Why is crowdfunding so inherently exciting? The heady emotional mix of allure, participation, open access, opportunity, creativity and success is hard to resist.
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The Millione wine brand is a social business started by myself, Cliff Roberson and Mike Paul. All profits are used to build primary schools in Sierra Leone. Four schools have been running successfully and the fifth is half built.
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"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning that's as good as they are going to feel all day". Frank Sinatra quoted in the book.
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Wine selling for £6 or less is shit. Not my words but those of advertising legend Sir John Hegarty at the Wine and Spirit Trade Association conference.
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The first thing you see at the winery is a sign saying "HIPPIES USE BACK DOOR- NO EXCEPTIONS". In the barrel room oak vats are identified by the names of rock bands - the Clash, Joy Division, Pulp and Portishead amongst them - or images of molecular structures. Outside the back door a large pile of straw bales wait to be wrapped around modern stainless steel vats, nature's insulation to keep her product cool.
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Mike Veseth is a specialist in globalisation who blogs as The Wine Economist. He is also professor emeritus of International Political Economy at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma near Seattle. After reviewing his books Wine Wars and Extreme Wine for Harpers.co.uk Jerry Lockspeiser talks to him about what he sees as the key global business issues facing the wine industry.
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A decade ago I was at a business review meeting with Mark Murphy, Tesco's then head of beers wines and spirits, discussing how to persuade consumers to 'trade up', or as they would put it, buy higher priced wines.
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In the new Uncorked Book Club area on Harpers.co.uk books, featuring new and interesting titles for the trade, Jerry Lockspeiser discusses why this David Hieatt book on brands got so far into his head that it is still there days later...
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Mike Veseth is an unusual academic. Professor emeritus of international political economy at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, and an economist who studies global wine markets, he writes about wine business issues with a down to earth populist ease that Nigel Farage would be proud of. His enthusiastic, chatty style resembles a conversation over a glass of Merlot in a wine bar. He makes his subject highly accessible and clearly loves this world.
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As reported in Harpers in March we aimed to raise enough at this year's Call My Wine Bluff to pass £1 million since our first event 6 years ago. Thanks to the generosity and spirit of the 180 people who laughed, listened, chatted and drank their way through the evening (no one was spitting thank God) we did - by some way.
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Jerry Lockspeiser, chairman of Off-Piste Wines, discusses the challenges wine buyers may encounter with suppliers and a five point plan on how to get the most out of a supplier relationship.
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Many years ago I was trying to sell Argentinean wine to the Co-op. We had a delicious, modern style Torrontes that had been custom made for the UK market but I just could not persuade the buyer, of its merits. He tasted it several times always with the same result: he said he didn't like Torrontes.
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Negative reports about alcohol are as frequent as Manchester City goals. So it would be nice to believe the studies suggesting that the legalised drug we peddle is infact good for health.
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Settle in to Boxing Day in the capable hands of Jerry Lockspeiser of Off Piste Wines as he looks back on his good and bad memories of 2013 and his hopes and fears for 2014.
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Imagine for a moment that Champagne does not exist. The sparkling wine market is dominated by cava and prosecco with competition from the New World. Consumers are accustomed to affordable, well made but largely uninspiring sparkling wines.
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It is said that what America does today the UK follows a few years later. So it's no surprise that wine styles which have become popular over the pond are beginning to show up here. But sweeter reds? Whatever is the world coming to?
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The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) has been around for a decade short of 200 years. Its name evokes wood panelled board rooms and gentlemanly discussions more than the world of Google and iPhone apps.
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Jonathan Cahill's recent opinion piece about wine value, duty and consumer perception got me thinking. The central point of Jonathan's piece is that because alcohol duty is fixed it takes up a much bigger percentage of the retail price when the wine is cheap than when it is more expensive. Ergo we should be telling consumers that the higher the price they pay for a bottle of wine the more their money is buying wine rather than tax, so the better the value, and exponentially so.
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Back in the days when Apples and Blackberries were still fruits I came across the wines of Larry Mawby. Larry produces high quality fizz in the USA. Not in California, nor Washington State or even Oregon, but in Michigan.
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A typical back label is 8 x 5 cm. Forty square centimetres to persuade the hesitant customer to buy.
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