Jun 19, 2006
Lest we forget that the wine industry is an agricultural industry, given to the whims of Mother Nature, the is now the 2006 Port vintage to consider. Apparently a storm that rushed through Portugal last Wednesday did extensive damage to what would have been the Port wine vineyards in that country. Initial reports had the loss in the neighborhood of 80% of the vines due to severe hail. Today the estimates of the loss and damage was said to be…
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
A Cautionary Tale What’s the impact of building a winery marketing strategy that relies on receiving only great scores and ratings from the most important wine critics? Consider this cautionary tale. A few years ago a very fine winemaker decides it’s time to make their own wines, rather than make someone else’s wine. So the winery is born. Well, actually they lease space at another winery to make about 400 cases of wine. They get fruit from great vineyards and…
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 14, 2006
Well, it is official. The trend toward cute labels has reached a climax. Here is a wine column out of Arizona that reviews and gives scores not only to the wines, but also to the wine labels that qualify as cute. There is something in me that creates something of an aversion to cute labels but I can’t quite lay my finger on the source of that dismissive attitude. By the way…Why not FIVE emus?