I’ve been participating in Wine Blogging Wednesday since #8 and have only missed one month and that was due to a crazy workload. This month came down to the wire as I could only find 3 bottles in the 10 wine stores I visited that would qualify, thus making this the most challenging WBW yet for me.

Hosts Jack and Joanne of Fork & Bottle have chosen white wines made in Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region as this month’s theme. This region is in the northeastern corner of the country that touches Slovenia. As I found out when I started looking for wines from this area, some Friuli actually comes from Slovenia. Although most well known for their signature Tocai Friulano grape, most wines available from this region here are made from Pinot Grigio. A number of other native Italian white varietals are also produced along with German grapes such as Riesling and Müller-Thurgau.

After finding few choices, I selected the only Tocai Friulano I could find in town, from Movia, their “Gredic” Tokaj Friulano (Slovenian for Tocai Friulano). The winery is located right on the border of Italy with a portion of their vineyard on the Italian side. Since the the winery is in Slovenia, they are not technically in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, but I’m sure Jack and Joanne will not mind. Purchased by the Kristancic family in 1820, this was the only wine estate not nationalized during the country’s communist period. Today, Ales Kristancic carries on his family tradition of producing compelling, biodynamic wine.

Movia “Gredic” Tokaj Friulano (Tocai Friulano) 2004 ($28) - Golden-yellow in color with aromas of ripe pineapple, baked apple, honeysuckle and almond. Rich and thick mouthfeel, with pear, pineapple and mango fruit flavors finishing with tart acidity, a creamy texture and nice minerality. A very unique and full-bodied white that will not appeal to everyone but I think it’s delicious. An outstanding value.

12.5% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 90
Rating:

Thanks once again to Jack and Joanne for a unique theme this time and I’m looking forward to next month when I’ll attempt to review an Italian wine in seven words as suggested by Andrew from Spittoon.

I’m a bit late, but the prize winners for Menu of Hope 4 have been announced. Congratulations to Susan who was the lucky winner of my lot of 3 bottles of open-source Roussanne. A total of $91,188 was raised this year to support the the UN World Food Programme.

Many thanks to everyone who donated this year.

A fair question posed by Josh at Pinotblogger today reacting to yesterday’s news that Stormhoek’s UK partner, Orbital, has closed.

How could this happen to a wine brand that has grown so quickly in sales while spending so little on marketing?

The retail wine business is cruel and unforgiving. And it’s worse in the UK.

For those not in the wine trade, a winery sells to distributors for 50% of the retail bottle price. The distributor, in this case Orbital, then sells to retailers and restaurants to give them something like a 25-30% margin. They also have to pay for shipping of the wine, storage, some taxes, marketing and staff expenses. So what seems like a large margin becomes razor-thin particularly when dealing with large retailers like supermarkets.

Since the UK market is not nearly as fragmented as in the US, retailers have more leverage to get the lowest price for wine especially for products in the ₤10 and lower range. It’s also sort of a Catch-22 situation with wines selling in this range since shipping cost becomes such a large factor unless consumers buy in case lots; thus a totally direct strategy is not possible for brands like Stormhoek.

So to answer Josh’s question, yes, social media does work for wine, particularly for lower production, higher-priced wines like he will be selling. For brands like Stormhoek, they will need to forge distribution relationships with those who have a portfolio to support the low margins in their price range. From Jason’s post today, it seems that process is now going on.

Stormhoek is far from dead and social media is the future of wine marketing even if most of the trade in the US hasn’t yet noticed.

Cartoon by Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid.com

It’s a New Year and there is another wine meme: the Wine Book Club. The brainchild of Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20 fame, the club is inspired by Wine Blogging Wednesday but takes place every other month and happens on a Tuesday.

If you are still with me, you will enjoy the challenge of reading a half-dozen books and posting your reviews. There is even a “spin the bottle” round every other month, inspired by Dr Vino, with coordinated reviews of a wine book by two bloggers. I’ve volunteered for the first month along with founder Dr Debs to review Wine and Philosophy by Fritz Allhof. Look for our reviews later this month.

The first book to be reviewed by everyone in this series is Vino Italiano hosted by David McDuff. Like WBW you are to read the book and then post a review on your blog or the new group blog to be established before the last week of February. I’ll post here when it’s up since I’m building and hosting it.

This will be another regular feature I’ll be participating in and hope you will too. Thanks to Dr Debs for her leadership in getting this venture launched. Now I have no excuse to not get all those books sent to me read and reviewed

Right after I posted my goals for the year yesterday, I went to a local bookstore to see what I could find with the gift card I received on Christmas. After browsing the bargain books and business sections, I found myself looking over wine books. I really haven’t shopped for wine books since I get sent more than I can read right now, thus my goal of reading more this year. What I found was a selection of wine reference books, buying guides and a few topical books. What I didn’t find was a book that would inspire me to learn more about wine and develop my palate, so perhaps there is an opportunity here for a book to write.

Before I get into my angle, let me backup 25 years and explain how I first learned about wine. This was in the early 1980’s and there were not very many wine books to choose from, particularly the cheaper paperbacks I tended to favor in my college years. But I did find a couple from Signet that I read and these became my guidebooks into all things vino.

The first book was a quick read, the Signet Book of Inexpensive Wine. For all of $1.95 I was treated to, “…over 400 wines rated.” But in retrospect the ratings did little to inspire my wine education. It was the brief overviews on the major wine regions that gave me the confidence to buy wines from outside the jug brands of California. Some additional time with the Signet Encyclopedia of Wine (around $5, I think) filled in the gaps and I was off to learn more about wine by tasting them.

What I see now on the shelf are books with strategies to find wine bargains or make wine easier to understand. I don’t see a field guide that would inspire someone just getting into wine to expand much beyond their comfort zone of Cabernet, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio. So I’m going to write such a book this year and post sections here for your review and comment. After I get the manuscript done, I’ll publish an electronic version for free but also self-publish a printed version for a modest price. And, yes, there will also be an audio book version.

Although I have not decided on a title yet, all the posts will be tagged here with the “Guide” category. And I expect to write the first draft in roughly chronological order to make it easier to follow here on the blog. Since I’d like to have this ready for the holidays, I will close the manuscript off on my birthday in mid-November. I’ll also post monthly summaries of progress to date.

I’m really looking forward to going down this path and see where it takes me… now off to write an outline!

Before I post about the wine trends I see for 2008, I thought I would take a look back at my predictions made last year. Overall, I didn’t score too well but what I did get right was interesting.

So here are my predictions for 2007 with what actually happened:

Online Wine Communities Go Mainstream - This time last year I was fascinated with Web 2.0 and wine. I remain bullish on this category but resigned to the fact that none of these communities will go mainstream any time soon. This one was a complete miss.

The Old World Strikes Back - Although the full data has yet been published, imported wine sales in the U.S. increased in 2007 with Italy edging out Australia for the top spot. I’m not convinced this was due to a preference for more balanced, food-friendly wines but I’ll chalk this one down in the success column; at least for now.

Direct To Consumer Sales Soar - This didn’t seem to be much of a risky prediction as I expected the trend from 2006 to continue. But there were also legal challenges which made it more difficult for wineries to sell directly to consumers in some states. Although I have yet to see definitive numbers for 2007, I sense that this prediction came true.

There Will Be Another Stormhoek - I fully expected there would be another wine brand who would follow the social media route to success like Stormhoek did in 2005-06. But no wine brand did this. As close as we got was from my friends at Sacre Bleu but they are still way under the radar. Another miss for me.

Pinots Come Back To Earth - I expected to see a slight pull-back in the popularity of Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio in 2007 and was half right. Pinot Noir seems to have slowed down in growth while Pinot Grigio continues it’s assent. It was good to see Riesling also increase but all the other varietals I mentioned didn’t seem to change. Overall, a miss as a prediction.

South Africa Emerges - I expected to see the wines of South Africa emerge in a big way in 2007 and they really didn’t. Perhaps I was a year early? Another miss.

Flights Replace Wine By The Glass - Of all my predictions, this one was the most aspirational; it was also totally off the mark. Although I have noticed a few restaurants add flights to their by-the-glass programs, they have in no way replaced them. We can hope to see this someday but I doubt it.

At Least One Wine Blogger ‘Goes Pro’ - Alder’s April Fool’s Day post aside, we did actually see wine bloggers go pro in 2007. Both Tyler Colman and Gary Vaynerchuk crossed over into the mainstream media in 2007. I expect to see more of this in 2008 as wine blogging becomes more accepted by the public and the traditional wine press looks for writers with an audience.

So three correct and five wrong or 60%. That would earn me a D- in school so I’ll think about my 2008 predictions for a few more days before posting. I know I can do better…

A new year is a time for predictions and resolutions but for me it’s also a time to take stock. Last year was a difficult year for me personally and, thus, Winecast. I entered and closed 2007 basically between gigs and it’s unclear where this will take me this year. Although I’ve enjoyed working in the wine trade, it’s also created some challenges to my writing here. So I’m looking to return to the corporate world early this year which will eliminate any appearance of conflict of interest.

Whatever the outcome of my employment situation, it’s clear to me that things have to change here in the coming 12 months. After looking at my stats for 2007, the most popular content are my wine reviews and podcasts. Although I posted many reviews in 2007, as many or more remain scribbled on the pages of my tasting log. I’ve also recorded a number of podcasts that remain unreleased.

So my goals for this year are simple: post here as often as I can, featuring wine reviews, and produce more podcasts. I’ll also do some blog redesign, read more wine books and actively seek sponsors.

I appreciate everyone who’s participated in the discussion here in the past year and look forward to meeting many more friends in 2008.

Happy New Year and cheers!