Nov 4, 2010
The art of wine label design is widely practiced. And better by some than others. In almost every case, the primary question that is asked by the owners of a wine labels is this: Will it help me sell more wine? What's really interesting about label design is that the less wine a label is supposed to help sell, the more creative and idiosyncratic that label is likely to be. On the flip side, the more wine a label is…
Nov 3, 2010
I had the chance to meet with two pretty impressive wine minds this morning and an interesting topic emerged: How will the wine media in America portray the 2010 harvest/vintage in California/Napa/Sonoma? Will they take the proper perspective, talk to numerous vintners and growers, take account of the different pace of ripenng for different varieties and give a balanced perspective? Or will they undertake to paint with a brush so broad that upon speaking with one grower who described a…
Nov 2, 2010
Making the move from living in a Baseball-Fan-Martyrdom to the pinnacle of Baseball-Fan-Rewards is not an easy transition. It feels very much like when I went from lowly-Wine-PR-Guy-Who-Drinks-What-He-Can-Afford to working for a wine auction house where I realized I was actually the Lucky-Guy-Who-Tastes-Great-Wines-I'd-Only-Read-About-Before-and-Who-Tastes-Them-Regulatory-Now. It's disorienting and necessitates a re-adjustment in one's attitude. The appeal of martyrdom ("I've waited all my life for my Giants to win the World Series, and they keep letting me down, but one day…") is derived…
Oct 20, 2010
I like neatly ordered lists. I'm not a control freak, but I find a certain amount of order in all things to be comforting. Bringing order to the emerged world of wine blogs has been a topic of conversation with many of my PR colleagues. We only want to know what a blogger's audience size is, what they write about and, if possible, a little bit about the demographics of their audience. Is that too much to ask? In the…
Oct 18, 2010
Beer, spirits and wine compete with one another, as industries, for the nation's "Booze Market". What these three products have in common with one another are many. Fermentation. Alcohol as a component. Socializing as a byproduct. Differentiation based on taste. Highly regulated rules of sales, distribution and consumption. And…they also all have in common the primary effect of using them: inebriation. They are mind altering. So is Marijuana. And based on the polls I'm reading there is a high likelihood…