Winemaker TV

So there is going to be a new "Reality Game Show" show called TheWinemakers. The contestants will go through several challenges to produce and market a wine with the winner getting to produce their wine.

Since this is only open to American Citizens I will not be able to try out, but if I did this is what I would do so if one of the contestants steals my idea and wins could you please send me a case of the winning wine.

What type of wine should I make? I think the show is going to take place in and around the Santa Barbara area. Knowing this, I think you need to use a grape that grows well in this region and as anyone who has seen Sideways knows that this area is famous for Pinot Noir. So thinking that most of the other competitors would be coming up with a still wine I would decide to market a sparkling wine.

How to Market this wine? There are a lot of table wines being marketed but not many sparkling wines so I think marketing sparkling wine would be easier than a table wine. I would promote the drink by showing it is not just for celebrations. I would have tag lines like "Not just for New Years Anymore" or "Have New Years Anytime" or Have New Years ______, where the blank would be whatever picture accompanies the ad. It could be, "Have New Years at the Beach" or "Have New Years on Thursday by Yourself" or "Have New Years with Hamburgers". Think of the Absolut Vodka ads. Along with the ad campaign I would like to design a container, that would stand out and can be taken anywhere. I would like a tall thin bottle like the Voga Wine bottle. Also I would like to market the wine in tall thin cans, just like the ones that are so popular for energy drinks. To help promote the wine I would create a new term and society for sparkling wine, Tradaine. This is just like the term Meritage that was created for Bordeaux style blends. If you combine Traditional, as in Traditional Method, with Champagne you get Tradagne. I then changed the spelling so it’s not pronounced Trad-ag-knee and came up with Tradaine. In order to use the term Tradaine, you would have to sign up to the society with proof that you are making sparkling wine in the Traditional method where the second fermentation is in the bottle.

What will I call the wine? The term for Champagne made from Pinot Noir grapes is blanc de noir. Translated into English it is White of Black. So the name of my Tradine for The Winemakers would be called ‘Black’.

So with all of this you get;

Black
Tradine of Santa Barbera

Get a Six Pack of New Years!

Trying to Confuse Things More

I think we need to change the way we look at classifying wine countries. When I took a sommelier class I was told to classify wines as old world and new world. There are a couple reasons I don’t think this works any more. You can’t classify all regions in the same country as the same and you can’t classify all new world or old world countries the same. Should wine from Arizona be considered the same as Napa, or should Wine from China be considered the same as Australian. No, I don’t think so. So in order to confuse the wine industry more we should change the terms for old world and new world and add a new category. Old world wine country should be changed to Classic wine regions. This would include the traditional Bordeaux, Burgundy, Chianti, Rioja, Pfalz, etc. New World countries should be changed to Emerging wine regions, such as China, Arizona, and Canada. The new third classification should be Established wine regions. These are regions that are well known but do not have the history of a Bordeaux. I am thinking of regions like Napa, Australia, and Languedoc. This new classification system would allow us to split a single countries wine regions into classic, established and emerging. In France you would have Burgundy classified as classic, Languedoc as Established and and the Vin de Pays as Emerging. Although there is a problem with this classification, who is put in charge of deciding what is classic, established and emerging? Someone is going to argue that Napa should be classified as Classic. It can be said that Napa is a Classic American wine region, but only an established world wine region. So is it a Classic or Established? I guess it’s up for you to decide.

New Version of that College Game.

Remember that game you played in University, The Centurion. You drink an ounce of beer every minute for 100 minutes without going to the bathroom or spewing. Well there is a new sophisticated mature version of this game it is called The Wine Century Club. Drink 100 different wines made from different grapes and receive a certificate showing you have become a member.

The Wine Century Club has a list of about 200 varietals, so you don’t have to drink Concord Wine for one of the 100....and you don't have to drink them in 100 minutes.

at last count I am at 55. I will keep you posted.