Wine & The Connected Consumer

Randall Grahm is one of the true characters of the American wine scene. A self-styled terroirist, intuitive branding genius and all around eccentric, Grahm has taken his Bonny Doon Vineyard on quite a ride over nearly the past 30 years. After setting out in 1983 to make great Pinot Noir in California, Grahm was drawn [...]

Wine & The Connected Consumer originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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10 Questions to Consider When Trying to Scoop the Spectator

We're a couple days into this year's Scoop the Spectator contest and we've gotten some fantastic entries. The snipers are out early this year but there are plenty of viable wines still available to be claimed.

This year we're playing for a $200 Amazon gift card, courtesy of New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Co so it pays to give this some thought.

Here are 10 questions to consider when selecting your entry...

1. Do you have be a Wine Spectator subscriber to have a chance of guessing correctly?

I would think so. If you're not familiar with which wines they rated this year, and specifically which they're rating favorably it seems extremely difficult to get a sense for which wines have a chance of winning. Check back later this week and next and I'll share some entries I think are likely which haven't been guessed.

2. How likely are they to repeat a recent winner?

Not likely it seems. Since Spectator started running their Top 100 list, only one wine has repeated: Caymus Special Selection won in '89 and again in '04. That doesn't bode well for the Clos des Papes which won in 2007 (for their 2005 vintage), but then again it's got incredibly strong metrics this year with their 2010 (98 points/$128/5,600 cases produced).

3. Does it have to be 95 points or better?

It almost always is. The lone exception: The winner in 2002 was the 93 point/$30 E. Guigal Chateauneuf du Pape. Point chasers must have been sad that year.

4. Does it have to be $100 (or $150, or whatever) or less?

The trend I see is that they're not afraid to go with a pricey wine. But they try to keep it out of the stratosphere because value is a consideration. Mapping that to current wine prices I think they like to keep it south of $100. They might stretch a little over $100 if it's a really incredible bottle. But $200+ is out of the question I think. It alienates too many readers and disregards the value quotient.

5. How likely are they to repeat from a recent category?

I think this is a something they're very mindful of. One (quite elaborate  theory I recall from last year is that they tried to rotate the selection around their senior editors. So it was pre-determined, for example - to an extent, that Laube would only have to do a write-up for "his" wines every three years or so. That doesn't seem to be the case however with the last two wines coming from California (Kosta Browne and Saxum). It's been domestic the past three years though so it definitely feels like it's time for a return to the old world. 2010 Rhone specifically.

6. Are recent Top 10 wines (that didn't take the top spot) more likely to win this year?

I definitely see this as a trend. It's kind of like the Oscars or the Grammys: By the time they recognize someone the public has liked for a long time, after nominating and snubbing them for years, they finally bestow the award upon them when they're old news.

But with wine we call that pedigree. This bodes well for the Donjons and La Craus of the world this year. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride - but expect that to change.

7. How much are they trying to make a statement about a category with their selection?

I think this is hugely important as well and we've seen it with the past two winners. Spectator called the 2009 California Pinot Noir vintage the best ever and selecting Kosta Browne (a wine that was also frequently in the Top 10 in prior years) served as notice that California Pinot is a category to be considered in everyone's cellar. Similarly with Saxum the year before, they wanted to put Paso on the map. But Columbia Crest Reserve wasn't so much a coronation of Washington as a statement about value during a down economy I think.

8. Are advertisers more likely to win?

Columbia Crest surely advertises heavily, but Kosta Browne, Saxum, and many of the moderate production imported wines don't advertise at all. I don't see a correlation here.

9. Do they like to select "actionable" wines?

When I say actionable I mean it's widely available at retail and moderately priced. When they do go this direction I think it's been the funnest years in the contest. How many times did people walk past the $27 Columbia Crest Reserve Cab and ignore it? Then it gets named wine of the year and it sells for north of $100 at auction. This is when the contest is at its best and I'd like to see more years with winners like these. This year that wine would be the $41 2010 St. Cosme Gigondas which is available for signifcantly less if you look around.

10. Do quirky categories have a chance?

They do actually. Sauternes and Ports have won in past years. A Chilean red has won. I considered Saxum a curve ball as well. But I think they go this direction when there's not a standout vintage from a famous category. The famous categories are: Napa, Bordeaux, Tuscany and Chateauneuf. And Burgundy, and Piedmont to a lesser extent because of lower production levels. Anything else is a curve ball. Look for an obvious year with something from the Rhone. Oh, did I mention 2010 Rhone already? Either the St. Cosme Gigondas or a moderately priced CdP like Donjon or La Crau. I'm leaning towards the St. Cosme Gigondas because of the wide availability, lower price point, and the fact that it's drinking better early than the CdPs are.

Haven't entered yet? Have a look at the entries so far and see if you can find an angle nobody else has yet. Enter here:

http://www.wellesleywinepress.com/2012/10/starts-now-scoop-spectator-2012.html


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Massachusetts Missing out on an Estimated $3M Annually by Barring Direct Shipment of Wine

Map of Massachusetts

Over on Fermentation Tom Wark estimates that Massachusetts residents are currently missing out on $3 million in tax revenue annually by barring the direct shipment of wine:
States not currently allow wine to be shipped into their state can now fairly easily see the kind of tax revenue they are leaving on the table. For example, Massachusetts, which has a population roughly equal to Washington State can expect, based on information in this report to see $50,000,000 worth of wine shipped to that state, resulting in over $3,000,000 in tax revenue?were its legislators to change the law to allow direct shipping from wineries. 
This estimate comes from data presented in Ship Compliant's Direct-to-Consumer Shipping Report.

A few things that strike me as important to understand and discuss on this subject...

Massachusetts doesn't currently have a sales tax on alcohol. There is an excise tax however, which is paid by the distributors as wine comes into the state, based on volume.

Some amount of revenue would be raised if Massachusetts allowed direct shipments and collected this excise tax along with licensing fees for out of state wineries and retailers. But these amounts would be nowhere near $3M annually.

The key would be in collecting, effectively, an import tax on wine. Sound crazy? It's not. New Hampshire has no sales tax on wine sold in its state stores yet they aggressively collect an 8% tax on wine shipped to consumers from out of state.

New Hampshire is a bit of a different situation of course, given that the state runs much of the liquor business itself. But we can look to other states for examples here as well.

New Jersey recently opened up to shipment from out of state wineries. But the licensing fees and requirements were so high it was only viable the largest wineries. This will surely dampen the positive revenue effect more reasonable policies would have enabled.

Virginia seems a better state to emulate. When they decided to allow the direct shipment of wine they took a long hard look at the situation, decided to allow both winery and retailer direct shipments, thought about the impact to in-state businesses and decided it was in the collective best interest of the state to allow shipments. Set the taxes high and let it fly!

Current laws favor the interest of a few in-state entities over the collective revenue picture of the state. Don't like it? Write your state representative.

But an interesting central question, I think, is this:

Would you support a 6.25% import tax on wine shipped from out of state wineries and retailers if it was what was required to enable the direct shipment of wine to Massachusetts addresses?


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/EdTnOZ9NQ8A/massachusetts-missing-out-on-estimated.html

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On Self-Actualizing Wine Interest, Purple Pages, the Kindle Fire and Gutenberg

While it has been cited that we’re living in a “Golden Age” of wine writing, what is interesting to me these days is NOT the subject of wine writing.

My interest is in a broader understanding of the consumption of the wine writer’s output – self-identified wine interest by consumers who are seeking out wine information.  This is a seismic shift more important than the vagaries of who writes what, where, when and for how much.

Something much bigger and amorphous is at work.

It used to be that people self-identified by their job or some other affiliation that produced recognition from others, a status-marker of sorts—“I work for IBM, I have two kids and we’re Protestant.”

However, nowadays, people, principally online (which is moving center stage in our life), are self-identifying by their personal interests which, often times, diverges greatly from their profession and their family situation.

Look at Twitter profiles or a body of status updates from somebody on Facebook.  People are no longer duotone and defined by work and family. They’re multi-layered and complex and defined by their interests.  The modern day self-description goes something like this: “Passionate about wine and travel.  I build furniture, follow the San Francisco Giants, and work in a non-profit by day.  I also volunteer to ensure clean water for sub-Saharan Africans.  Dad to two wonderful kids”

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In diamond-cutting terms, it’s more Peruzzi than table cut and it seems we’re all on a journey to be the most interesting man person in the world.

This kaleidoscopic advancement in sense-of-self is a very important development because, on an individual level, we tend to project externally how we see ourselves in the mirror.  By stating publicly online that we’re a wine enthusiast, a foodie, a jazz lover, who does dog rescue and loves college football with a fascination for all things digital, it’s like writing down a goal.  A goal written down means something to most people and people are likely to actuate their activities around it, even if aspirationally.

This is a very subtle point and I hope I’m conveying it faithfully:  Societally, we’re changing how we view ourselves, we are stating how we view ourselves and consequently we’re more likely to pursue knowledge around those interests because we’ve put it out there.

In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we’re all self-actualizing.

So, when it comes to wine writing, while I’m very happy for Alder Yarrow’s assignment in writing a monthly column for Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages, I also tend to look at it within a much broader context because there will be more Alder Yarrow Horatio Alger-like stories in the years to come.

More to the point however, and within a bigger picture, what Alder writes now and in the future on his own site or at Jancis’ site is likely going to be viewed by an increasingly larger audience who, based on the aforementioned self-actualization, have become more inclined to seek a wide-range of information that supports a myriad of personal interests, including wine.

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This online growth in information-seeking is, indeed, a very good thing particularly for the wine business who is caught up in a focus on Gen. Y, when the more important point is that there is a mass of people of all ages who have increasingly ready access to information online that allows them to easily pierce the veil of wine.  And, the implications for that for shouldn’t be understated because the view of the wine world is likely to be altered to be much more inclusive of all types of viewpoints – think the streets of New York instead of Pottery Barn.

The Kindle Fire tablet by Amazon.com may represent the next step in this evolution, driving the potentiality of mass on-the-move content delivery. No, it’s not as important as the printing press or any other God Complex hyperbole that is assigned to Steve Jobs, but it’s an important step forward nonetheless.

Where laptop computers are functional machines designed to execute work, and tablets (like the iPad) are a lightweight, portable device that act as a multi-functional hybrid between a smartphone and a laptop, here comes the Kindle Fire which is a device designed almost exclusively for content consumption, all kinds of content – blogs, digital magazines, digital books, videos, music, etc.

The Kindle Fire, to me, is a device that enhances the trend we’re seeing in the increased complexity of how we define ourselves because here’s a device that lets users pursue content around their interests anytime, anywhere and it’s reasonably affordable at $199, at least half the cost of other tablets on the market.

For example purposes, let’s say I have an interest in German Riesling, but I don’t really want to buy another paper-based book because I already have a stack of 14 books at my bedside that I haven’t read (or, perhaps, I don’t buy that many books, period).  Likewise, it isn’t convenient for me to read a book on my laptop because, well, that’s not really a form factor that works for me because I’m already hunched over my laptop for 12 hours a day.  In addition, I don’t want to print out a 150 page pdf because that’s paper I have to carry around.  Previously, with all of the aforementioned caveats, I would have let a deep dive into knowing more about German Riesling be a fleeting thought—an opportunity that would lay fallow.

Ah, but the Kindle Fire will let me consume this German Riesling content in a nice, portable, convenient, lightweight manner that is designed to do expressly that.  I’m now looking forward to pouring through Terry Theise’s 2011 German Riesling catalog and reading part II of Mosel Fine Wines 2010 vintage report.

All of this distills down to an essential takeaway:  When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type, the tangible output was the ability to have ready access to print books.  However, the bigger impact was the spread of knowledge which led to the Renaissance period which inalterably changed the culture of the world.

That’s where I think we’re at now, particularly with wine and the spread of information.  The conversation can be about who is writing and where they come from, but the conversation with far greater impact is what the end game is for this mass adoption of personal nuance lived out loud.

In simpler terms, the wine writer, like Descartes in the Renaissance era, had a great, lasting influence, but the Renaissance period was much bigger than Descartes.

The key for the wine business in this seismic shift in wine affiliation and the pursuit of information thereof is to decide whether they want to support the status quo and perpetuate business as usual or open themselves to all kinds of thought.

Wine writers already are and so are the consumers seeking out this information.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/on_self-actualizing_wine_interest_purple_pages_the_kindle_fire_and_gutenber/

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WBW 76: Barossa Boomerang

Not too long ago I drank quite a bit of Australian wine, particularly Shiraz. Given that this grape, also known as Syrah, expresses greatness in the Barossa Valley I could not pass an opportunity to revisit this region for this months’ Wine Blogging Wednesday. Our host, Adam from Wine Zag, proposed we look for any [...]

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WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wine is thought of by most American’s as a luxury to be consumed on special occasions like weddings, graduations and New Year’s eve parties. And that’s a shame since sparkling wine is so versatile at the table, pairing with a wide variety of food, made all over the world and available at every price point. Perhaps [...]

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Where to stay in the Napa Valley

We always like to stay within walking distance of fine restaurants and shopping. We like to enjoy our wine with dinner so we either walk or take a cab. We don?t drink and drive. The centers of the towns of Napa, Yountville, and Calistoga are giving the traveler many choices for lodging within a short distance of many restaurants. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/where-to-stay-in-the-napa-valley/

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Women of Washington Wine: Wendy Stuckey of Chateau Ste. Michelle

Today?s post is part of a series featuring the Women of Washington Wine. In an industry once dominated by men, more and more women are joining the ranks as winery owners, vineyard owners, and winemakers. Being a woman myself, I am fascinated by these women and what they have done and continue to do. Through [...]

Women of Washington Wine: Wendy Stuckey of Chateau Ste. Michelle was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

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