“We don’t want a square strawberry.”

So opines Ridge’s Paul Draper in the first half of Wine From Here, a documentary about (and at points a bit of a commercial for) the budding natural winemaking movement in California (I got a sneak peak by invitation from one of the filmmakers, Martin Carel of Wino Brothers Inc.). The trailer is embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

The film will be screened in L.A. in a couple of days, followed by a tasting of natural wines with winemakers featured in the film at BUZZ Wine / Beer Shop – and if you buy tix to the event online you’ll get 1/3 off the full price by using discount code “1WD” at checkout!

Draper’s comment above is in reference to (what I think is) the strongest selling point behind natural winemaking: consumers ought to know what they are getting when they buy a product, and in the case of wine sometimes they are getting a lot more than just fermented grape juice, primarily in the form of various additives (for more on that topic, and for a rough definition of natural winemaking itself, see my review of Alice Feiring’s new book – she makes several appearances in the film, by the way). And as we know well, consumer sentiment is king, and will play a large part in whether or not the natural winemaking movement gains any serious traction in the wine biz and becomes the vinous equivalent of the organic / slow food phenomena.

Based on the film (which is well-made, and is highly recommended watching for wine geeks), the natural winemaking movement sorely needs to emphasize its strong points, because it’s still touting a few tenets that hold less water than well-drained gravelly vineyard soils…

The leakiest of those tenets? The notion that natural winemaking is the most accurate lightening rod for transmitting a sense of place. Wine From Here begins its dénouement with a blind tasting of natural CA wines with experts and CA natural winemakers. It’s one of the dramatic low points of the film, which is a shame because the results of the tasting are themselves fairly dramatic; as summarized by the film’s narrator:

“…Only sometimes could they correctly identify the grapes or some detail of the winemaking methods; and not one could identify the specific terroir in California.”

Oh, blind tasting, you universally cool, cruel arbiter and equalizer!

While the above result will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever taken part in a blind tasting of wines, it undercuts the message delivered by several of the interviewees in the film that natural winemaking is a more reliable delivery service than UPS when it comes to bringing you a sense of place in a wine.

Wine From Here does a pretty good job of balancing the various sides of natural winemaking story in CA, including not shying away from the thorny topic of how environmental friendliness (another claim widely espoused by organic grape growers and natural winemakers) should be measured. Jared Brandt, winemaker at A Donkey and Goat, puts it best in his interview when he recalls a conversation with a former French employer, who noted that after converting to Biodynamics “his diesel usage went up ten times… is using ten times as much diesel worse on the environment than using RoundUp? I don’t think it’s as clear-cut as people think it is.”

Far more interesting to me, and I think a tactic ultimately more likely for success, are the comparisons made in the film between natural winemaking and natural foods. Long-standing godfather of CA natural wine Tony Coturri talks up this food angle, as does Alice Feiring, and it’s a strong one. If you demand that your food be processed as little as possible, then as a consumer don’t you have the right to demand the same thing from your wines?

My bud Hardy Wallace, in talking about the winemaking at his former employer the Natural Process Alliance in Santa Rosa (whose cloudy Sauvignon Blanc is a tasty, joyous, visceral experience, by the way), I thought summed up the thinking behind this comparison best during one of his interviews in Wine From Here:

“Our goal is to do nothing [to the wine]; so if we have to do anything, we want to do as little as possible.”

The corollary of course being that much of the wine you’re drinking is having something done to it, and in many cases it’s having a sh*tload of stuff done to it, none of which you probably know anything about and certainly some of which you’d rather go without putting in your mouth if you did know it was in there.

Wine From Here isn’t perfect, but if you’re a fine wine geek then it sure as hell ought to get you thinking about how and why wine production, in its pursuit of “perfection,” often turns more into craft and recipe-following than it does into genuine artistic expression.

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Square Strawberries: Distilling The Natural Wine Message From The New Film “Wines From Here” (Score A Discount To The L.A. Screening!) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

And just like that… it was all over.

What was arguably the largest publicity-minded event in the history of U.S. winemaking is over, as the reality-TV-inspired A Really Goode Job contest thrown by Murphy-Goode winery has finally come to an end.

I’m extremely pleased to report that 1WineDude.com friend Hardy Wallace of DirtySouthWine.com has been named the winner, and will begin his 6-month post as Murphy-Goode main media man on August 15th.

Frequent 1WineDude.com readers will recall that Hardy was my pick back in May when the contest first started taking off.  Personally, I’m pleased as sangria-punch to see Hardy get the attention, accolades, and the job of his dreams. You can view the entire press release on the winning announcement here.

The entire event garnered a massive amount of publicity (both positive and negative), and saw job opportunities open up to several of the participants as wineries were exposed to the increasing power of social media and Internet-based marketing as a result of the campaign.

What does it mean for the world of wine? It’s good news for Hardy, great news for Murphy-Goode, and even better news for wine and social media as a whole…

The whole thing is good for wine, period:

1) It’s brought together ‘new’ and ‘traditional’ wine media.

Those in print, radio, and TV who cover the world of wine have, through the M-G promotion, come face-to-face with their social media, on-line counterparts.  The trained, paid media few and the mostly-independent, untrained social media many have converged, and probably found that they have far more in common than they otherwise would have believed. They need each other; they support and augment one another.

2) On-line activity is now officially big news.

Just when the wine industry needs it most, the M-G initiative is giving it a publicity boost and a shot in the arm.  What the competition proved is that wine can be big news, and on-line wine activity can be even bigger news – and can attract a talented, young, and passionate audience (which also happens to be exactly what the wine industry needs).

3) Murphy-Goode Fallout = Wine Media Jobs

Much has been written both on- and off-line about the future of wine writing.  Well, we’ve just seen at least part of that future, and it not only involves writing but also involves bringing together an understanding of how various on-line social media tools interact effectively to promote wine brands.  Is this the same as independent wine writing?  No.  But it is a glimpse at the future talent requirements of at least some aspect of wine coverage, and it’s resulting in more jobs than just the M-G dream job itself.  Will other wine groups and brands follow suit?  Probably – and that is not a bad thing, it’s an evolution of already existing thing.

Best of luck, Hardy – not that you’ll need it.  I’m looking forward to seeing where you’re taking things, now that you’re a leader in the social media space (whether you like it or not! :-).

Cheers!

(images: areallygoodejob.com)

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Murphy-Goode’s “Dream Job” Winner – and What It Means for Wine from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

They’re calling the the competition “A Really Goode Job” and it’s understandably gaining quite a lot of buzz on-line.  In fact, Murphy-Goode is already sitting pretty on this deal, as they’ve probably scored way over $60K in media exposure over this and the competition is just now picking up steam.

I’m excited to report that a friend of 1WineDude, Hardy Wallace of Atlanta’s excellent Dirty South Wine blog, is in the running for the Job – and he needs your vote!

I’d be hard-pressed to think of someone better qualified (not to mention better suited) to the job than Hardy.  To get the scoop on Hardy’s story and why he’s applying, check out goodetobefirst.com

Hardy’s application vid below, and it’s a classic.  Check it out and then head on over to areallygoodejob.com and Vote Dirty!

Cheers!

Copyright © 2011. Originally at Vote Dirty! from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!