How do you get more out of drinking wine? Pay more attention! The same applies to many other issues. I dare to say that many of us are driving a car, of which features we only use a fraction, or play golf with the best (and most expensive) tools without fully realizing the potential that makes them better than “average”. This also applies to food and drink. We use a lot of trouble trying to get to eat in the most Michelin restaurants, look for opportunities to acquire exclusive gastronomic stuff or search information about optimal wines for a particular purpose. However, when sitting behind the [...read more]
Instead of what you are buying or putting into your cellar, the most social aspect in wine is what you are drinking. LetsPour is fantastic new app for iPhone that focuses exactly on that. LetsPour allows you easily to share what you are and see what your friends are drinking. In addition to that, it allows you to recommend wines, ask recommendations and comment on other peoples pours. The application is just about getting too busy so that it will be sensible to look the complete actions flow, but it’s possible to filter people by following them like in Facebook or Twitter. When pouring, you can try [...read more]
Dec 062010
Most wineries have smaller group of private customers that can be considered key clients or super users. You’ve hopefully heard about 80%/20% rule where 20% of customers are responsible for 80% of the business? Great! For the best use of this idea, you should be able to identify just the top 1% or 2% of those. These identified key customers could be people that have visited your winery, order your wine frequently, write about your winery or wines, recommend you repeatedly, are your most active fans in social media or those that often send you praising feedback. We could call [...read more]
Nov 122010
Just opened a bottle of Paul Dolan Deep Red 2005, (Mendocino, USA). First, a brief tasting note; its color is, like it says on the label – deep red (ruby). Nose is strong, but not at all aggressive and has aromas of ripe black cherries, black currants, milk chocolate with tiny flowery notes and some cedar wood. Palate is rich and has just a little sweet tone on it (alc. 14,5%). Some spiciness follows and dark berry aromas as identified in the nose. Acidity is moderate and ripe soft medium tannic structure. Finnish is long and lingering with velvety mouth [...read more]
In recent years the wine producers have massively increased their communication about “green” viticultural practises, environmental efforts and social responsibility. This is a quite significant swift from production methods and various results from tastings and competitions that used to be the core of their communication earlier. The change is made following the current consumer trend (green, responsible) that includes not only wine, but almost everything around us. The most effective issues to communicate that boost wine sales seem to be organic or biodynamic viticulture, sustainability (maybe less), carbon neutrality and issues around social responsibility (Fairtrade for example). Whilst these issues [...read more]
Apr 092010
I Visited the Bio Bio region in South Chile last spring (October). During the visit I went to see Quitralman Estate that is owned by Concha y Toro family. They have organic vineyards with mostly Pinot Noir and Riesling planted there, some are over 30 years old and lot of new plantations as well. The farm also includes 50 ha organic apple farm and they have plenty of Arab horses there. Absolutely beautiful place, heaven on earth! Below few pictures. Share:
There are plenty of wineries, especially in Europe, that have long operating history and family tradition in core of their communication. I recently had a very interesting discussion about the communication, with a representative of one of the wineries of that kind. What it proves if you have a long operating history and tradition? At least that you have been in the business for a long time. Well, you could say that things have been done in the right way quite a couple of times if you have managed to keep your business running for, let’s say hundreds of years. [...read more]
Feb 172010
Sweet wines are a mystery. Everybody loves them, is interested in them and after tasting them comments that why don’t we drink these more often. I have participated several times in discussion where people from restaurants complain about the amount of sweet wines they sell. Well, the true problem is already mentioned within that sentence. Restaurants are not putting enough effort in selling them. Here are few tips that I have collected when talking to people in business successfully selling sweet wines. Sweet wines must be available by glass. Nobody wants to order a bottle of wine which they only [...read more]
The environmental communication has exploded in just few years. Not only regarding wine, but for almost all product groups and industries. Environmental concern has suddenly become one of the most important topics to communicate for many companies. I think this is 100% positive. I want to base my daily choices according to their environmental cause. Doing that, I want to guarantee, or at least believe doing so, that in future my children can enjoy the planet as it is today. In a supermarket I often find myself wondering, for example, around washing powders or detergents (the fact that I buy [...read more]
Jan 032010
Beginning of a year is a season when silly promises are made. People work hard for them, at least for few weeks. In my home country Finland, we have a trend that some people decide to abstain from alcohol for the whole January. It is a tradition and according to the local news, 10% of adults take this decision. The story does not tell how many make it until 31st. I am not doing it, but I thought the timing would be ideal to write about non-alcoholic wines. Perhaps it will be helpful for someone to know that there is [...read more]
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