For anyone uninitiated in the art of crowd sourcing, it is a practice made possible by the rise of connected media and the culture of sharing driven by social networks. The premise is that an organization or company asks their fans and followers to generate assets on their behalf, from content for journalists to logo design. Logic states that the wisdom of the crowd outweighs (or at least, is cheaper than) the wisdom of the few. I’m pretty sure Mr. Spock even said something like that once.

So, what is the connection with wine? Well, over the years I’ve heard that a number of wineries invite case club members to events that let them create custom blends, sometimes even releasing the better ones for sale. And there are at least a couple places in the region that invite amateurs to make their own wine under the guidance of experts. But I admit even I was surprised to receive this email from a California winery a few days ago:

With people from all of the world participating and two winemaking decisions already made, it’s now time for your next decisions as winemaker in [redacted] Vineyards’ Crowd-Made Wine Project!

• At what level should we set the rollers for crush?

• What yeast strain should we use in fermentation?

• What fermentation tannin should we use?

Yes, current marketing theory also suggests that brands who engage their most loyal fans in these participatory efforts, they’ll maintain brand loyalty and possibly help promote the brand through word of mouth, aka earned media. But do you really want a wine developed at this level of detail by a popular vote instead of the authoritarian hand of a master winemaker? I think you’ll agree that sometimes what you need most is a strong hand to cut through the noise and skip the compromises – a Captain Kirk figure, if you will, to extend my earlier metaphor.

How interested are you, as a consumer, in playing the role of armchair winemaker? Or in tasting the results? Is this a sign of things to come, or just a marketing gimmick?

Local bloggers are celebrating Regional Wine Week, an outgrowth of DrinkLocalWine.com, itself started and spearheaded by Dave McIntyre of Dave McIntyre’s WineLine and the Washington Post and Jeff Siegel of The Wine Curmudgeon. As part of the festivities, Mr. Siegel and Mr. McIntyre are challenging you to write a 47-word essay on local wine; Wine Compass, Swirl Sip Snark, and others have already taken part. And “you” does mean YOU: bloggers, blog readers, wine enthusiasts, wine drinkers, wine curious, wine skeptical, etc.

That’s my 47-word essay, up at the top. Agree? Disagree? Are you chiming in with an essay of your own, or celebrating Regional Wine Week in other ways?

Yes, that’s right. In case you somehow missed the coverage already in the Baltimore Sun, the Gazette, or even on WBAL-TV, then let me be the first to tell you: it’s here, all 257 pages of glory. (Not that I read every single page of it – I dare you to try.) Well, not all glory. More on that in a minute.

First, the report itself. It examines a study sent to both industry groups and consumers; best practices from other states; and relevant case law related to direct-to-consumer wine shipping. Although some of the research uncovered mind-blowing conclusions:

There is no evidence that underage drinking has increased or decreased as a result of direct wine shipment. The reasons for this may be that:

A. “Wine” is not the drink of choice for youth.

B. Direct shipment of wine is costly and time-consuming.

and

Direct wine shipment could make economic sense if quantities exceeding one bottle are purchased, because of the savings in shipping costs related to economies of scale.

While these might seem like reasonable conclusions one might make without 6 months of study, it’s important to know that we’re dealing with government here. Every myth must be debunked. And how else were they going to hit the 250 page length requirement?

But then we get to the juicy stuff. The introduction and text go to great length to establish a clear divide between out-of-state retailers and out-of-state wineries when it comes to direct sales. And the authors chose to interpret their findings in such a way that allowed them to conclude it’s okay to allow shipments from one but not another:

Based on survey data, certain academic and industry literature, and the Comptroller’s Wine & Spirits Study, the following inferences have been made:

A. Direct wine shipment by out-of-state wineries to Maryland consumers would not have an overall negative effect on in-state licensees, because purchases from wineries are primarily motivated by “availability.”

B. Direct wine shipment by out-of-state retailers to Maryland consumers would have a negative effect on in-state licensees, because purchases from retailers are primarily motivated by “price.”

Say whaaat? Under constitutional regulation of interstate commerce, we know that it’s illegal to discriminate against products from other states through tariffs, bans, etc. We’ve been within that because Maryland law equally bans wine shipments from both in-state and out-of-state parties. This report, however, establishes the premise that because direct winery sales are an “exception” to the three-tier system, while retailers are in fact part of it, the two may be regulated differently. So, no shipping from any retailer – just from a winery.

If that sounds anti-consumer to you, take some comfort that you reside in good company. Tom Wark of the Sun railed against the recommendation:

The report contains no basis for this determination. None. In fact, the survey conducted by the comptroller’s office indicates that price is the least important motivator for online purchases of wine, while lack of availability is the most important factor driving the online sale of wine from out-of-state sources.

If course, we can’t completely trust consumers to make their own decisions, according to this section of the report (I did read some of it):

Free the Grapes! and the Coalition for Free Trade, both non-profit trade associations established in late 1990s, host an annual “Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium” … The chief principle of these and other similar organizations is “consumer choice,” which is at odds with the purposes of the three- tier distribution system: (1) obedience to law; (2) orderly distribution of alcoholic beverages; and (3) temperance.

Ah, the temperance movement. Government, please save us from ourselves. Oh and those retailers too, while you’re at it. Don’t get me wrong – the ability to purchase wine on the internet from a winery represents a huge win. Small craft wineries are springing up across the US, many supported in large part by that very same 1% of wine sales that occur in the direct-to-consumer channel. Just don’t expect Maryland consumers and their advocates to stop the phone calls, letters, and e-mails when they can’t get in on wine.woot for daily wine deals!

These are just recommendations, remember, so all bets are off once we get into the legislative session later this month. Should be a good one!

One more interesting tidbit: apparently the authors consider the methodology “post a survey online for anyone to take” as a “simple random” sampling because anyone could, in theory, take it. We’re talking about the consumer survey here. So, if websites (like this one) linked to the survey and actively promoted it to a specific population, that’s still considered a random population, even though all the participants self-selected themselves for the study? Hello? McFly?

Foothill Vines @ Lava Cap Winery in Eastern California

Chances are you’ve heard that wine grows well around Napa and Sonoma in northern California. You might even be familiar with the vineyards in central-southern California around San Luis Obispo north of L.A. But unless you’ve been there yourself, chances are you’ve never heard of the foothills wine country east of Sacramento, aptly named for its situation on the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The main reason you haven’t heard of these guys, though, is that most of the foothill wineries are craft operations with similar output to a medium-to-large Maryland winery – 20,000 cases a year at the high end, with several well below 10,000. That means a lot of tasting room sales, local restaurant affiliations, and direct shipments to the good residents of California and 29 other states with reasonable alcohol regulation. Unlike the wine from the big regions, you won’t see these CA wines in your local wine shop or grocery store wine vending machine.

Sierra Nevada - not the beer. Almost as tasty, though.

Of course, I can’t talk about that dry, hilly west coast climate without bringing up Zinfandel. This region is particularly known for good zin, but all of their wines tend to pick up a certain spiciness from the minerals deposited by snow melt off the lofty Sierras in the distance. Every tasting sheet listed at least 75% reds, with one winery carrying (I kid you not) three different Zinfandel varietals. Sangiovese and merlot both showed up a lot too. The whites were kind of scattered, although I did taste a nice Viognier. Not as good as a top Virginia Viognier, mind you.

Here, in no particular order, are some wines you might want to try next time you’re in Eastern California – unless you’re lucky enough to be able to order it online.

• Jodar Vineyards: I think their Merlot might be my favorite Merlot ever. Almost more like a Zin in the color and spiciness, but without all the dry tannins. Also a nice Sangiovese that we picked up for our picnic lunch.
• Madroña Winery: First, take a moment to admire that ñ. Doesn’t happen by accident. Also, they had a reasonably good Zinfandel here.
• Lava Cap Winery: By far the best views of the day, all my vineyard photos here came from Lava Cap. This is the 3-Zin winery, and I have to admit that I picked up two (are you seeing a pattern here?).
• Boeger Winery: Another beautiful location, these guys were all about the reds. However, I liked the Barbera best this time.

Awww, look - a baby Christmas tree. Many ambitious Bay Area residents travel to the foothills to pick out live trees.

All in all, this trip made for a great afternoon drive down from our hotel in South Lake Tahoe. About 90 minutes down the mountain from there, so not a good bet during the famous Tahoe ski season, but I’d highly recommend it if you’re there for the beach in the summer. You could probably get there from San Francisco within 2-3 hours, too, if you want to try something a little different next time you’re on the west coast. Just make sure you find some friends in DC before you go so you can ship everything back to them. Not that I would do something like that. Never. Of course not. <shh.>

I'm on a boat!!!

Cheers,

Matt

Chateau Diana looks like a legitimate winery. The labels look like real wine. Contained within, however, is something else…

The zealots at Chowhound exposed the Wine Product for what it is, fortified wine-like alcohol. Just make sure you don’t grab this thinking your getting a straight-up Merlot.

And now a word from our sponsor at WineChateau.com: Wine gift baskets and fine wines – Get 1/2 off shipping when you buy 6 or more bottles with coupon code “vino71″

The backdoor slider that got Direct Wine Shipping onto the Winery Modernization Act got withdrawn on Tuesday. Daily Record Records:

In the end, Zirkin acquiesced to those who asked him to withdraw his amendment – “I wish you had done that 25 minutes earlier,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller deadpanned – but not before Sen. Alex X. Mooney, R-Frederick and Washington, tried to force a vote on the issue. He took the unusual step of resisting Zirkin’s attempt to withdraw his own amendment, calling for vote on the motion.

Mooney was defeated 42-4 and the modernization bill, including the direct shipping study, moved closer to final Senate approval. The bill appears to have support in the House of Delegates as well.

Link

So it looks like the legislature is poised to pass anything wine related to placate the winos as long as it isn’t wine shipping. Maybe we could jam some open container laws through there, or selling wine in grocery stores.

Since then I have published 217 posts (and at least 400 typos) about Maryland and Virginia but plenty of others about everything else in the wine universe. I was going to go back and include a top 5 list of my favorite posts, but WordPress is slow today and I don’t feel like clicking back and back and back. If you have a favorite, drop a line in the comments.

Wine blogging, in general, underwent a boom in 2008 and early 2009 and now seems to be trailing off. Initially struggling for respect and recognition, the trumpet sound of the Wine Blogger has quieted. There just isn’t all that much interesting to talk about. Bloggers that post early and often have to reach for asinine topics and wild tangents just to keep their fingers moving on the keyboard. This is, at least, preferred to the dreaded “I bought it, I drank it” post which dominates much of the wine blogoshpere.

So if wine blogs aren’t interesting, what of the subject that they cover? Is wine interesting enough to merit books and blogs and newspaper columns, all pretty much saying the same thesis over and over: “Wine isn’t all that complicated!” The fact is that wine is both infinitely complex and stupidly boring. Tasting rooms are so typical that if you’re seen one, you’re seen them all. Maybe one has cheese. Another, classical music playing. They all have a Chard that isn’t in the California Style, an oak monster, a fruit bomb, and an overpriced reserve wine. Join the wine club. Wine critics decry the death of the tasting note, but the fact is that critics are getting so absurdly flowery in their notes that you need a dictionary just to decode what your wine will taste like. There are only so many words you can use to describe a wine, especially when 95% of wine is produced with no soul, slapped with an authentic looking label, marked up to $25, and sold out immediately. No wino like to say it, but slapping a 91 on one wine and an 89 on another tells me which you preferred. That’s all we really want to know.

But while it all looks and feels the same on the surface, every glass of wine is different from the last. Even from the same bottle, filling up your glass and taking in a big whiff of the fermented grape juice gives you something different than the last time. That’s what makes wine different from anything else. It comes from the Earth, ferments in some oak and as long as it hasn’t been messed with too much, comes out feeling authentic and whole. Enjoy the simplicity and the complexity, and don’t forget to share it with someone else.

Last week, Wine Business broke the sad news that uber-retailer Amazon is ending their push into the online wine retailing space. This comes on the heels of the much quieter news that Costco.com is ending their online wine sales.

These two companies, Amazon and Costco, total $92 billion in revenue per year. They know how to sell. Both do huge volumes of sales online, have gigantic customer bases, and have the shipping logistics in place to tackle almost anything.

Except wine.

So what makes wine so hard to deal with? Why would two gigantic retailers decide that the online wine market just isn’t worth it?

Wine is kind of a pain to keep in inventory. Wine isn’t like a book. When you sell books, you enter the titles, the ISBNs, and the quantity of each that you own into your system and you’re off and running with your inventory system. If you sell patio furniture, likewise. If you run out of books, you call the publisher and get more books. If it is out of print, you scour the used book market.

Wine doesn’t work like that. Retailers have much smaller quantities to deal with, often into the single digits, leading to much faster turnover of products. Each wine is specific to the year and size of the bottle meaning that Opus One is not just Opus One, it is the 2004 Opus One and cannot be confused with the 2005 Opus One. Wine is an international product and can’t be relied upon to have a UPC attached. Retail stock must be under some sort of climate control in your stock is going to be sitting for any length of time.

All the headaches of slinging wine means that real time inventory in online wine sales is kind of a big deal. Even in this day of unprecedented ease of use in developing web applications, real time inventory is a feat few have accomplished.

I hear you saying:

C’mon, Amazon had a net income of over half a billion dollars last year. They couldn’t get this figured out?

Granted, it isn’t rocket science. In Amazon’s case, they were met with two other major factors that contributed to their decision.

They lost a major fulfillment partner. New Vine Logistics went bust earlier this year. and for some time their future was very much in doubt. I had worked with New Vine Logistics in the past, and they were among the best in the business when it came to receiving, storing, and fulfilling wine to customers. The loss of this major partner must have been crippling to Amazon.

Interstate shipping laws are just too much of a pain in the ass to deal with. The stick-in-the-mud legislators and wine distributors will ruin anyone’s day who dares try to end-around on them. Wine can currently be shipped to about 35 states but within that club there are many different variations. Some have limits on the volume, some limit the number of bottles, some limit the retail value. You read this blog, you read others that cover wine shipping, you know it is insane.

Amazon quitting in the face of all this is scary. It means that Superman stared down Lex Luthor and decided “Nah, not fighting this guy.” Sherlock Holmes did not get his man. The inmates have taken over the asylum.

So, where to now? Wine consumers have lost what could have been a major retailer using their immense size to deliver good wines, high availability, and possibly lower prices. They lose a gigantic company who may have acted like an ally in the fight to get the disaster of wine shipping laws cleared up. The liquor distributors shovel millions of dollars to make wine shipping difficult for retailers. It will take millions to defeat them. Those millions will not come from Amazon. If you’re local, you can volunteer for Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws and contact your state representatives to get their take on direct wine shipping.

If you’re in sales or marketing, wine industry or not, you’ll probably enjoy this YouTube video posted by MrWineguy101. The automated voices and blocky cartoons just make it funnier. There is some colorful language, so don’t watch if you’re not into that sort of thing. Headphones advised at the office.

Quoth the article:

“The wine doesn’t know what package it is in,” said W. R. Tish, a wine educator who writes a blog called Wineskewer. “It tastes the same whether it is in a plastic bottle, a plastic bladder inside a box, or a glass.”

I beg to differ. Plastic is more permeable than gas, so wine contained in plastic will oxidize faster. Wine may not know what it is packaged in, but air will figure it out and invade accordingly. Plastic will work fine for wine packged for short-term consumption. Anything longer than that and I’ll stick with my glass bottles and the Earth will have to deal with it.

Sorry, Earth.

Link to article.