Advertising and ratings, binge drinking, screwcap suit – sipped and spit

winespectatortop100SIPPED: number crunching
Wineries that advertise in Wine Spectator have their wines score better–but only by less than one point. Such is the finding in the lead article in the new issue of the Journal of Wine Economics. See the whole paper here as pdf or a blog reaction from the journal’s editor or a hard-hitting response from Robin Goldstein. The quantitative study looks only at reviews and does not examine the editorial, art, restaurant awards, or the Top 100 for advertiser bias. WS editor Tom Matthews responds to the research.

SPIT: binge drinking; SIPPED: wine tasting
An elite girls’ school in England has a new approach to tackling the problem of binge drinking: wine tastings. “We want to introduce the girls and their friends to good wines and their complexity, and educate them to develop an interest in the making of the wines rather than them seeing wine as something that you knock back in the summer holidays without thinking.” Revolutionary!! [The Indepdent; ht @candidwines]

SPIT: closures
Francis Ford Coppola’s winery produced a wine dubbed “encyclopedia” in a carafe-shaped bottle. The custom, oversized screwcaps leaked and ruined 55,000 cases of the wine, the winery alleges in a lawsuit filed against the screwcap’s manufacturer, Vinocor. [Bloomberg]

SPIT: pre-selling wine
Some California wineries are going all Rioja and consciously holding wines back for bottle aging–sometimes a decade or more–at the winery. [NYT]

SPIT: “me-too” wines
The New Zealand wine industry faces challenges, as bulk exports rise and prices fall. The NYT writes that the country’s vintners are “desperate to avoid the fate of neighboring Australia.”

2 Responses to “Advertising and ratings, binge drinking, screwcap suit – sipped and spit”


  1. We just tasted a bottle of the “Bordeaux” by Coppola. I could barely take a sip just to evaluate it–really bad. My tasting partner enjoyed it though and I happily relinquished the rest of the bottle.
    The bottle looks like a cheap grocery store salad dressing. And pouring is a disaster–the opening is so big the wine slops all over the place. Not that I cried over the spilled wine.
    http://swirlsmellslurp.com/2009/12/big-macs-mondays-hail-a-cab/


  2. I think the wine-tasting club idea is a genius. Granted, alcohol abuse occurs in all countries, and from my experience, some of the countries that allow alcohol from a young age still knock back quite a few now and again, I think it’s important to teach adolescents that there is more to alcohol than the feeling it gives you. Being 23, I’m one of the only people I know my age who actually have a fairly in depth knowledge of wine(and I am, of course, still learning!) Teaching young girls to appreciate wine at such a young age will benefit not only themselves, but the wine industry as a whole.


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