• Judge upholds sentences: Decanter, the British wine magazine, may not care all that much about most of the U.S. wine business, but it does love to follow the Gallo pinot noir scandal. Or, as the magazine calls it, "the notorious Red Bicyclette fake Pinot Noir case." The entire story is worth reading, and not because a French appeals court upheld the sentences of those convicted of selling syrah and merlot to Gallo and pretending it was pinot. Read the story for Decanter's wonderfully English tabloid slant to the case, in which it tars everyone involved with the brush of scandal. One other note: No one, even at Gallo, is quite sure which bottles of pinot had the syrah or merlot in it instead of pinot. So if you see a bottle of 2008 Red Bicyclette pinot noir on a store shelf (and there may still be some), you could be buying a piece of history.
• The failure of wine apps: Paul Mabray, one of the smartest people in the modern wine marketing business, takes a look at wine apps for smart phones and pronounces them dead on arrival. "We want to believe differently but the reality is the the bells are ringing for the current apps – get better than 'most promising' or R.I.P." Which makes perfect sense. You hear about all sorts of apps, but when's the last time you've heard about a wine app? Mabray lists nine reasons why the apps don't make a difference; my favorite is the last one: "Reference apps are great but all of their content be already be found through a major search engine or just by asking your friends/followers/fans on a social network." Yes, let's duplicate free content, charge people for it, and then wonder why we're not making milliions.
• When should mommys drink wine? This is more the province of my pal Tom Johnson at Louisville Juice, who follows mommy wine with a keen eye and a sharp keyboard, but the item is too interesting to pass up. In the wake of the Missouri mother whose child disappeared while mom was drinking too much wine, the TODAY Moms blog asks: "Is drinking on the mommy job a no-no?" Writes the blog: "We’ve all had those days when we think, to use the old, un-PC expression, 'My kids are driving me to drink.' And while grown-up time is crucial for our sanity, is it anything goes after dark?" The Wine Curmudgeon, who does not pretend to be any sort of expert when it comes to raising children, wonders why the question needs to be asked. Passing out drunk, children or no, is rarely a good idea.
Comments