One Enthusiast’s View on Wine as an Investment Vehicle

I always buy wine with an intention to drink it….someday.  For me, enjoying wine requires popped corks.  Unlike paintings, sculpture, or antiques that can be enjoyed without harming value appreciation or resale opportunities, wine is a consumable whose value remains elusive until it swirls in a glass under nose, eliminating any possibility for future valuation. [...]

“Big Hat, No Cattle” Sticks to Texas Wine Industry

Finally catching up this morning on a week’s worth of wine news while dusting off a month’s worth of tasting notes deserving highlight mentions here at WineZag, Jessica Meyer’s  Dallas Morning News report on the Texas wine industry plucked my funny bone.  Somehow in the land of big hats, cattle ranches, Halliburton, ExxonMobil, and republican [...]

Stop H.R. 5034 and a New Dark Age for Wine Consumers and Retailers

The very recent introduction of H.R. 5034 into the House of Representatives is no less a bad dream for wine drinkers and retailers than a resurrection of the Berlin Wall would be for East Germans or a rekindling of Mao’s Cultural Revolution might represent for China’s citizens.  The bill essentially awards blanket validity to State laws, without [...]

Wine Makers and Mortgage Makers Reverse Greedy Paths

I recoiled and pushed away the crystal stemware wondering if some savory syrup was masquerading as wine, and that maybe its destiny was to spread like jam on slices of peanut butter slathered Wonder Bread.  This sensory collision with high alcohol and unrestrained ripeness was triggered a few years back cracking open a 2005 Mollydooker The Boxer screw top, a wine Robert Parker awarded 95 points to [...]

Take Poll and Weigh In On Future High-End Wine Economy

Take a second, look to the right of your screen,  and share your own thoughts on what it takes for you to spend $50+ on high-end wines at retail.  With the preliminary findings report from Silicon Valley Bank’s Wine Division (see recent post Wine Sales Stink and the World is Not Flat) underscoring the massive swing in growth rates that has [...]

Wine Sales Stink and The World is Not Flat

In Silicon Valley Bank’s recently released Preliminary Findings Report (you won’t get a recap of all the details here, save a few,  so click on the link and download the PDF if you are so inclined) which precedes their more exhaustive Spring 2010-2011 Annual State of the Wine Industry Report, the Bank’s opening salvo declared; The [...]

A Case for Avoiding the Wine Rating Mousetrap

Leave it up to an expert on randomness and a statistician turned winemaker to make an astonishing case that wine ratings are inconsistent and unreliable.  The debate on ratings value has been legitimately extended by a couple of primary and secondary research studies presented by Robert Hodgson in the Journal of Wine Economics.  Hodgson’s work and conversations with a few high profile wine critics [...]

Grand Tasting Kickoff at New York Wine Experience

Last night the “Critics’ Choice” Grand Tasting kick-off of the 2009 New York Wine Experience showcased the usual round up of the world’s best wineries and winemakers.  The crowds swarmed the aisles of the 5th and 6th floors of the New York Marriott Marquis tasting one trophy wine after the next.  It is an overwhelming experience and a [...]

On Generations of Wine Enthusiasts and Mid Year Thanks

With a dash of accomplishment, a gallon of surprise, and a full tank of humble pie it hit me that WineZag is now six months old. This project has surpassed my original expectations for social media immersion and continued promotion of wine as a lubricant for human connection without bias. Thanks to the thousands that visit every month and the [...]

Cab Franc and Falanghina With Roots

I can only tolerate an hour, or so, of tasting through large portfolios at crowded trade events.  With an air of desperation, I scurry to discover a new wine or two representing a commensurate quality and value reward for immersing in this tasting format’s inherent nest of inconvenience. My schedule had me in Boston simultaneous with the Loire Valley Wine Bureau tasting at the Taj [...]

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