• More plaudits for CellarTracker: Big-time praise for the Wine Curmudgeon's favorite wine inventory software from the Winestream Media. Jon Bonne' in the San Francisco Chronicle says it may be "wine's new killer app." Of course, this comes after he says he always viewed the system with skepticism, apparently because it didn't allow for a way for users to efficiently track critics' views. Not quite sure why that should make a difference, but I respect Bonne to give him the benefit of the doubt. CellarTracker has many strengths, not the least of which is that it's free and that it works. The data base includes almost every wine in the world, including the obscure cheap ones that I drink. Plus, creator Eric LeVine is in the middle of several snazzy upgrades.
• Mariah Carey gets her own bubbly: The Wine Curmudgeon may have to institute a ban on celebrity wine, much as he did for wine health news, if this keeps up. But it looks like Carey has some sort of licensing deal with a Champagne house for something called Angel. Pretty good piece in the Wine Spectator about what's going on. And do you like how I resisted the urge to call Carey a pop diva?
• The new normal: I'm going to write more on this later, but a quick note about the latest report from the Wine Marketing Council, which keeps an eye on sales trends for the California wine business. Or, as industry trade Wines & Vines put it: "Fragile consumers ... are less interested in spending their money than in repairing their balance sheets. For the wine industry, that translates into slow growth, lower prices and younger fans who are drinking more at home than at fancy restaurants." That's not news, of course, to regular visitors here, but it is an interesting perspective from an industry that has not especially focused on any of those things over the past decade.
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