The Never Ending Marketing Battle

I recently saw a press release which made me think.

The French wine region of Alsace has hired a PR firm in the hopes of expanding their appeal within the United States.  A couple of thoughts immediately came to mind after reading the release:

-Last year I attended a tasting sponsored by a similiar group for Bordeaux.  They poured quite a few wineries who were still struggling with lackluster (largely) scores and little American market penetration because of it.  The wines were all quite good and it was a great event to learn some more about why Bordeaux is as special as it is, but I was left wondering why some of the wineries which had sent people to pour their wines at significant expense, choose employees who spoke little to no English.  It was strange-I hope Alsace can learn from this.

-Secondly, they choose to quote or mention at least 4 Sommeliers in their release.  Each of which works at an east coast restaurant.  Given current market penetrations, I would have thought they could have at least mentioned someone in San Francisco or Los Angeles if they plan on trying to sell wine here (a note: they do). 

In any case, there is certainly more and more competition for wine dollars.  For us, that's a positive development.