If you’re the sort of person who loves to talk about wine and wine-related topics, but can’t always find your way out to a tasting or other event, you can still get in on the global conversation using the online open forum at Wine Berserkers. With over 3,500 users, this easy-to-use message board has generated almost 30,000 topics and new conversations are happening all the time.
Almost every topic is fair game — you can discuss wine varietals or wine bars, retail stores and vineyards. There are even sections named “Wine 101” to help rookie wine drinkers explore their new hobby, and a section to discuss non-wine beverages such as beer and spirits.
Our clients might be particularly interested in the recent discussion of how one organizes their personal wine cellar. Sign up, and then and join the conversation here!
Hunting for deals on great wine can be exciting, but it can also be frustrating—you’re only one person, after all, and you might not have the time or energy to search everywhere you wish you could. But what if you had a team at your disposal, whose sole mission was to seek out the best bottles of wine and then bring it to your attention?
You’d have The Wine Spies, that’s what. Every day, a new Daily Deal shows up on the Spies’ website, sought out by one of the undercover “agents” and then placed on the front page along with a “confidential dossier” that gives you all the information you could possibly ask for regarding that particular wine. Not only the origin of the bottle, but also a report on the taste and possibly even an interview with the owner of the vineyard—The Wine Spies believe that the more you know about the bottle the more assured you can be of its quality if you decide to buy it. And if you do, you’ll have the added satisfaction of knowing what a great price you paid for it.
But there’s more to The Wine Spies than just good deals on fine wine. The site is also set up to encourage you to become a special “operative,” and offer your own comments about the wines being highlighted. You’ll be taking part in a gigantic discussion with wine enthusiasts worldwide, and active participants will earn “Spy Rank” points. These points will gradually build your “rank” on the Wine Spies website, and will open up exclusive deals only available for the best operatives.
Are you an operative already? Let us know if you’ve enjoyed your Wine Spies experience, and what sort of deals you may have been lucky enough to come across.
We’ve mentioned entrepreneurial sommelier Gary Vaynerchuk a number of times in this blog, in part because we love the way he’s found innovative, web-based ways to share his passion for wine with the masses. We also enjoy his playful and disarming attitudes about wine. Although he clearly knows what he’s talking about, he won’t condescend to the novice wine drinkers—a refreshing tone that has created a diverse fanbase from all walks of life.
Vaynerchuk’s about to embark on a brand new venture for his style of wine appreciation: a new show on satellite radio. Starting tomorrow, August 26, you can catch Wine & Web with Gary Vaynerchuk, a two-hour call-in show that merges his interest in wine and in social media, at 9 pm CST on Sirius channel 108/XM channel 139.
From the press release:
Gary will welcome guests from the wine, social media and tech industries and take calls from around the country. Weekly features include “Wine of the Week,” on which he will try a new wine for the first time on the air, and “Site of the Week,” on which he’ll riff on the latest gadgets, websites, and social media trends.
Whether you’re a die-hard “Vayniac” or just a casual fan, if you have access to satellite radio you should give Gary’s show a chance. (It kicks off with Gary interviewing Opus One Winery CEO David Pearson.) It’s sure to be filled with the same energy and sense of humor you’re able to find in any of his video clips.
Now that Strongbox has broken through the WiFi barrier at both of our locations, we’re excited to tell all of our gadget-savvy customers about other tech advancements that will help them pursue their passion for wine.
Wine Spectator, THE wine magazine read by wine enthusiasts worldwide, has just released a new app for iPhone users! The Vintage Chart+ app puts the WS vintage chart—a handy tool that lets you know which years of a particular wine are considered the finest—in the palm of your hand. Unlike the magazine’s standard vintage chart, however, app users are also able to access a whole bevy of new and helpful features that take advantage of other functions of the iPhone.
If you download the app, tell us about your experiences with it. Did it help you while you were shopping? Did you decide to go after a particular vintage based on the scores and drinkability recommendations the app gives you? We’ll post a follow-up with your comments to serve as a testimonial. Happy hunting!
In just four short years, New Zealand’s wine-searcher.com has become the comprehensive resource for wine sellers and buyers, with literally millions of listings and a functionality that has revolutionized the way the wine market operates. With its simple interface and vast stores of updated data, any consumer can search for wines by name, vintage, or even country of origin; find comparative price listings; and purchase the bottle then and there. Its influence is so widespread that other notable wine websites, including Gary Vaynerchuk’s own “Daily Deal” site Cinderella Wine, readily link to it for consumer convenience.
Check out this short video for a glimpse of the site and its features, and then give it a glance yourself. If you’re a wine enthusiast who has never experienced wine-searcher, you’ll probably walk away from your first visit wondering how you did without.
Take note that wine-searcher works on a tiered membership system: the free version will still find you some great deals on particular wines…but will spotlight wine-searcher’s sponsors at the exclusion of other stores. If you purchase the yearly “Pro” membership for $29.95, you will receive all results for any search, and will also have access to other options, such as the ability to search by bottle size and a way to view a particular wine’s price history. If you know what you’ll need from the site, you’ll know what level of membership you should have.
If you’re a regular eBay shopper, you know all about its online auction system, and the thrill of winning a great deal on a coveted item. For a wine enthusiast, eBay often has a wide array of racks, glasses, charms, and other such accessories. The one thing eBay doesn’t seem to have, though, is wine.
Fortunately, there’s The Cellar Exchange, an online auction house exclusively for wine buyers and sellers. Developed by Chicagoan Michael Weiner—a well-traveled wine enthusiast in his own right—The Cellar Exchange states as its mission a desire to focus on its visitors, and to give them the power of commerce that other sites often maintain for themselves. There is no membership fee to join The Cellar Exchange, no fee to list wines for sale, and no buyer’s fees. Wine trade is direct between seller and buyer, rather than requiring the wine to go to Cellar Exchange itself. Site users are encouraged to interact with one another, and are able to assign each other open ratings and feedback, so that all members can see who has a good reputation as either buyer or seller. You can learn more about how the site operates by checking out its FAQ.
As with any auction, timing is key! You never know when a bottle you’ve been searching for might appear online at auction, so it’s always a good idea to check back often. If you’ve used Cellar Exchange before, or you decide to use it for the first time based on this post, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear about any exciting finds or deals you managed to win at auction…and if you need a place to store that find, you know how to reach us.
Correction: Michael Weiner is the developer and owner of the Cellar Exchange. The site was originally conceived and founded by Doug Parsons. Thanks for the catch, readers!
The rise and the development of the Internet has changed many things about the way people live their lives, and especially the way they engage in commerce. Wine markets are no different than other such specialty markets in this regard— where once wine buyers and sellers were limited by region and time, today the Internet grants both wineries and wine aficionados around the world the ability to interact with each other almost instantly.
In recent months, wine buyers may have noticed that discounts have been appearing everywhere online. A global wine surplus, along with the unstable world economy, has shifted the wine market on the side of buyers. Forbes magazine reports that selling bottles of fine wine at reduced prices has become a “budding sector” in the market—as demonstrated by the appearance of several “Daily Deal” sites. The Chicago Tribune noted last week that the wealth of information available gives buyers the power to compare one seller to another, and thus leads to a sort of “democratization” in the way wines are priced.
In the next few weeks, the Strongbox wine blog is going to profile a few of these “Daily Deal” and buyer-oriented sites, including Wine-Searcher, Cinderella Wines, and Wine Spies. We’ve also added a handy twitter feed of the latest daily wine deals onto our sidebar, so you can check out today’s deals!
If you’ve spent any time scanning these sites or others for your own daily deals, let us know what your experience was like. Is the website the sort of destination that you frequent or has it failed to impress you at all? Are the deals generally very enticing, or merely ho-hum? Do the sites respond well to customer feedback? Give us your opinions and we’ll share them with other readers here.
Part of the experience of wine appreciation is in the hunt. Somebody may have told you about an exciting young Pinot Noir that they tried while on vacation in New Zealand, and you’ve been obsessed with finding it ever since but without much luck. When you do finally find it, though—it may be all the more wonderful on your palate because of the effort you put into tracking it down.
Wine auctions can be a place where you discover that wine you’ve always wanted…or possibly the wine you didn’t realize you’d always wanted. The Chicago Wine Company, located in Wood Dale, Illinois, has been operating since 1974 and in the business of auctioning fine wines since 1977, making it the second-oldest wine auction house in the United States. They conduct around 20 auctions per year and also hold special dinner events, including an annual celebration of the newest Bordeaux vintage. Due to the longevity of their operation, The Chicago Wine Company has an extensive network of European contacts, and as such are often able to obtain wines for auction that many other auction houses would be unable to find.
If attending a wine auction sounds like an opportunity for you to discover something new and exciting—or even something familiar but beloved—see if you can attend one of the upcoming auctions. The August 25 auction catalog has just been posted and features a number of remarkable lots, including several bottles of Chateau LaFite Rothschild 1998 and 2000. You can download the entire catalog here.
Chicago Wine Company Auction
August 25, 2010 – 11 am
835 N. Central Ave.
Wood Dale, IL 60191
The Chicago Wine Company is also a great place to go if you’re looking to sell lots from your own wine collection. They offer a number of perks to collectors who choose to sell their wines through them, including that they don’t charge lotting or insurance fees. If you have a few fine wine bottles that you could stand to profit from, it’s definitely worth considering putting a few of them up for auction. (The next deadline for submitting your lots is September 9th, or check their site for future auctions.)
Although the Chicago area could never be mistaken for “wine country,” it is nonetheless home to many knowledgeable and committed wine enthusiasts. The Chicago Wine Company would be an invaluable resource for any wine buyer, but we’re lucky that it’s local!
Tyler Colman doesn’t call himself Dr. Vino just because it’s a catchy nickname—he did in fact earn his doctorate with a dissertation about the politics of the wine industry in France and the United States. He has published two books and regularly teaches classes about wine at New York University and the University of Chicago. Since 2002, his blog has served as both a fount of fascinating wine information and a hub for spirited wine conversation, and has even been nominated for a prestigious James Beard award.
For local wine explorers, the good doctor has taken the time to create a comprehensive map that doesn’t just spotlight wine shops in your neighborhood, it also allows you to see which shops he recommends, and which ones have just recently opened up. Go ahead and bookmark this invaluable resource now—you never know when you might find yourself nearby one of Dr. Vino’s favorite wine shops, and you’ll definitely want to experience for yourself what sort of establishment has earned his coveted recommendation.
In the meantime, keep checking back at his blog to see what new and off-beat wine stories have been posted, and join in the conversation yourself, if you wish. As you can see from this post about the riddle of pairing wine with pulled pork sandwiches, the comments can get pretty exciting!
When you hear the phrase “wine enthusiasts,” do you imagine an exclusive club? And does that image make you feel less likely to develop your own love of wine? If so, then you need to meet Gary Vaynerchuk.
Since 2006, Vaynerchuk has been the host of Wine Library TV, a daily video-cast that allows him to express, in his own irreverent style, his passion and knowledge of wine. Vaynerchuk takes wine appreciation to a level akin to professional sports commentary—he speaks his opinions clearly and plainly, while making even high-end wines accessible to the novice wine drinker. We like him for his lack of personal filter, his clear expertise with wine, and the fact that he spits into a custom-made New York Jets helmet.
Check out this recent episode, featuring Vaynerchuk giving a thorough tasting of three pricey red wines. By the end of the episode, you may be as charmed by his no-nonsense approach to wine as we are…and after watching more of his episodes, you might yourself become something of a “Vayniac,” as his fans call themselves.
We have an exciting announcement for all of our clients!
Last month, we posted a short entry talking about Cellartracker.com, a service that would help you keep track of your wine bottles in storage. Robert Pollard-Smith, one of our clients, saw the post and decided to leave us a comment, requesting that we add WiFi capability to our wine cellars, so that he could use Cellartracker while he was actually in the storage area.
We’re sure that Robert wasn’t the only person experiencing some frustration, but thanks to his comment, Strongbox was able to take steps to meet his suggestion. Our Lakeview location on Irving Park now has WiFi access and our Lincoln Park location on Orleans will be outfitted by next week!
So keep in mind: Strongbox will read all comments posted to this blog, so if you have a suggestion for how we can make your experience with us better, please let us know the same way that Robert did. We’ll be happy to see what we can do!
The names of many winemakers often go unsung, hidden behind the names of the wines they have crafted. Others are celebrities of the wine world, and their work is sought after by true aficionados. And then there are those wines that bear the name of more “conventional” celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment. In many cases, these celebrities are merely allowing their image and name to be licensed as a marketing tool; in others, the art of winemaking is as much a passion for them as the arts for which they are better known. Here is a short list of some of these celebrities and the wines they either produce or promote.
Film & Television
Francis Ford Coppola (director of The Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now): Coppola has long been as respected in wine circles as he is in film circles, producing several well-regarded wines from the Niebaum-Coppola winery in Napa Valley.
Olivia Newton-John (actress/singer, Grease): Since 1983, Newton-John and her partner Pat Farrar have produced a number of Australian table wines under the Koala Blue label.
Sam Neill (actor, Jurassic Park): Neill, a native New Zealander, produces wines under the Two Paddocks label in his home country.
Gerard Depardieu (actor, Cyrano de Bergerac): One of France’s most celebrated film actors has also been a winemaker for over 30 years, having held ventures in a number of wine regions in the French countryside.
Music
Mick Fleetwood: The legendary Fleetwood Mac drummer has been the proprietor and winemaker of the Mick Fleetwood Private Cellar since 2001.
Sting: Former frontman for The Police, and an incredibly popular solo performer in his own right, Sting turned his passion for organic farming into a multi-acre estate in Tuscany, which as of 2007 has been producing red wines.
Maynard James Keenan: The lead singer for hard rock/metal bands Tool and A Perfect Circle, Keenan is somewhat notorious among his fans for centering many aspects of his music career and touring schedule around the wine harvest at his own Caduceus winery in Sedona, Arizona.
Sports
Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer, Ernie Els: These three golfers, each of whom have carved their own noteworthy careers on the professional circuit, have also applied their focus and drive to wineries in their native countries. Norman, an Australian, has wine holdings both in his homeland and in the United States. Palmer—who, interestingly, is also the namesake of a non-alcoholic beverage—has his own winery in the Napa Valley. Els, a South African, produces wines in the Stellenbosch region.
Although one probably shouldn’t base a serious wine selection simply by the dazzling name behind it, it can certainly be fun to try the wines of various celebrities such as those above, and see if their abilities with grapevines match their abilities with their other arts.
If you’re just beginning your foray into wine appreciation, one of the first things you’ll notice is that there are distinct differences between the glassware used for red wine and that used for white wine. Perhaps when you were handed your first glass, you simply believed that these differences were traditional or merely a matter of aesthetics. In fact, the differences in each type of glass are about careful design that is meant to enhance your enjoyment of the wine within.
Wine glasses can be made in three ways: from fused or cut glass, from blown glass, or from lead crystal. Most experienced wine drinkers discourage the use of fused or cut glass stemware, as the qualities of the glass will often damage the flavor of the wine, and the lip of the glass is often gritty and unpleasant. Blown glass creates a more acceptable goblet, with a thinner lip. Lead crystal is used to make truly high-quality wine glasses—such glasses refract light through the wine in ways that maintain the wine’s flavor, and the rougher nature of the glass gives the wine a better chance to breathe. Although there are stemless wine glasses, generally a wine drinker prefers one with a stem, which allows one to avoid altering the temperature of the wine with their own body heat.
A red wine glass will tend to have a wider, rounder bowl, which allows a red wine to breathe more fully. Red wines respond to oxidation with subtle enhancements to their aroma and flavor, and as such these wine glasses are built to achieve those enhancements. Additionally, specific types of red wine glasses will direct specific types of wine to the parts of the mouth where their flavors may be best appreciated. For example, a Bordeaux glass may be employed when drinking a full-bodied wine such as a Merlot, as the glass will direct the wine to the back of the mouth.
White wine glasses, on the other hand, may have several different shapes and sizes, to accommodate the various behaviors of different white wines. Some white wines are also well-served by the full oxidation given to a red wine, and these glasses will appear similar to the red wine glasses mentioned above. Lighter white wines, however, may have a delicate bouquet and taste that is spoiled by too much breathing, and as such the glasses will have a smaller mouth. Champagne flutes are distinctive for their tall, thin appearance, which not only slows oxidation but also preserves the bubbles desired.
As you’ve probably been learning, the creation, preservation, and even the enjoyment of wine is often marked by precise details and tasks. The wine glass is no exception to this—it is not only an elegant form from which to enjoy your elegant drink, but it also helps serve the purpose of making your wine experience the best it can be. The next time you have a glass of wine in your hand, make sure that you appreciate the glass as much as the wine!
If you’re the sort of person who loves to talk about wine and wine-related topics, but can’t always find your way out to a tasting or other event, you can still get in on the global conversation using the online open forum at Wine Berserkers. With over 3,500 users, this easy-to-use message board has generated almost 30,000 topics and new conversations are happening all the time.
Vaynerchuk’s about to embark on a brand new venture for his style of wine appreciation: a new show on satellite radio. Starting tomorrow, August 26, you can catch Wine & Web with Gary Vaynerchuk, a two-hour call-in show that merges his interest in wine and in social media, at 9 pm CST on Sirius channel 108/XM channel 139.
If attending a wine auction sounds like an opportunity for you to discover something new and exciting—or even something familiar but beloved—see if you can attend one of the 
When you hear the phrase “wine enthusiasts,” do you imagine an exclusive club? And does that image make you feel less likely to develop your own love of wine? If so, then you need to meet Gary Vaynerchuk.
