Archive for April, 2017

Food & Wine Pairing: What to Drink with Chick

April 28th, 2017

When someone says “it’s not just white” that you can pair well with chicken, we’ll forgive even a beer recommendation. [level-members] Not that the recommendation is bad, but it’s not really our brand … Tasting Table’s article, What to Drink with Chicken, offers some great ideas you can share with your wine shop audience. The […]

Wine Stories Worth Sharing – April 27, 20

April 27th, 2017

Did you know that in the US, there are 62 chemicals that can be added to wines without having to be accounted for on the label? Also, Semillon, Malbec in three styles, is there a quintessential summer red, and WWJD. [level-members] From France to Argentina, to Washington State, Malbec comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes, […]

Carving Out Your Own Wine Market Niche Without Biting Off More Than You Can Ch

April 26th, 2017

Carving out a unique (at least to your market) and interesting niche is a critical part of building a vialbe retail wine business. You do want to be careful not to bite off more than you can chew, though. [level-members] For example, you might consider specializing in more obscure varietals. That can certainly be unique […]

The Changing Face of Retail and Your Wine Shop, Part

April 25th, 2017

Following up on last week’s column, we came across another reminder that if you’re not willing to be creative, someone is going to come eat your proverbial lunch. [level-members] We came across this February article from the New York Times which describes how Amazon is using Seattle as its own real-world retail laboratory. Clearly, none of […]

Wine Industry News for April 24, 20

April 24th, 2017

Prosecco going from strength to strength, looming USDA cuts, property purchase in California with potential long-term implications, and weed and wine.[level-members] Prosecco DOC is ramping up their marketing presence in the US, which is already their 2nd largest market. (And a market that has already seen 20% growth since 2013. Are the Trump administration’s plans […]

Food & Wine Pairing: Merl

April 21st, 2017

Much maligned in the wake of the movie Sideways, Merlot didn’t deserve the hate it got. [level-members] Then again, it didn’t deserve all the love it had gotten to get under Miles’ skin. A pretty – and easy-to-pronounce name that somehow has an air of, “I know what I’m talking about” to it will do […]

Wine Stories Worth Sharing – April 20, 20

April 20th, 2017

The best corkscrew, by category. Horses and grapes, ducks and grapes. Best and worst celebrity wines. And more … [level-members] Everything old is new again. For example, the move to use animals in the vineyards. I’m partial to horses myself, but there is something undeniably right about ducks working the fields. Speaking of old, how about […]

Attitude, Experience, and BS in Your Wine Shop Marketi

April 19th, 2017

You’ve got to have some confidence to tell your wine shop customers that a wine you’re recommending tastes “taste like sunshine” and “tells of brighter days ahead” but that seems to have worked for at least one Brooklyn shop. [level-members] That’s a quote from a recent NPR story about wine tasting and what’s wrong with […]

The Changing Face of Retail and Your Wine Sh

April 18th, 2017

Unless you’ve been living under a rock – and hibernating – for the past decade, you know that retail is undergoing a seismic shift brought about largely by the internet and ecommerce. What do these changes mean for your wine shop? [level-members] That’s the $64,000 question, of course, and though I can’t pretend to know the answer, […]

Wine Industry News for April 17, 20

April 17th, 2017

Wine industry news this week takes us from France to the US and back to France – Bordeaux 2016, US challenges to French rosé, and climate change-induced planting experiments – as well as down to Chile (after the fires) and California, where the question is, who will pick the grapes this year. [level-members] From the […]