Archive for the ‘Must Read’ Category

May 18, 2017

Wine Wholesalers Announced that YOU Are the Enemy

  There is a simple way of determining in the wine industry and any other industry or situations, who your opponents are: Line up potential opponents and ask them what they oppose. It’s direct, simple and lacks provocation. Recently, the only national association of wine and spirit wholesalers provided a list of those things they oppose, making it a simple chore to determine if wine and spirit wholesalers are your opponents/enemy. At the recently concluded Wine & Spirit Wholesalers of…

Apr 20, 2017

Marijuana’s Impact on Wine Sale — Bad or Terrible?

If you make a living in the wine industry, how ought you feel about this headline: “A new study from OutCo and Monocle Research shows 51% of millennials in California will replace alcohol with marijuana.” Further down in the story that ran in the form of a press release we get this nugget: “Millennials will be more open to diversity in their consumption of recreational substances than older generations, with more than 50% of them substituting cannabis for alcohol altogether….

Mar 18, 2014

The Coming Repeal of the Three Tier System for Wine, Beer, and Spirits

When bribes are described as “the process” and when lawmakers admit they are happily in the pockets of alcohol wholesalers, it’s clear it’s time to change something. And everyone knows it: For the majority of alcohol beverage producers, it has become abundantly clear that single most important impediment to their continued success is the existence of the State-Mandated Three-Tier System (SMTTS) in state after state across the country. The artisan wine, beer and spirit producers know that a repeal of…

Mar 16, 2010

A Manifesto For Change In The Wine Industry

This blog reaches upwards of 25,000+ unique individuals monthly. Half of those work in or around the wine industry. This Manifesto is meant for them. If it leads to discussion, anger, contemplation or results—any of that would be a fine outcome. A MANIFESTO OF REFORM AND CHANGE TO THE WINE INDUSTRY Let us concede that as a culture early embedded with a mistrust of alcohol and with a history of such abusive practices surrounding the sale and use of alcohol…

Aug 21, 2009

The Meaning of “Wine Country Casual” Revealed

For almost 20 years now I’ve been reading (and writing) invitations to events that inform that the event’s dress code is “Wine Country Casual”. But there’s a problem with this: I don’t know exactly what “Wine Country Casual” means from a fashion perspective. All I know for sure about this mysterious dress code is that it instructs attendees to events that formality in their dress is not required. But in thinking about this dress code, I may have figured out…