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.

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Wine labels will do it. How many times have you bought a wine because of its label? I know I have. Be it creative or just familiar, labels can make or break the wines sales. And I will admit right now that I have bought some ridiculously designed and named wines. There was ‘Bitch’, which had a pink label in black lettering. Don’t get me wrong, it was well priced and a quite enjoyable Grenache from Australia. Why did I buy it? Because my friend and I thought it was funny. A few weeks later I was back in that same wine store and I witnessed the same scene, two friends walk up the counter to purchase their wines and see ‘Bitch’ conveniently located at the register. The one friend turns to the other and starts laughing and they immediately pick it up and add it to their pile. Smart product placing.

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Malbec is the Eva Peron of Argentinian wine varieties and its presence on a label has done much for the category of the premium wine production nation on the South American continent. Whilst Chile often delivers incredibly on value, Argentina packs in value with value added by diversity – especially in its ownership and complete creative license with the Malbec grape.

Insofar as Southern hemisphere sport is concerned – Argentina certainly holds its own on the Rugby field, but in the field of Malbec Argentina writes the rules.

The de Carodilla Malbec 2005 has a Medoc characteristic to it, with a rustic smokiness and distinct taste veins of strawberry and currents that course through the wine-dark juice. I’m reminded of the profile of certain Central Otago Pinot Noirs – except it delivers at a fraction of the price and much wider availability.

In an Argentinian wine-rugby club, anything with Malbec makes the side.

Admittedly, its largely to the work of dedicated bloggers like Lenn Thompson that I owe my continued fascination with New York State wines. New York’s white wines, from the fertile Long Island soils and the Germanic climate, have a unique and distinctive character that quite frankly, puts Californian whites to shame. This Chard shows off tropicality with mineral structure, making it a perfect aperitif or a between courses palate cleanser. Along with the rounded touch of malolactic fermentation there’s a perfectly balanced element of wood that integrates well on the palate, leaving a hint of tinned-pears on the finish.

Seeing as the United States is playing against South African on the 30th of September, in the white wine department I will have to concede a handful of points the America for this fine Estate.

This article is ridiculous –  Wall Street Journal (requires a subscription, so I put a clipping at the end) the WSJ has the most interesting articles on wine. Anyhow, check out the bottom article ‘man buys $700,000.00 of wine in one shot’, basically for anyone in today’s society, if they save a little bit of money or live close to China-Town, almost anyone can get their hands on designer labels. In fact you can get lookalikes that are as good aesthetically as the real things, from Rolex to Tag Heuer, Diesel to Armani, designer labels don’t command the respect they used to. My friend who works for a Hedge Fund in New York (he’s the one I drank Zinfandel with in Central Park) says that most of the hedge fund managers (these guys are like 26, they worked for Goldman Sachs or Lehman Group for 4 years after going to Wharton, and then started managing their own funds, they’re all , intelligent, self-made and loaded and 3 years away from being 30) don’t use any brands. Its all about going back to the roots, they purchase antique solid gold watches and get their furniture at Sotheby’s.Capitalism has made luxury brands so accessible, that the only thing left for people to do if they want to stand above is to go backwards. These guys are looking for unique and rare… and they’re not a minority. Practically any male or female over 25 with a graduate degree in commerce (usually capped by an MBA) that works in LA, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta or Boston fit into the group. You don’t need any knowledge to purchase a label, you just need to be a sucker for advertising on the front pages of any glossy. Designer brands are passe. Wine is the new bling. Read the rest of this entry »