My buddy Vindu yesterday passed along this video tidbit from the Wall Street Journal Online:

Over the past 13 years, mealybugs have spread north from Southern California into the Napa-Sonoma wine country, forcing vintners to spend as much as $30 million a year trying to eradicate them. But the bugs are notoriously difficult to pin down; hundreds cram together to hide under bark and roots.

It’s amazing, then, that instead of using pesticides to ward off the mealybug threat, wineries are hiring trained dogs, such as Ros in this video, to sniff out the pesky critters. The vineyard help can then snip off the infested branch, and the grapes stay free of unwanted poisons.

[Editor's note: the powers that be at brightcove.com have removed this video from their server.]

Enjoy this video, which is just over a minute and a half long. Woof-Woof!

~winehiker

Last Saturday found me and my tour guests communing with ancient redwoods at Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve, just outside of the tiny Sonoma County hamlet of Guerneville along the fabled Russian River. I love my redwoods, and this is the time of year I tend to find myself walking among them, admiring their stately, jaw-dropping, cathedral-like presence.

For that matter, I would walk through redwoods any time of year but for the fact that there are so many other fine trails in the wine country to let my boots roam across. It’s just that when Old Sol turns up the summer heat, the cool and shady redwood forests of the California coast tend to be a bastion of refuge for me when other parts of California are quietly beginning to bake themselves brown.

Imagine how it might have been 140 years ago, though, when this forest had been reduced to being called Stumptown. If it hadn’t been for the efforts of the Armstrong family (for whom the Reserve is named) plus later citizens groups and the Park Service, there might not have been any old-growth redwoods for me and my guests to marvel at today. We therefore have countless people to thank for the continued presence of this living gift, people who are long gone but whose silent presence we feel strongly as we stand among these gargantuan, 2000-year-old monarchs.

Picnicking among the redwoods at Armstrong Reserve is a special thing, too. There’s a certain hush imparted by this forest floor, thickly carpeted with the leaf-fall of yesteryear; its absorption of sound seems to subdue conversation.

Photo courtesy of Sage Gunderson.

And yet the spirit of our group is present, and we dine happily beneath our cool canopy before returning upstream along the banks of the Russian to taste the spirit of locally-grown grapes. Our destination is Gary Farrell Vineyards, which is perched high on a knoll, the broad windows of its tasting room affording us a grand view of the Valley below.

The wines we taste at Gary Farrell are supremely delicious, and there is not one that we don’t like among their lineup. We’ve walked in dreaming of chards and zins and pinots, and we are not disappointed. The staff at Gary Farrell is not disappointed, either, as we leave them laden heavily with fine liquid booty.

We’re happy that we came to the Russian River Valley today.

~winehiker

Tasting rooms seem to have come and gone over the years in Saratoga. That’s why I’m hoping Cinnabar Vineyards & Winery will make a good go of it for many years in their new location at 14612 Big Basin Way between 5th and 6th Streets in downtown Saratoga, commonly referred to by locals as The Village.

While Cinnabar has been around for a few years, they have not had a tasting facility at their mountain winemaking operations just outside of town and up a treacherous (for some) dirt road. Just in terms of post-tasting road safety, that’s probably been a good thing.

But I think the time is ripe for the public to once again have options for tasting Santa Cruz Mountain wines in this sleepy upscale hamlet. Fortunately, the winds of change have blown gently, and as of June 1st, Cinnabar has opened the doors of its 1,300-square-foot tasting room to the public. Indeed, their Grand Opening Weekend is Saturday and Sunday, June 23rd & 24th. The hours are 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The new tasting room will feature Cinnabar’s small-production wines made by Cinnabar’s own George Troquato. Seminars will be held at the tasting room to give people the opportunity to learn the A to Z’s about wine. All wines will be available for purchase.

On the Cinnabar website, General Manager Suzanne Frontz suggests, “We’ll truly be a wine destination.”

I intend to stop in this Sunday afternoon with a group of friends to wash down the trail dust after a fun little 11-mile hike I’ll be guiding at Long Ridge Open Space Preserve, which is just up the road. We’ll see if Cinnabar’s new tasting facility will truly be my wine destination, too.

See my previous posts about Cinnabar: Cinnabar Winery wins double gold and set to become new wine country destination and A nice note from George Troquato, winemaker at Cinnabar.

~winehiker

Photo courtesy of BobBarclay.com

Every so often somebody will ask me how I entered the world of wine. I’ve always replied that I once roomed with a couple of guys back in the 80′s, one of whom, unlike me, had grown up in a wine family. By the time we had met in our mid-twenties, he had developed such an intense passion about wine that he had amassed quite a sheaf of tasting notes. That housemate was a fellow by the name of Bob Barclay.

I had met Bob through our other housemate, Dan Cilberti, and together the three of us, with Bob’s direction, had embarked on an exploration of wine, whether at the house or on tours to, as I recall, Napa Valley and Lake County. With Bob’s exuberant guidance, I had become intrigued about wine, too, and the next years found me exploring wine more deeply, even hosting wine tastings of my own.

When 1984 rolled around, Bob and Dan both went their merry ways. Unfortunately, I lost contact with them both 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 that this blog would lead me to him.

Fast forward to 2007: I’m lurking among a showroom of exotic cars awaiting the start of the very first Wine 2.0 conference, when I lock eyes with a man who looks incredibly familiar. Instantly, we reach the same conclusion, both of us saying, “I know you, don’t I?” And before you know it, Bob Barclay and I thrust out our hands toward each other and begin reminiscing about a time 26 years prior when together we tasted the likes of 1974 Freemark Abbey and 1978 Joseph Phelps cabernets. Oh, we were spoiled then. I didn’t know how much! I guess you could say that I’ve been endeavoring to catch up to those days ever since, seeking to taste wines that evoked those times.

Truly, it was good to see that Bob is still as passionate about wine as he was way back then. It was also good to once again clink glasses with Bob, my presence at Wine 2.0 indicating that his passion had indeed rubbed off on me. These days, Bob lives in Sonoma County where he runs his own commercial photography and podcast outfit, www.BobBarclay.com. Dear reader, I recommend checking out Bob’s online portfolio of camera work, much of which is wine-related and well-composed, both in landscapes and in product shots.

Bob, here’s to ya, pal! You’re one of two extraordinary people who guided me originally down the winehiking path I tread today.*

~winehiker

*The other is Don Carre, my high school music teacher and Backpacking Club advisor.

• Wine, too, for the next generation
  Its not hard to guess the main reason why wine and wine-related information have become more widely available than ever. Fermented juice from my experience at last Friday’s Wine 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
  (tags: wine 2.0 technology blogs web marketing education sales relationships paradigm)

There are reasons why wine has become more widely available than ever. Eric Asimov of The New York Times’ The Pour is right when he says:

From the chateaux of Bordeaux to the hillside hamlets of Valle d’Aosta, from windswept volcanic rocks of Santorini to foggy ridges of the Sonoma Coast, wine from anywhere can be found almost everywhere.

Yes, there is a lot more wine, and wine magic, to go around these days. It’s not hard to guess the main reason why: many wine lovers use Internet technology in their daily lives. On the consumer side, they’re embracing the web to learn about wine. On the producer side, they’re furthering the ability of wine consumers to have more choices about the wine they consume. These wine lovers come in different flavors of wine geekdom, be they wine merchants, citizen wine bloggers, journalists-turned bloggers, software vendors, the wine-consuming public, or the winemakers themselves.

This evolution toward bringing winemakers and wine drinkers together was inevitable. With more information available about wine than ever before, savvy wine people are capitalizing on new ways to drive consumers of wine information toward their wine and wine-related purchases. And those consumers are buying. They’re discovering new wines, expanding their knowledge, and they’re sharing their experiences about it online. As a result, new communities about wine are constantly developing.

I can tell you this is true just from my own viewpoint as a citizen blogger. Because I write this blog, winemakers are reading it. I’ve met a number of them now, and I plan to meet more. I can’t imagine how I might have begun these relationships without having made the choice to lend my voice to the wine community. And so I am grateful for the kinds of tools we have today – the kinds of tools that the next generation of wine consumers will surely be taking advantage of to pursue the great variety of wine-related experiences they will be seeking.* It’s why I was keen on attending last Friday’s Wine 2.0 event in San Francisco.

You can think of the term Wine 2.0 as a wine-play on Web 2.0 – a term coined by publisher Tim O’Reilly that refers to a perceived second generation (i.e., post dot-com bust era) of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites and wikis, that facilitate collaboration and sharing between Internet users.

At this Wine 2.0 event – a second annual event for San Francisco – two sets of panelists represented each of the facets of this new generation of wine lovers. Each discussed new ways of using current Internet technology to expand wine sales and information into hip new markets. They talked about new changes in the ways winemakers and wine technologists are using the web platform to put more varieties of wine – and ways to buy it – into the hands and onto the dinner tables of the public. But it’s clear that what’s also changing is the variety of social networking websites and tools they are using to do it. It is these tools that are flattening the three-tier hierarchy that has traditionally inserted a middle-tier wholesaler (hence the term middleman) between the winemaker and the consumer, separating them from relationships that many now enjoy, including this winehiker.

It’s about education, it’s about new relationships, and it’s all about having a voice.

Clearly, wine consumers and producers alike have a voice that they didn’t enjoy during the initial Internet boom. Many of those voices were on-hand at Wine 2.0, and it is clear that the audience listening to those voices is growing exponentially.** Together they are breaking down traditional barriers, for they suggest that there’s a new paradigm for winemakers and wine marketers – the very people who must listen to those voices if they intend to tap evolving, web-savvy markets. In a nutshell, this new paradigm means: you’ve got to implement web tools that are easy for wine drinkers to experiment and purchase wine with, and you’ve got to start developing two-way communications tools (i.e., blogs) to get your expertise in front of them. The winemakers, retailers, and software houses who are already doing these things are getting noticed, and many are winning awards because of it. They are, as Eric Asimov says, the vanguard.

Because you read this blog, you need to know that you have a voice, too. After all, blogs are interactive, Web 2.0 communication vehicles that build communities. So, what do you have to say?

For a look at the people who attended Wine 2.0, see my previous post, Brave heroes on the winepath.

~winehiker

*Winehiking, for instance!
**Quite frankly, I love the idea of using computers to get people away from them.

• Europe officially recognizes Napa
  From decanter.com: The European Union has officially recognised California’s Napa Valley in a new ruling announced in San Francisco last week.
  (tags: european union napa wine sales marketing exports california)

• Today’s Bordeaux: Top 100 Bordeaux
  100 wines priced $8-$25 selected by an independent jury in a blind tasting of over 300 wines.
  (tags: bordeaux wines affordable blind tasting top 100 best wine)
• Sense-Enhancing Wine Glass
  This 16 oz. Burgundy size wine glass has a notch forged into its rim that accommodates your nose, allowing you to fully experience the smell of your favorite wine while drinking. But it smells pricey at $49.95 a pop.
  (tags: wine glass tasting nose smell experience)

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.

The one-winery-a-day guys at RadCru and the direct-to-consumer technology folks at Inertia Beverage are hosting the second annual Wine 2.0 event in San Francisco this afternoon at five o’clock. Here’s what they have to say about the looming juggernaut that is Wine 2.0:

Wine 2.0 is a wine industry networking group featuring the newest generation of emerging companies, services and communication tools that are changing the world of wine. Participating players are using technology to change the way wine is made, marketed, communicated about or sold. Wine 2.0′s focus is on better identifying where the opportunities for all players in the space are and providing a forum to communicate the best ideas. From winery direct sales to virtual wineries, Wine 2.0 is blending the line between wine and technology.

The darlings of this year’s wine and technology lineup will be speaking at the event, including podcaster Gary Vaynerchuk from Winelibrary.tv, Alder Yarrow from the Vinography blog, and Tom Wark from Fermentation. About 40 winemakers and a number of supporting Wine 2.0 entrepreneurs are also on the program; you can see a list of who’s represented here, a list that includes yours truly.

A few of us wine bloggers will be there to soak up the energy that’s bound to be created when wine and technology mix. I’ll be hopping on the train this afternoon and reporting my experience sometime thereafter here on Winehiker Witiculture. So if you consider yourself a wine geek, stay tuned right here for the mental schwag I take away with me.

~winehiker