Disqus - Latest Comments for steveraye

Re: Remembering Haridimos Hatzidakis

steveraye — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 18:27:02 -0000

I remember. The winery reminded me of M.A.S.H. with the overhanging netting covered with vine prunings and dried leftover pomace. And the tasting room...a couple of upturned barrels and an old door for a table. But the wine! Ah, the wine was exquisite. I still have a bottle aging in my cellar. Not because I like aged assyrtiko (though I know you do), but because now I can't bring myself to drink something we will never see again. RIP Haridimos. This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you . (does Sparrow remember Santorini?) Steve.

Re: Drunk On The Moon - The 5 Best Under $30 Bottles I’ve Opened This Year (Whites)

steveraye — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 09:21:20 -0000

Austria...a small country with wildly diverse regional differences, but I guess you know that. BTW, love the Koutso. Assyrtiko choice as well and I heartily endorse the descriptor that Santorini is terroir, defined. I had a bottle of Sigalas oak fermented, 2010 I think, last week and it was fabulous.

Re: Vino 2010: Virtual Vino

steveraye — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:35:29 -0000

Interesting post and comments. Here's some feed back from the horses that was on the panel (I'll let you decide which end).
1. The point about millennials going to red wine faster/directly was not a value judgement, just a reported fact. For wineries and marketers, it's just one little bit of input we factor in our plans.
2. Regarding the panel makeup, you're right...no millennials. That's a factor of who and how the recruiting for the panel took place. Without going into details, there were a lot of older white guys involved.
3. I don't think we said that old people don't like bloggers. What I was referring to was that traditional journalists are struggling with how to maintain their livelihood in the face of bloggers providing "free" information that you used to have to pay for to get from Wine Spectator, Parker and Wine Enthusiast. There's a great book out by Chris Anderson titled "Free". I highly recommend you read it...it really elaborates on and expands on your point.
4. The twitter feed and AV was pretty lame. Heck it was hard for me bec. I didn't have a monitor at the podium and had to look around to see the screen which wasn't visible on the videocast. Truth be told, the ITC is to be praised for putting on the event, but they could use a bit of practical advice on how to improve it from an organization and technical perspective. But hey, they're Italians, and the food, wine, hospitality and conversation was GREAT!
5. Mea culpa for not repeating audience questions. When you're there in person you forget that many more people are watching and can't hear the question.

Penultimately, the stat I referred to about the top 20 wine blogs was from the Vintank report on social media. The exact quote was the top 20 wine bloggers in aggregate are more influential than winespectator.com. the report can be downloaded for free at www.vintank.com

Lastly, regarding quantification of blogs, it can be done. Maybe not in terms of verifiable absolute numbers but certainly in regard to comparable relative numbers. For example, at Brand Action Team we use Alexa and comScore data (yes, I know they're both inaccurate, but my theory is that if you use one data source, that at least you can cget a sense of relationship.) So for example if we know the unique visitor count for one or more sites, we can create a formula to interpolate and extrapolate UV counts for all sites based on Alexa rank.

Re: This Present Arrived Today

steveraye — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:39:29 -0000

Alice: I thought you were getting out of the blogging bidness?

Re: This Week's Press Release

steveraye — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:48:14 -0000

Be honest, you've got to admit its fun to criticise someone else's writing...(some call it editing.) There's a great quote an old creative director of mine had on his wall, don't know the source: "The headiest drive in the world is one man's need to change another man's writing". I started out in PR and still write the occasional release, and the fact is, spin is an inherent part of a release, the issue perhaps is to what degree?
And hey, what's up with that guy's name...Malbec!!!! is that for real? Then what is he doing making white wine in California, he should be making red wine in Argentina.
And a random factoid of interest, did you know the genus/species name of Cauliflower is Brassica oleracea, and that it, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts are all the same species...cultivars of a European wild mustard.?

Re: Showing up in Connecticut

steveraye — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:15:01 -0000

Alice: Thanks for making the trip to the hinterlands...we may be in an obscure geographic locale, but as you probably noted from the accents in your audience, Simsbury is populated by an awful lot of New Yawkah's and Bastonians. Unfortunately I spent more time talking than tasting but I was impresed by the Cot. My palate is conditioned by decades of conventional wines...it'll take some doing to appreciate the natural approach. But having read the book and met the author, it's a journey I'm sure I'll enjoy. I look forward to seeing you at the Darcy and Huber tasting on Wednesday. I believe they have some wines that qualify.

Re: Mixing my business with your pleasure

steveraye — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:49:21 -0000

I'm an agency guy and do social media marketing for a living, so I have a vested interest in brand promotion. That said,I think of wine blogging as B2B journalism...it's all about being commercial. By definition anyone reading a blog is interested (usually passionately) in the subject, hungry for specific, not superficial information. So promotion in my mind is appropriate as long as it's offered up as such. Where bloggers go wrong...and PR agencies who don't "get" social media...is when they aren't transparent, and are trying to hide their association with or reason for promoting a brand. It's not the promotion that's the problem, it's how the information is served up.