The New Wine Review

Posted by Tom Wark on Jun 23, 2009

A WINE REVIEW

65% 2006 Mayo Family Winery Estate Bottled "Reserve Chardonnay—Sonoma Valley
35% 2006 Chateau Souverain Chardonnay—Alexander Valley

This blend of two Sonoma County Chardonnays combines to produce a striking, clear and brilliant deep straw color in the glass. The blend's aromas are dominated by stone fruit, including white peach and apricot, followed by distinct butterscotch and vanilla notes derived from oak aging. There is a rich, full bodied attack on the palate that leads into slight hints of citrus, but dominated again by peach and apricot flavors. The palate also detects attractive hints of sage. The finish is medium long. Though I'd like to see a bit more acid dance on the tongue, this blend works well and would be a lovely accompaniment to a goat cheese laced spinach salad with candied pecans. By bringing the Mayo Chard down to 60% and replacing the 5% with the winery's 2006 Ricci Vineyard Zinfandel (Russian River Valley), the new, slightly heftier blend would work well with grilled prawns with red pepper flakes. (blended and tasted June 22, 200)

Just how much control of brands will wine drinkers take over as the means to reach out to consumers (followers and friends) via social media expands? At what point to brand owners throw up their hands and hope this (see above) doesn't happen?

From a moral, ethical and practical standpoint there is absolutely nothing wrong with this kind of review. Yes, these products were produced with the idea that they would be consumed individually. But there is no requirement they be consumed that way and if you think about it, we alter the taste of wine when we pair it with different foods, when we age it and when we serve it at different temperatures. In each case we've individualized and taken control of the wine's character—to a degree. And of course, what real wine lover has never taken it upon themselves to make a little table blend with the remaining bits of wines on the table?

Of course what we have here is a legitimate mashup. It's the same sort that we see produced in the area of recorded music, web applications where data from different sources is combined, and video where a final product is created from various video sources. These mashups are very common now and almost always produced by aficionados of a medium who are not professionals. When completed it amounts to the creation of something entirely new built on scavenged materials.

The mashup, and this review of a blend of more than one wine, might drive home the point that once a product or idea is introduced into a world where it can be manipulated and observed and critiqued by millions and within seconds, a great deal of control of its meaning is lost. Who knows what will happen to it? Who knows what will be said about it. Who knows what will be made of it.

If you are the brand or product owner, you have very little to say on the matter until you are forced to react to the consequences of diminished brand and product control. But, we do have that "very little" that can be said. And that very little can be pretty powerful if it is said to the right people and through the right venues. And it is here, in this "very little" electronic passageway that a brand owner's most important interaction with social media tools is also most powerful.