• St. Helena’s Barnett Vineyards has a new winemaker
  I’ve just been catching up on wine news in the San Francisco Chronicle, and I see that one of my wine-tasting companions from yesteryear, David Tate, is the new winemaker of Barnett Vineyards. Congratulations, bud!
  (tags: winemaker napa barnett ridge vineyards david tate winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• Someone Used an iPhone?
  On Mac Forums, a wine director gets an advance look at Apple’s new iPhone. Entertaining reading that juicecowboys everywhere would love.
  (tags: iphone wine technology mac forums apple)
• Apple iPhone Will Power Wine 2.0
  Winecast’s Tim Elliott blogs about the expected Wine 2.0 relationship between wine and the iPhone.
  (tags: wine 2.0 iPhone mobile technology winecast)
• Wine Whines: Wine on the iPhone
  A wine and computer guy who is itching to develop for the iPhone.
  (tags: wine guy computer iPhone developer technology 2.0)
• Vivi’s Wine Journal: What does the iPhone mean to the Wine world?
  juicecowboy thinks differently. Here’s his take on the soon-to-be Wine 2.0/iPhone revolution.
  (tags: wine 2.0 iPhone juicecowboy Apple technology)

I’ve just been catching up on wine news in the San Francisco Chronicle, and I see that one of my wine-tasting companions from yesteryear, David Tate, is the new winemaker of Barnett Vineyards, an esteemed small-lot producer in St. Helena’s Spring Mountain district, above Napa Valley. Well, since it’s in the Chronicle, it must be official.

Last time I saw David was February in San Francisco; he was working a ZAP Festival tasting table at Fort Mason. At the time, David worked for Ridge Vineyard’s Eric Baugher as Assistant Winemaker, but as he poured me a glass of Z List Geyserville zin, he mentioned, in low tones, that he’d soon be jumping ship to Barnett.

Because Ridge’s Montebello Ridge digs is fairly close to my home in the Silicon Valley, and because I lead tours along Montebello Ridge’s inspiring hiking trails, I would occasionally stop in to their tasting room for a post-hike chat n’ sip. (I still do.) But every time I did, I discovered that David had just skipped out. I had begun to sense that David would rather be anywhere but the tasting room. No doubt he was lurking on the premises where he knew he belonged, clambering among vast seas of wine barrels, thief in one hand, tasting glass in the other, cell phone turned off to preserve sanity.

But I learned a lot from him back when we used to gather for biweekly tastings. Heck, we all did. David is one of those people who abides by a deep expressive passion for wine, and it lights up his eyes to talk about the profession he loves so well. So well, in fact, that he has studied wine from the ground up in many far-flung locales around the globe, from France to Australia, Canada to New Zealand, and onward to California. David says so himself:

I am truly passionate about wine (from the vine to the glass), which leads to my love of traveling, meeting new people, studying new languages (onto French), reading (mostly international affairs) and restaurateuring (at all levels of dining).

I’m sure the folks at Ridge will miss him up there at the top of Montebello Road. But now David Tate has taken another step up his personal career ladder, and I know he will impart his own personal character to the single-vineyard and estate wines he will create for Barnett.

As for me, I expect to arrange a visit to Barnett Vineyards so that my tour guests can experience David’s fresh winemaking perspective. That’ll be next June, when the weather in Napa Valley ought to be perfect for five glorious days of mountain hiking trails, vineyard tours, and tasting, tasting, tasting.

~winehiker

• A humorous “Top 10″ look at Hiking for Fitness
  Top Ten Reasons Why Hiking Is Better Than A Gym Membership.
  (tags: top ten 10 hiking hikes gym fitness humor winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• A gadget that red wine lovers might want handy
  Perhaps you’ve seen the commercial of the (DAG-GONE!) drill sergeant who nearly goes apoplectic at the sleight of hand performed by his (DAG-GONE!) recruit with the (DAG-GONE!) Tide-to-go pen thingy. But does it really work on red wine stains?
  (tags: red wine stains removal pen gadget winehiker goddess http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• From wine ratings to wine blog ratings
  It’s official! The Winehiker Witiculture blog offers good wholesome family entertainment.
  (tags: blog rating general audiences winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com http://www.californiawinehikes.com/winehiker)
• A standardized wine rating system? In an age of chaos and diversity??
  Call me an iconoclast, but I’m in favor of diversity of opinion/ratings/etc., only because entropy is such a natural thing. Why attempt to control it? Just on general principles, I’d be loathe to see us all adopt the same points system if only to be d
  (tags: wine rating standard stars points systems iconoclasm winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• The modern wine buyer’s credo
  Are you happy with the selections of wine you see at your local supermarket? Can the wines you want be shipped to your state? If your answer is “no”, then you may want to know the credo.
  (tags: wine buyer purchase online wholesaler distributor restrictions limitations direct to consumer winehiker http://www.californiawinehikes.com)

Debbie Miller Nelson at Wine Goddess posts today about a Wine Lover’s Best Friend. I think she’s onto something. Lord knows I could keep a few handy in my dining room, in my truck, even in my Camelbak.

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercial of the (DAG-GONE!) drill sergeant who nearly goes apoplectic at the sleight of hand performed by his (DAG-GONE!) recruit with this (DAG-GONE!) pen thingy.

But does it really work on red wine stains? Petite Sirah, even? On, say, your best white cotton shirt or blouse? If you have had experience with this product – pro or con – please tell me. Tell the world! Inquiring winehikers want to know.

~winehiker

I got a chuckle this morning out of reading Tom Mangan’s latest post over at Two Heel Drive. Naturally I felt compelled to make slight alterations, wine-wise, as well as to reverse the order of Tom’s Top Ten List a la David Letterman.

Top Ten Reasons Why Hiking Is Better Than A Gym Membership

10. In the outdoors, nobody can smell your sweat.

9. Contorting to find tick bites is just like stretching.

8. There’s no self-loathing for forgetting to recharge your iPod.

7. Nature builds a better Stairmaster.

6. Few fumbling, inappropriate attempts at seduction.

5. Few opportunities to fare poorly in a body-parts comparison.

4. No need to towel off the equipment.

3. No fear of falling off the treadmill.

2. Walking the same way six times because you’re lost counts as reps.

1. The farther you walk, the more wine tasting you can justify.

Fortunately nobody sweats on a California Wine Hikes tour. Instead, they glow!

Source: Two Heel Drive

~winehiker

A few miles of weekend driving home from Marin County had me daydreaming. Since last week’s discussion of standardizing wine ratings among bloggers, I found my thoughts morphing into whimsy. When I arrived home, I thought I’d see how my blog stacks up. Apparently I offer good family entertainment.

We’re keepin’ it healthy and wholesome here at Winehiker Central.

~winehiker

I am reminded by fellow blogger Lisa at Sunset Pig that Life can be so simple, so sweet, and yet so overlooked when everything else gets in the way of it.

Summer afternoon – Summer afternoon… the two most beautiful words in the English language.
~Henry James

Do your soul a fine favor this evening, and get yourself outside. Savor these moments, wineglass in hand, even if there’s a garden hose or a child in the other.

Happy Solstice, everybody – even if you live south of the equator.

~winehiker

This wine-scoring game seems to have folks on the edge of their seats. Game over?

There’s a proposal circulating among us wine bloggers to adopt a standard approach to how we rate wine. In a recent post, fellow blogger Tim Elliott of WineCast asks, Is it possible for wine bloggers to choose a single rating system?

I would first ask if points are really important to wine drinkers who are other than American.

But don’t get me wrong — I like Tim. He writes thought-provoking stuff, and often rides in the front seat of the roller coaster that is the vinosphere. But it isn’t clear to me why he’s asking the question.

Is it possible? Yes. But probable? Call me an iconoclast, but I’m in favor of diversity of opinion/ratings/etc., only because entropy is such a natural thing. Why attempt to control it? Just on general principles, I’d be loath to see us all adopt the same points system if only to be different than the 100-point wine scoring systems of Robert Parker and his ilk.

However, if we were to collectively adopt one rating system among us vinoscenti, I think we need to remind ourselves who our audiences are. Do we wish to provide a lowest-common-denominator approach, or do we wish to lead, educate, and raise the bar for our audiences?

Sometime ago I adopted the 20-point UC Davis method as my personal Goldilocks choice. It wasn’t nearly as mincingly complex as Parker et al., but not so simple that I didn’t learn anything (e.g., a five-star system). Like Goldilocks’ experience with the three bears, this 20-point method was just right to me.

Frankly, when I taste and score a wine, I want to break it down into its component attributes (aroma, body, balance, finish, etc.), and I use a 20-point Wine Scoring Sheet for that purpose. I can reference the sheet later when I want to remember more than just the notion of I liked the wine and how much, instead preferring to remember why I liked the wine. With the sheet, I can see this breakdown at a glance, and I can also review any notes I’ve written, even compile group scores to determine a group favorite wine.

In fact for groups, the sheet is a good teaching tool. My tasting groups learn a few things from the sheet when we use it to compare against similar wines (e.g., vini bianchi di Toscana). By contrast, I can’t learn or distinctively compare wine using a five-star system; it seems too open to interpretation and wanting for additional clarification. It therefore provides less value to me and, by extension, to my audience.

And value – perceived or otherwise – is what is at stake here.

~winehiker

Change is inevitable, because change is also natural. To survive change is to adapt to change. To resist change is to attempt to protect antiquarian ways, to live in denial, to peddle influence in the face of fear.

There’s a cold war going on between wine sellers and wine distributors. The wine consumer is discovering new wines online, and the distributors are losing business because of it. When these middlemen lobby to pass legislation that protects their interests, they effectively limit the availability of wine to consumers, and both the small winemaker and the wine consumer get screwed in the process. In this age of the Internet, placing limits on the abilities of producers and consumers to make a natural and orderly market between them flies in the face of logic, reason, and human nature.

How do you feel when history repeats itself unnecessarily? Are you happy with the selections of wine you see at your local supermarket? Can the wines you want be shipped to your state? What do you do when you can’t find the wine you are looking for?

If you as a modern wine consumer were to have a voice (and you do), you might deliver the following credo to the ears of the middleman, whose efforts directly affect the answers you might give to any of the above questions. His ears may be deaf to your voice, or he may try to pervert your reasoning by having you believe that your desire to buy wine directly from a winery or online retailer will contribute to the delinquency of minors (a reactionary non sequitur at best), but his eyes can’t be so blind as to avoid the writing that is incontrovertibly on the wall today:

The Modern Wine Buyer’s Credo
I use the Internet. I learn about wine online. I buy wine online. I am part of an ever-widening circle of savvy wine consumers. I want options, and I will pursue those options where legislation promotes freedom. I am an inexorable juggernaut and a global force that will result in new synergies between myself and the maker of the wine I choose to buy. And I am pounding my hammer on the anti-consumer wall of protectionism.

It’s a classic David vs. Goliath story. To explore the controversy surrounding the topic of direct-to-consumer relationships and why the wholesaler cartel would try to prevent them, I recommend you check out Free The Grapes and Tom Wark’s recent post, The Dictatorship of the Distributariat. Tom is also Executive Director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association.

~winehiker

• The Russian River Valley’s Gift of Presence
  I love my redwoods, and this is the time of year I tend to find myself walking among them, admiring their cathedral-like presence before returning upstream along the banks of the Russian to taste the spirit of locally-grown grapes.
  (tags: wine redwoods forest russian river valley gary farrell wines winery http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• Cinnabar tasting room grand opening June 23, 24
  Cinnabar Winery has been a presence in the Santa Cruz Mountain appellation for a number of years. But this month they’re celebrating the Grand Opening of their new tasting room in downtown Saratoga, California. I’m going to make an advance visit.
  (tags: wine cinnabar winery winemaking santa cruz mountains grand opening tasting room http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• Reconnecting with my wine origins
  When 1984 rolled around, Bob Barclay went on his merry way. Unfortunately, I lost contact with him after a time. But I always remembered Bob; in fact, these days, as more people ask me about my wine origins, the more I have thought of him. Little did I know…
  (tags: bob barclay wine origins california photographer http://www.californiawinehikes.com)
• Sniffing out pesky vineyard threats
  Enjoy this video of Ros the Dog, who is trained to sniff out mealybugs, an increasing threat to Northern California grape crops.
  (tags: wine grapes dogs bugs pests crops vineyards wineries california http://www.californiawinehikes.com/winehiker)
• UC IPM: UC Management Guidelines for Mealybugs (Pseudococcus) on Grape
  Species of mealybugs that infest vineyards, plus photos.
  (tags: vineyard pest grape mealy bugs mealybug wine)
• Vineyard Pest Management Calendar
  Cornell University posts a vineyard pest management “calendar” that describes pest events that typically occur at 13 different stages of grapevine growth.
  (tags: pests vineyard grapes grapevine vines growth calendar)
• Vineyard Pests: And You Thought Birds Were Bad
  Yes, even baboons can be vineyard pests! From Tom Wark’s Fermentations.
  (tags: vineyard pests wine grapes baboons)