Swirls: A wine to support equality for gay Americans

These days, making wine is often about creating a concept, for better or worse. The store shelves are loaded with bottles depicting everything from animals to cars and trucks to those that donate part of their sales to research on various diseases. And now, a new concept -- a wine billed by its promoters as "the first wine created in support of equality for gay Americans."

It's called Égalité, and it comes to us from Biagio Cru & Estate Wines, an importer based in Rosyln, N.Y., that says it will donate part of the proceeds to organizations that promote quality for gay Americans.

Égalité is a sparkling wine, a Crémant de Bourgogne from France with a suggested price of $24. A press release says that it's the product of "exhaustive research by Biago Cru as well as input from the gay community." A focus group helped develop the name and label.

Part of the strategy, not surprisingly, is to capitalize on moves by an increasing number of states to  legalize same-sex marriage, and Biagio Cru calls its wine "the perfect touch for weddings, engagements, anniversaries, galas, and all celebrations." And it hopes, of course, that the wine will have broad appeal beyond the gay community.

          

Sips: Celebrity wines, for better or worse

Do celebrities make better wines? Would you be more likely to buy a wine if a celebrity were associated with it? I explore these questions in my column this week on MSNBC.com. The occasion is Drew Barrymore's debut in the wine business and the release of her first wine, a pinot grigio. How does it stack up? I put it to the (taste) test and take a look at some of the actors, athletes and other celebrities who have been bitten by the wine bug. Click here to read.

Swirls: The ultimate dumb wine story pitch

Like most wine writers, I often receive dozens of story proposals a day. They range from those that are well-conceived and researched and convey an understanding of the wines being represented and my own interests, to those that are little more than blast emails replete with gushing descriptions and elaborate, company-supplied “tasting notes.”

Then there is the pitch I got recently from Savona Communications inviting me to what was billed as “Behind-the-Scenes Media Day” at the Ultimate Wine Challenge. The Challenge is is an annual event here in New York in which a panel of judges, some of whom are professional acquaintances of mine, come up with scores for wines entered (at a fee of $95 each) and tasting notes that can be used by wineries, importers, wholesalers and others to market their products to the public. The Challenge separates itself from most other competitions by awarding scores instead of medals.

The media day pitch would include the chance to “meet the judges, taste a flight of wines yourself and rate them as any of our judges do.” Not only that but I would be able to “ask questions about how and why Ultimate Wine Challenge does not give ubiquitous medals but a hard and fast score. And what this means to the brands that participate and ultimately the consumer who makes the purchase.”

You begin to see what I mean about this being a dumb pitch. But then it gets even dumber: “I would love for you to come and see what this wine competition is all about and talk to you about the story that could come of it – like what it means for brands to receive numbered ratings and tasting notes from the judges (vs. medals) and how they can use the results to market their brands.  We know no one has the budget to go out and buy 30 different red wines to see which one tastes best, right?  So let the Challenge do the work for you.”

Okay. First, any PR person who has any familiarity with my work over the last decade knows that, in probably close to 1,000 wine articles, videos and blog posts and 500 Tweets, I have never put a score on a wine, preferring to describe why I think a wine is worth drinking. (I did just recently conduct a small experiment on this blog with “rating” wines as “good,” “fair,” etc. but found it rather unsatisfying. Does anyone really want to read about mediocre wines?) Since I don’t score wines myself, why would I want to waste my time watching other critics do it?

As for “what it means for brands to receive numbered ratings and tasting notes from the judges” and how they can be used to market their brands, let’s see. Could it be that wine scores and tasting notes can actually be used to – sell wine? Sarcasm aside, this was an altogether stupid pitch about a competition that celebrates wine scoring and, in doing so, promotes the over-simplifying of wine for those selling it and buying it.

One of the challenges the wine business faces is getting people to develop a greater understanding of and appreciation for the great diversity of wines available in this country. If you’ve ever had a conversation about unfamiliar wines with a passionate and knowledgeable retailer, then you know how stimulating and educational the experience can be. You’ll also find this passion on occasion in original notes displayed by wine sellers, whether in their stores or on their websites. All of this does, however, require knowledge and time, for which scores and other shortcuts can be conveniently substituted.

But I, for one, am looking for a more (not less) personalized, authentic and memorable experience in finding wines I might want to try. And so for my invitation to “media day” at the Ultimate Wine Challenge, I think I’ll pass.

del.icio.us Tags: Wine competitions,Ultimate Wine Challenge,Wine scores,Wine scoring,Wine medals,Wine marketing,Wine news,Wine sales,Wine retailers,Edward Deitch,Wine judging,Tasting notes,Wine tasting notes,Savona Communications

This just in ...

Given the magnitude of this, I thought I'd get it out right away, just as I received it.

***

BECKMEN VINEYARDS WINEGROWER STEVE BECKMEN
IS A DIRECT DESCENDENT OF DIONYSUS

Beckmen also confirmed as the inventor of Grenache.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. – April 1, 2012 – Beckmen Vineyards is
pleased to announce that after extensive genealogical research, it has
established that Winegrower Steve Beckmen is a direct descendent of
Dionysus, the Greek god of the grape harvest, winemaking, wine, ecstasy
and ritual madness. The winery has also confirmed that Beckmen invented
Grenache. In fact, Steve, Moses and Rudolph Steiner personally planted
Beckmen’s acclaimed, biodynamic-certified Purisima Mountain Vineyard,
which is widely recognized as the greatest vineyard ever planted by the
hands of man, prophet and Austrian anthroposophist.

Swirls: Bordeaux-crazed China not ready for Burgundy – yet

Hardly a day goes by without a headline about the frenzied wine market in Asia, particularly China. This week, Wine Enthusiast Magazine announced that it will produce a Mandarin edition for circulation to 100,000 “Chinese VIP consumers.” France’s Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters announced a 29 percent increase in shipments to Asia last year with a value of $3.3 billion. And in the city of Bordeaux, a négociant that specializes in Bordeaux sales to China and is staffed by seven Mandarin-speaking employees, opened a street-level shop to increase its visibility to the growing number of Chinese buyers coming to town, according to Decanter.com.

Indeed, the red-hot Chinese market for all levels of Bordeaux shows no sign of cooling. But what you hear almost nothing about is the Chinese and Burgundy. I had the chance to discuss this last week with Vincent Avenel, export manger of Domaine Faiveley, one of Burgundy’s biggest and best-known producers, at a dinner featuring some top new releases from Frederick Wildman and Sons, the New York importer that has been bring wines from the region to the United States since the 1930s. When I asked him whether the Chinese were taking to Burgundy the way they had to Bordeaux, his answer was quick and emphatic: “Not at all.”

In fact, China accounts for just 1.5 percent of Faiveley’s exports, Avenel told me. This surprised me as we tasted some top Burgundies, among them Faiveley’s 2009 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru “Les Cazetiers” and Alain Burguet’s 2009 Chambertin Grand Cru “Clos de Beze.” Don’t wines like this qualify as the kind of luxury items the Chinese are embracing? What followed was a fascinating and candid conversation about money, taste, and sophistication.

For the Chinese at the moment, Avenel said, the hot wines are from Bordeaux and Australia because they are “bombs in a glass” and more easily understood and embraced than Burgundy. “We all started with Bordeaux,” he said, “because it’s the entry-level thing. The U.S. started with Bordeaux. The Japanese started with Bordeaux.” He said that Burgundy, on the other hand, “is never love at first sight. You need to build some maturity in terms of taste.”

He continued: “Burgundy is not about power. It’s about charm and secret things. You need to improve your ability to taste subtle things.” How long does it take? “It’s not something you get in just a couple of years,” he said. “I think it takes 10 to 15 years.” His conclusion: for all its newly minted wealth, China is simply not yet ready for Burgundy. “What we notice,” he said, “is that very often Burgundy is about old money and that Bordeaux is about nouveaux riches.”

(For some of my latest wine suggestions, go to my new weekly column on the Bites on Today blog at MSNBC.com)

del.icio.us Tags: Domaine Faiveley,Vincent Avenel Domaine Faiveley,Edward Deitch,Burgundy,Bordeaux,Wine sales to China,Alain Burguet,Frederick Wildman and Sons,Bordeaux sales to China,French wine sales to China,Asia wine market,Chinese wine market,Gevrey-Chambertin,Chambertin

Swirls: Restaurant wine follow-up – some perspective from a venerable New York establishment that does the right thing

Once a week or so, I make it a point to sneak out of my office for a quick lunch, which inevitably leads me on a 10-minute walk to the famed Oyster Bar & Restaurant at Grand Central Station. There, I almost always order one of New York’s great cheap meals – an overflowing bowl of New England clam chowder, which goes for $6.25 (a tomato-based Manhattan chowder is $5.75). The price includes a homemade roll and all the crackers you can eat. I never order wine at lunch, but yesterday I left with one of the Oyster Bar’s menus, which, on the reverse side of the large single page, features the  extensive wine list.

In light of my post last week that was critical of a downtown Manhattan restaurant that seemed to be marking up its wines exorbitantly even by New York standards and offering exactly two wines under $40, I wanted to refresh my memory about the Oyster Bar’s wines and their prices. A quick glance surprised me: not only does this New York institution, which is frequented by as many tourists as business people, offer reasonably priced wines, but it does so with a vengeance. On my way home last night on the subway, I actually counted the number of wines and then added up those priced under $40. Out of 183 full-sized bottles, both red and white, fully 46 of them were priced between $30 and $38. I’ll repeat it: one quarter of the wines were $38 or less.

Of the 46, 11 of these wines were sauvignon blancs --quintessential fish and shellfish wines with examples from Chile, Washington, the Loire Valley and Gascony in France, Spain’s Rueda, South Africa, Austria, Long Island and Sonoma.  Other under-$40 selections included a couple of sparkling wines, a few chardonnays and examples of  riesling, viognier, chenin blanc, pinot grigio, gewürztraminer, gruner veltliner, soave, orvieto, grillo and assorted other whites. Talk about a variety of reasonably priced wines! Though more limited, there were also a number of reds priced at between $32 and $38.

The point here is that many if not most diners would like to order wine, but at a price they they consider fair. Not only does the Oyster Bar offer dozens of reasonably priced wines, but the higher the price the less the markup seems to be, which conforms to a  favorable practice by some restaurants that a number or readers of last week’s story pointed to. The Oyster  Bar is a big restaurant and, with its volume, is clearly in a position to offer more relatively inexpensive wines. Smaller  restaurants should be offering reasonably priced wines in droves, especially in this persistently tough economy. I have no doubt that more patrons would order more wine, which would be good for everyone.

del.icio.us Tags: Edward Deitch,Restaurant wines,Restaurant wine prices,Oyster Bar & Restauarant,Wine lists,Restauarant wine markups,Wine markups

Swirls: An appeal for some restraint and self-editing in wine social media

It is a fact of life in the online wine world: just about everyone who makes or markets or writes about wine these days promotes their efforts via social media, especially Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. I use all three at times to make readers aware of stories on this website, especially Twitter, whose robust wine community I enjoy being part of, at least for the most part.

I qualify my enthusiasm because the so-called Twitterverse is also a repository for over-the-top self-promotion that is repetitious, annoying and downright boring. I am hardly the first  to suggest that one should strive for an approach that balances self-promotion and the sharing of wine information and observations (as well as non-wine musings) that both wine followers and a broader audience might find interesting and useful. I readily admit that I am still looking for the right balance in my own Tweeting, although I think I’m moving toward it.

Some examples of balance: while Howard G. Goldberg (@howardggoldberg) flags us on his Sunday wine pieces in The New York Times, he also wonders, as he did on Twitter yesterday, “how many man-in-the-street consumers, finding ‘tightly wound’ in a wine review in a newspaper, understand what it means.” It’s an interesting point that invites discussion and self-reflection. Likewise, Tom Wark (@tomcwark), author of the widely read Fermentation wine blog, balances plugs for his own posts with simple questions, without links, such as: “Are any of the Republican candidates for President better for the wine industry?” or “If all wines tasted exactly as they do now—but contained no alcohol—would you drink as much as you do?”

By contrast, for another writer I follow on Twitter, hardly a day goes by when there isn’t another Tweet with another link about another review of this writer’s latest book. How many times must followers be subjected to this? Twenty, 50, 100? We get the point. Not to mention link after link to the writer’s articles and radio appearances and speaking engagements. Isn’t there  anything worth saying that’s not about this writer’s clearly booming business? (In case you’re wondering, I’m not going to mention this person by name because snarkiness is something else for which I have low tolerance.)

Beyond out-of-control self-promotion, there is the wide and largely useless practice of thanking one’s followers for following them or for re-tweeting their tweets. While this may make those being thanked feel good, think of the hundreds, or thousands or tens of thousands of followers for whom these Tweets have absolutely no relevance. I feel a little like the late Any Rooney in saying all this, but does anyone really disagree?

Back when newspapers, magazines and TV and radio broadcasts were the only media for news and information, there was something known as “limited space.” Reporters and  writers, as I learned, had to decide how to fit what they needed to say into the space or time allotted. Cyberspace has changed all that.

Another saying among journalists is that everyone needs an editor. In this era of unlimited digital space and endless self-promotion, a little self-editing is really what’s in order.

del.icio.us Tags: Twitter wine,Twitter,Facebook wine,Facebook,Linkedin,Edward Deitch,Tom C. Wark,Fermentations,Howard G. Goldberg,New York Times wine,Social media,Wine marketing,Wine news,Wine PR,Wine promotion

Swirls: A call for a little humility in the wine world after shopper drops $85K on 5 bottles and auctioneer announces $6.5 million holiday ‘gift guide’

Before having some second thoughts, I began this story as one more gee-whiz  item from the increasingly crazy world of wine sales. Here’s what I wrote:

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t found many wine bargains in recent years at duty-free shops in France. But then again, I’m not shopping at the level of a certain buyer who recently purchased five bottles of French wine for – take a deep breath now --  $85,000. The sale took place at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and was announced – trumpeted, really -- by the airport operator, which identified the buyer only as “an Asian,” according to AFP. What did he buy? Click here to find out, and then let me know if you think the shopper got his money’s worth buying these “duty-free” wines.

I was going to leave the story at that, an odd tidbit from the eccentric world of wine. But then I started thinking about it:  imagine, spending $85,000 on five bottles of wine. I couldn’t help but wonder how this buyer might have spent the money, or even part of it, on something else, perhaps something that might have made a difference somewhere in the world. I thought of the buyer, sitting in a first-class lounge at Charles de Gaulle, waiting for his plane home to Hong Kong or Shanghai or Singapore. I also thought of people waiting to fly to Lahore, or Kinshasa or Delhi, places where $85,000 could have a real and immediate impact on the lives of ordinary people.

I don’t begrudge anyone the right to spend money as they see fit. But in these still challenging economic times, when so many are having such a hard time, should we be flaunting such excess so shamelessly? That was going to be it for this story  until I received a press release this morning from Acker Merrall &  Condit, the wine merchant and auction house. It made the story about the wine buyer in Paris seem like small potatoes. The release announced a “Twelve Days of Christmas” gift guide aimed at “the world’s most passionate wine lovers.” Twelve wine packages, all of them featuring rare bottles of Bordeaux and Burgundy, starting at a $29,000 and going up to $2,070,000 for “the one gift to end them all.” The packages add up to a total of $6,458,000.

“We’ve had an amazing year,” John Kapon, Acker Merrall’s CEO, says in the release. “With estimated sales in 2011 in excess of $110 million, we will be the first wine auction house in history to breach the hundred million mark.” The holiday sale, he says, is “to celebrate Christmas and the close of the year.” And with it, he proclaims, “we’re going to deliver astonishing delight to wine lovers worldwide.” Perhaps he forgot that the vast majority of wine lovers worldwide are looking for a good bottle at perhaps $10 to $15.

The issue here is not that wine merchants – Acker Merrall, the Paris duty-free shop or countless others -- are selling wines at these prices or that buyers are willing to scoop them up. So-called fine wine, after all, is increasingly seen as a good investment, one that can compete with real estate or gold or stocks and bonds. It is the gushing manner in which these sales are being announced that  gives me pause. Wine is all about elegance and grace and lends itself to a little contemplation. As we count our blessings at this time of year, those qualities are worth remembering.

del.icio.us Tags: Bordeaux,Burgundy,Duty-free wine sales,Wine auctions,Acker Merrall & Condit,John Kapon Acker Merrall,Charles de Gaulle airport,Edward Deitch,Wine investments,Wine public relations,Holiday wine sales,Christmas wine,Holiday wine gifts

Swirls: Pinot noir meets PR in a pitch that smells a bit off

It’s time for another one of my rants on wine marketing and public relations and issues of disclosure. Wine reviewing is, let’s admit it, a largely PR-driven business. Most wine journalists, from those who write for influential publications to the legions of wine bloggers out there, rely to at least some extent on samples of new wine releases. While this reality is familiar to those of us in the  business, it is not so well known to the casual reader who turns to us for wine insights. Disclosing this in specific reviews or in a website’s “policies” section (or ideally both) tells the reader that there is a relationship between the writer and the winery or its representative and lets the reader factor this in when deciding on a writer’s credibility. Beyond this, I routinely tell PR and marketing people that, while I accept samples, I do not guarantee reviews. This simple disclaimer immediately limits any undue expectation of coverage, at least in my mind. I can’t recall anyone objecting to it in almost a decade of writing about wine.

Then there is the other side of disclosure. While most  communications on behalf of wine companies are upfront about  who is being represented (such as wineries or importers), I received one query recently that gave me pause. Without naming names, the writer, who works for a PR firm, wanted to know if I would be interested in reviewing a number of California pinot noirs to help support his contention that, of all the wines one might consider for Thanksgiving, there was nothing like pinot noir. The pitch, not surprisingly, was full of praise for the wines and offered, in standard fashion, detailed, winery-supplied tasting notes on each, all of it a typical effort to guide – or influence – reviewers on how to think about the wines (and usually ignored by experienced critics).

So here was just about everything one might want to know about the wines – except for one critical element of the “story.” The email gave no clue about the client. Was the PR firm representing three or four separate companies and creatively bundling their wines in this pitch? Not likely. Or was it working, perhaps, on behalf of an association of pinot noir growers? Hard to tell. A little detective work was in order.

I decided to look up the PR firm’s clients on its website and quickly found that, in fact, all the wines were part of the portfolio of a company that does marketing for small California and other wineries. I wondered why this wasn’t pointed out. Did the client and its representative decide that it was an unnecessary layer of information for a growing army of wine writers, many of whom may not have had any training as journalists and who might not be predisposed to ask such questions? Or was it ignorance on the part of the PR person who wrote the pitch, not knowing that one of the cardinal rules of the business is to disclose who you are working for? Again, hard to tell.

In any event, this was a classic example of selective disclosure – offering not quite the whole story in the hope that non-inquiring minds would not look beyond the pitch. In the end, knowing who the client is might have little or no bearing on a reviewer’s  decision about coverage. It’s just good journalism – and good PR – to present all the facts.

Technorati Tags: Wine marketing,Wine PR,Wine writing,Wine blogging,Edward Deitch,PR disclosure,Wine reviewing,Wine criticism