This video is a compilation of my harvests in the agroturismos of Italy, the desert of Argentina, and the sunshine of northern California. The music is one of my favorite songs of all time, it’s called Voyageur by Enigma. I moved out to California a year ago with a bottle of GrapeThinking, a bottle of ideas I guess you could say, that started filling up 5 years ago with conversation between myself, Jacob Bohall, Ruarri Rogan, Meghan O’Malley, and many others. Over the past year, those ideas have delightfully fermented, and the time has finally come for us to have a taste…

~circuit to cell, web to water, mind to vine~

Wow, what an excellent conference! A game changer. I have to thank my friends over at Village Green Energy for hooking me up with a free pass. I’ve been so passionate about this movement as long as I can remember… ever since 6th grade when I messed around with electromagenetic fields and plants. Early education for me was all about ecology and environment, and that followed with rigorous economics in college, which I didn’t quite understand about myself until now. Having not gone into banking with my degree and now seeing the state of the economy I was like shit… but David Suzuki put it so clearly… it’s (eco)nomics. I can’t believe I never recognized that. I automatically associated economics with the greedy, short-sighted mentality of Wall Street that focuses solely on the bottom line and exploiting the market for cash and egoic status. Yet you realize the bottom line is not the statement of cash flows or the balance sheet… it’s the fuckin planet. Ecology + Economics = Sustainability. This conference was absolutely buzzing! People were feeling alive and connecting and touching each other like I’ve never seen in my life. We all knew the green revolution is ready and about to change the world in a big way.

The keynotes were superb with Al Gore, Jerrry Brown, and David Suzuki really leaving a moving impact on me. Nobody was afraid to go deep. Sure there was plenty of talk about clean tech innovations or green building or policy changes.. but more so people were incredibly open about spiritual and conciousness based changes that are going to take place around the world to solve this crisis. Sarah Susanka even brought the crowd to tears with her moving presentation. It’s so much bigger than green or solar or oil… it’s about enlightening the human race that we are one and we share the same spirit with each other and with the world as a whole. I found it to be quite the religious experience to be at this conference. A few others being recently when I went into the wild of Alaska for a few weeks and when I saw the Dalai Lama speak in Bethlehem, Pa.

Aside from the heavy stuff, there were tons of innovative companies doing everything from cutting edge solar installs, to green acrhitecture consulting, to new age battery storage, smart grid stuff, efficiency software, New Resource Bank (which is exploding with business during this banking crisis… lol gotta love it!) and sooo much more. You had builders, utility reps, entrepreneurs, mad scientists, engineers, and everyone was so open and loving and connecting. I was blown away… it took me 3 full days to digest it all.

There were also brilliant seminars and panels, the best one for me being the State of Investing in Clean Tech, where partners from KPCB, Foundation, Sigma, and DFJ (all the big Menlo Park firms) talked about what companies they’re investing in and what technology is working… and yet something was different. These are VCs and of course money is there first concern, but with this clean green movement we are finally going to enter into a phase of social… or better yet eco-capitalism… where we benefit the environment and the social welfare of all while making a shitload of money and creating a shitload of jobs. This is an unprecendented opportunity in economic human history. Create a concentrically cyclical supply chain and pass the prosperity around the world. I was inspired by the VCs stories of how they’re going green in their own lives and their deep personal commitment.

A few themes from the conference to leave you with:

1) Nature to the grid baby – energy, health, architecture

2) Ecology + Economics = Sustainability (Eco-Capitalism)

3) Sky power will fuel the earth

4) The only thing special about humans is our foresight… our ability to see and shape the future. So lets use it.

5) A new connected conciousness is emerging that will limit the individual ego that has evolved and scorched our earth with fragmented, disjointed, greedy agendas. The only chance at eternal life is if we live together as one.

6) Be the change you want to see in the world!

In my humble opinion, these are unprecedented and magical times in the history of our race and our planet. There’s no better place to be then right here, and right now.

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Being involved in lifestyle marketing really has its perks. When GrapeThinking was in its infancy, and the only client was Tastevine.com, it was really easy to mix business and pleasure. As a group of Millennials passionate about promoting things that bring people together, we didn’t find it too demanding to travel to major cities and throw parties promoting particular wines, and of course, the Tastevine wine community.

As the “tech” guy, my traveling is not quite as adventurous as say Ruarri’s travels to Morroco, or Meghan’s trip Paris, but I do get a chance here and there, and I always try to make the best of it. Apparently, I’m starting a tradition of going to a concert/music festival to complement my business trips.

Late last year, while traveling in Chicago for a meeting with the Dead Grapes Society (an awesome group of wine-lovers), I discovered Lalapalooza was the same night/weekend. After talking with a few of the locals, I found my way to Grant Park, and was just in time to see The Black Keyes, and the last show of the night, Ben Harper, where Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam made a guest appearance.

I’ve always wanted to see Radiohead. They are a band reveled as the modern-day Beatles, and they are currently making their way around the globe on their World Tour… Atlanta being the stop this past Thursday night. Being in town for several business meetings, I called on some friends to see what they were doing, and as would be expected, all of my friends were on their way to the show. After a quick call to Ticketmaster, I was relieved in knowing I could buy a ticket at the gate as there were plenty, and join my friends for what I was sure would be an awesome experience.

This is where it gets interesting. I make it to HiFi Buys (Lakewood) Amphitheater, and am informed the tickets are sold out… WHAT? After a moment shock, the guy behind the counter tells me he does have just one more. I quickly pay for the ticket and rush to the gate where I’m informed that my freshly purchased ticket has already been used… WHAT? Back to the counter I go, where the guy who sold me the ticket takes a highlighter and writes OK on it. Back to the gate, and without hesitation, they let me in.

Once inside, I navigate to where my friends are sitting, and they “sneak” me into the seats of the Amphitheater with them. After catching up, I proceed to tell them the story about my ticket being OK, at which point I pull out the ticket and show them. A few seconds later, we discover that the ticket I am holding is not the Lawn Ticket I assumed, but rather a front row ticket… WHAT?

Needless to say, I ended up not only getting to see Radiohead, but I was able to live the experience from the front row with a $66 ticket.

If you read this post, and you are wondering who Radiohead is, you can listen check out some of their music on the Amazon API widget to the left. Amazon just released the ability to embed a widget that plays mp3 clips, and what a great opp to try it out. (sorry, the tech geek has to come out somewhere)

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Now this story struck a chord with me because from time to time in a winocentric situation people may sidle up to me and ask in hushed tones how wine can smell of apples, or blood, or cigars, and essentially the ultimate question is ‘are people putting apples/ blood and sweat into the wine?’ Whilst making wine may be a lot of blood sweat and tears, it is only so in a metaphorical sense. One has to really sympathize with this question because people often speak with such authority about wine that it makes people scared to ask obvious questions. Essentially the MIT story just demonstrates that the aromas inherent to a plant are at a biological level – and in trying to find what we smell, we’re doing some detective like nose-work and trying to gain a greater understanding of what is in the glass. Part of the guess work done is in being able to come up with linguistic descriptors on which to hang your hat. So in essence – the linguistic descriptor used to describe e-coli is ‘shitty’ whist we use ‘minty’ to describe Wintergreen, and all that MIT has done is swap the shitty with the minty.

At this juncture I insert a widget from Last FM which contains music similar to that of Feist… because I’ve been reading a lot of reviews about her – and one of the great things about music journalism is the attempts to describe a musicians sound, or voice. Essentially how does one describe a medium in words that should ultimately be heard? Feist has alternately been described by various reviewers as either sounding like ‘carved steam‘ or ‘crushed mirrors in a satin bag‘ – now there’s nothing in Feist’s genetics that lends to sounding like crushed mirrors in a satin bag… but its a fan-fucking-tastic description that really opens her up to the imagination. In this vein one could describe Eddie Vedder as ‘rusted razor blades slicing sandstone’ even… and though you may not know what that means it certainly makes you want to listen. Together with online reviews and recommendations, you may perhaps want to listen to Feist – apps like Last FM will also tell you who else she sounds like. So if carved steam doesn’t help… if one perhaps said Regina Spektor meets Cat Power, that may be more helpful. Following that, you may also be interested to find out she plays with Broken Social Scene… and so on down the rabbit hole.

This is where wine and music meet – at the point where words fail us in personal, private internal experiences – and we sometimes have to turn to a reviewer to help us explain or to a friend to get recommendations of what else tastes similar. Grapethinking and its team are on a missions together with many other bloggers to help explain what wine and technology mean to young people, what it means to us, and how we’d like it to change. So if you ever come unstuck, and perhaps are lost for words to describe something or need a bottle of wine that tastes a certain way – then don’t be shy, and give us a shout…

Also – don’t forget its Mother’s Day… so if you haven’t got a gift and need an idea go to about.com

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2007 was a tremendous learning curve for us, and 2008 will be the year that our vision of millennial marketing comes to life and we look forward to sharing it with you all.

There’s quite a bit to catch up on from my side, seeing as I haven’t written a post in a while, but we have plenty time for that.

I’d like to introduce a friend of mine to you all, Meghan O’Malley. Meg has just moved to Paris and has agreed to write on our blog about her wine-centric experiences over there, so we’re very privileged to have her writing for us. I first met Meghan in Cape Town, whilst she was on a university exchange from New York. In fact, we first properly met on the Warwick Wine Estate for a tasting of their selection.

Since then, our friendship and wine have been inextricably linked, which makes for easy birthday shopping! Meg will probably be gracing us with her presence on a weekly basis, and when she leaves Paris will be spending a year in the Hamptons wielding her wine-knowledge on the power-set of New York, which I hope she’ll keep us in the loop on.

From my side, my weekly post is coming back into effect starting now so stay tuned. And, as has been the case for all of 2008 so far, Jake and Greg will continue to be part of our stellar line up.

ps. For those of you interested – I just got back from Morocco and if you’d like to check out my pics ->then here’s the link<- unfortunately, as Moroccos is under Sharia, there is no alcohol – so I drank a lot of coffee and virtually no wine…

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The Maitre D’, John Winterman, suggested a glass of Pierre Peters Blanc de Blanc NV Champagne.

Honestly, I had never heard of the producer, however, I certainly was comfortable accepting the recommendation. Boy, it did not disappoint. Actually, it was fabulous…the setting did not hurt either. Blanc de Blanc is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes. The bubbles in the glass were incredible….1000′s and 1000′s that never stopped. This was perfection in a glass…smooth, flavorful, clean, refreshing, with just a hint of that wonderful yeastiness that is so unique to Champagne…so very balanced. It was not cheap at $25 a glass; however, it was worth every penny. You will probably pay around $45 a bottle at retail. Special time, special moment, special wine…this is what life is about…creating special memories. Go out there and try new things…many times you will be very pleasantly surprised. By the way, the meatpacking district was a blast. A story about that later…

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Part 1 – The Pinotage Buzz
by
Peter F May

Kanonkop Estate’s 2004 Pinotage is causing an online buzz. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV opened a bottle in his vidcast (Episode 218) on South African wines. He was so impressed that he featured four bottles of it in the following episode to experience the differences that opening times and decanting made.

He first tasted the bottle he’d opened 24 hours earlier which he used in the previous vidcast. Then he compared two Kanonkop 2004′s that he had opened 5 hours previously; one had been decanted while the other had been left in the bottle. The fourth was opened on camera and tasted immediately.

Gary said “I like this wine, beautiful red cabbage profile, oil & vinegar & olives. Bananas are jumping, (I Iove bananas), structured like Bordeaux, terroir driven, this is essential class Pinotage. Comes from granite soil, you’re getting some of this. It’s really polished, but young, need another three years. Now getting dark liquorice flavour, gets olive & smoky on finish. I highly recommend it, I’m giving it 91 points. If you like extremely well polished and intriguing wines, seek this bottle out.”

The word ‘estate’ has a legal meaning in South Africa; it tells us this wine was made from grapes grown only in vineyards owned by and surrounding the winery. That it was made, matured and bottled in the winery.

Kanonkop is a well respected winery on the road to Paarl, just north of Stellenbosch. From the road its vineyards stretching back to a clump of trees in which is the winery. Behind and to the sides of the winery are low hills covered in vines. At the entrance is a cannon. For the name Kanonkop means Cannon Hill and refers to guns placed on hills in olden times that were fired when ships were seen along the coast to alert farmers to load up their wagons with produce to take to the harbour. Sailing ships travelling down around the southern tip of Africa would stop at the harbour to take on fresh meat, fruit, vegetables and water. And wine. The reason the Cape was settled in the mid 1600s was to provision ships and wine was first made there in 1659 because it was known that wine prevented scurvy among sailors.

Kanonkop Estate was established in 1910 and now is considered one of the ‘first growths’ of South Africa. It makes only red wines, and just four of them. A flagship Cabernet dominated Bordeaux blend named ‘Paul Sauer’ after the second owner, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, a 100% Pinotage and a second label named Kadette which is a varying blend of Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Up till 1973 Kanonkop, as with most other vineyards, sold its grape to co-operatives. Since first making its own wines 35 years ago there have been only four winemakers, owner Jannie Krige, Jan “Boland” Coetzee (now owner of Vriesenhof Winery), Beyers Truter (now owner of Beyerskloof) and since 2002 Abrie Beeslaw.

Peter F May is the founder of The Pinotage Club – www.pinotage.org – an international cyber-based fan club for wines made from the Pinotage variety. Peter was awarded Honorary Membership of the producers Pinotage Association in 2004 and was a judge at the annual Pinotage Top 10 Competition in 2004 and 2005. Peter is a wine writer, educator and author. His book ‘Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape – odd wines from around the world‘ was published in summer 2006.

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Few people understand how easy it is to make a really good casserole, put together a curry evening, whip up a quick stir-fry, bake good brownies or make a really wholesome stew. On top of that – with a good play list, an open bottle of wine and a friend or partner to assist the process – cooking is an enjoyable act in and of itself (just try avoid having more than a glass of wine before the guests arrive.) Emeril Lagasse, Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Rachael Ray and Nigella Lawson have all done an unbelievable job of making cooking reachable. But insofar as actually getting people to take an active part in their own culinary adventure, there’s no one more influential than a friend.

My personal journey began when a house-mate of mine, Tom, started dating a girl from Milan, Gracia at about the same time that I was collecting a lot of wine. Suddenly – our egg on toast kitchen was producing made from scratch Sicilian style pizza, Guinness and steak pies, pan seared tuna steaks in coriander and orange sauce, pin-wheal sandwiches, pasta cabonara, spinach and feta pastries (all accompanied by a killer wine)… and that was just on weak nights between the three of us. About once a month we’d invite friends and spend up to 4 hours preparing (in such cases you can have up to 3 glasses of wine before the guests come.)

Few people our age – unless married like myself, can afford to live on their own and so live with two or more people per house. And whilst many people will go to a restaurant and spend $40 a head – few of those same people would spend $80 on a week’s groceries and actually share in cooking fairly basic and highly satisfying dishes for the whole week, taking turns with a house mate. If anything cooking is the perfect occasion to have a glass of wine – as that’s where the fun with wine comes in. You’ll find me and other wine writers saying the wine smells like wild mushroom, papaya, apple, aniseed, rose petals, cinamon, spices or any other of a gallimaufry of flavors – and perhaps think to yourself ‘how do you know?’ Part of the answer (besides having done extensive wine education) is that I drink while I cook. So occasionally there are wild mushrooms at hand at the same time as I’m trying out a Pinot Noir and you happen to make the connection. Insofar as using descriptions like sweaty socks – well no one should battle to find those lying around from time to time.

Even better is taking a recipe recommended by a winery – and then drinking the wine together with it to see what they’re going on about. None of this has to be lame or pansy really, because if you put together a good meal – everyone will appreciate it. And if it burns – then you can always order pizza or Chinese, top up your wine glass, and try again next time.

By the way – to get started in looking for wine to go with your food, try the Beta version of the tasting tool on Tastevine – and to get some ideas for recipes here are a few sites I quite like, and will be reviewing in the next few weeks:

Holy Shiitake

Foodie Site

Better Baking

E-Gullet

Chocolate and Zuchini

Megnut

101 Recipes

That was the first item in the Scavenger Hunt, here is the next –> Gary Can Wine Nerd It All Day If You Want

Have Fun!!

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