Numerous studies have been conducted in the food industry on what influences shoppers’ buying decisions. I came across several such studies during my printing equipment sales career, as print quality of the package can have enormous impact, positive or negative, at the moment of selection. What stands out in my mind today from those reports is that the shopper facing a broad choice of packaged food items might need only 10 seconds, even less, to make his or her decision. This brief time of study pondering a selection is known as “eye fixation duration” or simply “fixation length.”

Moving the consumer away from food and over to the wine department, the fixation length might go beyond 10 seconds as the price is considerably higher for a bottle of wine than a box of corn flakes. For empirical evidence on selection criteria in the wine industry, consider a thought-provoking (2016) report I found: “Preferences of American Wine Consumers,” by Sonoma State University professors Liz Thatch, MW and Kathryn Chang. In this paper, the authors present the 2016 results of the third annual survey about what, why and where we buy wine in... [...]

Once again, I think I was very lucky with this pairing. I was serving Persian-spiced Lamb Shanks to friends who drink only red wine. And only red wine from France. Picky, picky. (You can find the recipe at Cocoa & Lavender.)

We had just returned from three glorious weeks in Sicily (stay tuned for a post about Sicilian rosé!), and the wine rack - at least the rack of quotidian wines - was pretty bare. But there was this bottle of Vinsobres sitting there.

Whenever I see a Provence or Côtes du Rhône red, I tend to scoop it up. Naturally, for the pleasure of drinking, but also because I want to share my thoughts with you. This was the case with the Vinsobres. I was at the local upscale grocery and asked the wine guy, “What do you have from Provence or the southern Rhône region?”... [...]