Jun 14, 2006
The wine PR business has really changed. It is much harder to garner good press for your wine today than it was 15 years ago for one simple reason: There are a whole lot more excellent wines on the market and just as many new, compelling stories that need to be told. A good wine marketer or publicist better know what they are doing. This is the first in a series of looks inside the wine PR business. Or, better…
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,…
Apr 28, 2006
It should be clear to anyone who has paid close attention to the wine media over the past decade that the amount of good, entertaining and useful information available to consumers and the trade has exploded in quantity. Interestingly, it is on the Internet, not the print media, where the vast majority of that exploding information is coming from. This makes the evolution of the wine media different in no way from the rest of the media. There is a…
Apr 18, 2006
I’m a sucker for bomb throwers. That’s probably why I really liked reading Mike Steinberger’s article on Slate today entitled, "White Lies: Why Sauvignon Blanc is Overrated""Simply put, the grape (Sauvignon Blanc) is a dud, producing chirpy little wines wholly devoid of complexity and depth, the very qualities that make wine interesting and worth savoring. For years, this offensively inoffensive grape has escaped criticism while chardonnay and merlot have been scorned. The free ride ends here." Of course he’s wrong…
Apr 7, 2006
Everyone you talk to in Northern California can’t seem to get past the dismal weather we’ve been experiencing. Even yesterday’s momentary headfake by Mother Nature when the sun shone for an hour or two caused people to criticize the Great Mother rather than thank her for the momentary rays. Now the media is starting to talk about it. How could they not. We’ve had what seems to be a constantly grey sky now for nearly 40 days. The main concern…