Jan 6, 2009
I count it as my first great discovery of 2009: "Culture". The first magazine devoted entirely to cheese. Well, maybe it's not the first ever, but it's the first I've ever seen. "Culture" is glossy, well designed, staffed with some great writers, and strikes what I think is a wonderful balance between educating its readers and feeding the obsession of cheese enthusiasts. It is also a sign of the times. I started noticing the increased interest in cheese in…
Jan 5, 2009
I learned something about subliminal manipulation of consumers recently while reading Parade Magazine. What I learned didn't surprise me. A study has show that if you play French music in a grocery store's wine department, folks buy more French wine. If you play German music they buy more German wine: "In one experiment over a two-week period, British researchers played either accordion-heavy French music or a German brass band over the speakers of the wine section inside a large supermarket….
Dec 27, 2008
Regarding the apparent problems the French Champagne houses are having this year, I feel like I've done my fair share. Though domestic sparkling wine producers will be happier with my efforts, I do currently have a decent number of recently purchased bottles of Champagne. The point is that I'm not to blame for the woes afflicting Reims and its surroundings. So now that my culpability is out of the way, I need to turn to something in this article that…
Dec 16, 2008
I think the development of the direct shipping channel is still in its early stages. I think a great number of changes will come to this channel. Issues of access, technology, legality and logistics are still in flux. The profit upside for committed and smart players in the business of direct shipping of wine is pretty big, be they wineries, logistics companies, service providers or tech companies. And I think that 2009 will be an important year in the development…
Dec 12, 2008
It doesn't seem unlikely that the American economy will see another 1.5 million jobs lost between November and February. Ten percent unemployment by late 2009 isn't a fantasy. Credit is about as easy to come by as a California-made Albarino. I'm betting that 2009 will be the first time since 1992 that total gallons of wine consumed in America will decrease from the year before. And it won't be a small drop in consumption, either. So, what's a new, tastingroom-less…