Disqus - Latest Comments for Jill

Re: Iberian Wine News for the First Week of August 2007

Jill — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:46:19 -0000

Hey Ryan, thanks for the mention. We're still trying to figure ourselves out too! The basic idea is...we're there for everybody who wants to learn about/talk about/discover wine...and if they want to buy from us too -- we're of the soft-sell variety -- then that's a bonus.

Integrating commentary, community and commerce is the basic gist. Hopefully we'll be able to walk the fine line.

Re: Gary takes on two Sherry’s in his Sherry Episode!

Jill — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 21:09:15 -0000

okay, I need to learn LOTS more on sherry. I can't even really partipate in this dialogue. however, can I ask what the hell the announcement is from WLTV? I am intrigued (and a little scared. hopefully it's not too competition-crushing!).

Re: Pimp My Wine Blog

Jill — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 14:24:50 -0000

Hi. This is a really interesting topic. Our writing definitely varies in quality depending upon each post...we have a few different categories on domaine547, and the Freshly Pressed articles get more attention, for the most part, than the Grapewise articles, for instance.

Sometimes we churn things out in an effort to get new content up, and haven't paid as much attention to detail as we would like. Sometimes we speak off the cuff. Sign us up. We have our own personal style, which sometimes goes against the Elements of Style and other accepted grammatical standards.

Mostly these "style" deviations are intentional, sometimes they are not. After all, as a blog, domaine547 is trying to establish a voice of its own, lest it be too similar to other blogs covering similar topics. But we are certainly open to the idea of improvement, and open to anything that encourages that.

Re: Catavino gets 60,000 Unique Visitors a Month - Oh, and We have a Bridge for Sale!

Jill — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:19:51 -0000

Our numbers...pale in comparison to a lot of others out there. But we just launched in May, so we're not feeling too bad about it.

August Stats:

Mint: 2500 uniques per month, 10K pageviews
Google: 2400+ absolute uniques per month, 9500+ pageviews

Don't know where the discrepancy comes from. This was a big dip in traffic from June and July, and traffic is going up again. Also, we have had trouble integrating the analytics tools to track both our blog and the store, and we're still trying to work out the kinks.

We had an enormous spike when we were in Daily Candy...got about a month's worth of traffic in a day. Our goal? Who knows. We'd love to have 500 uniques per day and we'd be pretty happy.

Re: Old Wine Media - Poo Pooing New Wine Tools?

Jill — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:41:10 -0000

I've been working on getting our inventory into Snooth but our outdated code is forcing me to do manual data entry...

Re: Catavino Makes a Quick Jaunt to Southeastern Spain’s Wine Country

Jill — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:36:26 -0000

gots to be da monastrell

Re: Catavino Makes a Quick Jaunt to Southeastern Spain’s Wine Country

Jill — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:33:25 -0000

garnacha tintorera; dark skin and red flesh.

Re: Catavino Makes a Quick Jaunt to Southeastern Spain’s Wine Country

Jill — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:20:50 -0000

actually, I remember Ryan having twittered this week about enjoying garnacha tintorera, and didn't even pick up on the "tinted" clue. So I may not deserve the official title as of yet! I also have to say, while I enjoy the GT grape and we have one in our inventory, nobody else seems to have any desire to try it...even though it's a bargain basement wine. Oh well!

Re: Iberian News from Around the Web

Jill — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:29:10 -0000

Hi guys. I noticed your post has been hijacked by a site: http://worldwine.freehostia.com/ -- do you know anything about this?

Happy that the WS is finally giving Spain its due. I think they were unjustly giving the wines a hard time when Parker started going crazy for it. Now they've come to their senses.

Re: Cavatast 2007

Jill — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:39:24 -0000

you've reminded me that I need to get out of LA every once in a while and enjoy all the various offerings, wine and otherwise, within an hour or two distance. Here, unfortunately, I can't boast about using public transportation...a car will have to do, but I'll at least make sure to fill it up with friends.

Re: We’re Sherry Educators

Jill — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:59:06 -0000

Congrats! Now I need you to teach me! I will also be reading closely...

Re: Lomo of Guijuelo

Jill — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:48:35 -0000

YUM! (how's that for an intelligent comment, right?)

Re: Wine Gadget Meme - We’ll go first

Jill — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:03:05 -0000

Morpho-Vino v1.0

Riedel makes glasses of many different shapes, each claiming to be best suited to a particular style of wine. But they have so many different lines, how do you know that Burgundy you've opened is going to show best in their Vinum series Burgundy glass, as opposed to their Sommelier series Burgundy glass? If you're looking for one glass to fit every wine drinking occasion, I have the invention just for you: the Morpho-Vino.

The Morpho-Vino is proprietary technology that provides you with a pure, crystal wine glass that is able to adapt in shape to whatever you're drinking -- as a Shmoo or a Barbapapa might -- so that you get the optimal drinking experience with every bottle you open. How does it work, you ask? It's easy.

All you have to do is take the miniature Morpho-Vino Wine Thief provided in the kit, get a bottle sample, and place a drop of your selected wine into your Morpho-Vino glass. Instantaenously, you'll see particles begin to shift and your glass transform from its original shape into the optimal type for your wine. Morpho-Vino will change the wine stemware world, providing drinkers with the assurance that they are always drinking from the most appropriate receptacle. Plus, think of all that shelf space people will save, not having to have different types of glasses for different grape varieties, regions, and whatnot.

If Riedel thought they had a problem with Eisch's breathable stemware, they better look out since the Morpho-Vino is set to hit the marketplace in 2008. Patent pending.

Now, I tag Erika Strum at http://strumerika.com to announce her Wine Gadget Meme.

Re: Wine Gadget Meme - We’ll go first

Jill — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:03:13 -0000

I forgot to mention the best part...it's unbreakable. The tranformative elements of the glass make it highly resilient.

Re: November is Dedicated to Port Wine

Jill — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:09:36 -0000

Hey Ryan and Gabriella, I think it's time for the Port-Pack!

Re: Impossible Wine and Food Pairings? Wine and Shoe Pairings?

Jill — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:15:39 -0000

I'm just learning about Port, so I'm going to leave it to others and take some recommendations as I experiment! I could use help with my shoe choices as well.

Re: Catavino’s Newsletter and other House keeping

Jill — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:34:18 -0000

FYI I just clicked on the newsletter badge and it didn't allow me to sign up. I'll be emailing you imminently!

Your biggest fan,

Jill

Re: Freixenet - Money Wasted or Money Well Spent?

Jill — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:38:18 -0000

I think it's a mismatch. Fans of Scorcese are fairly highbrow, despite his Oscar win for The Departed. I think while the concept is decent (BMW's short films were considered ultra-successful) this has not been fully thought out. The Wes Anderson/American Express ad was a better fit, too, in terms of audience/content appropriateness.

Moreover, there was a short film at Sundance about five years ago, called "David Mamet's Gilded Stones", that is basically the same concept as this: a lost reel of a David Mamet film is recreated by three different film directors: John Woo, Scorcese, and I'm forgetting the third. Directed by Jim Dodson, the short film was spot on in its direction and is more successful in replicating the auteurs' trademark styles than Scorcese is with Hitchcock (just having birds outside a window, or a character name reference, does not a mimic make). I wish I could find a link to it online, it really is a fantastic film (starring pre-Weeds Elizabeth Perkins, and Rosanna Arquette). And it advertises nothing.

I think this could have been money well spent but doesn't quite hit its target.

Re: Link Bait or Ignorance? A Reporter Gets Spanish Wine Wrong

Jill — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:31:02 -0000

Yeah, it's a ridiculously inaccurate article. I don't know a whole helluva lot about Spain, but even in my limited experience I caught many of the untruths and factual errors that you point out. Plus, the fact that some of the most highly regarded wine importers have been focusing on Spain isn't even mentioned. Why would Eric Solomon waste his time in a vast wasteland?

As for whether it's link-baiting, I'm not sure. It's hard to tell. It does say that it's a weekly column...so I guess you could look through past entries to see what the level of reporting is and whether it's as hyperbolic and instigative (is that even a word? I think maybe I just made that up!).

Re: Who’s Crowned the Cava Guru and What Should I Know about Cava Wine?

Jill — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:10:07 -0000

I'll throw my hat in the ring but I have to admit I could only track down figures for 2005. My google-skills are apparently remedial:

128.76 Million bottles total produced for export, with approximately 12 million going to the US.

December

Re: Hey Wine Bloggers, Wanna Publish Something in Print?

Jill — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:35:17 -0000

I love the idea of doing an internet-based publication (at least as a testing ground for print...though print isn't very eco-friendly, is it?).

The one thing I fear: I'm a blogger, but I'm a retailer. Would I automatically be disqualified from participation due to my commercial background? Or is there someway to integrate industry folks (retailers, wineries, etc.) without blurring the editorial/advertising lines? I would hate to have to sit on the sidelines on this one, but I could see this as a logistical necessity once standards are articulated.

Just figured I should raise this early on.

Jill

Re: Pancho Campo Poses a Question for Al Gore on Wine and Market Choices

Jill — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:52:28 -0000

Hi Richard, Hi Gabriella, Hi Ryan,

I will need to take some time to fully respond to the points that are being raised here, and will try to do so sometime in the next day or so.

In the meantime, I want to point out that my business is to ship wine. I can't do much about my business model, since I'm a mail order house, more or less (whether I'm delivering locally or farther afield). And wine, inherently, is a product with a carbon footprint to begin with.

We can all try to be local-vores as much as we'd like, but I don't suspect Richard would be that happy just drinking fruit wines from the cranberry bogs of Cape Cod, or Concord Grape concoctions native to New England. So even if Richard is buying wine from the local store, if it comes from California or Spain, there is an environmental impact to this form of consumption.

What I am aiming to do with the TerraPass program is not just to assuage people's guilt, but to acknowledge that wine consumption has an impact on the environment. I hope to get people to take note of this, and to hopefully do something about it (what they can do at this point is limited: either stop drinking anything but local products, take part in a carbon offset program, buy from wineries with sustainable practices, to name a few of the non-abundant options available).

I did lots of research on carbon offsets before deciding what company to go with, and very reputable sources gave the thumbs up to TerraPass. Yes, the system is not perfect. Yes, this is possibly just a band-aid rather than a long-term solution. But should I do nothing and just say that any damage done is miniscule (given the small scale nature of my business) and a cost of doing business, or should I take some responsibility, even if the results will be equally miniscule?

I'd prefer the latter.

Re: Finalist for the 2008 American Wine Blog Awards!

Jill — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:28:59 -0000

Congrats Gab and Ryan, this was BEYOND deserved. While I'm sad you can't display my booby prize graphics, I'll be thrilled every time I see the real AWBA badge on your site. Cheers!

Jill

Re: Txarli says it’s Time to Check in with our Readers! What have you been Drinking?

Jill — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:29:35 -0000

I. AM. NOT. A. ROBOT. (that was supposed to be said in a freaky digital computerized sounding voice...).

In any case, I have not been drinking that much Spanish wine of late, mostly because the reps have not been bringing it around for some reason. I did by a bottle of Can Blau last week, out of curiosity. And I have Eric Solomon and Jorge Ordonez tastings over the next few weeks, so much Spanish wine is in my future!

I have noticed an odd run on the Piqueras Almansa Garnacha Tintorera of late, with a few customers ordering, one in case quantity. I thought I'd be closing that item out, but ended up restocking it due to its sudden popularity!

I can't wait to read your Rioja newsletter so I can get some good tips on wines to seek out. Thanks, guys, for everything!

(Just noticed extreme overuse of exclamation points. my apologies, but apparently I was very enthusiastic when writing this comment.)

Re: Catavino’s Rioja Report is Finished!!!!!!

Jill — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:04:00 -0000

I can't imagine the hard work that went in to this, and I can't wait to read it. Thanks guys!

Re: Catavino Gets An Extreme Makeover!

Jill — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:54:19 -0000

PRETTY!

Re: Rhymes With Groovy

Jill — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:01:41 -0000

You guys ROCK! Thanks for the mention -- and for the pity-buy, Randy... :)

Re: Trouble brewing in wine blog land?

Jill — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:38:15 -0000

this makes Budo very happy!

Re: Drinking Wine In Spain

Jill — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:57:47 -0000

Did you not try the As Sortes 2007? I wonder what you would have thought of it. And, I'm also shocked that it's the most expensive bottle on the list. Strange!

Re: http://gary.tumblr.com/post/78883734

Jill — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:01:24 -0000

Hey, you're hatin on Kevin McHale? How dare ye? Well, it just means you're old enough to remember him.

Re: http://gary.tumblr.com/post/78883360

Jill — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:05:07 -0000

Gary, if you really want to understand the writer's strike you should thoroughly read Nikki Finke's blog at http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/ as well as the writers blog which is at unitedhollywood.com...

Re: Wine 2.0 needs Product Management…

Jill — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:59:47 -0000

interesting. but what happens, as a developer, when you have the target market and concept well thought out, and you're aware that the technology end of things needs to operate a certain way...but you don't have an engineering degree yourself nor the resources to allocate (money-wise) to that area?

There are lots of wine 2.0 people who are approaching things from a more conceptual, less technical end.

My compromise has been to start small and simple, and go after a very specific niche (rather than something like youtube, whose brilliance -- accidental or not -- was the fact that its market turned out to be anybody and everybody).

Re: WBW#43 Announced:….and breeeeeeath….

Jill — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:10:34 -0000

my link:

http://domaine547.com/2008/03/05/wine-blogging-...

Re: When Wine Isn’t Fun Anymore

Jill — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:31:37 -0000

wow, that sounds like a bummer in so many ways. definitely sounds like you did the right thing last night. my only thought is that if you really like this guy, you should have a conversation with him about what happened. Who knows if he's even aware or if he was in black-out mode. He should hear from somebody other than his spouse that he has some issues with consumption that need to be addressed.