You  have to respect a man willing to toss away profit just to make his point. Alan Goldfarb, the must-read wine editor for the St. Helena Star, delivers the tale of Fred Franzia, the many that would throw mud in Napa Valley’s face. You may recall that Fred Franzia is the originator of 2-Buck Chuck and the owner of Napa Creek Winery. His Chuckie wines did just great, selling a gazzilion cases over at Trader Joes. But in the mean…

One of the real joys of my work is helping clients put together their Wine Club events. These are events, get-togethers, parties and such designed specifically for those wine lovers that have joined a winery’s club, those people who regularly buy wine vintage after vintage. They need to be treated like the special friends they are. COMEDY NIGHT IN THE CELLAR…WHAT A GREAT IDEAOne event we planned a couple years ago over at Mayo Family Winery and duplicated again this…

What looks to be nearly the entire Sonoma County organized wine community has come out against an upcoming ballot initiative here that would ban genetically modified organisms. While I’m sure there are some grapegrowers and winemakers in the County who support the ban, this collection of winery and grapegrowers against the ban is pretty impressive. Those organizations that have joined the fight against the ban include The Sonoma County Wineries Association, United Winegrowers of Sonoma County and the Sonoma County…

I went out and bought a copy of Sideways today to add to the collection. And what did I find in the box? A nice little promotion for Mondavi Coastal. Pretty smooth marketing move if you as me. It was just a little two sided card that had some wine trivia on it as well as descriptions of varietals. On the descriptions of varietals they describe Cabernet Sauvignon as being a "smooth" wine.  Smooth? Well, I suppose it could be…

AC Nielson reports that wines priced $11 and higher are up 19% the first three months of this year over the same time last year. Wines priced $7 to $11 are up 6%. And wines priced under $7 are up just under 2%. Pinot Noir sales are up….55% Syrah, Shiraz and Pinot Gris have all grown in the double digit range. What’s up? Associated Press writer Libby Quaid doesn’t quite lead her readers down that road beyond noting that the…