Wine Messenger Notes

Gangs of Bordeaux!

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:30:27 0000

It was early in the morning on October 30th, a dense fog was covering the Left Bank, only an overexcited rooster scream was breaking the overwhelming silence and bringing some life back into that picture.

A french paradox

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:23:21 0000

I would like to react on the interesting post by Thibaut ‘french youth giving up on France’s favorite pastime?’.

The idea here is to give my opinion about the French ways to market their wine. It has been said in this article that marketing wine in France is coping with ‘cultural hurdles’ and focusing on the ‘terroir’ might be an explanation for a decrease in wine comsumption within the French young adult segment ( 20 to 25 ).

The post compares the French marketing approach to the American one, both of course focusing on different characteristics, one focusing on the concept of ‘terroir’while the other approach could be defined as ‘grape centered’.

First of all I am not sure that comparing the two aproaches is really relevant, just because they are targeting different customers, with different expectations and cultural backgrounds.

French Winemaking Enters the 21st Century

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 18:27:55 0000

Following up on Thibaut’s recents posts concerning French consumption, I wanted to share my thoughts on

France

’s recently-released five year plan. This plan is designed to bring France into line with the EU Department of Agriculture’s new plan for wine addressing globalization and it new challenges. While Decanter and a few other press have summarized the plan, with Thibaut we have the opportunity to review the full plan, and that’s exactly what we did. Below is his summary of the changes that will be implemented, followed by my thoughts.

French youth giving up on France's favorite past-time? (Part II)

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 13:12:49 0000

Yesterday I discussed an article reporting on a study concerning a potential change in wine consumption among French youth. While I argued that the study itself is flawed, it does present at least one interesting conclusion: that young French found wine “confusing and old-fashioned.” How is that possible? More importantly, how is it, even possible that wine is on the decline in France while on the rise in the U.S.? I believe there are two reasons: marketing – differences in how each country markets wine, and a shift in cultures.

French youth giving up on France's favorite past-time?

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 13:20:19 0000

After reviewing the latest wine news on Decanter.com, I wanted to react to an article I read about how “Young French view wine as ‘expensive and old fashioned.’” As a 26 years-old Frenchman, who spent time as a student living in the US, I may have an interesting point on the subject of this article.

Loire Valley Wines Tasting

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 12:24:22 0000

Monday, I had the opportunity to taste over 100 different wines from the Loire Valley – an often overlooked French wine region that produces a variety of excellent wines, from the standard red and white to rosé, sparkling and sweet wines.

The Loire Valley

The third largest French wine region, the Loire follows the 630 mile Loire River from central France west to Brittany where it meets the Atlantic Ocean. The river, itself, begins its life in the volcanic mountains of the Massif Central, it flows through rolling farmland towards the green pastures of Touraine and Anjou before widening and flowing across the flat plains of the Nantes countryside. The nickname Jardin de la France or the Garden of France beautifully describes the luxuriant green countryside.

2008 Spring Tasting

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:38:40 0000

“March Madness” does not only refer to the NCAA Tournament coverage but also describes the month’s tasting schedule. After attending Italian Wines 2008, I had the opportunity to taste a number of really good wines at another spring tasting last week.

Fire up the grill?

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:25:12 0000

Some may say it’s too early to start thinking about grill food, but I disagree. For the second weekend in as many weeks I found myself standing outside inhaling the sweet smells of meat cooking over hot coals. Before you assume it was warm out, it wasn’t, the first was out on Long Island (New York) and the second was yesterday in Maine, hardly known for its warm and inviting springs.

The Gambero Rosso's Italian Wines 2008 Tasting NYC

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 18:54:40 0000

I had the good fortune of attending Italian Wines 2008, an annual tasting featuring the Gambero Rosso’s top wines from their latest wine guide. Snooth’s blog has an interesting take on the tasting, though the author did not attend this year, and I agree with some, but not all of what he wrote.

The Dastardly Dollar

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:17:02 0000

We’ve had a number of small tasting so far this year, and a few larger events, but the majority of our tastings will take place in the coming weeks culminating in the annual pilgrimage to Verona for Vinitaly. Over the past few months, however, as we have tasted wines from around the world, there has been a noticeable increase in the cost of the wines.

When we taste, we attempt to consider each wine based on its merits, whether the tasting is blind or in arranged flights. Only after a wine has been tasted and discussed do we reference the price of the wine, and increasingly we are finding wines that are good, but not at the prices we would have to sell them at.