Archive for the 'Wine News' Category

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Blogging Makes Things Different

…but not that different

August 18th, 2010

Bill Smart is the head PR guy at Dry Creek Vineyard, a talented communicator and a nice guy, to boot. He was at the Bloggers Conference back in June, and has now written a thoughtful piece about his impressions over at Palate Press.

I agree with lots that he wrote — but not all. So let me respectfully set out a few of my differences, while emphasizing that, overall, Bill’s article is an accurate representation of where winery P.R. stands in relation to social media.

Bill sets up something of a straw dog when he posits a fundamental difference between bloggers (the implication is that they’re younger, although there were plenty of older bloggers in Walla Walla) and “traditional media.” “For starters,” says Bill, “bloggers do not want to be talked ‘at.’ They want to have a conversation.”

Okay, deconstruction time! First of all, I’m going to start pulling out what few hairs I have left, next time I hear the dreaded “TM” phrase: “traditional media.” This has become a form of invective and an expletive that displays some kind of bias — whether along age or other grounds, I couldn’t say; but when it’s used in a pro-blogging article, it’s usually freighted with negative implications toward print journalists. Why?…

Click Here for Steve Heimoff’s full article

New Netting Application

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We are experimenting with a new concept for netting. Instead of using large nets which cover several rows at a time, are difficult to install and remove, we are using netting which covers only the fruit area and is applied to both sides of the vine. It installs very quickly using a three man crew and an ATV.

Removing should be just as easy since the net doesn’t cover the vine it won’t get entangled with growing canes. There is one dark cloud, however, since it fits tightly against the vine some of the fruit is pressed against the mesh. The question then is, will the birds realize this and pick off the available fruit or, is the netting sufficient deterence, and fly off elsewhere.

Pinot Gris Goes Down the Riesling Path to Transparency

Pinot Gris Goes Down the Riesling Path to Transparency

The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) has recently come up with a PinotG Style Spectrum, which is supposed to tell consumers what kind of Pinot Gris they’re getting, on a scale that ranges from “crisp” to “luscious.” As an industry response to the multitude of Pinot Gris styles now being made in Australia, it makes sense as shorthand, so that prospective purchasers don’t have to actually read descriptive back labels or know how to interpret technical notes.

Researchers correlated organoleptic data from a trained tasting panel with spectrographic analyses to develop the scale, allowing a wine to be classified according to its spectrographic “fingerprint” rather than according to some winemaker’s or marketer’s subjective impression.

As an attempt to remove subjective taste criteria from style description, the PinotG Style Spectrum parallels in some ways the development of the International Riesling Federation’s (IRF) Riesling Taste Profile, which purports to tell consumers how sweet their Riesling is based on the relationships in the finished wine between residual sugar, total acidity and pH. That’s it: just numbers, crunched into a linear scale from “dry” to “sweet.”

tasteprofile

Click Here for the rest of the article

SFMOMA Exhibit – HOW WINE BECAME MODERN

SFMOMA PROBES THE CONTEMPORARY CULTURE OF WINE AND PRESENTS HOW WINE BECAME MODERN

From November 20, 2010, to April 17, 2011, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) will present How Wine Became Modern: Design + Wine 1976 to Now. This exhibition explores transformations in the visual and material culture of wine over the past three decades, offering a fresh way of understanding the contemporary culture of wine and the role that design has played in its transformation. Organized by Henry Urbach, SFMOMA’s Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, How Wine Became Modern marks the first exhibition to consider modern, global wine culture as an integrated yet expansive and richly textured set of cultural phenomena.

The story begins in 1976, the year of the now-famous Judgment of Paris. There, in a blind taste test, nine French wine experts pronounced a number of northern California wines superior to esteemed French vintages. However apt the decision, later criticized and repeatedly restaged, the event released shock waves across the globe as it gave the nascent California wine industry, as well as winemakers in many other parts of the world, new confidence, credibility, and visibility. This, in turn, had multiple effects including the expansion of wine markets, growing popular awareness of wine, the birth of wine criticism, vineyard tourism, and a host of other manifestations. From this moment forward, the culture of wine began to accommodate and valorize new priorities such as innovation, diversification, globalization, marketing, and accessibility.

“In many ways,” Urbach claims, “wine has become ‘modern’ as it re-imagined its own representation and joined itself to other forms of culture,” including architecture, graphic and industrial design, visual arts, performing arts, and film. And it is here, he adds, “at this particular intersection between nature and contemporary culture, that the social meanings of wine reveal key issues of our moment, including the status of place and authenticity in a world increasingly structured by dematerialized, virtual experience.”

The exhibition, designed by the renowned architecture studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), combines original artifacts such as architectural models and photographs with works of art, some newly commissioned, as well as multimedia presentations and interpretive text. Viewers will encounter artworks, objects, and information within immersive environments that engage multiple senses including smell.

Vino and Vinyasa at lululemon

You’re Invited to our August Vino and Vinyasa Series! 
 
August 13th    5:30PM
Where: lululemon
705 Paseo Nuevo (near Nordstrom and Sephora)
Santa Barbara

 
Join lululemon and Santa Barbara Winery for their first ever yoga and wine tasting event!

This FREE hour long meditative yoga class, taught by Kelly Heath, will help you unwind from your week and prepare for your weekend. The class will be followed by FREE wine tasting from Santa Barbara Winery.
 
This week, August 13th, will feature a FREE yoga class taught by Kelly Heath and wine tasting from Santa Barbara Winery.

Wine Club BBQ August 7, 2010

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Pinot Noir Safely Behind Nets

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The New Yorker Magazine has an article about the killing of 1 billion, yes billion, birds annually in Mediterranean countries – Italy, Sardinia, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and others – out of a migratory population of approximately 6 billion.

Migratory birds protected by European Union laws – all the above are members – but due to poor enforcement and out of respect for local custom and culture the killing continues. For many it is simply a blood sport, for others it is a business. Song birds, captured on glue sticks, are sold to restaurants and individuals, cooked and served very much like buffalo wings.

The slaughter is indiscriminate. This wholesale killing is putting many species on the endangered list. Since there is no limit or season many are shot on their migration northward where they go to breed.

This very much parallels the fisheries of the Mediterranean – over fished, with many varieties, once plentiful, now endangered.

There is a lesson here and I hope we are learning from it.

8/3/10 Netting the Pinot Noir

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7.30.10 Santa Barbara Winery Tasting Room

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