Legal Issues
The FTC, Bloggers, and Free Samples, linked in Advertisers Call for a Do-Over on FTC Blogger Rules, Amy Schatz, The Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2009.
The End of Direct Wine Shipping?, Mark Spivak, Palm Beach Illustrated:
Readers seeking more information should read HR 5034: An Analysis, on www.palatepress.com.
Wine for Haiti
Wine Auction to Benefit Haiti, Napa Valley Register, January 29, 2010:
David Honig, publisher of Palate Press: The Online Wine Magazine, has organized a Wine for Haiti auction to raise money for the American Red Cross Haiti Relief project. “The most impressive part of the story is the amazing generosity of the wine world, from individuals pulling bottles from cellars to wineries, many in Napa and Sonoma, contributing magnificent, one-of-a-kind, bottles.”
He added, “The effort has also gone international, with a partner site in Australia, where the Aussies are set on raising more money than their American counterparts.”
Wine community rallies to help Haiti, by James Lawrence, Decanter, January 27, 2010:
The international wine community has been working together to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake tragedy.
Wine experts Jancis Robinson MW, Matthew Jukes and Gary Vaynerchuk have been active in using social media to promote the Wines for Haiti fund-raising project, started by US wine network, Palate Press.
The campaign has drawn in support from social networking sites across the globe to encourage people to donate something special from their cellar to be auctioned online.
Australian social networking site Booze Monkey is hoping to raise $100,000 by asking for wine donations.
Booze Monkey CEO Marc Jardine said: ‘I don’t care if it’s a bottle of Blue Nun or a case of Grange, if you can spare some wine to help save a life, we want to hear from you.’ The international wine community has been working together to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake tragedy.
Winemakers Open Cellars to Help Haiti Quake Victims, by Gary Thomas, Voice of America News, January 27, 2010:
The devastation of the Haiti earthquake has prompted people around the world to offer help to the victims of the disaster. Relief funds have been raised through time-honored ways, like a celebrity telethon, and new methods such as text messaging donations via cell phone.
The heartrending pictures beamed around the world from Haiti caused thousands of people to open their purses and wallets to contribute to disaster relief. In the United States and Australia people have opened their cellars – wine cellars, that is.
Winemakers in the U.S. and Australia are contributing bottles of some of their finest wines to a special online wine auction to raise money for quake victims.
The auction, dubbed Wine for Haiti, is the brainchild of David Honig, an attorney and publisher of the online wine magazine Palate Press. A former resident of Miami, he lived through Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and has many Haitian friends. He says the response from the winemaking community has been astounding.
On the other side of the world, a sister website to Palate Press in Australia is doing the same thing. For Marc Jardine of BoozeMonkey.com – a website linking wine consumers and winemakers – the Haiti earthquake brought back unsettling memories. He lived through the massive 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan.
Jardine and Honig are engaged in a little friendly cross-global competition to see who can raise the most money for Haiti. Collectively they look to raise at least $100,000, but harbor hopes they can exceed that. If they can raise that kind of money, then it can truly be said that wine has the ability to ease pain and soothe suffering – even indirectly.
New York Times, By Florence Fabricant:
Palate Press, an online wine publication, is collecting donated wines from individuals and wineries to sell in its online auction. All sales will benefit the Red Cross: palatepress.com.
Indianapolis Star, By Jason Thomas and Barb Berggoetz
Hoosiers are finding creative ways to help Haitians
David Honig, an Indianapolis attorney and publisher of online wine magazine “Palate Press,” has launched “Wine for Haiti.” It’s an online fine wine auction, with all proceeds going to the American Red Cross.
Care for a 1968 bottle of rioja from Spain? How about rubbing elbows with winemakers at an annual celebration in California? Just click and name your price.
“I have been absolutely overwhelmed by the generosity of the wine community,” said Honig, 49, Carmel, who opened an e-mail Monday morning from a California winery wanting to donate four cases.
The project has gained momentum worldwide. An Australian wine blog — boozemonkey.com — started its own auction after learning of Honig’s effort. Together, they hope to raise $100,000.
Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York, by Laura Nichols:
Finger Lakes wineries are among contributors to an online Wine for Haiti fundraiser.
Lot 33 is a magnum of Hunt Country Vineyards’ Vidal Blanc ice wine, retail value $150.
Zugibe Vineyards donated a case of its 2007 Riesling, which the winery called “one of our best” in a Facebook posting. The retail value is $195; minimum bid $100, and bidding started today. Its lot number is 31. “We are just hoping that the auction can bring in as much $$$ as possible!” the winery’s Facebook posting says.
The event is being organized by Palate Press, an online wine magazine, and “Brother, can you spare a bottle?“, a blog that says it’s “a place for Wine Bloggers, Wine Twitters, wine makers, drinkers, collectors, and fans to coordinate charitable giving.” Bidding is taking place on Palate Press’ Web site. Individuals as well as wineries are donating wine, books, art and other wine-related items.
Wine Stories
Howard G. Goldberg, of The New York Times, highlighted the work of our Executive Editor Meg Houston Maker in her two-part story, “A Trip to the Rhone,” in The Latest on Wines, describing her story as “an ambling armchair reads that gracefully take them through lovely landscapes and enviable meals.” Thank you Mr. Goldberg, for recognizing Meg’s talent. We are all thrilled to be associated with her.
New York Times Diner’s Journal
What We’re Reading, May 23, 2012
Palate Press: A round-table discussion on — what else? — alcohol levels in Santa Barbara County wines. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, May 17, 2012
Palate Press: Rémy Charest takes a pretty good stab at making sense of Languedoc-Roussillon, which, when combined, make up one of France’s largest and most confusing wine regions. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, April 25, 2012
Palate Press: Wine and chocolate? Erika Szymanski offers good scientific reasons for you to find something else to drink with your dessert. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, February 22, 2012
Palate Press: The budding wine scene in … Mississippi? Indeed, casino patrons on the Gulf Coast will settle for no less. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, October 12, 2011
Palate Press: Rémy Charest has some thoughts on the best red wines from the Finger Lakes. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, October 6, 2011
Palate Press: W. Blake Gray lists the 10 things he’s learned in the wine business. He’s been writing about wine for more than a decade. I bet he’s learned even more than that. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, September 22, 2011
Palate Press: Erika Szymanski tries to gauge whether corks or screw caps are the more environmentally responsible closures. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, August 11, 2011
Palate Press: “The last thing people associate New Jersey with is fine wine.” You think? Lenn Thompson finds potential. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, August 4, 2011
Palate Press: More on the 100-point wine-scoring scale in this point-counterpoint duo of essays. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, July 8, 2011
Palate Press: Talia Baiocchi finds value and authenticity in the Côtes de Castillon, one of Bordeaux’s satellite regions, and offers some good recommendations (though “Gucci-clad Château owners” is a bit Agnew-esque). — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, April 8, 2011
Palate Press: Elisabetta Tosi visits Quintarelli, the iconic producer in the Veneto. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, April 1, 2011
Palate Press: Bedeviled by the obscure aromas cited by wine authorities in their tasting notes? School your nose with the Aromaster! — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, March 28, 2011
Palate Press: W. Blake Gray finds problems with the elusive notion of sustainable vineyard practices. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, March 23, 2011
Palate Press: Evan Dawson asserts that wine consumers are placing less importance on color these days. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, March 15, 2011
Palate Press: Fredric Koeppel visits “Gunfight at the Oaky Corral,” surveying the dichotomy at a recent Italian wine trade fair between those who age their wines in small barrels of new French oak and those who do not. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, February 22, 2011
Palate Press: In Croatia, the effort to commercialize plavac mali, the ancestral grape of zinfandel. — Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, February 17, 2011
Palate Press : Could the future of carignan be in … Chile?–Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading,, January 18, 2011
Palate Press: In which Remy Charest says scoring wines tells more about the scorer than about the wine. – Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, December 9, 2010
Palate Press: We may not like to think about it, but the process of making wine is teeming with all sorts of microbes. Erika Szymanski introduces us to 10 of the little fellers. – Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, December 1, 2010
Palate Press: W. Blake Grey on some of the frustrations inherent in trying to sell good sake to Americans. – Eric Asimov
What We’re Reading, November 10, 2010
Palate Press: A visit to the burgeoning wine region of … Michigan. – Eric Asimov