When it comes to product attributes, wine is a particular tricky commodity. When examining a single wine, there are many factors that consumers may want to know before making a purchase. Most recently, one of these attributes--vintage--has been the center of a lot of scrutiny. This past May, California-based retail juggernaut BevMo! was served a class-action lawsuit for advertising in-store and online (mostly on wines under $25) vintages that didn’t match the products they

In this industry that trades in controlled beverages there are inefficiencies built into our business by regulators trying to contain the social cost of our products. Some of these regulations are being challenged in the courts and state legislatures, leading to political and legal battles that cause divisions by pitting one tier of the industry again another. There is however another source of inefficiency that is far less controversial; that is the lack of clean product da

The quest for a unique wine item number for use throughout the industry has been a recurring theme in this column. So much so that I was invited to sit on a panel at the Wine Industry Technology Symposium to present the retailer perspective in a discussion of what the 3 tiers could do better to share product information. The assumption of the discussion was that the UPC code or more correctly GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers) are the de facto codes for the industry when it co