http://eastcoastwineries.blogspot.com/2010/10/interview-with-charlie-daneri-frederick.html

It’s been a couple years since my last visit to Frederick Cellars, which was right after they’d opened their new facilities mentioned in the piece. The building is amazing and right in the middle of old town Frederick so be sure to stop in for a glass of wine if you’re there for the other sights.

Anything Wine posted an update on Virginia Senate Bill SB1445 which seeks to clear some of the confusion surrounding exactly when wineries can solicit for memberships in a wine-of-the-month club.

From the bill summary:

Clarifies that the holder of a wine shipper license or beer shipper license may solicit and receive applications for subscription to a wine-of-the-month or beer-of-the-month club at in-state or out-of-state locations for which a license for on-premises consumption has been issued, other than the place where the licensee carries on the business for which the license is granted.

Everyone got that? Me neither.

An overlooked casualty of Maryland not allowing direct wine shipping is that Maryland wineries can’t operate wine-of-the-month clubs. These clubs can be big hits with loyal customers, but are often bigger hits with the wineries themselves. Wine clubs provide something approaching a steady monthly revenue stream for wineries who don’t have distribution deals and have trouble getting their wines in front of a consumer. Without them, small wineries have to rely on tasting room visits, word of mouth, and selling wine to distributors for half price. Which, frankly, is exactly how the distributors want it and why they spend the big bucks to keep it that way.

Anyway, down in Georgia, Dirty of Dirty South Wine posted a video of him interviewing Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach Bundschu. Gundlach Bundschu (Gun-lock Bun-shoe) is on my short list of wineries that I recommend whenever people ask me which wineries they should visit on a Napa/Sonoma trip. They run a nice operation, all friendly people, and pour some good wines in the tasting room. They run a pretty good wine club too. Dirty and Jeff discussed old wines, sustainability, and not destroying the Earth. Jeff posted a bit about it on his blog as well.