Murphy Goode, The Goode Job Winner, And All Bitter Atwitter
Previously on Vinotrip I endorsed two candidates for Murphy Goode dream job: Dirty South Wine’s Hardy Wallace and Rick Bakas of OWC fame. I’m happy to announce that my endorsement clearly influenced the judges and Hardy won the job. Congratulations, Dirty!
Coverage from all over: SF Gate. Decanter (DECANTER!). and Dirty South Wine.
Any good cheer that Murphy Goode built up during the contest was promptly flushed when they picked the finalists. You see, all the Internet voting that they encouraged was completely ignored and they picked the finalists (and, ultimately, the winner) based on what they saw in the candidates. Well, everyone got bitter. OWC topic here. SF Gate reports:
It seemed like such a Goode idea.
Oh no. They went for the zinger in the first line.
when the winery unveiled its top 50 finalists in late June, top vote-getter Martin Sargent of San Francisco, a former TechTV host and Internet celebrity of sorts, was not on the list.
Were I Sargent, I’d probably be bent out of shape too.
“Yeah, we screwed up,” said Caroline Shaw, senior vice president at Jackson Family Enterprises and a winery spokeswoman.
But Shaw added that the promotion “was never intended to be a contest” – which are illegal for alcoholic beverages under California law. Finalists were weighed on writing samples and other “background materials.” That went for Sargent, too.
While the whole ordeal did bring a lot of good will, cheer, and website hits to Murphy Goode, I’m be surprised if it moved the needle on sales. Further, I’m positive that some Twitter revolt will also fail to move the venerable sales needle in the opposite direction.
Regardless, Hardy is already out in California setting up shop in conditions that can be described as “rustic.” Good luck, it’ll be fun to follow along.
