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 10, 2008
My pilgrimage to Murray’s Cheese Shop in New York City was worth every minute it took to find a parking space in the vicinity. It was the one and only personal trek I made when in the city for two days last week. I can report back that Murray’s is indeed a shrine to smelly goodness. Besides wanting to see what a huge cheese counter looked like up close, I was mainly interested in learning more about the folks who…
Jan 9, 2008
The issue of direct shipping brings out the best and the worst in folks, no doubt about that. But I also think the Direct Shipping issue is the kind of topic that can demonstrate the power of online media and the power of blogs. First the good in people. Alder’s post on the Wine.com Stings has resulted in a remarkably coherent and well thought out set of comments on the issue. I can tell you that people are reading them…
Jan 8, 2008
Some of the most important work I’ve done over the past year has been with the Specialty Wine Retailers Association where I began acting as executive director in January 2007. In that year I’ve had the chance to testify in a number of states on the issue of direct shipping, work with some amazingly talented folks and even bear the brunt of some of the wholesalers’ more nasty and snide remarks. However, a good deal of that time was spent…