I get a lot of press releases but don’t often publish them here as I don’t usually find an angle to blog about. But a release this morning by the Center for Wine Origins and Office of Champagne caught my eye for it’s use of a YouTube video:

As a longtime wine lover, I agree with the objectives of this group in protecting their place names but I wonder if the average American consumer really would understand the group’s message. Would consumers buy less Andre or Korbel if those producers were forced to remove the word “champagne” from their labels? Are consumers of American “sherry” or “port” really looking for the real deal from Spain or Portugal?

I doubt it.

Back when American producers were using European place names to label their wine blends there was a clear point of difference between a Napa Valley “burgundy” and Pinot Noir from the French region. Now there is less difference in the bottle outside of a handful of the finest vineyards.

So is this distinction still relevant in today’s market or is it just semantics?

Tom Wark of FERMENTATION has announced the nominations for this year’s American Wine Blog Awards. My work here didn’t rate a nomination this year which didn’t surprise me as my output over the past year has been substandard for such accolades, to be quite honest. So I think that puts me in the position to be somewhat objective and comment on blogging awards in general and these in particular.

My main concern with the American Wine Blog Awards is not the name, although I’d prefer something more international, no it’s the voting process. If the Oscars used the same system as these awards, ‘Spider-Man 3′ or ‘Shrek the Third’ would likely win Best Picture as they were the most popular movies last year from their box office receipts. Both are well crafted films but they are not in the same league as ‘No Country for Old Men’ which finished 36th in 2007 ticket sales but took the top Oscar this year.

Why this discrepancy? Because only those in the film industry vote on the nominations and final awards.

So I propose that wine bloggers consider an association that creates an independent awards program modeled after the Motion Picture Academy Awards. As a placeholder, let’s call it the “Wine Bloggers Guild” but we’ll change the name if the discussion warrants. I’ve started a new thread over at Open Wine Consortium for wine bloggers and podcasters to discuss this idea and see if there is consensus for my proposal.

My intention is not to criticize the American Blog Awards, just create an analog to the Oscars to Tom’s People’s Choice Awards. I think there’s room for both. What do you think?

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!

During the past week, I’ve been watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” show on my TiVo (as I write this post, more is being recorded as part of a marathon on The Travel Channel). Of course, I’ve been aware of Bourdain’s antics over the years but have not read any of his books or really watched his TV show until the past week.

In typical fashion for me, something resonated with his world-weary sarcasm, irony and, yes, discovery which led me to watch 10 hours of No Reservations and pick up his first book “Kitchen Confidential” of which 161 pages are now read.

How did I miss the pleasure of his wit, insight into the restaurant business and recommendations on when to eat seafood while dining out? Until this past week, Bourdain was the snarky judge on Top Chef who I assumed Tom Colicchio demanded be on to make him seem more reasonable by comparison. But now I see Bourdain as an old friend who is giving me the inside skinny on what it’s really like behind the scenes in restaurants. So it made me wonder who would do the same for the wine industry?

Almost every book about wine props up the romantic notion that great wine mostly comes from privileged ground in the Old World where centuries of learning and adaption to the earth produce these ethereal beverages. The French even invented a word/marketing strategy called “terroir” around this notion. While some of this is based upon fact, the real story is drastically less romantic based upon my short time working in the wine trade. And because I take non-disclosure agreements seriously, you will not see many such anecdotes on this blog unless anonymous sources start sending me emails.

Sure, there are a few juicy books about the wine business that sometimes expose insider details but they are always told from an outsider’s point of view. James Conaway’s “Napa: The Story of an American Eden” and the more recent “The House of Mondavi” by Julia Flynn Siler come to mind. But no one has taken on the first person, I-know-where-the-bodies-are-buried approach to demystifying the wine industry.

So who will tell the real insider story here, a la Bourdain?

If you have been looking for more about me than I disclose here then head on over to Tom Wark’s FERMENTATION blog for what he calls a “Bloggerview.” It’s his way of interviewing fellow wine bloggers and I’m lucky number 7 in the series.

Aside from being tripped up by one of Bernard Pivot’s signature questions I think I did OK. And Tom even publishes a wine geeky pic of me in my podcast studio Check it out for yourself.

Thanks Tom!

Every so often, a perfect storm of work, personal commitments and an occasional Ken Burns documentary keep me from posting here. Usually it’s just several days but in this case it’s been over two weeks. So forgive me if I post a bit more frequently over the next few days to catch up…

Besides not writing or podcasting I pretty much stopped my blog reading. As I returned to Google Reader last week, I had the maximum 1,000+ posts on each of my subscription categories. So I simply pressed the “Mark all as read” button on most categories except for wine blogs.

In my perusal of the past several days, a few posts stood out. But none of these got me thinking more about wine blogging than Jeff’s post over at Good Grape on how 98% of Wine Bloggers Are Hacks. When I saw Ryan’s post today asking the difference between amateur and professional wine writers, I started to think about my credentials, or lack thereof, for what I do here.

Jeff’s post highlights veteran wine writer Matt Kramer’s piece about how 10,000 hours of training is the minimum to attain expert status in any field. Said another way, that’s 3 hours a day for 10 years. It’s been 9,458 days since I turned 21 back in the early days of the first Reagan Administration. To be fair, my wine drinking started three years earlier due to the drinking age in New York being 18 at the time but I really didn’t get into wine until I transfered to a university in northern California in 1980. If I assume that I spent an hour each day studying wine since then, I’m nearly at that 10,000 hour mark now. But my daily consumption of wine didn’t really begin until the mid-80’s and tasting wine is not the same as reading about wine.

So I’m still very much a hack by this definition.

Ryan’s post this morning asked when a blogger crosses the threshold from amateur to professional status? Since by definition an amateur does not get paid for doing a particular task this seems like an easy question. But in this age of affiliate marketing and sponsorship most wine bloggers can earn some sort of income from blogging. But this is not yet enough to earn a living for any wine blogger I know so I guess most of us are still amateur wine writers (or critics, if you like).

But I don’t think this matters very much as wine bloggers are starting to be taken seriously by consumers. Expert or professional status might have been the hurdle for wine writers in the print era but in today’s low-cost, online personal publishing era this barrier has evaporated.

I’ll still working on getting my 10,000 hours in, anyway

The next element we need to consider for our open-source Roussanne, is target TA (total or titratable acidity). Since pH is the measure of the intensity of acidity, I will include both of these together in this post.

Roussanne is a high acid variety so we should have good acidity to work with right off the vine. If needed, we could acidify with tartaric acid which is very common in California winemaking and not something to be avoided, unless necessary, like watering back. The high acidity of the Roussanne can be blended back some with the addition of fatter varieties like Marsanne or Chardonnay which we will explore further as we go along.

So the main decision here is the intensity of the acidity, measured by the pH. The higher we go makes the wine more impressive by itself but sacrifices it’s friendliness with food. My preference is for the most food friendly wine here but I’m open to your comments and suggestions.

Next, we’ll get into yeast; such fun!