Three dot wine...

I'm keeping busy these days doing all the things necessary to launch a winery. Of course there's the wine. I'm talking about licensing with the feds, state of Oregon, and city of Portland. Working on label design. Building my mailing list so we can find people to buy our wines. Setting up a business web site. Planning for the coming harvest. There's so much to do...

Meanwhile, the wine world rolls and roils on. Did you hear about the big news with erobertparker.com? I've written elsewhere along with so many others that I think it's a big mistake to take the largest online wine discussion community and shut out everyone but paying subscribers. People point out that other wine critics charge for access to their sites. Surely it's easier to administer a site with fewer people. But isn't the point to expand your audience? Isn't 15,000+ registered users on the site something to be proud of, to make advantage of? Surely retrograde isn't the right move, shutting out many, perhaps most of them to speak only to the people who already buy your product. But what do I know... Katherine Cole (@kcoleuncorked) of the Oregonian newspaper tweeted that she's hardly heartbroken about the move. I get that. I replied I'm not either, but I am scratching my head...

Speaking of Twitter, do you follow Randall Graham (@RahdallGraham)? I and nearly 400,000 other people do, and he's great. Interesting, honest and seriously down to earth. Today he wrote a series of tweets about his ailing Citroen. Only the French would name a car lemon... Here's hoping it's back on the roads of Santa Cruz soon...


In the aftermath of the erobertparker massacre, my 2009 wine story of the year Wine Berserkers is growing by leaps and bounds with castoffs from the now-private Parker. Only problem? They just can't get over the Parker obsession. I keep thinking it will happen, but this week's event only reignited the passion for all things Parker and Squires. At least there's a push to finally cut the crap and get on with being the newly most active, non-private wine discussion site out there. What an opportunity for this homegrown community...

That's it, I won't mention the Parker debacle ever again...unless I change my mind...

Finally, I just don't have too much wine stuff to talk about. I'm working on another wine project that I'll disclose soon, but it's too early to go there... I was going to attend an excellent tasting of Torbreck wines at the Allison earlier this week but life got in the way... I've had a few wines lately that didn't delight me or disgust me enough to write about them... But...but...but...

I will be at Storyteller Wine Co. on Friday night to meet and greet Steve Edmunds of Edmunds St. John wines. After all these years, yes, it's true, I've never even met Steve. I've enjoyed his wines for so long. I've interacted with him on wine discussion sites. We're even Facebook friends. Now, at last, a live in person meeting and I can't wait. And I'm looking forward to tasting his newest releases. Hope to see local readers there. Friday, Storyteller, 6pm. Be there...