Today’s announcement that Inertia has been developing a comprehensive free compliance tool for wineries is really fantastic news for the industry – and especially so for small producers. That Inertia is also opening the system up so that fulfillment houses (and even point of sales systems located in tasting rooms) can access and use the system is a remarkable and extremely smart move.

The cost and effort that goes into producing a full-fledged compliance engine is extremely high – Inertia cites a figure of $500,000 – but once in place the variable costs of adding new users is pretty close to 0 (though there are compliance upkeep costs, hardware, etc). Kudos to Paul and everyone at Inertia for recognizing that and using their position in the market to benefit not just themselves, but every winery looking to ship out of state in the entire industry.

And how exactly will Inertia benefit from just giving away a $500,000 product? I can think of a few ways. Besides the goodwill and excellent PR they’ll generate from this service, each winery they’re able convince to give their system a try, assuming the experience is a good one, will be much more likely to enter into a relationship with them. And while it remains to be seen exactly how easy the system will be for non-Inertia software to interact with (it should launch later this fall), judging from their press release they’ve made the system open and readily accessible.

If they’re able to capture a large portion of the compliance market, and given that the service is free and open I don’t see why they won’t, Inertia will be the straw that stirs the drink for a growing and extremely important part of the wine business: direct to consumer. Having access to that aggregate data will be very valuable, and I’m sure there are plenty of interesting ways to leverage it. There is real power in free.

The bottom line is: In the future if you want to know about direct, you’ll go to Inertia.

…is cooked wine. Yuk.

Jeff at Good Grape has an excellent post up today outlining the dangers of not being available to sign for your wine shipment when either UPS or Fedx attempts delivery. Many in the industry try and mitigate the dangers of having wine cooked in the back of a delivery truck by shipping during the cool fall and winter months, but Jeff offers up a good alternative suggestion: temperature sensitive stickers.

Basically if your wine shipment arrives with the sticker showing that extreme temps were experienced during shipping, you as a customer can reject the shipment.

It’s a novel idea, and certainly less expensive than some other solutions I’ve run across. Give the entire post a read here, and feel free to comment and let me know if this is something you would find useful.

So I haven’t been one of those early adopters of Twitter, the “micro blogging” service that took the tech nerd world by storm earlier this year.

Personally I happen to think that the fact that you’re “doing laundry right now, in one big load” is about as interesting as…well as interesting as talking about laundry.

However I’ve discovered a use for Twitter, and it also happens to be wine related so I thought I’d share.

Using a web app called Egorcast that mashes up Twitter with the stupendously awesome Jott, you can speed dial the free dictation service provided by Jott and have your words published via email to Twitter.

So the next time you are at a wine tasting event and want to share your notes with the world, you can just dial up Jott and have your words automagically published on Twitter or on your WordPress blog.

Here’s how (really simple):

1) Sign up with Jott (free).

2) Sign up with Twitter (free).

3) Sign up with Egorcast (free).

4) Dial up Jott from your cell phone and simply say your tasting note. Within 20 minutes some fine folks in India will transcribe your words into text and email them to you and Egorcast, which will then forward the message to Twitter.

All in all, a pretty cool way to capture your tasting notes on the go.

And for more info on Twitter and wine, be sure to check out Tim at Winecast’s recent post on the subject.

At least according to David Stipp in his article on Christoph Westphal and David Sinclair’s biotech start-up Sirtris. I can tell you I’m a believer. I’ve been taking resveratrol for the past two months and, coupled with a decent diet (which of course confounds resveratrol’s efficacy) I’ve lost over 20 pounds. Anecdotal evidence is all we have at this point unfortunately, but soon we may have much more.

Here are a couple clips from the three page Fortune article to wet your whistle:

…if it succeeds, its medicines may retard the onset or progression of a whole slew of age-related diseases, from diabetes to Alzheimer’s to cancer. The drugs may also have an extremely provocative side effect: They might extend life span. You have to go back to the advent of antibiotics in the first half of the 20th century to find such broad therapeutic potential.

And my favorite part of the article comes in the last graph.

When asked about it, though, he suddenly reverts to vortex-avoidance mode: “part of my job is to calm people down,” he says. “You have to remember, most things in biotech don’t work.”

Sobering words – especially for us hopeful resveratrol watchers of a certain age. But here’s an antidote: pour a glass of pinot noir, and while imbibing, step back and regard the big picture. Humanity has dreamed for millennia of medicines that extend life span. Sirtris may not fulfill the dream. But the company’s very existence shows that the quest for compounds that slow aging has been transformed from sorcery into the fairly routine process of pharmaceutical development. Thus, the dream is likely to be realized within, at most, a few decades. The question now is when, not if.

Excellent advice. Nothing pairs as well with immortality as a nice glass of pinot.

(Hat tip: Dad, who pointed out the article.)

I was reading a post over at Winecast where Tim was lamenting the lack of Wine 2.0 posts. This, then, is my contribution.

For me Wine 2.0 really was just a fun way to put a face to a stream of online text. For instance, I got to look El Jefe of Twisted Oak in the eye and verify that he is indeed quite insane. El Jefe graciously afforded me the opportunity to taste his good stuff, and since I’m not one to turn down a quick *%#&@! I happily partook. Later I was able to shake hands with Jeff from Good Grape and Inertia, met and chatted with Jason of Wine Log, and ran into old acquaintances from high school like Tom Traverso, the Marketing Manager at Wine.com.

Honestly there was nothing really “new” or novel to come out of the Wine 2.0 shin-dig, at least if you’ve been paying close attention to the industry. Now that’s not to say it wasn’t great fun and worthwhile. It was. But instead of a showcase of winery tech, Wine 2.0 was an interesting forum to network and to turn virtual relationships into more substantial “meat-space” ones. (Seeing the Wine Pod in person was pretty cool though. God help you if you want to try and make a white in it though.)

One of the best things to come from the conference was a talk I had with John Plevyak, a principal at Metaversatility, and the guy doing the coding on our Second Life vineyard project. The highest praise I can give is that John is a true wine geek (I’m into him for at least a case of wine already).

My main reason for pushing to get Capozzi into Second Life is to expand brand awareness by giving one of our target demographics a novel experience. I admit I also just wanted to be first, to do something no one else in the wine industry had done before. There are only so many firsts to be had out there and trailblazing a path is something that inspires and energizes me. But finally there’s also the feeling I share with John that 3D environments are the Next Big Thing to hit the internets, and I want to get on board that train early.

John thinks that the future will include an internet of open 3D environments that internet users will surf to much as they do web pages now. Imagine a 3D Myspace where you can check out your friends’ homes, flip through and listen to their music collection, watch video etc. As people get more and more comfortable creating stuff in 3D, and as the tools to do so get easier and easier to use, people will be slapping up virtual 3D spaces just like they do blogs right now.

From my point of view, the potential for turning such an environment into a place to better interact with customers, sell wine and provide an interesting and unique level of service intrigues me. And right now Second Life is the best place to cut my teeth exploring such an environment.

So there we are. If you’re not bored to tears yet and feel like reading some really dense technology prose, go check out The Next Big Thing. It explains how the web as we know it came to be and provides one possible roadmap for where it will eventually head. Interestingly John, who hadn’t read this article when we talked, came to many of the same conclusions. Give it a read and on the way you’ll gain a better understanding of what drives the excitement behind Second Life development – if you can manage to stay awake.

Last May I wrote about the very interesting work of a UCD grad student named Kirsten Skogerson. This week she and Dr. Roger Boulton released a spreadsheet with their predictive model baked in. In essence the model promises to allow rapid analysis of phenolics such as tannins and anthocyanins (red and purple pigments responsible for color in red wine) without having to go through some of the more difficult assays required to obtain such measurements.

The model itself is still in it’s early stages yet, but as I wrote back in May:

Having this information helps a winemaker know, for example, when to press down their wine, and can give a good indication of overall quality by comparison to samples of former vintages of known quality…

The bottom line for a winemaker is that with this method he could begin to compile a database of his wine profiles via UV-Vis spectroscopy, use a modified version of Skogerson’s system to create a predictive model based on past vintages, and ultimately use the information to help aid in winemaking decisions. The results should be more consistent and higher quality wine.

If you are interested in winemaking and have access to a spectrophotometer (wait! where are you all going?), this is a pretty cool tool. You can read more on Dr. Boulton’s website where you can download Skogerson’s powerpoint slides from the presentation last May, as well as download the spreadsheet.

I was going to wait a bit until we were completely set up, but Second Life has been in the news quite a bit today so I figured now was as good a time as any to unveil our plans for a winery in the virtual space known as Second Life.

While we won’t be the first Second Life winery (that distinction goes to the appropriately named Obscure Winery), we will be the first Real Life winery in the space (if you call a vineyard and a set of building plans a “Real Life winery”).

While one of my goals in undertaking this project is to generate awareness of our brand, we aren’t simply recreating our vineyard and proposed winery in a virtual space. Lots of companies are doing just that (Sony, Adidas, American Apparel, Cnet, etc) and the people who frequent Second Life usually respond with a collective shrug of the shoulders. I want to make something a bit more remarkable.

There will be a scale model of our winery on display on our island that will be open for comment, a tasting room for avatars (the digital representation of yourself you take into Second Life) where you can buy and drink wine (with entertaining results – though not the kind you might be thinking) as well as purchase branded clothing, all using the Second Life currency. But best of all we will have a series of kiosks/simulations that will guide visitors through an interactive wine making process.

The wine making simulator is something I’m very excited about. Basically what you will do is walk or ride out into the vineyard on an ATV, pick some grapes (make sure they are ripe!), de-stem and sort them and then take them to a fermentor and pick a yeast to inoculate the grapes with (there will be a few to chose from, some more appropriate than others). The process will continue through barreling and bottling and at the end the visitor will be furnished with a case of their wine. As an added twist, the wine will receive a “Farker rating” from 50-100 based on the choices made during the wine production. It should be interesting, educational and hopefully compelling.

Our Second Life architect’s name is Chip Poutine. Chip is an accomplished Real Life architect and teaches 3D modeling, CAD, and architectural design to grad students at the University of Calgary. He also writes a blog critiquing and commenting on architecture in Second Life called Virtual Suburbia.

We’ll be starting a new blog dedicated specifically to this project soon and I’ll be sure to post as things progress, but for now I’ll leave you with a few links on what Second Life is and the marketing opportunities that the space is affording businesses.

Reuters opens virtual news bureau in Second Life

Wired Magazine’s Guide to Second Life

Businesses find real opportunity in the virtual world of Second Life

Corporate culture booms in Second Life

Canvas Ranch in Petaluma is offering a novel solution to the problem of high labor costs, labor shortage and the desire to grow wine grapes organically. Babydoll Sheep.

The sheep are a great deal at $2000 per, and the benefits of having a couple 24 inch, cloven hoofed walking weed eaters appear to be numerous. From an LA times article on Clos Pepe’s use of the sheep:

If they work out, Pepe would be able to avoid farm chemicals, slash weeding bills and improve his soil.

The sheep have voracious appetites for weeds, but they aren’t quite tall enough to reach fruit on trellised grape vines. Looking like muddy cotton balls as they forage on Pepe’s Santa Rita Hills farm, the sheep feel like damp, dirty sweaters.

… There are other benefits. Miniature animals come with miniature hooves, which are easier on the soil than tractors or even a farmworker’s boots.

Their droppings appear to help the soil stay fertilized, which is nice.

According to the Canvas Ranch website, the Babydoll sheep are the ancestors of the larger and more common Southdown sheep which are much larger. Apparently the babydoll were thought to have been bred out of existence. Just recently (1990) a small flock of the little guys was found in England and they are the parents of the flock being raised at Canvas.

Unexpected bonus: their wool is actually quite fine. It’s in the same class as cashmere:

Miniature Southdowns are usually white; however, there are also black (or brown) ones. They are easy to handle and are not aggressive. They are not wanderers and do not bother fences. Ewes are good mothers and often have twins and occasionally triplets…Their wool is short stapled and fine with a 19-22 micron count, which puts it in the class of cashmere.

We have a small herd of meat goats up at Hat Creek and I think we’ll take a nice long look at Babydolls as an alternative to other expensive weeding options. True organic farming is certainly an aspiration of ours (though we aren’t concerned with getting certified) and this looks like a great fit.

Besides, I just like the idea of having a few dusty, dirty midget sheep wandering the vines with me as I walk the vineyard.

I just hope our Labrador Chai doesn’t get too jealous…

Ross Halleck, a newer and well regarded Pinot producer who works with Russian River Valley grapes, is inviting anyone with some cash to spare to invest in his winery. He’s attempting to raise $25,000 in cash to fund their expansion from a few hundred cases to around 1500. I’d say more, but Halleck does a good job of hyping this interesting initiative. After all, his day job is as a marketer.

There has never been anything like it available before. Halleck Vineyard is participating in a revolutionary concept in micro-lending through a web site called Prosper (www.prosper.com).

Halleck Vineyard is reaching out to the community to borrow $25,000 to support our growth. As you know, we have ramped up tremendously in the past few years. In 2003, we released our 2002 wines of only 189 cases. This year, 2006, we are releasing over 1,500 cases.

…banks will not finance the future. They only look to the past and loan against performance and current inventory.

This is a very cool idea, though I wonder how successful it will ultimately be. I think that it stands a chance, ala the million dollar home page, to create buzz and attract attention and through that attention attract some dollars. However success largely relies on if the idea goes viral and spreads throughout the web.

I wish Ross the best of luck with his venture. Have a look if you have some Benjamins that you’d like to invest burning a hole in your pocket. Sadly for other wineries looking for some extra funding, I don’t think that this is a strategy that will be very effective the second time around.

Just like the million dollar homepage.

The fine folks over at the Trellis Alliance have released a new series of lectures from the June Grapevine Clean Plant Workshop. They are using a Macromedia product called Breeze that allows you to view the slide, the lecturer and to hear the audio all on the same page. It is very cool tech and makes viewing the lectures almost as good as being there.

The most accessible presentation for a general audience is the talk on Ampelography by Andy Walker. In it he talks about how scientists as well as nurserymen and women go about identifying cultivars (vine varieties) and also gives an overview of the “microsatellite” or DNA identification methods now in use to do the same.

Interestingly, the learned folk at Davis are still unable to genetically identify clonal variations among a variety. Currently DNA is only useful for identifying varieties in the broadest sense. For example, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Gris, since they are all the same variety, will be indistinguishable from each other using the current techniques. DNA chains are complex and the identifying markers are so randomly distributed that DNA ID becomes impractical.

You can check out the presentation yourself here. Dr. Walker has a winning style and is a pleasure to watch, but you need to be a pretty uber wine geek to sit through much past the first half. Still it is nice to know that the information is out there for the taking – and free! – if you want it.