THE POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS OF THE WINE TRADE ARE NEARLY IDENTICALLY ALIGNED WITH THE POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL INTERESTS OF CONSUMERS. The wineries have Wine America, The Wine Institute and numerous other advocacy groups to look out for their interests. The retailers have the National Association of Wine Retailers, American Beverage Licensees and numerous other state-based organizations to look out for their interests. The Wholesalers have the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association as well as numerous state based wholesaler organizations…
Decanter Magazine and Jim’s Loire Blog, among others, has reported on the recommendation of a powerful group French of health advocates that the “Loi Evin” be liberally applied to wine information on the Internet. To translate, this group is suggesting that wine blogs, social media postings and other online outlets be banned from promoting, advertising or otherwise celebrating wine. Why? Because the French must protect their children from the disastrous impact of being exposed to the idea that Domaine de…
As he often does, wine scribe Joe Roberts wrote something relevant the other day. He explained that for those considering how they might make a name for themselves, for their writing and for their wine knowledge through publishing, this person should strongly consider SPECIALIZING. By this, Joe simply means it’s much easier to get the attention of potential readers if your authority and wine writing revolves around a specific subject within the wine niche, rather than trying to publish information…
My sixth Wine Bloggers Conference was approached with trepidation. I’ve been questioning the utility of the semantics of “blogger” and “wine blogger” of late. Also, I knew nothing of Penticton, British Columbia. Finally, very few of my closer blogging-friends and colleagues would be in attendance. The format was the same. Bring together “wine bloggers” in a wine region to discover that region, learn about wines from other parts of the world, explore their wine writing avocation amongst their peers and…
Winemaker Matt Dees and his colleagues at Goodland Wines in Santa Barbara, California have chosen to take a remarkable step: They have decided to purposely confuse the wine consumer in order to try to enlighten them. It’s a peculiar approach to education of which I am not completely familiar. Here’s what’s happening: At Goodland Wines, individual bottlings don’t carry the name of the varietal. They only carry the name of the AVA or “appellation” from which the grapes were grown…
