? Get our your debit card: The Italian Wine Guy discovers that all it takes is $1,000 to subscribe to a dozen of the best on-line writing websites, including Jancis Robinson and Robert Parker. This is a pittance, all things considered, and speaks to the sad state of the business of wine writing. A subscription to the very ordinary Dallas newspaper costs one-third of that; regardless of anything else, the paper ?s management understands the business side of publishing in a way that hardly anyone in wine writing does. I get asked all the time why I don ?t charge or have premium content, and the answer is simple (regardless of my philosophy that it should be free) : No one would pay for it. There is no economic reason for them to do so.
? Wine regions are so 20th century: The Wine Curmudgeon has long argued that the post-modern consumer doesn ?t care much about appellation ? where the grapes come from that are in the wine. This has caused much consternation among some people, who have called me various names. Nevertheless, this is becoming increasingly relevant, as Mike Veseth points out on the Wine Economists blog. His argument, given modern supply chains and multi-nationals, is that wine will one day be made like fruit juice, with grapes from different regions blended in the same way Minute Maid blends apple juice from as many as six countries. Veseth calls this juice box wine, and has found an example: A Barefoot red blend from E&J Gallo called Impression, made with grapes from Spain, Australia, Argentina, and California.
? Take that, P. Diddy: The battle over ending Pennsylvania ?s state-owned liquor stores has never been without controversy, despite the hopes of my pal Dave Falchek. Still, who knew that rapper turned business mogul Sean Combs would get involved? The Commonwealth Foundation, which has long supported dismantling the state stores, used Combs ? luxury vodka to once again call for an end to the state system. Combs probably had no idea the three-tier system, of which state stores are a key part, could be so cutthroat. After all, he was only in the music business.