The pipeline has dried up. Five or six years ago, almost any casual wine enthusiast could launch a WordPress or Blogger blog, write a post about each new wine he drank—from the plonk to the good stuff—and wait for wine samples to come pouring in. And pour in they did.
Editors' note: To close 2011, Palate Press: The online wine magazine will be featuring some of our top stories from the past year. Our fifth piece comes from columnist W. Blake Gray, exploring the idiosyncrasies of how the wine world defines sustainability. Two Central Coast vintners walked through a pristine-looking vineyard last
The holidays are a crucial time for retailers to meet their year-end budgets, and wineries are no exception. Many turn to marketing strategies ranging from the simple to the complex to help them drive holiday sales. At their core, successful marketing campaigns drive sales by answering the unique needs of
While the airplane is taxiing, or during take-off and landing, I have to turn off the electronic devices. Sometimes I remember to bring a book, but other times that means I have to look in the seat-pocket for entertainment. If the crossword puzzles and Sodoku are done (dear airline, please
California hardly conjures up an image of a wine region struggling with an identity crisis. But there are areas of the Golden State that have never fully defined a winemaking niche. A consortium of Mendocino County winemakers are counting on-read more-
Two Central Coast vintners walked through a pristine-looking vineyard last fall—it had no cover crop, a usual sign of organic or biodynamic farming—explaining why they use herbicides. "We need to do it to keep our business sustainable," one said. The-read more-
The US is Italy’s number one export nation—and the Italians want to keep it that way. In many European countries wine consumption is declining, while in the US per capita wine consumption has gone up 25 percent in the past-read more-
There’s a reason that the Italian Trade Commission has held an annual wine fair in New York since 2009. Imports of Italian wines to these shores have increased enough that in 2010 Italy surpassed France to reach a market share-read more-