Hugh Macleod continues to astound me with his cutting edge wine marketing ideas. Excellent, inspiring reading. Oh, I’ll feature an interview with Hugh and Jason from Stormhoek on a podcast in the next few days; sorry for the delay, guys

Over the past month or so, I’ve been interested in reader and listener feedback about the wine rating system I use here. Over the past few days, the wine blogisphere has provided me with several data points that has me thinking that perhaps I have been asking the wrong question. First of all, the feedback I have received so far has been about what I expected. The majority of voters have chosen the 100-point scale popularized by Robert Parker and adopted by much of the wine press. That makes sense, since most wine lovers like to compare scores from many sources before making buying decisions. The more consistency and precision here, the better. The problem with this is I don’t have the same tastes as Robert Parker, Steve Tanzer and/or the staff of the Wine Spectator. In a good month I might taste 50 or 60 wines, not the hundreds the real professionals taste. On average, that amount is around 20 or so. As a result my ratings are just not as precise as professionals that have the chance to hone their skills all the time, thus my choice of an imprecise 20 point scale.

But it was two unrelated posts today that got me thinking that perhaps all this energy figuring out the “best” wine rating system is the wrong place to devote my energy. The first was a press release that points to Appellation America’s wine recommendations format. In reading through the reviews, I kept thinking about Alder’s posts from earlier in the year and felt a little guilty that my notes to date fall into the terse variety solely focused on descriptions. There is a lot more to a wine than how it smells and tastes that is important to the wine consumer. Let me illustrate here with the same wine.

Jim Laube’s note from the Wine Spectator:

Winery: Patz & Hall
Score: 90
Wine: Pinot Noir Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2004
Price: $55
Country: California
Region: Carneros
Issue: Jun 30, 2006

Firm and concentrated, with mineral, blueberry, raspberry and cedary oak flavors that are tightly focused, with anise, sage and berry fruit. Needs time to unwind. Best from 2007 through 2012. 985 cases made.

Thom Elkjer’s note from Appellation America:

Patz & Hall Wine Co.
2004 Pinot Noir, Hyde Vineyard
(Carneros ~ Los Carneros)

James Hall, Anne Moses, and Don and Heather Patz cranked it up in 1988 with a hold-your-breath business model: don’t own vineyards, pay top dollar for great fruit from name-brand growers, make killer wine, and pray that people love you even if there’s no winery or estate for them to visit. It worked, and now hundreds of labels follow the model.

Because they had all been in the wine business previously, they knew where to look for their fruit. One of their early sources – and still one of the best – is Hyde Vineyard in the far northeastern corner of Carneros (also known as Napa Valley). This is rolling terrain, drained by rills and creeks and full of rocks, swirls of changing soils, and the footprints of Larry Hyde and his vineyard crew. These guys know their site, they know each vine intimately, and they don’t compromise.

Winemaker James Hall is not into compromise either. His Patz & Hall 2004 Pinot Noir Napa Valley Hyde Vineyard ($55) would remind you of classic French Burgundy except that the original models are rarely this flawless. They’re not delivered at nearly 15% alcohol, either, but this is one of those cases – often boasted of but not that often exhibited – where the wine’s in balance at high alcohol and wouldn’t be as good less ripe. There’s absolutely true varietal character in the aromas and flavors, an impressive flood of fruit as it enters your mouth, and a cool dense core of flavor all through the midpalate and deep into the finish. Beautiful now and a slam dunk to dazzle in or after 2010.

Reviewed June 15, 2006 by Thom Elkjer.

So which review told you more about the wine and provided the best buying information? In my book it’s not even close as Mr. Elkjer’s words motivate me to seek this wine out, while the Wine Spectator note gives me the raw data to compare this wine with many others at this score. I may or may not try this one based upon this terse amount of information.

The second data point today was following a new incoming link to a blog called Vinorati. Basically, the founders are trying to build a Technorati-style directory for wine tasting notes found online. A great idea that I will be watching unfold over the next few weeks as they move into beta testing.

Taken together, these two unrelated posts have me thinking about how I will choose to share my tasting notes in the future on my podcast and here on the blog. Whether or not I keep the existing scale, convert to a 100-point scale or do away with ratings all together, I will adopt Appellation America’s format. Although it’s more work for me, I think the results will be much more useful to readers and listeners. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this issue, as well.

Last week a new social bookmarking site debuted that hopes to be for wine what Digg.com is for technology. If you are not familiar with Digg, it’s a website where users submit links to technology related stories and then the community (i.e. other users/readers) vote on these stories, eventually promoting the most popular to the home page and RSS feed. This system works so well at Digg that it has grown from a few hundred users to over 300,000 in a year and a half or so.

Enter Wine Life Today, which takes this same idea into the wine niche and even seeks to improve this idea somewhat with some additional features. First, I have to say that this is a great idea, as I experimented with setting up the same open source software to enable this service on one of my domains in January. My lack of skills with CSS kept me from developing this idea any further then, but hasn’t held back the creators of Wine Life Today, who have provided an attractive, intuitive interface. They have made it as easy as Digg to submit stories with a browser “marklet” and integration tools for website owners (the “Toast This!” link on the bottom of every post here is an example of this). They have also added a feature for wine bloggers to integrate their RSS feeds directly into the site, allowing every post to be published automatically into the site’s “Newsroom”. I don’t think this is a good idea because of the obvious SPAM implications, but also this practice makes it very tedious to scan the newsroom to vote on stories. The beauty of Digg is each story is selected by a user as something special and seeing the same posts I have just read in my blog aggregator will not encourage me to spend much time in Wine Life Today’s Newsroom (although I will scan the home page and vote from time to time). Everything else on the site works as expected and I have posted a few stories from my blog reading I thought were worth sharing over the past few days and will likely continue this practice.

My main concern here is not the ease of submission, but the size of the community. Having hundreds of thousands of users submitting stories to Digg means that I just subscribe to their RSS feed in place of the 20 or 30 tech feeds I used to. I don’t see this working in the wine genre because there is just not the same numbers of users who read wine blogs or wine related stories online that will take the time to submit to Wine Life Today. I hope I’m wrong here because the service is well done and very cool. So give it a try yourself and Toast away!

Three Thieves, Pinot Noir, “Circle K Ranch”, California 2004 ($10 / 1 liter) - Ruby in color with subtle aromas of black raspberry and spices. Soft raspberry and cherry flavors with light tannins. Not a lot of varietal character, but at this price you can’t really complain too much. Great value, which is more common than not with this producer. Score: 8/10

Campagna Gello, “Il Valore”, Sangiovese, “Marchese de Petri”, IGT, Puglia, Italy 2004 ($3.50) - Medium ruby in color with aromas of strawberry, violet and thyme. A bit lightweight on the palate with earthy strawberry flavors and good acidity for food, finishing with dusty tannins. A nice value in everyday red wine similar to their $6 Toscana I reviewed on Winecast 64. This wine is available at Trader Joe’s Markets across the U.S. Score: 7.5/10

Blogging buddy Lenn has written up his impressions of the Minnesota wines I sent him for his “50 in 50” virtual tasting tour over at Wine Sediments. I picked the wines I did from one of the best wineries I have tasted at here because they were the best tasting to me on the day I visited the winery. I fully expected the Riesling or Gewürztraminer to be selected, but I found both wines to be very lean and not showing very well right now (I think these new releases are too young).

Lenn was encouraging in his write-up, but mentioned my downplaying of the quality of wines coming from my state of residence. This got me thinking about why I should expect more from local wines and spend more time seeking them out. So from today forward, I will be on a quest for the best wine in Minnesota. This means tasting at all the wineries in the state or at least picking up some local wines more often in Twin Cities wine stores. I will blog my adventures and encourage local readers to post their suggestions for the best Minnesota grown wine (not wine made here from out-of-state grapes). At the end of the year I expect my quest to take, I will pull together all the standout wines for a blind tasting to determine the winner and create a special podcast around this experience.

I know it’s out there, but I haven’t yet found it… who makes the best wine in Minnesota?

Vivi’s Wine Journal is the host of the 23rd Wine Blogging Wednesday with the seasonal theme of Bar-B-Que Wines (at least if you live in the Northern Hemisphere). I’m interpreting this to mean any wine that goes with grilled meats (or veggies), but I’m sure others will match their wines with good BBQ. Either way, it should be fun… see you on July 5th for another podcast featuring my Holiday weekend vino selection and food match.

PS: Also over at Vivi’s is a new social bookmarking website similar to Digg.com. Seems Wine Life Today aims to be the “Digg of wine”. Interesting, but I think that Digg and Netscape are also looking to play in the wine and food space. A more in-depth look over the weekend once I play with it for a while…

Looks like subscribers to my mp3 feed got a little extra podcast on Friday along with my summary of WBW 22. It seems one of my links to another podcast was picked up and Pam & Joe’s, “A Guy, A Girl and A Bottle” podcast was delivered on my feed labeled as a Winecast. Sorry about that, but I’ve deleted it from the post which should correct the problem, err, Wordpress feature. I’ve also implemented a plug-in to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.

I really enjoyed hosting this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday; actually more that I thought I would. I’ve been blogging and podcasting these things for some 15 months or so, but the pressure of hosting is something a bit different. Also a bit different was the theme that attracted WBW’s most devoted participants and left other regulars on the sidelines. Not to mention bringing a controversial issue in the wine industry to the forefront…

So what about the wines, you ask? Well, here you go:

Edward from Wino Sapien was the first entry, more than a week early, but set a pretty high bar. When I came up with the theme, I didn’t think anyone would have much luck finding typically “heavy” alcohol reds like Shiraz or Zinfandel but Edward was able to find a Shiraz in Australia that just came in under the wire at 12.5% ABV, a Tahbilk Shiraz from 1996. He also went the extra mile and compared this selection with a more typical 14.5% Shiraz from the same vintage. Unfortunately the “lite” Shiraz suffered from green characteristics but this was an interesting comparative tasting.

WBW veteran Derrick from An Obsession with Food (and wine) was also a week early in his post. He went with an inexpensive Bordeaux, Château Haut Roudier, clocking in at the maximum 12.5% ABV. Again, the lite red failed to impress with green flavors and lightweight body. Maybe there is something to this alcohol thing, after all. And Derrick, I’d suggest you check out Spanish reds for your house wine

Fellow podcaster Bill Wilson from Wine for Newbies pulled out the big guns for this WBW with his write-up of Château Margaux 1999. Yep, First Growth Bordeaux makes it’s debut on our humble monthly tasting. And what a wine this was. Full and rich, and worth every penny of the $70 Bill paid for the half-bottle and at only 12.5% ABV, score one for the lite side! Also check out Bill’s companion podcast for WBW 22.

Ted from Houston’s Space City Wine Blog makes his second appearance on WBW and was the first to try an Italian wine meeting the 12.5% maximum alcohol content level, a 2001 Pinot Nero from Pojer i Sandri. Sounds like a satisfying wine, but I wondered if anyone but me was going to venture lower than the limit…

Across the pond in Brussels, Andreea from Glorious Wines enjoyed a Romanian Pinot Noir that was just 11.5% ABV. Way to go, Andreea! The Valea Calugareasca, Pinot Noir 2000 seems like the perfect summer red.

Just up the road from my home-base here in the Twin Cites, Alec from Wine in the ‘peg (as in Winnipeg, Canada) continued the Pinot Noir roll with an Ontario grown Konzelmann Estate Pinot Noir 2004. At just 12% ABV and a reasonable $12.30 CDN price tag it might make for a good introduction to Canadian reds. I’m a little worried about those beet aromas, however

Another post from Downunder and another lite Shiraz, this time from Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once who enjoyed the Yarra Yering 1997 Underhill Shiraz. With just 12% ABV this Shiraz sounds like a true (and lite) winner.

Craig from Wine Camp conjures up an old Elton John song in his poetic post devoted to a 2004 Beaujolais, L’Ancien, Vielles Vignes, Terres Dorees from Jean-Paul Brun. This 12%er sells for a bargain $15 over here and is imported into the U.S. by the always reliable Louis/Dressner. From Craig’s write-up, it would seem this wine is a true expression of lite red goodness.

The Corkdork checks in with a Loire red, the 2003 Domaine des Corbillieres Touraine Cabernet (Franc). Although it’s unclear exactly what the alcohol level is from his post or winery website, I’d guess it to be right at 12.5%, given the heat of the 2003 vintage in France. Sounds from the tasting notes like it’s a full-bodied red that is worth a search, especially with it’s $12 price tag.

Joanne and Jack from Fork and Bottle keep it in the Loire with the 2000 Clos Rougeard, “Les Poyeux”, Saumur Champigny. A tasty Cab Franc with the limit 12.5% ABV, this elegant wine will continue to please for many years to come according to their excellent post. Great “his and hers” tasting notes, BTW

WBW founder Lenn from LENNDEVOURS was next to chime in with his usual New York selection. But he changed it up a bit and picked a red from my old stomping grounds in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The Standing Stone Vineyards 2003 Pinnacle keeps the heat down at 11.5% ABV, but the Cab blend is undermined by green flavors. Maybe you should just keep looking for your lite reds on Long Island, Lenn.

The folks at Vino Keeno joined our monthly tasting again with an organic blend being marketed as, “Our Daily Red.” WebWino didn’t find this California wine too keeno but did come up with a classic tasting note that summarizes the flavors as being just like, “…yesterday’s wine. (Or maybe the day before yesterday)”. Yuck! Hmm, I’m gonna chalk this one in the “bad due to organic methods” category and not for being lite in alcohol.

Marcus from Doktor Weingolb returns to French wines and tastes a 2003 Château Cahuzac Côtes-du-Frontonnais. He also learns a lesson about tasting your lite red following a high octane wine - even a white - dilutes your perception of the lite red. Very interesting information and thanks for your kind words regarding the theme, Marcus.

Next up was a post and podcast from Ryan at Catavino. The former Twin Cities resident and American expat living in Madrid found an interesting Spanish red that was just 12% ABV, the 2005 Talai Berri, Getariako Txakolina, Txakolin Beltza. Talk about an obscure variety! Listen to Ryan’s podcast by clicking here.

Serge the Concierge picked an Algerian red made from southern Rhone grapes, the Sidi Brahim, Vin Rouge d’Algerie. At just 12% ABV this wine delivers the goods and is popular with Algerian cuisine. Most impressive considering the North African terroir and grape varieties involved.

We now go to a “hot” appellation for Cabernet Sauvignon, Washington’s Walla Walla Valley AVA with Catie from Through The Grape Vine. If you thought there would be no chance to find a Walla Walla red in the 12.5% or less range, you’d be correct, as Catie, well, bent the rules a bit and picked a 12.8% Cabernet from Washington’s Columbia Valley. It’s from L’Ecole No. 41 and a reasonably priced library selection from 1996. Looks like a winner and it’s not that heavy in the alcohol department. Too bad she was not able to track down a bottle to taste for this event, but says it was great 5 years ago.

Back across the Atlantic, Andrew from Spittoon - the blogger responsible for getting me hooked on WBW last year - tasted a German blend. A Weingärtner Cleebronn-Güglingen Samtrot Lemberger 2004, to be precise (say that one 3 times fast). Sounds like another nice lite red for summer enjoyment that clocks in at 12% ABV. Well done, chap!

Food blogger and sometimes WBW participant Alberto from Il Forno (the founder of “Is My Blog Burning?“) also selected a German red. The 2004 Herzog von Auerstedt, Regent Saale Unstrut is made from the French-American hybrid Regent that is a cross between the German white Diana (itself a cross between Silvaner and Müller-Thurgau) and the red Chambourcin. Too bad Lenn didn’t choose a New York Chambourcin to compare tasting notes, but it would seem the Regent was a bit disappointing in the terroir of Germany.

Garry from tales of a sommelier certainly had a tale to tell about his cellar selection, a 1982 Chateau Branaire, Duluc-Ducru. Even though it was a bit over the line at 12.8% ABV, I’ll accept this one as yet another example of a fine, old and somewhat lite Bordeaux from days gone by. It’s also interesting to note that he had a fair amount of difficulty finding this one in a cellar of more than 1,000 choices.

Tyler, the good Dr. Vino, pulled out a fine Cabernet Franc/Sauvignon blend, Clos Roche Blanche, Touraine, Cabernet from 2004. At only 12% ABV and $15 a bottle, this wine seems to present an elegant expression of fruit and terroir. Definitely one to look for at your local wine specialty store and it would seem best to pick up a case if you find it to avoid the Doctor’s pain

Catherine from Purple Liquid also turned to Bordeaux for her selection, the fine and reliable Château Langoa Barton 1999. At 12.5%, it gives you the real deal; full body, rich aromas, plenty of flavors and deep color. She even concludes her post with a poem as a bonus.

Wine Foolery head fool Erwin was stymied in his quest for lite Zinfandel, just as I was. Instead he selected an Italian wine, Montagnana Cardinale 1999. Big and bold flavors on this blend and only 12.5% alcohol. Not bad, Mr. Dink

Dan from Red Wine with Fish found a Loire red to try, the 2004 Clos Roche Blanche Touraine. Made from Cot (a.k.a. Malbec) the wine showed a bit of that cool climate green character. It seemed to be just OK and not the style Dan favors, but he managed to pair it with an interesting chicken dish.

Top wine blogger and longtime WBW participant Alder from Vinography went to two wine stores before coming up with a Coteaux du Quercy. The 2001 Vignerons du Quercy “Les Hauts Lastour” is from Cahors and is made from Cabernet Franc. Seems Alder thought this to be a quaffable choice, particularly with his Chinese take-out. I only wished I could be a fly-on-the-wall of those San Francisco wine shops when he asked for his lite reds

My Wine Education blogger Michelle selected a 2002 Gerard Raphet Bourgogne that made it under the wire at 12.5% ABV. Seems like this Burgundy measured up to expectations and didn’t lose any of it’s flavor intensity or charm for being a bit lite in alcohol. It’s also a bargain at about $20 a bottle.

Akron Beacon Journal wine writer and VIN VINI VINO blogger Trish went to the cellar for her selection, a Chateau Castera Rouge 1994 Cru Bourgeois Medoc. Although she originally intended to round up something from California, the demands of a busy schedule made the decision for her. Sorry to say that both bottles opened of this wine were disappointing; the first corked. Oh well, that makes room for some more of the good stuff!

Leave it to the Caveman, Bill, to come up with some surprising vino. He didn’t just look for a lite red, he looked for an über-lite red, a Brigantino 2003, Casorzo Doc, Accornero that has just 5% ABV. That’s right; 5%! That’s so inspiring, that I will forgive him from raiding his archives instead of searching through the bins like the rest of us

Dave over at Avenue Vine went to the vineyards of the East. No, not New York, but the Far East with his selection of a Grove Vineyards, Cabernet-Shiraz 2003 from the Nandi Hills in Bangalore, India. Right, the land of high-tech call centers also produces some vino. Most enlightening and seems like Michel Rolland’s long plane rides don’t affect his winemaking advice. You win the most obscure appellation this time, Dave!

Pam and Joe from A Guy, A Girl and A Bottle podcast neither liked my theme or fully understood the “rules” (it’s 12.5% or less, not less than 12.5%, guys!). They ended up with a couple of wines, a “heavy” Chilean Santa Ema, Merlot 1999 (at 12.8% ABV) and a “lite” Portuguese Quinta D’Aguieura 2001 (at 12% ABV). Sounds like the Merlot was a bit over the hill, and the Portuguese blend of 40% Touriga Nacional and 60% Cabernet Sauvignon was too watered down for the hedonists from California Listen to their podcast for their full tasting notes and their suggestion I should have picked “high” alcohol wines as the theme.

My own post and podcast features a trio of selections from hot climate appellations Spain, Italy and California. Of the three, I thought the J. Lohr, “Wildflower�?, Valdiguié, Monterey 2004 was the standout.

So 30 entries and 33 wines rated. Not bad, considering the degree of difficulty. I didn’t expect to see so many Bordeaux in this round-up and it’s interesting to note that about 50% of the wines tasted were at or above the alcohol limit.

Thanks, Lenn, for letting me host and see you all next month as a participant.

Longtime readers here will be well acquainted with the Stormhoek meme started by Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid. I even hosted one of the Stormhoek geek dinners here last month that I am currently editing down into a podcast.

So imagine my smile when I checked my aggregator this evening and read this post. As I’ve disclosed here previously, I’m working in the wine industry now and am attempting to adapt a few Cluetrain notions to this work. I’ve been heads-down writing a marketing plan this week and grappling with the very same issues Hugh is tackling for Stormhoek. How cool is that? Well so cool that he has given me the best news yet this week:

But what if you’re like us, Stormhoek, a small South African vineyard in the middle of nowhere, thousands of miles away from your mainly British and American customers, with no marketing budget to speak of, with scores upon scores of worthy competitors, all fighting like hungry rats for ever-decreasing share of the market?

What do you do?

Well now I know… thanks, man and Skype me to compare notes anytime.

BTW, I’ll post the Stormhoek podcast Monday night that will feature a 30 minute interview with Hugh and Stormhoek’s Jason Korman and some scratchy audio from the dinner itself.