Taking the world one wine at a time.
One group of Riesling enthusiasts has set out to change the perception that all Riesling wines are sweet.In 2007, Dan Berger, Coke Roth and Jim Trezise assembled at a wine event and began to talk about the problem with Riesling. “Consumers walk into a store,” said Berger, a wine writer in Santa Rosa, Calif. “They liked the last Riesling they had, so they pick up a bottle, wondering if it’s dry or sweet. They can’t…
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According to reports, sales of English sparkling wine are set to hit 5 million bottles by 2015.There are almost 400 vineyards in the UK now, almost twice that of 10 years ago. “We have a unique terroir that makes English sparkling wine special. It’s more expensive to produce than Champagne, the cost of land is higher and yields are lower.” said Ridgeview winemaker Charlie Holland. “It’s a fallacy to say you can’t ripen grapes in…
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The inimitable Steve Heimoff certainly has a way with words. He recently wrote: Yesterday’s stunning news that more minority babies are being born in the U.S. than white babies, for the first time ever, has tremendous implications for the domestic wine industry. The problem, which in my opinion the wine industry has never wanted to admit much less deal with, is that wine is pretty much an upscale beverage for white people of European heritage….
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It’s taken me a little while to finally get around to reading the whole Silicon Bank 2012-2013 Wine Industry Report, and the only reason that I do so was that I stumbled across this article on the ShipCompliant.org blog. It reads: The historical metaphor of the “Fifth Column” is new to the world of wine marketing. As used by Rob McMillan and the authors of Silicon Valley Bank’s recent “State of the Wine Industry” report,…
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Does the wine industry really know what women want? Not according to writer Elin McCoy, as she wrote recently in an article on Bloomberg.com: According to the new “girly-wine” brand marketers, women wine drinkers want to be super-skinny, to toss their hair playfully as they choose their bottles to match moods, not foods. They also crave an easy-sipping flavor profile with a naughty edge of sweetness. In the past few years the wine world has…
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Paris auction firm Artcurial Briest–Poulain–F.Tajan has been selected to sell-off Champagne bottles that have spent the last 170 years in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic sea. The shipwreck and its cargo are the property of the Åland Islands (NB: don’t worry, I had to Google them as well). The origin and name of the schooner remains a mystery, although the Åland government is carrying out extensive research in order to piece together…
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Is an ability to taste wine come from our DNA? A new study has concluded that certain individuals are born with a heightened sensitivity that gives them the edge when it comes to tasting wine. “Wine Expertise Predicts Taste Phenotype,” by Profs. John Hayes and Gary Pickering separated over 300 participants into two groups—”wine experts,” (professionals in the wine industry), and regular consumers—and gave them a paper disk treated with drops of the…
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Quite easily the most frequent question I get asked is: “How can I find the wines you feature in your reviews/articles?” I wish I had a simple remedy to the problem, after-all it would make my life a whole lot easier……but I’m sorry to say I do not. Well, actually I do, but you’re probably not going to like the answer! In reality, the easiest way to get your hands on any of the wines…
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It was just announced this week that the long awaited movie The Billionaire’s Vinegar is to be released in cinemas this year. Will Smith bought the rights to the book as part of a Hollywood consortium and has been named as one of the producers. The New York Times has some guy named Brad Pitt listed in the Acting Credits.The movie is set to be directed by David Keopp, the screenwriter for such mediocre…
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Paul Mabray (owner of Vintank) writes in Palate Press: Why are wine iPhone and Android apps not succeeding when other niche apps like Foodspotting are doing so well? Over the last year and a half we have seen the most tragic case of inertia for wine apps, with many going out of business and most of the stars stagnating and wasting screen space on our phones. We watched as apps shot into the scene…
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The Governor has officially put herself on the “Most Wanted” list (at least as far as Californian wineries go), after she deemed all Californian wines to be “jug wines“. Gov. Chris Gregoire stated that there’s no competition as far as the quality of Washington’s wine goes. She really drove the point home when, recalling a trade mission to Europe in which someone asked her about California wine. Her blunt response was: “They make jug…
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News article taken from Eater.com The lead wine buyer for Costco, Annette Alvarez-Peters seemed to have a little trouble discerning the difference between wine and toilet paper, on the CNBC show “The Costco Craze: Inside The Warehouse Giant,” which aired a couple of nights ago. Here’s what she had to say: Alvarez-Peters: “Is it more special than clothing, is it more special than televisions? I don’t think so.”CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla: “Certainly it’s different than toilet…
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