Charles Metcalfe:

Some rather depressing research done by UK supermarkets on the level of wine knowledge amongst British wine drinkers. 58% think that Chablis is a grape variety; 43% think Chardonnay is a region and only 16% think Champagne comes from France, often thinking it comes from Italy and Spain. Only 3% consider what they are eating when choosing a wine. Price is the most important factor, even more important than the wine's colour.

Cristiano van Zeller (one of the Douro Boys)

The Douro Boys is a brilliant example of producers working together to promote not only their own wines but also their region.

A survey into what makes a wine producer interesting and credible came up with four important factors. These were small production, good reputation in their home country, wines coming exclusively from their own vines and the estate being family owned.

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Jancis Robinson MW
With Julia Harding MW, Jancis is now busy writing a new study of grape varieties. Of the 1600 different varieties in the world, 10% come from Portugal which is quite extraordinary for a small country.


Advertising by generic bodies is a waste of resources. Jancis cited the large amount of money spent by Bordeaux wines on adverts that were absolutely worthless.

The 50 best Portuguese wines chosen by the journalist who wins the Portuguese wine writer of the year is a very good initiative.

The enthusiasm of the ambassador is helping to promote a country's wines and can be very important, especially in providing recommendations for press and trade tastings.

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Portuguese Wine & International Media

Kristine Baeder (Meininger), Elin McCoy (Bloomberg), Simon Tam (Independent Wine Center, China)

Kristine Baeder

Sadly Kristine's presentation was dreary. Quite why she thought that delegates would want to travel from around the globe to listen to a tedious presentation of her employers' business is beyond my understanding. Still she is not the first to have made this mistake at a conference.

Fortuntately the poor start was rescued by Elin McCoy and Simon Tam. (more to add)

There is an interesting interview by Bernard Burtschy with Robert Parker posted on Le Blog du Grand Jury – particularly interesting following Elin McCoy's presentation  on Friday at the European Wine Bloggers' Conference. The interview was originally published in L'Amateur de Bordeaux in French. Initially Bernard covers the 2009 Bordeaux vintage but then finishes by asking Parker about his views on the internet.   

The quote here gives a flavour:

'It is my experience that the more "white noise" that comes from free wine forums and blogs, the higher the amount of irrelevant, badly written, grossly incompetent, and negligent wine information is posted. If anything, the proliferation of free wine forums and blogs has actually pushed more and more people to seek out experts who do the work, who have no agenda, who study and appraise the situation fully.' 

Read the rest here.

Unlike Elin McCoy, Parker clearly believes that the internet has actually strengthened the position of 'ivory tower' critics. It would be interesting to have some hard facts on who the younger generation of wine drinkers get their wine information and advice from and who they trust. 

Incidentally I think the term 'ivory tower' can only be applied to a few critics as a number of the top wine writers spend a lot of their time visiting vineyards around the world.

See also my report on the conference here.

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70% more wine bloggers at European conference

Written by Gemma McKenna   

Thursday, 28 October 2010

The European Wine Bloggers Conference (EWBC), held in Vienna over the weekend, attracted 70% more bloggers this year than last.

(Report on Harpers Wine & Spirit website here.)

Elin McCoy speaking@Orangerie

A few comments from Ray Opaz from the opening ceremony:

Many of the fresh young voices of wine communication are here and in 'wine blogging  

Debate over value of name 'blogger' but blogger is a pencil/ printing press.

European Wine Bloggers Conference is the leading event for on-line wine

Announcement of venue for 2011 conference tomorrow. Already countries/regions interested in hosting 2012.

This was followed by an excellent opening talk by Elin McCoy on  the future of the wine critic. (More details to follow).