Comments on: Trading down, WSWA, tractors – Unified – sipped and spit

By: AC

AC — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:12:01 +0000

OK, so demonize the wholesalers and their spokepersons, if that makes you feel good. Cast dispersions as to their effectiveness. Throw in the feel good word, perhaps, for the schadenfreude set. I love listening to the chirp of the crickets when they debate the good vs. evil question about wine distribution. That really helps the farmer looking for a home, really offers a workable solution.

Tear down the castle and open up Pandora’s box, young grasshoppers.

By: mydailywine

mydailywine — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:52:56 +0000

Thanks for the lowdown.
Wholesalers are doing the best they can but they simply cannot sell all the wines they represent nor can they represent all the wineries out there.
Direct to consumer is becoming the little engine that could.

By: JD in Napa

JD in Napa — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:58:39 +0000

While the Tractor Babe was a hottie, she seemed out of place at Unified. Car show, sure, but tractors aren’t cars.

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:09:09 +0000

Glad those of you who were there enjoyed the roundup!

@ BCC: Just to clarify, Paul Lukacs expressed his disappointment with the quality of much of the low-priced wine available in the US today. His point was that we have made wines on par with great Bordeaux, for example, but today’s recessionary challenge to the US wine industry (and this was at a wine industry conference in California with 12,000 attendees) was to broaden the appeal of wine by upgrading the quality of the value offerings. I wholeheartedly agree. Thus it is the current state of most of the value offerings in the American market that was “spit,” not his perspective.

By: bcc from the chi.

bcc from the chi. — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:00:41 +0000

I am with Wine Club Insider…

Your SPIT reaction to $10 and under wine on a laborers table is simply elitism. Plain and simple. And quite frankly, as a fellow oenophile and U. of C. alum, I am disappointed. Wine is about what is in the bottle and shared at the table…not about the judgements that occur away from it. Why should a man (or woman) who puts in an honest day of work be denied the opportunity to pop a quaffable bottle at their dinner table with his or her family or guests.

The only reason your SPIT commentary doesn’t outrage me is because I already know it’s a goal that’s been reached…(and its happening right under your nose…’07 Rhone or ’07 M d’Abruzzo at TJ’s.)

For shame Dr. Vino.

By: david

david — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:53:14 +0000

Good add to Mr Wolfes observations ..he is after all the spokesperson for prohibition or is it protectionism or perhaps even monopolism ..the grapes are not free yet

By: Katie

Katie — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:45:11 +0000

This is a good summary of unified… I would like to say that your contribution was well appreciated in the seminar on new tools of reaching the market. It’s often an overwhelming topic, but you broke it down well. Thanks!

By: Dylan

Dylan — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:07:28 +0000

That photo is superb. There’s something so eerily beautiful about those impending moments before or after a big storm. The sunlight mixes with dense, dark clouds to produces this calm feeling.

By: Dirty

Dirty — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:06:47 +0000

Excellent snapshots-

The one part I was confused on was the bit on there not being a wine surplus. I think if you asked many retailers, or distributors, they may say differently. Stores are selling/buying less, and restaurants are scaling back on inventory and sales are down… That wine is piling up.

By: Wine Club Insider

Wine Club Insider — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:50:00 +0000

I found the quote by Paul Lukas in regards to setting a goal to get wine onto the table of the busboys at the Four Seasons to be interesting. I’ve personally never quite understood why it is that a lot of people still seem to consider wine to be something only upscale or uber-cultured folks drink while beer is considered to be the drink of the “everyman”.

I suppose it could be that I grew up in a family where having a glass of wine with your meal was a treat anyone could enjoy, meaning I grew up knowledgeable about wine and comfortable around it. Quite a few of my acquaintances weren’t exposed to it in the same way, I suppose. It wasn’t just something we had when we went out to fancy restaurants or cooked big dinners for the holidays. Even way back when I punched a cash register for a living I still enjoyed a nice glass of wine with my meal.

I’ve always considered it to be part of my personal mission to introduce more different kinds of people to wine by helping them get more comfortable with it and helping them see that it doesn’t always have to be expensive to be good. There are more ways to get educated about and comfortable with wine than people realize, and a big part of that I think is just… drinking it more often and making it a part of your life. Tastings, wineclub gifts, and festivals are all great ways to do that.