The Flip-Flopping Response to the Supreme Court Wine Case
When you read or hear a group or person issue forth with a non-sequitur, the first thing you ought to ask is, why are they not addressing the point or the issue. Emma Balter writing for the Wine...
View ArticleAlabama’s Studies Wine Shipping…Because It’s So Damned Complicated
Despite the Alabama legislature being directed to form a Study Task Force to examine the wine direct shipping issue, I remain shocked that it actually happened. What’s even more shocking is that after...
View ArticleArchaic Booze Distribution Laws and Distributors Harming Industry
After consumers’ demand for easy access to alcohol products via direct shipping is satisfied, the most important issue facing the alcohol industry is self-distribution—wineries, brewers and distillers...
View ArticleA Comprehensive Review of Power and Ideology in Alcohol Politics
There is a political spectrum within the alcohol industry. However, it’s not much like the ideological extremes of American political culture. The American polity is divided; polarized in a way I can’t...
View ArticleHit The Bottle is a Welcome Addition to Your Continuing Wine Education
One of the reasons I’ve kept this blog going for so long is it provides me with a means for continuing education. By committing to regularly examining my ideas and opinions on issues of wine marketing,...
View ArticleWhy Reviews and Wine Scores ARE Good Winery Marketing
Recently Simon Solis-Cohen, founder of Highway 29 Creative, posted on the company blog a story entitled, “Wine Scores Are The Worst Marketing Technique – So Stop It!” First, let me just say this…The...
View ArticleA Snapshot of the State of the Oregon Wine Industry
The ascent of the Oregon wine industry continues apace. The latest bit of evidence that Oregon wine (and Oregon Pinot Noir in particular) is one of the hottest wine categories in the United States...
View ArticleAn Alcohol Bureaucracy’s Rush To Judgement
There is no getting around the fact that alcohol regulation requires bureaucracy. All state and federal regulatory efforts don’t function without a bureaucratic element. Moreover, such bureaucracies...
View ArticleNapa’s Leaders Need to Embrace the Obvious On Winery Tourism
A recent story details that in Napa Valley there appear to be more winery visits than are permitted. Lewis Perdue gave the details—to the extent they can be determined, in a post on September 12: “In...
View ArticleWinery vs Retailer — It’s Not a Real Fight
“It’s an opportunity for consumers, and that’s the most important thing. Whatever’s best for the customer is going to be best for us in the end.” These are the wise words of Belinda Weber, Duckhorn...
View ArticleThe Future of Market Access for Brewers and Distillers —and Wineries Too
There is an unusual collaboration and coherence among America’s alcohol beverage producers at this moment when it comes to politics. Just about everyone, from distillers to brewers to wineries—of every...
View ArticleWine and the Evil Cabal of Patriarchs
Let me start by inviting anyone to try to paint me as a misogynist; to make the case that I’ve worked to protect the “patriarchy”; to argue that my perspective and my work and my writings have...
View ArticleExpensive Wines, Men v Women, and Peacock Feathers
Women are less likely to buy expensive wine than are men, even when you control for personal disposable income. This is the conclusion drawn by Wine Intelligence, which did an analysis in 2018 and...
View ArticleTime to Gear Up For A Battle Over Wine and Health
Over the past decade or more few people engaged in the business of wine have given much thought or devoted much commentary to the subject of wine and health. This is contrary to the explosion of...
View ArticlePrivate Alcohol Sales—Is It Really a Problem?
How much alcohol is being sold online from individual to individual outside licensed entities like retailers and producers? There seems to be an effort by the country’s state attorneys general to...
View ArticleThe Top Wine Stories of 2019
The wine industry in America is a trailing indicator of the culture and economy. It always has been. The top stories in wine in 2019 reflect this truism. Politics, powerful social movements, the...
View ArticleFive Important Wine Trends and Predictions for 2020
It’s not always easy to make predictions, but it is fun. The best way I know to do this is to look at obvious and not-so-obvious trends and try to discern where they are leading. Where is wine heading...
View ArticleThe Wine Issues and Items of 2019
After working on behalf of clients, my time is often taken up with attention paid to those issues and items in the wine world that most significantly impact my industry and my life. In 2019 there were...
View ArticleThe 2020 Wine Resolutions
I’ve been drinking wine seriously for roughly 35 years. I’ve drunk to learn. Drunk to judge and drunk to drink. I’ve done a fairly complete study of California wine. I’ve had the chance to drink fairly...
View ArticleStop The Wine Tariffs
The threatened 100% tariffs on wines from the EU will result in a number of American wine importers closing down and going out of business. The proposed 100% tariffs on wines from the European Union...
View Article
