Archive for the ‘Wine News’ Category
Amazon reports today that over the past three months it sold more "Kindle" e-books than it has hardcover books. Undoubtedly this announcement will make its way into future accounts of the transformation of publishing and reading. And undoubtedly wine books will, like books on every other subject, eventually be purchased primarily as electronic documents, rather than printed, tree-killing, ink-stained artifacts. But what interests me more is how long it will take for wine magazines to jump on the electronic bandwagon,…
The beer and wine wholesalers supporting H.R. 5034, a bill now in the House of Representatives that, if passed, would pave the way for direct shipping rights to be taken away and give wholesalers free reign to push through any number of discriminatory state laws that favor their business, have been relatively quiet in the news media about their attempt to take control of the alcohol distribution and sales industry via federal legislation. However, careful searches on the Internet do…
If putting the words "Sonoma County" on a wine label would help their wine sell faster or for higher prices, don't you think wineries would have already done so? I do. In fact, I know they would. But clearly many wineries that produce wines from grapes grown in the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma Valley, Alexander Valley, Sonoma Coast and elsewhere inside Sonoma County don't feel a need to place these fairly meaningless words on their labels. Yet…
Silicon Valley Bank, (SVB) one of the leading lenders to the wine industry, has released its "State of the Industry" report and is estimating that fine wine sales will increase this year by 8% to 12 percent. However, they warn that wineries selling bottles that cost $50 or more “will again find 2010 a difficult year." This is what I've been telling everyone: 2010 will indeed be substantially better than 2009. I don't have the financial data that SVB possesses…
The Sarah Palin Keynote Address at the Wine & Spirit Wholesalers of America Convention in Las Vegas earlier this week was highly anticipated. Many in the wine and spirits industry wanted to hear what the former Alaskan Governor and Republican Vice Presidential Candidate had to say on the issues facing the American beverage alcohol industry. How does she view the issue of minors access to alcohol? Would she take the wholesaler's view that direct shipment of wine to consumers was…
