Domaine Pierre Usseglio

I frequently participate in press-wine tastings in Copenhagen. Normally its about tasting the recent vintage or vintages from a particular wine producer - maybe with one or two older vintages. Nothing wrong with that. Its always the latest vintage that is going on the shelves and where the need for good press is welcomed. But I [...]

Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/42/domaine-pierre-usseglio/

Katie Cassidy Katie Holmes Katy Perry Keira Knightley

?Petrol? is a flaw in young Riesling: Olivier Humbrecht

The petrol note sometimes found in young Riesling is a flaw according to Olivier Humbrecht. And we lack a better vocabulary for the petrol note that many Riesling aficionados cherish in older bottles. The winemaker at Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace who makes 40 different wines a year commented in New York last week that the petrol [...]

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

Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Price Lisa Marie Lisa Snowdon

The Return on Investment of Wine Education

… or why “consumers need more wine education” is wrong It would appear to be widely accepted in the wine trade that if only consumers knew more about wine, the more, better (and higher profit) wines they’d buy. “Consumer Education” in the form of brochures, seminars, events, newsletters, websites, apps, social networks, trips etc, form [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/isshmMJ8i8Q/

Nicole Scherzinger Nicollette Sheridan Nikki Cox Nikki Reed

2009 Carlisle Sonoma County Syrah: Best QPR Ever?

Just when I was thinking "Hey it's been a while since Wine Spectator gave us a high QPR wine to chase after" they dropped a doozy on us yesterday. The 2009 Carlisle Sonoma County Syrah received a 97 point rating - and retails for just $25. Carlisle mailing list members were offered the wine for an even more incredible $19.50.

Carlisle produces Zinfandel and red Rhone varietal wines out of Sonoma. They've been cranking out high QPR wines for a while now so the name is familiar to wine deal hounds.

It's been a while since I fired up the wwpQPR calculator (what's that?) but I thought this might be the best QPR I've ever heard of. Using a baseline price of $30 (the point at which it is relatively easy to find 90 point domestic Syrah) the wwpQPR gives us a 6.05: Outstanding Value. I think that might indeed be the best value I've ever heard of.

Where to Buy

Well, that's the problem. With only 391 cases produced and mailing list that's been on to their reasonably priced high quality wines for a while this one is going to be tough. A quick wine-searcher.com search turns up a few retailers that claimed to have had it for $25 or under -- but when you click through it's all sold out.

Based on past experience with wines like these, we'll see the wine quickly evaporate at retail especially under $40. The wine will be available at high mark-up at some retailers and will be available on auction sites for $50 and up. At that point, it kind of wrecks the QPR. At $50 it's a 3.02 on the wwpQPR: Very Good. Still a nice value but not one to break your neck over.

What to Do Next

Jump on their mailing list. The pattern is clear with Carlisle - they're producing wines attaining incredibly high scores and they're holding the line on price. Sounds like the perfect mailing list to be a part of. Be prepared for a wait: I signed up a few years ago and haven't gotten an allocation.

Next, scour around wine-searcher looking for back vintages and other bottlings from Carlisle. This bodes well for their 2009 offerings and I hear their 2006s were also amazing.

It's interesting to watch the CellarTracker reviews come in for a wine like this. Prior to the Spectator rating coming out yesterday, the ratings are about what you'd expect for a $25 wine from Carlisle: 90-93 points. A note published yesterday after the Spectator rating came out? 95 points.

I've discussed this pheonomenon with friends before -- how CellarTracker is an excellent resource to consult when deciding whether to take advantage of a wine deal. But there is often a high rating/price correlation on CellarTracker since most regular wine enthusiasts like us taste non-blind. Throw in a little 97-point Wine Spectator bias and it often pulls the CellarTracker ratings up a bit.

Definitely a topic for further discussion. I'd love it if you subscribed to the site so we can continue the conversation.

And consider subscribing to Wine Spectator. You can even use airline miles if you'd like.

Question of the Day: Have you seen this wine available at retail? Any tips for buying this wine or similar offerings from Carlisle in the open market?


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/TvRPZqdvWv4/2009-carlisle-sonoma-county-syrah-best.html

Lil Kim Lily Allen Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Price

Is it ?Game on? in the Wine World?

Lord help the wine traditionalists if it is true: Technology entrepreneur Seth Preibatsch suggests that the next decade of digital innovation will be about the, “Game Layer.”

The “Game Layer,” is a dynamic that was introduced to the wine world last week when, within a day of each other, VinTank, a Napa-based digital consultancy, and Snooth Media each announced their own spin on the new, new thing in digital – game-like elements as a part of the wine + online experience; a sort of Farmville meets educational “Atta boy.”

If the announcements didn’t register with you mentally, you’re in good company:  Neither press release (here and here) passed the “30 Second Rule”—the law of the PR jungle that says if it’s not understandable in 30 seconds it can’t be that important.  Yet, it’s hardly the fault of VinTank or Snooth—it’s just that people are still getting their heads around QR codes and aren’t ready for a potential game-changer (no pun intended) on the order of the, “Game Layer.” However, these developments bear watching even if we’re a good 18 months out from broader awareness.

image

To date, your experience with online games is probably stratified into three categories:

Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo

A glancing familiarity with World of Warcraft (and the pale, sunken-eyed souls who play it)

The annoyance of Farmville or Mafia Wars on Facebook (Initiated by the kid you never talked to in high school who inexplicably friended you up and now spams your email inbox with Farmville crap)

What’s emerging beyond that (and social networking), driven by the growth of digital marketing and smart phones in the mobile space, is the incorporation of elements of gaming into our daily interactions and information consumption.

To understand this, it’s helpful to understand some of the terminology:

image

Game Layer: An opaque term that Preibatsch, the precocious 22-year old founder of a tech company called SCVNGR, uses to define the next wave of innovation this decade, a philosophy that he thinks is far more revolutionary (and he is far more apt to profit from) than the previous decade that was marked by the, “Social Layer” i.e. social networking.  The “Game Layer” suggests that all of our interactions (what we do and why we do it) can be influenced by game mechanics.

Game Mechanics / Game Dynamics:  The universal law(s) that is inherent in gameplay – from Old Maid to Monopoly to online.  This story lists 47 game dynamics that SCVNGR follows in its client efforts.

Game Theory (from Answers.com): A mathematical method of decision-making in which a competitive situation is analyzed to determine the optimal course of action for an interested party, often used in political, economic, and military planning. 

Both the VinTank program (called VinPass) and the Snooth program (called Wine Rack) are similar in nature and use a “Game Layer” on top of digital wine activity incorporating “Game Mechanics”—offering badges and other digital ephemera-based incentives for performing activities like writing tasting notes or demonstrating knowledge.

As an aside, now is a good time to note that the clichéd saying about Generation Y parental coddling and, “Everybody gets a trophy” is no longer the province of youth soccer leagues.  Ahem.

VinPass’ program is chiefly sponsored by the Wines of France and is multi-platform.  This means that users at various wine social networking sites like Winelog.net and wine mobile applications like Drync can “unlock” digital badges based on drinking and writing tasting notes related to French wines like Beaujolais, Champagne and wines from regions like the Loire Valley.  Additional, real world incentives can be achieved, as well – discounts on purchases of event tickets and such.

image

Wine Rack by Snooth appears to be a more fully realized program upon launch and offers digital “trophies” to users who read, take quizzes, taste and rate wines at Snooth.com.  Their program launches with title sponsorship from Terlato Wines International.  Similar to VinPass, users (in an undefined way) can earn tangible rewards like access to tastings and offers from retailers.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about these so-called, “Game mechanics” embedded into otherwise normal digital wine activities. 

Wine and digital engagement, in all of its variations, can act as a great democratizing counter-balance against the historical empiricism of the wine elite. However, progress wrought over the last five to six years has a great opportunity to step backwards if game-like elements take hold.  A game, inherently, is a zero-sum proposition:  there are winner and there are losers.  Wine has seen enough of that, no?  I wait with bated breath to hear the first braggart that has accumulated 30 digital trophies who then takes to his high horse …

In addition, there’s a seedy underbelly with these “Game mechanics” that isn’t quite simpatico with privacy issues.  When Snooth co-founder and CTO Mark Angelillo says the Wine Rack idea was borne out of the notion of, “Give(ing) users a better idea of how they were learning and growing with wine, how they were getting interested in the product and how they were progressing through playing with wine data” my first thought wasn’t, “This is a user benefit” it was, “This is a marketing benefit”—as in: Wouldn’t wine marketers love to buy this sort of information.

Another sore point is that the education a user obtains from reading and going through quizzes on these sites doesn’t have any tangible value.  Wouldn’t an inordinate amount of time spent earning a badge be so much more useful if it mapped to a baseline knowledge marker on an actual wine certification?  Why, yes, it would.

Despite these initial misgivings, it’s hard to slow down the digital zeitgeist and all indications point to the “Game Layer” and “Game Mechanics” becoming a much more significant and present part of our lives and digital engagement.

If you’re the sort that views life like a competitive chess match, you’re in luck.  If you’re an accidental tourist in life who avoids conflict and competition while seeking respite in the calming waters of the wine world, well, maybe there will be a “Trophy” for that in the Game of Wine.  

Additional Information
Ed. Note:  Preibatsch has the platform to get in front of the so-called “Game Layer” revolution, but McGonigal has the cred.

- TED speech by Seth Preibatsch
- TED speech by Jane McGonigal, Ph.D and author of, “Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World”
- Games People Play: Game Theory in Life, Business, and Beyond by The Great Courses

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

Nichole Robinson Nicky Hilton Nicole Richie Nicole Scherzinger

Nominations are Now Open for the 5th Annual Wine Blog Awards

A little over a year ago, Tom Wark (PR whiz, wine shipping advocate, blogger at Fermentation and founder of the Wine Blog Awards), and I had an email exchange in which I noted that there seemed to be a, “Been there, done that” sense in the online wine writing scene.  My contention was that the genre hadn’t advanced enough and was, “Running to stand still,” to borrow a phrase.

Tom didn’t respond to my thoughts specifically, a pocket veto of sorts.  Flash forward 15 months and not only was my observation off base, it was off the map.  Tom was right.

Today, online wine writing offers an incredible panoply of voices, niches, and quality, ever-growing and impossible to keep up with.  Whatever your wine fetish, you’re going to find a community within a community and quality writing that will educate and entertain with personality and verve.

image

To wit, already populated by great diversity, the 5th Annual Wine Blog Awards are currently accepting nominations until May 31st.  Ceded by Tom for the greater good and now organized by the same group of people who organize the Wine Bloggers Conference, the principal complaint against the Wine Blog Awards has been that they are insider-ish and don’t represent the diversity of writers and voices who are toiling at a high-level in pursuit of the good grape.  I have a hunch that won’t be the case this year; the entire contest could be marked by nominated finalists and winners who haven’t previously been acknowledged by these awards.

To nominate your favorite online wine read, please hit the links below.

Best Overall Wine Blog

Best New Wine Blog

Best Writing on a Wine Blog

Best Winery Blog

Best Single Subject Wine Blog

Best Wine Blog Graphics, Photography, and Presentation

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/nominations_are_now_open_for_the_5th_annual_wine_blog_awards/

Melissa Joan Hart Melissa Rycroft Melissa Sagemiller Mena Suvari

Wine Word of the Week: Solera

This week?s Wine Word of the Week is solera. Official definition from Jancis Robinson?s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Solera is a system of fractional blending used most commonly in Jerez for maintaining the consistency of a style of sherry, which takes its name from those barrels closest to the suelo, or floor, from which [...]

Wine Word of the Week: Solera was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/MTuFTesEv7s/

Marika Dominczyk Marisa Coughlan Marisa Miller Marisa Tomei