What I'm Reading in Wine + Marketing This Week
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Friday, 30 May 08 - 05:53 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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I was a bit swamped this week but I did enjoy the following!
Forget About Left Brain vs. Right Brain - Are you light-brained?
Steve Rubel's Nine Digital Trends for the Future
LIVE Tweets from Me from TECH Cocktail Conference
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Thursday, 29 May 08 - 05:47 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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Good morning!
I'm leaving home now for the TECH Cocktail conference in Chicago.
I'll be attempting to Tweet "live" from the conference out to my followers on Twitter.
If you want to hear the key messages from some of the hottest tech + marketing + startup people out there right now (including Gary Vaynerchuk), sign up for my Twitter Feed Fast!
My Guest Post at GreenProphet.com on the Spiritual Side of Wine
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Tuesday, 13 May 08 - 11:21 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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After reading and responding to a post there about biking the Israeli wine scene, I was asked by blogger Karin Kloosterman to guest post a short series on their site - Green Prophet - a great blog about what they refer to as an "environmentally sound future for Israel."
I was glad to be asked!
Here's the first from me in a short series about wine, Israeli wine, and organic Israeli wine.
Follow Me on Twitter to get Real-Time (sometimes even personal) Updates
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Monday, 12 May 08 - 08:14 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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Hey, we're up to 58 folks all around the world following us real-time on Twitter.
Twitter is a social networking tool allowing people to post short real-time blog-like messages to a network of people who have asked to receive them.
That's actually nowhere near enough folks to LIGHT A FIRE about Israeli wine, so I need your help here.
I ask you to follow this link to sign up and start following me.
You'll get the first scoop on Israeli wine news, plus some insight into who I am at a more personal level, along with links to articles on marketing and wine that I think are hot.
Miami Herald: "Chicks Love Wine Guys," says IWD Founder
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Sunday, 11 May 08 - 03:28 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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Well, I didn't think this would quite be the very first mention of me in the Miami Herald but what are you gonna do!
Enjoy!
I think I'm gonna like Fred Tasker, wine writer at the Miami Herald.
WINE QUESTION FOR BLOG READERS
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Tuesday, 06 May 08 - 05:53 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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Here's a serious question I want everyone to take a stab at........
How is wine different from other foods?
(yes, that's right, I called wine a FOOD).
Be BRAVE. Put something in the Comments Section down below. I will too......check it out.
Get Thee to Napa!!
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Wednesday, 30 April 08 - 09:33 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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Just a reminder that my wife and I will be in Napa this June 19-22 at the Jewish Vintner's weekend.
Follow this link to get info about the event.
Golan Flam will be there with us as a guest Israeli winemaker (then he's coming back with me to Chicago for meetings and tastings -- email me if you want to come to one of the Chicago events).
On the homepage they even have a photo of yours truly - I'm the guy in the photo with sunglasses pushed back waiting for someone to come pour me some wine!
I have invites out to another winemaker in our portfolio now - stay tuned....
Jewish Vintner's Celebration June 20-22
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Friday, 11 April 08 - 03:58 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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If you have not yet been to one of the Annual Jewish Vintner Celebrations in Napa Valley - you have been missing out on a fantastic time!
My wife and I are attending this year. Last year I went solo and have not heard the end of it from her!
You'll have the opportunity to meet dozens of Jewish winemakers from Napa, drink some great wine, eat some great food, help raise money for local causes, mingle with guests at a beautiful St. Helena home and at the CIA and also..................meet invited winemakers from Israel.
I hope you will join us.
For more info, just email them at info@jewishvintners.org.
Keep in mind they will likely be SOLD OUT soon, so be in touch asap.
It's Not About Me...But a Little Bit More About Me
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Wednesday, 12 March 08 - 11:01 PM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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When you're starting a start-up what you're really starting up is YOU.
Some have been wondering how in the world I got started on this project introducing Americans to outstanding and (too) often unknown Israeli wines and winemakers.
If I could put how I got here into a formula for you, it might look something like this (if I re-drew this tomorrow it'd no doubt be different):
Dream & Desire
+ An understanding of The Long Tail applied to the wine scene
+ Love for Israel - the land and the people
+ A Growing Addiction to Good Juice for Grown-Ups
+ Excitement about how the Web Dis-intermediates Everything and can aggregate the good stuff in the Long Tail
+ A Personal Refusal to be Bored (boredom is the hot breath of death on your neck)
+ I honestly think the ladies dig guys who do wine stuff
= IWD
The other day I said to my wife, "I built a mountain for myself to climb and now I'm climbing it." That's me. That's this business. That's how I want to live life. There are obvious mountains to climb, both literal and figurative. But the entrepreneur goes beyond simple mountain-climbing -- he Builds His Own Mountain and Then Climbs It! Then usually builds another one and so on. The start-up is as close to Spiritual activity as you can get in business. It tests every bit of you.
Please do NOT tell my wife yet but IWD will be the first of several Wine Direct Companies focusing on the Mediterranean, the birthplace of wine. I haven't told you that before, but there it is. Talk amongst yourselves, as they say!
The entrepreneur does things they have no right to do, takes on assignments they're not properly prepared for...all mostly just because they want to do something really cool for others.
I want to introduce Americans to outstanding wines and winemakers from Israel. I'm an insurance guy with three great kids and a fourth on the way. I live in a suburb of Chicago. I make more money than I deserve, drink more wine than I should, dream enough dreams for you and me. My favorite sights and sounds in the world are the faces and voices of my kids. While my team knows about the intricacies of the wine world, I'm not trained as a wine guy (I actually think that's a strength of mine, by the way...we might disagree).
But I do know that these wines are the dreams of their makers. And my Dream is to gather the best dream wines up and give them to you. So when you taste them think about the People and the fact that you're literally drinking somebody's Dream.
We're just gonna do it, we're going to do what we promised the winemakers and all of you we'd do at the start of this. No doubt we'll make some mistakes along the way.
We're just gonna source the best wine you never heard of from the land where wine was born and bring it to you.
Thanks again for your support.
Your Israeli Wine Direct Team: TAMIR RONEN
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Tuesday, 11 March 08 - 06:11 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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I think it's time we introduced you to the people working hard on your behalf at IWD to help source the best juice from Israel for you and get it here safely!
First off is our man in Israel....Tamir Ronen.
That's him standing in front of (shock!) a wine barrel.
I met Tamir through Eliezer Sacks, editor of The Wine Route of Israel.
He lives in Israel with his wife and son.
When our son Noah and I were in Israel last August, Tamir was not only our fearless guide, he impressed me so much with his passion for and intimate knowledge of Israeli wine we asked him to join our team! Plus, he has got to be one of the very few Israelis with an above-ground wine cellar at his home.
We call him "our man on the ground" and "our man in Israel" --- he almost single-handedly is working with our winery suppliers to ensure we get the the juice, properly labeled and packaged, on a ship in Haifa bound for the US.
We could not have done any of this without him, truly. I consider him a great friend and confidant. And I like the way he GETS THE JOB DONE regardless of the roadbumps.
He will be back out quietly secretly sourcing more undiscovered wines for you as soon as this first shipment launches. There are several small wineries we are actively calling on now...stay tuned for more wine gems delivered direct from the winemaker's house to your house! If you have or know about Israeli wines you want us to check out, let me know.
This photo below captures Tamir perfectly! Off to drink some Israeli wine, no doubt!. He's cellaring some wine of mine in Israel in his cellar...which reminds me to ask him if he drank it all!
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