Fermentation
It has been a while since I’ve highlighted a new wine blog that has come across my radar in a positive way. But I couldn’t help writing today about SWIRL, SMELL, SLURP, a newish wine blog that is every bit as fun to read as it is hard to say quickly.
The blog is maintained by Sacha Baumann and Jason F. King. Sacha spent a great deal of time in the wine world, primarily at restaurants, but also with the likes of Manfred Krankl and at Robert Mondavi. Jason, an architect, is not so versed in wine but the blog details the curve he’s skating over as he delves into the world of wine. I like how the two, who work together in LA, describe their collaboration on the blog:
“Follow us as we chronicle the beginning of his education in wine,
guided by his teacher/girlfriend. Her posts and insights speak more to
those who already have some history with wine, while his punctuate the
frustrations (and delights!) of those beginning to wade in the very
deep waters that are the wine world.”
Swirl, Smell Slurp is one of those wine blogs that draws you in not so much for the wine info and education it might deliver, but for the personal insights you gain into Jason and Sacha as they appear to enjoy their life with wine. These are not geeks—or at least they don’t portray themselves as such. They are more along the line of wine adventurers who take their interest in wine as something of a delightful adjunct to being alive where wine is a contributor to their investigation of what they like most about living. There is a certain youthful hipness to their writings, but it’s not affected.
The writing at Swirl, Smell, Slurp displays wonderful wit. The design of the blog is really great with a sort of urban/retro quality. Lots of photos are incorporated. The blog is updated on a regular basis—that’s a bonus.
Six months into publishing Swirl, Smell, Slurp the blog remains very fresh, fun to read and gives us the impression that we’d like share a glass of wine with the two authors. What you get here is definitely a journaling-type effort that that makes the blog as much about the writers as the subject matter. I’ve always liked blogs that give me insight into interesting people. Swirl, Smell, Slurp is about the wine life of seemingly interesting people.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Tags: Fermentation Blog
A decision in Illinois today by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission delivered proof of what so many of us have come to understand as the truth: the Three tier system has evolved into the “Wholesaler Protection System” while the various alcohol beverage and liquor control commissions in the different states have become the enforcers of that corrupt system.
Today the Illinois Liquor Control Commission ruled against Anheuser-Busch’s bid to buy out its Chicago-area distributor so that it might distribute its beer on its own. The Commission cited the need to preserve the “Three Tier System” as the primary reason to deny A-B the ability to buy the remaining 70% of City Beverage-Illinois and self distribute its beer rather than use a wholesaler.
According to Gary Rutledge, A-B’s VP and General Counsel, “This challenge to our license was very last-minute — we made nearly 20
contacts with this agency and they never mentioned an issue until the
eve of the deal closing.”
Mr Rutledge knows what happened and so does everyone else: Southern Wine & Spirits and Wirtz Distributors, Illinois’ biggest wholesalers, called up their pals at the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and demanded the Commission protect their businesses from competition.
In order to protect their friends the wholesalers, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission made their ruling based on the thin ground that allowing A-B to distribute their own product would damage the Three Tier System, which, they claim, is the raison d’etre of Illinois’ entire set of alcohol laws.
According to news reports, A-B plans to sue the commission and the state on Commerce Clause grounds. I say more power to them.
The 70+ year old three tier system, whereby producers sell to wholesalers and wholesalers sell to retailers and restaurants, has become the wall of protection that wholesalers, who occupy a privileged and unearned and often unnecessary place within that system, hide behind whenever their cushy, government subsidized world is interrupted by the 21st century marketplace. Through this antiquated protection racket, wholesalers have near complete control over what products come into the market. And whenever it becomes clear that their services are not needed or that others can do their job without them or when consumers complain that the current system is broken, wholesalers go running to mommy-government crying that their wall of unfair protection is being threatened.
Luckily for the wholesalers, politicians (who take enormous amounts of cash from wholesalers) and alcohol regulators have both happily crawled up inside the wholesalers Honey Pot and will work their hardest to protect a small collection of HUGE business that looks more and more like the Mafia Commission every day.
Wine producers and retailers have known for decades that wholesalers are not their friends. Small Brewers have known this. Now it appears that Big Beer is learning just how out of control the complete control of the wholesalers has become.
• Consider that in Indiana there is a law about to be passed that will allow wine and beer wholesalers to get paid if one of their producers leaves and goes with another wholesaler. The bill says the new wholesaler must pay the former wholesaler “fair market value” of the right to distribute the brand in question
• In Michigan, after a federal court ruled that the state’s discrimination against out-of-state retailer who were not allowed to ship direct to consumers was unconstitutional, the head of the Michigan Liquor Control agency worked with the Wholesalers to write a law, get it introduced into a committee and have it passed out of committee without giving anyone warning. That regulator then quit and took a job as a lobbyist with the lobbying firm that represented the Michigan wholesalers.
• And of course it has been wholesalers across the country, a group of people who never deal with consumers and know little or nothing about selling wine to the public or the challenges it presents, have been in the forefront of stopping any all means of direct shipping to consumers by both wineries and retailers.
• Finally, consider that this “three tier system” of mandated use of wholesalers by producers who must sell to them and retailers that must buy from them, was set up in the 1930s when there was no wine industry, when their was no overnight shipping, when there was no way to distribute information instantly and when consumers had little or no interest in wine, yet it is supposed to be the framework by which alcohol sales are governed today.
My guess is that if an enterprising member of the journalistic community wanted to dig a little, they’d likely find very inappropriate pressure put on the Illinois Liquor Control Commission right before it stopped A-B from acquiring the Illinois distributorship and in advance of finally denying it from having controlling interest in the distributorship.
A-B is certainly going to have to sue. They’ll get no help from Illinois politicians who are so far in the pockets of Illinois wholesalers they could all get jobs as tailors.
Tags: Fermentation Blog
It may come as a surprise to many of you, but if you come to the town of Sonoma there is no law against getting a cocktail instead of a glass of wine. In fact, lo and behold, there are actually a number of fine drinking establishments located on or around the famed Sonoma Plaza where you can belly up to the bar.
And yet I could find no reference on where one might go in Sonoma to get a Manhattan or Old Fashioned or French 75 or a Corpse Reviver or a good Dirty Martini or a Sazerac. So, being the font of wisdom and caretaker for thirsty Sonomans and their guests, I decided that just such a reference was called for.
Behold, the SONOMA COCKTAIL CRAWL—(brought to you by Tom Wark and GoogleMaps)
Now, far be it for me to suggest that one actually perform this Cocktail Crawl, hitting all 8 locations and drinking at each, in one sustained crawl (though I promise it can be done). However, for those inclined to sip a cocktail rather than wine, this little map with commentary might provide inspiration.
It should be noted that one can order food, and in some cases really great food, at six of the eight stops on the Sonoma Cocktail Craw. So if you do dare to do it all in one long, sustained crawl…get yourself something to eat.
Tags: Fermentation Blog
Many of us have watched opponents of direct shipping cynically use the clarion call of “KIDS, BUT THE KIDS!” for years in their attempt to prevent the shipment of wines across state lines and directly to the homes of consumers.
Distributors can’t be said to have no concern for the well being of children. They have children too, after all. But their faux concern for kids buying wine over the Internet then being on hand when the package arrives, being able to get the package with a fake ID without their parents finding out…well, we all know that its a faux concern. The worst part is that they know it’s a faux concern too. That’s what makes it unethical.
But those of use who have been involved in one way or another with the political battles surrounding direct shipping have been particularly upset and worried about this unethical tactic for one important and simple reason: It’s not that we care about the souls of distributors, rather it’s because we know that holding up kids as the raison d’etre for a public policy position often works.
A perfect example of how a people and politicians will quickly rally around a call to protect the children can be seen in the news that in just four years the amount of sugary drinks in schools has been reduced 95%. NINETY FIVE PERCENT in just four years.
This has resulted from parents and public policy advocates and health advocates working the system by holding up Children as the raison d’etre. And it worked.
In comparing the campaign to eliminate obesity by working to remove sugary drinks from schools with the campaign to save distributor profits from being reduced by exposing them to legitimate and necessary competition, I don’t mean to suggest that the anti-obesity campaign is anything like as unethical as the distributors campaign to hold up kids in front of the bullets. It’s not. It’s just to demonstrate that using kids as a reason for change is an effective tactic.
Last week in Maryland distributors once again put up their cynical faux “save the children” argument at a hearing in Annapolis on a direct shipping bill. Over and over they were challenged with testimony that explained no member of law enforcement or alcohol enforcement anywhere had ever said they saw a problem resulting from direct shipment of wine. They were confronted with surveys of minors demonstrating that the direct shipping channel is not used by minors to obtain wine.
Yet, when the anti-consumer distributors, who know less about retail sales than any other segment of the alcohol industry, expressed their “concern” that kids would use direct shipping to buy wine then kill people in cars, you could just see the politicians at the hearing retreat from any sympathy they had for consumer rights and notions of free trade. The very thought of being tagged with wanting to be the person that put alcohol in kids hands backed them up from doing the right thing.
The Clarion Call of Kids is a powerful thing. Shamefully, the alcohol distributors use it to cry wolf for the sake of their own profits, not for the sake of the kids.
Tags: Fermentation Blog
“CHEERS LADIES—A DRINK A DAY MAY KEEP THE WEIGHT AWAY”—ABC News
“MODERATE DRINKERS GAINED LESS WEIGHT THAN ABSTAINERS—Boston.com
“RED WINE LESSONS OBESITY RISK IN WOMEN—Oneindia
STUDY: WOMEN WHO DRINK MODERATELY TEND TO GAIN LESS WEIGHT IN MIDDLE AGE—LA Times
WOMEN WHO DRINK MORE GAIN LESS WEIGHT—Washington Post
A DRINK A DAY COULD HELP KEEP THE POUNDS AWAY—The Globe & Mail
MODERATE DRINKING MAY CURB POUNDS ON WOMEN—Boston Herald
Three hundred and fifty seven links showed up this morning when I did a News search on Google for “Women-Alcohol-Weight”. By the time the day is over, this post will likely be one of a couple thousand that all are commenting on a new study that shows women who drink moderate amounts of alcohol (red wine in particular) gain less weight in middle age.
Forgive me for generalizing about the sexes, but in my experience when you start to suggest to women that a specific thing will help keep the weight off, they are likely to respond—and a hell of a lot quicker than men respond. Add to this to a specific action that is as easy to do and enjoyable as drinking wine and women will REALLY respond.
That’s why this new study on alcohol and weight consumption is going to have a measurable effect on wine sales over the long term.
What’s interesting and VERY IMPORTANT to note about these studies is that the “How” and “Why” is no where to be found. WHY do women who consume moderate amounts of alcohol gain less weight in middle age than those that don’t consume alcohol or consume more than moderate amounts? HOW does this conversion of wine drinking to keeping the pounds off actually work?
The answers to these questions, while important, are not important to the commercial impact of the announcement of this study on correlations.
As you might imagine, as a public relations professional, I’m pretty interested in how news stimulates action. Does there have to be an explanation of HOW drinking red wine will reduce the amount of weight gain in women in order for women to take action upon hearing this? No. There does not. In this case I’m pretty sure that all that needs to be done is note the correlation between the two in order to see women alter their alcohol consumption habits.
But what if drinking red wine has NO direct connection between keeping weight off in women? What if women who happen to drink wine moderately in middle age also tend, as a group, to do a number of other things—like exercise, eating healthy, have less stress—that more directly affect weight gain? Would this information make the reaction to this bit of news more muted. You bet it would.
So in this case, where the wine industry is concerned, less information is better I suspect.
Tags: Fermentation Blog
