Today, Thursday, September 2, 2010, is an international celebration of The King of All Grapes – Cabernet. The brainchild of Rick Bakas of Napa Valley’s St. Supery Vineyards, you’re encouraged to crack a bottle (or more) of Cabernet, pour a glass, and use various social media channels to post messages and engage about what’s widely considered the world’s most popular red grape varietal.
Now the question becomes – How do you get involved? It’s as easy as using the hashtag #Cabernet with every post or update you make to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare… heck, even MySpace and Friendster if you’re still using it. “Shouting” your thoughts is only half of it. Join the party by listening to what others are saying and engaging with them. By searching those same sites for the #cabernet hashtag, you’ll be able to track in realtime everything that wine lovers around the world have to say about what’s in their glass…
Plenty of people have jokingly asked themselves at some point in their lives, “How do I get paid to drink wine?”
Few people actually have the DNA, passion, work ethic and guts to actually make it happen. Leslie Sbrocco decided to go “all in”, and learn the ins-and-outs of the wine biz in order to become one of the world’s most successful female wine authors. Her Thirsty Girl community is loaded with amazing wine content, geared specifically toward women. She and Gary talk about her successes, including her multiple Emmy awards, while celebrating life over a glass of one of the world’s greatest Champagnes…
At a recent tasting for the trade put on by Chambers & Chambers, I had a chance to visit and revisit many wines from all over Italy. About half the wines at the tasting were imported through Dalla Terra, founded by Brian Larky, a very funny dude. But funny is obviously not all he is – because Dalla Terra is a clever concept. They essentially eliminate one of the tiers in a 4-tier wine import distribution system, through their Winery Direct program.
Due to laws established at the end of Prohibition mainly to allow the government to capture more taxes, wine distribution and sales in the United States require wine producers to sell to state distributors/wholesalers who then sell to retailers or restaurateurs before a wine becomes available to consumer. Different states have legislated different quirks – for instance, some allow internet sales and shipping from out-of-state direct to consumers, and some don’t. Some allow selling wines in supermarkets and some don’t. And so forth…
Madison Avenue has reached beyond New York City, extending well into the reaches of wine country. In the last decade or so, the wine label has become one of the most influential factors in consumer wine shopping. In fact, for some people, it’s the number one determining factor, aside from price point. The brilliant marketing efforts of YellowTail paved the way for New World wine producers to emulate them, using cute little critters to move massive volumes of wines. Who wouldn’t want to take home an adorable Little Penguin or Mad Fish?
But what about when you flip that bottle around?…
Once known as “the people’s wine” of Piemonte for its versatility and its abundance, the Barbera grape was looked upon as too common place to inspire any level of real respect. However, Barbera is now Piemonte’s second most glorious red grape, and arguably its most fashionable. In terms of production, it remains Italy’s third most planted dark-berried vine, trailing only Sangiovese and Montepulciano.
Alba, Asti, and the Monferrato give their names to the three DOC zones, or subregions, of Piemonte, although the zones tend to sprawl across rather large extensions of land. Barbera d’Asti, as a general rule, is the most quintessential Barbera and has three official sub-zones…
