Archive for the ‘Wine Gossip’ Category

Mar 15, 2021

Will a Dollop of Gossip Help the Wine Industry?

After 30 years of work in a particular industry, one comes across some pretty interesting and titillating information. You witness and hear about a variety of incidents and circumstances that would provoke headshaking, surprise, shock and awe. The wine industry is no different. After years of working in this industry, I love I could relate the stories of: -The Sonoma winery owner who remains a gay man but still hides it by employing a strategy of dating an array of…

Dec 8, 2020

A Sip of Wine, A Mean Email, A Bad PR Move—An Ugly Tale

Wine PR Pro Tip: If a well-known and respected wine critic sends you a private message to express their disgust at the quality of your wine that they drank at a restaurant, don’t inform the world of the critic’s opinion. I don’t think I need to explain why promoting a private message of disgust with your product is a bad idea. Let’s just say it’s counterproductive where sales and reputation are concerned. This is surely the advice I would have…

Jul 29, 2019

Donald Trump, French Wine and the Task of Tying One’s Own Shoes

I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to mock the American president. One can disagree with a president. One can support an American president’s electoral defeat. One can urge others to oppose a president’s policies and initiatives. But mocking a president almost always seems imprudent and juvenile and destructive of democracy.  Or not. I’m a chauvinist. Why I’m a chauvinist I can’t say. Nevertheless, I’m almost always going to be inclined to come to the defense of the…

Feb 12, 2019

Good Wine New, Bad Wine News and Male Hair Buns

What do you want first? The good news or the bad news? OK. The good news is that Kentucky wine lovers may be on their way to getting their hands on the good stuff. The Kentucky Senate Licensing, Occupations and Administrative Regulations Committee yesterday approved a bill that would allow shipments to Kentucky from out of state wineries. This is legislation that the Wine Institute and Free the Grapes has been working on for a long time. Kentucky is one…

Dec 11, 2017

Judge Roy Moore’s Disturbing Relationship With Wine

Regular readers of FERMENTATION: The Daily Wine Blog know that I rarely weigh in on politics outside those that play themselves out in the wine industry. However, I feel compelled to weigh in now, if only because I have fresh information about an upcoming election. I have it on eyewitness authority that in 2001 Judge Roy Moore, candidate for an Alabama Senate seat, happily and enthusiastically opened and drank a 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon. Not only that, my source tells me…