1 Wine Dude

Get Your Fix (Off-The-Beaten Path Varieties For Fix.com)

Posted on by 1WineDude

Well, the Global Interweb’s recent fixation with infographics seems to have abated by exactly zero percent.

That’s the primary takeaway I’ve had, anyway, from my recent experience penning a couple of infographic-designed articles for Fix.com. Seems you people can’t get enough of that stuff!

I wrote two such pieces for Fix.com: an overview of Off The Beaten Path White Wine Varieties, and a companion piece focusing on red wine grapes. Fix.com did a great job bringing the words to image-rich life, and that seems to have resonated with, well, with a lot of people. The white wine version in particular has been popping up all over the Internet, and has apparently become one of the more shared and viewed pieces of content I have yet written.

Maybe I need to start drawing instead of writing?

Anyway, I’m including the large-format infographics of both articles below, for your image-rich-viewing pleasure. Some of you geeks will be tempted to scoff and harrumph (is that a verb?) at what I considered to be “off-the-beaten-path” grapes (“Dude, WTF?!?? Where’s Gouais blanc, you a-hole!!!”), but please keep in mind the context, folks: this was all done for an audience that’s likely drinking the usual wine suspects. Think Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscato, Pinot Grigio, Merlot, and Pinot Noir.

If we get those drinkers even thinking about alternatives like Chenin Blanc, Vermentino, Barbera, and Cabernet Franc then we’re doing good by the wine world in general, and maybe even opening up a few minds to some new and interesting experiences…


Source: Fix.com

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Source: Fix.com

Cheers!

15 thoughts on “Get Your Fix (Off-The-Beaten Path Varieties For Fix.com)”

  1. I think its great to get the limited perspective wine drinker past his or her comfort zone, so although these info graphics might not go far enough for us wine geeks/experts I think its a step in the right direction.

    Personally I believe there is a time for geekiness & truly focusing on the wine itself & there is also a time when you just want to enjoy a quality, well-made wine with food & friends. As long as its not, you know Barefoot, Yellow Tail, et al.

    I don't want to be pedantic here, but Cabernet Franc is not originally from Bordeaux; rather its from Basque Country in Spain.

    See attached link:
    http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2012/12/jose-vouil…

    Solomon

  2. I think its great to get the limited perspective wine drinker past his or her comfort zone, so although these info graphics might not go far enough for us wine geeks/experts I think its a step in the right direction.

    Personally I believe there is a time for geekiness & truly focusing on the wine itself & there is also a time when you just want to enjoy a quality, well-made wine with food & friends. As long as its not, you know Barefoot, Yellow Tail, et al.

    I don't want to be pedantic here, but Cabernet Franc is not originally from Bordeaux; rather its from Basque Country in Spain.

    See attached link:
    http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2012/12/jose-vouil…

    Solomon

  3. Great post! I think a case could be made for Torrontes, which is still off the beaten path for most consumers. For a way-off-the-beaten-path red varietal, Tannat has got to be a contender!

  4. Dude, this is possibly just my local bias kicking in, but I'm a big fan of Niagara Gewurztraminers. That said, it may be as hard to access good Canadian Gewurztraminers where you are as it is to get any Washington State Gewurztraminer where I am. In other news, I've typed Gewurztraminer just enough in this paragraph for it to no longer feel like a word.

      1. It's far worse if you're a kid in a spelling bee when the feeling that "This word is no longer a word" hits. It gets worse when the word you've just been given is "house"…

        1. MG – ha! interestingly, I've been using a word for decades and recently tried to find the definitive spelling of it, only to find that it's not actually a word!

  6. Dude,

    Where was the doyen of seriously neglected white wine grape varieties on your list?

    A wine “more honoured in the breach than in the observance.”

    Riesling!

    C'mon buddy, it is almost a crime in wine circles that the grape that has the widest array of styles — sparkling, bone dry, slightly fruity, moderately fruity/sweet, demonstrably fruity/sweet, and profoundly fruity/decadently sweet — is missing from the discussion.

    If the baseball World Series were still being played, I say you booted it like Bill Buckner . . .

    Bob

    1. Bob – understood. And you are after all talking about my favorite grape. But Riesling isn't down for the count. Chateau Ste. Michelle sells two million cases of Riesling per year. No, it's not at Chardonnay status, and yes, fine wine sales of it are hurting, but it's actually ok at the lower and middle tiers. If we want to boost fine wine, higher-end sales of Riesling, Fix.com's audience is not the arena for it.

  7. Conduct a "man on the street" intercept study interview, and I doubt you will find many folks can recall the last night they actually bought and took home a bottle of Riesling.

    Domestic Riesling such as Chat. Ste. Michelle is a staple of on-premises restaurant drinking through wine-by-the-glass programs, but the finer renditions from Germany are "orphans" in all but a low single digit percentage of wine collectors' purchases.

    And that's a shame, because it can do "double duty": as a stand-alone cocktail wine, and in service of many world cuisines (given its continuum of dry to off-dry to sweet styles).

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