Feb 22, 2012
A billboard for Wodka Vodka placed in the Bronx, New York has a headline that reads as follows: "Escort Quality, Hooker Pricing" Yes….Really. Oddly, as you can see on the web page of the NY Daily News, the marketers of the vodka somehow found the gumption to try to sell their vodka in this extremely repulsive way, but couldn't quite get themselves to go the whole way and put a picture of an "Escort" on the billboard. This kind of…
Jan 25, 2012
Today in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman writes about the era of "average" being over: "Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius." He's correct, it seems to me. Looking just at the amazing tools now available to wine marketers that are ALSO FREE and you get…
Jan 23, 2012
I'm looking forward to reading the interview with Giuseppe Mascoli in the February issue of Drinks Business just so I can see how demeaning he can be and to determine how far out of the intellectual fringe he can sit when talking about "Natural Wine". In a story on Drinks Business that previewed the interview with Mr. Mascoli of Aubert & Mascoli we learn a number of things: 1. Non Natural wines will make you ill and cause you to…
Dec 13, 2011
As a publicist working in Northern California in the wine trade, there are certain things I come to vow never to do. While many have to do with my trade, others have to do with the result of working in Northern California and working in the Wine Trade. Those things I vow never to do, in no particular order: 1. COMPLAIN ABOUT DRINKING OR TASTING WINEI was reminded of why I never do this when today I saw a tweet…
Oct 17, 2011
As reported by Dr. Vino, California’s Sea Smoke Cellars out of Santa Rita Hills has placed the following wording on six of their 2009 vintage labels and on one 2008 Sparkling Wine label: “CALIFORNIA GRAND CRU” This is, in my mind, the most audacious packaging move I’ve ever seen a California wine ever make. According to the good Dr., Sea Smoke explained its unique new labeling message by referencing a March 2008 blog post at the WineSpectator.com in which Jim…