Archive for the ‘Wine Media’ Category
The Hosemaster of Wine, the wine industry’s real curmudgeon, believes it’s time for professional wine writers (Karen McNeil in Particular) to deliver to wine bloggers a very specific message: “You aren’t any good at what you do and you are unworthy of respect.” The Hosemaster imagines Karen McNeil addressing the coming Wine Bloggers Conference in this fashion: “Even if it is what you want to be, I’ve read most of the nominated and award-winning wine blogs, and you don’t have…
There are all sorts of examples of books that just keep appearing, edition after edition after edition. There are really only two ways of looking at this phenomenon: 1) The book is old hat, but they just keep putting it out because it’s well-known and that’s good enough for the publisher, or 2) The book remains among the best of its type. There is no fine line here. A book that is among the best of its type is easily…
The most consequential battles and issues for small, quality-oriented alcohol beverage producers are those having to do with the distribution and sales of their products. Whether the issue is self distribution for craft distillers, franchise laws for craft beer producers or direct shipping for smaller wineries, these are the consequential and important issues that will directly impact sales success. However, the most fascinating battles to watch are the “Word Wars”. The battle over word use and semantics that are primarily…
If one is going to hold forth on the important subject of authenticity in wine, success and utility demands an honest approach. Anything less courts a descent into ideological stridency or, worse, deception. It’s unfortunate that in her new book, “Natural Wine”, author Isabelle Legeron, MW, has provided readers with the most comprehensive example yet of the now familiar promotion of “Natural Wine” through dishonest discourse on this subject. It’s best with this kind of charge to get right to…
As far as I can tell, there is only one reason to understand the vocabulary of wine; those words and phrases that attempt to describe the experience of tasting a wine: To be able to communicate with others about the experience. Of course, that one reason is an important one since the idea of two wine lovers sitting across from each other and explaining why they like a particular wine by saying “because” isn’t really a sustainable conversation. In his…
