finalanalysis

Who comes up with these lists?

Nothing against the nominees, but where is KrogBar? Holeman & Finch? Varasano’s has great pizza but is not a wine bar. Why is a private club even on the list? If being a restaurant and having a bar is all that matters, then where is Aria? Canoe? Ecco? You’re going to tell me that Highland Tap has a better wine list than Murphy’s RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET? WTF?

Count me with Steve Heimhoff on this one.

I like and respect Hardy Wallace quite a lot. I think it was a master stroke to keep his quest for A Really Goode Job separate from his main brand, Dirty South Wine. If he hadn’t won, he wouldn’t have tarnished his brand the way some applicants did (Anyone who says that “this Murphy Goode Fume Blanc is the best wine I’ve ever tasted” has lost all credibility in my opinion.).

There is no doubt that Hardy is a social media ninja. That, combined with his wicked sense of humor and impromptu blending skills pushed him over the top. Lots and lots of people were pulling for Hardy to win and were thrilled that he did. But speaking only for myself, while I watched the contest for A Really Goode Job closely, and specifically watched what Hardy was doing, now that he has won, my interest has seriously waned.

During the contest, Hardy (and the other contestants) were selling themselves. Now, Hardy will be selling Murphy-Goode. That just doesn’t interest me as much. I’d rather hear his opinions on the best wine for armageddon.

Right before he won, Hardy and I had a long conversation about how to avoid turning Facebook and Twitter into platforms for glorified SPAM (Note to Atlanta restaurants: You are doing it wrong. I may be your friend on Facebook, but I ignore all of your event invitations. Sorry.). He was convinced that it could be done and he convinced me that if anyone could do it, he could. We shall see.

I have no doubt that he will have a blast over the next six months and walk away at the end with an enhanced toolkit, an Iphone full of new contacts, and a dozen job offers. (On a personal note, I hope he comes back to Atlanta and doesn’t stay in California. The Atlanta wine scene is more vibrant with him here.)

Other bloggers do this, so I can too!

• Starbucks is opening a wine bar. Given that their coffee is over-roasted and lacking in subtlety, what sorts of wine do you think they will serve?
• If you write a wine list, don’t put more than 150 selections on it.
• I’m sure you’ll be shocked to discover that the wine reviewed by critics is not always the same wine that ends up on the shelf.
• Do “aluminum bottles for wine add value to the drinking experience“? I’m going to vote for no, although in general I favor the move toward non-glass packaging.
• Prime Beef and Classed Growth Bordeaux for pennies on the dollar? I’m going to CostCo!
• I told you you weren’t allergic to sulfites!

That is all.

Looks like the Murphy-Goode people aren’t as stoopid as I thought they might be.

What I want to know is, what offers were made to the other finalists?

GO HARDY!

I’m calling bullshit.

I don’t really care whether James Laube likes Shafer One Point Five. For that matter, I don’t personally care what Laube thinks about any wine. His palate and mine clearly favor different styles.

But when it comes to the viability of wine in the marketplace, the man is a giant! His scores can make or break vintages–even wineries. The idea that he can pan a wine as flawed, agree to disagree with the winemaker, then leave it all to the market to sort out is false modesty at best and disingenuousness (disingenuousity?) at worst.

The guidebook Gault Millau isn’t well known in America, but in Germany it is a big deal. As with a high score in Wine Spectator or Wine Advocate here in the US, a good review in Gault Millau can make or break a sales vintage for a producer.

Presumably Gault Millau knows this, which is why someone over there thought it would be a good idea to shakedown producers for a “voluntary” contribution of $195 Euros ($277 US). Unsurprisingly, German wineries weren’t thrilled with this and they sent a group letter in protest.

Now according to Decanter.com, “the chief editor, Armin Diel, resigned this month because the ‘whole issue made me feel uncomfortable,‘”

I’ll give him credit for self awareness, which is more than I can say for the review site Yelp.com, which got caught in a similar pay-to-play scandal earlier this year.

It is an interesting contrast: the German resigns after losing face, the American wages a full-out PR blitz attacking the media outlets that wrote about his company.

People pooh-pooh the Wine Spectator restaurant awards. And to be fair, they’ll give the One Glass Award of Excellence to anyone, event outright frauds.

But to get a Two Glass “Best of” award takes a deeper commitment to crafting a thoughtful and considered wine program. Canoe Restaurant’s Matt Bradford was the only Wine Director in Atlanta to receive an upgrade to a “Best of” award this year, joining Bone’s and Joel as the only Two Glass award winning independent restaurants in our fair city. Kudos!

At the very least he has more interesting things to say about the cooling of “luxury fever.”

From the Wall Street Journal’s Dept. of Somewhat Obvious Phenomena we learn that expensive wines aren’t selling very well:

“Many of America’s high-end wineries are reeling from the economic downturn…Recession-weary consumers…are buying more mid- and low-priced wines…The shift is pinching the profits of luxury vintners in Napa and Sonoma counties and forcing many to cut prices…”

If you write a business plan based on $250,000/acre land, $90,000/acre planting costs, and $1,000,000 consulting fees, I’m sure you feel your wine is “worth” $100+/btl. But to hear the market speak, it isn’t. Speaking from experience, the premium and super-premium wines that sell well in today’s market either have an established fan base or excellent scores (95+) from either Wine Advocate or Wine Spectator (or both).

Otherwise, super-premium wines are dead in the water. You wanna sell 200 cases nationally at $100+/bottle retail, you probably can regardless if you work hard enough. You want to sell 15,000 cases at the same price point? Good luck with that.