Jan 23, 2008
So, a certain percentage of those little advertisements we see on shelves of retailer outlets that we call "Shelf Talkers" are speaking with a forked tongue, according to the Washington Post. This is not the first time this issue has come up. I recall a similar news story making the rounds a couple years ago. In this case, the Washington post looked at 100 different shelf talkers and found that: "Accuracy varied from shop to shop, but overall, 6 percent…
Jan 14, 2008
If I had a dollar for every time I heard a person say "If you don’t charge more for the wine they won’t take it seriously" I’d have enough money to fund a research project on why people believe the more expensive it is the better is. Of course no one does give me a dollar every time I hear such a thing so it’s a damn good thing we have the folks over at the California Institute of Technology…
Jan 10, 2008
There is a wildly subversive and subliminal quality to this story. The Office of Champagne, USA has issued a press release exalting the fact that "Belgian Customs authorities seized and destroyed a shipment of over 3,200 bottles of André sparkling wine. The shipment was seized at the port of Anvers, Belgium, on Tuesday." The Gallo-produced products were seized and destroyed because the wine carries the terms “California Champagne” and “André …
Jan 2, 2008
I love reading predictions, particularly those that come at the beginning of the year. They usually are very good recaps of those trends that flew just below the radar the year before. Laurie Daniel of the San Jose Mercury news has a nice set of predictions for the wine industry in 2008. They amount to higher prices on imports due to the weak dollar, the "greening" of the wine industry and more transparency in wine packaging and the emergence of…
Dec 12, 2007
Inspired by Paul Gregutt’s excellent story on the meaning of wine terms, I began fantasizing about being named the American Wine Czar and being given complete control over wine regulations in the United States. I’ve fantasized about this before but given the wonderful fantasy it is, the topic deserves an update. My first set of acts as the American Wine Czar are: THE OLD VINE" REGULATIONAny wine produced in the United States that carries the term "Old Vine" or "Ancient…