In winehiking country: the NBC-TV interview

The morning was bright and beautiful as I drove into the Cupertino hills. I’d planned to arrive at my destination an hour before the NBC crew, having wanted to scout the Zinfandel Trail adjacent to Picchetti Winery for camera-worthy items such as flowering and seeding plants, edible herbs, photogenic critters and the mid-Spring but drought-affected presence of flowing streams.

Before we convened for our film shoot along the trail, I especially wanted to see if this Spring’s plant growth would obscure our view of Picchetti’s old vine zinfandel vineyard, way off the trail and up the hill. But after a few minutes’ walking, I spied its vineyard greenery, albeit sparse, from my position about 120 yards or so downslope.

Satisfied, I retraced my steps toward the winery. Walking through Picchetti’s picnic area, I chanced to find a rather pristine peacock feather, a secondary inadvertently shed by one of Picchetti’s many stunning - and very vocal - resident peacocks. The feather was 13″ long and very striking in its elongated semiovoid shape and pure rust color. As I paused to insert it into my hatband, I looked up to see a panel van with Mary Babbitt and her crew assembling nearby. I donned my newly-feathered old Aussie hat and, walking toward them, shouted a hearty “Hello, NBC crew!”

The day had arrived for my In Wine Country TV interview.

It was good to meet Mary, and I felt her energy immediately - the very same vitality I’d noted when watching her Sunday evening show. While I chatted with Mary and her crew, a few friends showed up to join us, and the camera guys, Mark and Jeff, outfitted me with a wireless microphone. After a little SPF 45 greasepaint, we were ready to hit the trail.

Or so I thought! As we ambled toward the trailhead, it became suddenly clear to me that I would be doing an up-close-and-personal on-camera interview right away. Now folks, I talk about my wine and hiking business all the time, and I’m quite comfortable with doing that, but I gotta tell ya: when there’s a big camera inches from your face, everything you know about yourself can suddenly transmogrify into mountainous blathering idiocy. And while I can’t say that I was extraordinarily nervous, I must admit that my sphincter was a little puckered. Just a little.

Well, all in a day’s work. Mary had prepared some questions, I answered them in my own fashion. We laughed, we cried, we laughed some more, and then, finally! - we hit the trail, where I belong.

It was interesting, this particular hike. You’re going to see it on TV someday, and you’re going to think that it’s all quite seamless, this future hiking and wine-tasting segment. But that will be due solely to the expertise of the production team. Indeed, I found it amazing just how different a winehike can be when there’s a camera crew involved. True, there were a lot of stops and starts as the crew would set up for their next shots. There were times when I would spy something noteworthy along the trail and we’d stop to set up a shot. Then we’d start again, only to stop for a new angle. Birds flitting, streams gurgling, feet walking. I’d be in mid-sentence, extolling the virtues of mugwort and bay leaves and hillside sage when I’d be interrupted for a new camera angle or a repeat of what I’d just said. Maybe you can imagine how hard that can be - uttering pure winehiking perspicacity, only to face the daunting task of remembering what you’ve just said. Simply put, it took over three hours to shoot film covering a mile and a quarter of trail.

But the crew, and Mary Babbitt? True professionals, very human, and at the top of their game.

I had expected as much. I accepted the rhythm, as did all of us - crew and friends alike - and we still managed to enjoy the experience of hiking, food, and wine on a sunny Spring day in this fine wine country preserve.

I can’t wait to see it on TV. When the episode airs in the November/December timeframe, it will comprise a three-to-four-minute segment of Mary’s weekly half-hour show. Goodness knows, I’ll be thankful for good film editors. Gosh, can you imagine the expertise required to reduce over three hours of tape to 3 minutes of broadcast? Believe me, that’s one of the reasons I watch In Wine Country, and why they’ve won the prestigious awards they have. They’re that good.

I’ll be sure to alert you to the episode when I learn the actual Autumn air date from Mary Orlin, the show’s executive producer. Meanwhile, you should know that whether you catch the broadcast or not, you will find my In Wine Country segment in the form of an iTunes file right here on Winehiker Witiculture.*

See how it all got started.

~winehiker

*If you wish to be alerted when this show airs and when the iTunes file is available, your best bet is to subscribe to this blog. Fortunately, that’s extremely easy to do! Here’s how.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 11:29 pm and is filed under grape squeezins, winehiker's trails. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.