Nov 2, 2007
What is "reliable" information? This question might take on more significance when discussing matters of life or death, the value of your home or information upon which you are going to base business decisions. With regard to wine and our passion for the beverage I’m not sure it’s nearly as important. After all, if someone tells you, "This is the best wine in the universe" and it turns out not to be…big deal. But it still remains something we should…
Oct 31, 2007
Yeah, I’m in PR. A marketer. At heart, I’m a salesperson (hell, I once made a good living selling vacuum cleaners door to door). So I understand the importance of getting the consumer’s attention and setting yourself apart. I understand the idea of market segmentation. I understand the idea of looking at the market by age, by ethnicity, by geography and by mindset and catering a product or pitch to the difference that exist between the market’s segments. I understand…
Oct 29, 2007
Professional golf came to Sonoma Wine Country this week. Specifically, it came to Sonoma Valley in the form of the Champions Tour and Charles Schwab Cup at the Sonoma Golf Club. Jim Thorpe won for the second year in a row. So did the wineries. Based on what I saw of cars on the roads and from talking to a couple tasting room folks and owners, sales were way up at tasting rooms this week. It was a bit of…
Oct 16, 2007
I’ve been thinking about what makes "professional" ever since reading Ryan’s Post and the following comments over at Catavino. Ryan’s query was: "Does it make someone more of a professional if their (wine) reviews are only accessible through payment? Does the exchanging of money make a person’s opinion (what any review by anyone really is) worth more?" I’m not sure if the question is different if it’s applied merely to blogging vs. wine reviewing. I don’t think it is. Nonetheless,…
Oct 11, 2007
I’m not sure who’s responsible for determining which links to news stories are placed in WineBusiness.com’s Daily News Links that get sent to my e-mailbox and are read first think every morning. I think it might be Editor Cyril Penn. Today’s e-mail was interesting. The lead story..or link…was to this story: "Judge Blocks Effort to Use No-Match Letters To Fire Illegal Workers". The program blocked by the U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer is described this way in the article:"Under the…