Anyway, keep us in your prayers for a speedy, complication free birth! – Josh

All Natural

The other night my wife and I watched a documentary with Riki Lake (yes that Riki Lake) on natural vs. hospital childbirth. It’s called The Business of Being Born.

The general thrust (heh) of the documentary is that interventionist practices by medical doctors have done much to rob women of the experience of giving birth, while also pumping mothers and their newborns full of drugs, all for no measurable change in outcomes.

Riki takes all this pretty seriously. In fact she’s kinda nutty. I can’t really blame her. Giving birth is a big deal and being hopped up on hormones for 9 months takes it toll.

My wife takes it seriously, too. I respect that completely. She had our son naturally at our local birth center, sans drugs, like a freakin’ Amazon. It was awesome.

I was able to lie on the bed with her at the end, face to face, as she gave birth to Jackson. Usually men are relegated to the role of ineffectual cheerleader during birth, but I was able to play an intimate part in the whole deal because of the freedom you’re afforded by giving birth naturally. Moms aren’t forced to lie on their backs, legs in stirrups simply for the benefit of a doc, for instance (I’m told that’s the single most uncomfortable position to be in during birth). Instead moms are able to jump in the tub, walk around, sit on a ball, play the x-box, or do whatever helps them to deal with the pain.

So this is serious, miraculous, profound stuff were talking about here. Worthy of my undivided attention. But darn it if the whole time I was watching the documentary my mind wasn’t wandering back to wine.

To be continued…

Thanks to the absolutely stellar reporting of Lewis Perdue at Wine Insights (be sure to subscribe if you don’t already), it looks like I’ve gotten some answers.

But first, the juicy stuff from Lewis’ latest post:

* Amazon has a stealth, password protected version of its amazonwine.com site up and running using New Vine technology.
* Employees claim they are searching for a class action attorney to file suit against NV

And, perhaps most scandalous of all, given the fiduciary duty management has to their investors, employees and clients:

* New Vine had “hidden” debt not accounted for on its books and had no CFO for the past 2 years. The debt was revealed only after an internal audit was performed by a crisis manager, and it is what caused investors to close New Vine’s doors.

So let’s see how the latest round of revelations and other recent events help answer my questions from the other day.

1. Some are saying that the inventory at NVL is locked down and somehow unrecoverable. They imply this might cause wineries and marketing agents to go under. How is this possible, and who legally owns the wine NVL had under its roof?

My current opinion: It isn’t in Inertia’s or the investors’ interest to let what’s left of their client list easily defect to another fulfillment house. So, while I’m sure many will leave, other clients will probably find it harder to extricate themselves. They’ll likely be wooed and some attempt will be made to keep them on board.

2. Silicon Valley Bank shut the doors on the operation, reportedly. In doing so, they likely imperiled some of their clients shipments. Did they tell their clients ahead of time? And if they did, didn’t they have the obligation to tell everyone in the industry?

Fact: Silicon Valley Bank did not shut the doors (I relied on erroneous reporting in the Press Democrat), so this question is moot.

3. Why wasn’t NVL more forthcoming to their clients? Clearly they saw this coming, and an orderly wind down stains your reputation much less than the mess many of their clients are currently experiencing.

My current opinion: Despite statements placed in the comments of my blog (and many others) by Charlotte Milan on behalf of Kathleen Hoertkorn and Chairman of the Board Homer Dunn, Lewis Perdue’s reporting appears to show clearly that both either knew, or should have known that things were going very, very badly. The discovery of “hidden” debt should have been a huge red flag that they had lost the trust of their investors. If reports are true, they should have alerted both their clients and employees about the companies’ financial distress. Huge black eye for the management.

4. What does this mean for the future of direct shipping? Is this just a blip caused by Amazon, or is it some kind of sign that the direct to consumer channel simply isn’t as healthy as we’ve all been led to believe? You would think that a company doing 60 million/yr in business, coming off years of double digit growth, would be able to weather an economic “storm” of low single digit growth if managed properly. You would think.

My current opinion: This debacle has very little to do with the future of direct shipping, and much more to do with poor management.

It’s been an interesting week in the wine business. Thanks to everyone who commented, shared insider chit-chat with me on Twitter, and to Lewis for his fine reporting.

So the wine blogger scholarship contest, the one where if enough people submitted applications you could receive $1000, received fewer than 20 submissions. It was, by any accounting, a failure.

I’ve been unpacking the reasons why I think the scholarship is full of fail, and thought I’d share.

I’m no stranger to failure; many things I’ve attempted while building the Capozzi brand have ended in ways I either didn’t anticipate, or were well short of my expectations.

My ill-fated foray into Second Life springs to mind instantly. We spent 5K or so building an island that ended up being at turns either completely uninhabited, or overrun with dildo-waving furries bent on turning my vineyard island into the digital equivalent of Gomorrah. So, like the smiting smiter that I am, I smote the fetid, gangrenous evil that lurked therein. With a vengeance. FAIL.

Moral: If you’re going to attempt to leverage new media strategies, limit your investment until you have measurable, projectable results.

Then there’s the whole custom crush debacle. Yes, we should have wine on the market right now. In fact we should have had wine on the market for almost a year at this point. But, since the compliance person in charge of the custom crush facilities permitting “lost track” of my permit app, we are still without sale-able wine. My lack of oversight was a huge contributer here. Ass-uming and all that. FAIL.

Moral: Keep your friends close, and your consultants closer.

And because we are without sale-able wine, folks who sent in shirt photos are still waiting for their free samples. The free sample thing I don’t feel so bad about, actually. They were free shirts, after all – and the samples will come. But still: FAIL.

Moral: Free buys you lots of goodwill and patience. But for how long?

Now, this.

To recap: I offered hundreds of dollars for a single blog post, literally about an hour and a half of a blogger’s time. I offered this cash reward during what the media keeps claiming is one of the most severe recessions since the 30’s. I also created a rewards structure that incented people to share and encourage others to submit an entry, so that the cash reward would increase. And I gave folks a month to write their post. Then I extended the deadline an extra 10 days.

The results: More traffic to the blog than ever. Lots of buzz on Twitter. Numerous emails seeking clarification. And, ultimately, less than 10 eligible entries.

(There were more, but shockingly, a couple bloggers for whom I have enormous respect didn’t properly follow directions. Crazy!)

So what went wrong?

A number of things, actually. Among them:

* The most obvious is that I was competing for attention with Murphy Goode. They rolled out their YouTube campaign a couple days before I launched the contest and I’m certain their well-earned buzz drowned out my message somewhat.

* There was yet another worthy scholarship, this one for the Wine Blogger Conference, that launched soon after mine. This surely added some confusion among potential entrants. Even one of my judges contacted me asking if the two were one and the same!

But these are reasons, not excuses. I pride myself (perhaps mistakenly, perhaps not) on being a good marketer. A busy, crowded marketplace is a challenge to be overcome, not an excuse for failure. Which leaves me with this:

* The scholarship was simply not remarkable enough.

It didn’t spread like it should, and even when people knew about it (and plenty did) they didn’t choose to participate. I think I know why.

First, I called it a scholarship. Huge mistake! No one enters scholarships! I’m joking (a little), but millions in scholarships will go unclaimed this year, just like they did every year before it.

Second, it required wine bloggers to write about a subject they didn’t necessarily want to write about. Sure it was about wine, but it was about an aspect of wine that I found interesting, not one that they did. Most bloggers, myself included, have a blog for the very reason that they want to express themselves without constrains, on their own terms. The genius of the Murphy Goode contest is that they asked applicants to talk about themselves, which everyone loves to do!

In the end, limited participation has doomed what I thought would become a yearly event. Something like it may take its place in the future, but it will be in a vastly different form. Happily I had learned from my Second Life experience and limited my exposure in the event of a failure by way of the contest’s structure. Still: FAIL.

Moral: To be remarkable, you must align your marketing with the core desires of your audience. Contrary to popular belief, getting a stack of money is not a core desire.

It’s become a cliche, but people are far too afraid of failure. The trick is to fail quickly, and/or to limit your inevitable future failures to a manageable size. That’s where the learning happens.

To those that did enter: I’ll be sending your submissions to the judges for review later this week and the winner will be announced shortly after. Thanks for entering!

Usually I use this blog to express my views and opinions, but today I just have questions regarding the NVL closure.

According to reports in the Press Democrat, quoting an unnamed employee, Silicon Valley Bank was responsible for the abrupt closure of NVL either last Friday or on Sunday. It isn’t clear which.

What is known is that the situation was first brought to light at noon on Sunday by Larry Chandler on Twitter.

Wine and Spirits Daily reports that the closure was brought on by Amazon’s delay in starting amazonwine.com. Megan writes that NVL built out anticipating having to handle the volume Amazon was sure to send its way, and was left hanging when they didn’t launch last Fall as expected.

My questions, given the above, are the following:

1. Some are saying that the inventory at NVL is locked down and somehow unrecoverable. They imply this might cause wineries and marketing agents to go under. How is this possible, and who legally owns the wine NVL had under its roof?

2. Silicon Valley Bank shut the doors on the operation, reportedly. In doing so, they likely imperiled some of their clients shipments. Did they tell their clients ahead of time? And if they did, didn’t they have the obligation to tell everyone in the industry?

3. Why wasn’t NVL more forthcoming to their clients? Clearly they saw this coming, and an orderly wind down stains your reputation much less than the mess many of their clients are currently experiencing.

4. What does this mean for the future of direct shipping? Is this just a blip caused by Amazon, or is it some kind of sign that the direct to consumer channel simply isn’t as healthy as we’ve all been led to believe? You would think that a company doing 60 million/yr in business, coming off years of double digit growth, would be able to weather an economic “storm” of low single digit growth if managed properly. You would think.

So many questions. Anyone have any answers?

Look, folks. Every wine writer with any influence or connections has partaken of gourmet meals for free. Every wine writer with any influence or connections has been hosted, or limo’ed, or accommodated, by his or her hosts, to some degree, and at one time or another. I have, and so has each critic I’ve ever known — because over the years I’ve run into them at the same feasts, in the same hotels, at the same festivals whose entry fees were waived for members of the media. I don’t know Dr. Vino personally; perhaps he is that rare bird, a wine writer and critic who has never taken a dime from a winery or winery organization. If that is so, he must be independently wealthy, which few wine writers are.

In response I worte this comment. Looking at it after I hit submit, I was dismayed at some grammatical mis-steps, and missing words (my wife copy edits all my posts). Also it’s important enough that I wanted to reproduce my thoughts here on my blog.

Nice post Steve.

I fault no critic for taking free meals, free private jet rides, free admission and free lodging. I have no problem with reviewers tasting wines non-blind while on junkets and then scoring them. You folks have to eat after all, and you need a ride to get there. Why not do it in style?

While I don’t condemn Parker for what’s happened, I am extremely pleased at recent events.

Why? Because it has given me the perfect opportunity to convince key influencers to stop comparing themselves to the pseudo high standards set forth by Parker in the WA and in his books.

Citizen reviewers on Twitter, blogs, cellar tracker and vinfolio should all be viewing themselves as mini Kermit Lynchs, not mini Robert Parkers.

The same way that bloggers can post affiliate links to books that they review and earn a commission from Amazon, I believe that bloggers and others in social media should be able to post links for others to purchase the wines that they review and earn a set dollar commission.

Further, I believe those links should go straight to the winery’s website. Reviewers should acknowledge the fact that they are earning a commission. They should also be paid handsomely for it, because they are the channel of the future.

It’s transformational. Imagine social media links on multiple platforms all driving recommendations and reviews right to the source, to where the wine is made. All done transparently. All done ethically.

How? As you point out, credibility is earned and folks must take critics on their word. They won’t read you if they don’t trust you.

The same logic applies to citizen reviewers. And if they disclose that they are getting paid if you click a link after a good review, there can be no conflict of interest. Why? Because if their readers begin to sense that they are giving wines that they earn money from good reviews simply to earn a comission, they will stop clicking those links. They will stop trusting those reviews. No readership, no trust, no revenue.

The system is self policing. This disperse channel will coalesce, and it will be the most transformational event in wine since the repeal of prohibition.

These are exciting times. And we will have Parker, Jancis, and you Steve to thank for helping speed its arrival with your candor.

Agree? Disagree? This was not tongue in cheek stuff. I mean it. And while some conservative wineries may question the legality of affiliate links, I am firmly in the camp that believes that set cash commissions for affiliate sales though links does not endanger a winery’s license.

And as for the ethical questions: to use Heimoff’s term, it truly is a tempest in a tea cup.

Link.

Dear Josh and Candace,

Umm, I would like to inform you guys that you don’t have to be a Gen X’er, Gen Y’er, or Gen Z’er to do ultra-cool i-things. Not a month ago i used my i-handy leveling tool to check the construction of my sister’s new hot-tub deck.

Then, and this was just last week, I was enjoying a frosty cold Red Bull at the studio and right then and there I developed an i-phone application by using the back of my i-phone as an i-coaster to protect the i-finish on my i-table.

And, at the risk of stealing your thunder here, I may in fact be the original inventor of the i-paperweight, an invaluable tool when out of i-doors on an i-windy day.

There’s just no telling what i-thing i’ll develop next. With an i-phone firmly in a baby-boomers i-holster, the i-world is the limit.

pop

In other news, the over 50 crowd is the fastest growing demographic segment on Facebook. Clearly, at least some of them have managed to keep their powder dry over the years and have more than a few shots left in their pistol. :-p

No one wants to cram in a post right before a 3 day weekend anyway! Use your time wisely, and don’t forget to spread the word and jack up the cash prize.

So Juicy

Juicified

Big thanks to Nathan and Ken from the PD for their professionalism and courtesy. Good times.