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Rex Pickett’s “Life on Spec”

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Sideways DVD (original version)I have written quite a bit here about Sideways, a rare film that somehow combines wine, humor and middle age crisis into an Academy Award winning package. But until recently I had no idea how close Sideways came from never being made. In a series of posts by author Rex Pickett over at the Stage 32 blog he recounts the twists, turns and luck required to get his book published and the film made. Five parts have been posted so far with the final post coming this Thursday.

This is really not a wine story but one of perseverance and the inner workings of Hollywood. But I find the story absolutely fascinating. It also appears this story might be told in a documentary film; I have embedded the spec trailer below. If you are a fan of Sideways, I suggest you check this series out.

via Stage 32

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY3n5rK_AyY[/youtube]

Wine is a thread running through our lives

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Last evening I participated in a Twitter tasting of Bordeaux wines. One of the producers in the tasting had acted in a short film and a link to it was tweeted out. I bookmarked the link and returned to it today for a look mostly out of curiosity and was pleasantly surprised with what I found.

Unlike nearly every movie where wine plays a central role this 17 minute short film did not treat wine as a prop or the obsessive vice of the protagonist. In short montages invoked by wines from a single estate over a lifetime a dying old man and his daughter share one last blind tasting. A thoughtful and simple story is told not unlike the grace and harmony of the best wines of the region.

It is well worth your time to have a look and if you don’t understand French there are English subtitles.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/23583653[/vimeo]

You might need to click back to the site to view the video.

via Luc Plissonneau/Vimeo

It’s Time For Radical Simplification of Old World Wine Labeling

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Rheingau wine label
Photo via SCHILLER-WINE

I’m a traditionalist but also a realist. And I think now is the time to shake up the centuries old wine labeling and classification systems that have stood as a barrier to selling many Old World wines to American consumers. Case in point is Germany where a tradition of bad Middle Ages typography continues on some wines even today making them nearly unreadable to many. Combine that with the complexity of their labeling and classification system and you have a recipe for developing only a cult following. I’m sure even a lot of Germans don’t get it and they speak the language.

So I was heartened that progress is being made on this front by a recent post at British wine industry journal, The Drinks Business. The short piece pointed to a proposal in Germany’s Rheingau region where producers are adopting a Burgundian classification system and simplified labels. While it makes sense to label many of the regions’ fine Rieslings for the place and vineyard, I don’t think this goes far enough, at least as it applies to export markets. Varietal composition, level of sweetness and other information should also be clearly marked somewhere on the packaging. And there should also be room for interactive elements such as those now being introduced with QR codes. Only then will Old World wines have the transparency necessary to develop a following outside of the wine geek circle.

via The Drinks Business

What The Google Algorithm Change Means To Wine Bloggers

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Yesterday, Tyler Colman posted an interesting bit of information on his blog that connected the dots in both my business and wine blogging worlds. Since much of what I do in my business is web-related, and search is the main way people find information online, I have been closely following the changes to Google’s search ranking algorithm. For those unaware of this move, Google has changed the way  web pages are ranked in its organic search to make so-called “content farms” rank lower in results. It’s somewhat of an arms race between search engines like Google and search engine optimization (SEO) ninjas who continuously work to optimize their clients’ organic search positions. And Google makes these changes on a regular basis so the search results are as optimized as possible for their users.

Tyler mused that this change might negatively affect the search position of Snooth, the online wine directory site. A quick visit to Compete produced the following chart comparing Snooth with competitors Wine-Searcher and WineZap. Although it’s early, it looks like both Snooth and Wine-Searcher took a hit of 34%-42% of their traffic respectively. WineZap, with significantly less traffic, is down about 14% from last month. It will be interesting to revisit this chart in a month or two and see if this trend continues but obviously it appears these directories have been directly affected from Google’s change.

What this means for wine bloggers is our content will be ranked higher in Google search results, particularly for wine reviews. I think this is great for those of us who produce “hand-crafted”, relevant content instead of just being a directory or aggregator.

via Dr Vino’s Wine blog

Disclosure: I am a WineZap and Snooth affiliate.

Update: As CellarTrackers’ Eric LeVine points out in the comments, seasonality is what is driving the Compete chart above. So we will not know until next month if anything has really happened with Snooth or the other sites from any of the changes to the Google algorithm. Below is the current Quantcast chart for Snooth which is inconclusive, as well. Stay tuned for another update in about a month.

Grape Radio Interviews Author Rex Pickett

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Rex Pickett on Grape Radio

My friends at Grape Radio have posted a great interview with Rex Pickett, the author of ‘Sideways’ and its sequel ‘Vertical.’ Although the guys spend much of the podcast talking about ‘Sideways’ Pickett does work in plenty of details about his latest novel. Between this and the written interview posted recently by Blake Gray, I think we have covered this subject from all angles. And crossed off an item on my podcast things to do list. Actually, I would like to talk with Pickett about that new TV project he’s developing for HBO…

via Grape Radio