World Fair Trade Day 2009

It's World Fair Trade Day! Get out and support Fair Trade in your city! A day full of Fair Trade goodies, coffee, tea, chocolate, fruits and veggies and of course, WINE!!

Support the cause people, Drink (eat & buy) Like You Give A Damn!!!!!

http://www.worldfairtradeday09.org/

Etica in Duluth, MN

We had a great time in Duluth yesterday! We're so excited to finally get our wines in the area.

Check out the newest Duluth Dish's "Bin 218", written by Brenda Schwerdt, it's all about Etica!

http://duluthdish.com/2009/04/drink-like-you-give-a-damn/

Sweet Berry WINE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J1BXOdNWoM

So hilarious it hurts!

My Daily Red

The ever-growing-in-popularity-USDA-organic-certified Red Wine. For a sulfite free wine, you know, it wasn't half bad. Actually it was good for being a $9.99 bottle of wine. I was surprised.

I wanted to try it out at a consumption level that I could test. Part science experiment, part excitement that I have an entire bottle all to myself! No, I didn't drink the whole bottle, just half, in one sitting. I wanted to know if I was going to feel the sulfite-free difference.

The arguments about sulfite vs. sulfite-free wine was beginning to get a little mind boggling. The arguments seem compelling on both sides of the consumption spectrum. However, for my business, importing a sulfite-free wine is a little scary. Forget about it. I could end up with a container of vinegar by the time it rocked all the way to the US!

Back to my experiment.

Directions:
Pour yourself half a bottle of wine. (over at least three glasses of course)
Drink it.
Got to sleep.
Wake up.

Hypothesis: I would wake up feeling like a million bucks.

Results: I still woke up with a headache and my usual sinus pressure when I am dehydrated.

Recommendations: I guess I am not that susceptible to the so-called ills of sulfites. I guess if you are then you should drink this wine. If you aren't then drink it anyway. Moderation is key to the drinking process anyway you look at it and there's no getting around it.

Enlightenment: I did realize that the sacrifices I make for this job are just so critical to its success. And someone's got to do it!

Fair Trade Draws Buyers, Study Says

Student-professor team shows label compensates consumers for higher prices
Published On Tuesday, March 21, 2006 4:06 AM

Professor of Government Michael J. Hiscox has found that the market may not be as cold-hearted as economic theory would suggest. In a study conducted between June and November 2005, Hiscox discovered that consumers were willing to pay more for products that were labelled “fair trade.”

Hiscox and Nicholas F. B. Smyth ’05, who wrote his thesis on their research, carried out the social labeling experiment at ABC Carpet and Home, an upscale Manhattan housewares store.

They compared the sales of towels and candles, to which a “fair trade” label had been applied, to similar products that did not carry the label.

The label included a statement that certified that the product was made in a “safe and healthy working environment which is free of discrimination.”

Hiscox and Smyth found that sales increased dramatically for the labeled products. Even more surprisingly, consumers kept buying the products even as prices went up.

“It did surprise me that demand for the labeled products was so strong and price inelastic,” Hiscox wrote in an e-mail. “It was not just that people bought more of the goods once they were labeled, but they bought even more when we raised prices by 10 percent and still more when we raised prices by 20 percent.”

Richard B. Freeman, Ascherman professor of economics, said that the study was the most conclusive social labeling experiment done to date. Freeman has also done research on social labeling and its potential to inform consumers’ decisions.

“Other social labeling experiments have yielded weak results, and this study builds on them to do the closest to a real lab type experiment we have, and the results are strong,” Freeman wrote in an e-mail.

But ABC Carpet and Home caters to a specific well-to-do demographic, said one professor.

“One issue is that it’s saying that rich yuppies care about social labeling (if you have ever been to ABC, then you will understand),” wrote Raymond J. Fisman, a visiting professor from the Columbia School of Business, in an e-mail.

Hiscox said he is planning to undertake a major social labelling experiment with a supermarket chain in Italy, which caters to a broad swath of Italian society.

While the study’s conclusion appears to contradict established thinking about consumer preferences and price, Eileen Kohl-Kaufman, executive director at Social Accountability International, which is undertaking the Italy study with Hiscox, said that the experiment’s conclusions were consistent with economic theories about consumer preferences.

“The idea is to make consumers aware of what they are buying and to reward good practices,” Kohl-Kaufman said. “For example, my sixteen-year-old daughter won’t buy anything that was made by someone younger than her, but in many cases there is no way to know that.”

Smyth, who was a Crimson editorial editor, said that the experiment confirmed his belief that consumers will support good labor standards.

“I have believed for a while that there was a market for good working conditions out there, and this was just a case of consumers not having enough information. We supplied the information, and they responded,” Smyth wrote in an e-mail.

Hiscox and Smyth asked many retail stores in Harvard Square and Boston to participate in the social labeling experiment.

Many feared calling attention to labor issues in their stores and declined, according to the study.

—Staff writer Adrian J. Smith can be reached at smith9@fas.harvard.edu.

Gear Up For Earth Day!

For you guys in CO-

City of Lakewood "Down to Earth" Expo

4/22/2009 10:00 AM
Learn how to incorporate sustainable practices into your daily activities! Join the City of Lakewood for live music, informational lectures, demonstrations, and exhibitors from local green businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. 10:00 AM- 2:00 PM
Location:Lakewood Civic Center Plaza, 480 South Allison Parkway
Contact:Customer Service (303) 932-0600
Cost: Free
Registration Required? No.
http://www.lakewood.org/green

Wine & Food Pairing

Our newsletter goes out today and we always have a few questions regarding how we come up with our wacky food and wine pairings. I found this online a few weeks ago. Its a handy guide. Shrink down, make a condensed version and keep in your wallet!

Food and Wine Magazine’s - Food Pairing Information

• Match the texture of the food with the texture of the wine. A light wine, whether white or red, will be overpowered by a rich dish like steak. A rich wine, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, will balance it perfectly.

• Match aromas and flavors. “If you have a highly spiced dish, you need a wine that’s not going to get trampled by that,” says Sbrocco. Riesling is a complex, spicy wine, so it works well with cuisines like Chinese and Thai. An earthy pinot noir with cherry notes pairs beautifully with a duck dish containing mushrooms and dried cherries. (Though pairings certainly don’t have to be that literal.)

• Use acidity in the wine to balance the dish. With a high-acid dish―say, a salad with vinaigrette or something tomato based―you want to complement that acidity with a high-acid wine, like a Sauvignon Blanc. In the same way that a spritz of lemon balances and brightens fried seafood, so too does a Sauvignon Blanc.

• Pair with the sauce, not the meat. As Sbrocco explains, chicken in cream sauce demands the same wine as pork in cream sauce.

• Follow your personal preferences. For most rules there’s always an exception, so experiment with different food and wine combinations to see what your particular taste buds respond to.

The three girls and four wines evening.

Just because I own a wine importing company doesn't mean I don't drink other wines. I like to refer to it as broadening the horizons.

Here's what we tried:

1. Piping Shrike 2006 Shiraz Barossa Valley Australia
2. The Climber 2005 Red Wine Blend Oakville California
3. Insatiable Red Wine Blend Graton California
4. Parker Station 2007 Pinot Noir Santa Maria California

What we liked:

#1 Piping Shrike- An awesome, full-bodied, rich red. Your mouth and body feel good drinking it. Does anything else matter? This was the best Ausie Shiraz we have had in a while.

#2 Parker Station- Cherry fruit bomb and we were in the mood for it. IF you are not in the mood then I’d suggest…

#3 Insatiable Red- easy drinking, not much to it and by the time we got there we weren’t too concerned with the tasting anymore (It was the last bottle we “tasted”)

#4 The Climber- way too overpriced but we realize they have a niche market. I assumed the cork and foil were the major costs behind the $17 price.

CIA

Last week I went to the Culinary Institute of America. I got a
Robert Parker scholarship so I was able to spend my class money on wine. (If you get a bottle from me, please know that you are very special ☺

It was perfect weather in St. Helena. I couldn’t believe how awesome the staff at the Hotel St. Helena were. This hotel has awesome rates and is waling distance to the CIA. Tell them you are taking classes at the school and you get a discount.

By the way, when you take a CIA course, you get to eat as much lunch as you can possibly stuff yourself with. This isn’t an ordinary lunch- it’s cooked by all the student chefs!

I gained 6 pounds in 4 days.

Enough said-

I'm BACK!

This recession out me in a little slump. It is hard being a start-up with a big heart while the planet goes bankrupt. Finding capital is a nightmare! But despite a slower growth plan, we are still growing! Are sales are up, new markets are opening and Fair Traders are seeking us out.

Stay tuned for more...

It feels great to be back!!!