Wine Marketing Secrets with Dr. Tim Dodd (Video)

Our guest this evening is the James Young Regents Professor of Hospitality Management, and Director of the Texas Wine Marketing Research Institute at Texas Tech University. He worked with the New Zealand grape and wine industry before becoming involved with the Texas industry in the late 1980s, serving as President and other roles within the Association. He completed his doctoral dissertation on winery tourism and continues to conduct research on marketing and economic issues related to wine. He has also published numerous articles on these topics in a variety of professional journals and has presented at various international conferences. And […]

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Austrian Wine is more than Gruner: Embrace the Unique

  By Mymi Myriam Mozart, the Alps, Baroque architecture and Schnitzels are some of the things that spring to mind when thinking of Austria. This alpine country is sadly not often first associated with wine, but when it is, the perception is that it produces mainly sweet wines. That’s quite odd for a country that has been making wine for over four centuries, whose value of recent exports has grown by an impressive € 6 million, amounting to an outstanding sales record of € 145 million (according to the 2014 Austrian Wine Statistics report). Austria ranks at #19 as a wine […]

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Video: Prosecco and Pinot Grigio Primer for the Holidays with Santa Margherita

  What a terrific chat with Nicola Lovato, Brand Ambassador, Santa Margherita! Click on the arrow above to watch the video.   P.S. Join us Sunday October 8, at 6 pm eastern with John Williams, Winemaker, Frog’s Leap Winery. www.nataliemaclean.com/live Want to know when we go live Monday with John Williams? Click on the Follow and Like buttons on this page to get notified when we go live. We’ll be simultaneously broadcasting on Facebook Live, YouTube Live Stream and Twitter Live Video via Periscope. Watch previous episodes of the Sunday Sipper Club (SSC) and find out who’s coming up next. […]

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How to Import Wine into Canada for Pleasure and Profit

Importing Wine, Beer & Spirits for Pleasure & Profit Seminar Saturday November  5th, 2016 Novotel Toronto Centre 45 The Esplanade – Toronto 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM Join Charles Steven Trenholme for the day-long seminar Importing for Wine, Beer & Spirits For Pleasure & Profit, which provides insights into the dynamics of importing wine, craft beers & spirits into Canada. Charles Steven brings to the seminar 35+ years of experience working in various capacities including managing national sales agency, brand management, sommelier and as educators. Charles Steven knows first-hand that there are still hundreds of suppliers around the world actively […]

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How to Pick a Wine Class? Learn About Wine to Satisfy Your Thirst

You’ve started to learn about wine and find yourself thirsting for more knowledge. Choosing a wine course can be challenging, especially with so many options these days. Selecting the right wine class depends on your goals: 1. Is it to become more knowledgeable as a wine drinker and to increase your personal enjoyment of wine? 2. To find a new hobby that you and a friend or partner can pursue together? 3. To learn more about various wine regions in order to plan gastro-vacations? 4. To make a career change or start one in the wine industry? I’ve always felt […]

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Pairing Wine and Social Media: Engagement in a Glass of its Own

On CBC radio drive-home shows across Canada yesterday, we discuss how social media is changing the way we discover new wines and share them with others. Click on the arrow above to listen to the clip. You can also watch this Google + video hangout that I did with the Californian-based wine consultant Paul Mabray several years ago on Digital Darwinism for the Wine Industry. The concepts have aged well and still hold true now. Do you find social media useful for discovering new wines? If so, which one in particular: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, Google +, LinkedIn or […]

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Wine Casks have Captured the Attention of Canadian Wine Consumers

Casks, most often referred to as boxed wines, have traditionally had a bad reputation with consumers. The perception is that wine in a box must be poor quality wine and that no one buys them. As one of the fastest-growing segments of the Canadian wine industry, high-quality boxed wines are finally getting the attention they deserve in this country. Australia has lead the way with casks since the majority of wine Down Under is sold in boxes. Now, Canadians are getting hip to the idea that good wine can come in something other than a bottle. For the first time […]

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Can You Judge a Wine by its Label?

  Continued from Part 1 of Reading Wine Labels   It’s 5 p.m. on Friday—the dinner party is in two hours and you’re standing in the middle of the liquor store. In front of you are thousands of bottles of wine. Should you consider only wines over $15 so your host won’t think you’re cheap? Do you grab the bottle with the small furry animals on the label or will the guests think you live inside a Disney movie? Should you go for the wine with the cheeky name for a laugh or might someone be offended? If you’re not […]

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Reserve Wine Labels and Other Extra Special Meaningless Terms

Continued from Part 2 of Reading Wine Labels There’s nothing like having to buy wine at the last minute to take to a friend’s house to cause a panic attack. No other consumable is put on the table in its original package. At social gatherings, the wine label is like a blinking billboard telling your guests exactly what you think of them and of yourself. So that piece of paper affixed to the front of the bottle is all you have to go on. In the quaint old days, merchants simply wrote on the label what was in the bottle. […]

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Canadian Wine and the European Trade Deal

How will the new European trade deal affect the Canadian wine industry? Here are some excerpts quoted from a recent story by Dianne Buckner, host of CBC’s Dragon Den. The story ran on CBC, Reuters and Canadian Business magazine. Unlike Canada’s cheese-makers and fisheries who find themselves disadvantaged by the new deal, some in Canada’s wine industry are thrilled by the prospect of new customers. Just ask the president of the Canadian Vintners Association. “The agreement opens preferential market access to the EU’s more than 500 million consumers,” says Dan Paszkowski. “It creates new opportunities for Canadian wine exports to […]

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