Aug 29, 2006
My beautiful wife Ginny is set to leave me home with the kids (a dubious decision) tomorrow as she heads off for Burning Man for the 7th or 8th time. I’ve never been to Burning Man mainly because I’m not a big fan of the desert and dust. However, one year I considered going and creating the Desert Wine Cafe for the oenophile folk at the event. But my wife, a veteran, informed me it’s not really a wine-kinda-thing. I…
Aug 16, 2006
A few days ago I had the privilege of giving a short talk in front a number of wine industry types hosted by Inertia Beverage Group. The topic was "Blogs, Wine Blogs and Communication". A Texted Up version of that talk is reproduced below. BLOGS, WINE BLOGS & COMMUNICATIONS The ways by which we communicate to friends, family, colleagues and the market are expanding on a near daily basis. One particular form of communication that you need to be aware…
Aug 15, 2006
The Annual Family Winemakers of California San Francisco Tasting is set for Sunday August 20 (public tasting) and Monday August 21 (trade tasting). I’m going (for what must be the 10th year or so) but I have no idea how I’m going to navigate the more than 400 wineries that will be showing their wares. I have this discussion with myself every year. "Should I just wander down the rows?" "Should I seek out certain vintners?" I mean, we are…
Aug 14, 2006
Should wine bloggers and wine publicist/marketers get together…just to look each other in the eye and see what each other has to say and think? I started thinking about this after getting an email inviting me TO THIS CONFAB of fashion bloggers and fashion publicists. It’s a pretty good idea and something that has been bandied about here and there among other wine bloggers. But it seems like now and again we see stories in the blogosphere and in the…
Aug 2, 2006
What does one drink to celebrate scoring two tickets to see the great Oscar Peterson live? Happily, that’s my only real dilemma today. But, it does make one think about the nature of celebration and its natural connection to wine. I don’t know about many of you but I’ve often given serious consideration to exactly which wine to open for a particular celebration. I have many a friend who give somewhat deep thought to this issue. And we aren’t thinking…