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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.
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| | 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.
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| | 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.
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[10/31/2008, 16:41]
Today on Serious Grape: Why Read About Wine You'll Never Drink? | |  If you are often frustrated reading wine magazines, wine books, and wine reviews that focus on wines you can't find in your local store, you may wonder why I am addicted to Michael Broadbent's Vintage Wine: Fifty Years of Tasting Three Centuries of Wines. This book collects his tasting notes for the oldest, rarest, and most coveted wines in the world.
Today on Serious Grape, my weekly column on Serious Eats, I explain why I love reading about wine I'll never, ever be able to drink, like the 1811 Chateau Yquem from the "comet vintage." For me its a vicarious pleasure akin to reading People magazine or Vogue, and it combines two of my favorite other pleasures: history and mystery.
If you don't know Michael Broadbent's book, it's an awe-inspiring trip through some of the oldest and most expensive cellars on the planet. And because there's no conceivable way most of us will ever be able to buy any of the wines he tastes here, there's none of that frustration--just pure enjoyment. If this sounds like something you might find fun, or you are looking for a gift for a wine lover, check out today's post.
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[09/17/2007, 17:23]
Is There A Wine Recession Coming? | | With the huge popularity gain for wine in the past five years, one could wonder if a recession in the wine industry is looming.
Much depends on factors in the grand scheme of things. The once-booming housing industry created much wealth for a lot of Americans, but a recent downturn in home sales has created a large-scale semi-panic in the mortgage and banking industry. The stock markets have been shaken by the idea that mortgage companies are virtually disappearing overnight. This has put into question the stability of the biggest banks, and what their exposure to these smaller (defunct) companies has been.
The wine industry is based much on excess wealth. Wine is seen by many, not as an essential, but as a luxury item that would be cut out of a budget if tough times arose. A recent look at distribution and retail inventory levels showed a large glut, sometimes in excess of 200 days worth of stock.
The ever-popular Pinot Noir seems to be immune to this kind of chatter, however. Spurned to new heights of acceptance by the movie Sideways, the "heartbreak grape" seems to be an indespensible red... a must for any cellar or pantry. The next couple of years will be crucial to the industry at the retail and restaurant level. | | | |
[11/01/2006, 19:00]
Mark it on the calendar | | Hmm. I wonder if anyone even bothers to stop by any more, even if it's just to note my conspicuous absence.
Lots going on, folks.
Thanks to all who wished the Chef and me well last month on the anniversary of our wedding.
On a similar note, best wishes to Scott and Jill on their nuptials last weekend. Such a beautiful party.
And, of course, there's the wine goings on. Much to do here in Northeast Ohio, especially this weekend. If you felt let down by the Tribe's oh-so-typical performance this year, you can return to Jacobs Field in Cleveland this weekend, Nov. 2-4, for a much happier occasion. It's the Heinen's/WVIZ World Series of Wine , a perennial joy for wine novices and aficionados alike. It really doesn't get much better than the grand tastings ($70-$75 a person; purchase tickets in advance). More than 400 wines, 100-plus producers, stellar munchies, unparalleled people watching. You'll find lots of opportunities to speak with winery and distributor representatives to get the real dirt on what you're tasting.
It's hard not to over imbibe with so many wines to try, so take a cab or a limo or book a hotel room. Some downtown Cleveland hotels are offering packages specifically for the occasion.
This is easily the biggest wine event of the year for Northeast Ohio. Oh, and it benefits public broadcasting, as if you needed another reason to go. | | | |
[08/09/2006, 02:23]
Tuesday, August 8, 2006 | | NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Unfortunately, at my new job we have dial-up (effing historic) so the blogging thing will be very irregular. I promise to have a post tomorrow night though, so look out. As soon as I can get back to the regular schedule I will. Be patient my lambs....
On other accounts, the new job is great (obviously I'm not far enough in to have any probs...) and I am feeling very fulfilled. More deets tomorrow.
Cheers!
Mel | | | |
[10/01/2008, 20:07]
3,000 Tweets, 592 Followers | | A couple months back I noticed that I was getting close to 3,000 tweets on Twitter, the popular micro-blogging-messaging service. It seemed like a good idea at the time to strive to get to this milestone at the beginning of September but also strive to increase my followers on Twitter to match my 3,000 Tweets. After all, Gary Vaynerchuk has over 15,000 followers so how hard could it be to get 3,000? The answer is nearly impossible. But it wasn’t for lack of trying. I setup Twitterfeed to retweet my Google Reader shared items and I also shared some wine news from Decanter magazine. I participated in the Twitter discussion of wine but didn’t go out of my way to create tweets for the sake of reaching my goals. I could have probably marginally improved my follower count by running a contest or two but I don’t think it would have made a signfianct difference in the final results.  So this blog post will be my 3,000th tweet — about a month behind my original schedule — but my follower count only modestly increased to 592 (+130 since my challenge began). This tells me a few things. First, there are a limited number of people now on Twitter interested in talking about wine. Gary has certainly crossed over into the mainstream and become an internet celebrity but it’s not because of his discussion of wine but how he uses Twitter to connect with his audience (which is several times larger than the Winecast audience). Second, the Wine Twitter group hangs as a fairly small pack and most of us are wine or winery bloggers. I think this might be another barrier for others to join the discussion.
So I’ve decided to open up the way I follow others on Twitter to include fans as well as those tweeting mostly about wine. I started out doing this to keep my Winecast feed easier to scan and I was also republishing the tweets here (later turned off due to technical issues). But I followed everyone back on my personal Twitter account to sort of abide by the norms of the service. This change will not raise my follower count but it will open up some interesting ways to use the service to connect with readers and listeners. I’m hoping this change will encourage people to ask me more questions and ultimately lead to increasing my overall reach… and I’ll get some contests going, as well. Let’s see where I’m at on New Years Day with this new approach. 
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[06/20/2007, 22:05]
All Canadian, All the Time | | | Over May 13th, 14th and 15th 2007, thirty wine writers, sommeliers, and industry professionals from across Canada and the U.S. met in Windsor, Ontario to judge the 27th annual All Canadian Wine Championships. More than 850 wines were submitted from... | | | |
[10/08/2008, 13:42]
Marfa on the Fly | |  I?ll keep this one short, the sun is rising, and we have many miles to cover in these next few days.
Flyover country is a big swath of land and today?s episode of On the Wine Trail in Italy takes us to Marfa, Texas. From Dallas, St. Louis is closer. But Marfa is a piece of Texas that is part Old West, a dash of Soho and a suggestion of The Twilight Zone. Arriving just in time for the Chinati Foundation?s annual celebration, this week artists and intellectuals from all over the world have descended upon sleepy little Marfa to inspire and be inspired, from art, earth and conviviality.
 The terroir of Marfa.
It attracts people from New York, London, Paris and it?s kind of like the dishwasher; everything fits in the racks together. Local folks, hippies who hit the edge of town a generation ago and stopped to rest, you never know who you?ll be talking to. The land does influence, as does the light, which is crisp and bright and razor-edge.
 There is an oasis of chefs and food lovers, from Marathon to Terlingua to Marfa, and this is my annual check-up to make sure they get all the Italian wine they will need for the winter months.
Because of the high altitude (4800 ft appx) this is a great place for a garden in Texas. Warm days, cool nights, and lots of rays. And critters. My uncle the geologist from Midland told me about the way this region was formed millions of years ago, and there is some serious ?minerality? working in the soil. Over by Ft. Davis there are a few vineyards, Cabernet and such.
 As with many places in Texas there is a recognizable effect of the terroir on the people who live and come to live in these places. There is a concentration of energy that is brought to the surface slowly, like the thousands of oil wells that populate the territory. Pumping slowly, constantly, until every last drop is captured.
Last night we opened up bottles at a local place, Cochineal, and sat with owners Tom and Toshi to taste through a few things from Italy. Chef Paul and his wife from The Gage Hotel in Marathon joined us. Tom, seeing we had just opened a 2004 Radici from Mastroberardino, went to his wine cellar and brought back a 1995 Taurasi from Salvatore Molettieri. It drank quite well through the night.
 I like the mixing of terroir, from a bottle of wine, to a bowl of garden fresh vegetables, to a table of folks from all over the world, sharing wine and food and ideas. Terroir as a global force, uniting. Ok, so I?m getting pensive.
Looking forward to visiting many of our accounts today, especially El Cheapo.
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[01/09/2008, 03:10]
Wine, Women and Lawsuits | | | Errol at Washington Winemaker in Bellevue, Washington relates the story of three women winemakers being threatened by the U.S. Olympic Committee for daring to use the name 'Olympic Cellars' for their winery, which is located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State'. Gee fellas, I think the Olympic Mountain range has been around longer than your trademark. The mountain range name was made official in 1864 and was in common and published use before that. | | | |
[12/09/2007, 18:18]
Musk and Candy | | One of my accounts handed me this wine review, written up by a former employee. "She wasn't all there..." they noted, and went on to say she'd find reviews online and cut and paste without actually reading them. This little gem was up for quite a while until horrified customers noted that they wouldn't buy the wine because the description was so off-putting. I, however, find it to be brilliant and would love to partake in the Ecstatic Singing Mantra whenever it transpires. So I searched for wine reviews of Jest Red online, and apparently, most of this review appeared on A Little Vino Would Be Keeno. Which is clearly now my favorite site. Ever. "Blended from seven noble grape varietals, the nose is deeply perfumed with wild dewberries, Himalayan breeding musk, and horehound candy, while the flavors, so titillating they may only be disclosed in the Ecstatic Singing Mantra. Pair with beef, pork, pasta with red sauce, cheese or chocolate, or go wild and have it with pizza, burgers or even burritos!" I'm not quite sure which is the best part of that - is it the Himalayan breeding musk or the pairings? It's sublime on so many levels. | | | |
[10/21/2008, 18:31]
Black Noise Cannon | | With a running time of just short of an hour for just 3 songs, and definitely a very dark outlook in the lyrics and general titles/artwork combination, I was expecting, nay hoping for a full on doom spree.
In fact, this is more of a minimal ambient spree as the first 8 minutes of "A descriptive introduction to the silent war" is beatless, and all just based on beautifully swarming, floating atmospheres, before the introduction of marching band style snare rolls add to the drama, hypnosis and all round brilliance of this opening piece. Finally, at the 10 minute mark, the rest of the band drops in the thoroughly evil, plodding, sinister doom notes that brings to mind Esoteric mostly, and Bethlehem (the slower parts of the Dark Metal album). BLACK NOISE CANNON manage to convey their mood amazingly well with very simplistic notation, and the intensity of the middle, calmer section, with single chiming guitar notes and deep, eerie piano hits almost freezes time.
Vocals arrive after just over 22 minutes, and all of a sudden a very Godflesh inspired trip unfolds as that weird, droning, speaking style delivery becomes BNC's aide to view their thoughts. All in all, this is an incredible opener that takes up half the album, and must be heard by fans of anything slow, atmospheric and disturbing.
"There will be tomorrow" has a lighter opening verse and reminds me a little of Sloth, Melvins, but still the Godflesh influence is there to be seen in the chorus, and flows really well from the starting monster. A word that gets over-used in music sometimes, and more freely than it perhaps should, can be reserved for this band, and that word is apocalyptic, thoroughly apocalyptic in fact, with lyrics like "Destroy yourself, since you can't destroy anything else, now lose yourself, since you've lost everything else" and "it comes in waves, and it always ends the same way" help to give the music an even more tormenting, distraught stranglehold.
"The reality of silence" is the relative calm after the storm as lighter, more emotionally sung vocals ring out over softer music and less discordant chords. The whole thing becomes very cathartic as this third song takes shape and takes hold. What a recording!
Fans of Godflesh, doom, sludge, ambient and deep music in general really need to hear this album!
Links;
Black Noise Cannon - Unsaved: The Reality Of The Silent War
Black Noise Cannon @ MySpace
soultheft records
Conspiracy Records.
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[10/07/2008, 12:54]
Part 1- Dalian Delights: Seafood and the Wine Scene off China?s North-East Coast | | 
Editor’s Note: After reading the title of this post, you may be pondering why Catavino has an article on North-East Chinese cuisine, which is a very good question. Edward Ragg, our Chinese correspondent, has been sharing his experiences living in Beijing as a wine consultant, which have included very detailed and descriptive articles on the state of Spanish wine in east Asia, as well as his experience with pairing traditional Chinese foods with Iberian wine. Considering that Edward is magically finding time to share his knowledge with us, between wine fairs and teaching WSET courses, we are clearly very appreciative. And if you have any questions for Edward, please don’t hesistate to put them in the comments. It?s now almost two years since my wife, Fongyee, and I moved to China to begin work as wine consultants, a profession that barely exists in a country that only really began importing wine some fifteen years ago and whose own wine industry is dominated by massive government corporations. Much of that time has, of course, been devoted to setting up a company ? no easy thing in the PRC ? getting to know the wine importers and fledgling wine magazines as well as becoming more and more familiar with the different national wine markets ? Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and further a field ? the extent of wine knowledge at consumer and trade levels, people?s expectations of wine in general and what myths v. facts abide in an emergent wine culture. Trying myriad Chinese wines, judging at Chinese wine competitions and the teething pains of setting up a website and blog ? ever works in progress ? have had their own challenges. But we can hardly complain: this invaluable experience, by turns exciting, frustrating and occasionally downright baffling, has whetted our appetites and got our palates salivating. We?ll definitely be here for the long-haul, if we can. But just as I was planning a series of posts entitled, ?Confessions of a Chinese Wine Consultant?, going right back to January 2007 when we first landed in Beijing, I had the opportunity to go to Dalian, a popular tourist city about an hour?s flight to the north-east of China?s capital, on the attractive peninsula of Liaoning Province (which borders Hebei and Jilin Provinces, Inner Mongolia and North Korea). As well as having a quick holiday peep at the wine scene there, Fongyee and I, at the behest of her Chinese relatives, were subjected to a two-day eating spree ? Chinese entertaining is beyond bountiful ? gaining some insights into how a typical middle class family sees eating and drinking and how the older and younger generations view Chinese and international wines. Dalian is a good place to be fed to death. Our local Beijing market boasts fresh seafood from Dalian ? fresh because, as in all proper Chinese markets and restaurants, everything is still alive before purchase. So we were keen to see how local Dalian folk treat their seafood and other fish on their own turf. Fresh off our morning plane, lunch was served (the Chinese generally rise early, eat lunch around 11.30-1 p.m. and consume dinner between 5.30-8 p.m., something Mediterranean visitors find intolerable). Fongyee?s cousin had already been to the main Dalian fish market at 5 a.m. that morning and was, I?m not kidding, plating up the following feast, ingeniously prepared from one of the smallest kitchens I have ever seen (even by domestic Chinese standards). The French talk about mise-en-place, the Chinese invented it: steamed crabs (two types ? see below)
steamed abalone
steamed scallops
steamed razor clams
poached flat-fish: of Chinese origin (similar to a meaty version of sole or plaice)
stir-fried prawns with green onion and garlic
stir-fried squid with carrot, green onion, garlic and chilli
deep-fried oysters (in a very delicate batter dipped in white pepper and salt at table)
deep-fried fish in a chilli glaze: the fish was of Chinese origin (similar to perch)
braised red-cooked pork spare ribs (simmered in rice wine, dark and light soy sauce, ginger, star anise, green onion)
preserved pork gelatine salad (flavoured with star-anise and garlic)
salad of preserved pork with julienned cucumber, carrot and green onion in a garlic-soy sauce dressing
prawn soup in a delicate broth (de-shelled prawns, shaped into ovals a bit like French quenelles, with Chinese chives in a clear soup ? i.e. not fish stock)
fried buns with pork and onion filling (known as xia bing)
The two types of crab were ?flower crab? (hua xie), seen on the right above, with flower-like patterns on their shells, and ?flying crab? (fei xie), the bigger beasts to the above left whose shells look something like sting-rays. Each crab was eaten with a special dipping sauce ? see middle above ? comprised of minced garlic, soy sauce and ginger. But there was plentiful pickled garlic on hand just in case anyone felt their daily intake of the herb was lacking. Fortunately, we eat everything and just about anything. And who could have trouble tucking into this? To be Continued: What did they drink in Dalian?… Cheers, Edward Ragg Edward Ragg & Fongyee Walker write for us from Beijing, and you can get more information on their website, Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting Similar Posts: | | | |
[07/28/2006, 18:18]
Friday, July 28, 2006 | | Big News!
Okay, I was trying to keep this one under wraps but it seems a few people have already found out and, well what better place to announce it than here right?
As of August 7th I will be back at the Wine Warehouse full time drinking for my living. I am very excited and can't wait to get back in the game.
Also
My friend Andi got a new job at the O'Henry Hotel and I wish her mucho success in all of her endeavors. I will miss her.
Cheers to my new job!
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[09/22/2008, 11:04]
Spring Mountain Vineyard | | 
Spring Mountain Vineyard is rich with history. After the sudden death of Tiburcio Parrott in the late 1800s, neither the house nor the 800 acres were used between 1896 and 1938. Eventually the property was purchased by Mike Robbins in 1974. Robbins bought an old Victorian on St. Helena Highway near Deer Park Road and constructed a small winery which became Spring Mountain Vineyards. Soon Robbins outgrew this first location and discovered the wonderful Parrot estate. After acquiring Parrott’s Miravalle estate, Robbins restored the Victorian residence and built a 17,000 square foot winery at the site of Tiburcio?s wine cave and small winery. Though his primary vineyard was in Rutherford on the Silverado Trail (now the site of Domaine Mumm), Robbins planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc in 1980 on the land around Miravalle. Robbins’ Spring Mountain Chardonnay became highly prized by connoisseurs and was a ?cult? wine of the late 1960?s and 1970?s. Once the site for the former TV show, Falcon’s Crest, Spring Mountain lives on, now comprising four separate vineyards totaling 245 acres in 130 blocks. The Miravalle, Chateau Chevalier, Streblow (Alba), and Draper (La Perla) vineyards are beautifully terraced, rising up the hillside from 400′ to 1600′ in elevation creating several microclimates. The “main house,” an 8,000 square foot Victorian was built in 1885 by Tiburcio Parrott.
Featured during the aerial flyover in the opening credits of the TV show, the house is meticulously maintained both inside and out, and all of the original features of stained glass and molding have been kept. Join us as we talk with Valli Ferrell, winemaker Jac Cole, and vineyard manager Ron Rosenbrand about the vineyards and this lovely estate.
. For more info on Spring Mountain Vineyard: www.springmountainvineyard.com Sponsor: Bagged Wine: www.baggedwine.com Click Below to Play the Show: | Show #215
(24:29min 17MB) | | | |
[09/21/2008, 01:10]
Amazon.com to Begin Wine Sales | | 
Amazon.com, the online purveyor of books, apparel, and just about everything else, has announced its plans to enter the wine sales business. Beginning as early as mid-October, the online retailer will offer a selection of more than 300 wines from all over the United States to customers in 26 states. The company indicates that the selection will represent a wide cross-section of US producers, not just wineries in California, Oregon, and Washington State.
Shipping and taxes, as ever with online wine sales, will likely be an issue. Amazon says that customers of the Amazon Prime service (which carries a $79 annual fee) will get free shipping. Still, it's an intriguing development.
(photo © istockphoto) See full article.
Related Entries:
Catch Champagne Sales - 06 January 2007 Wine Sellers Dream of Amazon - 18 January 2007 British Spending More on Wine, Less on Beer - 13 August 2007 TiVo and Amazon will Deliver Digital TV Shopping - 24 July 2008
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[11/28/2006, 01:18]
Leelanau Cellars Witches? Brew | | | Leelanau Cellars markets this unique spiced wine as Witches’ Brew around Halloween, but let me assure you that it is a great wine to have on hand throughout the winter. This wine has two labels, the Halloween one (Witches Brew) and the label for the rest of the year, simply named Leelanau Cellars Spiced Wine. 
If you’re looking for something fun and unique to bring to a holiday party this year, this is your wine! This wine is best served heated! Simmer in a pot over low heat until it is warm (the temperature of a witches’ tongue, if you’re celebrating Halloween). This spiced wine should not be served with dinner, but rather as dessert, with some good, dark chocolate. I suppose it could also be good before dinner, while folks are still arriving to the party. It would make a great ice-breaker! Witches Brew is obviously a sweet wine, with aromas of cinnamon and cloves. It has very different characteristics when heated vs. room temperature. Try both! Rating: 9/10 — Truly unique!
Price: $5.99
Where can I get it? Many places in Michigan carry this wine, especially around the holidays. I found it at Meijer. You could always visit the Leelanau Cellars north of Traverse City to stock up! | | | |
[08/09/2006, 01:03]
Leelanau Cellars Autumn Harvest | | | 
Another summer is quickly coming to an end, and I hope everyone got a chance to visit their favorite local vineyard for a tour or a wine tasting. The highlight of my summer is always being able to visit the northern Michigan wineries. This summer, I got a chance to go up to the Leelanau Peninsula several times, and each time was memorable. Leelanau Cellars is, by far, my favorite place to visit up north, especially because of the tasting experience. You don’t feel limited of how many wines you can taste, and the staff working the tasting room are VERY knowledgeable and friendly. I left with about 16 bottles of wine the last time I visited! If you are looking for some odd fruit wines, this is the place to go. The wine:
I shared a bottle with my new roommates in Grand Rapids. All three of us loved it. Matt: “Delicious with chips and dip”
Casey: “It would be a good winter wine. Surprisingly smooth!” I enjoyed this 5 dollar bottle of wine with a thin-crust pizza and it was great. The wine was rich, and had a lot of flavor. I could taste the typical hints of cherry that most Michigan wines boast. Summary: Great job, Leelanau Cellars! I look forward to coming back next year!
Rating: 9/10 - Excellent!
Price: 5 bucks
Winery Information: Leelanau Cellars
Leelanau Wine Cellars
12683 E. Tatch Rd
(County Rd. 626)
Omena, MI 49674
(231) 386-5201 | | | |
[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 |
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