Roger Dial and the Convergence of Wine & Substance
Appellation America's founder has left the on-line publication. And it doesn't really matter why.
What matters is that the North American wine industry's most committed and dedicated voice for wine diversity in this hemisphere will no longer set the tone for the only substantial publishing vehicle dedicated to wine diversity in this hemisphere. It feels a little wrong.
A few years ago I was asked to come on board and help with the company's communications and public relations efforts. I thought about it, cleared my throat, and said, "ok!!". The decision took that long.
I don't know if Appellation America is currently the most substance driven wine publication on the Internet. But I think it is. And this little gift of substance to wine lovers and the North American wine industry is due entirely to Dial's vision. Consider the expertise he brought to the publication's editorial side: Berger, Goldfarb, Aspler, Daniel, Ensrud, Heald, Smith, Thompson, Colman, Elkjer, Danehower, Greggut, Murphy, etc, etc. You don't create a staff of writers like this in order to guarantee a continuous flow of content. You create this kind of staff to guarantee substance and authority. And that's exactly what happened under Dial's tenure.
Not too long ago I point readers to a two part essay penned by Dial that at the time I called "Required Reading". It remains such for anyone who works in the wine industry and anyone with a substantial interest in the future of the North American Wine Culture.
My hope is that Appellation America makes a Gazillion Dollars by continuing the editorial direction set by Roger Dial.
Roger was a true visionary and we were lucky to have him give such a great contribution to our industry.
For those of us who will be taking Appellation America forward post the Roger Dial era, I do not think there will be a loss of perspective to place driven thinking on diversity in wine. The mindset remains greatly in place and is the editorial and program direction going forward.
What will be changing is the more mundane issues of business management in the back office and establishment of viability through traditional income channels found in the publishing world.
There is no doubt Clark Smith is just as committed to finding that regional diversity Roger was so focused upon when undertaking a Best of Appellation evaluation.
We all look foward to a continuance of the vision defining regional or ‘place’ diversity.
I got a baseball cap from Appellation America with the company logo on it a few years ago for writing a grape profile. I wear it all the time and you’d be surprised at how many people ask me about it. The website contains some of the best information on grapes and regions beyond the major producer states.
Call me confused; isn’t ApAm a wine retailer with a very fancy (for wine) website with numerous articles, that almost makes it a magazine except that it’s still actually a wine retailer?
Jack
The wine sales was/is a revenue generating stream for ApAm. To my understanding, the main focus of the site has always been wine writing. That has been intended as its main product. Wine sales were brought later to generate revenue. How successful the wine sales arm was, is not something I know.
Appellation America discontinued its limited wine retail operations earlier in 2008 in favor of implementing a direct transfer to winery for retail sales operation under it’s Direct Marketing Partners Program.
It is a publisher and continuously creates editorial content to join with the complete database of North American wineries, appellations and grape varietals.
In addition it has undertaken the challenge to define the unique diverstity & differentiated characteristics of ‘place’ found within the 300+ AVA and political based appellations in North America under it’s Best of Appellation evaluation program headed by Clark Smith.
Appellation America discontinued its limited wine retail operations earlier in 2008 in favor of implementing a direct transfer to winery for retail sales operation under it’s Direct Marketing Partners Program.
It is a publisher and continuously creates editorial content to join with the complete database of North American wineries, appellations and grape varietals.
In addition it has undertaken the challenge to define the unique diverstity & differentiated characteristics of ‘place’ found within the 300+ AVA and political based appellations in North America under it’s Best of Appellation evaluation program headed by Clark Smith.
So, Appellation America is an example of “substance” in wine publishing. To me it looks like the same old thing with lots of conflicts of “substance” thrown in. They review wines that wineries pay them to review. There are purely promotional fluff articles about the wineries that pay them to review their wines. They are not forthcoming or transparent about these practices. They sell the wines they recommend. Looks a lot like the WS Restaurant Awards to me (but to date, less profitable.) If this is “substance” the industry could do with a little less of it. And, my guess, this is about to happen.
Mort:
With all due respect, you just aren’t looking close enough at what Appellation America is. In fact, all you’d have to do to demonstrate that your position is incorrect is see if there are any wines that have been recommended that they do not sell. In fact, it might be interesting to note that the vast majority of wines recommended or reviewed by AA have never been sold or promoted by AA. Furthermore, there is no publication anywhere or at anytime that has worked as hard to draw attention to the vast diversity of wines produced across the country in the various regions.
With all due respect…
Okay, is there a wine that Appellation America recommends that the winery did not pay them to review? I believe the answer is “no.” Is it possible that to encourage wineries to “pay to play” there might be a temptation to “liberally” recommend wines? I believe the answer is “yes.” Go to any appellation on their site and look at the “Best of Appellation.” Are these the best wines of that appellation or are the best wines from wineries that paid Appellation America to be reviewed? There is a difference.
Morton
I have had pieces published on ApAm which I originated. They were pieces that had relevance to my “beat” and they complemented the content of my site and of ApAm. Never was there any pay-to-play involved nor has there been any understanding that the piece was written to promote wine sales.
Oh my gosh, an interesting little piece about a b’ar in a vineyard (ahh) and a new $100 bottle of wine…and some nice pi’tures….and look to the right. Why there is a button and, gee, I think I can order the wine right now! What a co-inky-dink!
Larnin’ ’bout appellations is sure gettin’ easy with this binness model.
http://wine.appellationamerica.com/wine-review/648/Cakebread-bear.html
It is a sad day for the advocates of wine diversity and I also hope the publication continues to be such a committed voice. Regarding the business model and Arthur’s comment: take a closer look and you’ll see that Cakebread’s wine isn’t for sale. You’ll see ads for Napa Cab and Merlots or other Howell Mountain wines. Having worked to build Appellation America’s eCommerce portfolio, I can tell you editorial always came first at Appellation America.
Tell me Pascal, if you charge to have your wines reviewed and you require a certain level “participation” on the part of an appellation before you “Spotlight” the appellation with editorial…and you point out to wineries of that appellation they need to increase their “participation” in order to get AA’s focus and “Spotlight… when is the line crossed? Are you promoting an appellation or are you trying to profit from the established appellation?
I think the lesson here is to become important to the winery and important to the appellation before you attempt to strong arm them.
To Morton Leslie,
Morton,
I have a question to ask you that I’d rather ask without eating up Tom’s blog space, but I can’t find any way to reach you.
Would you email me a contact info for you?
[email protected]
Tom, as you probably know, I used to write for AppAm, and I believe those few articles are still on the site. I very much enjoyed working with Roger and Adam Dial, and sitting in on tastings with wine writers whom I have always admired–even drank Tequila (too much Tequila) with Thom Elkjer.
Sadly, I had to resign this year as a correspondent because of their change in policy. Where they once allowed their writers to choose, review and write as they pleased, I was told that now it was “pay to play” for reviews, and not only that, but writers would be told which regions to spotlight based on regional “participation.” I understand that AppAm has rent to pay, a crackerjack staff, and some great writers on the masthead, but I was very sorry to see it go in this direction.
Well, Mary, you answered the question I was going to ask Morton.
It’s always easy to make accusations. I wondered from what perspective Morton’s accusations were being made. The first-person perspective that you give over provides more valuable information.
That’s a shame that Adam Dial left. I really enjoyed that two-part essay you posted Tom. It took me forever to read, but it was clear and did a great job of breaking down the purchasing and marketing of wine.
While some of the writing on ApAm was good, even great, the web site never manifested anything close to a salient business model. From day one they spent a ton of money on acquiring content with very little to show for revenue in return. The idea of being a wine retailer was flawed from the start, not to mention poorly executed. The organization had a great mission, and one that I wholeheartedly support, but as their CEO said, they never figured out how to operate as anything other than a “charity for wine writers.”
In response to Roger King:
No winery has ever paid me to review a wine, or even solicited a review. I taste the mid-Atlantic wines on my own and review those with style and quality I want to let people know about. The wines of this region (NC, VA, GA) are increasingly stylish and appealing to drink. The best are fine accompaniments to food.
Appellation America pays (a very small amount) for each review, but I don’t do it for the money. Where else can we let people know about the exciting growth of regional wines? Precious few venues. I hope AppAm survives and continues to express the vision of Roger and Adam Dial.
In response to Roger King:
No winery has ever paid me to review a wine, or even solicited a review. I taste the mid-Atlantic wines on my own and review those with style and quality I want to let people know about. The wines of this region (NC, VA, GA) are increasingly stylish and appealing to drink. The best are fine accompaniments to food.
Appellation America pays (a very small amount) for each review, but I don’t do it for the money. Where else can we let people know about the exciting growth of regional wines? Precious few venues. I hope AppAm survives and continues to express the vision of Roger and Adam Dial.