Image by Jonathon Mak

John Williams of Frog’s Leap was recently profiled in the Atlantic, a relatively respected journal of our times. John is a fantastic winemaker, and he lives his green ethos like no one else in Napa, and perhaps in the entire industry.

Yet even he finds himself getting annoyed by the questions from Atlantic environmental-advocate-cum-journalist Mark Hertsgaard.

…[D]espite his environmental fervor, Williams dismisses questions about preparing Frog’s Leap for the impacts of climate change. “We have no idea what effects global warming will have on the conditions that affect Napa Valley wines, so to prepare for those changes seems to me to be whistling past the cemetery,” he says, a note of irritation in his voice. “All I know is, there are things I can do to stop, or at least slow down, global warming, and those are things I should do.”

This, surely, is not the pull quote Hertsgaard was looking for when he pitched his editor at Atlantic on a trip to Napa for a story confirming the dire consequences of global warming for “every business on earth.”

Still, Hertsgaard, in need of fodder to pimp his new book and thoroughly committed to his viewpoint after 20 years of global warming activism, soldiers on.

If you can get past the head-slappingly obvious title and the breathtakingly cliche use of “the Roman” bon mot in vino veritas, you will be rewarded with…Armageddon. Natch. Remember, there is a book to be sold.

We begin:

the ski industry — which appears doomed in its current form — is more visibly targeted by the hot, erratic weather that lies in store over the next 50 years. In France, the rise in temperatures may render the Champagne region too hot to produce fine champagne. The same is true for the legendary reds of Châteauneuf du Pape, where the stony white soil’s ability to retain heat, once considered a virtue, may now become a curse. The world’s other major wine-producing regions — California, Italy, Spain, Australia — are also at risk.

Too hot to produce fine Champagne? We grow some delicious pinot for sparkling wines in the Russian River, where the climate is hotter than Champagne. It goes into Gloria Ferrer’s high end Brut Rose. Delicious, fine stuff.

CdP cursed? The warmer it gets, the higher the points. 100 points, bro! I’ll take some of that curse please.

Hertsgaard even acknowledges that during the Medieval warm period the folks in England were making sparkling wines (don’t call it Champagne, Mark). He is also implicitly acknowledging that the current warming is not at all unprecedented in the history of wine growing, which is quite an admission.

Does he not realize that “recent trends” are not statistically significantly warmer? Or that, depending on where you pick your start date, there has been a recent global cooling trend?

Details, details.

The truth is that CO2 is good for plants. The truth is that warmer temps are good for both plants and humans. Every major leap in both agriculture and human culture has coincided with some form of global warming. Indeed, it is much preferable to be warm than to be too cold.

And the truth is winegrowers and winemakers know it. Consider this quote from the article:

Pancho Campo, the founder and president of the Wine Academy of Spain, says “They are getting almost perfect ripeness every year now for Tempranillo. This makes the winemakers say, ‘Who cares about climate change? We are getting perfect vintages.’ The same thing has happened in Bordeaux. It is very difficult to tell someone, ‘This is only going to be the case for another few years.’”

Winemakers know. They know! These are boom times for wine quality, and it is undeniable.

Still, folks like Pancho Campo feel the need to piss on the parade by declaring the party will soon end. Only the case for another few years? Based on what evidence? The recent cooling trend? Or the climate models that don’t account for solar cycles, ocean oscillations, clouds, and water vapor?

No one I know of denies that there is warming. Not one AGW skeptic, not even the frothing right-wing nut jobs.

What is in violent dispute among researchers, however, is the cause of the warming (some combination of anthropogenic and natural causes) and whether or not the current warming is unprecedented.

Moreover, even assuming there is a cause for alarm, doomsday deadlines for adaptation and change have come and gone repeatedly. Based on the climate models we are already too far gone to make an impactful change on CO2 emissions.

Thankfully, research shows that CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere trails global warming, not the other way around. You read that right: warming occurs first, CO2 increases second.

And yet:

White wine may well disappear from some regions. Climate-sensitive reds such as pinot noir are also in trouble. It’s not too late for winemakers to save themselves through adaptation. But it’s disconcerting to see so much dawdling in an industry with so much incentive to act. If winemakers aren’t motivated to adapt to climate change, what businesses will be?

What incentive to act, precisely? At our vineyard we’ve gone through 3 consecutive years with losses due to late season frost. The land we purchased up north in anticipation of future warming years ago is un-plantable due to the chilly conditions. Temp logs show no warming. In fact they show cooling. I welcome warming.

Every incentive is to welcome warming. We’re talking easier growing periods, higher yields where appropriate, riper fruit, higher scores, more sales.

This isn’t rocket surgery. And consider the alternative.

Going green did make the renovation cost 30 percent more, Lageder says

Going green, in this context, is madness. In this economy there is no money to spend on speculative hand waving. Conserving resources is a laudable goal (the recycling, responsible water use, less reliance on fossil fuels), but investing in wind turbines and huge solar arrays simply isn’t feasible economically. I do not have 30%. I don’t know anyone who does right now.

“Most of us are not very good at recognizing our risks until we are hit by them,” explains Chris West, the director of the UK government’s Climate Impact Program. “People who run companies are no different.” Before joining UKCIP in 1999, West had spent most of his career working to protect endangered species. Now, the species he is trying to save is his own

*Sad trombone*

Who is this Chris West? Dear Lord, the man is daft. And a bureaucrat. But I repeat myself. Business owners make their money based on risk!

Entrepreneurs are paid because they actively seek out risk where others fear to tread. They capture economic surplus based on risk. They are paid when their risky activities succeed.

Sheer pablum, and a fitting end to a flacid and inane bit of environmental journalism.

Wine and baseball are intertwined in the best of ways. Both the growing season and the playing season overlap almost perfectly. Pitchers and catchers report in February, foreshadowing the beginning of spring training. In the vineyard we prune and train our vines in February in anticipation of spring.

Play begins in earnest in April, and hope is in the heart of every fan for the possibilities of a great season. Bud break and initial vine growth occur with the crack of the first bat.

Early season injuries can devastate a team (~cough~ Jose Reyes ~cough~) just as easily as early season frost can decimate a vineyard.

In September and October the seasons wind down and the harvest and playoffs begin amid frantic activity and excitement. A winner is crowned as baby wines are barreled down for the winter.

And when it’s all over and the last leaves fall from the vine, we’re eager to sit down, reflect on the past season and begin looking forward to the new.

I love baseball.

Each year, in the quiet period after crush has ended and before the work of growing begins anew, I take a few weeks to work on a project that both interests me and expands my skill set. 4 years ago, along with my family, I decided to start building a winery. Last year I wrote a desktop database client and a companion iPhone app for the winery (BTW, here’re my thoughts on the recently announced iPad).

This year my mind turned to baseball. For my wine geek friends who aren’t into baseball ( but should be) you can click away now. It’s about to become a baseball stat geekatorium up in here.

Basically I said to myself, “self, you’ve always wanted your own baseball stats database, and a pretty way to access it. You also need to get a deeper understanding of mySQL and php for projects like Help a Winery Out. Why not do that for your yearly project?” To which I replied, “hell yeah.”

There are so many incredible resources out there for the baseball fan with some technical chops, it’s breathtaking. Retrosheet, for instance, is a complete record of every play made in every game stretching back to the 50s, and they are adding more historical data each year. And it’s completely free. Truly remarkable.

So I downloaded the sucker and got to work building a cool way to interface it.

Now, dear reader, if you count yourself as one of those baseball purists who don’t sugar the whole fantasy baseball thing, you may want to click away at this point as well. That should leave under ten interested readers. Excellent! You are my peeps.

Here’s what I built. It’s called Rotobase. Like Fangraphs but for fantasy baseball nuts.

I think I do these projects now as a reaction to being unable to complete my winery project. I feel a very pressing need to complete *something* and “ship” it each year, even if it isn’t a bottle of wine.

Happily next year will be different. Bottles of wine will finally ship. Which makes me wonder if my desire to do these projects will ship with them.

For now I’ll be competing in the NFBC Auction (nationwide high stakes league) in Vegas in March and using this tool to aid me in my research.

Wish me luck!

Fair use is made of cropped copy of a photo appearing on Uncork for a Cause

A little over 4 years ago (November 18th 2005 to be exact) I wrote the following:

Welcome to pintoblogger.com, a blog I’ve created to outline the long and painful processes involved in starting and building a family winery in the Russian River Valley.

I’ll be honest, just typing the words above was daunting. I have no illusions that the project will be either quick or painless, but, as they say, nothing worth doing ever is. How bad can things really get when you’ve got the opportunity to build something you are truly passionate about anyway? I guess we’ll find out!

Maybe I’ll look back on this blog three years from now shocked at my own naivety. Maybe I’ll be a shattered man, broken on the rocks of eno-commerce. Or maybe we’ll have made some great, distinctive wine we’ll be proud to call our own. Either way it shakes out, it should be interesting to read.

Well it’s been over three years and I still don’t have any wine to sell (though I have plenty to drink). The length of gestation of this project hasn’t come as any surprise to me, as my initial post shows, but I have been at times perplexed and disappointed at the twists and turns the saga has taken.

In 2007 we were to crush at Vinify which, if it had actually occurred (botched compliance paperwork by our consultant torpedoed the deal), would have meant that our inaugural release would have been this year. This was disappointing at the time, but in hindsight perhaps it was a blessing. Clearly 2009 was not a good year to spring a new luxury Pinot on the market.

In 2008, licking our wounds, we decided that we would start construction on our winery ahead of launching the brand in the marketplace. It was a bold move, but the numbers panned out even at very small production levels (we happen to have some good construction industry connections). While our banker was skeptical, he seemed to be willing to move forward based on both a strong marketing and business plan and some really novel ideas about how to get the wine into the hands of consumers. Indeed, my current biz plan still calls for a completely revolutionary way of looking at tasting rooms. I’m very excited to put it into action.

But then the great crash happened, banks became saddled with illiquid debt, became horrifically risk averse, and we became less attractive as a result of our own financial issues. Yuk.

So, back to square one. Custom crush. Pragmatic, but constraining. Such is life.

Luckily I’m being assisted by a good friend and will have a small amount of wine coming to market next year.

Through the entire roller-coaster ride, this blog and the folks I’ve met through it (and via Twitter) have been a constant source of encouragement. Pinotblogger has opened many doors for me both professionally and personally, I’ve contributed to textbooks on wine marketing, speak regularly at universities, was approached by a literary agent (Candace Bushnell’s no less) about turning our story into a book, and our mailing list is approaching 1700 people. Good times.

I regret not one day. Not one. It’s been quite a ride, and I can’t wait to see how the first act of this play ends. Even if it takes another four years!

Thanks for reading, for your continued support, and for joining me on the journey. I’ve got mad love for you.

Photo by farleyj

Shit-de-merde! This wine is all Brett, all the time. Unless you have an aversion to the flavors and aromas of actual wine, it is best to stay away. Only the most jaded fruit and floral aroma haters need apply.

Based on this one dimensional sensory profile I guessed France, and from there the Rhone.

I was half right. To find out which famed producer made such a wine, click here.

Ms. Farrah,

I thought you should know that I just finished reading Tom Wark’s recent post on your unconscionable support of HB6644 late last year. This was a bill that, as far as I am able to discern, was almost completely anti-consumer and anti-competitive, benefitting only the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers.

That you counted the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association as your single largest contributor; that you rammed the legislation through committee in a single day; that you introduced and sponsored the legislation at the end of your last term; and that after exiting the legislature you went on to become a lobbyist representing the very same wholesalers absolutely reeks of back-door dealing, sleaze, graft and corruption.

I’m a fairly cynical person. I thought I was beyond being offended by the depths to which corrupt lawmakers like yourself would stoop to return campaign favors and contributions. I was wrong.

Your utter lack of integrity during your tenure as a legislator has opened up new frontiers of indignation and disgust for me, and for many others. This will be your legacy. One feathered with the fetid stain of sweaty cash and framed by the formless black abyss of your conscience. A fornicatorium of malfeasance and dishonor.

What a sad, sorry waste.

Sincerely,

Josh Hermsmeyer

Photo by gruntzooki

After reading the latest issue of Practical Winery & Vineyard and seeing the term “trading down” misused by an un-named CEO no less than three times in one paragraph, I wanted to gouge my eyes out with my Dixon Ticonderoga 1388.

Stop using it. Just stop. Saying that consumers are “trading down” right now betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what the entire “Trading Up” phenomena actually was. Silverstein, Fiske and Butman deserve better!

Here is the authors’ own definition of the term (emphasis mine):

“consumers who selectively trade up to better products and trade down to pay for other premium purchases“.

Consumers aren’t spending less on wine right now so they can pocket the savings and spend it on another luxury good. They are cutting back across the board. The economy sucks, and this happens every time we have a recession. We don’t need a hip new term to describe it.

Moreover, by using the term trading down, you show just how little you understood the forces that drove the massive shift to luxury that occurred during the 5 years leading up to the recession.

You come off like a parent trying to score street cred with their punk rock loving teenage son by telling him about how you and his mother totally used to rock out at the James Taylor concerts.

The sad thing is this CEO is not alone. People seem to think they can absorb important marketing concepts simply by osmosis.

Not true. You have to put in the time and actually read the books. Reeks of effort, I know. But it’s better than looking like a complete tool.

Photo by JanneM

My second review starts with the following words:

A gorgeous dry white that was so aromatic and balanced that I thought it was an excellent example of Gewurtztraminer from Alsace, one of my favorite wine regions.

Was I right? Click here to find out.

In my first lengthy missive on wine criticism, I went over the various flaws I see in the current system. In this post I’m going to outline a system that I believe takes the best of what has come before, and adds to it in innovative ways to create what I think is a more complete wine review. One, as I mentioned before, I’m certain that no one will ever use.

The Ãœber Wine Review System!

Points

The 100 point system is an elegant summation of a complex review process. Folks that don’t care, or that don’t have time for a lengthly review, can check a score and understand instantly whether a reviewer liked or disliked a certain wine.

But there are many problems. Most have been discussed nearly to death, but here is a short, and slightly redundant catalogue: points project a false sense of precision; there is a tendency toward grade inflation; only the 70-100 point range is actually used; there is no real difference between an 89 point wine and a 90 point wine. I’m sure there are other problems. All of this is trumped, however, by one overriding fact: consumers love points.

The Ãœber Wine Review system utilizes the 100 point system a little differently than most, and in doing so addresses at least some of the concerns critics of the system have.

1. Wines are graded in context. That is, they are graded according to their variety and their style. It doesn’t make sense that there are no 100 point Rosés in the world. They are a category unto themselves, and they deserve to be judged based on their particular merits. We don’t often compare a Honda and a Ferrari. Obviously, one is a sedan and the other is a sports car. They are designed for different purposes. They have different price points, and completely different customer bases. The same, I think, is true for wines.

One implication of this approach is that a wine in one category may get a higher score than a wine in a different category (a dry white versus a Pinot noir for instance), and yet the reviewer (me) may prefer the lower scoring wine more. This is to be expected when wines are judged based on their relative merits instead of on an absolute scale.

2. Wines will get 50 points for showing up – remember the 100 point system is successful because it mirrors our educational grading system with which everyone is familiar – but every point of that remaining 50-100 range will be used. If a wine does poorly, if it has a flaw that isn’t a result of bottle variation but a macro-level winemaking practice or mistake, then it will be reflected in the score. Poor performers will be judged fairly so that the top performers will get the recognition that they deserve, free from accusations of grade inflation.

Summary Note

To accompany the score at the top of the review, there will be a summary paragraph outlining the sensory characteristics of the wine, as well as a note on what I guessed the wine was when tasting it double blind.
The benefit of having this all up top, at the beginning of the review, is so that casual wine drinkers can get in and get out with the information they need to make a purchase decision quickly and easily. Pretty standard stuff.

Regional Context and Producer Backstory

This will be the bulk of each review. Arguably the most interesting thing about wine isn’t what is in the bottle, it’s the stories of people who make, grow, and enjoy it. Alder at Vinography has perfected this aspect of wine criticism, combining excellent wine writing with his critiques. W. Blake Gray and Jancis Robinson also both give tremendous regional and producer context. Each review will strive to reach the bar set by these luminaries.

Double Blind Tasting Note

Double blind tasting means that the wine reviewer knows nothing about the wine in the glass in front of him except the color. In my case, Michael and Bill Traverso at Traverso’s in Santa Rosa pick the wines for me to review, my wife picks them up and serves them to me. I take notes and guess at the variety and region.

The goal of the double blind note isn’t to gauge a critic’s ability to correctly guess variety, producer or region. No one is very good at that game, not even the world’s best critics. Double blind tasting is used instead to remove any confirmation bias from the review and focus as much as possible on what is in the glass.

Double blind tasting is risky for reviewers. It puts them on the spot and a particularly poor guess might reflect poorly on their palate or wine knowledge. So be it. Reviewers shouldn’t be passive spectators in this game. They need to get on the field and play just like the producers and the consumers who are risking their hard-earned cash based solely on a reviewer’s recommendation.

To emphasize this sense of drama, each review will be linked to via a post teasing the sensory attributes of the wine tasted blind, along with the my guess as to the variety and region. Readers will have to click through to see if I was right (not likely) or wrong (quite likely). I’ll also keep a running tally of correct guesses in the sidebar of the blog as a goof.

Scores for each wine are determined after the wine has been revealed.

Labs

Labs entail additional expense, require technical knowledge to interpret and do not explain why a wine is great.

Despite these shortcomings, labs do provide a crucial check on both the reviewer’s palate and the producer’s stated claims about alcohol and other properties that influence the taste of a wine. Wines that lack balance and wines with faults both benefit from an analysis of their chemical properties. Best of all, the data obtained are objective, which is a nice addition to an otherwise completely subjective exercise.

Frankly, that this basic level of fact-checking doesn’t take place is astonishing for a $250 billion global industry.

In Page Contextual Pop-Ups

Each review is sprinkled with pop-up links to wikipedia articles on technical aspects of wines, wine regions and wine varieties to give extra context for readers who wish to learn more. Best of all, the reader never has to leave the review to do so.

Gorgeous Creative Commons Photography

Flickr and the internet in general is rich with great creative commons photography. It would be a shame not to take advantage of it.

Sound good? Cool. My latest review is here.

My PalatePress.com article on Brett in White Burgundy.

Funky intro music by indie band Binaerpilot, Destroy the Popollution. Used with permission.

Caddyshack is © 1980 Orion Pictures Corporation.