Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

It's (frog's) LEAP DAY!!!

Today is really a bonus, isn't it? I mean, is today an extra day? Are we living on granted time today it being Leap Day and all? I really can't figure it out. From what I understand, today—FEB 29—is added to the calender because we, as a people, choose to use poor mathematics in mapping out our calender. Today is like that little "R2" that that 1st graders use when learning division: Today accounts for the "remainder minutes" that are left over during the past 4 years.

Nevertheless and despite all that, It seem appropriate on this day to honor one of the cooler wineries in Northern California: FROG's LEAP.

There are a TON of things to like about Napa Valley's Frog's Leap besides their having the best label in the American wine industry. Among them:

1. Their wines are so well priced it's as though they never noticed that it's not 1990 any more.

2. They make an astoundingly good Rose.

3. Owner John Williams has presided over the creation of what might be the "greenest" winery in Napa Valley.

4. They are such die hard Giants fans they actually put the opening day on their events page on the web.

5. All their grapes are grown organically. I don't know if this accounts for the quality of their wines, but I do know it means they must pay much greater attention to the vineyard. That's a good thing.

In some respects Frog's Leap Winery is "old school" in that it has been around for over 25 years. So many wineries today are the toast of the town in part because they are new which means wineries like Frog's Leap don't get the attention they deserve. But today is there day. Today is Leap Day. In the wine business it really should be known as (Frog's) LEAP DAY.

Go visit their website. Buy a killer bottle of wine and celebrate this extra 24 hours you have been given by the time-keeping powers that be.

Very Quaffable Innovations

John Gavin, best known as the author of Quaffability Blog and popular web designer to the wineries is on a roll with two new and innovative websites that wine lovers probably should be aware of.

WEB TASTING ROOM

It's a video blog. It's a source of excellent deals. It's a message direct from the winemaker. What John has done here is create not just a web site the provides access to good deals on wines, but gives you much deeper insight than normal into who is behind the wine. One deal is offered at a time (right now it's an SB and Red blend from famed winemaker Mia Klein) that most often includes a fantastic deal on shipping. The current offered delivers two very rare wines with SHIPPING INCLUDED. In addition you not only get detailed info about the wine but a video interview with the winemaker. Pretty cool!

FREEWINESHIPPING.COM

While I like the WebTastingRoom concept, this particular website is the one I think will lead a number of folks to sign up for their mailing list and RSS Feed. John is regularly posting links to wineries and retailers who have a deal going that offers free shipping. How cool is that??? "Free Shipping" is the number one promotion that consumers want from wine sellers. Not 10% off. Not 20% off on a case. It's "free shipping" or its equivalent that is desired.  Gavin is searching the web and posting his finds, be they from wineries or retailers. If my wife finds out about this I'll need to raise my rates to Wark Communications clients.

Cheers to more very cool wine innovations on the web!!

The Implosion Begins!

Let me see if I have this right...

On the one hand, wine retailers across the United States are telling alcohol regulators in every state that they'd like to enhance their operating budgets by paying an annual fee to ship wine to consumers in those states. They'd like to help fill their state's coffers with funds resulting from the remittance of taxes on the wine they sell and ship to consumers in their state. These retailers would like to voluntarily submit themselves to the legal jurisdiction of a remote state as well as allow their books to be audited at the notice of the regulators.

On the other hand, the Wine & Spirit Wholesalers of America want alcohol regulators to commit a significant amount of their valuable time looking for an alleged band of adult wine lovers who are claimed to be committing the sin of buying wines they can't find in their own state, from a retailer in another state. Further, the WSWA wants these alcohol regulators to spend their valuable budgets looking for these supposed scofflaws in their own states as well as tracking down the alleged sellers in other states. Of course, wholesalers aren't mentioning that this would take significant time and resources away from actually carrying out the core mission of these alcohol regulators: making sure licensees in their state are following the law and attempting to assure licensees don't over-serve their drinking patrons.

Get More Money for their states and their budgets...VS...waste time protecting wholesaler profits???

Hmmmm? Tough one, isn't it.

Yet this is the silly suggestion that the head of the American wholesaler cartel actually made in the form of a press release today as well as in letters to Attorneys General, governors and alcohol regulators in 50 states.

In case anyone reading this has missed the point of the American Wholesaler Cartel, allow me to remind you: PREVENT AS MANY AMERICANS FROM ACCESSING ANY WINE UNLESS WHOLESALERS FIRST MAKE A PROFIT ON IT.

Damn the regulators and the efforts they make to maintain an orderly and safe market for wine and spirits. Damn the states and their need to raise revenue. Damn the consumers who only want to obtain the wines the wholesalers feel these folks don't need to have. JUST PROTECT OUR PROFITS.

I wonder if WSWA and the wholesalers ever tire of being ridiculed?

I don't think so. The American wholesaler cartel appears to never tire of having their face rubbed in it. They lose lawsuit after lawsuit. They get slapped down by the Supreme Court of the United States. They get caught in their misogynistic ways. Their arguments against direct shipping are put to bed with efficiency and ease by person after person. But none of this is enough for them it appears. Now, they whine like a little girl who just soiled their Sunday dress and run off crying to daddy asking him to put down his tools and stop doing his job, so he can clean the mess the little girl made all by herself.

If anyone is wondering, it's only going to get worse for the wholesaler cartel as they continue to spin out of all control.

But what I'm really wondering is who in their right mind at WSWA gave the approval to issue a press release that actually criticizes the the most powerful newspaper in the land merely for an offhand quip a wine writer made in its pages? Is there no one at the helm at WSWA? All they have to do is call me and I can recommend a number of fine PR professionals who will tell them the utter depth of stupidity that move represented. But allow me to recreate this act of stupidity...just as an object lesson in how not to run a communications program.

To quote from yesterday's WSWA press release that whines about the alleged "Illegal alcohol trafficking and open disregard for state liquor  laws":

"Wolf even cites a prominent New York Times wine writer openly sympathetic to the unregulated-shipping cause, who recently opened one column: “I have a confession to make.  I am a lawbreaker.”

Wrote Wolf in response to the remark: “That a newspaper of record would publish such comments in the clear light of day, we believe, ought to trouble any regulator, lawmaker or law enforcement official.”

Tell you what, if I ever recommend to one of Wark Communications' clients that they criticize the New York Times in a press release, please have someone come to my home, drag me out of bed and beat me senseless.

Finally, I fear I'm forced, out of the knowledge that my good readers love a bit of humor, to quote from the letter that WSWA's CEO Craig Wolf wrote and sent to alcohol regulators, the top law enforcement officials and the Governors (yes, the following quote actually ended up in a letter to GOVERNORS) in all fifty states:

"As you are well aware, the sidestepping of state-controlled alcohol distribution channels causes a host of negative effects—the inability to collect taxes, the absence of a face-to-face transaction that addresses myriad regulatory aims, and the very real possibility of introducing tainted or counterfeit product into your marketplace, to name but a few.”

Tainted Products? Now the American wholesalers are protecting us from tainted wine? I've got news for them. This is not 1926. No one is making tainted wine in a bathtub with grain alcohol and red food coloring, slapping a stopper in it and running it across the river to avoid Elliot Ness. And just when was the last time a wholesaler broke open a case of Opus or Dom Perignon or Russian River Valley Chardonnay to make sure it wasn't "Tainted"?

I think we may be witnessing the end of a long sad saga as the implosion begins.

Nominations for the 2008 Wine Blog Awards are Closed

The nomination period for the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards is now officially closed. The next step will be for a panel of judges to embark on an intensive review of the various blogs that were nominated and qualify for consideration in an effort to come up with 4 finalists in each category.

Be patient with the judging panel. This is not an easy process.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to nominate their favorite blogs in all the categories. My initial perusal of the nominations tells me that the competition will be very heated. There are numerous outstanding blogs that were nominated in every single category.

Again, Thank you for you participation in this part of the process.

3 Days of Nominating Remain in Wine Blog Awards

ONLY THREE DAYS REMAIN IN THE NOMINATING PROCESS FOR THE AMERICAN WINE BLOG AWARDS.

If there is a blog that you believe deserves to be considered to be one of the finalists in any of the 8 categories, it is important to nominate them. No wine blogs that have not been nominated will be considered by the judges as a finalist in any of the categories.

THE NOMINATION PROCESS ENDS ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27.

Is Your Favorite Blog Nominated???

Look over to the right to find the category in which you'd like to nominate a blog.

The State of The Wine Industry...Dan-Style

I missed the Unified Symposium this year, and I'm worse off for it. It's an important event.

However, I did read the news coming out of the Symposium about the state of my beloved California wine industry. All good news. All GREAT News! For example:

"Industry experts assessed the industry at the 2008 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento Jan. 30 with a dizzying array of charts, tables and graphs. The data show a healthy and thriving market for U.S. wines and the potential to capture an even greater market share"...wrote the folks over at Captial Press where agriculture reporting is the focus. In fact, this was the news reported out of the symposium just about everywhere.

Assessing all the various trend data and indicators to get an idea of the health of any industry is not an easy thing to do. Most of us are content to read the news and rely on our own observations. It's always nice to have the perspective of someone who knows the industry intimately, but doesn't have an interest in any particular part of the business.

Enter Dan Berger.

I know people who dismiss Dan's because they are opposed to his belief that too many wines made today are down right unpleasant because of their enormity that comes with a desire to grab scores and the customers who buy scores. Dismissing Dan Berger's opinion, however, is akin to dismissing the reporting of Bob Woodward because you were a Nixon fan.

Dan recently wrote an article for Appellation America that literally scrapes the smile off the Unified Symposium's Happy Face. In this article Dan points to a number of trends that give one pause:

31 percent of all wine sold in the United States last year was imported wine. This, in case you aren’t aware of it, is an all-time record. In 1986-87, imports reached nearly 1 bottle in 4, and if the current trend continues, it’ll soon be 1 bottle in 3."

...

"With Gallo, Constellation, Diageo, and Fosters now controlling a larger share of all wine production and sales than ever before, the consumers’ options have shrunk. The majors now call the shots in ways they didn’t until just recently."

...

"Fredrickson, publisher of the respected Gomberg Fredrickson Report, showed graphs and tables proving how healthy the U.S. wine economy was in 2006, with shipments up 2 percent from 2006 to 2007. All well and good, but his own data showed that sales of imports rose 9 percent last year."

...

"Except for rising sales of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, increases in sales of Riesling and rosé over the last few years, and a bit of enthusiasm for Pinot Gris/Grigio, little else is very encouraging."

This is a really important story that Dan Berger has written and it is recommended to anyone in the wine industry or anyone interested in the wine industry that craves perspective.

It's Time We Joined Together—The Open Wine Consortium

It is most often the case that single individuals are the cause of change or the inspiration for change in (and the evolution of) the wine industry. This is not unique to the wine business.

However, it must also be noted that associations, organizations and, yes, CONSORTIUMS can and have pushed issues forward, and caused significant change in this industry. The California Wine Institute, Family Winemakers of California, Wine America, AWARE (for those of you who remember this group), Specialty Wine Retailers Association, Coalition for Free Trade and Free the Grapes all represent groups that bring together like-thinking people to pursue change and have been successful in their efforts.

There is a new organization that is in its infancy, but which I believe possesses the potential to also bring significant change to the wine industry.

THE OPEN WINE CONSORTIUM is bringing together folks who embrace the change that technology in particular has wrought within the wine business and that it will continue to bring. As with all significant changes, these tech-driven changes in the wine industry has caused something of a fragmentation among those who both embrace the change and those who have at best only dabbled with the possibilities that new technologies can bring to sales, communications, publishing, and marketing in the wine business.

The OPEN WINE CONSORTIUM aspires to be the group that funnels disparate interests and technologies and people into a more cohesive and activist agent that can consolidate the changes and technologies into tools we all can use and understand to make winemaking, wine consuming and the wine business more efficient and vital.

IF YOU ARE IN OR ALONGSIDE THE WINE BUSINESS, IF YOU USE NEW TECHNOLOGIES TO COMMUNICATE, SELL, MARKET OR PRODUCE WINE, IF YOU HAVE NOTICED THAT THE WINE INDUSTRY AND THE CONSUMERS IT SERVES ARE DABBLING IN SIGNIFICANT, TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN TOOLS....

    ...THEN YOU SHOULD JOIN THE OPEN WINE CONSORTIUM.

Traditionally, organizations have embraced bureaucracy. The Open Wine Consortium will also, insofar as there will have to be directors, boards, committees and working groups to drive its initiatives. But understand too that just as the technology that drove this new Consortium into existence is in fact propelled by a 21st century notion of openness, so too will the Open Wine Consortium take on its chosen challenges with a philosophy of openness that is supported by the new technologies it hopes to harness for all to use and help further change the wine industry.

If this organization is successful, what we'll find are the traditional, more established elements of the wine industry—its associations, symposiums, businesses, conferences and people—adopting and approaching new technologies and new ways of thinking that will lead to more intimate ties between producer and consumers, quicker integration of open standards for data configuration, quicker embrace of the newly minted and tech driven wine companies and a wine industry more willing to embrace the changes that the broader culture has already dove into face first.

JOIN THE OPEN WINE CONSORTIUM

I'm Choosing to Torture the Kids...It's Only Fair.

It's a fair rule I think that on your birthday you get to do whatever you want...within reason and mostly within the law.

With that in mind, I'm choosing to torture my kids today.

No, I'm not going to force booze and wine down their throats. I'm going for the next best thing:

I'm dragging them to a Jazz Club in San Francisco. They could think of other things to do. But, they know the rules about birthdays.

There I'll pour booze and wine down my own throat and the kids will satisfy the two drink minimum via Shirley Temples, Roy Rodgers or whatever else the kids are drinking these days. But the best part is the great fun I'll have hanging with the wonderful wife and exposing the kids for the first time to the transporting and sublime nature of a real night club (sans smoke) where real jazz  is played.

While I can imagine there might be a few folks out there who take as kindly to this idea as some of them did to the idea of exposing my children to small sips of wine at a young age, I really can't imagine what would provoke me to care about this particular brand of NannyPrude.

That said, here's the plan. The wife has something planned for late in the afternoon that involves loading us all up in the car and heading south to San Francisco. That's followed by an outrageously good dinner at a fine SF steak house where I will closely study what is likely to be a 25 page wine list filled with esoterica and wines ranging in age from 3 to 30 and beyond. But first, it's important to start off with a Manhattan straight up. After all, a certain civilized approach is necessary before the gorging, isn't it?

I'll instruct the waiter not to trim any fat off my steak since that glint of fat attached to the scorched medium rare flesh is really what makes it all worth while. The creamed spinach will come in a fine, silver serving tray (is there a better way to expose kids to the joys of spinach?).

And I'll get to down my Manhattan, imbibe my fat-lined steak, indulge in the best (the only?) way spinach can be prepared, savor my old wine and watch my family carry out their purpose in life: make me smile.

Then it's off to Pearls to see the Collective West Jazz Band and spend an hour or so trying to explain to Trey and Hayley the difference between "Big Band", "Be Bop" and "West Coast Cool" and why jazz always sounds different and better in a club than on an iPod.

I'm not sure it's an altogether good thing to allow your kids to see you so fully pamper yourself. But their presence is necessary in this case. Ginny is used to and quite good and encouraging me, so I'm covered their.

Surprises. Manhattans. Great Wine. Fat-lined and marbled steak. A platter of creamed spinach. Jazz. More wine. Kids. Wife. Yep. Must be my birthday.

Nominating Blogs

Just so we are all clear, at this point in the progress of the American Wine Blog Awards, we are simply nominating blogs in a the eight categories. We are not voting on the winners.

Bottom line: At this point it doesn't matter how often a single blog is nominated for a particular award.

Just a reminder.

About the American Wine Blog Awards

Welcome to the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards

This is only the second year for the American Wine Blog Awards. They remain a vehicle for promoting the very best of what has become an extraordinarily important medium for communicating information and passions about wine. The idea is to highlight those exceptional efforts at communicating about wine through blogging.

The format is a simple one:
1. Nominations in 8 categories are taken from the public
2. A Judging Panel reviews the nominated blogs and choose 4 finalists in each category
3. The public votes for their favorite finalist in each category
4. The Judging Panel votes for their favorite finalist in each category
5. The public vote is given 70% weighting; the Judging Panel is given 30% weighting.

The American Wine Blog Awards were begun by me, Tom Wark, the proprietor of this wine blog (FERMENTATION) in 2007. A wine publicist of nearly 20 years, I've come to have  a great  deal of respect for those who write about wine for a living. Yet, that collection of people was always fairly small. With the advent of the blog, those who thought they had something of interest to communicate about wine grew tremendously. And though the new wine bloggers were not usually paid for their efforts, there were among them absolutely terrific minds and writers.

The hope is that through these awards and the awards process, many in the wine industry, publishing industry, many who consume wine information and those who publish traditional wine publications will come across the best of the wine blogging community.