Mar 6, 2006
PROGRAM NOTE… It’s the first Monday of the Month and that can only mean it’s time for my monthly appearance on WineBiz 2.4 with Kaz and Erik. A great show on the wine business from a Sonoma perspective. I’ll be on to….well, to be on. I guess I’m considered a "guest commentator." You can listen in by heading over here to KSVY.or….THE VOICE OF SONOMA!! Kaz is one of Sonoma’s true originals. He’s a winery owner with an intense sense…
Mar 6, 2006
Alice Feiring has a blog! This is good news. While I don’t agree with her on a number of topics (she buys into the "Mondovino Line" and appears to believe biodynamic farming works), this woman can write!!! Feiring writes regularly for Time Magazine. She’s been published just about everywhere. She the kind of writer who would be the perfect "wine correspondent" for The New Yorker if they those doyens of coastal culture would cover wine. Feiring is opinionated, well-connected, a…
Mar 6, 2006
I’ve never actually met a "headline writer". I’ve met a professional obituary writer. But never a headline writer. It strikes me, however, that the headline writer might be the most important person in the media when it comes to establishing the conventional wisdom. Example 1: "Australians Lose Taste For Wine" Example 2: "Wine Sales Slip over Past Year" Same story, same media outlet. One true, one so completely off the target as to defy imagination. If you are browsing headlines,…
Mar 1, 2006
Paul Gregutt, a long-time wine writer based in Washington State has done what I think is a wonder service: described what happens on the inside of a wine competition. Most often consumers visit tasting rooms and see medals on the walls ands shelves touting a Gold Medal from this competition, a Silver Medal from that competition or a Best-of-Class from another competition. Yet rarely do we get to see how that medal was attained. Paul’s article describes the process the…
Feb 24, 2006
The future of Television is certainly linked to the Internet. Is the future of the wine blog linked to video. I encountered my first Video Wine Blog today, produced by the Wine Library, an Internet-based wine retailer. While its production value was not on par with what you might find on cable TV, Wine Library TV certainly demonstrates that the technology is here to exploit video via the Internet to educate people about wine (and sell more wine). We’ve discovered…