A Few Words From the Rapids

I am caught trying to work a couple of jobs now.  On the winery end I have some great help, but I need to take the time to teach what I do to others.  When they learn enough, I can hand off the responsibility for that project, but I still keep my thought and guidance close.  Having a business with your name on it and your fingerprints all over it makes it important to maintain standards.  I realize that the most important thing that I can do is to set a good example by leading well and training well. 
I have a new vineyard manager that I am training.  Although he has vineyard experience, there is always a lot to learn.  Teaching is another job many times.  He is smart enough that I can spend a few hours with him throughout the week and he can get the jobs done that I need.  I love the review at the end of the day when he asks me questions about what was observed during the work day.  These questions help me to be a better manager and to know my vineyard better.  I like to improve my standards regularly and I need to have the humility to answer those questions.  The questions can lead to changes in procedure that will improve quality or efficiency, or both.  You cannot make those improvements without humility.
My other job is the leadership of Piedmont Epicurean Arts Center( PEAC).  As this is a rapidly growing collaborative educational project, I am a bit out of my comfort zone of the soil on my farm or the wine tanks in the cellar.  I am trying to balance my vision and passion for what PEAC can be with the day to day process of making it work.  I teach my vineyard classes once a month as well as build a system where others teach their classes as well.  What classes are needed, who can teach them, will people be able to make it out for the classes, what other needs are out there and how can I make this all work.  The greatest think about this effort is working with others.  the hardest thing about this effort is working with others.  I have to sell my self and my idea in order to get others to join in.  In creating good classes on a smaller level, the repeatable model is born.  The teacher of "Tasting Goat Cheese" can see how we teach the class on "Wines Fit for a BBQ" and can adjust accordingly.  I hope to learn more patience so this project can create its own momentum and find the vision as to when my efforts can make the best impact for all.  I feel I am doing ok with all of this, but I always want to make things better.

The Great Wine Scale Debacle

Have you ever gone into a store or picked up Wine Spectator and seen a wine being touted as having 92 points and think, that's a good number, I should try this wine? I'm sure we all have, it is a rather ubiquitous rating scheme now. However, the vast majority of people don't understand what this number really means.

The current 100 point scale used in wine was developed by Robert Parker and his publication The Wine Advocate back in the early 1980's. His thought was that the 20 point scale commonly in use at that time did not offer enough granularity to truly differentiate between wines. Perhaps the first thing people should notice about the scale is that it's not really based on 100 points, but it is really a 50 point scale. Here is how the scale breaks down and what the numbers are supposed to mean:

Drink what you like

There is a feeling I sometimes get from the cognoscenti of the wine world that they intentionally make things more difficult for the average person to know about wine in an effort to aggrandize what they do. Of course, this isn't actually true, the world of wine is incredibly complicated, especially when you take into account that each country (and sometimes states or regions within that country) have their own byzantine set of laws and traditions that govern the way wine is made and consumed. So I understand why wine professionals can come across to the masses as looking down upon them or otherwise disengaged from the way the majority of the world interacts with wine.

It is our job as wine professionals, especially those of us that are educators, to help make some of the intricacies of the wine world accessible to everyone. With that thought in mind let me give you the single most important piece of information I can to help you with your enjoyment of wine, drink what you like. That's right, if you like it, please feel free to drink it and enjoy it. It doesn't matter if someone thinks it shouldn't be paired with that dish or not, if it's the wrong season for that type of wine, or simply not what everyone else is drinking. If you like it then it is the right wine for you.

Now that doesn't mean that you shouldn't listen to wine professionals. They actually know a fair bit about wine and many of them are well versed in food and the interaction of the two. If they are good educators, they can explain something about the wine or why the food and wine work together to heighten your experience. If they are part of a wine staff at a restaurant, they can offer suggestions on wine and food pairings that once again are designed to heighten the customer experience.

The bottom line however, is that you are drinking the wine therefore you should enjoy it. You should not be drinking something just because someone told you that you should. If there is one thing that research in this area has shown, it is that every palate is different. So don't let anyone tell you what you should like, drink what you like and know that you're doing the right thing.

The Joys of a Startup

I don't know how many of you have the entrepreneurial spirit. You know, that something inside of you that says, stop working for someone else and go start a business for yourself. In some ways I don't, but in many ways I do. I've had my share of startups, from retail businesses to bands (Don't kid yourself, a musical group is most definitely a business, it's just that at 18 you're still naive enough to believe that the only thing that counts is the music.) to IT consulting. No matter what field the business is involved in, there are definitely some commonalities among all of them.  Long hours, late nights and a constant questioning if you're doing the right thing all come to mind.

However, I don't have to think much about that last one in conjunction with PEAC. I know we're doing the right thing. The opportunity to pass on the things that I've learned through both formal education and the school of hard knocks is most certainly the right thing to do. I find that sharing my knowledge with those around me is very fulfilling on a personal level but it also helps enrich the community around me. So I'm willing to put up with the long hours and personal hardships knowing that I'm doing my part to make the world around me a better place for everyone. That, most definitely is not a bad thing.