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Perhaps I should have read the New York Times before making my prediction yesterday that wine consumption would decrease as consumers gravitate to lower priced wines. As they published Wednesday, consumers are indeed selecting lower cost bottles but are purchasing more for about the same total dollar amount as a year ago. This bodes well for wine merchants and producers of lower priced “value wines” in the $10-15 price range. It seems consumers are more comfortable with three $15 bottles than one $50 bottle.

The piece speculates on the reasons for this but I think it’s likely that people have stopped going to restaurants and are cooking more of their meals at home. It’s good to see wine being thought of as an affordable luxury even if consumers are trading down in price.

So I could be half-wrong about that last prediction I really hope I am.

Original post by Tim

The clever people over at Google have identified an apparently growing problem of emailing while intoxicated (EWI) and have taken steps to prevent it. The new “Mail Goggles” feature of their free email service challenges the user to 5 math problems before sending an email after hours. The user is in full control of which hours they want to designate and you don’t have to opt-in to this unique service. This should cut down on those drunk emails that seem like a good idea at the time but usually aren’t.

Although it will likely not catch drunk mathematicians, others who have a problem in this area will be well served. You know who you are

Read all about it on Google’s Gmail blog.

Original post by Tim

As reported by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, Amazon.com will begin to sell wine in a just few weeks here in the U.S. The announcement came from The Napa Valley Vintners association and not directly from Amazon. Also reported was that New Vine Logisitics will be Amazon’s shipping partner when they go live.

Rumors have been circulating for some time that Amazon would enter the market but most observers thought they would concentrate on high volume brands. But the Amazon head wine buyer was on the floor checking out wines at the recent Family Winemakers of California and I have spoken with several smaller wineries who have been in discussions with them.

As I posted back in March, I think his is the most signifiant development in wine distribution since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. And Amazon’s actions in the past 6 months have validated my hypothesis that medium to small wineries are their target. Their decision to work with regional wine associations is a good one from an industry relations, recruitment and PR point of view. I don’t think it was an accident the announcement came from the Napa Valley Vintners and think we’ll see announcements from other winery associations before Amazon formally launches their wine business later this month or in early October.

This is a great development for both wineries looking for online distribution and for consumers looking for small production, artisan wines. I expect the shipping fees to be reasonable like Amazon does for all their other products but their Prime service will be a must for serious wine lovers. For $79 a year, you get free shipping on all purchases with second day delivery. No word on if that speed will be honored for wine but if it’s just free ground shipping for wine, that will be huge for sales. With increasing fuel costs, shipping is becoming a real problem for wineries as it adds significantly to their customer price. If this is a non-issue, then wineries stand to benefit greatly from what Amazon if offering.

This is not good news for other online wine retailers who do not have the deep pockets to cover the significant shipping costs or the economies of scale that Amazon has. But I still think there will be a place for niche e-tailers like domaine547 and wine marketing sites like woot and The Wine Spies.

I think this is the biggest wine story of the year and will be blogging about what this means for wine marketing over at my company blog.

Cheers to Amazon and welcome to the wine business.

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Original post by Tim

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Original post by Tim

As I’ve blogged here many times, I think wineries who are not involved in social media are missing something important. Not only is it less expensive than more traditional outreach, the results are often better from a brand and customer loyalty point of view. What social media gives you is that personal connection with the customer online, like you get in the tasting room.

So I’m going to talk about how wineries can take advantage of blogs, podcasts, wiki’s and social networks on my next trip to California later this month. Although there will be some slides involved, this will not be “death-by-Powerpoint” but an interactive talk in the vein of BarCamp. It’s open to anyone who whats to learn more about social media or who wants to share their learnings. I will prepare about 40 minutes of material and see what develops as we talk about this topic.

If you are interested in attending, just head over to my company wiki and add your name and winery or company. If you no hable wiki then just send me an email at acanmedia (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll add you to the list.

The seminar will be held from 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29th at the Sonoma Wine Library in Healdsburg, CA. Here’s a map to the location. Special thanks to Patrick from Iridesse who arranged to get the room reserved and Josh from Pinotblogger for his advice.

Hope to see you there so who’s with me?

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Original post by Tim

PLEASE SEE UPDATE BELOW FOR BREAKING NEWS

After several days of investigation, including sophisticated reverse IP address lookups, I have confirmed that Lenn Thompson, founder and editor of LENNDEVOURS, is the head writer of the satirical wine blog Wine-ing 2.0. The true author(s) of this blog have been sought for the past week by wine bloggers on Twitter who previously suspected Randy Hall from Wine Biz Radio, MonkuWino from One Wine Per Week and St. Vini from The Zinquisition.

It was also confirmed that Lenn writes most of the posts for all three blog authors but his main persona is “Over Oaked”, a broadside at California wine. Deeper investigation also revealed that the most biting commentary from author “Over Extracted” is actually penned by LENNDEVOURS contributor Jamie Gabrini with much editing from Mr. Thompson.

Even yesterday on IM, Lenn denied having anything to do with Wine-ing 2.0 but an IP address sniffed on the site led back to Thompson’s Long Island home proving he was not enough of a geek to use a Tor server when posting to his clandestine blog.

Now that this mystery is solved, and the American Wine Blog Awards are behind us, it is not clear what wine bloggers will complain about on Twitter. But something will likely emerge in coming days. Stay tuned…

UPDATE: New information has come to light which has confirmed Lenn Thompson is NOT the author of the satirical wine blog Wine-ing 2.0.

I received word from my forensic data researcher that the data packets traced back to Mr. Thompson’s home actually came from a proxy server in Chicago.

I also got a call from Mr. Thompson’s wife, Nena, who said, “…he barely has time to write at LENNDEVOURS, so I’m sure he’s not wasting any time on this Wine-ing foolishness.”

I apologize to Mr. Thompson for any problems this story may have caused for him and will continue my investigation to uncover the true author(s) of Wine-ing 2.0.

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Original post by Tim

After several days of investigation, including sophisticated reverse IP address lookups, I have confirmed that Lenn Thompson, founder and editor of LENNDEVOURS, is the head writer of the satirical wine blog Wine-ing 2.0. The true author(s) of this blog have been sought for the past week by wine bloggers on Twitter who previously suspected Randy Hall from Wine Biz Radio, MonkuWino from One Wine Per Week and St. Vini from The Zinquisition.

It was also confirmed that Lenn writes most of the posts for all three blog authors but his main persona is “Over Oaked”, a broadside at California wine. Deeper investigation also revealed that the most biting commentary from author “Over Extracted” is actually penned by LENNDEVOURS contributor Jamie Gabrini with much editing from Mr. Thompson.

Even yesterday on IM, Lenn denied having anything to do with Wine-ing 2.0 but an IP address sniffed on the site led back to Thompson’s Long Island home proving he was not enough of a geek to use a Tor server when posting to his clandestine blog.

Now that this mystery is solved, and the American Wine Blog Awards are behind us, it is not clear what wine bloggers will complain about on Twitter. But something will likely emerge in coming days. Stay tuned…

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Original post by Tim

Tom Wark has announced the winners of the American Wine Blog Awards and revealed the judges who not only determined the final nominations but also accounted for 30% of the final vote. And it seems this combination proved successful as the winners didn’t all come down to who could motivate their readers or listeners. In fact, nearly every winner was one I voted for.

Winning for Best Blog Writing and Best Wine Blog is Alder Yarrow of Vinography. Another double winner is Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20 for Best Single Subject Wine Blog and Best Wine Review Blog. Both very deserving winners.

Rounding out the rest of the winning blogs, Steve at The Wine Collector took Best Business Blog, my friends at Grape Radio were recognized for Best Podcast or Video Blog, Tablas Creek got Best Winery Blog and Chateau Petrogasm won Best Wine Blog Graphics.

I’ve been somewhat critical of these awards but my remarks have not been taken exactly in the way I’d intended. I never meant my comments here or in the OpenWine Consortium to be taken as an “alternative” to the American Wine Blog Awards but some have taken this view. Whatever the outcome of the discussion, I fully support what Tom is doing to recognize great wine blogs and am looking forward to next year.

So what wine goes with crow, anyway

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Original post by Tim

It’s funny how things turn out sometimes. As soon as I think I have an idea so niche someone would not possibly do the same thing, that thing happens.

I like the view popurls gives me on the conversational web, all on one page. So I thought an aggregator of the wine blog world would be interesting so I hacked a proof of concept and shared with my Twitter friends. This was right after I saw Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop which launched with a food but not wine blog page. But that all changed when Josh at Pinotblogger Twittered about wine.alltop.com today.

It’s an honor to be on this page, but a double honor to be just “above the fold” and to the right of (hopefully) my future blogging buddy Eric of the New York Times. I’m not sure who to thank for my fortune. It might be the folks at Electric Pulp just up the road in Sioux Falls, South Dakota who put Alltop together. But I like to think it was Guy himself who remembered me as some schmo who asked for this autograph on my tattered old copy of The Macintosh Way last year when he was in Minneapolis.

So thanks, Guy… I owe you some nice wine and a good ticket to a Wild game when you are here next… and, yes, I’m kicking butt

Check out Alltop here.

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Original post by Tim

It’s funny how things turn out sometimes. As soon as I think I have an idea so niche someone would not possibly do the same thing, that thing happens.

I like the view popurls gives me on the conversational web, all on one page. So I thought an aggregator of the wine blog world would be interesting so I hacked a proof of concept and shared with my Twitter friends. This was right after I saw Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop which launched with a food but not wine blog page. But that all changed when Josh at Pinotblogger Twittered about wine.alltop.com today.

It’s an honor to be on this page, but a double honor to be just “above the fold” and to the right of (hopefully) my future blogging buddy Eric of the New York Times. I’m not sure who to thank for my fortune. It might be the folks at Electric Pulp just up the road in Sioux Falls, South Dakota who put Alltop together. But I like to think it was Guy himself who remembered me as some schmo who asked for this autograph on my tattered old copy of The Macintosh Way last year when he was in Minneapolis.

So thanks, Guy… I owe you some nice wine and a good ticket to a Wild game when you are here next… and, yes, I’m kicking butt

Check out Alltop here.

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Original post by Tim

In what can only be described as a publicity stunt, Dutch winemaker Ilja Gort of Chateau de la Garde has had his nose insured for $8M (euro5 million). This policy was taken out at Lloyd’s of London who also insure wine critic Robert Parker’s nose for $1M.

While I couldn’t find too much information about the wines, I did find this humorous video on YouTube of the $8M nose in action:

No, I will not be contacting the ladies and gentlemen at Lloyd’s any time soon

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Original post by Tim

I wonder if you can…

But that probably doesn’t matter as the U. S. wine trade is addicted to the 100-point scoring system as the default method to differentiate and sell wine. Why? Because it makes sense to the American consumer brought up with the same system in school. Everyone, it seems, wants an A in either their term paper or glass of Chardonnay. And retailers feel compelled to sell and promote highly rated wines as they drive traffic to their store.

So that’s what makes this proposal to abolish the 100 point system so interesting to me. No, it’s not from a blogger or consumer but from a wine retailer. Isn’t this cutting off your nose to spite your face, you ask? I hope not but a reading of David Lillie’s proposal makes clear that he wants wine lovers to look beyond just the numbers and concentrate on the enjoyment a wine can bring.

He concludes his argument underscoring that precise scores are not the complete measure of a wine:

“The most important argument against the point system is contained in the dedication and hard work of thousands of producers, mostly European but with a growing number in the US, whose efforts to bring delicious naturally made wines to the consumer cannot possibly be graded with a number.”

This got me thinking about the parallels of wine and film criticism. Before I got into wine, I spend a couple years in film school and remain an avid film buff today. One of the elements that make great movies are the technical aspects along with the story and performances of the actors. When these are in the right balance, magic can happen. There are other times when the intention of the director is to just make an entertaining film. Here the technical aspects are most likely emphasized but there is still room for creativity as viewers of recent works of Michael Bay and Paul Greengrass can attest.

I’ll make my comparison to wine illustrated by a couple examples. I think Sergio Leone’s “Duck, You Sucker” is one of the best films in the Western genre. My wife, on the other hand, thinks it’s a long, boring and strange movie. The opening set piece includes some of the most interesting use of the camera in movie history. I see the homages to other Westerns; my wife sees extreme close-ups of peoples’ mouths while eating. It’s the context of the viewer and knowledge of film that makes all the difference in appreciating this work.

As blogged here recently, Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel is one of my personal favorite wines. But I couldn’t get my mother to drink it because she thinks all red wines, “…smell like dirt!” She can’t imagine how such a wine can taste good if it smells like it does to her. But she is an avid Chardonnay drinker who values Charles Shaw wines that I find lacking. Is she wrong? Of course not, it’s our context and experience with wine that is different. I’ve learned to appreciate the nuances in wine where she just wants something nice to drink with dinner.

So my rating of 92 or 4 stars will not convince my mother to try Ridge Zinfandel and she probably doesn’t care that I rated Charles Shaw Chardonnay an 80. Nor will my wife sit through another Sergio Leone movie when she’s perfectly happy watching “Top Gun” for the 50th time on cable.

The same can be said for wine and too many wine lovers use ratings as a way to select “good” wine when they should let their palate decide. Yes, there are technical aspects that some of us obsess over but the bottom line is the wine should taste good to you no matter what the critics say.

I don’t know David Lillie or his store, Chambers Street Wine in New York. But I’ll bet it’s a lot like Solo Vino where every wine is hand selected not for it’s Parker score but for it’s expression of the variety and region of origin. Scores will be with us for a long time, but it’s voices like Mr. Lillie that have me seriously thinking of not using the 100 point system in my reviews.

Hat tip to Craig at The Wine Camp Blog for Twittering the link this morning.

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Original post by Tim

I wonder if you can…

But that probably doesn’t matter as the U. S. wine trade is addicted to the 100-point scoring system as the default method to differentiate and sell wine. Why? Because it makes sense to the American consumer brought up with the same system in school. Everyone, it seems, wants an A in either their term paper or glass of Chardonnay. And retailers feel compelled to sell and promote highly rated wines as they drive traffic to their store.

So that’s what makes this proposal to abolish the 100 point system so interesting to me. No, it’s not from a blogger or consumer but from a wine retailer. Isn’t this cutting off your nose to spite your face, you ask? I hope not but a reading of David Lillie’s proposal makes clear that he wants wine lovers to look beyond just the numbers and concentrate on the enjoyment a wine can bring.

He concludes his argument underscoring that precise scores are not the complete measure of a wine:

“The most important argument against the point system is contained in the dedication and hard work of thousands of producers, mostly European but with a growing number in the US, whose efforts to bring delicious naturally made wines to the consumer cannot possibly be graded with a number.”

This got me thinking about the parallels of wine and film criticism. Before I got into wine, I spend a couple years in film school and remain an avid film buff today. One of the elements that make great movies are the technical aspects along with the story and performances of the actors. When these are in the right balance, magic can happen. There are other times when the intention of the director is to just make an entertaining film. Here the technical aspects are most likely emphasized but there is still room for creativity as viewers of recent works of Michael Bay and Paul Greengrass can attest.

I’ll make my comparison to wine illustrated by a couple examples. I think Sergio Leone’s “Duck, You Sucker” is one of the best films in the Western genre. My wife, on the other hand, thinks it’s a long, boring and strange movie. The opening set piece includes some of the most interesting use of the camera in movie history. I see the homages to other Westerns my wife sees extreme close-ups of peoples’ mouths while eating. It’s the context of the viewer and knowledge of film that makes all the difference in appreciating this work.

As blogged here recently, Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel is one of my personal favorite wines. But I couldn’t get my mother to drink it because she thinks all red wines, “…smell like dirt!” She can’t imagine how such a wine can taste good if it smells like it does to her. But she is an avid Chardonnay drinker who values Charles Shaw wines that I find lacking. Is she wrong? Of course not, it’s our context and experience with wine that is different. I’ve learned to appreciate the nuances in wine where she just wants something nice to drink with dinner.

So my rating of 92 or 4 stars will not convince my mother to try Ridge Zinfandel and she probably doesn’t care that I rated Charles Shaw Chardonnay an 80. Nor will my wife sit through another Sergio Leone movie when she’s perfectly happy watching “Top Gun” for the 50th time on cable.

The same can be said for wine and too many wine lovers use ratings as a way to select “good” wine when they should let their palate decide. Yes, there are technical aspects that some of us obsess over but the bottom line is the wine should taste good to you no matter what the critics say.

I don’t know David Lillie or his store, Chambers Street Wine in New York. But I’ll bet it’s a lot like Solo Vino where every wine is hand selected not for it’s Parker score but for it’s expression of the variety and region of origin. Scores will be with us for a long time, but it’s voices like Mr. Lillie that have me seriously thinking of not using the 100 point system in my reviews.

Hat tip to Craig at The Wine Camp Blog for Twittering the link this morning.

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Original post by Tim

…and not that “white” off-dry drek either, but the real deal from Lytton Springs, Geyserville and Hayne Vineyard.

Why do I match fish with a rich red wine when all the experts might suggest something lighter?

Because I like it.

This is at the core of a post over at Vinography about wine and food matching. Alder makes a compelling argument that wine and food matching is a “scam” to sell more, and presumably higher priced, wine perpetuated by restaurants and other wine wonks. And while I think there is some common sense to matching food and wine, I agree that much of the advice on the street is bunk. Drink what you like with whatever food you want.

Kudos to Alder for another provocative and educational post. This underscores the unique value of wine blogs as I don’t think we’d see an article like this in Wine Spectator or Decanter.

Read the entire article here.

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Original post by Tim

…and not that “white” off-dry drek either, but the real deal from Lytton Springs, Geyserville and Hayne Vineyard.

Why do I match fish with a rich red wine when all the experts might suggest something lighter?

Because I like it.

This is at the core of a post over at Vinography about wine and food matching. Alder makes a compelling argument that wine and food matching is a “scam” to sell more, and presumably higher priced, wine perpetuated by restaurants and other wine wonks. And while I think there is some common sense to matching food and wine, I agree that much of the advice on the street is bunk. Drink what you like with whatever food you want.

Kudos to Alder for another provocative and educational post. This underscores the unique value of wine blogs as I don’t think we’d see an article like this in Wine Spectator or Decanter.

Read the entire article here.

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Original post by Tim