re: Who is really cheering the sale of Erath?

The world according to Ian :-) or :-(

Just returned from Walla Walla area. Ian, you left quite an impression on some of the people in the wineries there. Impression may or may not be considered a positive experience for them. :-)

Note to David: I like your post on this subject here. After returning from some very small totally non corporate wineries I reverse my position. It is a BAD thing for these wineries to sell out. I just don't know how to stop it in a capitalistic society. But perhaps we need to make some tax concessions for the smaller companies so they have incentives not to sell out. I was at wineries that were 3000-5000 cases of total production and the wines superb. I would hate to see this become a future Coca Cola acquisition.

Keep up the good posts!!!!

Hi Dick,

I'm curious if they asked whether he paid a visit to taste wine or offer English lessons! ;)

If I recall... isn't Coke and red wine a common cocktail in Germany? Anything's possible these days.

Thanks. It's nice to see some constructive commentary on this.

I was surprised to find out how little feedback there was from people who have knowledge of the long-term effects of wineries going corporate. Aside from the general comments of "going corporate means sacrificing quality to satisfy board members", etc., no one we spoke with could add much. So, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I did just read an article today in a local paper about the sale. Seems the buyer will be moving operations, processing, and many aspects of the winery off-site, but of course the vineyard will stay put (that's one thing corporations haven't figured out how to remove yet!) and the current owner's name will stay as well. So there you have it - consolidation from a production aspect, but some things will stay the same for branding/marketing reasons. I think that's a predictable outcome.

In other news, we were contacted by a local winery here who read our article and feels this isn't a good thing. While she was at first cheering the notion of increased property values for her vineyard, then she thought about what might happen if more outfits sell out as well.

Finally, I saw something of interest (also in local press). There seems to be growing opposition to a "Napa-style wine hotel" which is planned to be built in the middle of wine country here. Even though the current location is an old quarry, many wineries (at least 25) have banded together to try and stop it. Their reasons include negative impact on local vineyards, over-commercializing the area, etc.

So it's interesting to see how sometimes, people are all for bringing in big business, but other times, are fiercely opposed to it. From my vantage, I'm having a hard time distinguishing how either of these two situations is much different. The supposed end goal is to increase awareness and business for the area. I guess, perhaps, it boils down to a "not in my backyard!" matter. It's one thing for an out-of-state corp to purchase a winery. It's another thing for a corp to plant a giant hotel right in plain sight -- and blocking the pretty view -- from neighboring vineyards.

Thanks,

David

Mireille is indeed a lovely person, her very well crafted site (done by fellow FRBV newsgrouper Remi Loisel) is:

I suspect that this is the article you are referring to:

Cole

Yup. Guess you can't accuse me of manufacturing that information either.

Please, add me to your kill-file. I really don't care to have any further exchanges with you.

David

So when did you start marketing for Mireille?

There is enough noise on the NG these days.

X-No-Archive:

Then stop posting commercial links for web sites with advertisements for the person who built them. That has nothing to do with this thread, which had been about a serious issue, corporate winery purchases in the Pacific Northwest, before you and several others muddied it up.

I never accused you of manufacturing information, just a controversy that really doesn't exist. I posted the URL of the article you referred to so others could see how selective you were in using the information from it.

Unfortunately, the newsreaderI use doesn't have a killfile capabiliity. Anyway, I enjoy pointing out inconsistencies in your postings and the extent to which you are selective in the use of your sources, as in the above example.

Cole

For someone who asked us to leave his cheery little group all to himself, you seem to still be following this thread and now even attempting to interact... I guess because you realized we're not going away. So get over it.

Yes, I referred to the information in the article that was relevant to this thread. You're manufacturing controversy again.

In any case, thanks for posting the link. I actually read the original article in print, and hadn't had a chance to dig it up online -- not that it would be of any interest to you, or other trolls on this list, for its substantive value. You do know about printed newspapers, don't you?

Meaning you have absolutely nothing better to be doing with your time. Perhaps it's you that needs the support group? ;)

David

Yawn.

Hey David, looks like those that give crap don't like getting the same back in return. Keep up the good posts!

Nice balance here. I appreciate the civility :-)

They remind me of my five-month old son -- simply don't like to admit when it's time for the diaper to be changed. ;)

Hard to reason with trolls - waste of time really - but their vitriol shows through, and I presume most list members ignore them for what they are.

BTW... thanks again for sharing about your recent trip to WA wineries. I'd like to know a little more detail if you care to share. I'm wondering if you had heard/learned anything about the Erath purchase, or if it even made it onto the radar at the places you went.

David

Salut/Hi Richard Neidich,

le/on Mon, 26 Jun 2006 03:08:28 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

I'm delighted.

Bye bye. ALT-K for you, sailor.

Salut/Hi David Anderson,

le/on 26 Jun 2006 00:39:50 -0700, tu disais/you said:-

Taste wines of course. It's only egregious would be wine writers who need lessons in English.

Salut/Hi Mike Tommasi,

le/on Mon, 26 Jun 2006 09:49:34 +0200, tu disais/you said:-

Thanks very much for the correct address. Talking of wine sites, do you have any idea why so few of the better wineries in France have wine sites? It's sometimes deeply frustrating, for example, when trying to find information about some of the better Cahors producers to find that a Google.fr search merely leads to reams of retailers and restaurants.

And a very nice website this one is. The English translation is actually readable. Did anyone I know have a hand in that? ;-) And I agree about the deplorable lack of websites, in any language, for many of my favorite French producers. It makes getting information about them far more difficult than it should be.

Cheers! Mark Lipton

I think in some ways the whole country is very behind, e-commerce-wise. It's exactly the same for (plant) nurseries. Very little information. If Bill S wanted to buy an addition to his rhododendron collection in France, he'd end up buying it from the UK.

I sometimes get the impression that, since it isn't a traditional channel, most winemakers just can't get with it. :(

So, how do we change this situation?

-E

It seems to me, without any real knowledge of the situation, that this is where the INAO (or whatever it's now called) could have a very positive hand, by facilitating the construction of websites for smaller growers who don't have the resources or the savvy to do it themselves. In CA, there are a plethora of "Grower's Association" websites that link to all of the wineries in their jurisdiction. Why not a Coteaux du Layon growers' website that contains information about all the growers in that AOC, or links to their websites when available?

Mark Lipton