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: Out to dinner in the south of France, where the wines (and the prices) are refreshing

Last night with friends, we had a nice meal at Restaurant La Grange in Bize Minervois in France’s Languedoc region. Almost all the wines on the list were from the list were from Minervois, so they didn’t have to travel more than a few miles from vineyard to table. Even so, I was struck by the prices. They were downright cheap. A very good bottle of rosé, Domaine Sainte Leocadie’s 2011 “Leukadios” Minervois, a blend of syrah and grenache, was just 13 euros, or about $16 or so. A red Minervois was 16 euros, or about $20. Remember, this is at a restaurant. Yes, I know that the wines are local and that the dollar is stronger than it’s been in years. But the good folks at Restaurant La Grange are doing something very right, it seems to me, by not marking up their wines excessively. At these prices, we were definitely going to order two bottles of wine and, beyond that, will keep the restaurant in mind for the next time we’re in the region. For me, wines are an essential part of a good meal, and it’s nice, for a change, to be in a place where they are reasonably priced. “Usually here you would double it,” one of our friends said of the markup from retail. “Most people know the prices of retail and would feel ripped off if they tripled it.” A good meal with some good-value wines left us with a feeling of goodwill. Perhaps from a little village in southern France there’s a small lesson for restaurants back home.

del.icio.us Tags: Laguedoc rosé,Languedoc wines,Minervois,Edward Deitch,Bize Minervois,Restaurant La Grange,Domaine Sainte Leocadie,Restaurant wines,French wines

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: A wine guide takes a leap and does away with scores and ratings

I’m just catching up with a newly released guide to Italian wines called “Slow Wine 2012: A Year in the Life of Italy’s Vineyards and Wines,” which marks the debut of an English-language edition of this reference. The guide, which covers 3,000 wines produced by 400 cellars, is notable for a number of reasons. Not only does it describe the people, vineyards and wines involved with each property, it also lists the use of fertilizers, plant protection and weed control practices, yeasts (native or selected), grape sources (estate or purchased) and whether a winery has organic or biodynamic certification.

Beyond this important information, the “Slow Wine” guide is notable for how it rates wines, which, with this edition, has fundamentally changed. “We have abandoned the very easy-to-understand, but ultimately trivializing, method of awarding points and sought to look beyond the glass,” the editors announce in the introduction. Obviously, they say, the wines reviewed are of excellent quality “but for us it is equally important to describe the vineyard and vinification methods used to create these top-flight products.

“And so,” they say, “we have opted for a new mode of communication – telling the story of the wine.” While this may not be revolutionary, it is refreshing not to see scores or stars or what have you alongside the wines listed. The concise, half-page narratives about each property are generally well-written and translated. Without ratings or scores, there won’t be much appeal here for those importers,wholesalers, retailers and consumers for whom a number is what matters most. But it’s good for those of us who appreciate the narrative of a wine and getting to know how and by whom it is made.

“What matters is wine’s soul,” the editors write. “That is why we have adopted new assessment criteria including respect for the environment, the countryside and territorial identify, relatively complicated issues that have demanded, and continue to demand, a quality leap from wine lovers, critics and producers.”

“Slow Wine” deserves a good deal of credit for elevating the wine conversation. Published by Slow Food Editore, $25.

del.icio.us Tags: Slow Wine 2012,Edward Deitch,Italian wines,Wine guides,Italian wine guides,Wine scores,Wine ratings,Slow Food Editore,Organic wines,Biodynamic wines

Swirls: China’s wine frenzy, Bill Foley’s growing wine empire, what sommeliers like to drink

SWIRL: The New York Times has an interesting piece today on the fast-growing French expat community in China, particularly Hong Kong, which, with its growing wealth and hunger for luxury goods, is drawing more and more wine and other entrepreneurs eager to bring their products to the Chinese market.

SWIRL: Speaking of China, Bloomberg reports that at least a dozen Chinese investors have recently bought wine estates in Bordeaux, mostly small and sometimes distressed  properties.

SWIRL: New York is planning to increase its wine presence in China. The Watertown Daily Times says hundreds of small New York wineries will have a better chance of getting exposure for their wines in China at a New York state wine outlet at the free trade zone in Shanghai. The aim will be to sell New York wines at Chinese chain stores, supermarkets and hotels.

SWIRL: In case you missed it, Jay McInerney’s weekend WSJ column on the increasing importance of sommeliers was notable for, among other things, pointing out that most sommeliers favor leaner, lower-alcohol wines because they match better with foods.

SWIRL: Bloomberg has a good read on the fast-expanding wine empire of Bill Foley, the former mortgage title executive who is buying up wineries in California and beyond.

del.icio.us Tags: China wine,French wines in China,Minneapolis Star Tribune,Bordeaux,Bordeaux estates sold to Chinese,New York wines,New York wines in China,Watertown Daily News,Jay McInerney Wall Street Journal,Bloomberg,Bloomberg Bill Foley,Bill Foley,Edward Deitch

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: BYOB? A tale of 2 restaurants, including one that brushes off a well-known NY retailer on a special night out

A couple of weeks ago, I was delighted with a dinner at our neighborhood bistro, Café du Soleil, on New York’s Upper West Side. The reason? For one thing, it perfectly satisfied the carnivorous cravings of our family of four, including hangar steak and leg of lamb for the parents, a steak au poivre for the 12-year-old and a good old hamburger for the 16-year-old (all with some of New York’s best French fries). Beyond the food was the price of a high-end bottle of California cab -- $20. This was not some special wine offer but the very modest (by New York standards) corkage fee the restaurant charges, which permitted us to enjoy  Hawk and Horse’s excellent 2007 Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails for $65 and which I had received as a press sample. Clearly the owners want to bring in business, and with good food and an encouraging bring-your-own-wine policy, I look forward to our next dinner there.

For Jamie Wolff, a partner at New York’s Chambers Street Wines, it was a far different experience when he and some friends sat down at a restaurant on New Year’s Eve. Jamie began to relate the experience the other day when I stopped by the store (one of the country’s leading retailers of artisanal, small-production wines) and told him about a piece I had written about ridiculous wine markups. I asked Jamie to send me an email about his experience, and here is some of what he wrote:

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: My proposal for Starbucks wine, Chinese Lafite counterfeits, weighing in on wine bottles

SWIRL: Let’s face it. Finding a casual and convenient place for a quick glass of wine or beer can sometimes be a challenge. So Starbucks is expanding its reach into alcoholic beverages with plans to offer them in seven stores in the Chicago area by the end of next year, the Chicago Tribune reports. Beer and wine are currently served at five stores in the Seattle area and one in Portland, Ore. No doubt, the big commercial wine brands are already setting their sites on these re-imagined Starbucks stores. But consider this: how cool would it be if Starbucks were to take a refreshingly un-corporate approach to its wine offerings? Instead of some  marketing committee in Seattle deciding on the wines based on lobbying from the big wine companies, why not offer a sampling of artisanal or lesser-known wines from around the world that changes each week? How about a grüner veltliner from Austria, a cru Beaujolais, or a sparkling Crémant from the Loire Valley with an emphasis on organic and biodynamic growing? Might take a little training of the staff but I have a hunch that many Starbucks customers might be open to a little adventure and smaller-production, sustainable offerings when it comes to wine.

SWIRL: It’s not surprising to hear that in Bordeaux-crazed China, counterfeit bottles of Château Lafite are making the  rounds.  China Digital Times reports that “curiously, China appears to consume far more of the top foreign wines than it actually imports, with counterfeiting rising alongside the legitimate trade. Empty Château Lafite bottles are salvaged from restaurants to be illicitly refilled, and rumours speak of a floating wine factory hidden aboard a cargo ship.” Here’s the full story.

SWIRL: We’ve all received them, those extra-heavy bottles intended to signal a wine’s stature and status, meant to distinguish, say, a reserve wine from a regular bottling. But in this eco-conscious era in the wine industry and beyond, are these bottle behemoths really necessary? Paul Gregutt in the Seattle Times thinks not, and I agree. He cites the growing use of the heavy bottles among wineries in Oregon, a state that, paradoxically, has often led the way on environmental concerns. This story is long overdue.

del.icio.us Tags: Chateau Lafite,China wine,Starbucks,Starbucks wine bar,Seattle Times,Chicago Tribune,China wine counterfeiting,Wine bottles,China Digital Times,Paul Gregutt,Edward Deitch

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

Swirls: Wine store tsunami video, wine fashion statement, Chinese wine tasting 101

SWIRL: It’s not often that a wine video gets more than a quarter million views on YouTube, or that that many viewers focus on a liquor store in  Sheboygan, Wisconsin, for that matter. But at Superior  Discount Liquors, the wine was flowing freely the other day after a wall of bottles came tumbling down – 6,810 of them to be precise. You can watch the video below and read about it in sheboyganpress.com, which began its story, “Talk about not being able to hold your liquor.”

 

SWIRL: I’ve never thought about making a fashion statement with the wines I serve, but Banana Republic and California’s Clos du Bois have teamed up to do just that with special limited edition  labels for the winery’s popular North Coast Chardonnay and  Cabernet Sauvignon. Would you be surprised if I told you that the effort was launched just in time for the holidays? According to a press release, the chardonnay features Banana Republic’s “go-to” little black dress and the cab shows “a red full-skirted frock made for romance and dancing the night away.” In case you had any concerns, Clos du Bois Bois’ winemaker, Gary Sitton, says, “"We are still offering the same quality and consistency of the wine itself, but with a festive twist that makes it even more enjoyable to drink." The wines sell for under $20. By the way, a quick check of Banana Republic’s website reveals – surprise! – no fewer than 13 little black dresses for sale.

SWIRL: With China developing an almost unquenchable thirst for wine and the wine world counting its blessing for that fact, there remains the challenge of teaching the Chinese about wine basics – everything from how to use a corkscrew to deciphering western-Oriented tasting notes. The Chinese, notes CNN, have little familiarity with blackberry or licorice.

Technorati Tags: Banana Republic,Clos du Bois,Edward Deitch,Clos du Bois and Banana Republic,Wine marketing,Gary Sitton,Superior Discount Liquors,YouTube wine,Wine videos,Sheboygan Press,China wine,CNN wine,Chinese wine market

Swirls: Caught in the act – a wine marketer pushes the limits of integrity

How would you like to buy your way onto this blog? If not for outright cash, perhaps for a nice little gift of your choice, or even store credit? I’m kidding, of course, but there are those out there in the wine business who think not only that this is possible, but that it is standard practice for bloggers, who, as I have said before, are considered soft targets – the low-hanging fruit of wine journalism – by many in wine marketing and PR.

What got me thinking about this again was an email I received a week or so ago. “Hello Edward!” it began. “My name is Laina, and I’m currently doing the online marketing for Vintage Cellars, the custom wine cellar and wine storage specialists with a large online presence.” This was followed by some terms of endearment: “First of all, I want to compliment you on your blog! Your content is incredibly knowledgeable and interesting, especially when it comes to everything wine.” Thanks, I thought to myself, although wine-related content, as anyone who reads my site knows, is really the only thing on it.

Laina continued: “We at Vintage Cellars would love if you would be willing to help spread the word about how useful and wonderful Vintage Cellars is.” Subtle, I thought, though at this point I was basically still okay with what I was reading. But then  Laina got specific: “You could do this by allowing me to write a guest blog on your site (so you wouldn’t even have to write it, unless you would prefer it that way).” Hmm. Let’s see. The last time I checked, every item that has ever appeared on this blog was written, uh, by me! Yeah, I kind of do like to write my own content.

Laina even proposed some specific topics that she (or I) could write about: “It could be a review of VintageCellars.com as a whole, or about a specific product available at Vintage Cellars with a link to it.” (Mustn’t forget that all-important link.) “Vintage Cellars is especially proud of their custom cellars section and wine cabinets.”

And what would be in it for me? Laina had the answer to that question, too. “As a thank you,” she said, “we will give you your choice of Riedel wine glasses, Riedel decanter, Mulholland All Leather Sommelier Corkscrew and Leather Case, Mulholland Flourish Fairway Clutch Bag, or Mulholland All Leather Golf Ball and Tee Holder. If you prefer Vintage Cellars store credit, that is also a possibility.”

And there it was, Laina’s pitch on behalf of her company, the latest example of questionable marketing practices I have received or noticed in recent months. In this new era of blogging, Tweeting and other forms of democratic journalism, many more people have been given a public voice, with standards and levels of objectivity left entirely up to them. This has provided an enormous new opening and even, as Laina’s email so clearly demonstrates, a sense of entitlement, to some of those trying to promote their products, causes or agendas, in wine and  elsewhere. Among other things, I wondered if Laina sent the same pitch to the wine columnists of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or the San Francisco Chronicle, or whether she would have sent it to me when I was writing my column for  MSNBC.com, all news organizations with clearly defined policies on these matters. I think not.

When I showed a copy of this email to a friend who is a PR veteran and who ran her own highly successful agency, she shook her head and said that this was the kind of thing that gave the business a bad name. It also made me wonder whether they even bother with issues like this  in marketing classes these days? To be fair, most wine marketing and PR professionals understand the problem with this approach and wouldn’t dream of it. I would like to think that most bloggers understand it as well,  but I’m not sure. Would Laina have made this pitch to me (and, presumably, others) if there weren’t some precedent for it? Probably not.

It is largely up to journalists and others who project an authoritative voice when writing about wine to police themselves to maintain basic standards of objectivity, including issues of disclosure and conflict -- standards that are fundamental to all of journalism. As a seemingly routine email from an online marketing manager shows, it may be time to redouble our efforts in this regard.

Technorati Tags: Vintage Cellars,Edward Deitch,Wine marketing,Wine PR,Wine writing,Wine journalism

Swirls: Stopping by one of the more charming wine stores you’ll ever find

Have you ever fantasized about opening the perfect little wine store with just a small number of really good bottles offered at a range of prices? I have. As a model, you might look at Bookstore Wines & Spirits in the old fishing village of Siasconset, located in the eastern end of Nantucket. Known for its cottages, some of them hundreds of years old, and its gardens, the town is as picturesque as they come, and the wine shop, owned by Cindy and Rolf Nelson, fits right in. The wines, approximately 150 of them, stand upright in what I assume were former bookshelves, given the store’s name. The one nod to modernity is the new tasting machine that lets customers try out four wines the store features on any given day. “How much is it for a taste?” I inquired of Marina, a sales person. “It’s free,” she said. The words were as refreshing as the cool breezes coming off the Atlantic.

  

Technorati Tags: Siasconset,Nantucket,Nantucket wine,Bookstore Wine & Spirits,Wine stores,Cindy and Rolf Nelson,Edward Deitch,Wine selling

Swirls: Dear Wine Writer (Or How Not to Invite a Journalist to Your Event)

Here is the kind of invitation I loathe. It begins innocuously enough: “It’s going to be 98 degrees in NYC tomorrow! The perfect night to try our new Rosé and Sauvignon Blanc.” It’s even okay in paragraph two: “Please join us in celebrating the release of our two new wines Parlay Rosé of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc at the Art Directors Club in New York City tomorrow Thursday, June 9th at 6:30 pm.”

But then comes the disturbing line: “If you would be interested in posting about Parlay Wine or this event on your site we would be happy to provide you with a complimentary ticket to the event.” I don’t know the folks at Parlay Wine – never heard of them until I received this invitation and read on their Web site that they are based in Brooklyn and put their label on a small line of California wines.

The first thing for them to know is that I don’t “post” about events in isolation. I occasionally write about events in the context of wines that I think are noteworthy. Second, there is no way for me to know if I’d be interested in writing about the company or its wines until I taste them. Third, I never, ever make deals with wine companies or their representatives to write about their wines in exchange for “complimentary” tickets to events or samples or anything else. And fourth, I rarely attend events – dinners, lunches, new-release parties – on behalf of individual wine companies. (Think about it for a minute. What if I don’t like your wines and we’re sitting across from each other at lunch. Kind of awkward, wouldn’t you say?) I do, however, attend events sponsored by wine regions, which typically feature a range of wines from a number of producers.

So, how can you make me interested? If you’re Parlay Wine, for example, first tell me a little bit about your company, including your business model (what’s a Brooklyn company doing selling California wines?). Let me know that you’re holding an event that I might find interesting, showcasing your new releases, and that this would be an opportunity for me to taste them. Above all, avoid the word “if,” as in “if you would be interested in posting ... we would be happy to provide you with a complimentary ticket to the event.” For journalists, it is a dirty word, suggesting that coverage can be bought. Lastly, take a look at my site, and you’ll get a sense of the mix of content I am interested in and the tone I take. In just a few minutes, you’ll realize that a ticket to your event in exchange for a post is not something I would care to be involved in.

Swirls: A modest proposal on writing about clients, samples and other wine-industry connections

As you may have noticed in this space in recent months, I am all about disclosure, disclosure and more disclosure when it comes to any connections I have with the wine industry (samples, press trips, speaking engagements) and believe it is incumbent on anyone claiming to be a credible wine reporter or reviewer to do so. As I’ve learned over several decades in journalism, mostly with national news organizations, integrity is just about everything, and I’ve tried to follow that principle in almost a decade of writing about wine.  If you’ve just tasted a “killer sauvignon blanc” and the winery is your client, I want to know that fact. Loved a rosé that you received as a press sample? Let me know that you acquired the wine that way. While most of us in the wine world know how the business works – it is driven largely by public relations and marketing – I’m not sure that the average wine lover who comes across this blog or that Twitter account knows enough to read between the lines and, as a result, may be caught off guard and influenced by conflicted information. By disclosing these relationships, you are telegraphing to your readers that you care about these principles, that you respect their right to know about your connections, and that you have a  sophisticated and  professional view of these things (I believe that those in the wine industry will have greater respect for you as well).

I was reminded about this issue the the other day by an item I came across on Twitter. John Gillespie, who runs an online research company called Wine Opinions and represents wine clients in their marketing efforts, posted the following Tweet:

@WineOpinions John Gillespie

I never work for people whose wines I don't love, but I'm going to attach "#client" to every tasting note I offer on a client wine.

Gillespie is not the first to disclose a client connection on Twitter, but he is the first I have seen to do so in such a clear and direct way. With a single word, he is removing any ambiguity about his relationship with a wine. Ultimately, his followers will have to decide whether they “love” the wines he promotes as much as he does, but at least now they’ll have little doubt about where he’s coming from when he mentions them. This idea is so simple, taking just seven of 140 characters in a Tweet, that it should become standard practice for those who Tweet about their clients. Similarly, another seven-character tag -- #sample – should be used by wine journalists and critics when they write about wines sent to them as samples (this blog discloses that fact at the end of every post about wines received for review). So, from now on, when you see “#sample” at the end of a Tweet on @VinDeitch, you’ll know that this is how I obtained the wine. There is, after all, no downside to disclosure. What are your thoughts on this issue? Comments welcomed.

Technorati Tags: Wine and social media,Wine and Twitter,Wine marketing,Wine news,Wine and disclosure,Edward Deitch,John Gillespie Wine Opinions,Edward Deitch Twitter,Vint-ed.com,Wine samples

Swirls: NY supermarket wine sales, wine & weight loss, a 13-year-old rosé

SWIRL: Legislation aimed at changing how wine is sold here in New York is once again making its way through the Legislature in Albany. On one hand, it seems lawmakers may finally be heading toward the right balance when it comes to permitting grocery  stores to sell wine, while also giving liquor stores more flexibility in what they can sell and to whom. The Times Union has a good editorial on this today. At the same time, Dr. Vino.com has an interesting item on another New York bill that would curtail the ability of restaurants to purchase interesting older vintages from collectors and other sources, bypassing wine distributors.

SWIRL: If you’re trying to lose weight, are eating less but just don’t see much of a change, it could be those two or three glasses of wine you’re drinking. A survey of 2,000 people in Britain found that fewer than one third had an idea how many calories there are in a standard glass of wine (134). Read more about it in Scotsman.com and Marie Claire.

SWIRL: As we head into high season for rosé with lots of 2010 releases, most of them to be drunk within the next few months, Jeremy Parzen highlights one of the world’s ultimate rosés in the Houston Press -- R. López de Heredia 1998 Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva. Yes, a 13-year-old rosé that, like most wines from this great Rioja producer, is aged for years in barrels before release. They are singular wines, providing a unique tasting experience.

Technorati Tags: Wine sales in New York supermarkets,Grocery store wine sales,New York Legislature wine,Times Union wine,Dr. Vino.com,Restaurant wines,Wine and weight loss,Scotsman.com,Marie Claire,Rosé,Jeremy Parzen,Houston Press,R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Rosado Gran Reserva,Edward Deitch,Wine and health