anything, I will wonder why I hadn't chosen something else. But if I really had to choose I might go for the following:

Start with cannelini bean (is that spelled right?) and escarole in broth with carrots, shallots, garlic and a touch of grated Grana Padano cheese.
The wine: a Friulian Pinot Bianco.

Soft shell crabs, lightly sauteed in butter, garlic and lemon, with a touch of cayenne, served with Portuguese style thin sliced fried potatoes.
The wine: a clean Chablis or maybe a Sancerre, but if the cayenne is too much, maybe a pink wine.

Arugula and Swiss chard with slices of sweet red pepper and oil cured Moroccan black olives, sprinkled with balsamic fig vinegar.
The wine: a Finger Lakes semi-dry or a German Auslese Riesling.

Espresso cheese cake.
The wine: Madeira Bual.

18. What is Heaven Like?
No deadlines, no responsibilities, no bureaucrats, no snow, and no insecure, wealthy wine geeks!

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've had this idea for years that I have yet to act on. I want to invite a group of people to dinner who have little or nothing in common; then, start the conversation and see what happens. With that in mind, my guests would be: William James, Dorothy Parker, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Clinton. I'll cook and I'll bring the wine, thank you very much!

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Get out of town. There isn't room for you and us. Seriously, a blogger, any writer, should find his or her voice and go with it, and always tell the truth as you know it. Also, it boosts credibility if you can spell.

Deconstructed Wine Reviews

So,  a certain percentage of those little advertisements we see on shelves of retailer outlets that we call "Shelf Talkers" are speaking with a forked tongue, according to the Washington Post.

This is not the first time this issue has come up. I recall a similar news story making the rounds a couple years ago.

In this case, the Washington post looked at 100 different shelf talkers and found that:

"Accuracy varied from shop to shop, but overall, 6 percent of the signs either advertised a score that was higher than the one the wine actually had received or invented a score for an unrated wine.Nineteen percent referred to a different vintage from that of the wine for sale. A vintage mismatch could be chalked up to sloppiness rather than deliberate misrepresentation, but it can be just as misleading. In our checks, the vintage available was usually unrated or had received a lower score, though there were occasions when the actual wine displayed had received a higher rating."

Before anyone extend this little bit of nastiness into a general discussion of the problem with the 100 point rating system it should be noted that just as much fraud could occur were there no such rating system.

That said, a 25% inaccuracy rate on in-store shelf talkers really has to be called a failure by any measure.

I've designed and had printed shelf talkers...more than I care to own up to. But I've never once put a score on them that the wine did not earn. That said, I have built shelf talkers that make use of the dreaded ELLIPSE (...)

Let me show you how that's done:

"Appealing...yellow apple, tropical fruit...Drink Now"

This is an "ellipsed" version of this review:

"85 Points—Simple yet appealing with yellow apple, tropical fruit and a touch of fruit cocktail. Drink now. Tasted twice with consistent notes"

Is this accurate? Yes. But barely. And this is not even the worst example of the use of an ellipse on a shelf talker or an advertisement. I'm proud to say I've not ever been convinced to go over the line.

However, this would be over the line...way over the line:

"The vineyard is a good one...Flavors of Blackberries and Cherries"

Unfortunately it could come from this review:

"82 Points—A troubling wine. The vineyard is a good one, but this Cab is hot and overly ripe, with stewed flavors of blackberries and cherries. There's a heaviness that doesn't work, especially at this price"

This is not a specific example of something I've seen before, but I have seen stuff just as bad.

The point of course is that an old review on a new wine might be bad, but it might not be the worst kind offense.

Sugar and the Mental Gymnastics of the Wine Drinker

I often wonder about the personal dynamics a person undergoes when their prejudices bump up against a reality that puts the lie to those prejudices. It turns out I find myself in just such a position. What I've found is that it's best to embrace one's convictions and let go of long held prejudices if peace of mind is one's goal.

The prejudice: Simple Palates and Novice Wine Drinkers Like their Wine Sweet. Experienced Palates and Dedicated Wine Lovers Like their Wines Dry.

The Reality: Ive discovered that of late, no matter when I'm in the mood for wine, I find myself reaching for something sweet. And not just a slightly sweet Zinfandel, but a really sweet ice wine or dessert wine; Sauternes, Late Harvest Zin, Semillon infected with Noble Rot. The list is long, but it's sweet.

I've found myself of late sipping Austrian Ice Wine and Sweet German Riesling as I go about my business in the office in the late afternoon. It is incredibly pleasant and has the additional bonus of usually being quite low in alcohol.

Yet on more than one occasion I've got this image of myself in my mind of an old lady sipping her afternoon sweet sherry. I don't particularly like that image, I think because it doesn't square with my long held opinion that I'm amongst the wine loving elite that drinks "serious" wine.

I wonder to what extent expectations of what it means to be a "wine drinker" weigh on those who may not consider themselves among the elite, but really do like their wine sweet. I wonder if these folks simply don't want to be associated with the "Sweet Palates" and Old Lady Sherry Drinkers and as a result turn to drinking beer or bourbon.

I've always viewed sweet wines not only as being for those who aren't "SERIOUS" wine drinkers but also as a "gateway wine" that can draw the uninitiated into the "Serious Wine Drinker" fold. In fact, whenever I open a sweet wine I make sure I give my kids a sip. My hope is they'll grow up with good thoughts about wine running around their head.

My solution to my own prejudicial contradictions is to embrace them. I will drink these damned sweet wines as much as I want and I'll do it with a smile on my face. And if anyone wants to call me less than serious about wine I can just as easily pour them a glass and dare them not to like it. Getting to this place in my mind actually took some mental gymnastics. But I got there with my self respect intact and with my superior attitude intact too.

I wonder however if that superior attitude that many serious wine drinkers have doesn't too often drift out into the world of would-be-wine-consumers and turn them off.

I think it must.

On to the next Ice Wine....

Provoking The Future of Wine Journalism

Of late (say the last 3 to 5 years) I noted something of slight detour in wine journalism. Rather than a dedication among wine journalists toward praising and congratulating wines as a rule, there is a slight move toward the secular and cynical when it comes to wine. But it's ever so slight and that's because among those who read most of the wine writings, there is not that much call for peering behind the color and taste of the wine.

Nevertheless, has anyone noticed the willingness among serious wine writers to question and closely consider what goes on in the world of wine and in the glass? We've always had those who place wine in a social and political context...at least one or two of them who write for a small audience. But today it seems more are willing to look at wine this way.

I'm not talking about reporting on scandal and society's underbelly, which often leaves me feeling a tad soiled upon reading this kind of story. I'm thinking about critiques of governing wine styles, open questioning of the critic's role in wine, the various business stories that count up the beans and the close investigations (usually in book form) of the "wine culture".

You don't write stories about  how a product is understood by people, critics and business unless unless that product has come to matter. Where that threshold is for how much a product or industry must matter to the public at large lies, I'm not sure. However, I do know we've crossed it when it comes to wine.

The Internet, with its blogs and chat rooms, will tend to cross that threshold more willingly than the traditional wine media if only because its members have less at stake and more concern to jump up and down shouting, "look at me!". In the last two weeks a variety of wine business stories broke out of the Internet and hit the traditional media. And in the recent past we've seen stories on how the character of wines have changed, why they should change back and what the international and globalist implications of wine might be.

I think the trend among the traditional wine media and the non-wine media is to continue to look for stories that have broader implications than just how a wine might be sumptuous or great to pair with lasagna, though this kind of writing will always rule the day.

I wonder if wineries have noticed this trend? And I wonder if their marketing and PR shops have noticed it too. If they haven't then there is the risk of acting as though no one is watching or as if very little matters to the public and media beyond what their wines taste like. That would be a mistake. But here's where the action and reaction comes in. We most certainly will see wine companies get into some tepid water now and again in the media. That will lead to wine companies being a bit more careful in how they act and speak. This will lead to the media peering in more closely. This will lead to even more searching journalism. This will lead to even more careful explanations by wineries of their company line.

This...in turn...offers opportunities to the winery that wants to gain attention by speaking honestly, forthrightly and provocatively...because it seems to me that wine writers, traditional and not-so-traditional are more frequently looking for "provocative."

Bloggerview #16: Jeff Lefevere

BLOGGERVIEW #16
Who: Jeff Lefevere
Blog: The Good Grape: A Wine Manifesto
Where: http://www.goodgrape.com

Jeff Lefevere's Blog, The Good Grape: A Wine Manifesto, is one of the GO TO sources of wine insight on the Internet. This is a man capable of taking complex technological, cultural and commercial ideas and interests and synthesizing them into something coherent and new and useful. That's hard work. The blog itself is beautiful to look at, which explains why he was awarded "Best Wine Blog Graphics" in the 2007 American Wine Blog Awards. What makes all this even more remarkable is that he is able to maintain a steady pace of blog entries. On top of this you'll see him delivering blog content to the Inertia's REthink Wine Blog, doing occasional podcasts over at WineCast as well as holding down a steady and important job at Inertia Beverage Group where he's striving to change the way wine is sold. How then to conclude an introduction to Jeff Lefevere? He's a man you should strive to know.

1. When did you begin blogging and why?
I started in January of 2006--a voice in the wilderness; writing as a creative outlet.  Wine was and is my main hobby and I wasn’t feeling creatively satisfied with my job at the time and blogging was a natural way for me to utilize my seldom used Journalism degree.  I had also pulled the plug on the possibility of opening a wine shop in Indianapolis and the agreement that I made with my wife was a free pass for time spent on the blog along with spending some completely discretionary money on a professional design for the site. 

2. In two sentences describe the focus of your wine blog.
Pragmatically idealistic, Good Grape is a wine blog and web site for wine enthusiasts, poets, artists, romantics, lovers, liberals and rock stars. Connoisseurs, collectors and the wine elite might be more comfortable elsewhere.

3. What sets your wine blog apart from the pack?
I take an op-ed or columnist style approach with much longer pieces then you generally see in a blog post—usually 600 – 1000 words.  I don’t necessarily take shots, but I definitely try to have an opinion in everything I write.  In terms of point of differentiation from others, I think my style of writing whereby I try to be accessible, but educational and in a thoughtful and creative manner separates Good Grape from the pack.  I also tend to focus on more marketing aspects of wine.  I’m not going to kill anybody with my in-depth knowledge of Bordeaux terroir, but I do think I have some insight on the industry from a consumer-facing perspective that is applicable to a wide audience.

As an example of how I think about my blog in terms of content, I recently read a USA Today article about the Scion car.  In this national newspaper was an article about how the Scion wasn’t going to market via traditional advertising, but they were going to do creative promotions to 17 – 34 year olds in urban environments.  This struck me because it was an inside out view of their marketing, in a general interest newspaper, on how they were going to approach hipsters in the city using non-traditional media.  That’s how I like to think of my blog and the way I write on things.  It’s the wine industry made transparent through my filter for a general audience with a natural curiosity.

4. How would you characterize the growth in your readership since beginning your blog?
Slow, but steady.  I grew in the beginning thanks to you pointing my site out on Fermentation and I received another big bump after the American Wine Blog awards.  I took another huge bump after Winebusiness.com highlighted the site.  It’s been very organic because my site isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, or glass of wine, so to speak.  I’ve been pretty steady at between 800 – 1400 people daily (I look at unique visitors, not hits) and I’d like to grow that to, perhaps, 3000 people a day this year.  In my mind, I want readers that subscribe to my feed.  I don’t care about showing up in a Google search from a random person.  Shameless plug:  If you read blogs in a feedreader and you don’t actively read Good Grape, please start today.  Now.  Thank you.

5. Do you accept sample for review?
I do.  And wine does occasionally show up on the doorstep.  I often wonder about the old newspaper guy that is tired of wine samples, but for me it is completely welcome—that does not, however, mean I review everything.  I’ve gotten some wacky schwag non-wine items sent to me unsolicited, as well.

6. What kind of wine rating/review system do you use and why?
I use an adapted Napa Valley College 25 point system that I then apply to the Wine blogosphere five star system.  I’ve found that this works the best for me because it allows me to empirically quantify my tasting notes (albeit on a subjective subject) which is good for the evolution of my palate and also lets any readers who are interested see what and how I tasted.  Plus, it offsets some of the deficiencies in the UC Davis 20 point scale.  If anybody is interested, they should check out the below link to a Wine Business Monthly article on the NVC format:
http://www.winebusiness.com/Html/MonthlyArticle.cfm?dataId=41491

Or, if anybody wants to email me, I can send them the source format for the tasting notes that I use and they can customize to their hearts content.

7. How do you fit the maintenance of your wine blog into your daily schedule?
Not very well.  I spend a lot of time blogging.  I tapered off in Nov. and Dec. and really realized how much enjoyable time and effort I spend on it.  I do it almost exclusively at night, instead of watching TV, but then, because I work out of a home office, I end up spending 14 hour days on the computer.

8. Have you utilized any particular techniques to successfully market your blog?
Not really.  I wish I had more time to work on this—it’s the classic dilemma of being too busy “working in my blog” and not being able to “work on my blog.”  Taking some shots across the bow with a controversial post helps occasionally, though.

9. In your view how, if at all, is blogging different from traditional wine writing for print?
Well, obviously the immediacy in the biggest thing.  I often times read the consumer magazines and see items that I wrote about, saw somebody else blog about or I read the press release when it first came out and by the time I see it in the magazine it’s old, old news.  In fact, in a lot of these news stories, the wine blogosphere has already thoroughly vetted the issue in the court of wine blogosphere public opinion and by the time you read it a second time in the magazine, the outcome to the news item is a self-evident truth.
The other thing is the legitimacy that wine blogger wine reviews are receiving as a proletariat counterpoint to the wine mags.  It is an interesting phenomenon that is only going to grow.  I came to that conclusion slowly, but I’ve definitely come around to a mental reconciliation of what I believe is the future of wine reviews and the number of people (bloggers) that will be influencers in this model.  The key is harnessing the bloggers together in some form that creates a collective legitimacy and transcends just Google searches--that is the hard part, though.

10. Which other wine blogs do you read regularly?
I keep track of 80 or 90 wine blogs, so I hit all of the good ones.  The two that have emerged over the course of the last year that I think are some of the best of the best are Rockss & Fruit by Lyle Fass and Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20.  They’ve already been featured on Bloggerviews, and both of them are clearly doing some darn fine blogging work to equal our industry titans—Fermentation, Vinography and Dr. Vino. Terry from Mondosopore also enchants me.  He doesn’t write about wine that much, at least not for being a wine blog, but the guy’s personality sparkles in his writing. 
In terms of an under the radar blog, I would recommend winecanine.com--I have to give a shout out to another Indianapolis wine blogger! Generally speaking, I think the wine blogosphere has gotten a lot more interesting in the last year.  Eric Asimov has a cabal of bloggers and a sphere of influence and I think Dr. Debs is doing the same thing with her Wine Book Club.  This is a good thing.

11. Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?
Absolutely!  Four things have really happened because of my blog that I think are incredible.  Mind you, two years ago, I was a technology sales and marketing guy in Indianapolis, IN that happened to like wine.  In that time, I have taken a job with a technology company in the wine industry based in Napa, CA.  I was nominated in the American Wine Blog awards for Best Overall Blog competing with Eric Asimov from the New York Times.  I received comments from Thomas Matthews, the Executive Editor from Wine Spectator on my blog and there is an icon and a blurb from my blog that has been in the front matter of Wine Business Monthly for the last two months.  To me, that’s incredible.  Let me remind you, I’m a wine enthusiast from Indianapolis, IN.   The power of blogging is amazing and is having a profound impact on both the industry and the culture of wine.

12. Vacation: Paris or the Caribbean?
It’s a vacation, right?  You’re supposed to relax and unwind?  For me that’s a beach, a book and a boat drink.

13. Pet: Dog or Cat?
Definitely a dog.  My wife and I are nutty dog people.  You know the wackos that leave their TV set on tuned to Animal Planet?  That's us.

14. Airplane Reading: New Yorker or People?
New Yorker.  I can’t stand the tabloids.  People please leave Britney alone.

15. Car: Prius or BMW?
Can I split the difference and say that I’d like to “Pimp my Ride” with a 1980’s Volvo 240 and put a bio-fuel engine in it?  It would belch vegetable oil on the highway and be decked out with XM satellite, DVD and GPS with some fine Corinthian leather.  Call it old school bohemian luxury, the perfect cross between a Prius and a BMW.

16. Chablis or California Chardonnay?
Chablis.  I used to say I didn’t mind a buttery chard, like them in fact, but that was before I drank a lot of un-oaked Chard.  Now, it is like licking a stick of butter to me. 

17. Describe what you would have at your last meal?
I’m from the Midwest and a pretty simple guy so it would have to be a Summer Harvest meal:
Caprese salad with fresh tomatoes from the garden or Farmer’s Market
T-bone steak on the grill cooked medium-rare
Corn on the cob (I’m from Indiana, people)
My Mom’s French fries
Coleslaw (I love coleslaw!)
Fresh steamed green beans studded with bacon
Macerated fresh peaches over vanilla ice cream
The wine would be Nebbiolo based Italian--either a Barbaresco or a Barolo with an Inniskillin Ice Wine for dessert

18. What is Heaven Like?
I think Henry Miller, Orson Welles and some of those other mid-20th century luminaries had it right by hanging out and living in Big Sur.  I’ve come closer to sensing God’s presence in Big Sur than in any church—and I went to Catholic school for 12 years.

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?
First, I would have to invite five people:  My Grandpa Lee, Lou Holtz, Michael Jordan, Frank Sinatra and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  My Grandpa because I would want him to see what kind of man I grew up to be and I would want to spend just one more bit of time with him. Lou Holtz because he’s a personal hero (and former national championship winning coach at Notre Dame!). Michael Jordan to talk about how greatness doesn’t necessarily have to do with pure God-given ability and to talk about the shot he hit over Craig Ehlo to beat the Cav’s in an elimination game in the playoffs in 1989.  Frank Sinatra would pepper the conversation with stories of carousing with the Rat Pack. I’d want FDR to talk about the New Deal and how it changed the face of the country, with an impact that we still feel today.  Plus, Roosevelt and my Grandpa, a member of the Greatest Generation, could talk about old times.

20. What advice would you give to someone considering starting a wine blog?
Either read an absolute ton of everything or read absolutely nothing--be media obsessive or media abstinent.  I think blogs are best when they are a jambalaya of ideas formed in new ways from disparate parts, or completely original without outside influence.  I happen to fall into the media obsessive category, by the way.