A Mixed Case: Wine News Round Up
Submitted by sasha on February 1, 2010 – 8:36 pm2 Comments
I’m adding a new feature to STBNY — an occasional, and highly unscientific, round up of my favorite wine news. I consume an embarrassing amount of wine media, and really I would feel less guilty about spending so much time reading all those articles, blog posts, Tweets and the like if I could share them with you. Plus, there’s lots of stuff here that even people who aren’t nearly as wine-obsessed as I am would find amusing, entertaining, and even useful.
- English sparkling wine takes top honors at Italian wine competition. I don’t always put a lot of stock in wine competitions, but it’s still pretty remarkable for an English bubbly to beat out some stiff competition from Champagne. And no, I’ve never had an English sparkling wine.
- What Do Women Want. I’ve been having a bit of a Women’s Studies moment lately (the bonehead naming of the iPad must have set me off) and I enjoyed this piece from Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon on marketing wine to women — and what might make his wines particularly interesting to the fairer sex. Not sure I buy all of it, but there’s some interesting stuff here for sure.
- On a somewhat related note, check out this post about the lack of diversity among wine bloggers. Slightly self-promotional here as I’m prominently featured in the comments section but, well, I had a lot to say on the topic. And yes, it’s absolutely true: from my experience working in several wine stores, the most unpleasant, arrogant customers are always men. Then again, the vast majority of customers who stumbled in drunk were women, so we’re no picnic ourselves.
- Wine for Haiti auction on Palate Press. One of my favorite things about the wine industry is how many people in this business are truly kind and generous. This auction is but one great example…plus a nice opportunity for you to get your hands on some excellent wines in the name of a worthy cause. If you or someone you love is looking to take her wine knowledge “to the next level,” as they say, I would highly recommend bidding on one of the subscriptions to www.JancisRobinson.com, which is hands-down my favorite source for tasting notes, news, and the like. Dork that I am, I’m gunning for the University of California books myself.
Happy reading!
There’s a pretty good discussion of marketing wine to women over at the blog http://www.gonzogastronomy.com. I came across it last week and read it with great interest. As someone who works in a wine store, I can attest to the “Bitch” wine being an enormous hit with many consumers simply because of its label, and not at all about the wine inside. I’m thinking this is brilliant marketing and great for sales, but at the same time, really gimmicky, a little on the unsavory side. I’m sure we could get a good discussion going on what it means to call a wine “Bitch,” but I’m not sure I want to go there!
Does R Wines really want this wine to be known mostly for its label, and not the wine itself? That doesn’t seem like a good long-term strategy, which is where the “gimmicky” thing comes in. Oh well, it sells the wine, and I guess at the end of the day, that’s the idea.
As long as there’s an equivalent wine called “Jackass” or “Douchebag” I’m all for it! Seriously, I can see why this wine is successful — it’s a fun thing to buy for a girl’s night, and the packaging is pretty awesome. I am very tired though of people (OK, men) talking about marketing to women like it’s some obscure, occult practice. We make up half the population and we’re not that hard to figure out.