Wine Technology Blog @ WineWeb.com

We're busy preparing for the 2nd annual "Wines of Another Glass" tasting party this Sunday. We started this last year at the end of the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta to showcase some wines that weren't (and can't be) included in the Fiesta, as the liquor wholesalers don't stock them and therefore are not in the 3 tier (winery, wholesaler, retailer) distribution system. We'll have video conferences with the winemakers and a chance to order the wines direct from the winery. We plan to do real-time online user reviews and tweets so others can follow the fun we're having. We'll also have a wide assortment of food prepared by a bunch of amateur wine-loving cooks.

This is a private, invitation-only event, but if you are in Santa Fe this Sunday, contact me for an invite. Or if you're at the Wine & Chile grand tasting tomorrow, hit me up for an invitation -- I'll be wearing a WineWeb shirt.

An interesting paper entitled "An Analysis of the Concordance Among 13 U.S. Wine Competitions" just published in the Journal of Wine Economics makes the following conclusion:

"An examination of the results of 13 U.S. wine competitions shows that (1) there is almost no consensus among the 13 wine competitions regarding wine quality, (2) for wines receiving a Gold medal in one or more competitions, it is very likely that the same wine received no award at another, (3) the likelihood of receiving a Gold medal can be statistically explained by chance alone."

Another reason to taste wine often and buy what YOU like.

A group of us went up to a local winery the weekend before last to help harvest grapes. As I was picking Baco Noir grapes, I was thinking about all the steps needed to turn the grapes into a good wine, then all the steps needed to actually turn the wine into revenue for the business. Let's see, a relatively unknown grape, produced by a winery off the beaten path, with limited resources during harvest time -- is this situation that different from many of the 6,000 plus wineries all across this country? Probably not.

So, how could technology help with some of these steps? If the winery had a mailing list of customers and interested persons (obviously built up over time), that could be used to get people into the vineyard and winery to provide additional manpower during harvest. I'm guessing that there would be a lot of interest in being part of the winemaking process. Combine that with an effective website, blog and an online ordering function, and the winery can explain how/why their wines are good, generate interest, and provide a way to get the wine. Would that solve all the winery's issues? No, but it could fill some holes in the current business model.

Overall an enjoyable day, and further confirmation that what we do here is important.

No, this blog is not dead, although I could understand why you could get that impression as the last post was several months back. I recently read about someone complaining to a blogger that they should quit the "mouth work" and get back to "real work". I seem to have the opposite problem -- the real work always gets ahead of the blog. Maybe it's an issue of focus.

I reread Seth Godin's guide on starting a blog for inspiration. Maybe what I need to talk about in this blog are two of my favorite things: wine and technology. Sometimes combined, sometimes each on a separate tangent. I think there's a lot I could say on those topics that others would find interesting. So onward with that approach -- and maybe the mouth work will become easier.

I always thought you could count on your elected representatives to promote a state's industries. Apparently not in Kansas. Last week Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius was quoted as saying “You should be thankful we don’t make wine in Kansas. If you ever see Kansas wine, don’t drink it.” Ouch.

WineWeb's winery directory lists 20 wineries in Kansas. If you're interested in exploring new wine regions, ignore the governor's advise and try some. Hmm, I bet her father-in-law (former congressman Keith Sebelius who served while I was growing up there) would have never said anything like that.

It's not about WHAT you know about wine, it's about WHO you know.

Introducing Club WineWeb, an exclusive club offering wines direct from small-production wineries. Each month members receive two bottles of handcrafted wine, direct from the winery. The winery selects their wines, sets the discounted price, processes your payment and ships the wine. Their incentive is to offer you wines that reflect their winemaking style, in the hopes that you'll order additional wines from them. The wines in the club shipment are priced at a discount, something these wineries rarely do. In addition, you'll receive a page of details on these wines, which will include a promotion code that you can use for a limited-time discount on additional wines from this winery.

This is an exclusive invitation-only club. You must have received an invitation code from a current wine club member or been given the invitation code at a WineWeb-sponsored event. More details about the club is at clubwineweb.com.

As an incentive for club members to invite their friends into this club, we'll highlight the members with the most referral members (including referrals of referrals), and send our top club members cool stuff.

Going to the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta Grand Tasting? Want to meet some new friends there? WineWeb.com is giving away t-shirts to promote this mini-party within the event (and to promote our company as a source for getting wines that the wholesalers don't bring into the state). We want to have some fun with this: take photos and video and post them here. Tell your friends. Contact us with your shirt size and how to get the shirts to you.

WineWeb has just launched an application on the Facebook social networking site. The application integrates our winery search, wine search, user reviews and wish list functions to Facebook users. Check it out at apps.facebook.com/wineweb.

Now any Facebook user can install our application and then can find and buy wines. The wines we list are those from wineries and wine merchants that use our e-commerce service or that pay a per-click rate for their listings. So if you are a winery or a wine merchant that wants a larger audience to see your wines, this may be your ticket into a great demographic. We think the potential with Facebook is huge, and we'll continue to enhance this and promote it wildly.

Graeser Winery in Calistoga is the latest winery to join the WineWeb family. Actually "rejoin" is a more accurate term, as we were processing online orders for them back in the "old days" of 1996. Also sweet is the fact that their website was hosted by Inertia Beverage, although we had to wait nine months for the contract with them to expire (We don't have contract commitment periods, as we believe in earning each client's business each month).  Anyway, check out their wines and consider joining one of their wine clubs if you want some of the really good stuff. Their Cabernet Sauvignon is amazing, but don't overlook the Cab Franc.