May 29, 2013
Up on the big screen we watch a scene in a movie where two parents sit at their kitchen table and discuss the dilemma of whether or not to purchase and move into a home that is said by many to be haunted. It’s a beautiful 100 year-old home in the New Hampshire countryside, away from the bustle and distractions of their current big city home, a perfect location in which to raise their son and daughter. They can afford…
May 22, 2013
Though I can’t say for sure, I’d bet that wine tasting room workers constitute the greatest number of “marketers” in any wine region in the country. I’d further hazard to guess that a good number of wine tasting room personnel have a desire to rise from the tasting room to a position that allows them to work in a more hard-core marketing environment in the wine industry. What is absolutely necessary to make this climb up the latter is education….
May 15, 2013
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…
Apr 5, 2013
Leave it to the University of California at Davis and to the school’s Dr. Linda Bisson and Dr. Lucy Joseph to give the dreaded Brettanomyces yeast a new lease on life in an era where clean and wholesome winemaking seems to be the desired norm. Brettanomyces (“Brett”) is commonly understood to be a defect when detectable in a wine. It is known as the organism that provides a wine a “barnyardy” (poop) aroma or, in what some would call its…
Apr 4, 2013
Anyone who lives in Napa Valley will be familiar with this experience: A friend or acquaintance from out-of-town calls, says they are coming to the Valley for a getaway or vacation and asks for recommendations on where to eat, where to taste wine and where to stay. It happens on a regular basis. In fact, it happens so often that I’ve actually put together a document that has a list of my personally recommended places to eat, drink and sleep…