A Napa Valley wine trip down memory lane

Why not take a trip down memory lane by visiting one or more of the handful of wineries that have been in existence in the Napa Valley for 100 years or more? Most of these wineries have tours and memorabilia that will give you a glimpse of what life in the Napa Valley was like way back when. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/a-napa-valley-wine-trip-down-memory-lane/

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Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand

It’s rare when network TV and wine come together but when it does I take a look. I’m not a regular viewer of Undercover Boss but might be after this episode at Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates. New President Rick Tigner works at the bottom of this organization and learns a lot. And he does the right [...]

Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/x4ruIoL8u44/

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Why Allowing More Massachusetts Grocery Stores to Sell Wine is More Impactful Than You'd Think

Map of Massachusetts

Some interesting news on the Massachusetts wine legislation front: It looks like a bill and threatened ballot initiative to bump the number of retail alcohol licenses a corporation can hold from 3 to 20 has been withdrawn in favor of a compromise that would gradually increase the limit over the next decade.

People are often confused why some grocery stores in Massachusetts sell wine while others do not. It's complicated. Some towns don't allow alcohol sales at all so that explains some of it. But beyond that, current laws permit a maximum of 3 liquor licenses per corporation in the state. This explains why big retailers like Costco, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's only sell wine at 3 of their locations.

Here's a list of the grocery stores in Massachusetts that currently sell wine

The gradual schedule slated to be ratified should the compromise go through looks like this:

  • 2011 (now) 3 licenses per corporation
  • 2012: 5 licenses
  • 2016: 7 licenses
  • 2020: 9 licenses
My first thought upon hearing the news was: Which grocery stores are most interested in expanding liquor sales?  Ironically perhaps, natural and organic grocer Whole Foods was one of the first that came to mind. When they chose to sell alcohol at their recently opened flagship store in Dedham they had to relinquish their license in Wayland. It wouldn't be surprising at all if they brought alcohol back to the Wayland location. Or perhaps their Fresh Pond (Cambridge) and Derby Street (Hingham) locations are even more desirable for the first wave?

The challenge any grocer (or retailer) will face is that this change won't increase the number of licenses available at the state or local level. In Massachusetts, licensing decisions are largely delegated to the city/town level and is determined by population. As a result many towns have doled out all of their licenses and in order for a new grocer to pick up a license they'd need to demonstrate the need for an additional license -or- buy one from an existing licensee.

One of the things you'll notice if you visit a place like Massachusetts is the current laws have created a situation where liquor stores are placed conspicuously alongside grocery stores. What changes would this change bring about over the next ten years?

It's hard to say. On one hand, you've got to believe stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco and conventional grocery stores would love to sell alcohol at all their locations. But at the same time many of these have liquor stores right next to them and they'd have to convince each town there's a need for an additional license and that the nearby retailer isn't meeting the demand. That's going to be a hard sell in the most desirable towns where licenses are already sold out.

And what about those retailers? Doesn't this give them an opportunity to expand and meet the demand as well?

When I think of big retailers in the state that aren't grocery stores, I think of local operations like Kappy's, Blanchard's, and Gordon's, many of which are already near, at, or above the 3 license limit (thanks to existing stores being grandfather in before the 3-store limit was in place). They're a formidable presence in the area but it's hard to imagine this change benefiting their model substantially. They're already able to purchase in adequate quantities to achieve maximum discounts from wholesalers - what leverage would opening additional stores give them? Not much as far as I can see.

The retailers this change would most benefit? The big guys with a track record of success in other markets: retailers like Costco, Total Wine (not here yet but Wine Nation is), and Wegman's (just arriving and eyeing to expand). The only question I'd have is whether they can stomach the other restrictions in place in Massachusetts which limit their ability to drive prices low and control a sufficient portion of importing business for private label wines.

This is an interesting change. On the plus side this creates more competition at the retail level which could be good for consumers. On the minus side, good independent retailers who currently make some of their money selling commodity wines may suffer.

I'm thinking I like the California model: Make wine available everywhere and let specialty retailers differentiate on selection, service, and business model. With fine retailers like K&L, The Jug Shop, JJ Buckley (WWP Advertiser), BP Wine, and The San Diego Wine Company (to name a random few off the top of my head) doing well alongside stiff competition from Costco, BevMo, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and virtually every grocery store and drugstore in the state, it's hard to imagine this change being a bad thing for wine enthusiasts.

I think boutique stores like The Wine Bottega, The Urban Grape, and VinoDivino will do fine with these changes because the differentiate on service and selection. Discounters like The Wine ConneXtion, Bin Ends Wine and The Wine Cellar of Stoneham will continue to differentiate with their unique assortment of wines at rock bottom prices. Fine wine guys like The Hingham Wine Merchant, The Spirit Shoppe (WWP Advertiser) and Vintages will do fine too because people trust their editorial selection. All of these retailers have business models people like.

The retailers that might suffer from a change like this? The run down Massachusetts package store. You know the type: The few windows letting light in are covered with tacky signs. You're greeted by the stench of stale beer coming from the bottle deposit machines located near the entrance (why do we still do that?). Half the fluorescent lights are burnt out while the other half are buzzing. The wine assortment looks like it was done completely by one or two distributors. They only interact with you when asking you to move out of the way so they can restock the dusty shelves. As you make your way towards the register WEEI crackles on the radio and you're met with a dazzling display of impulse buys: Nips, smokes and scratch lottery tickets.

Would you rather go to a place like this to buy your wine and beer or pick it up while you're grocery shopping? I think the answer is obvious and that's why run down liquor stores could be threatened by this change. But it's also the type of store most likely to benefit from selling their license to a large chain at a premium. Every liquor license in the state suddenly becomes more valuable.

I'd like to see other changes along with this. Let's open up the state for direct shipment from out of state wineries and retailers. Everyone in the Commonwealth would benefit from improved access and increased excise tax revenue from incoming shipments. Massachusetts House Bill 1029 would finally permit out of state wineries to ship to Massachusetts. I haven't heard a peep about it since attending hearings on it and other alcohol-related bills last May. Let's push that through so we can work next year on out of state retailer shipment.

Let's allow Massachusetts retailers to ship out of state. This would provide innovative retailers leverage to tell their stories and sell their wines to a broader audience without increasing overhead. Massachusetts is the only state I know of that disallows their retailers from shipping out of state. Massachusetts House Bill 1030 would change this - its passage is long overdue.

And let's open up competition at the wholesaler level. Massachusetts wholesalers sell some wines to Massachusetts retailers for more than consumers in other states can buy them from retailers. That's got to change to give retailers here a fighting chance to compete at the national level.

Let's Free the Grapes.

Drinking moderately and responsibly makes certain that you will not need alcohol abuse rehab in the near future.

Further Reading:

Question of the Day: What do you think about these changes? More competition is better for the consumer? Or are specialty wine retailers going to be hurt by these changes and that's a bad thing for consumers?


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/52knz_Ard3c/why-allowing-more-massachusetts-grocery.html

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France is a ?banana republic? says Guffens

When the fraud squad raided Verget from Verget. Jean-Marie Guffens, a winemaker in Macon who founded Maison Verget, endured a decade-long investigation by French authorities, including Customs and Fraud office. It started in 2001 after the grapes were harvested but before the winery staff had even filed the harvest paperwork. And it continued ebbing and [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/lSzG9jSpOtk/

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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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