• Subscribe to Our Feed
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Archive for the ‘Industry’ Category

Keep Direct Sales Growing

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

We’ve been connected in with Inertia Beverage Group pretty much since the beginning of our blog as we always thought they were doing great things. Since their recent acquisition of New Vine Logistics, adding fulfillment to their service offering, they have really completed the direct sales equation. It keeps the ridiculous markups of the 3-tier system, mainly from wholesalers, from being imposed on the consumer, allowing people to buy a case of quality wine for cheaper than it would be at their local retailer. It also gives many markets access to our product immediately. The direct sales system, both consumer and trade, has amazing potential.

(more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business, Economy, Industry | View Comments

West Coast Green – How my life changed this week

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

West Coast Green conference

Wow, what an excellent conference! A game changer. I have to thank my friends over at Village Green Energy for hooking me up with a free pass. I’ve been so passionate about this movement as long as I can remember… ever since 6th grade when I messed around with electromagenetic fields and plants. Early education for me was all about ecology and environment, and that followed with rigorous economics in college, which I didn’t quite understand about myself until now. Having not gone into banking with my degree and now seeing the state of the economy I was like shit… but David Suzuki put it so clearly… it’s (eco)nomics. I can’t believe I never recognized that. I automatically associated economics with the greedy, short-sighted mentality of Wall Street that focuses solely on the bottom line and exploiting the market for cash and egoic status. Yet you realize the bottom line is not the statement of cash flows or the balance sheet… it’s the fuckin planet. Ecology + Economics = Sustainability. This conference was absolutely buzzing! People were feeling alive and connecting and touching each other like I’ve never seen in my life. We all knew the green revolution is ready and about to change the world in a big way.

(more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Art, Business, Culture, Design, Dining, Energy, Events, Family, Food, Industry, Labels, Lifestyle, Love, Marketing, Millennials, Music, News, Passion, Stories, Technology, Thoughts, Travel, Wine/11 | Comments Off

The magic is in the juice

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

When I started working in the wine business in the summer of 2007 I knew a few things about wine. First it was exponentially better to drink than the Natural Light my contemporaries were imbibing at the time. It provides a great way to meet women and convince them you’re more sophisticated than you actually are. And finally there was something I desired to learn about wine culturally, historically and socially; anyone can order a martini and look good doing so but in the world of wine you are constantly finding out new and interesting things. Yet for all the knowledge I thought I had gathered nothing was more humbling than going to work in a wine store, where the people above you spent most of their lives buying, selling and learning about wine. From my time with them I’ve learned a lot about spotting good wines.

First of all, labels mean absolutely nothing, so when you go to buy wine don’t even look at the front label ignore it, there is more useful information on the back like a good importer. In this era of opulence and visually stimulated purchasing, Louis Vutton and Cadillac, take a more refined and dare I say classier approach. I am reminded of the movie Tommy Boy with the late great Chris Farley. Tommy is selling Callahan Break Pads; one of his retailers says there isn’t a guarantee on Callahan’s box. Tommy says you can put a guarantee on shit and its still shit, same thing with wine – creative picture means the winery spent all the money on a design and not the juice. Like a guarantee vs. the actual product. There can and often will be a cute picture on the bottle but the juice, more times than not, is still absolute Swill (a colloquialism used to describe wine not worth drinking). (more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Industry, Thoughts, Wine | View Comments

What is going on in the world?

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

What is going on in the world? How is it that Bear Sterns can go from $20 a share to $2? Basically, my feeling is that the credit crunch of the past 6 months sends a serious message to us all, a message about value.

The problem with board members who rely on econometrics and statistics to forecast company growth and decide who the CEO should be is that they have become too focussed on the profit, and have completely forgotten value. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, who summed up the crisis we’re in quite well: beware the man who puts a price on everything whilst not knowing the value of anything. The sub-prime mortgage is a result of a bunch of spin-doctors who tried to put a price on things without caring about value. (more…)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Business, Industry, Lifestyle, News | View Comments

Bring on the Champagne

Friday, March 14th, 2008

It was announced today that the Champagne region of France is expanding to meet world demand and we’re pretty excited about it. Once thought of as a celebratory drink for only special occasions, Champagne and sparkling wine are quickly becoming the wine of choice for many around the world. Now it appears to be in demand for many other reasons.  It seems that the younger generations just like to drink champagne for any reason… tonights a party, a new episode of Lost is on, I made it home safe, I bet that would go great with my pb&j (ok maybe not quite that far).

 

Champagne and Sparkling Wines are just awesome.  You can find them for a variety of prices, and its much healthier and tastier than soda.   Plus, there’s nothing like that little adrenaline rush you get right as the cork ‘pops’ out of the bottle.  It’s the natural effervescence that adds to flavor depth and antioxidant health benefits, that combine to make Champagne and sparkling wine the all around global drink. It’ll be great to see different types and flavors appear on the shelves at decent price points, while still maintaining the natural quality and mystique. We’ve always believed that wine is the one taste substance that everyone around the world shares, and maybe this news is a small sign that we’re starting to celebrate more together.

We’ve always believed that wine is the one taste substance that everyone around the world shares, and maybe this news is a small sign that we’re starting to celebrate more together.  Heck, I’m going to go open a bottle of Moet & Chandon to celebrate Pi day today.

 

For more reading see: Champagne – A New Year Tradition

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Industry, Lifestyle, News | View Comments

Grape Thinkers

Categories

Archives