Archive for the ‘Wine Business’ Category
DEAR MARIJUANA INDUSTRY: Whatever you do, don’t allow America’s alcohol wholesalers anywhere near your growing and soon-to-be-legal industry. As someone who has worked in the wine industry for over a quarter of a century, I can tell you with some assurance that the middlemen wholesalers who are today actively attempting to squirm their way between Marijuana growers and Marijuana retailers do not have your burgeoning industry’s interests at heart. Nor do they have any concern for the interests of marijuana…
Of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, who is the person best suited to promote and protect the interests of the American wine industry and American wine consumers? This was the interesting question the Wine Spectator tip-toed around in a recent article that examined the industry’s relationship with the Republican and Democratic national conventions. It’s worth a read, but it is also an article that brings up an important question: Is it even possible to choose a…
In an interesting interview with Spirits Business published yesterday the CEO of Drizly—the delivery service for booze—predicted that online sales of alcohol could reach between $7-$15 billion over the next few years. Drizly CEO Nick Rellas heads a business that allows consumers to order alcohol from local your retail outlets, then delivers the stuff to your door. What he did not say in the interview however is this: Mr. Rellas believes his customers ought to be banned from ordering and…
Someone is about to get screwed. If a winery in New York purchases grapes from a Napa Valley vineyard, has the Napa Valley grapes refrigerated and shipped to its winery in New York, then crushes, presses and ferments those Napa Valley grapes into a wine, then bottles that wine, can we reliably say that the wine is a “Napa Valley Wine”? The practical answer is definite. The philosophical answer is even more certain. Currently, the practical answer is that currently…
There is a move afoot in Sonoma County, as there is in Napa Valley, to put some sort of restrictions on winery marketing. As far as I can tell, the premise is that if we restrict how wineries can market and sell their wines there will be fewer visitors and this will impact wineries and county revenues in no way whatsoever. In theory. Among the activities that the No-Winery-In-My-Backyard-Crowd objects too in Sonoma County, as well as in Napa, is…
