Avenue Vine

While I regret the death of any publication that strives for individualism, I am not in the least surprised that Wine X is tanking. I thought it was dead years ago. Despite an obligatory vein of seriousness, the magazine was so over-hip, so calculatedly quirky, that substantively much of it could be unreadable, and I dropped it.

Darryl Roberts's blame game is off the mark. If he wants to find the source of the magazine's trouble, he ought to look into a mirror. He was not automatically entitled to the kind of economic support he needed, because his editorial product seemed so iffy that, I believe, many serious producers simply did not want to be associated with it.

Wine, after all, is about alcohol, and alcohol requires editorial treatment that bespeaks thoughtfulness and responsibility. The ill-chosen name Wine Brats, an evidently serious organization Wine X supported, connotes childish misbehavior. What Napa Valley winery would want its name linked to a Route 29 crash that killed four people after a Wine Brats event?

At bottom, Wine X's Attitude played into the shallow notion of never-grow-up 'fun' portrayed in young-demographic magazines by those thousands of empty photos containing make-believe hilarity. But real life, deeply understood, is mostly the pits, not mosh pits.

Wine X's terminal coolness inevitably fought a losing battle against a bedrock fact that's hard for youth-worshipping America to swallow: sooner or later, brats have to become adults.
Howard G Goldberg, New York, USA

I have never seen a copy of Wine X although I did meet Darryl Roberts in 2002 when we both spoke at a Harpers seminar on the 'youth market'. I thought then, and I still believe it today, that the concept of actively chasing what the Americans call 'generation X' (young adults aged between 18 and 25) and extolling the virtues of wine to them is a flawed strategy.

Wine is, and should remain, something to which young adults can be encouraged to aspire - as a right of passage into the next phase of their adult development. Even if successful, attempting to make wine 'cool' to the so-called X-ers will result in wine becoming distinctly 'un-cool' to them as they mature and the risk is that they will be lost for ever.

Adults routinely divorce themselves from student habits - like wine, it's all about maturity. Wine doesn't need the X factor.
Michael Cox, Ascot, UK

Ladies, gentlemen, pleeeeeeeeaaaaase...

I picked up this "Wine X" publication a few times in the late 1990s
and was unimpressed. Its "pop" references were sadly passé, with
stuff one would hardly consider "hip" at all. "Pam Anderson"? Kindly
spare me. More, better imagination was required to make this rag even
remotely worth looking at. For a long while they needed better
material. Now, they are admitting that all they were seeking was the
support of the industry, which has ignored them.. . Serves them
right, the scorned corporate whores.

Sorry to say, but a bit of rebellion is what's needed. Young people
demanding real wine, as opposed to the corporate-backed fruit crap
and the pretentous, point-driven horrors that pollutes most wine shop
shelves today, would have made for a refreshing publication, one
worthy of a truly alternative audience. Who needs more imbeciles
selling Yellow Tail? These guys got what they deserved.
A Cuban Gentleman Who Objects to This Idiotic Whining

What a joke!!

A simple case of sour grapes!

And in need of someone or something else to blame simply because they couldn't cut it or make it work.

Always amazed at these so called high flyers or opportunists who have no real insight into the industry, its people and its workings.

Obviously their market research (if they actually did any before launching) was wrong!!!!!!

Make me wonder what else he has stuffed up previously and blamed someone else for??
Wayne Leicht

I always love the way blame is pointed in the direction of 'someone else' when we fail. For us all to suggest that is was 'the industry' to blame because they didn't support the Wine X magazine is ludicrous. Is it possible that maybe the magazine and Wine Brats weren't delivering what the '20's something' crowd is really craving? Is it possible that they're looking for something other than the magazine and the Brats were delivering? I think it's about time that we look deeper inside that young people are not always looking for 'a slice of vice'. Wine is something that has always delivered a slice of something more evolved and refined. Kids are looking for a slice of class, not a slice of crass. When we deliver the degradation of what society has to offer, we'll always see the decline of an organization whether family, industry or political policy. Study Rome. It fell not from the outside, but from the collapse of moral aptitude. Rome fell from within.
Nicholas Karavidas, Oak Ridge Winery, Lodi, California

Having read Wine X magazine over the years, Mr. Roberts' sour grape comments are way off base.

The wine industry will continue to market to, and support responsible wine consumption for the generation X adults but it will not support a printed publication without substance.

Wine is about passion, dedication and commitment that starts in the vineyard. With time and a lot of hard work it becomes an art form in the glass. Wine X magazine's content rarely focused on anything remotely educational, interesting or supportive of wine making and the nuances that most wine-loving readers are interested in, regardless of their age.

If Mr. Robert's publishing and editorial efforts recognized winemakers and wineries in the same light as it did other hip-hop, music and celebrity artists, well then, I'll bet many wine industry executives would've bought more ads.
Dan Thompson, Thompson Wine Group, Atlanta, GA, USA

One of the primary reasons Wine X failed was their arrogant, near borderline abusive style of communication to the wine industry. If you ever read their "For PR Flacks" submission guidelines you'll understand why they went under. Hey Wine X, stop whining, those same marketing "flacks", they also control the marketing dollars, i.e. ad dollars, why would someone you insult, who is just trying to do their job, want to spend money with you? Good riddance.

Top 10 Useless/Dumbest Items That We Receive from Wine PR Flacks/Firms… and Why

Press releases detailing awards from wine competitions and/or other wine magazines.
-- Do wineries/PR agencies really think that we'll write about a wine because someone else liked it? That's why we have a tasting panel and do what we do.

Announcements stating that a winery has released a wine.
-- Whoopie! So what. What're we supposed do? Save us time and you money and send us samples of the wine and we'll take a look.

Releases announcing a new winery regional sales manager.
-- Why would anyone (except that person) care?

Releases announcing a brand's new ad campaign running in magazines other than ours.
-- Now here's a winner. Announcing a winery is spending money with everyone else but us. Brilliant!

Receiving large, unsolicited files/images via email.
-- Thanks for tying-up our email system with useless information. Send us a link. If we want to see the image (or read the story) we'll let you know.

A story on a winemaker, written by the winery's PR department.
-- Yeah, that'll surely be unbiased.

Wine samples with no suggested retail price.
-- Are we supposed to guess? What magazine (wine or other) writes about a wine but leaves the retail price out?

Media kits full of newspaper/magazine articles from other sources.
-- Again, useless!

Releases announcing their winemaker won “Winemaker of the Year.”
-- Gee, congratulations. With every wine magazine/wine organization (except ours) handing out a godzillion “… of the Year” awards, every winemaker wins one of these. Hint: no one cares.

Press release stating that a winery has just hired an “industry veteran” wine marketing director.
-- At the rate that people shuffle around this industry, save the ink and the postage. Chances are you're gonna be writing about another “hire” in about three months.

And please note: If we receive one more press release with “Family-Owned,” “Award-Winning,” “World-Class” or “Hand-Crafted” in it we're gonna puke!

Russ Kimpton, San Francisco, USA

Robert's is quite correct in his comment that the wine industry is targeting the same old market that it has for 30 years. It's the reason that the wine market in the US is barely growing, and not growing enough to account for the increase in US capacity. The beer industry, by contrast, is focused on ensuring that 20 somethings choose beer as their libation of choice and never stray. They've got a cradle to grave philosophy. US wine folks have only a near-the-grave philosophy, and it will hurt even more in the future when the Australian's, Chilean's and others figure out how to sell to younger, less affluent buyers--as they're doing with their critter brands.

Magazines sell their audience to advertisers. The US wine industry didn't want the 300K young people that Robert's could deliver.
Brad Asmus

I guess we know a little of why the Rave at Copia was canceled...