Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

Basic Math

Believe it or not, it has been over a decade since I've been anywhere near the city of Chicago. And even my last foray to this neck of woods didn't take me into vicinity of the city. Now, having been here for a short while, and having taken some time to move around Chicago, I can say without hesitation is is one magnificent metropolis.

This is what a city should look like. The skyline is remarkable, studded with stunning testaments to man's artistic sensibilities. They Chicagoans have taken great advantage of the water nearby in the form of lakes and rivers and their parks are accessible and used to the hilt.

As for atmosphere, I've never been in a more masculine city. It just gives that impression. If they ever enclose this city in a dome, that dome will be lined with red leather and mahogany and girded by steel. And I swear, you can not take ten steps down a street without tripping over steakhouse. Add to all this the fact that they have 2 baseball teams and at one point in the plane's descent into O'Hare I was able to lay my eyes on ten different golf course...and that from from just one side of the plane.

The only problem is weather: thunderstorms, snow and humidity. Ouch.

My purpose for being here is outlined in the previous post. I just a moment ago finished sitting on a panel with Craig Wold, president of the Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association where he and I debated whether or not UPS drivers were capable of looking at an Identification card, finding the date of birth and then doing the math. I suggested the drivers were quite capable of this remarkable bit of mathematics. Craig was not so sure and thought it best to err on the side of caution by not allowing any delivery of wine to a home.

To be sure, the discussion in front of America's alcohol regulators was a spirited one. Despite my slide into sarcasm on the issue of basic math, I think I was able to communicate to the audience that wine retailers merely want to be regulated. They want the opportunity to subject themselves to states' legal and regulatory jurisdiction, they want to pay taxes on wines sent into the states, they want to file reports and all for the opportunity to serve the increasing market for fine wines that wholesalers have either no interest or no capability of serving.

And speaking of an increasing market in fine wine, the general counsel for FED EX who took the podium after Mr. Wolf and I confirmed that between 2005 and 2007 their wine shipments have increased 94%. I've got news for them...that's just the beginning.

I did learn something, however. Regulating retailers appears to be a daunting task for America's Alcohol Regulators. They see the potential of hundreds of thousands of retailers applying for permits if they allow out-of-state retailers to obtain permits to ship wine to consumers in their state. This is a case of their greatest fear being as far from the truth as possible. The fact is, in states where both wine retailers and wineries may ship direct, more than 80% of the permits issues are held by wineries, not retailers. This figure is consistent in every state where this set of licensing circumstances exist. This fact must be driven home.

One thing became clear as Craig Wolf and I went back and forth: wholesalers make their arguments against direct shipping on the basis of fear. Their strategy is to instill fear into the minds of legislators, regulators, police and healthcare workers. If these folks can be convinced that all hell and serious death will break forth if wine lovers are able to have their $40 Zinfandels delivered to them, they figure, they can stave off further direct shipping inroads. Nearly every statement Mr. Wolf uttered was fashioned to instill fear into the mind of the regulators in the audience.

For my part, I tried to talk about two things: 1) The necessity of bringing retailers inside their regulatory orbit so that state regulators could in fact monitor direct shipments from retailers as well as collect much more tax revenue and 2) stand up for consumers, who's interests and desires are almost never discussed in either regulatory or legislative forums when direct shipping is the topic.

I explained that if their concern is unregulated and illegal shipments, they should probably get over their fear because there is very little they can do to stop consumers from doing whatever they have to do to get that simple bottle of wine not available locally but available in another state. The reason for this is that consumers simply have no respect for laws that they view as arbitrary, protective of certain financial interests and that actually serve in no way to protect the welfare of heath of the citizens of states. At some point, regulators and legislators are going to have to take consumers' interests to heart. They are, after all, the people the regulators are their to serve. I explained that if they do not take into account consumers' interests, they will continue to see the laws they enforce, their own enforcement efforts and the legislators that enact these laws ridiculed and dismissed as tools.

I am still convinced that in all but a few cases, consumers will end up earning the right to access the wines they want via direct shipment from retailers only as a result of litigation that forces states to change their laws. What a shame that millions of dollars must be spent on court proceedings only to find out that a far less expensive route could have been taken with simple legislation.

I hope to see a great deal more of this city over the next three days. It is a magnificent place to be.

I've Got Questions

I'm off to Chicago for a few days for the National Conference of State Liquor Administrators Annual Conference. I get to appear on a panel with Craig Wolf, CEO of the Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association. It should be...Interesting. Well be discussing direct shipping from two very different perspectives.

It's a good opportunity to finally get some answers to some burning questions I have.

For instance, Mr. Wolf and wine wholesalers across the country have argued for many years now that since there exists the possibility that wine can get into the hands of minors as a result of direct shipment, we ought to close down this channel of commerce all together. We are not being asked to shut down direct shipping because there is an epidemic or severe problem or slight problem with minors obtaining alcohol via direct shipping. We are told we should shut down direct shipment of wine because it poses the possibility that minors can obtain wine via direct shipment.

So the question I really need answered is this: When will Craig Wolf and America's wine wholesalers call for shutting down all brick and mortar sales of wine?

Perhaps more important, when will Craig Wolf and America's wine wholesales call for a prohibition on wine being kept in the homes of parents?

It's not just a possibility that minors obtain alcohol via brick and mortar sales and from the home. It's a fact.

Will Mr. Wolf call for a new era of Prohibition? I'm doubting it. And I sure hope he does not because if we've learned anything about wine wholesalers in America, they tend to get what they want. I'm all in favor of them remaining wed to their hypocritical position: Keep open those channels where minors are most likely to get their hands on wine and close down those channels where minors are not likely to obtain wine.

The other question I'm dying to get answered is how can the wine industry gently break it to consumers, and get them to accept, that they have no business desiring products the wholesalers don't want to make available. This is tricky one. I've been in the PR business for almost 20 years and still am not sure how to get wine lovers to agree that their desire to taste new, different and even obscure wines is a fool's errand and that they should be perfectly happy with what the wholesalers say they should have access to. Maybe there will be a breakout session at the Conference on this issue. We'll call it, "Screwing the Consumer, Gently."

This is what consumers are being told when the state either fails to allow direct shipment by retailers to consumers or strips consumers of a right to have wine shipped to them by out of state retailers. Despite the fact that many states that prohibit retailer-to-consumer sales do allow domestic wineries to ship direct into their states, the prohibition on retailer shipping means that thousands of wines are unavailable because wholesalers don't bring them into the state. The primary effect is on imported wines that can't be bought direct from their wineries. But how many times has a California winery sold out of a wine or the local retailer has sold out of the wine, while retailers in another state still have some? "All the time" is the correct answer.

One of the things I'll try to do as I address liquor administrators from around the country is impress upon them the concerns of the consumer. The consumer is so rarely discussed when issues of direct direct shipping is raised you'd think they have nothing to do with the subject when in fact they are the only reason the subject is debated at all.

My Wine Revelations

We learn about ourselves and our world through little mini revelations. I've had a few over the years as they relate to my life and wine. Here are my Top Ten Wine Revelations

10. Stony Hill Chardonnay
Stony Hill's Chardonnays, those crisp, lemony, minerally, long-lived gems, were the first wines that possessed me and put me on a quest. I wanted to taste and/or have every single one ever produced. My collection, unfortunately stops somewhere in the very early 70s, meaning I'm missing at least about 15 vintages. Still, this was the first wine that spoke to me and my palate.

9. They pay you to work in the wine industry
Can you believe it? It still gives me the giggles.

8. Wine Producing Regions Are the Best Places to Live
Say what you will about ocean-side retreats, mountain vistas, the great cities of the world and deserted islands. It's wine country, I discovered, that attracts folks that demand pleasure be given a greater space in their lives, who will support local efforts to provide that and who, as a whole, are usually very interesting to be around.

7. Austrian Ice Wine
This is a recent revelation I have Winemonger.com to thank for. Drinking these little bottled orgasms are akin to engaging in a violent wrestling match with a velvet-clad Scarlett Johansson.

6. There is No Relationship Between What's On the Outside and Inside of the Bottle
If you think that the appearance of the bottle has anything to say about the juice inside then I want your contact information and that of your family because you are bound to be a great prospect for the sale of a bridge I'm in possession of. I would have been such a prospect until I got into the business of designing wine packaging and discovered that wine packaging is often an exercise in disguising what's inside the bottle.

5. Wine is a Business That Brings Out the Hungry Dogs
It truly is a dog-eat-dog business. This I discovered when I first started dabbling in the politics of wine and discovered that all wine politics are about dividing up the spoils and that fairness plays no role in the division of wine's profits. Folks will say, do and try just about anything to control as much of wine's lucre.

4. Rose on a Summer Day is Better than Pot
I knew I was addicted to Rose & Summer when my mind habitually started drifting to this combination around January. Call me dreamy, overindulgent, hedonistic or just lazy, but to this day I can think of no better buzz than a 90 degree summer day and my own bottle of Dry Rose.

3. Top Critics know nothing about my palate
"This got 95 points? You're fucking kidding me? This is swill!"

2. BV Private Reserve: Good Wine is Good
The year was 1985 and I'd begun my wine education by reading books and drinking cheap wine while in college. I had to steal this wine off the shelf by placing the price tag of a cheap wine over the BV Private Reserve Cab's price tag. The college student behind the cash register had no idea what he was selling me so the caper went off without a hitch. I took the bottle back to my place, opened it and discovered I loved wine.

1. Serious Wine Drinkers Are Always More Interesting People
This is the single most important revelation that has hit me about wine. I has always been true and I suspect it always will. It appears that those folks that are attracted to wine in an unusually compulsive way also happen to be the folks willing to explore all sorts of interesting ideas, tend to think more deeply, tend to want to converse more seriously and tend to place great emphasis on living well. I'll take that.

What Would We Do Without Napa?

It's often said that Sonoma County winemakers have a chip on their shoulder named "Napa Valley". I don't know if the chip actually exists, if there really is any significant rivalry between the two, or if one region is better than the other. But I do know this. The purported chip/rivalry/competition is perfect fodder for writers who are looking for a lead for their story about Sonoma County.

I think I've read this lead at least 1000 times:

"While the Napa Valley receives most of the attention for producing California's fine wines, many believe that Sonoma County, located west of Napa, is California's significant other."

There is a certain apologetic quality to this kind of lead in to a story about Sonoma County's winemaking attributes: "It's not Napa we are talking about today, but I swear the wines of Sonoma Country are really really good!"

I'm not real sure what Sonoma County would do if it didn't have Napa Valley as its foil. Perhaps it would stand up on its own two feet and declare, as it should, that it possesses the most diverse set of climates and terroirs of any County in California; or that as counties go, it possesses the most diverse set of unique growing regions for visitors to explore; or that it produces a wider variety of extraordinarily high quality examples of different varietals than any other County in California.

Let's face it, if you had a friend asking for recommendations on where to spend a week in wine country, would you really suggest Napa Valley over Sonoma County? Would you really? Are these good friends, or just acquaintances.

There is no possibility that in my lifetime or that of my children that Sonoma will eclipse Napa Valley in wine making prestige either among frequent wine drinkers or, certainly, among infrequent wine drinkers. None. The die has been cast on that score. And news stories like the one referenced above will continue to make sure this is the case.

But I think this is OK. As Sonoma's wine roads slowly become more crowded, they are still a world away from Highway 29 in terms of gridlock, frustration and expense. They'll always provide that undiscovered backroad that leads to revelation and authenticity that Napa simply can't match. They'll always be more likely to lead to wine discoveries that are real discoveries, rather than simple exclamations of relief that the line at the tasting bar isn't nearly as crowded as the last one you were at.

A Dandy Idea

This is just a dandy idea, don't you think?

Outside of Port (which seems more associated with the Brits), the Portuguese really haven't put their flag in the ground around any particular style of wine or varietal. Their Vinho Verde, a superb summer wine when dry and cold, but which doesn't show up much in the states, is about all they've really got in terms of recognition.

The idea of converting over to making more Rose is a splendid idea because it allows them to market to a specific product, something that is much easier to do than marketing to a region. Add to this Rose's rising visibility and all we need now is some killer examples of Portuguese Dry Rose to hit our shores and a small but focused marketing campaign.

I'd target it at the restaurants first in the West and Southwest and Texas, rolling out some killer labels with a price point of $6.99 around May.

The fact that Portugal and very quickly get their production of Rose up to 5% from nothing in just 5 years demonstrates the kind of advantages that secondary wine regions have in today's market where consumers appear more than ever willing to experiment. It also doesn't hurt that Portugal appears to have some new, young, progressive winemakers taking the helm:

"The growing interest in making rosé confirms how this region is changing. We have increasing numbers of younger winemakers approaching viticulture in a different way, eager to respond to trends and try new things,' Antonio Cerdeira, spokesman for the Vinho Verde commission in Porto said."

If you look around, around the globe, it's hard not to notice that it's a pretty exciting time for new products in the wine business.

Orange Cubes and Death

One of the reasons I like to eat out, and I do like to eat out, is the near guarantee I won't encounter something orange and squishy and cut into cubes masquerading as cheese. We put up with this square blandness at the homes of acquaintances. We accept it on trays at office gatherings. But when it comes to a restaurant where our expectations are justifiably higher, we expect something more...actually something much more. And when the restaurant bills itself as having a particular focus on fine wine, I think it's fair for the diner to assume that the "cheese plate" on the menu probably isn't a reference to square, orange, cubed squishiness.

So imagine my surprise when upon ordering the cheese plate at a popular LA wine bar on Saturday, said plate arrived not just with a pile of orange, square squishy cubes, but with similarly crafted and piled cubes of brownish "gouda" and and white "swiss".

Ever sent back a wine? I have. Everyone should at some point. It's not only the right thing to do when the wine is bad or corked, but it's the kind of empowering experience that reminds you that YOU are the client in a restaurant. I've done this a number of times. I no longer get that empowering thrill out of the act, but rather do so because I live constantly with a little fact rolling around my head: Life is short and I'm going to die eventually.

This very same thought was rolling around my mind when I saw the plate of cubes disguised as cheese arrive at my table.

Now, I thought I was being as nice as possible: "Excuse me sir, would you mind taking this back. I had other expectations for the 'cheese plate'. "

Waiter: "Excuse me?"

Tom: "The cheese plate. I expected something a little more. I'd rather not have this."

Waiter: "You ordered the cheese plate."

Tom: "Yes".

Waiter: "This is is"

Tom: Yes, I can see that."

Waiter: "I don't understand".

Tom: "It's not the kind of cheese I was expecting."

Waiter: This is what comes with the 'Cheese plate'"

Tom: "Yes, I can see that. I don't want this cheese."

Waiter: "But you did order the cheese plate didn't you, Sir?"

Tom: "(audible sigh) Yes, but I was hoping for cheese, not squishing, cubed, grocery store blandness"

Waiter: Sir, there is cheddar here (pointing to the orange stuff), Gouda (pointing to the brown stuff), and Swiss (pointing to the white things on the plate).

Tom: (picks up  a cube of orange and eats it)..."I'm sure it says 'cheddar' on the 10 lb bag these orange cubes come in. Still, I'm going to die one day and I don't want any possible risk that these cubes might come to my mind for any reason during the run up to that event. But I will risk another glass of this Albarino.

Waiter: "So I should take the cheese plate away?"

Tom: (Stares at the waiter).

If for no other reason that life is short, you should not eat orange cubes masquerading as cheese if you can possibly avoid it.

Time-Related Malady Yields Results

One thing we've all learned about bloggers is that they have way too much time on their hands. What I did not know is that those who work at newspapers and in television are also inflicted with this time-related malady.

Mark Fisher at Uncorked, the man who live in between these two worlds, confirms that, yes, indeed, those who work at newspaper and TV also have too much time on their hands. However, Mark alerts us to the fact that in his paper-based realm that extra time is used productively.

Evidence is this informative video: SHAPE UP AND DRINK AT THE SAME TIME.

Soothing, Arting, Blogging, Producing

1. Very Promising New Wine Blog
Arthur Przebinda had been known for his Red Wine Buzz web site, but it's his new blog, "Wine Sooth", that I'm taken with. Arthur's first posts are smart, opinionated and well-informed, a deadly combination. It strikes me as the kind of wine blog that could gain a wide audience if the pace of posts is kept up. As an aside, Arthur was published in the LA Times today with his response to Joel Stein's disastrous column of a few days ago.

 

2. Art, Wine and the Guerrilla
I came across what appears to be a new winery that has done a beautiful job of incorporating what I think is stunning artwork into its label design. Wine Guerrilla appears devoted to Zinfandel and the vineyards that make it great. But its Sean Colgin's art on the labels that is really worth a look. It's noteworthy the the winery has procured grapes from both Coffaro and Forchini in Sonoma County.

3. Wine Blogger Conference & Ethics
It seems likely that the issue of Ethics and Wine Blogging will get a good airing out at the upcoming Wine Bloggers Conference set for October in Sonoma County. Already folks at Open Wine Consortium, one of the producers of the Conference, have a very interesting discussion of the topic underway. The question I have is this: Ought the ethics of wine bloggers be any different than the general set of ethics that are applied to columnists at any other journalistic endeavor? I can't see why they would be. But I've been wrong and uneducated before.

 

 

4. Productivity & Reward
By 10am today, I shot a scorching 64 on a little par 62 executive course here in Sonoma—a personal best, I got out 4 very good, well crafted and unique story pitches to four publications for a client, I put the finishing touches on some marketing materials for a new wine, I designed and sent off to the printing new business cards and I sketched out the attack positions I'll take when I debate sit on a panel with Craig Wolf of the Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association at the upcoming National Conference of State Liquor Administrators. I LOVE being productive. And that's the thing about this blog...writing it always feels like the reward I give myself for being productive.

Napa Valley Vintners Respond

Never let it be said that Napa Valley Vintners association is not staffed with smart, well intentioned highly competent folks. The comment below by NVV Terry Hall demonstrates this fact. Hall offered this comment in a previous post on this blog concerning the controversy surrounding the pending application for a "Calistoga" American Viticultural Area (AVA) and the impact this new appellation might have on Calistoga Cellars, a winery that, if NVV gets its way, would be forced to either change its name or business plan—two very expensive options for which they would not be compensated.

I wanted to post Terry Hall's response out here, in the light of day, because the Association deserves an opportunity to respond to what was a strongly worded condemnation by me. My response to Terry's well presented reply follows below.

Tom, ouch, Ann Coulter?? You apparently have strong feelings about the topic of Calistoga Cellars, but the NVV’s premise is not to single out one brand, but for there to be truthful wine labeling for consumers and fair play for wineries to all play by the same rules. The notion of grandfathering brands came to an end more than twenty years ago. And, while you portray a big guy vs little guy or underdog scenario, this logic is flawed. The Napa Valley Vintners is a trade association representing more than 300 wineries in the Napa Valley, about 2/3rds of which are as small, or smaller, than Calistoga Cellars. More than 90% of all Napa Valley wineries are family-owned businesses. Additionally, these rules proposed by the TTB are opposed by nearly every winery trade association in the U.S., the California State Farm Bureau, the California Dept of Food and Agriculture, wine retailers both on- and off-premise from across the country, along with Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St Helena), Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), and Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA).

Rules regarding truth in wine labeling in the U.S. go back to the Federal Alcohol Act of 1937. Additionally, the wine industry has been on notice since 1986 when new rules were established regarding grandfathering of brands after the establishment of the AVA system. The NVV believes that all brands, Calistoga Cellars included, must follow the same guidelines for brand identity that have been outlined in the TTB’s Beverage Alcohol Manual (BAM) for the past 12 years and which were open to comment for three years prior to that. In the BAM, it states that a brand is essentially on notice if a brand takes the name of a place of geographic significance and if the geographic place becomes an AVA that brand must then abide by the rules of the AVA. The BAM defines “geographic significance” as being two or more reference to the place as a significant grape growing region in wine reference books. One cannot pick up a book on Napa Valley written over the past 150 years without a reference to Calistoga.

The TTB may be at fault for not ensuring that Calistoga Cellars was fully aware of its guidelines, but Calistoga Cellars was also at fault for either not doing its homework or taking a calculated risk they should not have. The TTB Administrator John Manfreda was questioned before the House Ways and Means Committee on Oversight on May 20 where he came under fire for not following his bureau’s own guidelines when approving Calistoga Cellars. Soon after the hearing, the TTB simply “unplugged” the rulebook from the website as if it no longer existed. Rules that everyone else in the industry had followed for 15 years were, oops, no longer viewable. Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but I offer that the stink you smell is coming from someplace else.

Furthermore, if the name Calistoga was insignificant to the Calistoga Cellars folks, then why did they not call the brand by a family or fanciful name? They obviously felt there was cache in the name. Though you write, “Of all the common place names in the Napa Valley appellation Calistoga has the least prestige,” I would offer names like Chateau Montelena and Araujo among others as proof of names synonymous for quality from Calistoga.

For clarification you should know that the TTB has the right to revoke their name in just such a situation as this, and you should be aware that the NVV has offered to help Calistoga Cellars negotiate a phase-in period with the TTB so they could come under compliance. Growers in the AVA have offered to satisfy grape supplies as well. Everyone from the Chamber of Commerce to the City, and so on, has offered to help Calistoga Cellars comply with the AVA as it was intended.

The fight for consumer truth in labeling is paramount as we take our industry’s responsibilities seriously. America is poised to be the largest wine consuming economy in the world, consumers deserve to know where their wines are from in an honest and forthright way.

And though it is easy to toss out the number and say they have ten years invested in the brand and now the NVV takes notice, that’s just a broad oversimplification and you know better than that. One gets a business name, a few years later the winery releases its first wine, the AVA petition process was underway at the same time and was petitioned in 2004, all of this was in tandem and Calistoga Cellars knew it was coming all along, they had options, they gambled. This isn’t exactly “ripping the name away from them.”

But for the record, the rulemaking is not Napa-centric, it threatens the integrity of the American wine industry and its effects will be far-reaching, not the least of which will be in international trade and in ongoing wine place protection worldwide. The U.S. wine industry is very young in comparison to our European counterparts, but we are trying to do the right thing and respect place of origin. Does Pommerol as a sub-appellation of Bordeaux seem silly? The whole process is evolution, so the goal is to play fair and build upon our successes for the sustainability and credibility of our industry. Are the existing rules perfect, no, but we have been moving forward for more than twenty years, avoiding grandfathering mis-descriptive brand names and giving greater credibility to the American wine industry.
____________________________________________________________

Terry,

That was a great reply and I appreciate the fact that you took the time.

Can we expect every single brand in the NV that is associated with a place name to come under the same scrutiny by Napa Valley Vintners, whether they use the Rutherford, Oakville, Mt. Veeder, Atlas Peak, Stag's Leap, Carneros, St. Helena or Howell Mountain place names? I hope so.

I'd also like to hear why the "District" solution, as applied in Stags Leap and Spring Mountain can't be applied in this case.

And I must reiterate a couple things. Accusing Calistoga Cellars of "Purposefully" trying to deceive the public is as wrong as gets. Let me suggest that if the owners of Calistoga Cellars wanted to take advantage of a well known appellation for the sake of deceiving consumers into thinking their wines were more prestigeous than they might be, they could have chosen a better place name to do the trick. But to answer your question as to why the owners didn't call their winery something more "fanciful" and instead opted to use the "Calistoga" name in their brand, well, maybe it was because their property was LOCATED IN Calistoga.

And of course, what about Howell Mountain Vineyards, which makes a chardonnay from southern Napa? What about Rutherford Hill's Pope Valley Sangiovese? What about the Spring Mountain and Howell Mountain Cabs produced by Atlas Peak Winery. Is NVV prepared to condemn these wineries as they've condemned Calistoga Cellars for puposefully misleading the consumer? Are they prepared to do it the same public way? I hope so. Consistency is everything.

Finally, I remain unconvinced that Calistoga Cellars did anything wrong. They should not be punished for following the rules or for the TTB making what might have been the wrong decision, discretionary as it was. It strikes me that NVV is trying to punish CC too late in the process. If this issue was so important, where was NVV when CC was petitioning the TTB? And let's not pretend that by stealing CC's brand equity, there will be no harm done or that it won't cost CC anything. Ask any winery that has been around for a decade what it would cost to change their name and turn their business plan around.

I'm hoping that NVV will show the same sagacity it has shown in so many other matters. I hoping it will withdraw its opposition to the grandfathering proposition, work with CC and other wineries to adopt a statement concerning place names, and move on to making sure the issue of sub appellations is properly addressed by the TTB.

Finally, I would like to officially retract the "Ann Coulter" remark. It was out of line. However, I reserve the right to keep it in my pocket for future use in case the Napa Valley Vintners are ever found to have feasted on small children or slayed puppy dogs for entertainment purposes.

Joel Stein and The Childish Approach To Knowledge

Joel Stein reminds us just how important a statement Richard Hofstadter made in his seminal 1963 work, "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life." This reoccurring theme we see throughout American history of folks aiming their disdain at intellectuals, "elites", and deep thinkers is at the core of Stein's recent LA Times Column entitled, "The Language of Snobbery".

Wrote Stein, "When wine drinkers tell me they taste notes of cherries, tobacco and rose petals, usually all I can detect is a whole lot of jackass. The language of sommeliers, winemakers, sellers and writers has devolved into nothing besides a long list of obscure smells that tells me nothing."

Well, I'll tell you what I smell: An insecure jackass who can't stand the idea that others are more capable than he and interested enough in a topic to actually deploy the English language to dig deeper into their area of interest.

I wonder if Stein likes to mock physicists or archaeologists that use a language he doesn't quite understand?

Steve Heimoff took Stein to school in a very nicely done scolding over at his new blog. It's worth a thorough read.

I've never really understood why certain folks feel a need to denigrate those whose interests seem just a bit too obscure for their tastes. Again, I think the best explanation is found in Hofstadter's critique of social institutions and the impact that urbanization had on our once-rural people.

There still exists among some in America a bias against intellect, the unfamiliar, the life of the mind and cosmopolitan impulses. This bias has a distinct evangelical protestant underpinning and usually takes the shape of morality lectures and the advancement, as we seen in Stein's work, of a "Cult of Practicality".

Stein wants wine writers and reviewers to let him "know if a wine is rough, balanced, acidic, sweet, simple, tannic, soft, hot with alcohol, mineraly, watery or has a long finish."

But once a writer gets beyond these practical aspects of a wine, according to Stein, it's nothing more than a "devolution into nothing besides a long list of obscure smells that tells me nothing."

What Stein fails to recognize is that this criticism of his is improperly aimed at the folks who offer a list of obscure smells and tastes to describe a wine. In fact, it's a criticism of his own inferior abilities. And this goes back to the Cult of Anti-Intellectualism. Rather than appreciate what he does not know and understand, Stein is more content to label that body of unaccumulated knowledge no more than another group's vice.

It's a childish and very American approach to knowledge.

UPDATE:
A very nice response to Stein's column by Arthur Przebinda and printed in the LA Times can be found HERE

That Stink is Coming From Napa Valley

Let me say right off the bat, I think the Napa Valley Vintners are a remarkable trade association that has done a better job than any other such association in representing the wineries that make up their organization. I've done work for the Napa Valley Vintners too. And I know the folks over there as well as numerous members.

That said, the NVV's latest attempt to demonize Calistoga Cellars STINKS to high heaven!

A couple hours ago I received a press release from NVV that contained a position statement the Vintners took late last year in the controversy surrounding place name and brand names. In that document the Napa Valley Vintners accused Calistoga Cellars of marketing and selling wines with "purposefully misleading labels, leading consumers to believe their wines are from grapes grown in certain appellations or winemaking regions, when they are not."

I'm the last person who would criticize an advocate for using strong rhetoric. I like strong rhetoric. But strong rhetoric does require one small element to work: IT MUST BE TRUE. The Napa Valley Vintners rhetoric in their position statement simply isn't true. And you have to wonder, what kind of case do they have to make when they choose not to rely on the truth.

The facts of this case can be found in THIS BLOG POST.

But to note the facts of this controversy again:

1. Calistoga Cellars has been using its brand name since 1998.

2. Napa Valley Vintners did not lodge a protest when Calistoga Cellars was founded or when it first made wine from Napa Valley grapes the didn't happen to be grown in or around the town of Calistoga

3. In 1998 there was no legal requirement that demanded Calistoga Cellars make wine only from Calistoga-grown grapes in order to use that brand name.

4. In 1998 there wasn't even a legally defined growing region called "Calistoga", which I suppose there would have been had the region possessed anything like the kind of viticultural significance that resulted in other areas of Napa Valley receiving American Viticultural Area status.

5. In 2005 a petition was submitted to create an official growing region called "Calistoga"

6. If the new growing region (called an AVA) is approved, it would force Calistoga Cellars to change its business model or its name. The newly created region would force any winery using "Calistoga" in its name to source 85% of its grapes from this new region.

7. The Federal department that oversees AVAs, the TTB, suggested that wineries using the "Calistoga" name in their brand before March 31, 2005, be grandfathered in and allowed to continue making wine that doesn't meet the new requirements that were also not in place when Calistoga Cellars was founded.

The Napa Valley Vintners have put their full weight behind the idea that Calistoga Cellars should be stripped of the rights it has had for a decade, and with no compensation whatsoever. They've been able to get a resolution through the California Senate urging that the TTB's wise compromise on the grandfathering of Calistoga Cellars be rejected. The Napa Valley Board of Supervisors sent a letter on behalf of the Napa Valley Vintners to the TTB urging that the TTB's wise compromise on the grandfathering of Calistoga Cellars be rejected.

This issue has come up before with wineries in Napa Valley. Wineries with "Stag's Leap" and "Spring Mountain" in their names were named after areas inside Napa Valley. To avoid any problems when these areas became AVAs just like is being proposed for Calistoga, they added the word "District" to the name of the AVAs a la "Stag's Leap District" and "Spring Mountain District". The owner of Calistoga Cellars, sagely, suggested they do the same with "Calistoga", making the new AVA "Calistoga District" and thereby solving this controversy in the same way other controversies of the type have been settle.

The vintners rejected this proposal. Why? Why is this solution good for some wineries and regions in Napa Valley but not for all of them? Adding "District" to the proposed new name of the Calistoga AVA is the proper way to deal with this issue. It was done in Stag's Leap and with Spring Mountain. If Napa Valley Vintners is gong to demand this solution not be applied to this controversy, then they should have the cajones to take a consistent and principled stand by demanding that Spring Mountain Winery and the two "Stags Leap" wineries only use grapes from those regions in their wines. Think they will? I don't.

Instead, the Napa Valley Vintners have adopted an unprincipled, FU approach to the problem, telling Calistoga Cellars essentially to do one of the following very costly things:

1. Change the business plan you've had in place for a decade and that no one objected to early on and now only buy grapes from within the area planned to be called "Calistoga".

2. Go to the expense of changing the name of your winery all together, a choice that could easily kill any number of wineries were they forced to do the same

3. Start an entirely new brand for those wines that, though they are made from Napa Valley grapes, aren't made from Calistoga grapes.

So here is the big question: WILL THE NAPA VALLEY VINTNERS PAY CALISTOGA CELLARS TO MAKE ANY OF THESE CHANGES OR WILL THEY CONTINUE TO PLEAD WITH GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND WHINE THAT THE RULES THAT DIDN'T EXIST TEN YEARS AGO SHOULD BE RETROACTIVELY APPLIED TO CALISTOGA CELLARS?

Little Calistoga Cellars has hired a Washington, D.C.-based PR firm to make their case to the TTB in Washington. I hope they win their case going way. I wish they'd have hired Wark Communications to carry out a communications campaign aimed at  the wine industry. THAT would have been fun if only because one rarely has the opportunity to take ground so high that everyone else looks like snakes when from your vantage point and its so easy to offer a hand to anyone who wants to look at the issue from your higher vantage point.

There are not very many people standing up for Calistoga Cellars, a company that might be in the process of being bent over so hard by the wine industry that they won't feel a thing for a year. When did principles go by the wayside at trade organizations? When did the Napa Valley Vintners decide to take their cues on how to act from the likes of the Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association, The Swift Boaters and Ann Coulter?

Here's the principle that should be adopted:

You don't wait ten years after a winery has been authorized to use a brand name to rip that brand name away from them. Whether it was right or wrong to let a winery use a place name in their brand name, the objection that comes ten years after the brand name is granted comes ten years too late. And before stripping away the brand name that was applied for in good faith and granted in good faith, you look for other alternatives to fix the problem. And if you choose not to take this principled route, then you compensate the people who you are purposely trying to ruin and drive out of business for the benefit of others.

The Theft of Equity in Napa Valley

I'm every bit as strident as Representative Thompson, Bo Barrett of Montelena and others in Napa Valley when it comes to the idea that  American Viticultural Area designations we see on labels really should have integrity! If the wine label's appellation says "Oakville" or "Anderson Valley" then the grapes that went into the wine damn well should have come from Oakville or Anderson Valley.

Toward that end, there is a move to designate the area in and around the town of Calistoga in Northern Napa Valley as an American Viticultural Area. If approved, when a winery puts "Calistoga" on its label, the consumer will know the grapes for that wine were grown in the well-delineated region identified by law as the Calistoga Viticultural Area (whatever that might imply beyond the obvious is up for debate).

However, in a nice piece of reporting by the St. Helena Star, we are reminded that there are an awful lot of folks who in creating this new AVA, have no problem effectively destroying a couple wineries that have been using the term "Calistoga" in the their brand name...WELL BEFORE there was any hint of a Calistoga Viticultural Area. This is wrong.

"Calistoga Cellars owner Roger Louer of St. Helena has been using the Calistoga brand for years and contends he would lose millions of dollars if he is forced to give up the label. He also sees no point in using Calistoga grapes since he owns vineyards in St. Helena and throughout the Napa Valley."

The contention among those that have little concern about the wineries that, up until now, have been building a business called Calistoga Cellars and Calistoga Estate is that with the new AVA coming these wineries should not be allow to use this brand unless all the grapes they use in their wines come from Calistoga based vineyards.  But no one every suggested this was a requirement when they founded their winery or when they applied for label approvals. Still, the strident don't seem to care about this unfair backdating of the laws.

"[CA Rep. Mike] Thompson said [John] Manfreda (head of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)) once suggested that Calistoga Cellars and Calistoga Estates might be allowed to print a “disclaimer” on its bottles, exposing the fact that the wine did not come from Calistoga.

Thompson said that wouldn’t solve the problem of false labeling because consumers who buy wine in restaurants off wine lists, see it advertised, read wine reviews and catalogs and use the Internet, would draw the conclusion the wine is from Calistoga."

With all due respect to Representative Thompson, only those who don't understand Americas AVA system would conclude this. All labels must carry a federally approved AVA on their label saying where the grapes came from. The label might read, "2005 Calistoga Cellars, Russian River Valley, Pinot Noir".

The bottom line here is that many in Napa Valley and their representative in Congress want to take away what was legally given to these Calistoga wineries. They have and still do have the right to have the "Calistoga Cellars or Estate brands. They were approved. The labels themselves were federally approved. And now, after the fact, the creation of a new Calistoga AVA means they can no longer use the brand names they've built or they have to completely change their entire business model.

The sensible, the neighborly, the right thing to do is to make an exception for "Calistoga Brands" that were in existence before the application for a Calistoga AVA was submitted. Or, someone should be monetarily compensating these winery owners using now legally using "Calistoga" in their brand name for the theft of equity that is being suggested.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

Napa Valley Vintners
"The question is not why the chicken crossed the road, but how much we can charge for a taste of that chicken."

Constellation CEO
"We are very confident that upon finally crossing the road, the chicken will fit in perfectly to our growing 'Across The Road' portfolio of chickens."

The Wine Spectator
Non Vintage Chicken—The Road
"This is a superb effort by the chicken that we haven't seen in a number of crossings. A lovely blend of supple movement and a robust gate propelled chicken across the street and to a finishing hop upon a smooth, well delineated sidewalk." 94 Points

Randy Dunn
"The chicken has gone completely overboard. This isn't a real crossing. It's a simple, fat dash that is one dimensional. It's time for the chickens to get back to making elegant, balanced crossings."

Gary Vaynerchuk
"Because we're changing the chicken world!!! One Crissy Cross at a time!!"

Wine Distributor
"The Chicken just wants to tear down the system. If the Chicken gets his way and continues to cross the street we'll see more chicks just get run over. I don't think that's what American Chickens want."

Robert Parker, Jr.
"I can't say why the chicken crossed the road. I've not been to a chicken crossing in that region since I was asked not to come there anymore by a number of chickens that didn't appreciate my appraisals of their crossings. However, I will be adding a new chicken crossings reviewer to the staff of the Chicken Advocate because our readers deserve thorough and expert coverage of crossings on that region."

The Publicist
"We wanted to create the greatest crossing ever! Our chicken is dedicated to hands-on crossings that highlight the terroir of the road. This is by far the finest crossing the chicken has ever offered."

The Wine Blogger
I don't care why the chicken crossed the road. I just blog about it for my own pleasure and to try to make chicken crossings more accessible to the average chicken. Before bloggers appeared on the scene the mainstream press ignored the average chicken crossing and focused only on Roosters. Bloggers are taking back Chicken Crossings and putting them in the hands of the chickens again!"

Jonathan Nossiter, Director of Mondovino
It's the same old crossing—bland, simple, undistinctive. This chicken doesn't care about the character of the crossing. It merely wants to get to the other side and it's the kind of crossing that destroy the distinctive regional character that has defined chicken crossings for centuries.

UPDATE:

Inertia Beverage Group
"We don’t care why the chicken crossed the road, we just want to help that chicken cross it faster, more efficiently, and more profitably.”

Jeff Stai, Twisted Oak
Because that's where the rubber (chicken) meets the road.

You Must Love This...How Could You Not?

I think I've mentioned before just how much I enjoyed it when Wark Communications was working with Roshambo Winery. I truly got an education. It is rare to find a winery that in addition to being committed to making unique and fine wines, are also committed, naturally, to doing things differently.

Roshambo does do things differently. As is almost always the case, this difference is purely a result of the disposition of those who run the joint. Naomi Brilliant and her partner Scott Keneally simply don't think the way other vintners do. And while working in the same wine industry as other vintners, their approach to working that industry is different too. Here is a perfect example of that difference:

I really would like to see more wineries go outside the box. This is a regular refrain, this request for something different. But there does seem to be a wine marketing template that is closely adhered to by nearly every winery in America. I admit to contributing to the maintenance of that template. That's a shame too. But what's interesting and significant about Roshambo's unique approach to marketing wine is how they motivate and encourage others to take a similarly irreverent approach to wine. Witness this "60 Second Weekend" VideoCast produced by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat concerning the recently completed Roshambo Rock, Paper Scissors Competition

You must love this!! And you should reward the folks at Roshambo with multiple wine purchases...particularly their 2006 Dry Creek Valley THE OBVIOUS Sauvignon Blanc.

The Wine Bloggers Conference is Here!

Is it true that wine blogging is changing the wine writing genre?

Of course it's true. This medium, blogging, has become the medium of choice for those that want to say something about wine. It has also attracted a notable number of traditional wine publishers as well as respected wine writers. Blog reviews of wine sell the product. Wine Blogs often break important wine-related stories. They even have the potential to set the agenda as to what is being discussed and thought out with earnest among members of the wine community.

So, it should be no surprise that Wine Bloggers from across the country will be gathering to discuss their place in the world at:

THE FIRST ANNUAL WINE BLOGGERS CONFERENCE

Organized by Open Wine Consortium and Zephyr Adventures, this first conference is set for October 24-26 in Santa Rosa, California in Sonoma County. Initial sponsors include The Sonoma County Tourism Bureau, Inertia Beverage Group, Sebastiani Vineyards, Cruvee, the Sonoma County Vintners Association, and the Sonoma Wine Grape Commission. And this is just the start

(Anyone wanting to help sponsor this Bloggers Conference, simply contact me!)

This is the first time that wine bloggers from across the country have had the opportunity to gather together. And this seems odd in a way. The wine blogging community is a somewhat tight group despite the fact that there are hundreds of us communicating with tens of thousands (millions?) of wine lovers and the wine curious.

There is a lot that wine bloggers could and will benefit from discussing face to face:
-Journalistic ethics
-Monetizing their blogs
-Strategies to expand their audience
-Using blogging to bring change to the industry
-New tools for wine bloggers
-The potential of wine blogger networks to expand an audience
-Moving from the blog format to traditional journalism
-How best to interact with publicists
-Using your blog to promote your business
-How to best communicate reviews of wine

The list is long.

I'll most certainly be at this first Wine Bloggers Conference. My real hope is that it attracts a huge gathering of bloggers and others interested in wine blogging. I hope the event will draw attention to this new medium for wine writers. I hope it will spur wineries and others in the wine industry to think hard about the impact that blogging has on their businesses.

NOW...GO SIGN UP!!

Grape Radio and Wine & Spirits Mag--Big Winner!

H U G E  congratulations go out to Grape Radio and Wine & Spirits Magazine. Both were award winners at the 2008 James Beard Awards.

Grape Radio won BEST WEBCAST for their "Stewards of the Land" broadcast hosted by Jay Selman, Brian Clark and Eric Anderson. This comes on the heels of their being chosen best Wine Podcast/Video Blog at the American Wine Blog Awards. These guys have produced high quality, very serious work since launching Grape Radio...way back when? Seems like it's been around for a very long time.

Wine & Spirits Magazine won (again!) for BEST WRITING ON SPIRITS, WINE & BEER with David Darlington's "Post Modern Deliciousness: The World According to Clark Smith", from the April 2007 issue. Darlington, best known for his book, Angels' Visit, has regularly published his work in W&S. The Magazine itself has published numerous James Bear Award Winners, testament surely to the outstanding editing at this magazine.

 

Wine Needs George Clooney

I was watching a little television this weekend. For some reason, I kept coming across Clooney in a variety of different roles and it occurred to me that Wine needs George Clooney...or at least a Clooneyesque replacement.

Guys like George Clooney. Well, they like what George Clooney portrays.

First, he always gets the girl. He is, in fact, the only guy on my wife's laminated card and I suspect he's on just about every over 35 married woman's laminated card.

Second, he's a very good dude. That is, he's the kind of guy that other guys would like to hang with and watch a boxing match, play some golf, lie about woman with or watch some football with.

Third, Clooney looks great without looking foppish or too put together...the kind of appearance most men want desperately to be able to pull off.

BUT...you never see him or his characters drinking wine and enjoying it, let alone talking about. We in the wine industry need George Clooney to portray a girl-getting, good looking dude in a blockbuster wherein he also makes wine drinking and appreciating wine look like the coolest thing since single malt scotch.

In this never-to-be-made blockbuster, while getting the girl, hanging out with his dudes, wearing really finely cut sports jackets, Khakis and mock turtles, while bantering very wittily and while embarking on a one-man crusade to take down some foppish, powerful jerk that kicked his dog, Clooney also needs to display an independent passion for wine that is in no way dependent on ratings and numbers, but born of palate confidence a knowledge of wine's history, lots of experience drinking and collecting the stuff, while being not quite—but almost—obsessed with the drink.

While taking on the Dog-Kicker, Clooney (the brilliant guy who dropped out of grad school to work for the CIA to save the world but got disillusioned and started his own private detective agency and is very happy not using his brilliance but rather catching cheating wives and tracking down insurance cheats) needs to hang with buddies like Dennis Leary (the rich banker buddy), Ray Liotta (The adulterous, former high school football star buddy) and Viggo Mortensen (best friend and rising star in some clandestine government intelligence agency). They get together often and there's always wine involved. For example, while they are fishing on Viggo's boat and before our hero explains he's about to commit an illegal deed to finally take revenge on the Dog Kicker, Clooney pulls out some bottle and says something like, "Boys, behold the pride of the Rhone—it's great juice that will caress your tongue more fully than Maggie Feinstein used to back at Garrison High—and the great thing is, no one will call you desperate for putting your tongue down deep into this beauty!" And they proceed to drink the wine, talk a little about it without ever using wine-geek words while reminiscing about Maggie, her tongue and Ray Liotta's unpleasant memory of tripping on the five yard line, not making into the end zone to win the state championship and how his life went down hill ever since.

Wine needs George Clooney desperately.

There is nothing like pop culture to revitalize ideas, provoke curiosity among the masses, or take a niche product and turn it into a phenomenon. If you think wine is more than a niche product, then show me the placard adorning the side of a football stadium that advertising Merlot.

I don't think the upcoming movies about the Judgment of Paris is going to do for wine or Napa Valley what Sideways did for Pinot Noir. I could be wrong. But I don't think so.

The key to bringing wine from niche to mainstream is turning men from beer to wine. That means reinventing the image of wine from a rich man's indulgence to something ruggedly cool. I'm not talking "beer rugged" where the drink simply becomes an easy to drink alcohol-delivery vehicle conveniently bottled in easy-to-swig, hand-fitting vessels. Rather, wine needs to be transformed into a different kind of idea; something that the generally self-conscious American male can pick up and drink and not be accused of going soft.

Wine Needs George Clooney.

George, if you read Fermentation e-mail me...we'll work on the script together. Plus, I think I can get you some really great wine out of the effort!

The Wine Spout Vs. The Arcane

I'm always somewhat gratified and curious when internal wine industry debates spill over into the general media and into the laps of the average consumer. Such is the case with this Reuters article examining Alice Feiring's concerns for and criticisms of the 100 point rating system, the dominance of Robert Parker's palate, the "internationalization" of wine styles and her view of the general shitty condition of most expensive California wines.

I have a hard time stepping back and trying to appreciate how the average wine drinker will react to articles that examine what it means to rate a wine on a 100 points scale and the consequences of powerful critics. Do they even care? Do they note the headline then quickly move on to something else out of boredom the way I do when I see headlines concerning the mental state of Brittany Spears?

I kind of think it's the latter. Why would anyone who buys wine by multiple liters in a single package care whether wine from California is any good, if Robert Parker has a hold on the imagination of winemakers or biodynamically grown grapes deliver a sense of place. The real concern is whether the box will fit on the top shelf of the fridge and whether or not the spout will leak.

Richard Cartiere

Fuck!!

I can not begin to explain how angry, upset and bitter I'm made by the news that Richard Cartiere has died. At 51, Rich was among the top true wine journalists in America, and a friend who never failed in always being honest, forthright, and filled with conviction.

I didn't know of his condition. He never mentioned it in our regular and many conversations. I spoke with him only a few days ago about playing Golf and promising not to laugh at each other.

Rich was guy who never let me get away with anything. I'll never forget calling him years ago to pitch a story idea for his Wine Market Report newsletter and his response: "Tom, for God sake please tell me you can do better than that. Now try again and get it right this time because the story you are trying to pitch is a great one, but you should really do it justice."

Rich made me think, smile, and laugh and made me better at what I do.

And I'm so pissed he's gone I can barely control my anger. It's beyond unfair and my reaction suggests I'm entirely unsuited to growing older because I have no patience for its consequences.

Rich was so good at breaking news and identifying substantial trends in the wine industry. By every measure he was outstanding at what he did. And to boot he had a rare integrity. At one point in our relationship Rich found himself in a position where he was forced to write a story in a trade publication that would end up making me look like shit in front of the entire industry. He was not in control of the situation but was nonetheless obligated to participate in it. He called me and told me, "Tom I'm about to screw you and there's nothing I or you can do about it so be prepared!" The person who should have made that call had no intention of warning me. And Rich had no obligation to do so. But he did.

Rich made my participation in the wine industry much more satisfying and knowing him and spending time talking with him as we did regularly made my world far more interesting and satisfying.

This news of his death just wrong, in every way.  I'm terribly sorry for his partner Richard and all his friends. 

Steve Heimoff and the Active Mind

Isn't it true that many bloggers embrace the idea that what they are doing is somewhat rebellious? Subversive? We very much like the idea that bloggers are the "alternative" to the "mainstream press" or "mainstream gatekeepers"; that, in the case of wine blogging, for instance, they are democratizing access to the way wine is presented in the culture.

There is a good deal of truth to these assumptions. I don't spend any time questioning the notion that the explosion in the number of those utilizing the blog publishing format has changed the wine writing genre. If nothing else, this development has created a power shift. The power that once sat in the hands of a very tiny number of publishers and writers to set the intellectual and popular agenda as to what is important about wine and in the wine world has been dispersed as a result of the emergence of the wine blogging community. These publishers still wield tremendous power to set this kind of an agenda, but that power is severely diminished.

However, I think that rebellious quality that is happily embraced by the wine blogger, and bloggers in every other field, has seen its hay day.

The emergence of Steve Heimoff into the world of wine blogging makes me think this.

Today we have a number of Wine Spectator writers blogging. Two Wine & Spirit Magazine writers are blogging. A New York Times wine writer is blogging. A Food & Wine editor is blogging. And with the Wine Enthusiast's West Coast Editor Heimoff now launching a wine blog and with another blog administered by Wine Enthusiast, it's all but confirmed that the mainstream wine media has seen the power of the blogging format and decided it is good and they too will embrace it.

What once was legitimately considered a fringe endeavor should really be understood as mainstream today. And just as with the paper and ink publishing format, the big question in the blog publishing format is who has the gravitas and who has the eyeballs. Answers to these two questions will determine what and who is important in the world of wine blogging.

If Steve Heimoff's blog were to end up attracting a lot of eyeballs then it would be fair to say that HE is important in the world of wine blogging because he comes to it with built in gravitas that very few others scratching out words on a keyboard can match.

I've been reading Steve Heimoff in the pages of the Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast for upwards of 20 years now. Steve's writing voice and his approach to covering the world of wine strikes me as perfectly suited to the still somewhat rebellious and "alternative" nature of the wine blog world. Steve has never, as far as I can tell, flinched form saying what is on his mind or from criticizing where criticism is due. He has never been a rah rah, slavishly publishing the make-happy words and assertions of the industry's marketers and public relations folk who really hoped he would.

The point, of course, is that the most talented and most read writers in the traditional wine publishing world are in part migrating over to the blogging world. The reason is simple: traditional publishing is not well suited to active minds that like to communicate.

Think of it this way. Paper-based publications are quickly filling the role of being the accessory that reminds us of what interests us—like the Mickey Mouse watch worn by those who delight in ironic pop culture symbolism. The blog publishing format is becoming the source of the substance of our interests.

I've subscribed to Steve's blog feed and look forward to having a new, regularly updated source of substance.