Speaking of wine, ( it’s been long enough, hasn’t it?) I recently had a conversation about the relationship between winemaking and wine sales and simply put, I strongly advocate hands-on winery and vineyard work for serious wine salesmen/women. No, I’m not going to hike up my pants and deliver a “When I was your age” spiel, but I do believe that doing the dirty work, making mistakes and learning from them beats memorizing vinicultural books anyday. Hell, it could even have some social benefits by shrinking the stereotypes of surly cellar hands and snooty sommeliers. In a world where wine is more accessible than ever, consumers are more informed than ever, it is only logical for a sommelier to know how to prune vines or use a hydrometer.
Now, where am I going with this?
Napa Valley Vintners, never lacking marketing methods, are aware of the demand for information from the public and have set up a live stream http://www.napavintners.com/harvest/ this week at several popular wineries.
As it’s harvest, the live stream gives viewers the opportunity to watch and learn how it all goes down, from the vineyard to the winery to the lab. Mondavi, William Hill, and other Napa big wigs are participating, so go ahead and soak up enough facts to stump your local sommelier….it won’t take long, I promise. The more you know.