Apr 15, 2009
My therapist told me once that it’s healthy for me to express my disappointment, my anger and my hurt, rather than bottling it up and being passive-aggressive. I used to have a hard time doing this. I used to turn the other cheek quite often or at least turn my back and walk away. I’ve gotten over that and now I’m able to express myself pretty thoroughly. For example: DEAR ANONYMOUS: SCREW YOU, YOU COWARDLY F*CK! DON’T TELL ME I…
Apr 9, 2009
I swear to Bacchus, I can't tell anymore if America's wine distributors are being obtuse, being facetious, or are just plain DUMB when they open their mouths and utter words about the business they are in. As reported in the April issue of Wine Business Monthly, at the recent 2009 Unified Wine & Grape Symposium seminar concerning direct shipping, Craig Wolf, president of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association, responded in the following way to the question of how smaller…
Apr 1, 2009
It's important for me to note that I endorse THIS in no way. THIS only minimizes the serious nature of wine and wine drinking. In fact, THIS purports to be humor, but in reality THIS is just another blow to the industry when the industry needs nothing like THIS. Is THIS really what people want to read? Only a few years ago THIS sort of thing would never fly. THIS would have been condemned. THIS really is harmful to a…
Mar 31, 2009
Today oral arguments will be heard in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on the most important wine shipping-related case currently moving through the federal Courts system. Siesta Village Market v. Perry challenges a complicated ruling in the lower Federal District Court of Texas over the issue of retailer-to-consumer wine shipments by out-of-state retailers to Texas residents. THE ORIGINS OF SIESTA VILLAGE MARKET V. PERRYSpecialty Wine Retailers Association originally filed suit against the state of Texas arguing…
Mar 23, 2009
The experiment known as "Prohibition" failed for one primary reason: The legal, law enforcement and regulatory means it used to promote its goals of curbing corruption and over consumption of alcohol so far exceeded what ordinary people thought reasonable that it actually promoted a disrespect for the law and with it even more corruption. The response to the failure of Prohibition, Repeal and the institution of a "three-tier system of alcohol distribution, has, ironically, failed for the same reasons. To…