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Sandra Bullock won Best Actress at yesterday’s Oscars but she should be afraid - very afraid. Here I am on Wine Vault TV talking Syrah, Pinot Noir and calling host Jayson Bryant a soft southern fairy. I am expecting a call from Hollywood in the next couple of days…
I met Jayson Bryant of Wine Vault TV through twitter last year. He’s New Zealand’s answer to Gary Vaynerchuk although he hails from Hampshire in England. Bryant set up his store, The Wine Vault, in 2005 and while he’s been in New Zealand since 1998, he hasn’t lost his southern accent.
Wine Vault TV started at the end of 2008 and Bryant admits he cringes when he looks back on the first 40 or so episodes. But as he nears the 200th episode, he’s very comfortable in front of the camera, as I found out when he invited on to his show.
A few days before coming on the show, he asked “What do you want to taste?”
“Syrah”, I answered.
So off I went thinking he was going to pull out a bottle or two of Syrah but he hadn’t taken a blind bit of notice of me! He pulled out two Pinot Noirs. Bloody Southerners.
I’ve not yet been overly impressed with Marlborough Pinot Noir, they lack a bit of structure in my opinion while Martinborough and Central Otago are much more together. So, just to prove me wrong out comes 1996 La Strada Marlborough Pinot Noir from Fromm. It was still alive – just with really earthy, vegetal flavours. I’ve not had the chance to taste a wine with so much age from New Zealand so it was pretty interesting.
I’m not going to reveal any more or it’ll spoil it. We had great fun on the show and it’ll be on the web next week and I’ll embed it on my site too for you to watch. I’m hoping I didn’t swear too much or my mum won’t be pleased.
Montana’s new Reserve Sauvignon Gris arrived on my doorstep last week. The press release from Pernod Ricard-owned Montana exclaimed it was “inspiring new horizons” with the launch of this fringe variety and I was interested to try it. Unfortunately, I’d be lying if I said I liked it: the wine was confused.
So what is this Sauvignon Gris shananigans? According to Oz Clarke’s book, Grapes and Wines, Sauvignon Gris is a pink mutation of Sauvignon Blanc. Apparently “it gives 20% lower yields than Sauvignon Blanc, one degree more alcohol and a less pungent but spicier aroma.”
Interestingly, Chateau Smith Haut-Lafite in Pessac Leognan adds 5% of Gris to its delicious Sauvignon Blanc.
This wasn’t Smith Haut-Lafite. It had a real Sauvignon Blanc nose of green pepper (also known as capsicum to you non-Brits) and gooseberry. My brain and palate were ready for a light bodied, zippy Sauvignon but it got a weighty Gris mouthful with lowish acidity. It’s a bit of a Susan Boyle – you think you know what to expect and then find out you were completely wrong. Unfortunately this wasn’t a pleasant surprise.
Another concern is, who is the target market? Is it the Sauvignon Blanc drinker or the Pinot Gris guzzler? They’re very different audiences and this variety seems to please neither camp. And at NZ$23.99, I won’t be urging you to rush out and buy it. But if you want to try a wine with a split personality, this is the one for you.
If you haven’t signed up to Save the Wine column, please help the campaign. At the last count, we had 871 members and we’re aiming for 1000.
Those of you not yet signed up to the Save the Wine column campaign on Facebook, shame on you! At the last count we had 679 members and some pretty passionate comments.
I set the group up last week and didn’t realise quite how heated things would get. The loss of wine columns is a worldwide trend as seen by the number of international members getting involved from France to Canada, the US and New Zealand.
Champenois, Gilles Dumangin, said “First thing I buy when I arrive in the UK on regular visits is the Observer… Not anymore.”
UK-based Colin Smith, commented: “My Sundays will never be the same without a browse of Tim’s column in the Observer. What next? No Nigel Slater?”
But the campaign has unearthed the wider debate of the traditional print media and falling advertising revenues.
As more and more content shifts on-line, can the print media survive? They will co-exist for a time. I continue to earn my money from print media while blogging, tweeting and running a Facebook campaign so I’m in the game when my main source of income erodes. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen but the prognosis isn’t promising. Personally, I’m a big fan of leafing my way through a magazine, rather than squinting at a computer screen and I’m sure I’m not alone.
But Olly Wehring, editor of online news site just-drinks.com, was not optimistic of the chances of saving our wine columns: “The move to cut back wine columns in national newspapers serves only as an indication that the times, they are a-changin’. To argue for the survival of something that is clearly on its way out is like trying to get toothpaste back in the tube,” he wrote.
Clearly advertising has fallen in the past 18 months with a number of magazines I write for combining (ie dropping) issues due to a lack of advertising. How to get wine companies to stump up for advertising or partnerships with magazines and newspapers is a real issue in the age of free vehicles like twitter.
Rob McIntosh, a blogger and social media expert also brought up the subject of advertising: “The number of column inches available are not related to the quality of the writing, they are about a chase for the quality dollars (or pounds). There simply isn’t the same advertising revenue from wine columns as for cars, travel,” he said. “There may be more consumers buying wine, but they are not necessarily doing so on the advice of wine columns in newspapers. Ironically, the editors’ attempts to address that (turning columns into shopping lists) reduces the value and interest of the column.”
Join my new Facebook campaign: Save the Wine column.
Following news that Sunday newspaper The Observer is slashing Tim Atkin MW’s weekly column, something has to be done to save wine writing being marginalised to specialist magazines.
The popular page, which Atkin has written since 1993, will go down to three wine recommendations a week, according to decanter.com. This follows Joanna Simon’s Sunday Times column being axed a year ago, replaced with an in-house journalist who knows little about wine.
Newspapers are cutting costs with dwindling circulations and a move to online media but wine is getting hit hardest. Why? Is wine seen still an elitist product? Not if the figures are anything to go by: more people are drinking wine than ever before. In the five years from from 2003, consumption of wines per head increased from 24.6 litres to 27.2 litres in the UK. This is forecast to rise over the next five years to 28.3 litres, according to the IWSR.
Foodie column inches have clearly grown, such as The Observer’s Food Monthly magazine. But wine has not shared in its success. Admittedly some national columnists could do with upping their game but Atkin’s column was thoughtful, accessible and entertaining. I bought the Observer rather than The Independent every Sunday because of his column and it was the first thing I read. Even my parents, who have little interest in wine other than a good deal at Tesco, enjoyed it.
How do we make wine more appealing to readers and save wine from disappearing from the print media? A Facebook campaign is a start but that won’t stave off the deeper malaise. What do we do?