Tag Archives: Scottish wine

Winebits 424: Scottish wine, domain names, crowdfunding

Scottish wine
A Scottish wine story requires a picture of haggis, the Scottish national dish.

? Too much rain: Scotland’s hopes for its own wine, which never seemed possible because the climate was too cold and too went, have been dashed once again. The drinks business reports that persistent rain in eastern Scotland has prevented Aberdeen’s Christopher Trotter, a chef and food writer, from producing anything commercially viable. He wasn’t able to bottle any wine in 2015, and the 2014 vintage yielded just 10 bottles — which critics called ?undrinkable.” The Wine Curmudgeon feels Trotter’s pain. Regional wine, no matter where the region, is always more difficult than you think it will be, and there are always problems you never imagined. And I’ve tasted plenty of undrinkable regional wine.

? Bring on .wine: Want to brand your website as definitely wine? Then you can buy the .wine and .vin domain names, two so-called not-coms that are finally available. There was concern from some legally protected wine regions, like our friends in Champagne, that the .wine and .vin names would be used to abuse their place names, but they bought Champagne.wine and solved the problem. The Wine Curmudgeon probably won’t buy winecurmudgoen.wine or .vin — not sure it would make much different to my brand, and winecurmudgeon.wine sounds stupid, anyway.

? Kickstarting a winery: Recent changes in federal investment law allow businesses like wineries to use crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to raise $1 million in any 12-month period from friends, followers, customers and community as long as the sites meet federal guidelines. This is a significant change to current law, though not everyone is sure it’s a good idea. It’s one thing to raise money for a wine book on Kickstarter; it’s another to raise millions to expand a winery. Regardless of anything else, writes Jesse Debban in the North Bay Business Journal, the new regulations mean “the public — including your competitors and customers — will have access to sensitive information about your business.” Which may be OK in the tech business, but is something completely different in the highly private wine business.

Winebits 396: Investing in wine, Scottish wine, Bill St. John

investing in wine ? Tulips, anyone? The Wine Curmudgeon rarely passes up an opportunity to quote F. Scott Fitzgerald on one of his (and my) favorite subjects: “You know, the rich are different from you and me.” How else to explain this story about investing in wine from the New York Times? It talks about how the wealthy borrow money against their wine collections the way the rest of us do against our homes (assuming, of course, we even own one). Says the founder of one such lender: “Whether it ?s real estate or wine, it doesn ?t make sense to accumulate assets with pure cash. With wine, you can borrow and not put your home or some other important asset at risk. You can finance toys with toys.” And the tulip reference? The Dutch 17th century economic crash brought on by flower speculating — not that I’m making comparisons.

? Not this vintage: Remember the Monty Python bit about the Scotsman who has to defend Wimbledon’s honor? It came to mind when I read this piece about what is apparently the first vintage ever of Scottish wine — admirable and a good try, but “undrinkable.” The wine, a white made with cold-hardy grapes, is apparently oxidized, a not uncommon problem for inexperienced regional winemakers working with odd grapes in untested climates. Still, if we can do it in Texas, there is hope.

? One of the best: I only met Bill St. John a couple of times, but I read him regularly and appreciated his skill as a wine writer. Bill was someone who cared about quality and value, and he wrote for his readers in clear and concise language. He has retired from the Chicago Tribune, and his final column says it all: “By and large, we take wine and especially winemaking way too seriously. We’ve made of winemakers what we’ve made of chefs — superstars and entertainers. … We’ve let winemaking and so much folderol about wine ? buying, storing, collecting and bloviating ? get in the way of our wine.” Bill will be much missed.