TagCloud:
Wine Ebooks:
| | The Complete Grape Growers Guide. |  | | A Complete Guide For Growing Grapes. Converts Very Well At A Reasonable Price! Growing Grapes And Making Wine Is A Very Popular Topic Right Now.
| |   | |  | |
| | Fool-Proof Wine Values. | | | Learn How To Easily Find Wines Of $50 Quality For $10 Or Less. Impress Friends With Your Expanded Wine Knowledge. Eliminate Your Dependence On Wine Salespeople. And Take The Hassle Out Of Buying Wine.
| | | | | | |
| | Making Wine From Home. | | | A Fun And Very Informative Book On Home Wine Making. The De Facto Standard For All Home Wine Enthusiasts With Recipes, Advice And Tricks.
| | | | | | |
Blogs & Sites:
 Tecnorati
Lava Creek Trailin North Yellowstone in Mammoth country there is a trail called Lava Creek. Near the trailhead you will see a sign along the road letting you know that you are at the 45th parallel. The begining on the trail is kinda difficult to follow because there are several forks along the path. However once [...]
Smack Dab ItI feel like I am right there, the in-between. One of my all-time favorite photos. I?ll take one of those!
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
[11/13/2008, 06:35]
Thailand: Winemaking in the Tropics -Siam Winery | | Siam Winery is no tiny concern. With 1.2 million liters of tank capacity for fine wine, and twice that for the profitable wine cooler venture, they are the big boys in the region. Their 72 acres of grapes are spread over several locations, including one parcel that is actually planted among canals.
The image of a boat paddling through the Floating Vineyards is only slightly upstaged by the shot of the elephants in the vineyards at Hua Hin Hills. This is certainly not any wine country most of us are used to. Don't be fooled by the tourist friendly visage, this is a serious wine concern, making serious wine.
Kathrin Puff is the winemaker, and an incredibly capable one at that. Hailing from Germany she spent years in Italy before coming to take the reins here in Thailand. Her approach is to take the best of technology without going overboard, and the best of the organic approach, without being limited.
The Floating Vineyards are the source of the local vinifera varieties Mlaga Blanc and Red Pokdum. Their Chenin Blanc, Colombard and Syrah are sourced from the slopes of the Hua Hin Hills Vineyards, which is ever expanding.
Hua Hin Hills has issues with high water tables due to their proximity to the jungle covered mountains, so they have had to dig down 15 meters and place water barriers and add shale and other stones for drainage. This huge effort has been well rewarded by decent quality fruit from surprisingly young vines. The quality can only go up as the average age of the vines increases.
Housed in an industrial facility the winery is not at all impressive from the outside, but the interior more than makes up for that. The barrel room is well maintained and there are plans in the works to double its size.
Kathrin is a fan of micro-oxigynation so the lower level wines are not penalized by failing to get a chance to develop secondary aromas through barrel aging. The Monsoon Valley wines show the care and crafting you would expect from a small hands on winery, so the sight of the sprawling tank rooms might catch you off guard.
The scale of the fine wine production is nothing in comparison to the wine cooler facility. Here bottles whip by at blinding speed, 24/7 being filled, labeled and packed for the never ending demand for these "starter" wines. The commercial success of the coolers ensures that there is the needed capital for expanding and improving the fine wine division.
This fiscal planning is not only evident in their diversification, but also through their distribution. Not only is Monsoon Valley one of the most prominent Thai wines in stores and restaurants, they have their own retail outlet here in the high end resort of Hua Hin. This tiny shop in an upscale mall allows visitors to taste and buy the wines in the comfort of a beach town, without having to trek into the countryside or halfway to Bangkok.
But if treking is your thing the Hua Hin Hills facility will welcome you with their modern tasting room and dining facilities and tours are even available for the main winery. More information can be found at http://www.monsoonvalleywine.com/. | | | |
[07/16/2006, 18:30]
| | 
The good wines of the small big companies.
The Malbec 2004 Marguery Family
"FAMILY MARGUERY" elaborates his wines in the locality of Cross of Stone, Mendoza, into Republic Argentina .
"Exclusively we are compromised by the production of wines of high quality "enologica" by means of the use of the last technological advances and in limited items. Our grapes come from ancient vineyards strictly selected of the localities of Uco's Valley (Mendoza - Argentina) seeking to express the peculiar characteristics of every "terroirs", says Marguery.
This wineries of Argentina was founded in the 2000 year. " We look for wines of good concentration, complex and expressive, for it and consistent with our vision, we work in this respect from the vineyard. Everything there speaks about the care and the dedication that we have with our plants wineries. There helps us very much the height that they have on the level of the sea (1.100mts.), the desert conditions of the climate, the poverty of the soil, the thermal extent, that is to say all conditions that favor the ideal development of the Malbec ".
Read more
| | | |
[11/04/2008, 07:42]
holiday time | | | It’s time for a break. Back with updates from 20th November, and who knows - maybe the Autumn issue will also be out before the clock strikes December! a holiday time | | | |
[09/03/2007, 21:57]
Pour Some Sugar on Me (or not) by Tod Stewart | | | Over two million Canadians have diabetes. For thirty-two years I?ve been a card-carrying member of the no-sugar-tonight club. The thing that always surprises people when they find out I?m diabetic is the significant part that food and wine play in... | | | |
[11/12/2008, 07:36]
Are We Not Drawn Onward to New Era? * | |  So here we are again, the harvest is completed and the new wine is in the barrel. Once more the cycle begins anew, a sequence which we in the wine business live to develop and enjoy. Already we are hearing talk about the miraculous victory of the return, the gathering of the century, the harvest of hope. The bringing in of a new dawn, the hope of a new age.
And during the daytime I am like a priest in a confessional listening to folks in the wine business go over all the sins, not of their own, but of the others.
 Today in a little trattoria; a rather immense man, with an even larger ego, walks in and proceeds to sit in the table next to me and my lunch companion, an old pro who has seen it all. This large man is a small distributor and he knows not of the code of professional regard. All the wine in his beat up 30' by 70' stockroom is a small insignificant corner of a warehouse somewhere in the Midwest, forgotten by time or care. But as he has not trodden the path of the ancients, his malfeasance is to ignore the history of his trade and mock those who have paved the Via Appia so that he may pretend to be in the company of those who really give a crap.
But then again, he doesn?t dine regularly with Cicero and Seneca, so what can he know about where he is going? Like so many who think they must abjure their competition, I just laughed at his folly on my way out the door. I could pretend to be a bigger man than the whale. After all, what runs through my veins flowed through the Tiber, then and now. As we all have.
 Today I saw a group of college students as they were being taken on a tour of one of the big warehouses, in for a little recruitment into our multi-thousand year old trade. How I?d love to have five minutes with them. But since I haven?t been asked, wait, this is my wine blog, I can take five minutes. Or ten.
Dear new generation looking to come into our tiny little global wine village,
If you are looking to join up to make a lot of money, think again. If you are looking for a career, well maybe you could call it that. If you don?t know what to do with your life, but if you don?t do anything you?ll end up like a character in a Camus novel. And that would be distressing to a generation that has had so much landed right in front of you.
 If you are looking for a place to get a free drink on a Friday morning, you?ve come to the right place. But if you have alcoholic tendencies, this place could be worse than Gitmo for you.
If you want to travel all over the world, you missed that boat by about 20 years. Can't even make it up in coach.
So what is it that would draw you to this wine business? Not money, nor travel, nor an escape from some kind of existential ennui.
 Well, let me tell you. Because I was once there on the outside-looking in. I really didn?t know what to do with my life. I had graduated from a private university and the economy was in the tank. Gas prices were high, home values were crashing, the stock market was a mess and American cars were the pits. But I remember the times I?d drive up Highway 29 in Napa and think what a wonderful little place that was. Or I?d think about the grapes I had picked in Calabria and thought how special it was to sit in a cellar at night with a bunch of cousins who I didn?t understand and they surely didn?t understand me. But after a bottle or two of wine in that musty, balmy old place, a miracle occurred. We started understanding each other. Our global village was born there and to this day I have been under the influence of a power greater than anything I could ever imagine or take credit for creating. In a phrase, I found my place. I belonged. And that gave my life meaning. Greater than the $100 million bucks one of my sad relatives probably just lost. Greater than the fame my college friend Tony once had, a friend who can no longer find it in him to return a phone call from one of his friends before he became famous ( him, not his friend). I am having a Lou Gehrig moment, and I have it often in this crazy old wine business.
 Oh, one other thing ? find a specialty, be it Port or Bordeaux or naturally made wine or the wines of Campania, just find a way to be seen as having a special niche. And don?t forget to love all the other wines too, for they are all part of the same energy and deserve your respect and honor.
 Do that and your ?career? will take you anywhere you want to go. And before you know it, you will have been in it for some time and you?ll be walking down a corridor and pass by a group of young folks on the outside looking to get in. And then the large cycle will have made its rounds and you?ll be part of the elite group of folks, from Chaldea in 1000 B.C to Suvereto in 2008.
To answer the question which started this post ? Yes, we are drawn onward.
There?s something about all these old and familiar worn out faces.
*Are We Not Drawn Onward to New Era? | | | |
[03/12/2008, 03:02]
Vintage Cellars affordable imports ... | | By Campbell Mattinson
Publisher, The Wine Front
 I like writing about imports but it always frustrates me how limited they are (in terms of availability) and generally how expensive. As a reviewer it can feel like I’m spending a lot of time writing for a very, very small number of people. When a box of affordable imports from Australian retailer Vintage Cellars came in though I jumped at it; this is more like it. Vintage Cellars has put a lot of time and energy into its quaffable import range in recent years and it shows. These wines are generally good, available and not expensive. Tasting through them was like a quick trip around the world. There are a couple of real bargains here.
These reviews are available to subscribers only. Click here for the reviews. In coming months I will attempt to review the comparable ranges of other importers. | | | |
[11/06/2008, 10:20]
Photo Atlas of Spain´s Wine Culture | |  At the time of the grape harvest, Wine Tourism Spain has launched its first Photo Atlas on Spain´s geography and wine culture. The photo Atlas on winetourismspain.com thoroughly reflects Spain´s variety of vineyards and landscapes, the historical and architectural diversity of its wineries, as well as interesting aspects of wine culture. There are more than 300 photos organised in 6 albums: Landscapes, Cellars, Hard work, Wine Accessories, Close look at the vineyard and In-depth." This Atlas has been put together thanks to the photos which have participated in the First National Competition of Wine Photography in Spain. The competition has been sponsored by the Institute of Touristic Promotion of Castille la Mancha, Haciendas de España, Bodegas Torremilanos, with the collaboration of Verema.com. It is one of the initiatives launched by winetourismspain.com to enable the public to discover the variety of Spain´s wine culture and geography. The winners, chosen by a Jury made up of the different sponsors, are the following: First prize: Nevada Tardía (Antonio Martínez Andía)
Second prize: Casi la luna (Raquel Benito Olarte)
Third prize: Tinajas en la Mancha (M Jesús Abad de Lucas)
Special prize: Castille la Mancha Camino del Hidalgo (Daniel Fernández Méndez) Like many and several wine bloggers I love photography and find foreign travel particularily invigorating; from these galleries many photos are inspiring and evocative - Atraves de la Copa, Al Atardecer and Camino-del-Hidalgo.
 | | | |
[11/11/2008, 05:23]
Red Barn Winery Hearty Red | | 
Another Desmond find!
Red Barn Winery opened May of 2004. It is located four miles North of the city of Syracuse in Liverpool, NY. Open Thursday thru Sunday 12 noon to 6 P.M.
Paul Martin is the sole owner and winemaker with decades of experience. Old world (European) winemaking experience and new winemaking techniques are incorporated to produce great wines. N.Y. State grapes and fruits are used exclusively. The 3000 sq. ft. winery is built around a ?Turn of the Century? design. Tasting room # 1 is cozy, consisting of a fireplace, rocking chairs, couches and plank floors. Tasting room # 2is of the Western saloon style, high ceilings ( 25?), hand hewn beams, plank floors and antiques.
The Hearty Red is a very nie, solid, table red. Dry, with notes of cherry and vanilla. Nice! | | | |
[11/21/2008, 05:00]
Bodega Mendel Malbec Mendoza 2006 $27 (Wine Spectator) | | | Nicely layered with warm fig sauce, mocha, crushed raspberry and boysenberry fruit and a long, dark, spice- and espresso-tinged finish. Powerful but balanced. Should age nicely. Best from 2009 through 2012. 3,500 cases made. | | | |
[11/05/2008, 00:54]
Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva 2003 wine review by (PB) | | 
Sour cherry aromas and pipe tobacco with a hint of chocolate but the wine is cold. Breath and warm it up;
Palate--cherry with slight evergreen mid palate, nice!
Fresh Sangiovese flavors; a mature wine with a touch of anise emerging. This is a nice wine; mature and tasty! It's a bit pricey at $22 but a nice treat. Raise a glass! | | | |
[07/27/2006, 17:43]
Thursday, July 27, 2006 | | Wedding Bells
Don Ziraldo is the founder of Inniskillin Winery in Canada and is credited with bringing ice wine to the forefront. If you?ve never had it, you should try it. It?s expensive ($100 for a half bottle) but OMG it is divine. I had the Cab Franc Icewine and it tasted like a liquid strawberry shortcake. Anywho, Ziraldo got married this past week to Anna Netter. But here?s the good part. The couple did a press release and here are just a few snipits from their article.
The 58-year-old Mr. Ziraldo met his bride on the ski slopes of Whistler, but they lived apart for some time, "each continuing to travel and learn from other cultures. Gradually, thanks to their mutual interest in Buddhism, both learned that "there is no fear, only love." At the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece the couple exchanged eternity rings.
Remember that kids ?there is no fear, only love?. WTF? I love it, they exchanged ?eternity rings?. Is that just basically what millionaires call a wedding band? And OMG, that hat and those shoes do not scream millionaire. I do like her dress though.
More details on the wedding: It took place at the jet-set Hotel Traube-Tonbach (Traube means grape in German), which "prides itself on its strictly enforced peace and quiet, and the glamour of its very upscale clientele." The wines were Inniskillin -- natch -- and the dinner menu featured venison and pike. The couple is honeymooning in the Bahamas with friends.
Does it strike anyone else as odd that they took ?friends? on their honeymoon?
Well, we wish you all the best. Cheers Mr. and Mrs. Ziraldo!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060727.RNOBODY27/TPStory/Business
I smell something fishy
Fact #1
JD Wetherspoon?s is a chain of pubs in England. There are 650 in operation.
Fact #2
Constellation Brands is a wine GIANT. They sell more than 80 million cases a year. They own Alice White, Almaden, Arbor Mist, Cook's, Covey Run, Inglenook, Vendange, Dunnewood, Farallon, Great Western, J. Roget, Marcus James, Paul Masson table wines, Taylor California Cellars, Viña Santa Carolina, Banrock Station, Hardys, Leasingham, Barossa Valley Estate, Chateau Reynella, and Nobilo just to name a few. Seriously, they own hundreds of wineries.
Fact #3
Constellation often does ?private labels?. This means that they take one of their wines, let?s say Alice White for example, and they put it in a bottle with a different label on it. So, if you were a mega retail store *cough Total Wine cough* you could take that Alice White and call it Blue Flame *cough ass in a glass cough* and when people want more, they can only get it at your store b/c the consumer doesn?t know it?s Alice White?.for example.
Fact #4
JD Wetherspoon?s let several different companies compete for their house wine. Whatever wine was the most popular for the trial period would win an exclusive with all of the pubs for a contract valued at nearly 150 million dollars.
Okay, now that we know the facts, let?s look at what really happened. It seems that an email was leaked from the Boss of Matthew Clarks Brands (a division of Constellation Brands) to all of their employees (around 300 people).
Wine distributor Matthew Clark emailed staff asking them to buy up to eight bottles of wine each at JD Wetherspoon's pubs in Bristol - and then claim it back on expenses.
Employees were told to buy Nottage Hill Chardonnay and Shiraz, and Echo Falls - all of which are produced by Matthew Clark parent company Constellation Europe.
If each of the firm's 300 employees had "done their bit" and splashed out on eight bottles of wine, it would have increased sales by 2,400 bottles in the city's pubs - potentially tipping the balance in its favour.
The plan to artificially enhance the wine's popularity was devised as Constellation battled with rival firms for the exclusive rights to supply wine to JD Wetherspoon's 650 pubs.
Nice. I?d love to buy wine and expense it back to my boss. Somehow I don?t think he?d go for it. I have to say though, this doesn?t shock me so much. I wouldn?t put anything past Constellation Brands. So I guess my point here is know your brands, and know what you are buying.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1200200.ece
When pigs fly?I mean drink beer
So, in Tasmania (off of the coast of Australia) there is a local tourist attraction that has been getting a lot of flack lately. If you go to the ?Pub in the Paddock? you will find Prescilla and PB and they chug beers. But get this, Prescilla and PB are pigs. Yep, people can pay to ? and I quote ? ?pour bottles of beer down the willing throats of resident pigs?.
Dude, I would totally pay to see that. But PETA would like to go on the record and state that they are not down with it and they want to have the pigs rescued.
"Whilst it is a difficult pill to swallow ... it's certainly not cruelty, unfortunately," RSPCA state chief executive Rick Butler told PETA.
Pub owner Anne Free said Wednesday she was outraged that the tourist attraction had been attacked as cruel in the latest edition of a magazine published by animal welfare group Choose Cruelty Free.
"When it's very, very quiet, I often actually have to go over and give them a couple of drinks because, yeah, they do look forward to it," Free told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
Note to self: If you ever go to Tasmania, you must go see the beer swilling pigs!
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14035561/
Boozehounds
Heartland Brewery has just begun marketing their new beer called Slobber Lager. This non-alcoholic beef flavored beer is made specifically for dogs.
 "It's damn good," said Jon Bloostein, owner of Heartland Brewery, after taking a sip.
Polo, a Bichon Frise, took a sniff and slurped down the whole bowl in a few seconds.
Simba, a Shih Tzu, was more hesitant. After several whiffs and plenty of encouragement, he took a few gulps.
But Diva, a Rottweiler, couldn't get enough.
She finished one bowl and moved on to the next. Still thirsty, she sipped from a pint glass, then drank straight from the tap.
"She's a beer drinker!" said Allison Cardona of the ASPCA, who helped bring the dogs, all available for adoption, to the tavern for the taste test.
Um, I am sure the dogs love it but why is the brewer drinking it? Ew! Beef flavored beer? Count me out. My dog is fat enough as it is so he?s definitely not getting any.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/438150p-369132c.html
How Much??
 Schramsberg has just come out with a new sparkling wine meant to compete with the likes of Krug, Dom P., and Cristal. It is called J. Schram Rose 1988 and there were only 800 cases produced. Rarely will you ever see an American Sparkler go for more than $75 but this one??$120.
"It appears in a world where Dom Pérignon Rosé is $200, and Cristal is probably $350. The Krug Rosé is certainly in that range as well," said Shramsberg head winemaker Hugh Davies. "This wine competes with those in terms of flavor, finesse and character.
Yeah, but it?s still Schramsberg and I doubt it competes with Krug. Strike that ? There is NO WAY it competes with Krug. If anybody out there can get a hold of some, I wanna know what it?s like. Ooooh I would love to have it in a blind tasting.
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,3361,00.html
Last night was our anniversary so Kipp and I got a babysitter and hit the town. First we went to Milner's in Winston Salem and I had a glass of Renard Rose. It was just kinda meh...
From there we proceeded to go to several different bars and I actually ran into an old sorority sister at Foothills. Anyway we came home at 8:30 (I know, were wild right?) and I fixed Steak with a mushroom and Humboldt Fog (bleu cheese) sauce. We had an '01 Spotteswoode with it. That review will come tomorrow. But for now read my review of Martinelli Pinot that I had at an impromptu wine dinner with Jon and Sam at my house on Sunday.
Martinelli '02 Moonshine Ranch Pinot Noir
The nose was earthy and powdery all at the same time. It also had a lot of blackberry with some hints of white pepper. The palate was all cherry cola and sweet black cherries. There was some hidden acidity on the mid-palate with a very sweet, very lush blackberry jam finish. Yeah, it was over extracted but damn, it was GOOD. I have one more bottle and I think I'll let that one sit for about 3 more years.
Cheers! | | | |
[02/27/2007, 21:31]
Wine Relief | |  Well it has been a few weeks since my last entry and although I could tell you all about the Rhône and Burgundy en primeur campaigns, the New Wave Spanish wines I've been trying, or the South African Reds to match the last entry of South African Whites that my father has been religiously clicking on to, only to discover nothing of what his daughter has been up to in the Big Smoke, I won't.
I am very tempted to tell you about having to pay an Australian, let's say friend, in wine for a lost - no, thoroughly thrashed - bet over the Ashes (this was his first return to England since that sorry episode). A fairly painful experience for both wallet and liver BUT let's move on to the future. Wine Relief is upon us www.rednoseday.com/partners/wine-relief/ and there are several different bottles widely available to buy from which retailers are donating some of the profit to Comic Relief. How easy is it to open a bottle of wine and make a difference?  For my part I have been enthusiastically working my way through the offerings and on March 3rd, this Saturday in fact, I will be a guest panellist on the Virtual Wine online tasting of the 6 best on offer. The team at Virtual Wine have also studiously tasted and deliberated to come up with the finalists which will be tasted by a select (!) panel live from 7.30 pm.
The idea is that you at home can order the taster packs of 6 wines from Virtual Wine (10% still going to Comic Relief) or buy them from the various retailers, and taste the wines at the same time. You can then send belligerent, loving or simply drunken messages to us via email and your concerns will be addressed immediately. What a laugh... So get some friends round, you must have some, put on some nibbles and sharpen your tongues. Take a look here www.virtualwine.co.uk to download instructions and tasting notes. These people like wine and have a laugh with it, their contribution to the cork vs screwcap debate was to race bottles down river to see which was fastest, the loser then wrestled the winner to the ground in an unscripted, but thrilling, finale. |
|
| | | |
[05/07/2008, 16:18]
Interview with Ed Lehrman of Vine Connections: First Installment | | 
Following the theme of my last post about Americans? increasing awareness of the quality wines that many artisan producers of Argentina are exporting, I?m pleased to post the first installment of my interview with Ed Lehrman of Vine Connections. Along with his business partner, Nick Ramkowsky, they formed a company that not only imports the wines of artisan Mendoza producers, but selectively forges meaningful, long term relationships with them. As Ed Lehrman explains in the interview, this type of involvement encompasses much more than shipping and distribution, extending into representation, consulting, label design and many other crucial aspects which in the end, bring American consumers the types of genuine artisan wines that multinationals couldn?t even conceive of delivering.
Based out of Sausalito, CA, Vine Connections has been at the forefront of the changing of the guard, in terms of tastes, that I described in my last post. Their portfolio includes excellent California, New Zealand and Japanese Saké producers, alongside the wines of star Mendoza winemakers Susana Balbo and Pedro Marchevsky, along with others to look out for, such as Mapema, Tikal and La Posta del Viñatero. If you really want to know what Argentines really like to have at the table and moreover, the breadth that Argentine wines are capable of achieving, I encourage you to explore the types of artisan producers that Vine Connections represents and whose work, over the coming years, will ultimately triumph over the characterless, corporate-backed South American wines saturating our shelves.
I would like to thank Ed Lehrman for taking the time to provide his in-depth responses concerning Vine Connections, its vision and inspiration. Our conversation unfolded over e-mail:
*What is the vision behind your company and what were some of the key experiences that led you and your business partner to get started?
- My partner, Nick Ramkowsky, and I have both been in the wine business since 1986 (we started very young), and we could have done any number of things together. Nick was a small California distributor at the time, and I had just sold my direct-to-consumer wine business where he had been one of my suppliers. A fateful trip together in May of 1999 launched us into the importing/national sale & marketing business. We spent about a week in Mendoza on that trip tasting wines from bottle, barrel, tanks?you name it?and we met some incredible winery owners and winemakers. By the end of the week, we were looking at each other and asking, ?How does the 5th largest wine producer in the world hide incredible wines like these from the US?? It seemed like this must be the opportunity of a lifetime for wine guys like us to lead the charge in introducing Argentine wine to the US, and in a way that they would be fully appreciated for their quality and authenticity, and not just their price. As an aside, of the first 12 wines we imported from Argentina, the LEAST EXPENSIVE wine was $22 retail! So in fact, Vine Connections was originally formed in order to be an Argentine wine importer.
*Compared to other importers, what is the depth of Vine Connection's involvement with the producers its represents? (in terms of consulting, marketing, other assistance, etc.)
- It is hard to speak about other importers, since some do quite a lot and some just taste and buy. As for us, we take the approach that we are the winery?s own sales & marketing department and they can use us for as little or as much as they need. That may mean writing back label copy, helping with label design, or determining whether a new blended wine is even a good idea to add to their portfolio.
For all of our wineries, we do the copywriting for all printed materials since we can communicate their stories in English more effectively, and along the same lines, we handle most press relations since we are here and readily available. And I guess the most valuable thing we do would be called ?consulting? since we offer our advice on many topics based on our 40 years of working in the U.S. wine biz.
*How does your company forge relationships with producers? In this vein, what is the process like for you when considering an addition to your portfolio? Do the producers come towards you in the way of trade events, do you travel to areas to scout, so to speak, or some combination thereof?
- We are very careful in this regard since our objective as an importer is to build brands and not just sell wine. That requires long-term relationships, so besides tasting backwards and forwards through a winery?s production, we spend as much as time as we can with the owners and the winemakers to see whether there is a good fit for working closely together. When we meet people who already think they know it all about winemaking, marketing, etc., we politely walk away no matter the wine quality. Our initial screen is the wines?they have to be particularly good since that is what we are known for importing. Then we start talking about their philosophies, their dreams, their business objectives, and where we should all eat dinner together (a meal with a potential supplier is always a good way to gain more insight).
This process means that while we have run into some wines that we like, we have sometimes been unwilling to take the winery on. The most common stumbling block for us seems to be that the winery lacks a strong winemaking philosophy, and often because they have abdicated this cornerstone to a consulting winemaker (and most often to foreign winemakers). As time has passed, we have pretty much settled into the idea of only representing wineries owned by Argentines and with Argentine winemakers since the winemaking vision is usually clearer and more grounded in expressing what makes Mendoza so special compared to other regions.
From the first moment that we meet a winery team, it usually takes about 18 months before we come to an agreement, do the ground work, and then start selling the wines in the U.S. It seems to work--we have never lost an Argentine winery and every brand that we represent has achieved a significant level of success.
I wish I could say that finding these producers followed a particular recipe, but in truth, all of our brands have come to us via different sources. The key is to have your radar on all the time so that the best ones don?t slip by accidentally.
*You represent Susana Balbo and Pedro Marchevsky's Dominio del Plata Winery?how did that relationship come about and how far back do you go?
- Well, if it weren?t for the ?dynamic duo? of Mendoza, we may never have been Argentine wine importers. We met them on our first trip to Mendoza in 1999, and they were so obviously talented and knowledgeable that they got us thinking a lot about the possibilities. We also formed a trusting relationship so quickly that it became obvious that we would work together, and together push forward a common vision of making Argentine wine part of the daily American fine wine conversation. That seems like an ominous task looking back now?we had no company yet and they were renting a very small winery at the time?but at the time it just seemed like destiny. | | | |
[11/20/2008, 05:00]
Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2006 $64 (Wine Spectator) | | | Slightly firm, with juniper, sage and sandalwood hints framing dark plum, currant, coffee and mineral notes. The grippy finish has a cedar note in the background, with hints of black tea and tar. A gutsy style, with fresh acidity in reserve. Best from 2009 through 2028. 4,330 cases made. | | | |
[11/13/2008, 03:47]
Books on wine | |  As much as I love books and in particular books on wine, it is apparent I have too many of them. At last count there was over 70. Most have been idle and untouched for years, collecting dust and musty smells. Recently, I gathered the least loved, mainly the ones full of tasting notes and numbers (perhaps that is a lesson for writers of wine blogs too) and visited several second book merchants. I had low expectations which proved excessive. I had thought someone would at least offer $10 for my twenty books. In the end, no one was interested, the purveyors of trashy second hand novels said my books on wine were worthless. . . Of course this unsupported secondary market means that occasionally treasures at bargain prices can be found. In the image above (which are some of the books I kept), there are two such finds. A first edition of the World Atlas of Wine set me back 50 cents (Church fair in the rural town of Albany) and George Saintsbury's classic book was only two dollars.
For those interested in old wine books, in particular books full of tasting notes and numbers, I'd suggest visiting your local Good Samaritan store, I've heard that some new stock has just arrived. | | | |
|
