Boston wine industry peeps!

I’ll be joining forces with IVBAM and Please the Palate for a trade event focusing on the wines of Madeira on Tuesday, June 6, 2017, at Committee Boston.

I’m not sure how much ass my presentation will kick, but I can assure you that much ass will indeed be kicked by the wine selections…

Qualified wine biz types can can register for the event at https://madeirawineboston.eventbrite.com/.

Here are more details. Hope to see you there!

IVBAM, Madeira Wine, Embroidery and Handicraft Institute and the Madeira Wine Producers invite you to enjoy the wine that celebrated the independence of the United States of American in 1776.

Madeira Wine Master Class Seminar – 11:00am – 12:30pm

Presenter: Joe Roberts of 1WineDude

Walk Around Tasting featuring more than 30 Madeira Wines – 12:30pm – 3:30pm

Producers include:

Blandy’s Madeira Wine Company, CAF-Madeira Vintners, Henriques & Henriques, Justino’s Madeira Wines, Pereira D’Oliveira, Vinhos Barbeito

Join us for this exclusive tasting open to qualified wine trade and media only.

Cheers!

(image: svb.com)

Each year, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) releases their predictions for the U.S. wine biz for the coming year, and every year I have my (typically snarky) commentary on the report (which, I should add, I usually find to be insightful – the report, I mean, not necessarily my snarky commentary).

The SVB report is Northern-California-heavy, which makes sense, given their clientele. It often makes also contains predictions that one might generously call “favorably perceived” by that clientele; in the 2017 report, for example, we’re told that Millenial consumers will move from imbibing blends into imbibing varietal wines, and will also pay more for the privilege. Which probably has a lot of perennially under-compensated Millenial wine lovers saying, “ok, sure, with what, the money I make by selling my f*cking blood?!??”

What I want to focus on for 2017, however, are two aspects emphasized in the SVB report, one of which the U.S. wine biz seems to be on board with (albeit a bit late), and another with which the U.S. wine biz seems to be, well, not so on board…

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For those of you considering coming to the USBevX 2017 Wine & Beverage Expo in D.C., you can now attend and heckle me at during either of my workshops for less money!

Just head over to usbevexpo.com and use the code ROBERTS17 to receive a FREE tradeshow floor pass, or 50% off an all-access conference pass (which includes the tradeshow). Aside from the tradeshow, there’s a great speaker list lined up, with interesting workshop topics that are focused on real-world, practical take-aways, so if you’re in the wine biz be sure to check it out.

Cheers!

image: burgundypeoplewithapassionforwine.com

Next week, a new film from former Hollywood television producer/director (and, interestingly, USAF pilot) Rudi Goldman will officially be released, titled Burgundy: People with a Passion for Wine.

Goldman is a rather persistent fellow, and he impressed me by displaying a quality that I sometimes myself brag about possessing; namely, the ability to ultimately convince you that it will be less trouble for you to do what I want (in this case, screen and possibly review his film) than it would be not to do what I want you to do. I actually do mean this as a compliment, by the way.

And so I was able to take an early peek at his film, and decided to offer up some thoughts on his visual tour of what is arguably France’s most famous wine region…

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