Best wine 2.0 style marketing I have ever seen!!

This is a must see video video that is done by Bonny Doon Vineyards. I love it. Vive le screwcap!!!!!!!!!!! This a wonderful example of how a company can entertain, educate, and enlighten all at the same time. More viral type videos like this I think are very important to excite an interest in wine among my generation. Nothing beats learning and laughing! Enjoy the video and have a great one! Here's the link

I'm surprised everyday, Tool's entering the wine industry!

Maynard James Keenan, Tool's lead singer, apparently is part owner of a few vineyards down in Arizona. He is releasing 12 wines under the few different labels and will be distributing to Whole Foods down in Southern California. Among the wines listed is the "Chupacabra" Syrah/Cabernet Sav. In the article he discusses having a 6,000+ bottle cellar and really sounds like he's in the know. I think that it's awesome that someone with so much passion in the world of music also shares the same passion for the world of wine. It seems to me to be one of the rare exceptions when a celebrity who is starting a label actually is a bonafide vinophile. So often celebrities will have a little extra money lying around and decide that investing in a vineyard/winery is a good investment since they can pimp out their customers with their celebrity status. On the other hand, it's just good marketing and any time you can associate your wine with a well known name, it will often sell better. Just another factor differentiating it from the other thousands of bottles on the shelf. Here's the link to the article

Sonoma Wine Blogging Conference!! Holla!!!

Really starting to get excited about this upcoming blogger conference out in Santa Rosa. It will be so nice to meet some of the creators of the blogs that I like to frequent as well as maybe get mine out there a little bit. The conference should be a pretty kick ass event that includes two dinners, multiple wine tastings, and even live blogging sessions. I have never been to a bloggers conference, much less a wine industry conference, so this will be a great learning experience for me. The price is 95$ for bloggers and 190$ for non-blogging industry types. Also if you join The Openwine Consortium then you will get 10$ off! 85$ for a weekend full of learning, new friends, great wine/food, and other events is a steal up here in the wine country! Hope to see yall there!

Combining two great crops into one area!!!!

What a sad, sad day! This article I found in the Wall Street Journal is talking about all the people getting busted planting herb in vineyards(as if in our current economic times the WSJ didn't have enough bad news for us already!!). I think it sounds like a pretty good idea except herb needs a lot more nutrients in it's soil to grow to it's potential than grapes do. They also need a lot more water, so I wonder if the dual planting in the vineyard would also add to bigger, less flavorful grapes. I don't know, but I see it as a nice alternative to guerrilla grows that end up leaving tons of trash out in the woods in the form of irrigation tubing and living supplies. Also they cause a ton of erosion and a lot of times these cats aren't using very earth friendly amendments. I don't see why we can't combine forces for the greater good of this world and start co-op farming these two wonderful plants in an earth friendly manner. We could grow the ganja in between rows and have them using the fertile cover cropped soil as well as growing it's roots out and creating a root layer impervious to erosion. I think it could work for both parties with just a little imagination. Plus, I don't think you would see too many struggling vineyards anymore!

Vino-lok doing big things?

I can't believe that I haven't came across these before. In my opinion, they could be a wonderful hybrid alternative to the traditional cork and the Stelvin screw cap. They are produced by a German company called Closure Systems International. I have been hearing that they are mostly only used for German and Austrian wines so far. I feel that with the quality of cork being produced falling due to an ever increasing worldwide production of wine we are going to keep seeing an increase in cork taint. The screw caps, while efficient and cheap, just aren't all that aesthetically pleasing. These glass stoppers seem to be a wonderful alternative. Plus, they look so damn cool. I am definitely looking forward to coming across these and it's looking like I'm gonna have to buy some wine from the Deutschland in order to peep em out in person.

Make that trade fair!!!

While I love California wines, there is such a large world out there full of new terroirs and with that comes new varieties as well as wine making styles. I am very much in support of The California Wine Industry, yet I see infinite potential in many other places. With water costs rising, wine country land selling at the price of ocean front property, and a possible climate change in the future, I can see the world's best wines being produced in new areas of the world. I see tons of potential in Chile, Argentina, The Pacific Northwest, and recently Mexico. These new (to growers) areas, excluding The Pacific Northwest, often are able to produce wonderful wines at a fraction of the costs that it takes to produce here in California. In addition to this, labor is often much cheaper also. But with cheap labor, comes human exploitation. One way to combat this and work with the global economy is to promote Fairtrade products. I am familiar with fairtrade products, but only normally come across them in the form of coffee beans. There is ascending support for fairtrade wines to start hitting the industry. Fairtrade is a great thing because it allows the people producing the wines to get worthy wages and in turn instills a greater sense of pride into the wines that they are producing. While the importer may be making a little less money, I doubt that the prices for these wines are going to go up too much. I see this as a way to allow people worldwide to enjoy some of the finer things in life that come along with wine country living. Here's a link to a sale that will be going on to promote some fairtrade wines (20% off!!!!!)

Wow! I never thought of the wine industry as life and death!!

I came across this article earlier and was blown away(sorry couldn't help myself)! Whoever this grower is definitely had a whole bag of chips on his shoulder. This guy was planning on blowing up Gapstead winery in Australia because they were decreasing prices paid to growers. This happened back in 2002, but I guess they delayed trial because the wannabe terrorist's mother has been missing since 2002. This sounds like a horrible story and all my best wishes go out to Steven Bergamin's mother. Here's the link if you want to see the story yourself. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/08/2358804.htm?section=australia

Santa Cruz Mountain Wineries Passport Tour

For those who don't know, the Santa Cruz Mountain Winery Association is still having their annual passport weekend going on until November. They have the event on the third Saturday of every month. It's only thirty dollars and they give you a passport that gets an individual stamp from each winery. There's a lot of good ones to go to, but you pretty much want to pick a part of the county to stick to and check out the area otherwise you'll be spending your entire day driving. I'd like to go, but prior obligations in Half Moon Bay are a bit more appealing so I think I'm going to pass this month. I'll have some info on the gathering up in Half Moon Bay when I get back.
For more information on the Santa Cruz Wine Passport Weekend click the link below:


Santa Cruz Mountain Wineries Association

Corkscrewed: The Wrath of Grapes

Anyone ever seen this show? It's kind of lame due to the recycled american idol loops it plays every 15 seconds, but I find it quite funny watching these guys try to manage this vineyard with no practical experience. It seems nearly everyone who has made a handsome living in some other field of expertise thinks that they have what it takes to make it in the wine industry. I guess if it worked for Coppola and Ferrari-Carano, there's a chance it could happen for anyone. I think it's just the fact that I have a deep dislike for American Idol so seeing the people who brought that hour long headache toil is kind of pleasurable to me. Either way, it's a tv show about the wine industry and that doesn't happen very often so I tracked down all(except for one) of the episodes and have posted em' up here so if ya want to check em' out check em' out.

http://www.surfthechannel.com/show/television/Corkscrewed%3A_The_Wrath_of_Grapes.html

disclaimer

Any links posted on this site are not content that is hosted on this site. These links are to third party sites that I am not related to. I am not responsible for the content on these sites. If you are the property owner of any of the content that I link to, contact me immediately and I will take it down swiftly. Thanks, Andrew