Spam.

How open is the OpenWine Consortium? So open that it is becoming a popular community to post your profile and URLs - regardless how unrelated your business and web site are to wine. I take no pleasure in making this criticism. As one of the first admins of the community, I worked very hard to promote it because I believed in its potential. I believe in the OWC’s potential, but the community needs some TLC to realize that potential.

At the top of the list of what needs to be done, is active elimination of  the “spammy” profiles that increasingly pop up on the OWC. On the morning of February 9th, I reviewed the 63 most recently created OWC profiles (pages: one through three). Eleven are clearly bogus profiles and one is in the grey zone. Numerous others lack a bio, an “about” section or a link to a web site and their creators seem to be inactive.

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Pretty esoteric stuff.

The other night, I saw a Samuel Adams Beer commercial in which the brewery’s founder, Jim Koch, talks about the color of the glass used for his beer bottles. If that is not esoteric enough, he then goes on to say clear bottles can allow light to spoil beer and make it “skunky”. Wine buffs know he’s talking about the beer being “lightstruck”, but how many mainstream wine ads get down to this kind of nitty-gritty?

Why is it that Samuel Adams can take this kind of message to prime time audiences and a wine commercial will not dare delve into this kind of stuff? (more…)

Res ipsa loquitur

WineBusiness.com reports today that a class action filed in San Francisco last month claims BevMo raises the prices of the wines in their 5-cent sale so that in some cases, customers are paying more for the two bottles than they would at regular price.

From a business standpoint, this is a great way to make money. After all, value is perceived, right? All you need to seal the deal is an 88-point or higher rating from the wine critic hired to be as your in-house cellar master. (more…)

Boontling

While looking at the back label of a wine my wife received in one of her club shipments, I recently learned about Boontling - the obscure American English dialect which has 1,300 unique words and originated in the 1800s in Anderson Valley’s Boonville.

I’ve recently been speaking with a winemaker friend (not operating in the Central Coast) about improving the visibility and success of his brand. This made me think of one key fact: in a landscape where everyone makes as much noise about themselves as possible, being understated is going to present problems in one’s ability to compete. By extension, being conventional makes one prone to getting lost in the noise or being overshadowed by more distinct and unique branding. (more…)

According to Wine Industry Insight, wine sites and blogs based in California cannot advertise wine sales sites in the context of commission-based affiliate programs.

It appears, on first glance, that California-based bloggers and site operators would have to pull affiliate ad banners. This would adversely affect web site and blog owners who seek to monetize their content through this route.

It is not clear if this is an absolute, categorical ban or if site operators could acquire an ABC license of some sort.

No details on the ruling or the rationale or precedent behind it yet.

More to come…

Sulfide flaws.

Don’t you just hate it? You pop the cork on that bottle of wine you’ve been saving only to find that it’s corked or flawed in some other way.

That happened to me last night: I opened a 2005 single vineyard designated Chardonnay from Santa Maria Valley. Out of the glass came smells of onions, garlic and chives - the aromas of mercaptans. Like TCA taint, there is nothing I can do to make this $35 bottle of wine enjoyable. (more…)

A wide assortment.

Over the weekend, while listening to a discussion on CNN about the state and fate of the U.S. auto industry, I was struck by a parallel between that industry and the U.S. wine industry. Many new as well as long-established wineries offer a broad spectrum of varieties and blends. No matter if they grow all the varieties they bottle or if they purchase the fruit or bulk juice, the strategy seems to be to cover the market and satisfy the demands of all potential customers coming through the tasting room. (more…)