I opened a bottle of wine this weekend that had the word "Reserve" on the front label. The wine cost $9.00 It was unclear from anything written anywhere on the label just exactly what made this wine a "Reserve". I can tell you this: the quality of the wine certainly didn’t suggest this word on the label had any meaning. However, the experiences begs the point: what does, or should" the world reserve mean on a wine label? There is…

Creating an ad meant to be placed in the consumer wine magazines means you are creating an ad for two audiences: the dedicated wine consumer and the wine trade. It’s different than creating an ad for, say, Vanity Fair or People or Time Magazine. In fact, when you use Wine Spectator, Wine & Spirits Magazine, Wine Enthusiast, Wine News, etc. you really want an ad that will create an impression among retailers, restaurateurs and distributor sales people as much as…

“The government has promised more money, but this will not solve the problems in the long-term. There must be more protection for French wine producers on the domestic market,” "Wine is not the same as other commercial products like milk for example, wine changes from vineyard to vineyard, it reflects the field and the vine and the individual producer. It is not like that for some of these Australian firms,” And so, the French winemakers in the South riot. There…

Innovation. It’s synonymous with technology.And like any other industry, wine has latched on to new technologies to bring innovated change to nearly every aspect of the business. The internet has had an impact on just about  ever aspect of the business from sales and marketing to data collation to winemaking and cellar management. Innovation has come to the vineyard through biotechnology. Yet one place where innovation, or even new ideas, has pretty much been lacking is in the tasting room….