Image by Jonathon Mak

It’s been a few years since Alice Feiring and I first met at the Healdsburg Wine Library where she read from her book, The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization.

Though I walked away from our encounter convinced she was misguided and hypocritical in her criticism of California wine (California Wines? Down the Drain), I found her to be “charming and sweet” and noted that “her writing is undeniably good”.

Since then she’s written a new book (that’s her Amazon code in the link – consider buying a copy to support the author!). It’s all about natural, naked wines and the producers who make them. I think it’s a good book, with a good heart.

I’m slightly embarrassed to note that she chose to use our years-old encounter as a way to open her narrative. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I end up wearing quite the black hat.

Here’s a snip:

“In the rear I recognized Patrick and his wife, Genevieve, from the blogger circuit. Friendly faces! They waved, and I waved back. Next to them was a serious, dark-haird man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Robert Parker’s Bitch.” He looked more as if he were there for a lynching than a book reading.”

She goes on to reveal that this dour figure is in fact me, your humble author, at the time a vintner awaiting my first harvest. She relates that I asked her if she regretted writing the op-ed. She said no (unsurprising) for the reason that “it got people talking” (very surprising). Then, in a clever turn, she not-so-subtly accuses me of sexist bullying – basically picking on the girl. Hello left field!

Now, to be candid, I’m fine with this portrayal. It’s spot on.

Well, almost. First, and most importantly, there is the undeniable fact that I’m rarely serious. Just ask Twitter.

Also, usually my wife does the bullying. But Alice claims to want a conversation with people whose wine she has universally panned. Well, when one says those types of things, I think a convo is well worth having – with a boy (Parker – see below and video) or a girl (my dear Alice). Let’s parley!

Then there’s the important fact that I wasn’t wearing the Parker’s Bitch shirt that night. In fact I’ve only rarely worn it in public. Once for this video with Tina Caputo of Vineyard and Winery Management (where I now write an ongoing column entitled Gear), and then later that day when I visited the CIA and tasted 2005 Bordeaux with Robert Parker (he did not comment, others chuckled).

Oh, also: I’m blonde-ish. Dishwater blonde I think it’s called. Because my head is the color of filthy water. But whatevs.

The real question: what to make of all the factual errors?

One is tempted to just chalk it all up to the haze of time. I was in a video wearing the shirt after all. Things could get muddled. Details fade, like photos of the vineyards at Domain Leroy left too long on a South-facing sill. After a while all that’s left is the visceral, emotional memory of what must have been discomfiting moment in the life of Alice. Perhaps she just misremembered.

Yeah, unfortunately, not the case in this instance. In fact, she emailed me on April 13th of this year to fact check(!) things:

Subject: question for you

Hello Josh,

Hope all is well with you.
I am this second going over the final edits for my new book and you make a
cameo appearance in it.
But just rereading my material, I’ve written you were wearing that t-shirt,
Robert Parker’s Bitch that evening.
Could you confirm? Or at least say it was probably and if I include that
detail it won’t be problematic for you?
I can’t imagine where else I’d get it from but at this point 2008 seems
like ancient history.

Thanks very much,

Alice

My response was as follows:

Hi Alice,

Not sure about the particular circumstances of the meeting to which you are referring, but I certainly wore it on a video that made the rounds about that time. http://vimeo.com/3519159

Hope this helps!

Josh

And her final email on the matter read thusly:

It would have been to the reading I gave at the Library. It’s such a funny detail I am hoping it’s true. And it probably is….and as you’re telling me it could have been true, let’s leave it at that. I open the first chapter with that book tour and some of the reactions to that LAT editorial I wrote, so you’re cameo is when you put me on the spot about it, wearing that t-shirt, and then after the event when I asked Kevin H. who you were, and he told me and also told me you were a nice guy. It fits into the chapter well. So, there you go. Hope you don’t mind.

–Alice

Now, what does this all prove really? Does it speak to some greater issue with Alice’s credibility? Does it discount her portrayal of me somehow as “serious and angry” and itching for a lynching? Does it cast doubt on the verity of other aspects of her narrative?

Who can say, really?

Seriously though. What I can say is that I stand behind my original assessment of her answer to my question regarding her op-ed in the LA Times.

Over-the-top pronunciations that all (or nearly all) California wines are crap are the 100% new oak and 16% ABV of wine writing. Fudging facts are the velcorin, and misrepresenting events are the enzymes.

Alice and I happen to agree on wine styles, where we disagree is where we put the emphasis.

It all comes down to credibility; for winemakers sure, but also for authors and critics. If our wines in CA are inauthentic swill, Alice Feiring’s Mega Purple prose is as spoofulated as a magnum of [yellow tail] Shiraz.

I want my wine writing as naked as my wine. Or at the very least with pasties and a thong.

Remy Charest has a wonderful piece on Natural Wine over at Palate Press. A must read for some much needed balance on the issue of what is and is not “natural”.

My take: Making a wine without sulfur is crazy if you want consistency in your product. I’m not speaking of vintage to vintage consistency, I’m talking about bottle to bottle consistency from the same vintage. For those who make wine without sulfur and do it well, more power to them.

Where I have a problem is when reviewers and importers deign to instruct producers on how wine should be made. Just as there are no atheists in the foxhole, there are no real non-interventionest winemakers when you are staring down the barrel of a lost vintage. Happily this is a fact that Remy’s article makes perfectly clear.

My suggestion to those writers who feel that any wine not produced in a “natural” way is worthy only of a flush down the nearest latrine, is to take the time to verify that the wines you enjoy are actually as natural as the producers claim. That means testing them at a lab for, at the very least, free SO2. If you were a curious writer you could do more. It would be incredibly useful if natural wine advocates were able to properly ascertain where the nuances they enjoy emanate from.

Perhaps elevated amounts of volitile acidity are what you find enjoyable. Or, maybe, it’s the sometimes sweet and fruity aroma of ethyl acetate. Some folks might like a little red apple and sherry mixed in with their juice in the form of acetaldehyde. Perhaps it’s a mixture of all of the above and more; a wild cocktail of wine bug aromas.

A little independent testing would reveal what it is specifically about the natural wines they drink and recommend that they find so appealing. Because, and this is my real point, the only difference between a wine made with the addition of SO2 and one without is the elevated presence of various compounds that, in high enough concentrations, are considered wine faults.

Cowardly Wineries

Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington has decided to “stay neutral” on the controversial free market wine proposition I-1100 up for a vote in 2 weeks in Oregon. They happen to be the largest member of the Washington Wine Insititue, which is against the initiative for incomprehensible reasons. Incomprehensible, that is, based on their statements. Here’s their basic position:

If all the laws are crossed out,” Leonard said, “that would allow retailers to force wineries to pay for the best shelf space and for advertising and promotional materials. That will tip the scales against small wineries.”

Wineries currently face these same pressures via proxy from wholesalers. Producers are simply one relationship removed from doing anything about it. And that’s if they can even land a spot in a wholesaler’s catalogue. And that’s assuming that the wholesaler does anything at all to try and sell their wine.

My take: The only reason a winery would come out against a free and open market for wine is if they are cowards afraid to compete based on the talent of their people or the strength of their brand. If you are large, your relative strengths are going no where. Conversely, if you are a small producer in WA and I-1100 passed, your ability to make a dent in the market through your own efforts is limited only by your marketing ingenuity and brand equity.

The folks afraid to play the incentive game with all the cards on the table are dross that should be swept aside so that room for real entrepreneurs will emerge. Protectionism breeds incompetence, laziness, and cowardice. Harsh, but true.

Sadly I-1100 is polling at less than 50%, so it appears the meek will live to cower another day.

Soft-Boiled Hen Egg with Green Asparagus, Créme Fraîche Aux Fines Herbs, and Butter-Fried Croutons.

I decided that I would start this project of mine, cooking through Thomas Keller’s fantastic Under Pressure, with a simple recipe.

Simple and Keller? It’s all relative I guess.

Take the croutons for this dish, for instance. There are basically three components to the meal: 1. A créme fraîche sauce 2. the egg, and 3. Croutons. Simple.

But making the croutons requires baking a brioche, and that takes a bit of time and effort. Well, more than a bit. First you have to let the dough rest for three hours, fold out the bubbles and then you have to let it rest overnight. Then you bake it, leave it out for another day to dry, and then cut into cubes and fry them in butter. For croutons. Yay, effort!

Working on Technique

The results were fantastic though. And really that’s what’s so much fun about sous vide cooking combined with Keller. Sous vide allows the home cook to know ahead of time that their proteins and veggies (where applicable) will be cooked perfectly. With that little detail out of the way, you can concentrate instead on technique, on perfecting the craft of cooking that is usually lost in the hustle and bustle of making sure that the centerpiece of a dish is cooked properly.

Check out the yolk on this egg, for instance:

There was zero skill involved in getting the egg perfect, other than knowing how to tune my sous vide controller to keep a tight temp range. You just drop the egg in the water bath, set the temp, and 45 minutes to an hour later you have a perfect egg. Genius. I predict that in the very near future sous vide water baths will be standard issue in most kitchens.

One note on the temp called for by Keller however. He says to cook the egg at 62.5 C (144.5 F) to achieve an egg where “the white is quivering and velvety and the yolk is neither runny nor hard, but rather soft, creamy, and bright colored”. 144.5 simply does not produce an egg with those characteristics. I thought perhaps my controller wasn’t calibrated correctly, but after reviewing Doug Baldwin’s egg photos I realized that 144.5 wasn’t hot enough to properly congeal the egg yolk (see photo below).

I settled on 147 F to get the texture described in the text.

The other technique used in this recipe is what Keller calls “big pot blanching”. It’s similar to standard blanching with a couple twists, and Keller provides an excellent description of “the why” in this technique.

First Keller recommends a big pot so that when the veggies are added they don’t bring the temp below boiling. The enzymes that dull the color of green vegetables are active only at temps below boiling, so keeping the temprature constant ensures a bright green color.

Keller also recommends using a ton of salt – 190 grams per 4 liters of water (a digital scale is a necessity when cooking Keller). He claims this helps prevent pigments in the asparagus from leeching out, and the brackish water also seasons them as they cook.

Dunk the asparagus in ice water (must be over half ice) and the cooked tips will be good for up to a day. Good times.

Pinot Pairing

While the recipe I chose to start out with was relatively simple, pairing eggs and asparagus with a pinot was a bit more difficult. I think a fantastic rose of pinot like the Rose de Diel from Scholssgut Diel in the Nahe would be a killer pairing, but I didn’t have any on hand. With that pairing in mind I decided to pour some Gloria Ferrer blanc de noir sparkling. The combo was rockin’. The egg was smooth and custardy, the asparagus were slightly crisp and tender and well seasoned, and the slightly sour, slightly sweet creme and herbs sauce balanced everything out perfectly.

Mrs. Pinotblogger ate everything I gave her, so I think she approved too. It was a great little Wednesday meal – even if my prep for it began the prior Saturday. Damn you Keller!

But that’s not even the best of it!

At this point almost all foodies have likely seen Julie and Julia. The backstory, how the latter Julia cooked through Julia Child’s famous cookbook and blogged about it during the process, is well known. I’m going to do the same thing with Under Pressure by Thomas Keller.

I freely admit this exercise of mine is derivative. Someone has even cooked through Keller’s French Laundry cookbook, which many said would be impossible for a home cook. While this may not be new ground, it is fertile. Particularly for new-ish techniques like sous vide.

My interest in Keller’s Under Pressure stems from an extreme interest in Sous Vide, a type of cooking that uses controlled temperature water baths and vacuum sealed bags. I first stumbled across folks talking about the method in an eGullet thread. When Joan Roca’s book Sous Vide was translated into English around 2006 or 2007 I hunted it down and purchased it. Back then however, due to the laboratory quality of the equipment involved, it was a couple grand at least to get in the game.

Just under 2 years ago Keller and Michael Ruhlman came out with an update to The French Laundry Cookbook that showcased how Keller had incorporated sous vide techniques into many (most?) of his dishes (update: according to this interview with Saveur, Keller puts the percentage at 15-20%). It’s an incredible book; a master class in cooking. Still, the equipment costs and trade offs involved in using cheaper tools kept me from diving in.

When I Googled around about a month ago to check out the state of the scene I found everything had changed. There are now multiple vendors producing tools that make sous vide easy and relatively affordable. One of the most frequent posters on the eGullet thread, Douglas Baldwin, a grad student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, recently published a book of home recipes for Sous Vide cooking (And Baldwin’s primer on the method as well as safety guidelines is still among the most frequently read pieces of literature on sous vide on the net).

Before I begin cooking Keller, I’ll outline the best and most cost effective tools currently available.

Temperature Controlled Water Baths

The first item you’ll need, and the most important, is a PID temperature controller. In simple terms, the PID controller is able to do 2 things: ramp down the heat applied when a water bath approaches a set temperature (the P and I in PID), and respond appropriately with heat when a cold piece of food is added to the water (D). Taken together, these features allow a water bath to be kept in very precise ranges, which is very important for sous vide cooking.

PolyScience

When Sous Vide first started being used by folks in the pre-packaged meals industry, the tool of choice for cooking at precise temps was an immersion circulator like the ones made by PolyScience. Link.

Basically you sit one of these in a container (most Chefs use Cambro and Carlisle brand polycarbonate tanks), set a temp, plop in a bag of food and let it do its thing. It is the most precise tool on the market (it was designed for lab work) and is easy to use. PolyScience circulators are excellent tools, and I would one day love to own one, but at $1000.00 I just can’t justify the spend.

Sous Vide Supreme

Last year Eades Appliances introduced the Sous Vide Supreme, an all-in-one tank and controller that is plug and play. As a self contained housing it looks nicer on the counter.

At $450 it is half the cost of the PolyScience. A pretty good deal, but still not cheap. When you consider that you are stuck using just the 10L tank that comes as part of the unit itself, you are sacrificing plug and play convenience and looks for adaptability. Plus you are paying a premium for it.

Sous Vide Magic

The Sous Vide Magic has been around for quite a while, but the 4th generation version of the controller is by far the best. The manufacturer claims it can keep a bath at a set temp within a range of .1 degree C. In my experience such precision requires a bit if calibration, but it is attainable (you need a data logger and a temperature probe to properly calibrate each tank you plan on using).

Frank at Fresh Meal Solutions, the creator of the SV Magic, has done one thing amazingly well: he has kept the price of the controller reasonable. At $160.00 it is by far the best value. It is also extensible. You are not locked into a specific tank size, as I’ll show below.

This is the controller I ended up purchasing.

Water Tanks

A water tank can be anything from a plastic deli meat holder to a 5 gallon stock pot. The only limiting factor is if the PID controller is hard wired into a unit. Such is the case with the SV Supreme.

Rice cookers are often used as tanks because they have built in heating elements. I’m using a standard stock pot. The downside is that I have to calibrate the SV Magic for this particular pot, and any other pot I choose to use. The upside is I can use any size pot, up to 24 liters or so.

Heater

Fresh meal solutions sells a heating coupled with an air stone that you attach to an air pump to make sure the water is evenly heated.

I went with a cheaper alternative: I purchased a bucket heater off Amazon and used an Air Pump I had left over from an old aquarium and ran tubes down through this stainless steel plate (which also gives you a spot to put the SV Magic temp probe).

Vacuum Chamber or Sealer

By far the most expensive item when getting set up to do Sous Vide is a vacuum chamber. With a vacuum chamber you can seal items along with their marinade, you can compress watermelon and other fruits to create interesting new textures, and sealing a package that is entirely a liquid poses no problem.

The price for a vacuum chamber runs in the multiple thousands of dollars, so most home cooks use a Food Saver or the equivalent. You can get the latest model, a nice stainless steel upright version, for $134 plus shipping on newegg.com.

The work-around to using a vacuum sealer that can’t accommodate marinades and liquids is to use zip lock bags. You put the liquid or protein and marinade in a bowl of water and submerge it until you’ve forced out all the air, then seal it up. It works just about as well as the chamber method.

Conclusion

There are numerous ways to skin the sous vide equipment cat at the moment. There are also multiple price points to consider. What you get for your money is typically not better quality, however. Instead what you get is ease of use. If you aren’t the sort who likes fooling around with probes and settings, the SV Supreme is probably your best bet.

But for those like me that like to tweak and are willing to trade a little ease of use for extensibility and lower cost, the SV Magic can’t be beat.

Next time: I cook some food and drink some pinot!

And getting to Matos Cheese Factory is as much of an experience as eating it. Words don’t do it justice. The long driveway past the vines and the cows. The alarm that goes off as you enter the back door. The rows and rows of cheese wheels aging just past the front counter. So I made a video.

The only thing I can’t reproduce for you is the amazing smell of the aging cheese and, of course, the incredible taste. For that you’ll have to visit for yourself:

Matos Cheese

3669 Llano Rd

Santa Rosa CA 95407

In 2008 in Wine: A Global Business (Second Edition), I wrote the following about Facebook:

Currently wineries are having a difficult time determining how best to take advantage of this communications channel. It may well be that the best way to leverage social networks and the vast amounts of data contained in them will be in interpreting, rather than influencing, consumer preferences.”

That was 2 years ago. In the period since, Facebook has tried to address the problem that wineries and other businesses were facing. Namely, “How do we use Facebook to sell stuff?”

Facebook’s answer, in December 2009, was the following: “We will give you unfettered access to folks’ public and private information.”

While this doesn’t specifically answer the question of how to use people’s private information to sell them things, it does answer the question of what business Facebook is in, and how they plan to monetize their user base. Moreover, it makes crystal clear the types of tactics businesses will be required to engage in to try and leverage the “vast amounts of data.” With this out in the open, it is now incumbent on wineries and brands to decide if they want to engage with Facebook on these terms.

The answer for all wine brands, indeed all business who value the trust and loyalty they have cultivated in their customer base, must be a resounding “No.”

To see why, you don’t have to go much farther than the recent New York Times info-graphic visualizing the ways in which Facebook has made it nearly impossible for users to secure their private information from complete strangers and businesses. Incredibly, their privacy policy has quintupled in size in the past 6 years and is now longer then the U.S. Constitution.

The danger for wine brands in continuing to use Facebook as a sales and marketing channel are legion, but perhaps the most compelling reason is relationships.

Direct to consumer

Direct to consumer is now vital for the health and survival of even medium to large wine brands. This direct relationship is based on trust. While most users might not know it yet, Facebook is quickly taking on water. It is a sinking ship. Key influencers are deleting their accounts and the media, which loves to tear down that which it has built up, is quickly jumping on the bandwagon and beginning to dig in earnest.

Very soon it will become exceedingly clear that allowing random strangers, businesses, criminals and perverts to see photos of you that have been uploaded by “friends” without your consent, and who have then “tagged” you in them for anyone to find is a gross invasion of privacy. Indeed, there is only one set of people who stand to suffer more than Facebook after their ham-fisted and greedy attempt to monetize a service they don’t have the courage to charge access for: Companies.

The Bottom Line

Bottom line: Even if you never plan to advertise or otherwise leverage Facebook’s “social graph,” You do not want your brand tainted, even by association, by the sh*tstorm that is engulfing Facebook.

(You’ve heard about the movie, right?)

Many wineries and wine brands have been reluctant to embrace social media because they didn’t see the benefit. In short, they were risk averse.

I say unto you now, there can be no doubt that the risks of maintaining a presence on, and thus providing a tacit endorsement of, Facebook far outweigh any benefits you can possibly think to imagine. Act accordingly.

You can delete your Facebook account here: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account .

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.

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

Dear Candace,

We are very sad to bring this news to you today. Demand for Pigs & Pinot this year was incredibly high, so high in fact, that our technology server was not equipped to handle the volume of ticket purchases made on the website yesterday at 12PM. This resulted in six times the amount of tickets allocated for online purchases to actually process prior to the system showing ‘sold out’. Furthermore, the system failed to process credit card transactions because of this overload and consequently you were not charged for your tickets.

We regretfully inform you that your ticket purchase was processed after all of the Pigs & Pinot tickets were sold out. We’ve racked our brains on how to accommodate all of the extra ticket holders, but unfortunately there just isn’t enough event space to accommodate everyone this year. What this means is that we have to cancel your order for Pigs and Pinot 2010. Due to the processing error, your credit card was not charged, so no charges will appear on your credit card statement.

We understand what a disappointment this is and would like to offer you the first option to purchase two tickets for Pigs & Pinot 2011 when they become available later this year.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment this may have caused (we’re just as sad and disheartened as you are, trust us) and are available to take any questions or comments by phone at 707-431-2800.

There has been such an outpouring of support for Pigs & Pinot this year which we are incredibly grateful for as we continue our efforts to raise valuable funds for Share Our Strength, while highlighting exceptional local Sonoma County wine producers.

Regretfully,
The Pigs & Pinot team

My wife purchased tickets at the stroke of noon and received confirmation no less than a minute after the tix went on sale. We find it hard to believe we were somewhere in the back of the pack given the timing.

More likely is that they had no way of discerning who attempted to purchase what when. Technical difficulties tend to come in bunches. Ticket assignment was, apparently, completely arbitrary.

Moreover, the offer to purchase tickets for next year has to be one of the worst customer service moves they could have taken given the circumstances. This makes no one happy, is completely crass (locking in lost revenue a year in advance) and the math doesn’t even add up. If you have 6 times more demand than tickets this year, how can you possibly offer an early sale to everyone who was passed over? Silly and false.

I for one won’t be taking Charlie up on the offer.

A superior solution would be to simply add a scaled down tasting event to the schedule to accommodate the folks who were arbitrarily excluded through no fault of their own.

In a down economy, to experience demand like this is a terrific honor. You should do everything in your power to nurture it.

Instead, it’s more of the same from an industry that is utterly tone deaf when faced with success. The answer is not to enhance exclusivity, it is to do everything possible to be inclusive.

You won’t be getting a second chance with the majority of these folks, and this year’s success will likely not be replicated due to this abysmal customer service.

As an industry we can do better. Much better.