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Fat Wine: Middle Class, Middle Market, Middlebrow
The world is becoming Hot, Flat, and Crowded according to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s bestselling 2008 book. Hot and crowded are easy to understand, but flat? Yes, Friedman, said, flat...
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Blue Nun Gets a Makeover
Blue Nun wine reinvented itself a few years ago — I wrote about it in a chapter in Wine Wars called “The Curse of the Blue Nun.” It stopped being that rather mediocre sweetish German white wine that...
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Extreme Wine South Africa: The International Connection
One of the issues I wanted to explore during my visit to South Africa was the nature of international investment, partnerships and strategic alliances in that country. There is so much about South...
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How Much Choice Do Wine Drinkers Really Have?
* How much choice do U.S. wine drinkers really have? The answer to this question, according to a study by a group of Michigan State University scholars, is that it depends on how you look at the...
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The “One Big Tank” Myth
My recent post about How Much Choice Do Wine Drinkers Really Have? made the point that true diversity in wine choice is complicated. Although there are constellations of wine brands that are...
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Busting the Big Tank Myth: Durbanville Hills
There are easier ways to get to Durbanville Hills Winery than aboard a snorkel-equipped Land Rover, but I don’t think there’s a better way to go. They brought out the 4×4 vehicles (snorkel-equipped —...
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Between Two Worlds: The Paradox of the Columbia Gorge AVA
Columbia Gorge: Washington on the left, Oregon on the right. Washington State produces much more wine than Oregon, but Oregon wines are sometimes easier to find outside the Pacific Northwest. That was...
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Early Days for Virginia’s Early Mountain Vineyards
It is still early days for Early Mountain Vineyards, the ambitious and progressive new project that Jean Case has started along with her husband Steve (of AOL fame). The goal (and the challenge) goes...
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Restaurant Australia: Re-Branding Australia (and Australian Wine)
Click on the image to see a “Restaurant Australia” video. >>><<< I’m back from Australia, where I spoke at Savour Australia 2013 (click here to view my presentation). The purpose of...
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Anatomy of Australia’s New Wine Strategy
Click on the image to view one of the Restaurant Australia videos. >>><<< In my last column I talked about Australian wine’s plans to re-brand itself on the global market through an...
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A Field Guide to Prosecco’s Many Faces
Prosecco sales here in the U.S. are surging — up 34% in the first half of 2014 according to one report. At 1.27 million cases, the U.S. is now the #3 export market for Prosecco trailing only the UK and...
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Wine Vision Takeaway Messages
Click on the image above to view my interview with BeverageDaily.com editor Ben Bouckley at Wine Vision 2014. I’m back from Wine Vision 2014 and reviewing my notes in search of the most important...
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Trading Up? The New Conventional Wisdom About the U.S. Wine Market
Last week I wrote about the unexpected state of the U.S. wine market today, where sales of wines above about $9 are strong and growing while the below $9 segments are stagnant or in decline. Thinking...
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The Curse of Corporate Wine-Think?
When I wrote about the global financial crisis in my 2010 book Globaloney 2.0: The Crash of 2008 and the Future of Globalization, I focused on three forces that I saw as both key to the crisis and...
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The “Big & Hot” Guide to Best-selling U.S. Wine Brands
The August 2015 issue of Wines & Vines magazine is full of interesting and useful information as usual. One article that caught my eye provides IRI off-premise wine sales data for the top 20 U.S....
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Hamburgers, Hairballs & Cabernet (Oh My!): Opening Wine’s Overton Window
I started thinking about the Overton Window for wine after reading Tim Hayward’s “Food for Thought” column in the Financial Times a few weeks ago (“The steak-and-chips straitjacket” March 26, 2016)....
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Restaurant Wine Lists: Are Restaurants Leaving Money on the Table?
Last week I wrote about the concept of the Overton Window and speculated about what it might be able to tell us about the constantly evolving wine market. This week I follow up with an interesting...
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The Name Game: Porto, Napa Diplomacy and the Fortified Wine Dilemma
The Association of Port Wine Companies roadshow passed through Seattle recently and Sue and I were fortunate to be invited to attend the Porto and Douro Wines Tasting, a ceremony initiating several...
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New “Wine by Numbers” + Analysis of Global & US Wine Market Dynamics
A new edition of Wine by Numbers was released a few days ago and it is required reading for anyone interested in global wine market dynamics. Wine by Numbers presents current data about global wine...
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The Genius of Charles Smith and the Land versus Brand Wine Wars
What do you know about Charles Smith? He’s a marketing genius! Where does he get his ideas? Do you know what he is going to do next? We were in a restaurant in Yountville, the heart of the Napa Valley,...
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