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Live Blogging Twitter Taste Live 7: Humanitas - Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:04:57 +0000

It's time for another Twitter Taste Live but this time all the proceeds go to charity. Humanitas takes the "Newman's Own" philanthropic ethic to wine and founder Judd Wallenbrock has been giving back to charities in the communities his customers live in for 7 years now. His approach is simple: produce good wines for $20 and under, sell them direct to consumer and donate all the profits to charitable organizations. In recent months he has added very limited production, single vineyard wines that are a bit more expensive.

Longtime listeners will remember my interview with Judd back in Winecast 45 three years ago. His passion for the Humanitas vision has not changed since that interview and he is still a one-man operation. Like last weekend's Twitter Taste Live 5, I will live blog the event for those who can't attend or want to revisit the tasting later.

Disclosure: I donate my time to help Humanitas with social media outreach.

Georges Duboeuf, Morgon 2005 - Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:36:22 +0000

Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!

But I'm not going to post reviews for that style of Beaujolais this year as there are much better values in French Gamay than the 20% sold as glorified barrel samples 8 weeks after harvest. The best of these are made in the 10 "Crus" or growths of Beaujolais. These wines have more much depth than Beaujolais Nouveau and can still be very enjoyable 4-5 years after harvest while Nouveau declines at about 5 months of age. But the craziest thing to me is Cru Beaujolais is the same or less money than Beaujolais Nouveau.

This wine comes from Beaujolais mega-producer Georges Duboeuf who's promotional genius is largely behind all the Beaujolais Nouveau hype. His wines are available all over the U.S. and most good wine stores will have a selection of his Cru Beaujolais from $10-15 a bottle. Morgon is one of my favorite crus and Duboeuf makes two bottlings: the "Flower" label here and Domaine Jean Descombes. I've tried both from the 2005 vintage and they are very close in taste and quality.

Tasting Notes:

Georges Duboeuf, Morgon, "Flower Label" 2005 ($10) - Dark ruby color with aromas of cherry, raspberry and violets. Fresh and juicy black cherry fruit, some white pepper, finishing with supple tannins. An excellent value perfect for the Thanksgiving table.

13% ABV
Natural cork closure
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy this wine online

Cameron Hughes, Lot 93, Tempranillo 2004 - Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:44:20 +0000

Négociant Cameron Hughes has made a name for himself selecting and sometimes blending wines that drink like twice or sometimes three times their asking price. Using direct to consumer marketing on his website and distribution through warehouse retailers like Costco and Sam's Club, Hughes effectively disintermediates the 3-tier wine distribution system here in the U.S. This means he can make money selling $10-20 wines that he sources from some of the top producers around the world.

This past Saturday I presented three of his wines as part of Twitter Taste Live 5. All the wines were provided by Cameron Hughes as samples but I was very impressed with each wine which I will review over the next few weeks here. But the most impressive wine was a new release today, Lot 93, a 2004 Tempranillo from Spain's Rioja region.

When I opened this wine Saturday, the brand on the cork indicated the producer is Bodegas Covila. On my visit to the region last year, I was struck by how every winery seemed to age their wines as "shiners" or unlabeled, selling the wine when it was "ready to drink." This old school philosophy makes many wines from Spain tremendous values and provides stock for folks like Cameron Hughes to buy and label for his customers. The result is one of the best values I've ever seen as this could easily sell for $50-60 a bottle.

Tasting notes:

Cameron Hughes, "Lot 93″, Tempranillo, Rioja 2004 ($21/sample) - Dark ruby in color with black cherry, cassis, fennel, cocoa and vanilla aromas. Sleek and concentrated black cherry & dark currant fruit with some black pepper and a touch of earth finishing long with firm, but surprisingly well integrated, tannins. A well structured wine that will age for another 5-8 years. The most extreme value I've tasted yet from this négociant. Highly recommended.

13.5% ABV
Natural cork closure
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy this wine online

Live Blogging Twitter Taste Live 5 - Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:28:22 +0000

I've decided to live blog tonight's Twitter Taste Live using COVERITLIVE, a service I used for live blogging a tech event earlier this week. All the presenting bloggers Twitter accounts will be captured here along with others I will add during the tasting. You can also post comments right here in the view below. If this works, I'll continue to cover these online tastings for those who can't join us live.

Best Wine Blog Posts for November 3rd through November 14th - Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:19:07 +0000

Best of the wine blogosphere for November 3rd through November 14th:

WBW 51: Baked Goods - Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:31:59 +0000

Well it's Wine Blogging Friday for me this month, but hopefully I can sneak into the summary. The theme for Wine Blogging Wednesday this month comes by way of Philly-based wine blogger Joe who goes by 1WineDude online. And it's a complete departure from our basic formula of wine variety, region or something a bit quirky. In fact, he has challenged us to actually drink madeirized — or intentionally heated and/or oxidized — wines. This style of wine is found in Madeira, Australia?s Rutherglen Tokays and Sherry. But Joe was also mindful that these wines might not be available everywhere so he included all fortified wines including Porto for his "Baked Goods" theme.

I knew at some point there would be an occasion to write about Sherry, a wine I've had over the years but didn't really get into until a visit in June of 2007 to El Puerto de Santa María in the so-called Sherry Triangle. As a guest of Osborne, I visited their winery and tasted Fino literally pulled from the solera. But the most surprising part of this visit was a dinner with only Sherry served. I knew the starter would be easy with a Fino or Amontillado and the dessert course would be matched with a sweet Sherry of some sort but the entree would be a challenge. That's when I was introduced to Oloroso which was a revelation at the time. But the best wine that night was a sweet Sherry made from a very old solera and the Pedro Ximénez grape. I rated it a 99, the only wine I have ever rated that high.

But before I dig my notes out for that wine let me flash forward to this week when I was looking for a Sherry to review for this tasting. As someone now a bit more educated about Sherry, I know that Fino is best consumed before 6 months from it's bottling date. Most every Sherry producer has some sort of bottling code that indicates the day and year of bottling. Many times these are cryptic with Roman numerals used for the year but Osborne uses a more understandable code. So while I am continually disappointed in the stores here in the Twin Cities where Fino is "fresh" at 9-10 months past bottling, I was surprised to see a bottle of Osborne Pedro Ximénez "1827″ on the shelf with a bottling date of June 23, 2007. just 5 days before my visit to the winery.

For those not familiar with how Sherry is produced, a quick aside before my tasting notes. The production of Sherry is very old, in it's current form since the the Moors ruled Spain some 1,200 years ago. Some, according to this piece in Wikipedia, track this style of wine back to the city of Shiraz in modern day Iran, literally the cradle of viticulture in antiquity. The production of Sherry starts with grapes grown in very chalky soils around Jerez, Spain from Palomino or Pedro Ximenez. In the latter case, the grapes are dried for two days before pressing and fermentation begins to concentrate their sugars. After primary fermentation, the wine is fortified with brandy to levels of alcohol determined by the style of the final wine. Fino or Amontillado are fortified to 15 degrees alcohol so that flor yeast can survive to complete the wine. Oloroso is fortified to 17-18 degrees alcohol to prevent the growth of flor and the wine is primarily shaped by oxidation in the solera.

The solera is a system of large barrels between 3 and 9 in number usually stacked in a pyramid shape. This allows for the young wine to be introduced at the top of the solera to fill the lower barrels where the finished wine is drawn for bottling. Sherry is aged in barrel for a minimum of three years but this time in barrel is much longer for more highly prized and rare Sherries. Through reduction and oxidation the resulting wine gains complexity and since all the barrels are neutral, no aromas or flavors from the oak. This is a truly unique and old school style of wine that I hope more wine lovers will try.

Tasting Notes:

Bodegas Osborne, Pedro Ximenez "1827″ Sherry ($21) - Mahogany in color with powerful aromas of fig, molasses, espresso, hazelnuts and some heat from the alcohol. Rich and sweet in the mouth with fig, maple syrup, cocoa and caramel flavors finishing very long with enough acidity that balances the luscious sweetness. Decadent, delicious and an excellent value at around $20 a bottle. Also very nice poured over vanilla ice cream as it's own dessert.

17% ABV
Screwtop closure
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Bodegas Osborne, Pedro Ximenez "Viejo" Sherry ($100/sample tasted at the winery) - Almost black in color with very complex aromas of fig, dates, espresso, dark chocolate, molasses and a hint of baked orange. In the mouth, very rich and layered fig, caramel, baked orange, spice and nut flavors mingle with quite a bit of sweetness that is balanced by acidity. This wine has a finish that seems to go on forever. One of the most extraordinary tastings of my life and as close to a perfect wine I have ever encountered. Buy it, if you can afford it.

16% ABV
Natural cork closure
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Joe, the 1WineDude, for getting me back into this style of wine. I'm going to continue to explore Sherry both here and on my podcast. and might even post those recordings made in Spain some 17 months ago.

Announcing Twitter Taste Live 5: Cameron Hughes - Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:47:42 +0000

I've been involved with Twitter Taste Live since the second tasting and will be participating again next time when the theme is "Bloggers Take Over." In past tastings wineries have presented a selection of wines and wine lovers from around the world then posted their thoughts on Twitter while tasting the same wines simultaneously. But the next time out each wine blogger will be able to pick their wine(s) and give you the chance to pick them up and taste along with us on November 15th.

Consistent with my theme of Wines For Recessionary Times, I will be tasting two wines from Cameron Hughes, one of my favorite purveyors of extreme value wine.

I have selected Lot 92 2004 Margaret River Chardonnay and Lot 36 2005 Rutherford Cabernet for the tasting.

The Chardonnay is available for just $14 at the Cameron Hughes online store but Lot 36 is only available in Costco or Sam's Club stores (I paid $12.88 today for Lot 36 at Sam's).

So pick up one or both of these wines, friend me up on Twitter and taste along with me on November 15th. I'll be posting a follow-up with the approximate time of the tasting next week and, of course, tweet about this too. I hope you will join me or at least follow along on Twitter Search using the hash tag #ttl.

Winecast 75 - Etienne Hugel

Best Wine Blog Posts for October 3rd through October 17th - Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:13:37 +0000

Best of the wine blogosphere for October 3rd through October 17th:

WBW 50: Which wine, which wilderness? - Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:47:28 +0000

Wine Blogging Wednesday rolls around again with a theme from Russ, the Wine Hiker, of "Which wine, which wilderness." Sounds pretty straightforward. which wine would you bring on a hike near where you live. The only problem is, I don't hike.

It's not that I don't like hiking, I do, but rarely get on the trail these days here in Minnesota. I like walking and it is my exercise of choice but it's usually done in my suburban neighborhood or around one of the many lakes in the Twin Cities. Rarely have I ventured up north to where the real action is here in the land of 10,000 lakes.

But this theme not only got me to think about where I might hike but also which wine I might take on the journey. Since I'm one to pack lightly, I chose a wine I could enjoy without a corkscrew. That left every wine made here in Minnesota behind but there were several choices left on the shelf. I also assumed I would bring simple water glasses or metal cups and not the usual Riedel stems on my hike so the choice should be something hearty. This got me thinking of the wines of Italy which are often consumed in humble glassware. Alas, I was not able to find a wine in screwcap or other non-corkscrew closure from Italy but my friends in California did not disappoint.

Since part of the task was to match this wine with a hike, I consulted Google to select one of the top 10 hikes in the country right in my backyard, the Superior Hiking Trail. This trail covers over 200 miles from Two Harbors, MN — near Duluth — to the Canadian border. The north shore of Lake Superior is some of the most beautiful country you are likely to see and this time of year it's awesome due to our long Indian summer and fall colors. At some point, I will make this hike and might just bring along the wine I picked up for the journey, Hey Mambo.

This is one of those "marketing wines" from Don Sebastiani and Sons which I've been meaning to try anyway. Great label, interesting premise and the Zork closure all for $12.99. I was also intrigued by the blend of Barbera, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Carignane and Alicante Bouschet which I thought would be a good choice for my water glass/cup scenario. So I was looking forward to what might be in the glass tonight.

Tasting Notes:

The Other Guys, "Hey Mambo", Sultry Red 2006 ($13) - Dark purple in color with aromas of blackberry, cranberry, fennel and sage. Bright and juicy in the mouth with blackberry, red cherry, bell pepper and vanilla finishing with moderate tannins. An interesting and satisfying blend in an nice package.

13.5% ABV
Zork closure
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Buy this wine online

Thanks to Russ for a great theme this time. It will be good to see him again at the upcoming Wine Blogger Conference later this month. Look for the next theme to be announced soon.

Google Cracks Down On EWI - Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:57:03 +0000

The clever people over at Google have identified an apparently growing problem of emailing while intoxicated (EWI) and have taken steps to prevent it. The new "Mail Goggles" feature of their free email service challenges the user to 5 math problems before sending an email after hours. The user is in full control of which hours they want to designate and you don't have to opt-in to this unique service. This should cut down on those drunk emails that seem like a good idea at the time but usually aren't.

Although it will likely not catch drunk mathematicians, others who have a problem in this area will be well served. You know who you are

Read all about it on Google's Gmail blog.

Crane Lake, Petite Sirah 2005 - Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:41:29 +0000

My first selection for these troubled times is the second most popular wine reviewed here by pageviews, the Petite Sirah by Crane Lake. This label is made by Bronco Wine Company who also produce the Charles Shaw brand for Trader Joe's. Crane Lake is offered to independent retailers and typically sells for a couple dollars more than the more famous "2-buck Chuck." Another difference is that more than just the typical varieties are offered, including this Petite Sirah and even a Sangiovese.

Petite Sirah is a good variety to look for in value wines these days as it flies a bit below the radar of most consumers. Many of the best examples can be found for less than $20 a bottle but I was interested in what you could get for $4. I picked up the 2004 vintage a while back but did not review it was a bad bottle, but I was able to track down the 2005 vintage for this tasting.

Tasting Notes:

Crane Lake, Petite Sirah 2005 ($4) - Dark purple-black color with aromas of blueberry compote and white pepper. Simple and juicy blueberry and plum flavors with some black pepper finishing with plush tannins and good acidity. Clean and surprisingly varietally correct.

Composite cork closure
12.5% ABV
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Buy this wine online

Wines For Recessionary Times - Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:19:53 +0000

With the worldwide financial crisis in full swing, it's a time a lot of wine lovers will be looking to dial back their wine budgets a bit. From my informal polling on Twitter, most are drinking the same amount of wine but less expensive selections are gaining in popularity.

With that in mind, I'm launching a new feature I'm calling "Wines For Recessionary Times."

That doesn't always mean cheap wines but we will start there and explore the most extreme values in all price tiers. I'm talking about the $10 wines that give $25 wines a run for their money. Also those $30 wines that make you shake your head and wonder what they were thinking charging $75 a bottle for a similar wine. Or those auction finds that you want to keep to yourself so you can buy more before they are sold out. And wines you can buy for less than $50 A CASE.

So stay tuned as I look for wines that you would guess are 2 or 3 times more expensive than they actually are. This should be a fun project but let's hope it's short lived and not necessary this time next year.

What's your favorite extreme value wine?

3,000 Tweets, 592 Followers - Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:07:41 +0000

A couple months back I noticed that I was getting close to 3,000 tweets on Twitter, the popular micro-blogging-messaging service. It seemed like a good idea at the time to strive to get to this milestone at the beginning of September but also strive to increase my followers on Twitter to match my 3,000 Tweets. After all, Gary Vaynerchuk has over 15,000 followers so how hard could it be to get 3,000?

The answer is nearly impossible.

But it wasn't for lack of trying. I setup Twitterfeed to retweet my Google Reader shared items and I also shared some wine news from Decanter magazine. I participated in the Twitter discussion of wine but didn't go out of my way to create tweets for the sake of reaching my goals. I could have probably marginally improved my follower count by running a contest or two but I don't think it would have made a signfianct difference in the final results.

So this blog post will be my 3,000th tweet — about a month behind my original schedule — but my follower count only modestly increased to 592 (+130 since my challenge began). This tells me a few things. First, there are a limited number of people now on Twitter interested in talking about wine. Gary has certainly crossed over into the mainstream and become an internet celebrity but it's not because of his discussion of wine but how he uses Twitter to connect with his audience (which is several times larger than the Winecast audience). Second, the Wine Twitter group hangs as a fairly small pack and most of us are wine or winery bloggers. I think this might be another barrier for others to join the discussion.

So I've decided to open up the way I follow others on Twitter to include fans as well as those tweeting mostly about wine. I started out doing this to keep my Winecast feed easier to scan and I was also republishing the tweets here (later turned off due to technical issues). But I followed everyone back on my personal Twitter account to sort of abide by the norms of the service. This change will not raise my follower count but it will open up some interesting ways to use the service to connect with readers and listeners.

I'm hoping this change will encourage people to ask me more questions and ultimately lead to increasing my overall reach. and I'll get some contests going, as well. Let's see where I'm at on New Years Day with this new approach.

Best Wine Blog Posts for September 12th through September 2... - Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:00:14 +0000

Best of the wine blogosphere for September 12th through September 29th:

Twisted Oak, ?River of Skulls?, Mourvèdre 2006 - Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:54:23 +0000

Every wine lover has a progression of experiences from the jug wines or fighting varietals they started with, through the wines of Germany, Bordeaux, Spain and Italy before they get to Rhone blends (the end goal is always Burgundy for some reason). In recent months, I've been drinking mostly southern Rhone-style blends from France, Spain and California. Most of these have been red with Mourvèdre (or Monastrell) based wines a favorite. So I was pleased when Jeff (a.k.a. El Jefe) at Twisted Oak offered some samples of his new "River of Skulls" Mourvèdre/Syrah blend.

The first thing that stands out is the striking package. The red skull literally burned into the bottle signals this as something special. If you are looking for a wine for your Halloween party, look no further as your friends will be talking about both the bottle and what's inside. The striking name is not some sort of commercial play for late October sales but a homage to local history near where the grapes were grown. It seems a Spanish Lieutenant exploring the area in the early 19th century happened across a number of skulls littered on the river bank. Being a practical man, he named this place "El Rio De Las Calaveras" or, literally, the "River of Skulls".

The grapes for this wine were grown in the Dalton Vineyard only a short distance from the Calaveras river. Along with seven other varieties, Dalton is planted with the Spanish clone of Mourvèdre (called Monastrell in Spain). Although more known in the wine world as one of the 13 grapes of the Côtes du Rhône, Mourvèdre is actually a native of Spain, most likely Catalonian. The Mourvèdre, which makes up 90% of the blend, was fermented with about 25% whole clusters which adds to the backbone of the wine. Later, 10% Syrah from the same vineyard was blended to provide some additional structure and complexity. Nineteen months spent in a mixture of new and neutral oak barrels (50/50) provides the seasoning here.

Like some other wines I've recently tasted, River of Skulls is only available on an allocated mailing list. Since I just was able to sign up myself it's still open, but I'd suggest you do this soon before the wine is sold out.

Tasting Notes:

Twisted Oak, "River of Skulls", Mourvèdre, Dalton Vineyard, Calaveras County ($35 retail/$28 to club/received as sample) - Dark ruby in color with aromas of black cherry, fennel, tobacco, clove, and vanilla. Bold and concentrated blackberry and dark cherry fruit joined by cracked black pepper, some tar and sweet oak finishing long with moderately firm tannins. I'd recommend laying this one down for 2-3 years and see what emerges as there is plenty of fruit to stand up to the alcohol. I'm holding my second sample back a couple years and will blog my notes here sometime in late 2010.

14.9% ABV
Natural cork closure
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Amazon To Sell Wine Online - Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:37:24 +0000

As reported by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, Amazon.com will begin to sell wine in a just few weeks here in the U.S. The announcement came from The Napa Valley Vintners association and not directly from Amazon. Also reported was that New Vine Logisitics will be Amazon's shipping partner when they go live.

Rumors have been circulating for some time that Amazon would enter the market but most observers thought they would concentrate on high volume brands. But the Amazon head wine buyer was on the floor checking out wines at the recent Family Winemakers of California and I have spoken with several smaller wineries who have been in discussions with them.

As I posted back in March, I think his is the most signifiant development in wine distribution since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. And Amazon's actions in the past 6 months have validated my hypothesis that medium to small wineries are their target. Their decision to work with regional wine associations is a good one from an industry relations, recruitment and PR point of view. I don't think it was an accident the announcement came from the Napa Valley Vintners and think we'll see announcements from other winery associations before Amazon formally launches their wine business later this month or in early October.

This is a great development for both wineries looking for online distribution and for consumers looking for small production, artisan wines. I expect the shipping fees to be reasonable like Amazon does for all their other products but their Prime service will be a must for serious wine lovers. For $79 a year, you get free shipping on all purchases with second day delivery. No word on if that speed will be honored for wine but if it's just free ground shipping for wine, that will be huge for sales. With increasing fuel costs, shipping is becoming a real problem for wineries as it adds significantly to their customer price. If this is a non-issue, then wineries stand to benefit greatly from what Amazon if offering.

This is not good news for other online wine retailers who do not have the deep pockets to cover the significant shipping costs or the economies of scale that Amazon has. But I still think there will be a place for niche e-tailers like domaine547 and wine marketing sites like woot and The Wine Spies.

I think this is the biggest wine story of the year and will be blogging about what this means for wine marketing over at my company blog.

Cheers to Amazon and welcome to the wine business.

Amazon.com to uncork wine sales

Course Correction - Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:45:29 +0000

CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE, FRANCE - DECEMBER 12: A ...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I've been reading Neal Rosenthal's book "Reflections of a Wine Merchant" for the last few days and I'm starting to triangulate this, with recent events, to change the course of this blog and podcast. Around page 144 Mr. Rosenthal starts his attack on wine ratings and he makes a lot of sense to me although he would likely comment how much of an amateur I am here (or worse, as the owner of a San Francisco wine bar once did in email. but that's another story).

Money quote:

"There is little journalism, which is to say fact findings and reporting, and virtually no effective prose; there is, however, a series of judgments backed by a sadly limited descriptive vocabulary and powered by precise scores."

Therefore, from now forward, I will drop the 100-point rating scale in my reviews and use my proposed standard 5-star scale. That is, until I decide to drop that as well. I will endeavor to provide more investigative journalism and concentrate on my prose. A review of Neal Rosenthal's prose is forthcoming.

Best Wine Blog Posts for August 21st through September 8th - Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:12:17 +0000

Best of the wine blogosphere for August 21st through September 8th:

La Sirena, Moscato Azul 2007 - Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:02:43 +0000

One of my surprise finds at the recent Family Winemakers of California tasting in San Francisco was the wines of La Sirena. I began my two days of tasting focusing on just white wines and this was one of my first stops when I noticed winemaker Heidi Barrett was pouring. Heidi is a winemaking super star with a track record for making blockbuster Cabernets at places like Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Rubicon and Grace Family. Today she is consulting winemaker at eight wineries including Amuse Bouche, Paradigm, Revana, Barbour, Lamborn, and Fantesca. But La Sirena is her personal project with husband and Napa Valley legend Bo Barrett, co-founder & winemaker of Chateau Montelena.

When I asked her about this wine, Heidi said she wanted to do something fun and different from what she has done elsewhere. She was certainly influenced by the style of wines made from Moscato Bianco in Italy's Trentino but Moscato Azul seems to be a fresh New World interpretation of this variety which almost always is made in an off-dry or sweet style in California. The grapes come from a vineyard in Calistoga near where La Sirena is made and the Barrett's have their own vineyard. Besides the wine, the striking blue bottle and matching synthetic cork also make an impression.

La Sirena, "Moscato Azul" Muscat Canelli, Napa Valley 2007 ($30) - Very light straw color in the glass with an explosively floral nose of mango, pineapple, orange blossoms and lychee. Light and clean on the palate with tropical fruit and citrus flavors finishing bone dry with good acidity. A truly unique white worth seeking out that would be an excellent match with brunch fare.

13.5% ABV
Synthetic cork closure
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Buy this wine online

Note: Since this wine was tasted at a trade event I'm only using my 5 star rating system.

Blogger Ethics and Disclosure - Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:39:54 +0000

The current controversy over a group of wine bloggers accepting a wine sample under the condition to write something — good or bad — about that wine has me reflecting over my code of ethics. Since I have commercial interests in the wine trade, I think it is very important to make full disclosures in order to avoid any conflicts of interest. It's a simple code really. I accept samples but don't agree to post a review, disclose when samples are provided in the post or podcast and I don't review wines from producers I work with. It's been posted on my "about" page for two years now since Alder brought the issue up and posted his own disclosure.

So I was deeply distressed to see two post this week suggesting I was not ethical in my review of Rodney Strong's "Rockaway" Cabernet as part of a blogging experiment. The first post was by Wine Enthusiast critic Steve Heimoff who thought that we were "manipulated" by the folks at Rodney Strong. This touched off more comments with Mr. Heimoff directly questioning our ethics as wine bloggers. That might be a valid assessment if Mr. Heimoff had done his homework — no journalistic duty — and investigated this story further with those of us involved before posting his thoughts on the matter.

The second post that disturbed me was one from Tom Wark who took Mr. Heimoff's logic one step further concluding, "I do think, however, that by agreeing to work on behalf of their subject they risk compromising the inherent independence that wine bloggers possess."

Where did Mr. Wark get his facts for this post? Not from those of us who took part in the Rockaway experiment. Just like Steve Heimoff didn't. And they are professionals not enthusiasts like many of us involved.

Do you see something wrong here? I do.

Before I get into the ethical implications of a professional journalist and seasoned wine PR professional not doing any investigation before making some serious accusations, let me backup and fully disclose the chain of events that got us here.

On July 30th, Jeff Lefevere of Good Grape contacted six wine bloggers with an invitation to participate in what he called a "blogging experiment". The bloggers were Dr. Debs from Good Wine Under $20, Tyler from Dr. Vino, Megan from Wannabe Wino, Renee from Feed Me/Drink Me, Kori from the Wine Peeps and myself. Only Tyler declined and Joe from 1WineDude was added. To my knowledge, "several other leading wine bloggers" were not contacted or declined to participate. Robert Larson from Rodney Strong Vineyards was copied on this and all future emails from Jeff about the experiement but did not have any role in the dialogue.

Jeff's request was pretty specific with the following portion salient to the current controversy:

"Here's the give to get and this is my suggested execution path, not Rockaways:

* In agreement for receipt of the sample you agree to write a blog post on or around the week of August 18th. You do not have to write anything favorable, but you do have to write a post with a word count between 300-500 words
* You can choose to write a review on the wine or if you choose not to review it you can write around any number of story angles about the wine/winery/concept, etc.
* I would encourage you, as I will do, to be fully transparent about the sampling. In fact, I plan doing a lead up with a post or two about my interactions with Robert and the fact that wineries are starting to get wine blogging, take wine bloggers seriously and to engage us with a level of rapport usually reserved for only established media."

There was no request for review, only a post. And this post could be anything of our choosing including negative reviews or commentary. In short, we had complete editorial freedom. Since my own ethics state that I do not promise a review, I thought that this request was within my personal code as long as I disclosed I received this wine as a trade sample. Yes, I thought is was somewhat of an unusual request but Jeff's concept was several posts about the same wine happening the same week, so I agreed.

On August 11th, Jeff send out another email to the entire group with Arthur Black added as a guest blogger at Good Grape. Here he made to following request:

" I have committed to Robert [Larson of Rodney Strong Vineyards] that we would post in between next Monday, August 18th and Thursday the 21st. 300 + words is the requested minimum. The notion here is to do something thoughtful and meaningful. There is no editorial restriction, but I'd like the piece in whatever form you decide to take it to be something you are proud to stand behind."

Attached to this email was a variation of the label graphics and a fact sheet. There was no press release or any other coaching. I tasted the wine over three evenings from August 11 without food and not blind, as I taste most wine samples. My notes were recorded into Evernote for future posting here. Over the next few days I did research online made notes and eventually turned this into an outline. At this point I took a vacation from blogging and enjoyed Disneyland with my family for 3 days.

When I returned, I flew to San Francisco and then went on to Sonoma where I intended to finish and post my review along with an analysis from a marketing standpoint for my company blog. Where I was staying lost their internet connection and later their power so I was not able to post until Saturday, August 23rd, 2 days after the requested deadline.

And that's where this story should have ended but Mr. Heimoff, who makes his living tasting wine for Wine Enthusiast, posted his pointed critique on his blog. I think the context is important for everyone to understand here because just a week before the meme in the wine blogosphere was over the Wine Spectator's giving an award to a fake restaurant exposed by a blogger (well, at least they used a blog to do their sting operation). A firestorm of hatred for all bloggers was unleashed in the Wine Spectator's apparently unmoderated forums. Even senior editor James Molesworth got into the act calling bloggers, ".lazy journalists." It was not their finest hour which I will dissect in another post.

I believe both of these events are directly related.

The traditional wine press has not acknowledged wine blogs exist even as they begin to employ the medium. Their business model is challenged by social media and they are starting to feel the pain. It will get a lot worse in coming months and years as the wine buyer increasingly looks for wine recommendations online and are used to finding this information on search engines. And most wine buyers will not find their reviews, published late behind subscription barriers, but they will find reviews on wine blogs. For free. Without advertising from wine brands mixed with the editorial. And fully open for their comments.

I think the traditional wine press is getting concerned about us and are trying to use this blogging experiment to discredit all wine bloggers. But this will not work and the reason why is simple: Disclosure.

Everyone who has taken part in the Rockaway experiment has been totally transparent about the conditions and have made the proper disclosures. But where are the disclosures from Steve Heimoff and Tom Wark? They don't exist on either of their blogs. How wine ratings are done is not even on Mr. Heimoff's employers' website which I would find disturbing if I read that publication.

So the bottom line for me on this whole thing is that Heimoff and Wark did not check their facts. They did not speak with any of the bloggers involved or Rodney Strong Vineyards (yes, I checked). I think they need to reassess their own blogging ethics, post a retraction of erroneous facts and offer an apology.

But that's just me and my ethics talking. What do you think?

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