Is it the server’s fault they lack the tools to enrich your meal?

Yes and no.

I have worked in quite a few restaurants ranging from corporate to fine dining. Many of the restaurants will not allow their staff to sample the wine, which makes it harder to sell. I worked at a wine bar that featured 100 wines by the glass. Here the staff was encouraged to sample the wines for their own knowledge. By sampling we were able to sell better and also match the guests requests. We also were visited by wine representatives who would tell us about their wines. Here we gained information that would not be featured on the wine list, a little something more to tell the guests.

Just like when you go to wine store and ask for recommendations, your server at a restaurant should ask you a few questions in order to gage where your palate stands compared to theirs. Simple questions, such as do you prefer light, medium, or full bodied? What do you usually drink? Is there a specific region you are drawn to? I was lucky enough to be able to give samples of any of the 100 wines we sold. From here I would bring two to three different wines over that I thought my table would enjoy, but I wouldn’t tell them which was which until after they tasted it. Sometimes when people hear a name they will go with it because it sounds familiar. This is why I was a fan of the blind tasting, people would learn that they actually did like Mouvedre or that Merlot they turned their nose up at before because it simply was a Merlot.

I’ll admit I’m guilty of name association as well. When I go to the wine store, I get overwhelmed, not because I don’t know what anything is, but because I can’t make up my mind. Here is where I entrust the wine clerk to pick out the wine for me. There are some wine stores on Long Island and in Manhattan that allow samples of specific wines. These wines are hooked up to a system that when you push a button a sample will pour into your glass. Yes, these wines are usually the ones they are trying to push that month, but hey if I can try it before I buy it then I might just be inclined to buy more. It’s just smart marketing.

If you’re out at a restaurant and you want to politely ask the server about their wine knowledge you should ask them if they are allowed to sample the wines. If yes then close the menu, if no then ask them for their recommendation based on a select few you’ve chosen. In restaurants that I’ve worked where we hadn’t sampled the wines, I would base my answers on what other tables have told me about that wine. “It’s very popular” is polite waiter-speak for I haven’t personally had it but everyone orders and enjoys it so it must be good. Trust your server, they won’t steer you wrong on purpose because, hey,  if you hate it then they have to listen to it. Take chances, take recommendations and as always remember to Wine Your Diet.

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First of all, labels mean absolutely nothing, so when you go to buy wine don’t even look at the front label ignore it, there is more useful information on the back like a good importer. In this era of opulence and visually stimulated purchasing, Louis Vutton and Cadillac, take a more refined and dare I say classier approach. I am reminded of the movie Tommy Boy with the late great Chris Farley. Tommy is selling Callahan Break Pads; one of his retailers says there isn’t a guarantee on Callahan’s box. Tommy says you can put a guarantee on shit and its still shit, same thing with wine – creative picture means the winery spent all the money on a design and not the juice. Like a guarantee vs. the actual product. There can and often will be a cute picture on the bottle but the juice, more times than not, is still absolute Swill (a colloquialism used to describe wine not worth drinking).

Best quality indicator – a good importer. While there still are names in wine worth buying anytime you see them there are also many wineries out there that have sold the names to bigger corporations to take advantage of consumer’s name recognition. Cakebread is a great example of a wine that once was a great wine for a good buy and now its just expensive and not much to talk about, one can find better for half the price. Importers on the other hand like Robert Shadderdon, Kermit Lynch, John David Hendrick and Neil Rosenthal, use discretion when picking wines to promote and have built up a strong reputation based on their names.

In closing, to all those wine creators, make sure your brand is innovative, but when it comes down to it, build a rep for finding kick ass juice… easy enough

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One of our most commonly requested services is web site optimization. Unfortunately (and fortunately) web developers are just now starting to implement a better practice of building sites to be search engine friendly. As web development continues to be outsourced, many developers just don’t feel like putting in that little bit of extra effort that truly does go a long way.

You may be familiar with some of the following issues, as I’m trying to keep this list simple, but hopefully there are a few gems that may help you on your way to the top. If you have any questions, don’t be shy to comment and we’ll help in every way we can.

1. 301 Redirects - With almost every customer of ours, the first thing we do is set up a redirect to or from the ‘www.’ sub-domain. If you fail to do this, the search engines may determine that you have 2 websites (http://www.grapethinking.com and http://grapethinking.com) and split your ‘google juice’ between the two of them. The fix is really simple if you have an apache server with a hosting company that provides htaccess and mod_rewrite.
2. Dynamic URLs – Which is easier to interpret? grapethinking.com/a-few-tips-for-climbing-the-search-engines OR grapethinking.com/?p=4586 It shouldn’t be that difficult to make your url structures dynamic so you have ‘pretty’ links. This will not only help your search engines, but also make it easier for your visitors to browse your site.  It is generally a good practice for your url’s to include your page title.
3. Site Map – If you want to make sure the search engines crawl all of your site, you should place a site map .xml file and point to it within the robots.txt file. The more friendly your site is to the search engine, and handing it a map the second it gets to your site is pretty nice, the more friendly the search engines will be to you. If you don’t have a site map, there are plenty of sites that will create one for you. One I recently used was XML-Sitemaps which was much simpler than downloading google’s python script, even though I am a fan of Google Webmaster Tools.
4. Dynamic META info – This topic has been beat to death across the internet, but with good reason… it IS important. Make sure you use dynamic information for creating your meta titles. If they are all the same, your just telling the search engine that every page in your site is the same, AKA: you are boring. The meta descriptions aren’t as important because the robots can generally determine the more important content of the page (see next). The meta tags, while extremely valuable about 5 years ago, are now pretty much irrelevant.
5. Content Placement – When you buy a magazine, book, or newspaper, the most relevant information is on the front cover. It’s the first thing you see. Search engines seem to think right along those same lines. The closer the information is to the top of your page the more important and relevant that content must be. If you haven’t specified meta information, and you haven’t effectively used CSS to layout your content, you may even find Google putting your navigation menu as your site’s description. You don’t necessarily have to have the relevant content displaying at the top of your page, it just needs to be first in the HTML file.
6. Your Hosting – That’s right… your hosting can play a large role in your search engine rankings. If you have shared hosting, you might be on the same server as one of those nutsos blowing viagra and cialis all over the place, or even worse, a porn site. Even though you may have a different domain name, your IP address will still be the same, and you will be punished. It’s worth the extra cash to get a designated IP. If your bootstrapping, you can always choose a hosting company that makes it tough for spammer to create accounts via call to verify or requiring one year upfront payment instead of month-to-month.
7. AJAX – Ajax is great for forms and images, but don’t try to “AJAXify” your whole site. This wonderful technology can provide great UI, but search engines are blind when it comes to javascript, and the fact that your site sits under 1 never-changing URL does not help much either.  Believe it or not, a relatively large percentage of users (~10%) have javascript disabled, and would not be able to use your AJAX heavy site.  Most large companies have JS disabled by default for protection, and a lot of users typically turn it off to speed up their browsing experience, and eliminate pop-ups(unders,overs,etc..).  JS and AJAX can greatly enhance your site, but should not be required.

So there you have it… 7 of the more common SEO mistakes made by web developers. Granted, what you do on-site is only the foundation of optimizing your site, the off-site is what really provides the most weight in search engine rankings.

Grape Thinking is a Search Engine Optimizer (SEO). If you are interested in having a professional provide you with an analysis of your site (with detailed instructions on how to fix the problem areas), request a free quote.

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We highly recommend the book for anyone who wants to become a multimillionaire entrepreneur. If there’s ever a book that has the potential to be life changing, Zero to One Million is it. Ryan is trying to reach a lifetime goal and get to #1 on Amazon.com today and has created a compelling reason to buy the book today.

Ryan built three companies to over $1 million in sales by age 21, raised over five million dollars in venture capital at age 22, and today at age 23 runs an 85 person company in North Carolina called iContact that does over ten million dollars in annual sales. Ryan knows what he’s doing when it comes to business.

The full title of the book is ‘Zero to One Million: How I Built a Company to $1 Million in Sales… And How You Can Too.’ If you want to become a multimillionaire entrepreneur, this really is a no-BS step-by-step guide.

Today, Ryan is running a promotion to help him get to the #1 spot on Amazon.

When you buy Ryan’s book for $11.53 on Amazon today you will receive six bonus gifts including a video from Ryan on how to raise $5 million in venture capital at age 22 and valuable DVD and PDF report bonuses from Buck Rizvi, Derek Gehl, Carlos Garcia, Shawn Casey, and Tom Bell. Just email the Amazon receipt to bonus@zeromillion.com with The Pay it Forward Chronicles in the subject line to receive the bonuses.

You’ll also receive a special video from Ryan: How Our Generation Will Change the World… A Plan for the Future.

NOW HERE’S THE PAY IT FORWARD KICKER: All of the proceeds from Zero to One Million are going to Ryan’s non-profit organization The Humanity Campaign, which works to reduce poverty and hunger in developing nations by increasing access to education, healthcare, and technology. You can read an article about Ryan’s efforts to give back at http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/900111.html.

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Da Vinci Chianti is a reasonably priced and easily accessible Chianti from Italy. Chianti is Italy’s most famous red wine, which takes name from the eponymous traditional region of Tuscany. It used to be easily identified by its squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called fiasco (”flask”); however, the fiasco is only used by a few makers of the wine now; most Chianti is bottled in traditionally shaped wine bottles. Low-end Chianti is generally fairly inexpensive, with a basic Chianti running less than US$10 for a bottle. More sophisticated Chiantis, however, are made and sold at substantially higher price points.

And Ravenswood Zinfandel, a great Zin from California. Typically, Zinfandel wine tastes spicy and fruity. Vintners use Zinfandel grapes to produce a wide range of wine styles including sweet White Zinfandels, light-bodied reds reminiscent of Beaujolais nouveau, full bodied dry reds, sweet late harvest dessert wines, and port-style wine.

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To get you drinking again why don’t we start with a light bodied Red Wine, Beaujolais. The Beaujolais is a French AOC wine generally made of the Gamay grape which has a thin skin and few tannins. Like most AOC wines they are not labelled varietally. Whites from the region, which make up only 1% of its production, are made with Chardonnay grapes. Beaujolais tends to be a very light-bodied red wine, with relatively high amounts of acidity.

Keep an eye out for Bojo Beaujolais Wine (we’ll let you in on the secret eventually).

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Toasted Head Cabernet Sauvignon is a reasonably priced CabSav available at most supermarket chains in your area. A full bodied red wine with hints of smoke and dried earthy fruits. Great with a steak.

Sticks 2004 Chardonnay has been brought to my attention as a wine that has no definition. A chardonnay without the buttery richness associated with chard, this wine is crisp and fruity, great for the summer. Reasonably priced but a bit hard to find, ask local wine store owners if he can order it for you.

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Cakebread Chardonnay-
If you haven’t had this it is a must one of the best Chards I’ve ever had. Full buttery goodness with a dry finish. A heavy chicken or pasta dish would compliment this nicely!

Cousino Macul Cabernet Sauvignon-
Chilean CabSav with great flavor, full bodied and complex. Great with a large piece of Red Meat. Recommend to friends as it is available at most Sam’s Club for 15.00 and worth every penny.

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