Caveman Code

The Caveman Code of Ethics

REVISED: October 14, 2009

Employment
As disclosed on The Chief page, I currently work for a Public Relations and Marketing Agency in Napa Valley and have several wineries and wine companies as clients. I will not review or comment on any single wine or brand that I represent to avoid any conflicts of interest. In order for me to comment on a particular wine or winery, there should be some BUSINESS or MARKETING angle that fits in with the goals of this blog. Should my employment status change, I will disclose this fact but continue to refrain from reviewing wines from any winery or wine company I have worked with for the period of at least one year.

Wine Samples
I do accept wine samples offered by wineries, distributors and retailers, but will generally not solicit them directly, unless I am working on a very specific story. As stated above, the samples should be relevant to some business or marketing concept that is new and interesting to my readers. Submitting a sample is no guarantee of publication. I will disclose the sources of all wines I don’t buy directly in all blog posts for complete transparency.

Sponsorship, Advertising, and Affiliate Programs
To avoid any conflict of interest, Caveman Wines will not accept any kind of sponsorship, advertising, or affiliate program from wineries, or any companies directly tied to wine, at this time. Should this change, it will be noted on the blog. I may, on occasion, post advertising for non-wine related services that may be of interest to wine PR & marketing professionals.

Media Passes
I accept media passes for tastings and other trade events. This will be fully disclosed on all blog posts on event coverage. If, however, this is in direct conflict to one of my clients, I can not accept.