Archive for the ‘Wine Consumers’ Category

Jun 8, 2013

Top 10 Things I learned at the Wine Bloggers Conference

My sixth Wine Bloggers Conference was approached with trepidation. I’ve been questioning the utility of the semantics of “blogger” and “wine blogger” of late. Also, I knew nothing of Penticton, British Columbia. Finally, very few of my closer blogging-friends and colleagues would be in attendance. The format was the same. Bring together “wine bloggers” in a wine region to discover that region, learn about wines from other parts of the world, explore their wine writing avocation amongst their peers and…

Jun 4, 2013

Marketing Confusion: AVAs and the Question of Terroir

Winemaker Matt Dees and his colleagues at Goodland Wines in Santa Barbara, California have chosen to take a remarkable step: They have decided to purposely confuse the wine consumer in order to try to enlighten them. It’s a peculiar approach to education of which I am not completely familiar. Here’s what’s happening: At Goodland Wines, individual bottlings don’t carry the name of the varietal. They only carry the name of the AVA or “appellation” from which the grapes were grown…

May 24, 2013

WINE IDEAS—What if, Imagine, If Only

• What if restaurants provided their customers with $0.10, one-ounce pours of wine immediately upon seating and changed up the wine every evening? • Imagine if there were an annual, televised, celebrated national wine competition. • If only the states put consumers first before satisfying the interests of the largest campaign competitors when it came to alcohol laws and regulations. • What if winery tasting rooms took photos of all their patrons in a “CHEERS!” pose and provided them with…

May 15, 2013

The Impact of Proposed Lower Blood Alcohol Content Levels on Wine Lovers

Yesterday the National Transportation Safety Board recommended lowering the legal blood alcohol level for drivers from .08 to .05, which would put the U.S. (or any states that adopted the new, lower level) in line with the standard for much of the rest of the world. The question is what impact would this change have on wine drinkers? What impact would it have on the level of fatalities caused by drunk drivers? HOW MUCH COULD YOU DRINK?Look at any of…

May 15, 2013

Sifting Through the Wine Media: A Slog With Rewards

I’m regularly evaluating the value and utility of the food and wine media (all of it) as a function of my career as a wine publicist and on behalf of clients. Also, the sixth annual Wine Bloggers Conference is coming up soon in June. The Wine Blog Awards finalists will also be announced soon. Finally, I recently learned that no one reads wine blogs anymore. So, you’ll understand why I have been recently thinking a bit more seriously about the…