Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

The Return of My Wine Sniffing Nose

A big concern of mine when I chose to stop smoking two weeks ago was that sometime about now I'd find myself balled up in the corner of my office, sitting on the floor combating withdrawals. My biggest concern was that I'd give in and start smoking again. Turns out neither of those things have happened. But something has happened on the way to Ex-smokerdom.

I got my sense of smell back. Or at least my nose's last few forays into a wine glass and into other aroma-worth venues proved to be enhanced experiences well beyond what I ad become accustomed to over the past decade or so. But what's interesting is that I don't seem to have an enhanced sense of taste back.

Now, this seems odd to me since it is the nose in combination with taste buds that deliver our sense of taste. I suppose this means that my taste buds have not recovered, or at least they are recovering at a slower pace.

Another drink-related revelation in connection with stopping smoking came the other night. I had long suspected that my appreciation for brown spirits had a great deal to do with the impact 80 or 100 proof spirits had on my palate. That is, being much stronger than wine, I was able to better appreciate them, than wine, given the diminished state of my nose and palate after 20 some odd years of smoking. It turns out that with my sniffer in better shape than ever, I am still devoted to brown spirits as much as I always was. In fact, even more.

I honestly expected that if everyone was correct, that if my sense of taste and smell was going to return, that I'd feel a new compulsion to replace my bourbon intake with more wine intake since I'd be better able to appreciate the product of the grape with my newly repaired sniffer and taster. Not so much.

Overall, the effect of stopping smoking on my intake of beverages has been an outstanding experience.

And to anyone considering stopping smoking, let me say this: The patches and pills and potions that now exist to help quell the withdrawals are really remarkable. This attempt at quitting smoking has been much easier than past attempts. I attribute this not only to my motivation, but to the wonderful drugs and drug delivery vehicles that American pharmaceutical companies have given us.

A Collision of Wine, Politics and Commerce—How You Can Help

AND NOW A VERY SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR, URGING WINE LOVERS WHO CARE ABOUT FAIR TRADE, THEIR RIGHTS AND THE FREE MARKET TO GET INVOLVED
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For Immediate Release: November 9, 2009

Politics, Wine and Fair Trade Collide at Online Wine Auction

Online Fundraising Auction Supports Efforts to Give Wine Merchants
Right To Ship Wine, Consumer right to buy the wines they want

(Sacramento, CALIF)—Beginning today and running through November 19th, Specialty Wine Retailers Association (SWRA) and WineCommune.com are sponsoring the "Wine Without Borders" Online Fundraising Wine Auction. The online auction of wine will raise funds to support the effort to overturn state-sponsored discrimination against  online commerce and give wine lovers real access to the wines they want, but can't find at their local wine outlets.

To view the various lots up for bid in the auction, wine lovers can go to: www.winecommune.com/help/swra.cfm. Wine lovers that support free trade in wine can quickly register, start bidding on wines and know they are helping the effort to bring down protectionist wine shipping laws.

"Between 2000 and 2008, more than $65 million was given to state political campaigns by special interests that oppose the idea of wine lovers buying wine online," said Tom Wark, Executive Director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association. "We shouldn't be surprised then that today, in the 21st century, 36 states help these same well-healed special interests with protectionist laws that ban the shipment of wine into their states."

Among the wines on the block at the Wine Without Borders Online Fundraising Auction are: a 3 liter bottle of 2000 Chateau La Mission Haut Brion, Martinelli Jackass Vineyard Zinfandel, Bordeaux futures including cases of 2007 Chateau Petrus and Chateau Mouton Rothschild, a collection of 2004 Syrahs from across California, 1996  Veuve Cliquot La Grande Dame Champagne, a 6 liter bottle of 2006 White Cottage Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and many more hard to find and rare wines. In all there are more than 90 lots up for bid.

Specialty Wine Retailers Association is the only national organization that is working to overturn protectionist anti-wine shipping laws, give wine merchants access to the national wine market and allowing consumers to finally gain access to the wines they want by working to change laws in various states.

The proceeds of the "Wine Without Borders" auction will go toward helping fund the SWRA efforts across the country, including lobbying and media relations efforts.

"The 'Wine Without Borders' Online Wine Auction also gives consumers the opportunity to get involved and help with this effort to open up online wine sales across the country," said Wark. "To some this cause seems trivial, but in addition to supporting corruption and blocking wine lovers from accessing the wines they want, states that ban retailer to consumer shipping are losing millions of dollars in tax revenue that could be earned by simply letting their  citizens buy wines from out of state wine retailers when they can't find them at home."

About Specialty Wine Retailers Association
Specialty Wine Retailers Association is a national organization of fine wine retailers, wine clubs, auction houses and consumers that advocate for fair and well-regulated wine shipping laws. For more information about SWRA see http://www.specialtywineretailers.org or on Facebook at the Specialty Wine Retailers Fan Page.

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Contact:
Tom Wark, Specialty Wine Retailers Association

707-935-4424 • twark@specialtywineretailers.org

Media interested in interviewing Tom Wark or wine merchants involved in this effort can contact Tom Wark at the above email address and phone number. A list of Auction lots is also available by contacting Tom Wark.

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WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED WINE BLOG

Fraud & Terroir

With the report out of Oregon late last month that the Geological Society of America poo pooed the notion that the "Minerally" taste in a wine has anything to do with the minerals in the soils that the wine's grapes were grown, we are once again reminded that the notion of "Terroir" may just be the a fraudulent, if not romantic, idea that marketers and PR types like me like to flog in front of the buying public.

But isn't it really one of the most compelling ideas you can imagine: The wine in your glass that comes from a small, ancient vineyard in Tuscany gives you a connection to that piece of soil because the wine TASTES like that soil. You visit this unique place via your taste buds.

But it just ain't true.

The announcement by the GSA got lots of coverage, including in Decanter, The NY Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

But dispelling the idea that a wine's minerality comes from the minerals in the soils isn't such a big deal. Most thinking people know that's a little bit absurd, especially if they've been reading the literature over the past few years. What would be a big deal is if the idea that the difference between appellations could be tasted in the wines. The fact is, there is not specific "Russian River Valley Pinot Noir " taste. There is no specific "Alexander Valley Chardonnay" taste. This is a myth.

Whether it's an appellation association or a winery telling consumers they can taste the region in their wines, both border on fraud. I'd be willing to bet that if you lined up 10 different Pinots from ten different CA appellations, very few people in the world could correctly identify the appellation of even three of the wines.

That said, I am very attracted to the idea of promoting the special characteristics of small, single vineyard plots. Here is where I think consumers can be led down a path that connects soil and climate to taste in a very direct way. It's at this micro level when the interplay of soil composition, aspect of the land, micro climate, vine density, vine age, cover crop, irrigation routine and winemaker interaction can be explored in detail and some very good estimates can be made on how they affect the final wine.

Getting It The Old Fashioned Way

It shouldn't be too difficult to send back a glass or a bottle of wine that your server delivered to your table. After all, if you are worried about what your server will think just keep in mind they are not responsible for the production of the wine so it's not likely they'll take offense.

But what about when you send back a mixed drink, a cocktail, because you don't like the way it was made and therefore is not what you ordered—even though the bartender heard you loud and clear? In this case the person who sat the drink in front of you is exactly the person who produced it. What's the protocol for this situation.

I was out the other night at the bar at a wonderful restaurant in Napa. I ordered a Old Fashioned, that most classic of cocktails. What was set in front of me was a brownish, fizzy liquid that more resembled pond water than one of the great cocktails in the history of cocktails.

The problem I faced was that this is the mixture that probably 80% of bartenders will serve you when you ask for an Old Fashioned today. Yet, it clearly is not what a true old fashioned is supposed to be. But even more important is that this is the drink that most people are looking for when they order an Old Fashioned.

Do I send it back? After all, the bartender gave me what most of those ordering an Old Fashioned would expect, even though it wasn't a real old fashioned.

I did. I sent it back for this reason: I ordered a specific drink. I know how that drink is made. I know how that drink tastes. Finally, I sent it back because no one ever got kick out of a bar for not liking a mixed drink.

These days an Old Fashioned is like to be made like this:
1. Place a cube of sugar, a cherry and an orange in a glass
2. Muddle contents of glass
3. Fill glass with ice
4. Pour in Bourbon (or Brandy if you are in the Midwest)
5. Top with various amounts of Soda Water or 7-up

This is not an Old Fashioned. This is what a once simple and stately and classic cocktail became during prohibition when much alcohol being served was horrid and you needed something with that horrid tasting alcohol to mask it's bad nature. This mixture now called the "Old Fashioned" lived on after Prohibition and became even further bastardized in some cases, but slowly became accepted as an Old Fashioned, barely resembling what it really should be, which is this:

1. Place cube of sugar or simple syrup in an Old Fashioned Glass

2. Put a teaspoon and a half of water and two or three shakes of bitter with sugar

3. Dissolve Sugar and mix together bitters and water and sugar

4. Add ice to top of glass and stir for about a minute

5. Twist an orange peel liberally over the ice, release oil mist into glass

6. Add one and a half ounces of bourbon, stir again

7. Garnish with cherry and/or an orange peel.

Notice: No muddling. No splash or soda. No splash of water. It is the simplest of cocktails: Spirit, bitters, sugar, water.

The other night, after I sent back my Old Fashioned and order a Manhattan as a substitute, I eventually wanted a second drink. I decided I would tell the bartender exactly what I wanted and I described to him how I wanted him to make my Old Fashioned. He followed orders perfectly, noting along the way that he'd never heard of making an Old Fashioned like this. 

I don't like to send back drinks at a bar. It calls too much attention to me, puts the bartender in a pissy mood and makes me out as a difficult customer. On the other hand I want the drink I want.

So, when in the mood for an Old Fashioned these days, I first try to assess the bar and its staff, guessing whether or not I'm in a place that knows how to make a real Old Fashioned. I generally determine it's not, if only because the odds, shaped over decades of bartenders being taught to make pond water rather than a classic, are against me. What works best it to ask the bartender for "a classic Old Fashioned—No muddling please". This I think will force them to ask exactly how I want it made. But the thing here is that they are asking, rather than me telling. It sets a different tone.

That said, I firmly believe that when you are presented with a mixed drink or cocktail that is not what you wanted and when you know the drink was not made correctly, you should send it back, the same way you'd send back a bottle or glass of wine that is flawed.

The Choices We Make

Most people understand the cost of smoking. These costs tend most often to be measured in years taken off a smokers life. For reasons I think you can understand, I prefer not to think of the costs of my 20+ years of smoking in these terms.

However, there are ways to appreciate the cost of smoking that not only I but my wine loving readers CAN appreciate: The financial outlay.

Let's assume I'm cheap and buy a pack and a half of cigarettes on a daily basis costing $4.00 per pack (and that is cheap her in California). This makes my annual outlay for smoking at $2,190.00. That number may or may not look like much to you. However, there are different ways of looking at what $2,190.00 represents to people like us:

1. Five Cases of 2006 Stony Hill Chardonnay
2. Two bottles of 1995 Chateau Petrus
3. Round-trip airfare to Paris, 7 day car rental, seven days in Bordeaux hotel
4. One VinoTemp 280-Bottle Wine Cooling Cabinet
5. Sixty one cases of Two-Buck Chuck
6. Antique Georgian Ship's Glass Wine Decanter c. 1795
7. Six Gifts of Monthly, 2-bottle Wine Club shipments
8. Two "All American Day Passes" to the Napa Valley Auction
9. 137 Shares of Constellation Brands stock
10. Two bottles of 1990 Krug Clos du Mesnil

I'm not sure which of these alternatives to purchasing 10,950 cigarettes I'd go for first. But at this point nearly all of them would do just fine.

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Quitting Smoking: Day 6 Update
I'm still a quitter. Though, I still think of myself as a smoker. That has to change. The past couple of days the cravings have gotten a bit more intense. Learning to embrace and feel the intensity of the cravings, observe them and watch them fade, giving me the strength to know I can overcome them when they return. Sleep is still not as sound as I'd like. Not too much weight gain yet. Becoming connoisseur of sunflower seeks. (prefer the larger variety).

The Wheels Fell Off The Wagon in Saint Helena

The city of Saint Helena in the middle of Napa Valley wants to prohibit tasting rooms in its city limits from tasting and selling any wines that do not carry the "Napa Valley" appellation or a Napa Valley sub-appellation on the label.

What I can't figure out is why the Saint Helena City Council doesn't just go all the way and prohibit the sale or tasting of any wines that don't cary the "Saint Helena" sub appellation on the bottle. With the approval of this new regulation, the Saint Helena City Council seems to want to appear as parochial and silly as they possibly can. Why take half measures? Why not jump the shark completely and appear completely nuts?

And it IS nuts to prohibit the sale and tasting of non-Napa Valley wines in it's city's tasting rooms. Is there really a danger that Saint Helena-based tasting rooms will degrade the Saint Helena or Napa Valley brands if they pour tastes of the wineries' Mendocino Pinot Noirs? Maybe there is.

I'm not a free market purist. How can you be when there is so much at stake where the environment and community planning is a critical part of the quality of life of any region. But actually dictating the appellation of wines that can and cannot be poured? When this sort of thing takes up city council time hasn't the moment come when the issue of disbanding the council for lack of legitimate things to do needs to be debated? Clearly the wheels have fallen off the wagon at Saint Helena's City Hall.

Hat tip to Marcia @ Cornucopia Creations for alerting me to the story.

Why Are America's Wine Wholesalers Giggling?

“We have a system set up in this country for distribution (of wine) that is designed to create accountability and responsibility. Amazon to their credit tried to abide by the laws that created accountability. When they found out they were unable to do so in a cost effective way, then they had to at some point bail out. The larger issue is if Amazon and its resources couldn’t do it legally, obviously these other companies aren’t doing it legally and taking advantage of the lack of state enforcement.”
Craig Wolf, CEO, Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association

Mr. Wolf should be extraordinarily proud of the success that he, as CEO of the largest wine wholesaler organization in America, and individual wholesalers have achieved in their attempt to limit as much as they can consumer access to wines. Their latest victory is Amazon.com's retreat from selling wine on-line. The inane, archaic, and wholesaler-supported regulations that define the three-tier system are what Amazon.com was up against. America's wine wholesalers support these anti-consumer, anti-competitive regulations precisely to be able to blunt and stop entry into the wine business by companies like Amazon who might be able to demonstrate the nonsensical nature of much of the three-tier system, not to mention the redundancy inherent in having state's mandate the use of wholesalers to get wine to market.

However, that said I think it's important to look closely at the statement above, made by Mr. Wolf in an interview with Wine & Spirits Daily.

“We have a system set up in this country for distribution (of wine) that is designed to create accountability and responsibility."
Even if this were true, what are the odds that a system designed in the 1930s, when there were hardly any wines being produced in the United States, when Americans rarely drank wine and when it was impossible to ship wine across the country without ruining it, would have any relevance to today's wine market? That's a rhetorical question. What was once a system set up to give states accountability and promote responsibility has turned into a welfare and bailout system for America's wine wholesalers. "Designed to create accountability and responsibility" is really just a euphemism for "a system that guarantees wine wholesalers control of the market at the expense of wineries, retailers and consumers".

"Amazon to their credit tried to abide by the laws that created accountability. When they found out they were unable to do so in a cost effective way, then they had to at some point bail out."
Wholesalers has spent millions and millions of dollars that only they in the middle tier of the three tier system could afford to spend, to influence legislatures to pass and keep in place laws that make it as difficult as possible for companies like Amazon to safely bring wine to the consumer; wines that the wholesalers have no interest in bringing to the consumer. What Mr. Wolf does not say is that there are any number of ways the regulations concerning the distribution of wine could be changed that not only allowed for accountability, but also provided consumers with real choices, created a fair playing field for all parts of the three tier system, promoted competition, and forced wine wholesalers across the country to actually work for the money they make rather than having it handed to them on a government issued plate.

"The larger issue is if Amazon and its resources couldn’t do it legally, obviously these other companies aren’t doing it legally and taking advantage of the lack of state enforcement.”
Mr. Wolf is making statements here about which he knows nothing. He doesn't name the names of those that he says are shipping illegally for a very good reason: he's a lawyer and knows better than to make that kind of reckless accusation. But more importantly, he gets the whole issue wrong. The larger issue is not about illegal shipping. The larger issue is why wholesalers spend millions of dollars to preserve a system that in states across the country produces terrible selections of wine relative to what's really available in the U.S. Market? Why do wine wholesalers ALWAYS oppose proposals that allow consumers to access the vibrant selection of wines in the U.S marketplace, forcing them to choose from the rudimentary selection that wholesalers want consumers to stick with?

The bottom line? Right now, across the country, wine wholesalers are jumping with joy, laughing and giggling uncontrollably because they were able to successfully thwart a program that would have given consumers better access to wine.

Yes, I know its just more bitching and moaning. Fine. If you want to do something about this there are some options.

1. Find out who your STATE legislators are and write them telling them you want to be able to have wine shipped to you from both wineries and retailers.

2. Educate yourself about retailer-to-consumer shipping laws and politics.

3. Educate yourself about winery-to-consumer shipping laws and politics.

4. Become a Facebook Fan of Specialty Wine Retailers Association

5. Write Craig Wolf and express yourself regarding wholesalers' agenda.

The Wine Of My Dreams

Dreams. The kind you have when slumbering.

I can say without equivocation that one of the effects of having quit smoking so very recently is an enhanced vividness of my nighttime dreams. I know they are vivid because even now, a couple hours after waking up, I can still recall the brand, varietal and vintage of the wines that were in my dream last night. This is for me, to say the least, unusual.

1997 Peter Michael "L'apres Midi"
1990 Foppiano Vineyards Russian River Valley Petite Sirah

I cannot recall ever remembering specific wines that appeared in my dreams. In fact, I can't ever recall wine playing a role in my dreams—though this may be a function of me simply not remembering my dreams usually since wine has been a fairly important part of my life.

I've drunk both these wines in my waking life. The Peter Michael "L'Apres Midi" is a Sauvignon Blanc" that I included in a tasting two years ago when I was investigating the aging potential of California Sauvignon Blancs. If I recall it was in fact very drinkable, but did not quite live up to a Mondavi SB from the same vintage with which it was paired. Foppiano Vineyards was my first client when I entered the wine PR Business in 1990 as an associate at a PR firm. Louis Foppiano was responsible for teaching me a great deal about the producing end of the business. I had the 1990 Petite Sirah on a number of occasions and it was included in a 20 year vertical tastings of Petite Sirahs we did for the media at one point.

I don't know that having these or any wines in my dreams have any real meaning. But then again, I know less about dream interpretation than I do about astrology. Luckily for me, the Internet is the great repository of expert information:

Dreammoods.com:
To dream of drinking wine, symbolizes festivity, celebration, companionship, satisfaction and success. You are content with the way your life is going. The dream may also be a pun on "whining" and how you like to whine about things. In particular, to dream that you are drinking red wine, signifies excess and sensuality. If you are drinking communion wine in your dream, then it represent some spiritual celebration or ceremony.

My Dreamvisions.com
If you dream that you are drinking alcohol, consider your feelings during the dream. Drinking can represent:
-A desire to numb-out and escape a problem or situation
-A desire to feel more relaxed or more interactive with others
-A desire to be accepted or go along with the crowd, especially to the detriment of yourself or your integrity
-Boredom or the need for more fun or excitement in your real life in general (totally separate from actual alcohol)

10,000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustave Hindman Miller
-To dream of drinking wine, forebodes joy and consequent friendships.
-To dream of breaking bottles of wine, foretells that your love and passion will border on excess.
-To see barrels of wine, prognosticates great luxury. To pour it from one vessel into another, signifies that your enjoyments will be varied and you will journey to many notable places.
-To dream of dealing in wine denotes that your occupation will be remunerative.
-For a young woman to dream of drinking wine, indicates she will marry a wealthy gentleman, but withal honorable.

At some point in my life I'm going to have to investigate the origin of dream interpretations; I'm going to have to investigate what must be a fascinating subject: how dream professionals can place such specific meanings on symbols, things and places that wind up in peoples dreams.

For now, I merely find it interesting that upon stopping smoking my dreams have become so vivid in every way, including allowing me to recall two specific wines that were in my dream and the specific setting where they appeared.

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Quitting Smoking: Day 4 Update
Cravings are still with me, but appear to be less intense than yesterday when upon finishing a meal the only thing I could think of was smoking. The distraction was so intense that it took me a minute to figure out that the reason I could not open my car door was because it wasn't actually my car i was trying to open. All in all, however, the cravings seem much less at this moment. No wheezing, either. And I can clearly take deeper breaths. The oral fixation remains with me and I'm starting to think that if it is going to be around for some time I'll need to figure out something to quell it with besides hard candy.

The Coming Taste of Wine

Over the years there were some people who, upon learning that I was a smoker, became very interested in getting me to quit. When they learned I worked in the wine business, they almost inevitably crafted a "stop smoking argument" that looked like this:

"Tom, you're in the wine business and really NEED to be able to taste and evaluate wine. How can you do that when you are layering smoke over your palate. If you quit, just imagine how much more sensitive your palate will be. Just imagine how much more you will get out of the wines you are tasting"

It's not a bad argument, but honestly my first reaction to it was, "hey, I can taste wine with the best of them. There's nothing wrong with my palate." The fact is, the most acutely sensitive part of my palate has always been its reaction to textures. I have long made determinations about wines based on the texture they deliver. Thinking about it now, this may be because my sense of smell and taste have been dulled by Pall Mall Light 100s.

That said, the anticipation that I will be opened up to a new world of taste sensations upon quitting smoking is a very strong motivator as I work through this transition from smoker to non-smoker. Unfortunately, by all accounts I'm going to have to work through a few other things first. Experts tell me that I'll experience the following:

1. Weight Gain
It's a result of feeding the oral fixation and, they say, the fact that foods now taste so good. I really don't want to gain weight.

2. Constipation
Wonderful!! Apparently, nicotine has a laxative effect.They say its a temporary condition. But that's all I'm going to write about this.

3. Withdrawal Symptoms
Yep. They nailed that one.

4. Irritability
I'm told I should avoid stressful situations for a couple weeks. Otherwise those close to me will be exposed to a touchy disposition.

5. Insomnia
A little bit of this has already kicked in. But there are good drugs for this, so I'm not worried.

After the constipation and irritability are gone, I should be in a good position to start to evaluate whether a smoke-free palate is indeed a better palate. As I type, I'm formulating a plan whereby I can test the idea that food and drink will taste better and be more intense once the smoke and nicotine no longer inhibit communication between my taste buds and my brain. I'm imagining putting wines of supposedly complex flavors in front of me and pairing them with foods that are said to both contrast and compliment the wines. I'll need to rely on palate memory to determine if there is a real difference.

I'm looking forward to this experiment

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Quitting Smoking: Day 3 Update
The mind still imagines a cigarette between my lips and smoke rushing into my lungs. These are real, vivid images that turn into compulsions as quickly as the snap of the finger. Have consumed two small lollipops already this morning in fighting off these desires. Regular and very deep breaths help too, as does the consumption of copious amounts of water. So far, concentration is good this morning. Need distractions. Good ones. Really good ones.

Wine Tools and Otherwise

The implements and tools associated with the simple act of drinking wine are so varied and so numerous, you'd think it a complicated thing, when in fact, it's merely a matter of opening a package, pouring a liquid into a vessel and lifting that vessel to one's lips. A simple corkscrew will do. A glass of any kind will hold the wine. And any functioning mouth and throat will deliver the wine to its destination.

Still we apparently need 600 different kinds of corkscrews. We need different glasses for every different kind of wine. We need stain resistant drinking shirts. We need aerators to assure the wine is properly jostled before being poured into the glass. We need a secondary vessel to pour the wine into before pouring into the glass.

To get a real sense of the varied implements that have been developed for the simple act of consuming a liquid, go take a look at Wine Enthusiast's Catalog and at the IWA site. 

I couldn't help reflecting on these tools for drinking as I put together the appropriate collection of tools necessary for the simple act of not putting a cigarette in my mouth and smoke into my lungs.

This too is a pretty simple act isn't it. In fact, it amounts to doing nothing at all. And yet, as you can see, the various things I've collected that will help me do nothing are really amazing. To say the least, I'm armed for the non-smoking battle:

Sunflower Seeds
Candy Cigarettes
Altoid mints
Life Savors of various types
Tic Tacs
Nicoderm Nicotine Patches
Chewing Gums
Various lollypops
Fruits of various type
Anti-depressant Budeprion.

Clearly we are dealing here with more than a nicotine addiction. There's  also an oral fixation of 25 some odd years to overcome.

The implements of wine drinking are far more fun to display and use than the implements that go into stopping smoking. That much I know at this point. However, If anyone needs any hard candies, I'm your man.

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DAY 2 UPDATE
The feeling of a tightening of the chest is severe. I'm also very twitchy and not a little hyper. It's hard to sit behind my desk. Powers of concentration are lessoned but have not completely left me. Concentrating on activities of any kind help dismiss cravings for a cigarette that can come and go and come and go in incredibly severe ways. Steps are being taken to rid my home of all aspects of smoking, including a complete cleaning of the office and the installation of pumpkin scented candles. I have enormous thanks to give for the desmokification of my home. And they will be getting those thanks!!

God Bless Those of Mighty Wills

For 28 years my sensual relationship with wine has been marred by a self inflicted handicap. I smoked. Cigarettes, Cigars, and Pipes.

Not any more.

Yesterday at 8am I stopped smoking.

I've done this before. Successfully too. I've successfully stopped smoking four different times....The joke is old isn't it? So has the smelly clothes, ashy desk, bad breath, sneaking out of events to secretly smoke, offending friends and lovers, and shortening my life become old.

This won't be easy. That's why I'm corralling my readers to go along for the ride. Share the pain, if you will. See, here's how I look at it. Being someone who has a certain aversion to both embarrassment and failure, I figure If I'm relating what this process is like to my readers, then there will be a a greater motivation for me to be truly successful this time: You all will know what I'm doing, how I'm doing, whether I'm succeeding..and whether or not I fail.

So,what's it like to quit smoking?

Imagine you are asked to take 2/3 less breaths when you breath. Imagine when you inhale oxygen, you require of yourself that your breaths delivers only 1/3 the oxygen to your lungs than they did the day before. Think about this. Imagine this.

After a while, and it won't be a long while, you are gong to CRAVE oxygen. After a few hours of this self deprivation your chest is going to get tight. Your skin is gong to get tingly. Oh, you'll survive. You'll live. But you'll probably spend your waking hours thinking about those breaths you no longer have; thinking about that oxygen you no longer get to have in your lungs. Odds are after a while of this, maybe 2 days or even two weeks, you'll give in and inhale that luscious, creamy, brain stimulating oxygen, because it feels so damn good in your lungs. Eventually, the pain caused by the deprivation will tighten your chest just enough, will cause enough anxiety, and will distrupt your concentration just enough that you'll say, "screw it!" and take in that extra breath.

That's what its like to stop smoking.

I imagine that an alcoholic trying to stop drinking experiences something similar. I've been blessed with only possessing one real addiction in my life, so I can't say with any first hand experience what stopping drinking is like. But if I'm right and if it is like stopping smoking, then you can be sure that my own measure of empathy for alcoholics has increased.

Why stop now? There is one good reason: The pain of quitting can't possibly be as bad as the pain and consequences of not quitting. It's a simple equation that only very recently was driven home by events and circumstances.

I've got some help with this in the form of patches and pills. And my motivation for stopping this time seems mightier than it has ever been before. I'm smarter today than I was the last time I stopped smoking too. All this bodes well for me. But something else has changed. I've decided to do this in front of an audience.

This means that if you read FERMENTATION on a daily basis, then you will read what I'm doing about staying smoke free, what I'm feeling as I experience a smoke free life, and what it feels like to move from horrific withdrawals to what I know will eventually be a more even keel. This won't replace my ruminations on wine and politics and culture. But for a while it will augment it. 

So, as I hit the "publish" button on this post, I am smoke free for 24 hours.

God Bless those of mighty wills!

Amazon and the Three Tier System of Wine Distribution

When a company of the size, power, influence and lawyering capacity of Amazon.com can't figure out how to get into the wine business, you have to ask yourself, what's wrong with the wine business?

Let me tell you what's wrong: It's the death grip that is the Three Tier System. It's one thing to have each and every state deliver different regulations for the sale of wine. But it's an altogether different thing to have that regulation be in the form of the  stifling, archaic, competition dampening, discriminatory, corrupt and barely useful of the Three Tier System.

I have no insight on the deliberations that went on inside Amazon.com that would lead to them scrapping their program, but I'd bet case to bottle that it had everything to do with the over-regulated structure of the three-tier system that serves the purpose of propping up by state mandate the profits of a tired wholesale tier at the expense of entrepreneurship, consumer access to wine, economic development and the entire wine industry in general.

Take for example the case of shipping wine. Only 13 states allow out-of-state wine retailers to ship wine to their residents, making real access to wine for consumers a joke. And why do most states prohibit this activity? There's no policy basis behind the prohibitions. There is only an obstinate, slavish, pandering dedication on the part of politicians to the money that wine distributors give them in order to keep their out-dated place as the bottleneck inside the three tier system from collapsing under the weight of the reality of a modern communication economy.

Had 50 states allowed direct shipment of wine to consumers from retailers, Amazon would have been in business a year ago and states would have been shoveling tax dollars into their coffers. But no. We need to make sure this doesn't happen. You see, wine is a "special product", as America's wholesalers like to call it. We can't just be carding people at their home then give them the wine they ordered and paid for. UPS and FED-EX drivers are just too dumb to read a drivers license. It's too dangerous.

Another example of the absurdity of regulation in the wine business is the determination by the California Alcohol Beverage Commission that a company that takes a "commission" on the sale of a winery's products for having found and delivered the buyer, is committing a crime. Rendering clarity from that bit of interpretive leap frogging demands the services of a sophist.

There is a wine industry in the United States despite the fact that the three tier system still exists in most states.  The fact that Amazon appears to have dropped its plans to enter the wine business in the United states likely happened because of the Three Tier System. The fact that many states will and are foregoing significant tax revenue is due to the Three Tier System. The fact that consumers can get some of the wines they want happens despite the three tier system.

How Not To Do A Walkaround Wine Tasting

I remember being very, very new to the wine industry. Fresh with a graduate degree and recently hired at a wine PR firm in Santa Rosa called Gracelyn Associates, I knew just enough about wine to get myself in trouble. And of course I did just that.

One of the best places for the wine neophyte to get in trouble is at a large walkaround tasting. That's where I chose to embarrass myself; at my first, large, walk-around wine tasting. I blame my boss and more experienced colleagues. They should have warned me.

I recall walking into the cavernous ballroom and being shocked. All I saw were suits, countless tables manned by more suits, the flash of glasses and wine. Lots and lots of wine. The only thing I knew was that my badge allowed me access to all of it.

This sunday I'll be attending what, by all past accounts, is an outstanding walk-around tasting. It's the Grand Tasting of Pinot On The River at Rodney Strong in Healdsburg. More than 100 Artisan Pinot Noir producers will be pouring multiple bottles of their best. Here's the things I won't do at the Grand Tasting of Pinot on the River because I have the capacity to learn from my mistakes:

1. Swallow
2. Wear white of any kind
3. Carry anything in my hand but a glass
4. Attempt to sound smarter than I am.

So picture this: A drunk wine neophyte wearing a wine stained white shirt and no jacket, holding a glass in one hand and fumbling a bevy of brochures and dropping them on occasion while I explain to Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards why his Lytton Springs bottling would have been better if it had a higher percentage of Petite Sirah in the blend. What made this impromptu lecture at one of America's greatest wine producers a piece of art was the slurring.

The walk-around tasting gets a bad wrap by many wine professionals primarily because it often means crowded rooms, not enough time to talk to the producers pouring the wines and because it's difficult to really assess individual wines when sampling so many in a milieu not best suited for serious evaluation. There's something to be said for this criticism. But the criticism really only applies if you are looking to use a walk-around tasting to seriously evaluate wines.

Don't do that.

Use the walk-around tasting to do three things:

1. Acquaint yourself with wines with which you are not familiar.
2. Network
3. Learn from the folks behind the tables pouring

This is what I'll be doing on Sunday at Pinot on the River's Grand Tasting. This must be one of the most impressive gatherings of serious, truly artisan Pinot producers anywhere. The line up of wineries is ridiculously attractive. There are more than 100 of them including AP Vin, Ahh, Failla, Halleck, Hirsch, Kanzler, Keefer Ranch, Morgan, Peay, Roar, Sea Smoke, Testarossa and The Donum Estate, to name only a few.

Returning to the scene of my first real wine crime, I was finally led away from Paul Draper by a colleague while in mid-lecture. Based on future meetings with Mr. Draper, he appeared not to recall the incident. I was guided into the foyer of the ballroom, sat down on a bench and lectured by my more experienced, unstained colleague. Nicely. It wasn't a fall down drunk or anything. But just enough to teach me the benefits of spitting and keeping my mouth shut most of the time. 

Pinot on the River will be my first walk-around tasting in a while. It's conveniently located in my home county, produced and sponsored by The Pinot Report and has the endorsement of one of the legendary Walk-around Tasters in our business, Alder Yarrow: "Pinot on the River...is one of the best wine tastings I've ever attended."

If you are looking for me, I'll be the guy in black.

Gary Vaynerchuk and The Cult of Passion

Gary Vaynerchuk is coming to Napa Valley.

I'm not sure this is news. He's been in Napa Valley before. This time however he is coming to promote his latest book, "CRUSH IT: Why Now is the Time To Cash In On Your Passion."

Where: V. Sattui Winery, Saint Helena, Napa Valley, CA
When: Saturday, October 24
When: 11am to 1pm
Who: Open to the Public
Price: Free

I don't often mention events on this blog, but I make the exception in the case of Gary Vaynerchuk because frankly, he's remarkable. He's remarkable for the well of passion he possesses for life, family, and work. His rise to phenomenon status has been a remarkable thing. More remarkable is how he has used his knowledge of wine, technology and his passion to rise above wine and move into the realm of inspirational personality. This kind of transition has never occurred with any wine personality that I know of.

CRUSH IT is described as a book that explains how to deploy modern Internet strategies to turn your passion into a business. Gary is correct about one important thing: if you want to use the Internet as the primary tool by which you succeed at what you love, then you better have LOADS of passion  (and not a little personality: read "charisma" that can be translated to an electronic environment.)

FERMENTATION Wine Blog Reader Survey Results

The survey taken last week of FERMENTATION readers yielded some interesting results. I have a pretty good picture of my readers' demographics. For example:

GENDER
Males:    76%
Female  24%

AGE
21-30    21%
31-40    24%
41-50    29%
51-60    18%
61-70      8%
70+        -1%

HOUSEHOLD INCOME
Up To $25K              6%
$25-$50K                 9%
$50K - $75K           13%
$75K - $100K         20%
$100K - $150K       23%
$150K - $200K       15%
$200K - $500K       13%
$500K -$1mil            1%
$1mil+                      1%

EDUCATION LEVEL
High School Degree            9%
Junior College Degree        3%
Four Year Degree             52%
Post Graduate Degree     31%
phD                                    5%

MARRIAGE
Married    66%
Single      34%

WORK IN OR AROUND THE WINE INDUSTRY
Yes    62%
No     38%

In this demographic breakdown you get a picture of the average FERMENTATION reader as a married middle aged man with a college degree making around $75K to $150K per year. Interestingly, this sounds a lot like me.

But it's that last statistic, about working or not in the wine industry, that is really interesting. As I noted in an earlier post, the percentage of readers that work in the wine industry has increased nearly 25% since I took this survey 3 years ago. The reasons are obvious. Simply look at my content. But even more interesting is the differences between industry readers and non-industry readers.

THE AGE DIFFERENCE (yes=works in industry)
 

THE EDUCATION DIFFERENCE (yes=works in industry)

 

THE INCOME DIFFERENCE (yes=works in industry)

 

THE DAILY DRINKING DIFFERENCE (yes=works in the industry)

 

THE MEDIA CONSUMPTION DIFFERENCE (yes=works in industry)

 

Turns out that those who don't work in or around the wine industry tend to make more money, tend to have a higher education level and tend to be older. However, those in the industry drink are more likely to drink on a daily basis. And of course industry types tend to read more wine publications more often.

THE GENDER GAP
And what about a gender gap? My women readers tend to be slightly younger than the men, they tend to make less money, they are less likely to drink every day, women are much less likely to own more than 300 bottles of wine, they tend to pay less for their wine, they are much less likely to read this blog on a daily basis, and they are much more likely to read Food & Wine Magazine and Bon Appetit than are my male readers.

Click here to see all the raw results of the FERMENTATION Reader Survey for yourself.

And once again, I want to thank everyone who took the survey.

What is the Wine Left Behind?

"Only authentic affection and devoted love of the human sort survives behind each of our arrivals at life's ultimate destination."

This straightforward truth I recently came across is surely the basis for any number of explanations on how we ought live our lives. And while it got me thinking about the most important people in my own life and the gate I possess as I merrily stroll toward the ultimate destination, it got me thinking about the concept of the "wine collection".

Let's assume that at some point I do arrive at my ultimate destination. Let's further assume that it possesses a cognitive framework. Let's further assume that there will be an opportunity, maybe even a requirement, that I assess what I left in my wake back in that other dimension. I wonder if I'll be forced to reflect on the unopened bottles of wine I left behind.

"And what remains behind from your journey, Tom?"

I wonder if my inquisitor would be disappointed with me if at any time during my response I told them: "Quite a few unopened Aussie Shiraz, a lot of 2nd growth Bordeaux, and a number of cases of California bottlings."

Would I be judged poorly for even considering the wine I left behind to be something worthy of mentioning as I reflect on what remained of my short time here? Or would my Next Level Inquisitor insist that I don't understand the question?

Maybe I'd be admonished for having left behind, unused, any item best used to accompany the building of authentic affection and devoted love. If this is the case then maybe we wine lovers ought to keep our eye on the real prize: accumulating wines to be opened and consumed and eventually completely finished in the service of creating human bonds.

Outside of managing directors of Auction Houses, who would look merrily on a large collection of wine left behind when we arrive at our ultimate destination? Isn't it somewhat sad? Or maybe it's not so sad. Maybe it's not so sad if the bottles left behind after we depart merely represent an over optimistic view of the time the newly departed would have had for sharing, building bonds, and having wine in place to lubricate those gestures of affection and love.

The holidays are soon upon us. They almost always mark the time when we look to gather our friends and family and celebrate our connections to each other and our fellow man, not to mention our spiritual lives. More often than not we haul out wines from our collections more often and more furiously to accompany the celebrations. That's good. As it should be.

But I woke up this morning thinking that if indeed "only authentic affection and devoted love of the human sort survives behind each of our arrivals at life's ultimate destination," then I need to look well beyond the holiday season if I'm going to accompany the delivery of affection and devoted love with my Bordeaux, Shiraz and California gems. I need to use more time and find more places to use these simple items as an accompaniment to leaving behind the only thing that does get left behind.

Fermentation Readership and Intimidation

Having just finished a survey of the readers of this blog, I wanted to report on one finding in particular that should be of interest to PR folks, advertisers, readers and, obviously, me.

Sixty two (62) Percent of FERMENTATION readers do now or have "worked in wine, restaurant, beverage retail or wine-related industries".

This makes FERMENTATION a "Trade Media Outlet". For advertisers, it means that if you want to access the eyeballs of members of the wine industry, FERMENTATION isn't a bad choice. The same of course can be said of trade related firms that are seeking coverage.

I've known this about my readership for some time now. What's interesting is that when I last took a survey of FERMENTATION readers in 2006, 50% of survey respondents reported working or have worked in the wine or restaurant or alcoholic beverage industries. That's roughly a 25% increase in the percentage of people who are in the trade that read this blog over a three year period.

In the end, it means that roughly 15,500 unique industry types read FERMENTATION on a monthly basis.

Let me be honest about on thing. This is intimidating to me. Where insightfulness is concerned, I don't fall anywhere but on the middle rungs of the ladder. There are folks who have far more creative and interesting takes on the wine industry. And make no mistake, this blog is about my "take" on things. Rarely is there original reporting a la Wine Business Monthly, Wines & Vines, Wine Industry Insight, Wine Spectator or other media where a trade readership is significant.

Survey Time: It's All About the Sample Size!

PLEASE TAKE THE FERMENTATION READERS SURVEY.

IT'S IMPORTANT.

IF YOU READ THIS BLOG, I NEED TO KNOW A FEW THINGS.

Thank you,

Tom Wark...

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UPDATE:

The survey is now closed. A HUGE thanks to everyone for participating. I received more than 280 individual responses, more than a good sample!!  Again, Thank you for taking the survey.

Tom..
October 19th.

The Proposition

Consider this proposition:

Since the consumption of wine is legal in every state in the Union, and since wine travels well across long distances, any instance in which a consumer in any state can not obtain a bottle of wine when there is someone somewhere in the country willing to sell it to them means the system by which wine is distributed and sold in that state is not just broken, but a sure indication that corruption is the driving force behind the laws that govern wine distribution and sales.

This proposition implies there is a conspiracy in place to control commerce. It further implies that the conspiracy to control commerce is not one aimed at controlling it for the benefit of the consumer. It further implies that the conspiracy at hand, if not aimed at benefiting the consumer, must be aimed at benefiting someone.

I submit there is a conspiracy in most states to economically benefit wine wholesalers at the expense not just of wine consumers who are hurt by the laws that prop up unnecessary and cost laden wholesalers, but at the expense of every citizen of that state who is the victim of lost tax revenue.

At bottom, this proposition, if valid, means the three tier system, as currently formatted in most states, is or at least has become, a corrupt prop for a conspiracy to enrich a small clique of wholesalers.

So here's what I'm curious about:

1. What's wrong with the proposition.

2. If you agree with the proposition, what's wrong with it's implications

3. If you agree with the implications of the proposition and there is a conspiracy to support corruption, what's wrong with that?

4. If there is something wrong with that, what's to be done?

Men In Leotards Don't Drink Wine...They Whine.

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Doesn't THIS fall into the "Thank-You-Lord-For-Making-Me-The-Martyr" category of public relations?

Here we have a small, hardworking wine education organization, The Wine School of Philadelphia, being put upon by none other than the bulky, billion dollar World Wrestling Entertainment organization because the wine school uses the term "Smackdown" to describe an event at their school. The Men-in-Leotards insist the Philly Wine School stop using the term "Sommelier Smackdown" because it harms the WWE and their promotion of big men in leotards.

The upshot? The Wine School of Philadelphiahia has gotten tons of free media covering the issue. You just can't pay for this kind of publicity. Well, that's not true. You can, the I doubt Keith Wallace, owner of the school, could afford the millions of dollars it would take to actually buy this kind of coverage.

It makes me back to when I was working with Clos Pegase Winery in the early 1990s when the Federal  Government banned one of their art labels for being obscene. A near abstract portrait on the label happen to disclose that the portrait was of a naked man—yeah, if you tilted your head sideways and squinted you could see the penis. The declaration by the Feds was Manna from Heaven as far as publicity and visibility for the winery is concerned.

As he should, Wallace is having fun with this silly bit of lawyering on the part of the WWE's retinue of retainer lawyers:

"Why is WWE on the warpath? It is pretty silly. They claim they own the term “Smackdown”, and are demanding I stop using it.  Problem is,  to have a case, they would need to prove they have protected that term from becoming a generic term.  By my back-of-the-envelope calculation, to make that claim stick, they would have to file cease-and-desist orders against  2 million websites, one book publisher, one video distributor, two universities, and three charities.

Vince, instead of hiding behind your lawyers like a little girl, why don’t you grow some stones and challenge me face-to-face?  Better yet, how about you send your boy Chris Jerico to Philly.

Unfortunately, I won’t be available for a wrestle  match (my shoulder is gimpy from opening all those wine bottles), but Brian Freedman is happy to take my place. Be warned: He is one-hundred-and-twenty pounds of pure intellectual fury. Be afraid, Vince, be very afraid.

Of course it's not all funny. Wallace is likely to have to spend a decent amount of money and time to defend himself. At some point he'll have to decide if the cost of defending  himself is worth the outcome. If it's not, then what he should do is milk this for everything he can until it's time to call the Sommelier Smackdown something else, like "The Sommeliers In Leotards Taste Off". (And by the way, Keith, why haven't you found two sommeliers to agree to dress up in crazy, skin tight leotards who will throw chairs around the room while they pretend to taste wine and pair them with food?)

The point of course is that you need to be prepared to take advantage of all situations, even difficult ones like this. Always ask if there's a simple way to turn a problem into an advantage.

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