Archive for the ‘Wine Legal Battles’ Category

Jan 5, 2007

Reducing the Absurdities of Wine By One

America’s system of appellations, known as American Viticultural Areas (AVA’s), is, I admit, problematic. In some cases it’s VERY problematic. All you have to do is look at the "central coast" or "Sonoma Coast" AVAs to understand this. While we have some fairly intriguing and terroir-based AVAs like Green Valley, Anderson Valley, Rockpile, Stag’s Leap District and Atlas Peak, they are, in most cases, lines drawn on a map that represent the desires of the marketing mined. Yet, given the…

Dec 28, 2006

“The Big Lie” About Virginia Wine

I read something Interesting Today: "The laws that underpin our alcohol controls established a three-tier system to eliminate corruption and chaos predominant before Prohibition. For more than 70 years, this system has served the nation well. What has been called an antiquated system and monopoly, by some, provides a broad selection of affordable products and an orderly market. This system should evolve, but citizens must be careful not to dismantle it solely for those with recently emerging business interests or…

Dec 26, 2006

A Primer on How Wineries Can Lose 25% of their Profit

If there are any wineries out there who are looking at the prospect of losing their right to self distribute their wines to retailers and restaurants, they should read THIS STORY about the impact of such a turn of events in Virginia. Wineries facing this possibility should also ask themselves:-How much of your profit margin should you give to wine distributors to do a job you can better? -Who is best at representing your wine: a commissioned based distributor sales…

Dec 22, 2006

A Revolutionary Time For Wine

The Wall Street Journal’s wine guides John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter produced a thought provoking year end article today on the state of wine and trends they see. Among their most interesting observations is this one: "The first isn’t about wine itself, but the selling of it. This is the most revolutionary time in wine retailing since the end of Prohibition. The combination of the rise of Internet sales and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down some laws concerning…

Dec 13, 2006

Keep The Port, Lose the Champagne

I think we can all agree that wine labels should not misrepresent what’s in the bottle by printing place names and appellations on them when none of the wine in the bottle came from that place or appellation. This is the position of The Center For Wine Origins, an organization begun by the vintners in Champagne, Portugal and Jerez, takes and promotes. In fact, just today they released a statement concerning the Federal Governments most recent pronouncements on the issue…