Fizz

posted by Scott in Wine, Guest Bloggers

Here it is: my obligatory Champagne/New Year’s Eve piece. A true staple, this is one of many in the old wine writing arsenal like the article that urges you to try rose wine because its spring (or summer or fall) or the bit on what to pair with turkey for Thanksgiving. So here it is. Whether you want it or not, it’s that time of year.

The good news is that I’ll keep it short. I won’t tell you that Cava makes a fine substitute for those who want some mousse for less money. I will not recommend a grower Champagne. In fact, I will not recommend any sparkling wine for that matter. Frankly, I don’t care if you get your bubbles from a gin and tonic, which isn’t such a bad idea.

However, should it be Champagne you seek, I will offer some drink for thought. A unique website called Libation Unlimited allows you to browse bubbly by cork and capsule. I have yet to fully figure why such a site should exist, but it does so we best make use of it. So feel free to forget what you drank this New Year’s Eve; rest assured, if you keep the cork, you can figure it out later.

Scott Rosenbaum is director of operations for the International Wine Center and wine buyer for the retailer DrinkUpNY.

Ideas for Wrapping Wine, Don’t

posted by Scott in Snooth, Wine

Santa, Baby. Hear me out, big guy. Times are a-changing. The world is going green. I’m sure you know this already with the North Pole all melty and what not. How to deal? Here’s my advice: This Christmas don’t wrap wine.

Seriously, give your elves a break and save a tree in the process. Technically speaking, the wine is already wrapped; it comes in a lovely bottle (or box). Why be redundant? Now I know you love those tacky wine bags with grape prints on them, or worse yet, made of burlap. You do know they are tacky, right? Well they are, not to mention hideous and impractical. No one ever uses them twice. You can also skip the tinsel-like silver or red bags tied with cheap ribbon they give you for free at the liquor store. It’s a sure sign of last minute gifting and no one wants to seem thoughtless. Plus, they just get tossed.

So how to class things up without creating extra waste? Here’s two ideas:

1. A nice, thick ribbon tied around a bottle is elegant. It’s reminiscent of those holiday commercials where someone rich gives someone else a car. This is the pared down version of it, but every bit as considerate. Just decide whether or not to tie it around the neck the bottle or the body (works well with Bordeaux-shaped bottles). Voila! A stylish packaged gift that results in clean up after its opened.

2. If you’d rather reuse than reduce, give one of these bottle carriers

They’ve been written about extensively and it’s because they’re fantastic for transporting wine. Everyone loves to mention that they’re constructed from neoprene, which is fun to touch and great if your bottles ever want to go scuba diving. Joking aside, it’s wrapping you can use. Plus they come in all sizes, colors, and patterns, so you can personalize.

There you have it, Santa. Other than that, just don’t leave the wine on the mantel and you’re set. Now about that Chateau Haut-Brion I asked for last year…

Multiplicity and Its Discontents

posted by Scott in Wine Industry, Guest Bloggers

Something is going on. It has been on my mind for a while, but it has taken me some time to gather enough evidence to substantiate that this “thing” is surely a trend and not just some imagined fancy of my design-oriented mind. What I’m referring to is the fact that collectible cover marketing has collided head on with wine label design. Recently there has been an onslaught of new wines that boast different labels for the same product. So much like you’d be able to find 24 copies of the same issue of TV Guide with different covers, you can now also find your favorite wine with three (or more) different labels.

Sounds smart, doesn’t it? Allow the consumer more choices, and they’re much more likely to choose the one that best reflects their personality, sentiment, or favorite color. Didn’t the Apple do something a little like this by creating iMac colors?

Now it sounds a bit silly, doesn’t it? And this doesn’t even take into account the bevy of problems encountered when launching such a product. Check out Harper’s (the British one) for a small anecdote (scroll down to the heading “Trouble with Customs”) about the legal complications of such design choices.

And forget about brand identification. To take a product that so many consumers solely identify by the label and offer multiple versions where the label differs is simply confusing. Imagine purchasing the wine online (where one label is displayed) only to receive what looks to be a completely different bottle. Things get even messier if the wine hails from a country other than the U.S. or Australia. It took me a while to figure out that these three (there’s also a fourth with a scarecrow on it) Gaia wines were the same:

Other wines that have taken to this trend include the Italian producer Belisario; they have at least four labels for their Verdicchio di Metalica that I’ve personally counted. Red by St. Francis in California has 12 different labels!

All complaining aside, I do like labels from an aesthetic point of view; I love seeing the various iterations. I just wonder if it’s worth the effort. Until we start framing labels and seeing them displayed in museums, I don’t think it is.

Scott Rosenbaum is director of operations for the International Wine Center and wine buyer for the retailer DrinkUpNY.