WineBerserkers dot com kicks off Battles of Taste series

Global Series of Exclusive Wine Experiences to Feature the World's Top Wine Personalities

NEW YORK, NY--(Spittooned - April 01, 2016) - Todd French's Wine Berserkers (Wineberserkers.com), the world's most recognized online authority on wine discussion boards (over 0.000001% of all wine consumers worldwide are members), is debuting its inaugural Battles of Taste tour on U.S. shores in 2016 as part of a global series of exclusive events for Wineberserkers.com members and guests.

The tour is a continuation of a global series of no-holds-barred fine wine tastings and critical attacks for Wineberserkers.com members and their guests. Battles of Taste will feature hundreds of wines rated 90 points and above by The Wine Berserkers, handpicked by its world-renowned team of expert forum contributors. The inherit quality and ability of guests' palates will be mercilessly questioned at each event. Each city will celebrate a distinct theme, focusing on various major wine regions and styles with each stop.

Taking a connoisseur's look at 'Anti-Flavor Wine Elite Wines Suck', the American leg of the tour kicks off in New York this Saturday,  with wines handpicked and presented by Wine Berserker commenter and Jets fan, Jay Hack (who once famously bought a bought a bottle Château d'Yquem in a parking lot for $200). The very special evening will provide members, their guests and new wineberserkers.com subscribers with the opportunity to get up close and personal with the faceless contributors behind some of the world's most extraordinary wine related Internet posts, by bringing their own favorite wines to be criticized. Four master classes preceding an expertly paired, four-course dinner serving only Flannery steaks and Veleta olive oil will be the highlight of the evening as Hack will don a horned Viking helmet the entire event.

"Battles of Taste is our way of saying a heartfelt thank you to our members who we know are the most knowledgeable wine lovers on the planet," said Moderaror-in-Chief, Todd French. "It's a tasting for consumers to experience world-class Internet bullying in an entirely new way while meeting blowhards who craft the attacks It's also a fantastic opportunity to welcome new members into the world of Wine Berserkers opinions. Online, the forum owner CANNOT read private messages - nobody but the recipients can. This event will allow everyone's true feelings to be aired in public. Consumers will have an amazing time learning what it means to be a Wine Berserker!"

Additionally, Battles of Taste is proud to debut a semi-blind component for the first portion of each walkabout tasting, wherein members will have the opportunity to experience an entirely new levels of mockery and judgement hosted by Bill Klapp, who is coming out of retirement because, "When the time comes to call bullshit, in person or electronically, I am always equal to the task."

The Battles of Taste series commenced in 2008 with walkabout tastings in members' backyards. Following the New York debut of Battle of Taste in the U.S., walkabout Grand Tastings will be held in backyards in Tampa and Los Angeles at later dates.

The Greatest Wine Sale Almost No One Knows About...

For a small group of wine lovers January 27 is a special holiday known as BerserkerDay. Each year, on this hallow day, wineries, retailers, and other peddlers of the wine industry are invited to offer berserk (adjective: out of control with excitement; wild or frenzied) deals on their products. This day of deals is a fantastic way for wineries to give back to consumers, and also the reverse, as many, many new and exciting wineries/producers/wines are discovered by the eager Wineberserkers community on BerserkerDay, with purchases made, and discussions from those who might have experience with them. Typically, you can expect discounts of at least 30% plus free shipping. Producers also tend you put together special packages - library releases, vertical sets, or special cuvées - just for this event. Fiscal restraint is difficult as the deals may make you spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on wine in a matter of hours. It is a great way to discover new wine, or stock up on wine you already know and love.

This year, be sure to tell your friends, just as I'm telling you, about this event. BerserkerDay is available anyone who wants to see it - you don't HAVE to be a registered member of the Wineberserkers community (unless you have an order that requires you to send a private message the winery, in that case, you better register!) to take advantage of the deals. If you're interested in following along on Twitter, you can use the hashtag #berserkerday. The deals will start showing up on the BerserkerDay VII forum around 8 am MST and run for approximately 12 hours.  There will be nearly 100 offers, with nearly 40 auction items, available! See you at Wineberserkers.com tomorrow...

Ben's Blush: Kessler-Haak

Three-year olds don't miss much. The other day someone asked Ben how old he was, and he told them he was three and a half. I quietly interjected that it is a good thing he doesn't know fractions because he is really three and three-quarters. Well, since that moment Ben's new answer to a question about his age is of course, "I'm three and three-quarters!"

I guess the time when your child is right around his or her fourth birthday is when you start looking for pre-kindergarten. We were lucky to not have to think much about what Ben did for daycare, as my wife's school has excellent employee daycare on site. However, pre-k is a different story. The process for Ben to stay at this school is quite involved. We have to write a parent statement, get a teacher recommendation, have a parent interview, and Ben had to attend an assessed playdate. The school is great and the convenience of Ben going to school with his mom makes it that much more attractive of an option.

To do our due diligence, we also are looking at the neighbor elementary school just a few blocks from our home. Information about the program and registration process has been harder to come by. Last night, we attended the open house at the school. Rather than a structured program where administrators and teachers explain things, we just kind of walked around getting a feel for the school and the pre-k room. We did get a chance to speak with the lead pre-k teacher (but who will be retiring at year's end) about the program. It definitely is less structured and rigorous than the private school option, but both seemed relatively similar.

We haven't decided where he is going to go next year. We will have to wait to hear if Ben even gets admitted to mom's school. Maybe the decision will be made for us! Either way, it will be fun to watch Ben continue growing up and expanding his world.

Crossing the Border Guards

Wine appellations fascinate me because my of my interest and background in geography. I often feel like the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding because I think almost everything has its roots in geography (I mean, describing the phenomena of the Earth is what geography is...). In particular, American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs for short, really intrigue me. Not because they are great in and of themselves, but that they reveal the cultural and political aspects of wine appellations more readily than those in Europe. And yes, culture and politics are just as geographical at heart as soil and climate.

Listening and responding to customers...

Yesterday saw the release of a new California sparkling wine called Under the Wire. Haven't heard of it? That's not surprising considering that the release of its initial two wines totaled 120 cases. The new winery is brought to you by Morgan Twain-Peterson and Chris Cottrell, both of slightly more recognized Bedrock Wine Co. Bedrock is known for producing an array of syrahs, zinfandels, and red and white blends from heritage vineyards found in all corners of California. Twain-Peterson, along with a group of other like-mind producers (along with his Ravenswood co-founding father) actually established a non-profit organization, The Historic Vineyard Society (HVS), devoted to preserve California's precious old-vine vineyards.

Prognostications old, prognostications new... (A look back at 2013 and a peak at 2014)

A little over a year ago, I wrote an article outlining my five predictions for 2013. Today, I want to briefly examine those statements and make a few new guesses for 2014.

My first prediction came on the heels of Robert Parker, Jr. taking on foreign investors and yielding editorial control of the Wine Advocate to Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW. Going against popular belief at the time, I said that the Wine Advocate would expand and increase its popularity. Well, I didn't quite nail this, but the publication did not shrivel up and die like many other people thought it would. Many wine aficionados still wait with anticipation for the release of each issue. Wine prices still jump when Parker (or his other reviewers) throw high numbers at already expensive wines. I still think Robert Parker and his henchmen will remain pertinent (but not dominant) in the American wine industry, but will look to expand to Asian markets as they rapidly grow.

My first prediction may have been a push, my second prediction was both spot on and a bust. I thought that regional wine, and especially Colorado, would see more coverage in the major publications (Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator). Wine Advocate maintained the status quo on ignoring wine from the other 47 states despite having a reviewer living in Colorado (Jeb Dunnuck) who is eager and willing to taste and review Colorado wine. Dunnuck had personally told me that he wanted to get CO reviews into the Wine Advocate, but "the powers that be" have squashed that idea.

The Wine Spectator actually took a step forward before jumping three steps back. In 2013 alone (prior to a policy change), Wine Spectator reviewed more than 115 Colorado wines, doubling the number of Colorado wines reviewed by the magazine the previous 20 years combined! Moreover, both James Moleworth and Harvey Steiman had written relatively positive blog posts about Colorado wine (read more on my take here). But unfortunately, the gains regional wine saw in 2013 looks to have all but evaporated going into 2014. An assistant tasting coordinator at Wine Spectator informed several Colorado wineries that Wine Spectator will "not [be] tasting any wines from Colorado at the moment. Furthermore, we have a new policy which requires all importers and wineries to send the info sheet with samples listed that they would like to submit and then they wait for our approval." For this, they were bestowed a Curmudgie by local and cheap wine proponent, Jeff Siegel. Unfortunately, I don't think regional wine will gain much traction with the large wine publications in 2014.

Wine as a food or a lifestyle?

In the New York Times last week, Eric Asimov wrote an article about how little consumers pay attention to what ingredients are actually in wine. This article sparked a 6-page long (and still going) thread on the Wineberskers online forum about ingredient listings on labels and was the catalyst for a multi-day Twitter discussion between Bruce Schoenfeld, Keith Levenberg and myself (there were a few others in there, but those were the principals) about marketing wine as a food. Asimov pointed in his article out that Americans "weigh the nutritional, environmental, humanitarian, aesthetic and even political consequences of what they cook and consume," but do not do the same for wine. He concluded that perhaps if we were to start considering wine as a food that "standards for quality and authenticity" may start playing a part in wine consumers' purchasing decisions. I figured that this post would be much more conducive to laying out my argument than the restrictive nature of Twitter.

I actually disagree with Asimov on two points. First, many, many Americans don't give two seconds worth of thought about any consequences of what they eat. More than one in three Americans is obese; and that number is rising every year. Cheap and easy is easily more important to more people than any nutritional, environmental, humanitarian, aesthetic and even political consequence of food (or food-like product). Why would people care what is in their wine when products like sodas, hot dogs and chips are considered a traditional American meal. How many people look at the ingredient lists of those foods? Those three "foods" aren't even food. Now don't get me wrong, I've consumed all three in the last week, so I definitely live in a glass house. But wine is already confusing enough to the average consumer that they don't want to think about what's in their bottle of chardonnay.

On top of that, and as Asimov started his article, wine is still considered to be "natural" product. I don't have the numbers to back me up, but I'd be willing to bet that most people think only grapes are used to make wine. Just as when you buy an apple or orange juice, you probably assume that's all you're getting. I think people actually consider wine a food. People might like chardonnay more than merlot just like they like Golden Delicious more than MacIntosh. Perhaps wine is not thought as a natural accompaniment to the nightly dinner table (well, Europeans might, but not most Americans), but neither are apples. Consumers also think of wine as a glamorous lifestyle choice. But can wine be both?

When I saw Bruce Schoenfeld (who I often agree with, but love to argue with) tweet, "promoting wine as a lifestyle adjunct comes at the expense of promoting it as a staple food ... Not saying one or the other is better, but they're kind of mutually exclusive," I had to jump into the discussion. Bruce (for some reason I just can refer to him as Schoenfeld) was hitting on the point in Asimov's article that treating wine as a food would cause more consumers to care about the ingredients that go into making a bottle of wine (not all remain in the finished wine). Asimov and Bruce both are correct in there assessment that in America wine is most often marketed as an aspirational product and not generic food. "Drink my wine because it'll make you fun or make you more alluring," is the premise of most wine ads. There is the occasional, "drinking my wine will make you feel like you're at this beautiful, pastoral place when you're just on your couch." But by and large there is no "Got Wine?" campaign in the United States. There is no push to make a place for wine on your dinner table.

That's not to say there couldn't be. And that happens to be my main point in my argument with Bruce. He can think what he wants, and I'd love to shake the hand of a person that has actually changed Bruce's mind. Commodity and luxury are not mutually or intrinsically exclusive of each other. Why do people buy those asinine 2002 Chevrolet Earnhardt Signature Monte Carlos? The car itself serves the same purpose of a regular Monte Carlo, but offers the aspiration to be like a NASCAR driver (yay, I know how to make left turns...). Same could be said about designer jeans or lots of other products. Even foods like bison, heirloom tomatoes and farm-fresh eggs could be considered luxury staple foods. Marketing wine as a generic foodstuff and a glamorous aspirational good can and does happen.

Does it happen often in the U.S.? Nope. But travel to Europe. In Spain, ask for a glass of tinto at a bar and you'll be brought a glass of red wine and a tapa. The bartender most likely will not tell you anything about the wine. The wine's brand is a mystery, yet the brand exists. And I'm sure the winery that made that wine has several other wines that they market as a premium wine. Wine is both a staple food and an aspirational good in Europe. I've only spent an evening in France (and I ate pizza...) and never been to Italy, but I've heard anecdotes about house wine there too being just a generic wine.

Some restaurants in the U.S. also have brand-less house wines, but wine is definitely on fewer tables. My in-laws drink lots of house wine. They don't care what brand it is, they just order a glass of white wine at a restaurant. The fact that many fewer tables are graced by wine is not from wine being inherently incompatible as a lifestyle good and a staple food, but more from America's puritanical history. European history is steeped in wine. American history is not. In fact, it was outlawed for more than 13 years less than a century ago. Nudity and sex are also taboo in the U.S. (though slowly becoming less so) whereas in Europe or Asia the naked body or a sexual act is not something mutually exclusive from decency. Our culture is the reason wine is not usually considered a nightly dinner accompaniment. Marketers in the U.S. know this and have used the wine as a lifestyle campaign to their advantage. But that's not to say wine couldn't be marketed as a food. Wineries would just be barking up a tall tree if they were to attempt that approach.

Though someday the wine as a food campaign may not be so difficult in America. Take the Drink Local Wine movement. All 50 states now have wineries. Today, America wine isn't as much as a special product from the mystical land of California, but something that is much more approachable. Much of the argument for local wine supporters is that wine can be every bit as local as local cheese or local vegetables. Local wine should be considered (considered, not mandatory) when thinking about eating locally. The locapour crowd is much more wine as a food oriented than people that only want to drink top Napa or Bordeaux wineries. Yet, the locavore movement is also about aspiring to a certain lifestyle. And so the circle continues...

Franc, Colorado's Cabernet...

In Europe, wines are named from the regions they come. Bordeaux is known for its cabernet sauvignon and merlot-based wines. Burgundy is synonymous with pinot noir or chardonnay. The Rhône valley is most often thought of as syrah territory. In Italy, Tuscany is known for its sangiovese and Piemonte for nebbiolo. I could keep going on. In New World wine regions, varietal labeling is commonplace. However, many wine regions still have grape varieties in which they specialize. Napa Valley has cabernet sauvignon, the Willamette Valley equates to Pinot Noir and the Barossa Valley is known for shiraz (aka syrah). Even an up and coming region like the Finger Lakes in New York is known for its riesling. Does Colorado have a signature variety?

A different 100-pt system compromise...

Image from http://www.arvi.ch/

Amongst the few of us who write about wine, the 100-pt system is a contentious topic. There are many reasons that people like me don't like it; it projects a false sense of precision, it implies a false notion of objectivity, it removes context from a highly contextual product, and of course there is the issue of score inflation. Oh, sure there are many other problems, but those were the ones I could easily think of off the top of my head.

With the release of the Wine Advocate issue #204 a few weeks ago, the problem of score inflation has come to a head. Mike Steinberger wrote a great piece about it on his WineDiarist blog and Antonio Galloni even chimed in on a heated discussion over on the WineBerserkers forum. To summarize the latest “scandal,” Galloni handed out 95-100 point scores to almost a quarter of the 2010 Napa Valley wines he reviewed. Robert Parker added 17 100-point scores from the Rhône Valley from the 2009-2011 vintages. Just in the past year, Parker has given 100-pt scores to more than 50 wines from Bordeaux, Napa and the Rhône! Perfection (and near perfection) aren’t that hard to come by anymore. Apparently it isn’t obvious to Galloni and Parker that giving too many high scores is going to make high scores meaningless. Like the boy who cried wolf, this duo is quickly turning into the critics who cried classic!

Five social media personalities to whom Colorado wineries should be listening

A few weeks ago, I spoke about social media at VinCO 2012 in Grand Junction, CO. I was supposed to provide a broad introduction into social media tools that wineries can use. My talk consisted of a summary of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp, CellarTracker and WineBerserkers.com, but due to so many questions I was only able to get through the Facebook part and a rushed 2-minute primer on Twitter. My goal next year for the conference is to have a full day of social media workshops where each session is dedicated to only one platform, but that is a topic for another day.

Social media isn't just about how wineries can get their brand in front of consumers' eyes, it is about building relationships. One of the best ways that wineries can build relationships is by listening. Listening is important to find out what consumers want to hear, what critics are saying and simply gaining a broader knowledge of the industry as a whole. Most of the winery owners in Colorado do not have an extensive wine background. None are as knowledgeable about wine as they could be (some may think so, but are not...). The biggest reason I dove head first into the social media realm of the industry is to learn things from those that know more than I. Wineries should do the same. So, today I am offering a list of the five most important social media personalities (other than myself, of course) to whom Colorado wineries should be listening. They all share a commonality, too. See if you can guess what it is.

A Drive Through Napa Valley (or how social media influenced why I visited Pine Ridge and Alpha Omega)

Last week, I was a judge at the NextGeneration Wine Competition in Santa Rosa, CA. Instead of flying directly into Santa Rosa via a 5 hour stop in Seattle for twice the price, I flew into Sacramento and rented a car for the remainder of my journey. I also flew in the day before to avoid waking up at 3 am the first day of the competition. Apparently karma is getting even and since I've been back, Ben has been getting me up at 3 almost every day. Flying into Sacramento the afternoon before the competition started allowed me to meander my way through the Napa Valley the afternoon of my arrival.

Caves at Pine Ridge Winery

A few days before my visit, I saw a tweet from Pine Ridge Vineyards (I believe my only Napa Valley winery follower at the time) announcing a vertical tasting of their top of the line Fortis label the evening after the competition. Unfortunately, my schedule precluded me from getting back to Napa on Friday afternoon, but I was able to schedule a visit on my way in. After a brief stop at my first In 'N Out Burger (well worth the two U-turns), I was greeted at the winery by the e-marketing coordinator for Crimson Wine Group (Pine Ridge's parent company). As I arrived only 30 minutes before the tasting room closed, I did not get to tour the winery, but did get to taste through most of the wines.

I started with two chardonnays, but the 2009 Petit Clos showed the crisp yet full-bodied flavors I enjoy in a chardonnay. It was very floral on the nose and provided flavors of pear, green apple, lemon and even a bit of grass along with fresh vanilla bean. Of the five 2007 cabernet sauvignons (Napa, Stags Leap, Oakville, Rutherford and Howell Mountain) I tasted, the Rutherford bottle stood out to me as providing the best balance between fruit and body. It could be great tonight or in 15 years. Those who want more assertive tannins might enjoy the big Stags Leap cabernet a bit more.

While I did not get to taste the Fortis, I did taste the 2006 Andrus Reserve, 2006 Epitome and 2008 Onyx. All were very nice wines, but the sweet cherries and plums of the Andrus were the tastiest of the bunch. The Epitome was (as it is no longer being produced) made from select blocks of estate cabernet and has gobs of raspberry, tobacco and tannins that will integrate even more with a few years of bottle aging. While the Onyx was nice, I'd rather drink (several) Argentinian malbecs for the cost of admission. Overall, I was impressed with both the wines and the use of social media at Pine Ridge. Having a good social network presence that is matched by high quality wines will lead to more success at Pine Ridge. Not shilling product, but announcing events and interacting with consumers who happen to follow on Twitter or like on Facebook is the way that wineries need to use these networks, and Pine Ridge gets it.

Alpha Omega Winery

Another aspect of social media PR is promoting others in your industry. As I was leaving, the tasting room staff recommended that I visit Alpha Omega Winery. I have read good things about this newish winery on the Wineberserkers.com online wine forum, but had not had the opportunity to try the wines. I don't know how many wineries monitor the conversations on forums such as Wineberskers, the Wine Spectator Forums or the Wine Library Forums (I used to read the bulletin board over at eRobertParker.com before the pay-wall went up), but I would highly recommend that they do so. Reputations can be made or lost with a only a few positive or negative comments on these sites. With the recommendation at Pine Ridge and the positive reviews from other digitally savvy winelovers, I made my way to the other side of the valley and up to the tasting bar at Alpha Omega.

Alpha Omega is a small (less than 5000 cases annually) winery that uses flying winemaker Michel Rolland as a consultant. The facility just off Highway 29 is exquisite and inviting. I started my tasting with a sauvignon blanc and chardonnay that did not impress me, but the 2010 Rosé was quite memorable. Pomegranate and strawberries flavors were present on the forepalate, but as I had a few more sips, a strange (but good) creamy yogurt flavor presented itself only to morph into a white chocolate covered cherries finish. Not the usual light and crisp rosé, but a tasty wine nonetheless. I did not find the 2008 cabernet sauvignon all that impressive, but the 2008 Proprietary Red Blend and 2009 Era (barrel samples because the 2008 is sold out) were both big and bold wines showing blackberries, raspberries, currants and espresso. The Era was slightly deeper, jammier and more complex than the Blend with sweeter fruit and more supple tannins, but both will undoubtedly impress those who like big Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon dominated blends. Neither are cheap, but might actually be steals considering what some other Napa wines are going for nowadays.

While Alpha Omega does not use Twitter or Facebook nearly as much as Pine Ridge, they definitely have a following on wine-centered social network Wineberserkers.com. Understanding how these marketing tools work, whether a winery chooses to participate or not, is important because consumers are participating regardless. Many consumers choose which wineries to visit and which wines to buy from recommendations via social networks. Even wineries in established wine regions like Napa can be helped or hurt through social media, but developing regions like Colorado have the most to gain from utilizing these tools to develop personal relationships with current and potential customers.