Archive for the ‘Wine Business’ Category
What I've learned at the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference…So Far 1. The choice of Charlottesville for the location of the conference is an inspired one. Not only is it a town filled with gracious and proud folks, but it oozes history. And for a long-time student of American history, it's actually kind of difficult to explain the thrill to walk amongst that history. 2. Jancis Robinson, the first keynote speaker at the Conference, might be unique among practiced and established…
Why is it that when states and Congress consider laws and regulations concerning consumer access to wine, the actual consumers are never consulted? Producers are consulted. Restaurants are consulted. Regulators are consulted. And wholesalers are consulted. But never consumers of wine. Why? The reason is so remarkably simple: Wine Consumers don’t have a voice through which their interests can be communicated. Anyone who has ever dealt directly with issues of direct shipping of wine, wine in grocery stores, blue laws,…
When a relatively small group of businesses control an entire industry, something is broken. Yesterday the Specialty Wine Retailers Association (for whom I act as Executive Director) released a study entitled, "Toward Liquor Domination". The study details the more than $82 million alcohol wholesalers have spent on campaign contributions and federal lobbying over the past three election cycles. This amount dwarfs all of the state and federal campaign contributions and federal lobbying by wine stores, beer producers, spirit producers and…
Maryland is receiving applications for and issuing licenses to allow the direct shipment of wine. This was the big news last week and the result of a multi-year effort by wine consumers and their advocates in the state. And as of July 1, the following wineries have been issued or applied for licenses to ship direct to Marylanders: Black Ankle, Frederick County, Maryland Boordy Vineyards, Baltimore County, MarylandElk Run Vineyards, Carroll County, MarylandFar Eastern Shore Winery, Talbot County, MarylandFiore Winery, Harford…
In the course of commenting on a recent post, a Fermentation reader, Amy, made the following cogent comment: "Any writer who swallows a press release whole without investigation is not doing their job." It got me thinking about press releases related to the wine industry and the level of news they tend to contain. Here's the thing: Some press releases issued from wine-related sources have some degree of news. If it does, that nugget of news tends to be wrapped…
