A New California Grand Cru Pinot Vineyard: Sea Smoke Southing

Bill_Tex_Landreth · October 17, 2011, 6:06pm

Interesting move.

Tyler_Rico · October 17, 2011, 6:21pm

lame!

Ray_Walker · October 17, 2011, 6:22pm

Thanks for posting this. Will be fun to watch this thread and what comes of it

ssimpsonjr · October 17, 2011, 6:23pm

+1!

TomHill · October 17, 2011, 6:42pm

OMG… the end of the world is nigh. What will they be putting next on labels…
Private Reserve?? Old Vines???
This is so scarey.
Tom

Rick_Gregory · October 17, 2011, 6:43pm

pathetic.

Steve_Eisenhauer · October 17, 2011, 7:07pm

Reaction (general, that is) in Burgundy, Ray? I couldn’t imagine it would be positive.

Scott_Butler · October 17, 2011, 7:09pm

Nice, I’d better order some before it sells out!

Ray_Walker · October 17, 2011, 7:10pm

I don’t think many here will notice. Of course, that may change.

Paul_H_Galli · October 17, 2011, 7:11pm

SS can call their product what they want…

I call it a high alcohol fruit bomb…

TTT

Cris_Whetstone · October 17, 2011, 7:11pm

‘According to Jim Laube’…?

Berry_Crawford · October 17, 2011, 7:15pm

So very very lame

Tyler_Rico · October 17, 2011, 7:15pm

Jorge_Henriquez · October 17, 2011, 7:15pm

Jonathan Newman! was busy.

Frank_Smith · October 17, 2011, 7:16pm

Silly and pretentious. Even if there were a ranking of CA Pinot vineyards, I would hope that the different tiers would be called something other than “Grand Cru”, “Premier Cru”, etc, to avoid the pretense that they were being compared with their counterparts in Burgundy. And I would think there are a number of vineyards that would merit more consideration than Southing for the top tier.

Chad_Richardson · October 17, 2011, 7:19pm

I predict that the amount of educated consumers this alienates will far exceed the small number of half-tuned-in buyers it may attract. It’s one thing to try to create a differentiating name/logo/association for marketing purposes (Fume Blanc, for example), but another thing entirely to try to capitalize on something that already exists but to which your product has no ties or rights.

Frank_Smith · October 17, 2011, 7:25pm

Agreed, especially when it’s the producer itself bestowing the title rather than some industry body.

M_Dildine · October 17, 2011, 7:30pm

I don’t like that one bit. It’s derivative and falsely self-congratulatory.

CWun · October 17, 2011, 7:35pm

Actually I think it’ll attract more newbie/inexperienced buyers who pick up a bottle at a relatively well stocked wine shop. Mailing list members will still buy from them. People who don’t like their style will continue to not buy their wine. SeaSmoke doesn’t seem to lose much in their label “campaign”

Rick_Gregory · October 17, 2011, 7:47pm

Cary - don’t agree. But I don’t think it will hurt them much. Most wine geeks know what they’re about by now and if someone likes that wine they’re not going to refuse to buy it because of this. If someone doesn’t like the wine, I don’t see them trying it because of the label. Sales-wise, it’s a wash. I just shook my head when I saw it because for all of the sentiment I read about Cali producers wanting to not be compared to Burg, but to be judged on their own merits it seems a rather lame, sad attempt to co-opt a term that has no real meaning in California.