Happy 4th of July

and cheers!  Drink safe and be careful with fireworks around the BBQ.

Shakeup in Wine Politics

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) are cutting ties with the Century Council over ignition interlocks according to a new article in the Wall Street Journal. They’ve asked the group to “stop proclaiming that it’s MADD’s partner in the Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving,” and stop using MADD’s logo on its website.

The problem hinges on ignition interlocks and the blood alcohol content of first time offenders. In all, MADD wants the Council to support bills that mandate interlocks for all first-time offenders, while the Council thinks there should be some exceptions.

Read the original post in its entirerty at  winespiritsdaily.com and The WSJ provided this link to the letter.

When Wine Goes Viral

A new Argentine Rosé from Fuzion is a stellar hit, but wine critics aren’t certain why. Sure the $7.45 price tag makes it easy to take the risk but EVERYONE is buying it even though the reviews are iffy at best. In Ontario, Star wine critic Gord Stimmell reported 1,000 cases were flying off shelves each day – all without traditional advertising (more on that here). While we definitely prefer a good solid wine, we’re really fascinated by Fuzion’s unprecedented success. Fuzion has viral marketing nail and nailed hard.

Viral marketing is digital-age word-of-mouth. If you think about it, its kind of old school … if your friend says it’s good then you’ll likely try it. I do it, you probably do it, and they did it in the ‘olden days’. In today’s economy consumers are increasingly immune to traditional marketing; so instead of marketing at populations, viral marketing promotes conversation with consumers and encourage feedback. In the U.S., 64% of respondents report that they will try something recommended by a friend. In these days when staying in touch means e-mail or texting, the average U.S. consumer will tell a good experience online to an average of 12 others: a favorite movie to 8.6 contacts: 6.1 people about a favorite restaurant: and 5.3 friends about a favorite wine. Businesses like it because it’s accurate in replication, fast, cheap, allows for detailed tracking, and opinion leader identification. Everyone likes it because it’s personal, often local, and it’s not up in your face with flashing lights and bells and whistles.

All that said, check us out on twitter and facebook.

History of Toasting

You may have wondered just what a roasted slice of bread has to do with the practice of offering a toast? The two couldn’t seem more unrelated.

As early as the 6th Century B.C., the Greeks were toasting to the health of their friend’s for a highly practical reason — to assure them that the wine they were about to drink wasn’t poisoned. To spike the wine with poison, had become an all too common means of dealing with social problems — disposing of an enemy, silencing the competition, preventing a messy divorce, and the like. It thus became a symbol of friendship for the host to pour wine from a common pitcher, drink it before his guests, and satisfied that it was a good experience, raise his glass to his friends to do likewise.

The Romans, impressed by the Greeks in general, tended to handle their interpersonal problems similarly. It’s no surprise then, that the practice of toasting was popular at Roman get-togethers as well. The term toast comes from the Roman practice of dropping a piece of burnt bread into the wine. This was done to temper some of the bad wines the Romans sometimes had to drink. (Much later, even Falstaff said, “put toast in’t” when he was requesting a jug of wine in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor.) The charcoal actually reduces the acidity of slightly off wines making them more palatable. In time, the Latin tostus meaning roasted or parched, came to refer to the drink itself. In the 1700’s, party-goers even liked to toast to the health of people not present — usually celebrities and especially beautiful women. A women who became the object of many such toasts, came to be known as the “toast of the town.”

By the 1800’s, toasting was the proper thing to do. Charles Panati reported that a “British duke wrote in 1803 that ‘every glass during dinner had to be dedicated to someone,’ and that to refrain from toasting was considered ’sottish and rude, as if no one present was worth drinking to.’ Oneway to effectively insult a dinner guest was to omit toasting him or her; it was, as the duke wrote, ‘a piece of direct contempt’.”

* Re-posted from IntoWine.com

Fall Update from the Vineyard

Hand of God Vineyards

We are slowly entering low season and fall.  It’s gorgeous here; the leaves are turning yellow, orange and red – depending on the variety – and the view is simply stunning.  April in Mendoza was extremely warm – it did not feel like fall at all. Average temperatures were the highest in the last decade with average values ranging from 55º F / 12º C (minimum) to 80º F / 26º C (maximum). While we’ve had unusually warms and sunny days, we’ve had a good growing season and the nights are now longer and colder.

The young vines are developing well. We harvested grapes this year but, as expected, the vines are still too young and their fruit lacks mature flavor. We  are now carrying out routine maintenance tasks and preparing the vines for the winter season and pruning. Our first mature harvest is another year away and it’s a hard wait. We believe our first harvest will have a lot of potential.  It is a promising start for our vineyard so stay tuned.

Fall in the Uco Valley

Banging on the Winery Gate

Lettie Teague of Food & Wine stopped by the vineyard at Achaval -Ferrer and was both amused and impressed … amused by the lack of pretensions and a doorbell, impressed by our new wine that are still in barrel. Read more here.

Blind Tasting with Stephen Reiss

Morton’s Malbec Madness

Wow, it’s really interesting to see a big chain restaurant focus on an individual varietal and, you guessed it, that varietal is Malbec. During the months of May, June and July, Morton’s network of over 50 restaurants throughout the US will be focusing on the wines from the Mendoza and Cafayate regions of Argentina.  Five wines total from well-known brands, Trapiche and Michel Torino, will be paired with both beef and fish dishes and tastings will be held at participating restaurants from 6 – 7:30pm.

Visit their site for more info and dates and times of tastings.

At Last, The News is Good for Argentina

Everywhere I turn I hear the same.  Mlabec is the ‘it’ wine and people are loving it now more than ever because of it’s high quality and low cost.  We hope to see this trend continue and aim to bring out ultra premium Argentine wines.

Argentina’s Andes Advantage

When the going gets tough the tough get crafty

More people are opting for Argentine reds with an appealing cost to quality ratio.  Cali is feeling the crunch.

Sales of Napa Valley red wines come to a ’screeching halt’