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The more good Champagne I have, the more it seems to me that you really get what you pay for. Unfortunately, what you have to pay for the really good stuff is out of the reach of most wine lovers, which was why I didn't like Champagne until several years after I started getting into wine.
Now I love it, but only because I've been able to taste Champagnes like these.
Alfred Gratien represents an interesting class of Champagne producer. When we speak of those who make Champagne, we most often talk about the Champagne "Houses" -- the massive brands who contract with sometimes hundreds of growers to produce very large quantities of bubbly -- and the "grower producers" who make what some call affectionately "farmer fizz."
There is a third category, however, that in more ways than one represents an earlier age in Champagne production. Before the big Champagne houses got so big, they were small. While they did not grow their own grapes (or at least not a majority of them) they made small lots of handcrafted Champagne with grapes from growers with whom they had long term relationships.
Champagne Alfred Gratien, founded in 1864, operates not only at the scale of these traditionally small houses, producing no more than about 22,000 cases of wine per year, but also maintains all of the handcrafted traditions that some of the larger houses have had to abandon over the years (Gratien was sold to a holding company in 2000, but has changed none of its practices or production levels as a result).
In a similarly old-fashioned manner, the wine is never allowed to go through a secondary malolactic fermentation, but is instead carefully blended with older vintages (in the case of non-vintage wine) and put into bottles with the liqueur de tirage (the mix of sugar and yeast that produces the sparkling fermentation in the bottle) and closed with a wired cork. The use of a cork at this step is extremely unusual, time consuming and costly. The rationale for using a cork at this stage is much like using a cork at any stage -- the tiny amount of oxygen that the cork permits into the bottle helps to mature the wine.
The trouble is, however, that this cork closure comes with all the downsides of normal cork -- you have to remove it carefully by hand and you have to make sure that the wine is not corked. So after careful hand riddling (the process of turning each individual bottle to settle the yeasts and other sediment into the neck of the bottle) and three years of aging, each bottle must not only be opened and re-corked after adding the dosage (the mix of sugar and older vintage wine), but each needs to be tasted to make sure that it is not corked - a daunting task even at the estate's maximum production level of 250,000 bottles per year.
The estate's production is overseen by cellar master Nicolas Jaeger, who is the fourth generation of the Jaeger family to hold this title at Alfred Gratien. Under his guidance, the estate produces five non-vintage and one vintage wine of outstanding quality and distinction from the traditional blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes, many of which are organically, or at least "sustainably" farmed.
While they are made in small quantities and cost a pretty penny, these wines are most certainly worth the effort and the money required to experience them.
TASTING NOTES:
NV Alfred Gratien "Brut Classique" Champagne, Epernay, France Pale blonde in the glass with fine bubbles , this wine has a remarkable nose of mineral, and striking hibiscus aromas -- a unique combination of floral and fruity qualities. In the mouth it is bright with a mineral acidity, very soft mousse, and beautifully yeasty warm bread quality that merges nicely with citrus elements as the wine lingers through a long finish. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $55. Where to buy?
NV Alfred Gratien "Brut Classique" Rose Champagne, Epernay, France Pale salmon in color with very fine bubbles, this wine has a nose of old socks (in a good way) and redcurrant aromas. In the mouth it offers hints of berries amidst deeper more earthly flavors of wet chalkboard, and wet dirt. Excellent acidity floats the wine through a beautiful finish. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $55. Where to buy?
NV Alfred Gratien Blanc des Blancs Champagne, Epernay, France Pale green-gold in the glass, this wine has a bright zingy nose of lemon juice and lemon zest aromas. In the mouth it is equally bright, with flavors of pink grapefruit and lemon zest with lovely accents of warm brioche in the very fine mousse that seems to linger quite long in the mouth. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $75. Where to buy?
1998 Alfred Gratien Millesime Blanc de Noirs Champagne, Epernay, France Light gold in the glass with the tiniest of bubbles, this wine has a beautiful, ageless nose of warm brioche and rainwater aromas. In the mouth it is nothing short of phenomenal. Beautifully layered with core flavors of warm freshly baked bread and brewers yeast wrapped in an explosively tangy layer of citrus and brown sugar qualities that moderate to toasted white bread flavors on the very long finish. Outstanding. Score: between 9.5 and 10. Cost: $100. Where to buy?
NV Alfred Gratien "Cuvee Paradis" Brut Champagne, Epernay, France Palest gold in color, this wine has a nose of toasted brioche and bright lemon and mineral aromas. In the mouth it is soft and airy with clear, bright flavors of lemon zest, and a beautiful yeasty quality that lingers beautifully on the palate for a long time. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $130.Where to buy?
NV Alfred Gratien "Cuvee Paradis" Brut Rose Champagne, Epernay, France Pale salmon in color with extremely fine bubbles, this wine has a nose of wet wool and hibiscus aromas. In the mouth it is strikingly mineral and lean with hibiscus and rose hip flavors peeking around the edge of a remarkable stony core of the wine that maintains a presence in the beautiful finish. Score: around 9.5. Cost: $130.Where to buy?
When people often ask me how I "got into wine" I have a sense that they are expecting me to relate some story of a revelatory mouthful -- that one wine which struck me like a lightning bolt and sent me down the path to become the wine fanatic that I am today. Strangely, I possess no story like that about wine. I remember merely a pastiche of many special and prosaic moments with wine that have gradually led to me to the depths of my current passion.
I do, however, have a story like that about how I fell in love with sake.
It was the year 2000, and I was a Director of User Experience at Sapient Corporation, and I was asked whether I would be interested in going to Japan to help the company open an office there. Single at the time, with no pets or other obligations, I excitedly said that I would at least go on the initial exploratory trip, and would make my decision based on that experience.
The company planned to make its introduction to the market with the help of a partner firm, a relatively upstart organization that happened to be headed by several of the former top executives of BCG Japan. Our second night in the country, they took us out to what, at the time, was the best sushi I had ever eaten in my life in a private sushi club in Tokyo's Roppongi district. I knew that my job description that evening was going to involve the consumption of a lot of alcohol, but I didn't much care for beer. So when it was offered, I asked politely if I might drink sake instead. The CEO of our partner firm barked at the chef behind the sushi counter, and that's when it happened.
In my memory, the lights dim a little bit around the restaurant so that the sushi chef is bathed in the sole splash of bright light. He places a beautiful small wineglass on the counter, its bowl foggy with the chill of the freezer he has just taken it from. Then he turns slowly and reaches down below the counter to emerge with a huge brown bottle in his arms, its striking handmade paper label brushed with a stroke that resembles a huge number "2." My glass is poured and placed in front of me, shimmering and cool. And my first sip is like drinking a pristine glacial lake under a full moon.
I had the presence of mind to keep my initial outburst to something along the lines of "Wow, this is really good." But what I really meant was "Holy fucking shit, THIS IS SAKE?!?"
In that moment, I knew that I wanted to drink fine chilled sake for the rest of my life. I wanted to try as much as possible, as many different kinds as possible, and as often as I possibly could.
And that was my introduction to the sake known as Kubota Manju.
To put this in terms that might make more sense to wine lovers, here's an analogy: until that point I had been drinking sparkling wine from a box (heated up in the microwave, I might add) and then someone poured me my first glass of properly chilled Krug Champagne.
Kubota Manju is produced by a brewery known as Asahi Shuzo in the Niigata prefecture of western Japan, and it may well be the most well known fine sake in the world. Asahi Shuzo was founded in 1830 and is the largest producer in Niigata prefecture, and therefore one of the largest producers in all of Japan. Just as the massive Champagne houses who manage to strike a fine balance between making huge quantities of product at a very high quality, elevated further by a globally recognized brand, so too has Asahi Shuzo managed to turn Kubota into the Cristal of sake. The brand of the drink has eclipsed the people who have made it.
Kubota is a trade name -- one of the very first successful "brands" of fine sake on the market. The sake was originally named Asahiyama, and was finally branded Kubota in 1985, taking the nickname that the brewery had enjoyed. The Kubota line of sakes, and Kubota Manju in particular, gained massive popularity in the 1980s as Japan rekindled (some would say created) its appreciation for fine sake, partially due to simply good timing and savvy marketing, but also no doubt because of its extremely high quality and taste.
Asahi Shuzo was one of the pioneers of the fine sake movement (which has only really been around for about 50 years, and successful for 30), and in particular was one of the first to use stainless steel tanks for making sake. The use of steel in sake making has a similar effect to the use of steel in winemaking. It is more hygienic, leading to lower numbers of outside or unwanted bacteria during the fermentation process, and tends to accentuate the fruit. Or in the case of sake, the floral qualities of the rice.
Kubota Manju is an unusual sake in several respects, independent of its popularity or quality. It carries no formal designation of its level of quality, which is why I've had to note the fact that it is actually a junmai daiginjo sake parenthetically above. For those of you who aren't familiar with sake designations, this means that it is made from rice that has been polished down to at least 50% of its former mass, and includes no added alcohol in the brewing process. Not content to stop just past the 50% mark, Kubota Manju is usually made from rice polished down to about 33% of its former mass.
Instead of such quality designations, the Kubota line of sakes are simply given numbers, if you will to correspond to their quality. The "ju" in the name roughly translates to "celebrations" or "congratulations" (though some snidely suggest it might mean "ostentatious") and the other character is a number. Kubota Manju means roughly "10,000 celebrations." The two lower grades of Kubota are known as Senju (1000) and Hyakuju (100), respectively. There are also two or three other, even higher, grades of sake made with the Kubota name every year, as well.
There is a reason that this is the most popular and most well known fine sake in all of Japan. It is the same reason that I couldn't have asked for a better introduction into the world of fine, chilled sake. It is delicate, refined, and incredibly high class, in addition to being a textbook example of top class sake from an organoleptic standpoint, and definitely one of the world's top sakes.
While in the past nine years I have discovered sakes that I like better than Kubota Manju, it will always remain one of my favorites, both for nostalgic reasons, and because it really is damn good. I buy a bottle or two to bring back with me from Japan every time I visit, which isn't nearly often enough.
Tasting Notes: Colorless in the glass, this sake has a nose of cedar trees and fresh rainwater, with hints of dried orange peel aromas. In the mouth it is smooth and silky, with a beautiful weight on the tongue and a perfect dry balance that allows flavors of tuberose and orange blossom to mingle with hints of cedar and wet stone that leave the palate feeling alive and refreshed. Outstanding.
Food Pairing: I love drinking this sake with sushi and sashimi of all kinds, but in particular with the creamy goodness of raw scallops.
It's that time of year again. I know of no other event that seems to bring out the inner wine lover in so many San Franciscans more than the annual ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) Festival. It never ceases to amaze me how many people turn out with such enthusiasm for this single varietal festival. Don't get me wrong. I love Zinfandel -- unabashedly so. But I tend to forget how many other people do too. Especially those that live in San Francisco.
Of course it's not just San Franciscans that turn out for this one-of-a-kind weekend. People come from all over. The Zinfreaks crawl out of the woodwork, so to speak, and march their way into San Francisco to celebrate their grape of choice, along with the rest of us who sometimes wonder where the rest of these folks hide themselves the rest of the year.
But come one, come all, there's plenty of Zin to go around.
The annual ZAP festival is comprised of several events. The week begins on Wednesday January 28th with a series of seminars that allow attendees to taste flights of wines in a guided fashion with commentary from winemakers, as well as an exclusive walk-around tasting of so called "rare" Zinfandels that will not be poured at the public tastings.
On Thursday the education takes a back seat to hedonism, in the form of the Good Eats and Zinfandel Pairing, a walk around event that features dishes prepared by chefs from all over the U.S. specifically designed to match Zinfandel wines. Attendees can wander from station to station with glass and plate in hand trying different combinations of food and wine until they find their favorites (or until they topple over like plump rabbits in a food coma).
On Friday the event gets a little more swanky for an evening with the winemakers. This event features a live auction for charity, a pre-dinner tasting, and a sit-down dinner with winemakers. You can buy some great wine while giving to charity, and then you can have a great meal while a winemaker pours a selection of their wines and answers all the questions you ever might have about making Zinfandel.
And finally on Saturday, the ultimate San Francisco wine tasting begins. Starting at 2:00 PM, the floodgates open and hundreds of Zinfandel wines are available to the public for tasting. There is simply no other opportunity like this to educate your palate about Zinfandel as a wine, and no other chance to so easily discover new Zins for yourself.
The event tends to get a little crazy as the afternoon progresses, both in terms of the size of the crowd and its level of inebriation, but don't let that stop you from showing up early, enjoying yourself, and then making your exit before the sloshing and stumbling begin.
Last year I had the flu, and couldn't make it, so I'm very much looking forward to this year again. And you should be too. Especially because you might get to go to one of the events for free. I've got five pairs of tickets to give away to the Good Eats and Zinfandel Pairing on Thursday January 29th. All you have to do in order to get yourself a pair of tickets is be one of the first five people to compose a haiku about Zinfandel in the comments section of this blog (and leave me your full name and e-mail address in the fields provided).
That's it!
ZAP Zinfandel Advocates and Producers Festival Grand Tasting: Saturday January 31, 2009 Doors open to the public at 2:00 PM (members can get in an hour earlier) Herbst and Festival Pavilions Marina Boulevard San Francisco, CA 94123 (map)
Tickets for the Grand Tasting are $59 if purchased in advance (which you should do most assuredly). If any tickets are left they will be $69 at the door. Tickets for other events range from $95 to $210 depending on the event. ZAP members receive discounts on all tickets. For more information about the event and to purchase tickets, please see the ZAP event web site.
SPECIAL NOTES: I don't recommend parking anywhere near Fort Mason on the day of the event. Take public transportation or park a long way off and walk. Also I especially recommend wearing dark clothes that you won't mind getting a drop or two of red wine on when someone accidentally jostles your glass (or theirs). Finally, I recommend showing up with a full stomach, drinking lots of water as you go, and spitting instead of swallowing. You ain't got any taste buds in your throat, and if you want to learn anything you need to stay sober. Otherwise you'll be one of the drunken fools that everyone makes fun of at 4:30 PM on Saturday.
Wine & Spirits Magazine recently announced its Top 100 wineries in the world, and that included the first New York state winery to ever make this prestigious list ? a list that has an amazing 22-year history.
Fox Run Vineyards on Seneca Lake will be featured with the others on the list in the November issue of Wine & Spirits.
Congratulations to Scott Osborn at the entrie crew over at Fox Run on this monumental achievment!
Purest essence of a divine grape. congratulations to the vintner and my tastebuds. Winners both. The soul of the soil comes through, with slightly spicy, slightly peppery hints on a fruit wash- that lingers. This for me raises the status of this grape over the Chianti (San Giovese) wines- in general. This year, this bottle- SUPERB.
Now that you're wrapping up your Winter holidays, it's the perfect time to plan your Summer ones. In my opinion Summer holidays should be filled with beautiful scenery, great wine, and delicious food. If you agree, then perhaps you'll consider joining me at the Aspen Food and Wine Classic 2009.
I grew up in Aspen, and as a kid, I worked as a catering scamp at the Classic, hauling crates of dishes around, not really knowing what the whole thing was about, other than there was lots of free food. Last year I had the double pleasure of not only returning to my home town for the first time in 14 years, but doing so as a speaker at the Classic.
I believe I was the first blogger to ever present at the Classic, and apparently I didn't screw it up, because they asked me back again this year. Truthfully, I had a blast last year, and so did the folks who attended my seminars. We tasted some great wine together, and I'm super excited to do it again this June.
Tickets have just gone on sale for the 2009 Aspen Food and Wine Classic, and as the event always sells out, now would be the time to start thinking about just how tasty you want your June to be.
I'll be returning to my home town again to presenting two more guided tastings. The first, entitled "Sonoma Superstars" will highlight some of my favorite wines from some of Sonoma County's top producers. The second, entitled "Cabernet: Next From Napa" will highlight fantastic Cabs from several new producers that are just releasing some of their first wines.
When I'm not introducing attendees to some of my favorite wines, I'll be standing in the back watching while the real pros do their thing: Robert Bohr on Champagne; David Lynch on Italy; Michael Bonadies on Washington State; Anthony Giglio on Riesling, etc.
I'll also be poking my head in to see if I can even just get a whiff of some of the amazing VIP reserve tastings, which include a Conterno Barolo tasting, a vertical tasting of Remoissenet Clos Vougeot starting from 1952, and a retrospective on 1989 Bordeaux, among others.
If that sounds like your idea of a good time, you should come join me! Check out the Food & Wine Classic web site where you can download the schedule of events and buy your tickets.
As usual, the event benefits charity -- this year supports the Wholesome Wave Foundation, a national initiative dedicated to supporting local farms and encouraging sustainable agriculture.
Domaine Daniel-Etienne Defaix Chablis Grand Cru Les Blanchots 1997 Oxidised, very tired. NR/100
Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon 1999 So young! Appealing nose of lemon and quince. Structured palate with a great line of acid and very good length. Plenty of potential to improve and develop here. 92/100
Rousseau Gevrey-Chambertin Village 2002 Quite “new world” in style with cherry and strawberries on the nose. The palate is on the thin side, with the flavour slightly dilute. Decent, drinkable, but uninspiring. 86/100
Ksara “Cuvee du Troisieme Millenaire” 2004 From Lebanon, made from Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Interesting nose of Raspberry, herbs and spices, ceder, smoke and cherry. The palate is well structured and balanced, with medium intensity of flavour, a supple texture and good length. Will improve over the next 5 years. 89/100
Seppelt St Peters 2002 Spice, red berries, some vanilla and some hinted floral characters. Concentrated palate, quite bold and ripe without being overwhelming. Tannins are quite soft, I wonder if they’ll hold up. Good, but not nearly as good as a bottle a couple of years ago that was exceptional. Might just be in a bit of a awkward spot at the moment, I will leave the next bottle for 4-5 years before trying again. 89/100
Clonakilla Syrah 2006 Complex, bright nose of floral elements, five spice, chocolate and bacon fat aromas. The palate is charming and almost impossible not to love, great length and balance between oak, fruit and acid. World class and a brilliant wine. 95/100
Domenico Clerico Barolo Pajana 2001 Nose of tar, pine, roses and cherries. Required food to tame the tannin on the palate. The fruit on the palate is bold and serious without being too over the top. Very good now, but patience will be rewarded. 91/100
Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Auslese 2006 Honey and a touch of spice to the nose. The palate is not as sweet as I expected, quite refined, minerally and subtle. Tasty and easy to drink. 90/100
Inniskillin Vidal Sparkling Ice wine 2004 Unusual if nothing else! Peaches, nectarine, honey and pineapple aromas on the nose. The light spritz cut through the sweetness somewhat but it still finished sweet. I think I’d rather it without the bubbles but glad to have tried it. 88/100
Prince Edward County (PEC), the most-talked about new wine region in Ontario, may be scoffed at as being too intemperate for vines to survive there, but wineries like Norm Hardie, the Grange, Rosehall Run and Long Dog are changing the...
[07/20/2006, 00:27]
New Board of Directors for Colchagua's Wineries (Chile) and your Route of the Wine
The Association of Colchagua's Vineyards and your Route of the Wine, chose new board of directors integrated by Jose Miguel Viu,Viu Manent Vineyards, Fanor Velasco, Emiliana Vineyards, Andres Turner, Montes Vineyards y Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Estampa Vineyards. In turn it took up office as president of the board of directors Mario Pablo Silva S., Casa Silva Vineyards, who already had occupied the same cargo between the year 2000 and 2003.
The act of possession of the new charges was realized in the restaurant of Casa Silva Vineyards, where the manager - Tomas Wilkins - delivered a platelet in honoring to the pass presidents, receiving the distinction the gentleman Jose Miguel Viu.
The new president, Mario Pablo Silva S., proved to be very optimistic, emphasizing that "our challenge today is even major that before, we are in the showcase of the world. We feel proud in being pioneers in Chile in promoting a denomination of origin, know that our major secret is the diversity and quality of our wines, and the union of our people, in each of the corners from the valley, of mountain chain to sea, and trust that the pride of being Colchaguinos will continue being the engine that will stimulate our project".
Foodista , a new approach in online food blogging that launched a couple of days ago, brings a new approach to recipe sharing.
The brainchild of a Seattle couple, Foodista is similar to Wikipedia in that anyone can contribute a recipe, ? and anyone can edit one. On one hand, this means that adjustments can be made to imperfect submissions. But it also means that the potential exists that recipes could be altered to the point that they?re unrecognizable to the original author.
On conventional recipe blogs, readers have to scroll through submitted comments to glean tips from other cooks on how a dish might be improved. On Foodista, there are no comments, but there is a History tab so it?s possible to see what edits were made. I may submit a recipe just to see what happens to it....
Since day one, I’ve wanted a map of the wine regions of Spain and Portugal. Seems like a simple request, and if I couldn’t have one of Iberia, at least you would think that there would be one of Spain and another of Portugal. You would think. You would also be wrong, sort of. Announcement
Interestingly, there are no good maps of the peninsula we call Iberia, or at least as it relates to wine. Wines of Spain, the bureaucratic agency in charge of promoting Spanish wine, does have an outdated map, but you can’t get a copy of it. I had a prominent tour guide friend of mine once ask to buy a few copies to give to her clients, all of which were on wine tours, and she was told it was not possible. Hence, I’m not sure why they made it. We had to steal a few copies from a regional government’s office, and while we use them occasionally, in truth, they are worthless.
That said, Portugal is no better, and I have yet to find a map that accurately sums up the many nuances in a very confusing set of regional wine laws. And considering that there is little consensus among differing governmental maps, it is clear that one concise and accurate map was desperately in need to be created.
Enter the DeLong wine company, creator of such treasures as the Wine Varietal Table. Having encountered way too many inaccurate regional wine maps around the world, Steve decided to fix the problem by making his own map. Smart guy! The best part for us is that he asked us to help him out. Now, we can’t claim much in the way of contributions to this map, but we did make sure he included some important landmarks and we worked with him to make some editorial decisions on how to handle certain place names and regional identities. I asked him a few questions about how this map came about:
Why did you choose to start with Iberia?
We started with Iberia for three main reasons: 1. It’s the most dynamic (and constantly changing!) area in the wine world - but you already knew that! 2. There wasn’t a good map available (for France there are a few) 3. It’s a great looking land mass.
Which regions are next on your list?
We’re working on France and Germany right now, which will be available early next year. Then on to Italy, and finally, the New World!
What makes this map different from other wine region maps?
The one very simple thing that distinguishes these wine maps from others is that the wine regions don’t stop at the border. In reality, the wine regions reflect the regional differences that underlie the country borders. Catalunya and the Basque Country, which both overlap France and Spain, are just two examples.
Hence, this is just the start of a much bigger plan to cover the planet with quality wine resources - something that is SORELY needed! We hope that this first map is a resource that we can not only learn from, but can also use when reading about Catavino’s adventures throughout Spain and Portugal.
And best of all, if you click here and buy the Iberian wine map through the Catavino website, a small portion of the sale will come back to us - something we would appreciate! Also, if you are in Spain and want to see this in Spanish, please let us know. We are considering translating it into Spanish and Portuguese if we find enough interest. Also, if you have a wine shop and would like either English or Spanish versions of this map, just send us a note at map(at)Catavino(dot)net, and we’ll tell you about additional opportunities to buy larger quantities.
We’re very excited about this and feel VERY privileged to have Iberia be the first map of the series, a testament to the importance of this rich and exciting wine region. We hope that if Iberian Wine interests you at all, you’ll pick one up and let us know what you think.
Friday night we had some company coming. Dominique made a fabulous cheese plate complete with two camemberts - Old Chatham Sheepherding Company and Real Amazing Food Company, and a Sprout Creek Eden, a semi-hard cheese which is wonderful. There were assorted rustic breads - walnut, raisin loaf and traditional sourdough. We decided on Cascade Mountain Winery Coueur De Lion
Cascade Mountain was founded in the spring of 1972 by the Wetmore family who pioneered the production of premium table wines on the eastern side of the Hudson River. Bill, along with his wife Margaret and their three children Charles, Michael and Joan, planted the vineyard in 1972, built the winery in 1977, and opened the restaurant in 1985.
Today, Cascade Mountain is a thriving business which features a full line of award-winning table wines and a highly rated restaurant. Customers come from all over the world to enjoy a few pleasant hours on top of the Berkshire foothills accompanied by some of the best food and wine to be found in the Hudson River Valley.
George Cafiero is the manager now at the winery. He's one of the hardest working guys in the Hudson Valley. He's a ubiqitous presence at farm markets an festivals from the Hudson Valley to the Finger Lakes.
This wine is a light-bodied, beautifully colored red. It's made in the Beaujolais style with soft, rounded berry flavors accented by peppery Cabernet Sauvignon to produce a velvet smooth finish. Great quality for the price. It's $14 per bottle. Great for Thanksgiving.
Social media is creating quite a long tail of industries - lots of software companies, consultants, new modes of public relations, etc, etc. Some of them focused on getting you into using social media, which is great, and many of them aspiring to help you “use” social media for your business. The latter point is what I find interesting.
I’ve spoken on the topic of social media before (with assistance from the self-proclaimed “Bonafide Marketing Genius” Marta Kagan - FYI, I’m glad she has the confidence in herself to tag herself that way b/c she’s one of the few I would actually agree with) and I think the biggest point from my talk and others that I’ve seen (like Marta’s deck) is that this all is an excercise in sociology. There are so many technologies that one could use, so many things that you could do, but in the end what is happening to the web is just another means of connecting, interacting, and getting to know people; not unlike joining a social club (like a sports team, a cultural center, or whatever). In fact, just as you have “different circles of friends” offline (work friends, drinking buddies, sports friends), you’ll develop the same thing online and your community will drive you to the tools.
That’s where the idea “use social media” sticks in my craw a little bit.
I’ve had this blog since 2004 and I’ve interacted with many many people thanks to it. It’s mainly an outlet for my thoughts, creativity, and passion (wine, technology, and marketing) and I’ve made a serious number of friends in the wine industry because of it. My goal was to do exactly that, get to know people in the wine industry. One of the major things its taught me though is that the only way to truly understand what this “social media” thing is all about is to get out and do it. BUT - do it with a genuine desire and understand that its a means to reach out to a community (blog in particular). Its not a sales tool and its not a PR tool for social media any more then going to a conference is a PR tool for you. What I mean is you can go to a conference, chat with people, network, find people that you can stay connected with. If you contribute to the conference (effectively contributing to the ‘community’ that the conference is bringing together) then you can get noticed and in that sense you get some good word-of-mouth publicity.
But here is how to think of “use social media” (Ugh!). Its a sociological, human based filter. Its not a broadcast engine like the “information super highway” or the “series of tubes”. Doesn’t matter what tool/site you use, first and foremost your community has to be on that site and/or using that tool. There is always a “critical mass” that needs to be achieved before the tool gets useful. Kind of like a party, its not really fun until there are a bunch of people you know there.
Once your community is there, interacting, chatting, whatever then the dynamics of what happens is facinating. Things start to get “useful” and the human filter is formed. It becomes a situation where the community is as close as a bunch of office mates even though they are all over the world. I literally consider the community I interact with on Twitter my “virtual office mates” and I genuinely like interacting with them. The reason is that you can contribute (chat, answer questions, and otherwise participate) just like you would any other office. In the case of Twitter, it becomes just like a hallway conversation in an office. You can ignore it for a while, pop your head in with a little bit of nothing to say, put out some information or useful tool to the community, or you can put out a serious question to the group and get some solid answers. Pretty much how you would for any office with cubilcles and hallways.
The best part of all this is that when the community reaches critical mass of people in a certain technology/tool who genuinely like to talk about a particular topic, forming an open community, thats when the best things come out. If you contribute something to that community that is truly useful, it will get passed on to everyone very quickly. People will decide if what you said is interesting, show their friends and, if its applicable, their friends may pass on the information to their other “open communities”. The network effect takes over and your information has just become “viral” (i.e. it will spread not only in the current ‘circle of friends’ but to other ‘circles of friends’). More importantly, the human filter took over and since that useful piece of information you generated is actually VERY useful, it will get passed on for a while (or very funny, or very interesting in some other way - the latest on Twitter was a streaming video of puppies, not useful, just very Zen).
So if you find an open community or want to know where there is critical mass already for a community you want to learn about (for instance - the wine community is embracing Twitter and Social Networks) on one of these tools the best way to “use social media” (I hate the term because it makes me feel like “use your friends”, but I guess there isn’t a better way to say it) is to contribute in significant ways. Add to the community but more importantly be YOURSELF. If people like you, they like you. If they don’t, guess what…they don’t. There isn’t alot of advice that can be given there that your parents should’ve taught you before Kindergarten. Thats the funny truth of this “social media” craze. The fundamental sociological point is that this is making friends. Because even if you contribute something that spreads from network to network like wildfire, when those people check you out and “follow you” on Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever, then they start to get to know you in a more personal way then anyone over 25 ever thought possible. If you’re obviously contributing to promote your business it will come across. If you genuinely approach this medium (regardless of technology) as “getting to know people” in the way you’ve always done then you’ll not only have that “viral hit” you won’t be an online “one hit wonder”, you’ll have friends who can help you when you’re down, connect you to others, help you build business, get emotionally invested in your brand…. i.e. you’ll be a part of a community and how you do that is something your Mom and Dad shoulda taught you.
FYI - if you’re doing it for a business/brand it doesn’t matter - if people don’t like your personality, they won’t like your brand. These things have a way of piercing the corporate PR veil. Want an example? Supposedly Cisco “gets” blogging. Read their blogs and you tell me what you think….
This is the first cabernet from the bonny team at Donny Goodmac. It’s made from 20 year old vines growing on a steep-ish slope - which managed to avoid most of the frost troubles of that vintage. You need a subscription to The Wine Front to see this part of the post
Posted by 1 October 31: We 1 yesterday, just a few hours ahead of a rainstorm in the Paso Robles area. We'd originally scheduled the pick for today, but once we saw the forecast change, we moved the pick up one day. I'm really glad we did! When we got back to the winery on Thursday, we decided to wait to process the fruit on Friday.
Hello blog, it's been a while. I'm not trying to neglect you I promise. It's the lack of high speed internet at work that's keeping me from you. I plan on paying more attention to you this week, I swear! The posts may be shorter but better short than nothing right??
Does insurance cover that??
Ulriksdals Wardshus is a famous restaurant that has made it into the Guinnes Book of World Records for their wine collection. Get this, they have a collection consisting of the 6 first growths of Bordeaux from every vintage in the 18th CENTURY!!!!!!!! That alone makes them beyond impressive, but here?s the dirt. They got robbed. Yes that?s right, robbed! I bet you can?t guess what they stole?.
Ulriksdals Wärdshus, a restaurant and old event hall world famous for its French red wine was robbed on Saturday night. Its entire collection, valued at more than 3.5 million kronor, has vanished.The
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