February 18th - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This week yielded a couple of items that warranted consideration for The Good. The first comes to us from my friend Joe Herrig of Suburban Wino. After all these years of fumbling around, trying to figure out how to behave myself at wine tastings, Joe has finally shone some light on the subject.

The second was a great piece of marketing that I found through Dr. Vino's blog. Move over Old Spice Guy, now the wine world has its own twist to the iconic ad campaign.

The Bad this week is the very thought that HR5034 might resurface again this year. At least there are efforts to get out in front of the sh%&ty legislation. Tom Wark posted on a report in WineBusiness.com that "...associations representing nearly all the wine, beer and spirit companies operating in the U.S. issued a letter to all members of Congress urging them NOT TO SPONSOR any new version of H.R. 5034 that will likely be introduced again this year." I find it hard to believe that this legislation would ever pass, but I would really prefer that we not even get close to finding out.

For those who aren't up on the details of last year's HR5034 bill, There's a great two minute long video that my friend Chris Oggenfuss from VinTuba put together last year explaining.

 

It is with great sadness that I must include this news of dumb-assery that took place in Austria. Vinography posted this story from the AP, about vandals chopping down a gruner veltliner vine that was over 500 years old. Think of all the things that this vine had to survive to make it 500 years on this earth, and it all comes to an end at the hand of one jackass. RIP old guy.

Cheers!

Comments

[Joe]

thanks, buddy! You're writing is elegant and mind-filling, with hints of John Updike and just a flutter of Jack Kerouac's cousin's fleeting attempts at epic poetry. Unlike some of the literary plonk put out by the uninitiated.

[Vinotology]

Thanks Joe. I might just have to use that quote in some marketing material soon. :)