Archive for the ‘Wine Business’ Category
The demise of the Mendocino County Winegrape and Wine Commission by a no confidence vote of its members is bad news for that region's industry. It also points to a perennial gulf that exists between the two fundamental elements of the supply side of the wine industry, growers and wineries, that is reliably difficult to bridge. In the case of the Mendocino County Winegrape and Wine Commission, a promotional organization founded in 2006, reports have it that when the membership…
I can make a pretty convincing case against the relevancy of the "Wine Blog" or "Wine Bloggers", particularly if I examine them from the context of an advertiser: 1. All but a few wine bloggers have the tiniest of readerships. 2. Those wine blogs that do appear to have more than a few readers rarely if ever validate their readership claims with reputable third party traffic measurement services 3. Determining on which blogs to advertise a client's product or service…
Napa Valley and Sonoma County are neighbors, separated largely by a mountain. From southern Napa Valley, from its mid point in Saint Helena and from Calistoga, you can get to the major cities in Sonoma County in half an hour or less. And yet, they remain worlds apart culturally. This point was driven home once again when I attended the Wine Spectator's Napa Valley "Big Bottle" Party at Tra Vigna in Saint Helena last Wedenesday. This annual affair, which is…
Friday, June 1 is the beginning of something very novel yet very old: a free market in liquor in Washington State. On Friday private businesses will be charged with retailing whiskey, gin, tequila, scotch and all other spirits in Washington State, an activity controlled exclusively by state government since the 1930's. What's very old act of a private company such as a liquor store or grocery store selling spirits to the public. What's novel is that it is happening in…
State alcohol regulators, the bureaucrats that enforce the liquor laws in each state, have had it tough over the past few years. Budgets have been cut to account for reduced revenue and debt, while at the same time new challenges have confronted the regulators from increased products in the market to new technologies that challenge existing regulatory structures. Two types of regulatory structures exist in the various states: The "Control State" and the "Open State". The primary difference is in…
