Wow. I just realized it's been a long time since I last posted n' entry. My apologies. Here are some things I've been preoccupied with:

1. Quittin' my job in the tasting room.

2. Flyin' to California from Oregon during Thanksgivin' weekend. A bit of a mistake, but worth it for the friends and family I got to spend time and drink wine with.

3. Tryin' to find a wine job in California, which is proving to be a difficult task this time of year. I have interviewed at Southern Wine & Spirits, which is an entire blog entry in itself. In short, it seems they insist you brown-nose their senior people for 1-2 years before you can be considered for any position other than stocking, regardless of your qualifications, that is, once you de-code the dozen or so different umbrella company names they go by. I am hammering HR people at several wineries and retail joints as we speak trying to get them to agree to meet with me. So everyone, this is a cry for help. Please send any wine-related job leads to me as soon as they present themselves to you.

4. Tryin' to achieve my ultimate short-term career goal: getting a job at Navarro Vineyards. In brief, I have come to absolutely love that winery and everything they produce. It is also very convenient that it lies a mere 20 minutes from where I will be residing in California.

5. Enjoyin' Robert Parker’s bulletin board. I have managed to open dialogue (unexpectedly) with several winemakers and growers who I greatly admire, just by posting about growing grapes in Mendocino County. They have offered me some great insight and given me some good perspective on what varietals to plant on my property when the time comes (yikes, this spring!!).

6. Workin'. Our big Thanksgiving blowout is finally over and this is the first day off I’ve had. The winery made record amounts of money that weekend, and it was interesting to see the Willamette Valley’s wine industry promote themselves and capitalize on the huge crowds that came through Friday through Sunday, compared to the appellations I visited in California who did essentially, ...nothing. Most tasting rooms were even closed all weekend. But Navarro was awesome because they were open and they had Mourvedre.

7. Day-dreamin' about Mourvedre. I won’t go into that just yet.

8. Trying to decide whether I like the 2003 Pinot Noirs my current employer just released. One immediate descriptor comes to mind: awkward.

9. Freaking out about leaving and the fact that I don’t have a job. I’m starting to consider other options for income in the meantime, like brainstorming about what old junk I have lying around that I could Ebay.

10. Last but not least, loving all up on my Fiance and freaking out about not seein’ her much.

More soon.

BTW, if your wondering about the "n's", it's just to get back into the swing of dropping "g's" something that is necessary when you move back to Ukiah. The good 'ol town of Haiku spelled backwards.

Things I could do today:

Max out my credit card on wine.
Rack my 6 gallons of Ancient Block Pinot Noir. Because another home winemaker told me if I leave it on the yeast lees for more than a week it will get a “silage” smell.
Clean all carboys and hoses once I’ve racked.
Get my oil changed & new windshield wipers. (not wine related, sorry)
Follow up on resumes I sent out to distributors in CA.

Sky-Glass

Sky-Glass
Originally uploaded by keeef.

Today I read an article about the Chileans and their recent breakthroughs in developing winemaking technology. I began to worry that what they are coming up with might make wine less fun.

The first thing is a software program called “Maya” that uses NASA technology to map vegetative growth, then combines the results with ground analysis, historical data, and weather information to analyze and predict growth trends. This actually sounds kind of cool, (maybe the viticulture geek in me) because no matter how much we use knowledge we learned from our ancestors in viticulture, we are still at the whim of Mother Nature. This software might help us keep the quality up during less than ideal vintages.

The second technology that Chile is working on is this: They are injecting wine samples into a gas chromatograph, which separates aroma and flavor compounds in the wine and compiles, identifies, and archives them individually. This will allow flavor and aroma profiles of wines to be more accurate and objective, and quite possibly more predictable and boring. A digital library is being built up to store all of these results, which producers can access to make wines with razor-sharp focus toward specific consumer markets. A huge part of the fun in wine drinking is the adventure and unpredictability of wine from different places and different years. This makes each and every bottle unique. If this technology catches on, producers will more easily be able to pinpoint a wine style to specific market trends, and do it consistently with each batch. It will all taste exactly the same every time. Pretty soon I fear making wine will be no different than making coke or pepsi. It’s up to the small guys to keep it real. Keep it unique.

press-&-glass

press-&-glass
Originally uploaded by keeef.

Here is a photo of a press. One that I rented. This will be short as this blogging software is a piece of shit and keeps deleting my posts. So I won't invest much time typing until it appears fixed. For now, enjoy the pretty pitcher.

Today I asked a wine steward for a recommendation. I realized that this is something I rarely do, and should do so much more. You can learn big things just by humbling yourself and asking a wine steward a question, and I am usually preoccupied by basing my decision on some stereotypical and standard food pairing guideline (white with seafood, red with red meat) that I never think to ask. I have learned not to always trust waitstaff however. I found it's best to feel them out first, ask a few deliberately dumb wine questions and see how they answer. Unless it's a highly reputable restaurant with a highly reputable wine book, I always proceed with asking for a recommendation with caution. Improperly trained or indifferent waitstaff may recommend a wine simply because it's the last wine they remember being allowed by management to taste. Some may try and be the authority on the subject of wine to avoid appearing unprofessional or ignorant, even if the restaurant has someone else available to provide expert advice, or maybe someone hired solely for the purpose of managing the restaurant's wine program. But regardless, from now on I'm going to ask lots of questions whenever I buy wine, and I will be eager to be suprised and educated by a fascinating new wine from a new country. Just as I was tonight.

Hospitality is good for business. It makes people feel good. It makes them want to continue doing business with you. It is not suprising that this is why a key practice in the wine industry (or any industry that requires networking) is spending time providing hospitality to and entertainment to everyone, especially existing and potential clients. Flattery, food, and free stuff goes a long way. Your wine can suck, but if you know how to show someone a good time and feed them, you can count on them continuing to praise you and your products, spreading your good name to everyone they talk to.

But on few occasions someone will show up who is acutely aware of this and regularly takes advantage of it. Some may not even have anything to do with the wine industry but claim to. Or those that may work in the industry, but hold less responsible positions and do not necessarily make or even influence buying decisions. Those who do not currently and never plan on carrying your wine. Yet they show up with 15 of their non-industry 21 year-old friends name-dropping and flashing cards in your face. They expect a tour and tasting, steal your Riedel stemware, trash the place, let their pets shit on the patio, and leave after shaking your hand and telling you they will be in touch. None of their friends care about or even like drinking wine. But if you try and filter these people out, you risk the chance of mis-identifying key clients, which would be disastrous. So the safest philosophy is to treat everyone with the utmost respect. This can be hard to do on the rare occasion that you KNOW the people you are taking care of are phonies. From the home-made, computer ink-smeared business cards to the awkward use of industry jargon, you can see right through them. It is best at this time to remember that "I just work here."

sorin

sorin
Originally uploaded by keeef.

I have lately been very intrigued by wines from the Bandol Appellation. I purchased my first one the other day, one of a slightly older vintage so that I could evaluate how they age. I picked a Domaine Sorin 1995. Made primarily from the Mourvedre grape, it is said the wines are rustic, smokey, gamey, and often quite tannic. My main interest comes from the fact that it is hotter in this region, and I am researching wines grown in hot climates. Especially dry red wines with considerable ageability and complexity. This particular wine fit the descriptions I had been reading, in addition to having quite a bit of sediment, (which I expected) and punching acidity.

Sometimes it's hard to decide what to pour first when you have friends over, escpecially if they show up with wine too. I once went over to an Argentinian importer's house with a friend to evaluate his wines. My friend brought 3 bottles, I brought 2 representing Oregon, and our host brought out 4 bottles. When we sat down, he proceeded to open ALL of them. He then told us to pick and choose, as long as we eventually tried HIS wines and told him what we thought. We did exactly that, compliments and adjectives flew, and although we were a bit tipsy when we left, I was happy about the way our host chose to pour the lineup (and the wonderful dinner he and his wife cooked for us). It allowed us to pour small samples from each bottle to appreciate each one with a clear head.