When it comes to finding information on wine on the Net, is it better to google or ablegrape? This morning I made a very simple test. I “googled” a few wine brands or names and then checked comparatively on ablegrape.com. Guess what? I had more pertinent answers through ablegrape.com.

Let’s take one example. Clarendelle is a relatively new Bordeaux brand. The brand never really advertised but has a web site of its own in French and English. It is distributed mostly on international markets. Google found 3,960 answers for Clarendelle but about 95% were not pertinent or linked to pages saying “There is no answer about Clarendelle on that page”. Thank you for the information!

Ablegrape.com was more helpful in that sense that I was able to figure out faster and more accurately if I would be able to find the information I was looking for on the page. It found 1,764 entries for Clarendelle, most of them quite pertinent. The page also gave the language and the type of site (wine store, blog, producer, trade). It was also possible to search by tasting notes, reference, producer, etc.

What is ablegrape.com? Behind the search engine, there is a man, Doug Cook, passionate about wine and good programmer. Instead of talking about search engine optimization (SEO), he’d rather talk about “search friendliness”, a concept he brilliantly presented during the American Wine Bloggers Conference in July 2009. His work is a work of love and passion he keeps improving with the help of a strong community and a team of wine lovers like him. He’s committed to present the wine trade, wine writers and wine consumers with the best tool to research on wine.

In the current situation where SEO strategies through Google are challenged by brands, a search friend specifically designed for wine is certainly one of the possible answers. I was rather impressed by all the improvement Doug brought to ablegrape.com since I first reviewed it in February 2008. If you’re a wine professional – whatever your area of expertise – or if you love buying and drinking wine, ablegrape.com is certainly the most adequate search tool offered at the moment. Enjoy!

Last Tuesday, I had the privilege of presenting Wine Brands at the WH Smith bookstore in Paris. besides listening to my blurb on the book, the attendants had the pleasure to taste one of my very favorite wine brand, Clarendelle in two colors and vintages: 2003 Clarendelle Red and 2005 Clarendelle white.

Not familiar with this brand yet? Clarendelle is certainly the first premium Bordeaux brand. It is the brain child of Prince Robert of Luxembourg, now President of the fabled Château Haut-Brion and Château La Mission Haut-Brion. It is also an homage to his great-grand father, Clarence Dillon, who bought Château Haut-Brion in 1935. More than seventy years after the arrival of Clarence Dillon in Bordeaux, his great-grandson, Prince Robert of Luxembourg, has opened a new chapter in the Dillon family story in Bordeaux, by creating Clarendelle. Both wines highlighted the evening by their quality and were highly appreciated by the guests.

It seems to be my “brand” week. I read carefully the thread started by Hoke Harden on Open Wine Consortium on the subject and all the comments he inspired. Too many brands? Of course, in the US only, there are over 7,000 wine brands on the market. Overwhelmed? Of course, I’m overwhelmed: I usually buy my wine after consulting my friends or my wine retailers. I never buy wine in a supermarket because I can’t get any advice. Need to educate the consumer? Of course, but it’s an impossible task. The debate is still open and I’ll add to the confusion with a little post on one of my favorite brands, Clarendelle.

Clarendelle is the brand created by Robert of Luxembourg, the VP of Château Haut-Brion in Bordeaux and one of the owners. Clarendelle wants to be the answer of the Old World to the New World wines. A good thread for the group on the European Community in Open Wine Consortium! What does it mean? Haut-Brion is one of the oldest wine estate in Bordeaux, the smallest and the oldest of the First Classified Growths (along with Margaux, Laffite, Latour and Mouton). It has a tradition of excellence. Robert launched Clarendelle as an expression of the best of Bordeaux but easily drinkable and at a very fair price. The wine is available in red, white and pink and tastes wonderful.

Classical but contemporary, Clarendelle is considered a super premium wine. As such it is very much in demand in China where the tastes are evolving. As Cynthia Sin-Yi Cheng stated in her CondeNastPortfolio.com article, “Shanghai is leading Chinese tastes in wine”:

“The wine scene here is abuzz with excitement and possibility. The number of premium-wine importers has jumped from three in 1999 to more than a hundred today. Two years ago, there was nary a shop offering tastings; now a dozen retailers hold such events. New wine bars abound. As of 2006, there was a Shanghai chapter of the highbrow Commanderie de Bordeaux, and the mostly trade-and-expat Shanghai Wine Society was founded in 2005.”

Because of this continued interest in wine among the most fortunate Shanghai inhabitants and expatriates, new comers on the professional wine scene invent new events, new venues and create new excitement. The former chief sommelier of Jean Georges Shanghai, Yvonne Chiong, is working on a wine-buying program for Wang Hui Ming, a restaurant group with more than 20 establishments in Shanghai. Chiong is now pairing local cuisine with premium, imported wines—roasted pigeon, say, with a 2003 Clarendelle! Q.E.D.!

Young wine drinkers are full of surprises for professionals and older consumers. The younger generation – consumers AND sommeliers – is looking for wines that are original, regional and with a rich background story (or history). No more of those funny wines forgotten as soon as drunk!

The young sommeliers, usually in their 20s, are setting the trends in restaurants. They want to have as much fun with the wine as the chef with fresh vegetables from the farmer’s market. They want to be able to tell the story of a land, a family and a place. Is it the death of brands? Not at all. On the contrary: a good estate brand, such as Clarendelle rooted in the land and history of the Dillon family in Bordeaux, will be an international success.