Ascentia Wine Estates Goes Out of Business.
May 31, 2012
According to an as-yet unconfirmed email from Wine Industry Insight: “Ascentia Wine Estates is no longer in the wine business as of the end of today when most sales of its properties are supposed to close.”
Ascentia Wine Estates which owned the Atlas Peak, Columbia Winery, Covey Run, Geyser Peak, XYZin and 1805 wine brands has been insolvent for more than a year and under pressure from its major investors to sell the properties.
Ascentia CEO Jim DeBonis has denied for a few months the company was for sale, but has allegedly just today told employees today that this was their last day. He also stated they should return on Monday to see if they had a job with any of the purchasers of the winery properties.
Below is a copy of the email from CEO Jim DeBonis:
Click here for the full article.
My Thoughts…
Shame! They had some great brands in their portfolio….not that I ever saw much from them from a marketing standpoint
I don’t know anything about the inner-working of this deal; however, any boss that gives his staff one day of notice, has questionable business ethics as far as I’m concerned (if that is indeed what happened). On to the next one…
Posted in News | Tagged Ascentia, Ascentia Wine Brands bankrupt, Covey Run bankrupt | Leave a comment //Wine Myths…Busted: Never Choose Wine Based on the Label.
May 31, 2012
This “wine myth” comes up every now and then, and is generally written in lifestyle magazines by writers who have absolutely no clue about the topic they are covering, instead relying on regurgitating the rhetoric they’ve no-doubt read in some other lifestyle magazine.
Of course, the beautiful packaging and design of a wine label doesn’t really tell you anything about the juice in the bottle….or does it?
People are becoming increasingly visual in their habits, this perfectly demonstrated by the success of image-based “social pinboard” Pinterest and the influence it appears to be having on e-commerce.
To me, a great wine label says that the winery shows real attention-to-detail with the product they’re producing and is forward-thinking, innovative and image conscious towards what the consumer thinks of their brand. If that’s the attention they’re putting into their wine labels, hopefully the same attention will be paid to the juice in the bottle.
Does this theory always pan out? Of course not, but neither does buying wine from a particular region, sub-appellation, producer or the same importer (unless you’ve purchased it before). To this end, I have no doubt that a great number of wineries (Mollydooker, Orin Swift, Charles Smith etc.) owe a large amount of their continued success to their innovative packaging.
What are Green Wines? – Infographic
May 31, 2012Who doesn’t love a good wine infographic!?!? ,
I’ve spent a little time recently creating my own, so I know a lot of time and research goes into them! Wine.com always do the best job in putting together wine infographics and this one for Green Wines is no exception.
There’s been a lot of talk about “green” and “natural” wines and this diagram goes part of the way to developing simplifying those terms. Also, if you’re one of those people that still think sulfites are the cause of your wine headache, you may want to pay particular attention to that section! 
Peter Lehman “Layers” White Wine Blend, Adelaide, South Australia.
May 30, 2012
Grapes
36% Semillon, 20% Muscat, 20% Gewürztraminer, 20% Pinot Gris and 4% Chardonnay.
Facts
- I’ve been a big fan of the Peter Lehmann brand for a few years now. Their “Art Series” represents some of most value-driven, well-distributed and thoroughly “glug-worthy” wines coming out of Oz….
- The same kind of “kitchen-sinky” blend as Conundrum, and I’m taking a wild-stab-in-the-dark guess that “Layers” refers to the layers of flavor achieved through the blending of these five white grapes.
- Founded by….you guessed it…. Peter Lehmann, this South Australian property has been pumping out fermented grape juice since 1979. The winery was acquired in 2003 by the Switzerland-based Hess Group at a valuation of over $103 million, making it first Australian brand in the Hess portfolio.
- 2010 is only the second vintage for the Peter Lehman Layers.
- All the Peter Lehmann wines are bottled under a screw-cap closure. Not a big deal, until you realize the same is true for their Stonewell Shiraz, which is listed (on their website) for $100+ a bottle. I’m fairly certain that’s one of the most expensive Australian wine I’ve seen with a twisty-top!
- Rod Schubert (the artist behind the Peter Lehman label) considers the Queen of Clubs the “gambler’s card,” with every label of Peter Lehmann wine adorned being with a club somewhere on the bottle. This alludes to the gamble Peter Lehmann took when founding the winery during the volatile economic climate in Australia during the 1970s.
I love a wine label with a story!
What’s Happening in my World…
May 29, 2012
Kris Chislett.com
I know, I must be out of my tiny-little-English-mind to start an additional website!
My rationale is that I’m not particularly fond of posting social media content right here on this website (since it’s a little off-topic from what most people are expecting); however, as my involvement in social media increases and I’m working with a lot more wineries, I needed somewhere to house this type of content.
I also wanted to buy my name’s domain before some sleazy entrepreneur got their hands on it (…or maybe I shouldn’t flatter myself)….
The KrisChislett.com site, which is now housed under the About section of this website, will generally feature social media and marketing articles, with the occasional personal post. To start, I’ll keep posting the videos and posts both here and on KrisChislett.com, then I’ll gradually move everything over to there.
Radio Interview on WineCrush.com
I recently did my first ever radio interview for WineCrush, a cool wine-themed program that’s syndicated to 50 different radio stations.
It’s weird hearing yourself on the radio, but I’m quite happy with how everything went, considering I had no prior knowledge of the questions they were going to be asking.
Past guests have included Steve Heimoff (Wine Enthusiast West Coast Editor), Paul Mabray (VinTank), Rick Tigner (President of Kendall Jackson), Jeff Bundschu, (President of Gundlach Bundschu), Dan Cohn (B.R. of Cohn Winery) to name but a few; so I was obviously humbled that they reached out for me!
The interview can be found by clicking on this link, and you can skip to the middle-point of the show for my chat with host Laura Lawson.
TV Spot
This week I begin shooting a TV wine segment on CW17, broadcasting to 675,000 households in the Jacksonville area.
I’ve always been convinced that wine has a place on TV (contrary to the Wine on TV article I wrote a while back), so needless-to-say I’m going to give it everything I’ve got! Expect humor, sarcasm and hopefully you might even learn a thing-or-three about wine!
I believe the segments are only going to last about 3-5 minutes (about the same length as the videos I post here) and air every Saturday at 11pm. Fortunately for Saturday Night Live I won’t be competing for their viewership! :)
Once I get the YouTube videos I’ll no-doubt be posting them here. Stay tuned for more info…
Wine Bloggers Conference 2012
Unfortunately I won’t be attending this year’s Wine Bloggers Conference in Portland, Oregon. A lot of thought went into the decision, with the cost being the main barrier.
I estimated my attendance to be in the region of $1,300 (flight, hotel, admission to event, meals etc.) which is a ton of money for a 3-day event! If anything, I see more potential in investing that cash in some of my other projects, which leads nicely to my next point…
Other Stuff
One of my defining characteristics is that I don’t like saying I’m going to do something (or starting a project) and then not following-through with it. This is contrary to what I’m seeing a lot-of online (even from some of the “big names”).
My lips are therefore going to stay firmly sealed on some of the other things I’m working on, but I’m extremely excited about their potential. It’s all logistics and legalities at this point, but once things start moving forward you’ll be the first to know about it!
Posted in News | Leave a comment //Changing the Perception that all Rieslings are Sweet.
May 28, 2012
One group of Riesling enthusiasts has set out to change the perception that all Riesling wines are sweet.
In 2007, Dan Berger, Coke Roth and Jim Trezise assembled at a wine event and began to talk about the problem with Riesling.
“Consumers walk into a store,” said Berger, a wine writer in Santa Rosa, Calif. “They liked the last Riesling they had, so they pick up a bottle, wondering if it’s dry or sweet. They can’t tell by looking at the label, so they put it back on the shelf.”
Wineries are well aware of the dilemma, especially the folks at Chateau Ste. Michelle, the largest producer of Riesling in the world.
In January 2008, the group held its first formal meeting, and by that October, the International Riesling Foundation (their group) had developed a Riesling tasting scale, a graphic that indicates to consumers whether a Riesling is dry, sweet or somewhere in between.
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