Jun 14, 2006
I think it’s pretty clear that Eric Asimov likes his job. Read this evocative description of the Bollinger 1970 Vielles Vignes Champagne he tasted at the House of Bollinger from his most recent column in the New York Times: “It was sedate for a Champagne, the bubbles soft and delicate, the color golden, bordering on amber. It was bone dry and quiet at first, but with a little air, it took on richness. It was still lively, graceful yet intense,…
Jun 12, 2006
I can recall the era when the emergence of a new wine growing region, while somewhat exciting, was also met with a bit of skepticism by the wine trade and the hard core consumer. The issue was 1) can the new area producing anything of merit and is there any talent making wine in the region. It was also the case that getting out the word on wines from an emerging region was also a difficult task. The wine media…
Jun 9, 2006
From the "Be Careful What You Say" File: Decanter reports that a maker of Portuguese wine Vida Nova was provoked by his host on a British TV show to denounce his own wine as "That’s rubbish. I wouldn’t pay for that, it’s tainted, it’s insipid. It tastes like vinaigrette. I’d never buy that." Ouch. Of course it was a blind tasting. The winemaker, Cliff Richard, should have known better. But what’s more interesting is how this episode in self emulation…
Jun 9, 2006
TEN THING…To Do To Get A High Caliber Wine Education 1. Get a job at a serious wine shop like K&L Wine Merchants or Zachys 2. Work in the Cellar at Robert Mondavi or Simi in the 1970s or 1980s 3. Agree to be Kermit Lynch’s Valet 4. Read the ten fattest wine books by English writers written in the past 20 years 5. Sell wine for a distributor in San Francisco or New York for 10 years 6. Spend…
Jun 8, 2006
It goes by various names: "Data Sheet", "Tech Sheet", "Product Page". Whatever it is or should be called it is the single most common piece of marketing material I’ve created in 15 years of wine marketing and public relations. I hesitate to even guess at the number. Yet, each one, while different, is the same. The "Data Sheet" is, simply, a description of a wine used generally to give background on the product to a winery’s distributors, sales people, restaurants,…