Oct 25, 2007
We send out press releases at Wark Communications. Of late, many of them and for various clients. I don’t like press releases very much mainly because they are 1) impersonal and 2) even when the list of those folks you are sending them too is well vetted and well developed over time, it still feels like using a shotgun to blast a whole in the door when a simple knock will do. But to this feeling I have to add…
Jul 23, 2007
There’s a good deal of Hollywood Intrigue surrounding the cinematic interpretation of the famed Paris Tasting that put California on the maps. There are apparently now two rival productions in the works that will bring the story to movie theaters. "Bottle Shock" is set to go into production staring Alan Rickman as Steve Spurrier and Bill Pullman as Bo Barrett of Chateau Montelena while "Judgment of Paris" is the "official" film based on Jim Tabor’s book "The Judgment of Paris….
Jul 12, 2007
My take on it is that over the past two years there has been a building buzz in wine circles about whether or not the high alcohol, big, juicy, soft wines have run their course. I’m hearing more and more people take the "run its course" position. Even more have fessed up to really tiring of this style of wine that’s been building for the past decade and a half. I can’t help but wonder if this rising concern will…
Jul 5, 2007
The venerable wine industry trade publication Wines & Vines has announced its redesign of its website. And they did very nice job. For quite some time the W&V website was a bit chaotic. And that’s too bad because the publication does a great job of producing useful, insightful articles on everything wine. The new site features sections containing headlines, news briefs, columns, features and a calendar. Most of the information is generated by staff, rather than taken off the newswires…
May 29, 2007
So there I was, minding my own Memorial Day by the pool, reading an old copy of the New Yorker (1963: a story about the Clay/Jones fight at Madison Square Garden), when all of a sudden I poured a Cabernet down my throat that my wife put in front of me. The sun had just fallen below the tree line so the Rose had been put away. At first I was startled. "Hmmm….I’ve already had a single sip of this…