I met a few of my future heroes Friday night. As you may recall from Friday’s post, I took the train up the San Francisco Bay peninsula to attend the second annual Wine 2.0 San Francisco wine and technology conference hosted at Club Sportiva and an adjacent business in the same building, On The Fly. There was a lot of energy and excitement in this combined venue which featured two panel discussions, an incredible assortment of wines, and a who’s who contingent of wine technoliterati, all set among a backdrop of exotic cars and the trappings of the modern gentleman.

Photo courtesy of ClubSportiva.com

Since I’ve been authoring this blog, I’ve occasionally chanced to meet (and even sip wine with!) a few of my blogging brothers and sisters. Naturally, as a blogger, I regularly read others’ blogs, and have corresponded with my compatriots in some fashion or another. Wine 2.0, however, revealed some of the faces behind the names, and soon it became apparent that the event marked the first time in which many people in the room were able to meet each other face-to-face (thanks, Jo Diaz!).

A brisk walk from the SF train station by way of K & L Wines brought me to the event early, and so the first of those faces for me was Cornelius Geary of RadCru, the evening’s MC and co-host, who had just downed a Red Bull and was scurrying madly in the final stages of preparation for the evening’s fun. I also briefly met his business partner and the evening’s camera and AV guy, Jeff Playter. Having arrived early, I took a few minutes to nose around the extremely upscale environs, noting with amusement the whimsy of taxidermed polar bears and wide-screen sports TVs combined with mahogany-inlaid cigar cutters and ultra-expensive can’t-wash-’em-in-
your-own-washer sport shirts. I tried hard not to salivate on the Jaguar XKE convertible, but I sure did think of my dad as I stood over it, admiring its classic lines and veneers. An early adopter of Hugh Hefner’s publications, Dad had also wanted to someday drive this car. Someday maybe I will, if only for him. Indeed, Dad would have loved this place. Heck, I’ll even bet Hef is a shareholder.

Soon the public began to filter in, and the air in the room became charged. At once I spied Tom Wark, Alder Yarrow, and Gary Vaynerchuk (that’s VAY-ner-chuk, people), so I took a few minutes to speak with each of them. I also spoke a few minutes with Marshall Sontag of WineQ.com, whom I’d met last winter at ZAP SF, and who introduced his Director of Operations, Brittany Dean. As I poured a delectable 2004 Hahn Estates Pinot Noir (courtesy of Joshua Cairns of Wimbledon Wine Company), I also poured a glass for Crushpad CEO Michael Brill whom, as we chatted later in the evening, I came to know as an intelligent, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy who’s come a long, long way since planting his backyard grape patch. Each of these gentlemen were to appear as panelists in the evening’s discussion which, as many had guessed, would be not only informative but immensely entertaining. (Please see my related post, Wine, too, for the next generation, for my take on the evening’s topic.)

I’d first spoken to Alyssa Rapp of Bottlenotes.com after she contacted me a little over a year ago. Our relationship had started out as a simple link exchange, but we quickly found ourselves speaking over the phone and talking about the intersection of wine, nature, and adventure in which my company, California Wine Hikes, is carving a niche. We’re going to talk some more. It was good to chat with her and Messr. Brill Friday as she poured us each a citrusy/minerally 2005 Te Awa Sauvignon Blanc and a 2004 Kingston Family Vineyards Bayo Osucro Syrah that sported a depth of gravel and berries that was simply divine inner redemption.

And then there were the winemakers themselves, notable among them being Sam Spencer of Spencer/Roloson Winery, one of the evening’s panelists; also Michael Dashe of Dashe Cellars (who makes one of my favorite “house zins”), and Ross Halleck of Sonoma County’s Halleck Vineyards who, when I handed him my business card, indicated that I’d struck a nerve. As a result, I expect I’ll be talking to Ross about future tours that’ll have my guests overlooking the Russian River Valley from his mountaintop deck, wineglass in hand.

Rounding out the folks I spoke and slurped with were panel moderator Jim Gordon, editor of the first-of-its-kind Wines & Vines magazine, negociant Cameron Hughes (also a panelist)*, Joel Vincent of Vivi’s Wine Journal and Wine Life Today, Ruarri Rogan of Grape Thinking, and Ryan Fujiu and Ben Bicais of Calwineries.com, who might have been having more fun in this rich atmosphere than was legally possible.

Quite a lineup, indeed. Future heroes, all of these ladies and gents, for they are the avant garde of the new wine generation, a direction in which wine, ecommerce, and social networking technology shall bring winemakers and wine drinkers together like never before. And if Wine 2.0 - as we’re calling it - should eliminate the middleman tier (i.e., the wholesaler), then the thrust of the evening is that we’re all for it, lock, stock, and wine barrel.

~winehiker

P.S. You’ve no doubt noticed that I did a lot of name-dropping in this post. But please, let’s call it Link Love, because Link Love is one of those things you practice when you embrace both wine and technology, from nearly any angle.

*I’ll be reviewing a number of Cameron Hughes wines in the very near future.

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