Wine Loves ?Transparency? Until it doesn?t:  An Ethical Debate

The domestic wine world loves authenticity and transparency – especially consumers.  This is a common refrain albeit more ideal than reality. 

This point has been underscored for me recently with David Darlington’s new book, An Ideal Wine: One Generation’s Pursuit of Perfection – And Profit – in California.  Darlington spends much of the book elucidating the use of technology tools in the wine business.  These tools are principally from service providers like Enologix and Vinovation. 

While many vintners are quoted (and seemingly forthright) in the book, the reality is that both companies have cloaked client lists and the respective businesses operate on the margins of the industry with precious few of their clients willing to go on record about their use of analytical and corrective wine tools. 

Transparent?  When it comes to the production side of the business, not so much.

There’s another area where wine isn’t exactly transparent, and that’s on the pricing side of the equation in between distribution and retail.

image

Wine media members can secure a subscription to the Beverage Media price list magazine in their geography (used as a retail reference) and see monthly wholesale pricing, comparing that pricing to the actual prices on local store shelves, or even restaurants.

Who is gouging who?  Who offers legitimate deals?  The information is available.

I’ve always had a slight desire to re-publish wholesale pricing, comparing it against actual store pricing, shining a light on a couple of retailers in my town who are less than magnanimous in the alleged “deals” they are offering.  Yet, societal mores have precluded me from doing so.  I’d probably bear the wrath of enough people to earn a Scarlet Letter.  Or, worse, I would violate some Beverage Media terms and conditions that I wasn’t aware of.  At the least, I would break an unspoken rule in the gentlemanly sport of business – similar to the unspoken baseball rule that says you shouldn’t break up a double play AND use your cleats as a weapon whilst doing so.

Well, in the Netherlands, an online wine shop lacks the compunction that I possess and for the better.  At least I think it’s for the better.  Anything that can blunt the criminal blow that is restaurant wine pricing the world over should at least deserve an, “Atta boy.”

Sterwijnen Thuis, a Dutch wine web site, loosely translated as “Home of Star Wine,” has taken wine list selections from the top 60 Dutch restaurants, and they then sell some 350 - 400 of the same labels online for considerably less, listing the name of the restaurant where the wine is featured.  In doing so, the spread of margin in between what Sterwijnen Thuis sells the wine for versus the restaurant pricing becomes glaringly obvious.

As you might imagine, not everybody is happy about this, especially the restaurants.

The Dutch Alliance Gastronomique is conferring with restaurateurs and some are talking lawsuit.

image

Sterwijnen Thuis, reflexively perhaps, indicates that they are simply making publicly available information, well, publicly available.  It’s not their fault if they can sell the same wines as a restaurant for much less money.

Ahem.

Unfortunately, in order to follow this story you’ll need to use an auto-translation tool in your browser (I use Google’s Chrome browser), and you can find the story here and here.  An English-language blurb can be found here.

I open this up to readers.  Is Sterwijnen Thuis within their right to baseline their inventory against the gloss of very reputable restaurants while showing cost savings in the process?  Is all fair in love and war?

Or, is this an egregious lack of decorum worthy of brush back pitch to the chin in the top of the inning as recompense?

Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/wine_loves_transparency_until_it_doesnt_an_ethical_debate/

dessert wines vintage wine sparkling wines wine prices

Help Steer the Direction of an Award Winner!

Generally speaking, I do very little public housekeeping here, but it’s time for some remodeling and I want your feedback. 

Despite winning some awards and receiving significant positive feedback about the design of this site, I haven’t materially changed the look or the function of Good Grape since November 2006.  Times have changed a lot in the intervening (nearly) five years.  At the time, Wordpress was a very secondary blogging platform choice behind MovableType (I chose door #3).  Facebook had recently announced general availability to the public from its former days of being collegiately oriented; Twitter launched, but was barely a blip on the radar, YouTube was hot (but not ubiquitous) and smartphones were still very niche in general adoption.  Tablets like the iPad?  Nope, at that point people were stoked about rumors of an iPhone that was set to be released sometime the next year. 

A lot has changed in five years and this site has barely kept pace, making due with duct tape and spittle.

image

A number of regular readers have let me know that pieces and parts of the site don’t always work, or the site is slow for them, or it’s hard to comment, or archive pages are junky looking, or links take you away from the site, etc.  And, forget about reading this site on your mobile phone – Good Grape equal’s bad mobile mojo.  The list goes on and on and I have my own list of wishes and want-to’s 35 items deep.

So, here’s the question and the crossroads I’m facing:

Do I keep the same general design (with some slight modifications like making the main text area wider and re-doing the navigation) and simply leave a classic design alone, focusing on enhancing functional and technical aspects of the site?

Or,

Do I take this opportunity to blow it out and set the bar for what a quality, beautiful, professional wine blog should look like, plus all of the social and mobile bells and whistles?

Readers, friends, colleagues, and peers: Your feedback is very welcome.  Should I mess with a good thing for a potentially greater thing, or do stay true to the visual identity in place and simply remodel focusing on functionality, familiarity and usability?

Please leave a comment.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/help_steer_the_direction_of_an_award_winner/

wine coolers wines and spirits wine store wine making

Singing Water Vineyards

  Our trip to a few weeks ago took us the little Hill Country town of Comfort, Tx Population 2,358 Singing Water was established in 1993 by Dick & Julie Holmberg. Loving the Texas Hill Country, they found a patch of land they could not pass up. Running through the property is Bruins creek. They […]

Source: http://thegrapesaroundtexas.com/2011/07/05/singing-water-vineyards/

wines about wines champagne red wine

Google PR Update

I think Google’s Page Rank is one of the most misunderstood aspects of SEO and internet marketing. That being said, it is still one of the independent tools available for those of us looking to track our progress and the progress of our competitors since SERPS are difficult to track across hundreds of keywords. Our [...]

Source: http://winewithmark.info/archives/646

merlot wine rack wine and spirits cabernet sauvignon

Congressional Wine Caucus sips under the radar

The New York Times ran a front-page story on Congressman Mike Thompson recently. Thompson’s district includes Napa and he is also a grape grower; the article made this seem like a conflict of interest. I’d dissect the story and its shortcomings but Mike Steinberger has already done that on his blog, thus saving me the [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/IqB-4DYCRYA/

california wine wine shops best wines wine reviews

Creating a Real Voice For American Wine Consumers

Why is it that when states and Congress consider laws and regulations concerning consumer access to wine, the actual consumers are never consulted? Producers are consulted. Restaurants are consulted. Regulators are consulted. And wholesalers are consulted. But never consumers of...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FermentationTheDailyWineBlog/~3/M2KSczlWxWw/creating-a-real-voice-for-american-wine-consumers.html

red beer types wine wine types wine types of