Today, sitting in my office (car) feels like I’m in Hausschue, or my jeans are on backwards. I know the jeans are just fine, and after looking down at my feet, I’m good there, too. Just feeling out of sorts, I guess. Busy. Tired. Startups are relentless.
Had a great morning meeting with another crazily talented buddy of mine, a fine wood craftsman, among other talents that include ethereal, luminously foiled glass panels and body casting. I’m going to help, as best I can, get some of his website content in line, on top of everything else going on. But what I’m finding out, is that, once you find something you really enjoy doing, you’ll make it happen. And between The Grande Dalles work—Scott’s and my endeavor—and The Little House on The Hill—more my deal-io, like The Uncultivated Life—there is a certain invigoration that keeps me going. The same way little Sam does. And if you’re not going, what else are you doing? Exactly. My old Swiss Oma would always say, “Leben ist Bewegung, und Bewegung ist Leben.” (Life is movement and movement is life.) I rarely ever saw her in slippers.
Tags: Hausschue, Leben ist Bewegung, startup, The Uncultivated Life
Scott says a farmer is someone who just likes to see things grow. I think it has more to do with dirt, meaning, how dirty you get in the process; the dirtier you get, the more “farmer” you are. Sure, there’s more than that, but that’s what’s on my mind at the moment—dirt—so with my life and brain as it is these days, best take what comes in and work with it.
Take a “grower,” for example. That’s what the wheat families whose fields surround our little frontier vineyard call themselves. Although they did start out as “farmers” we were told, and I know that they also like to watch their fields grow and ripen, “farmers” they are not. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Brooks Brothers, clump grass, commodity, farmer, Goldoni, grower, hawk, meadowlark, tractor, vineyard, wheat
Sorry, everyone, for you not hearing a PEEP from me/us in the last few weeks. I did something dumb, which I thought at the time was GOOD, which was, to take on a freelance project for a wonderful designer friend of mine. See, I still struggle with this new(er) identity of “I’m in the wine business,” and so should spend my time working on sharing more about us in this blog. I still feel the tug of my “previous life,” which was as a brand writer, and boy was it a helluva lot easier then, having a Creative Director directing you in all your (or my) writing work…anyway…it was a 2000 word article meant for a global innovation group publication of a design intelligence company out of the UK whose focus is on retail and hospitality. My piece is about branded spaces and the power of story. Here’s the first paragraph:
Tags: brand writer, branded spaces, design intelligence, spatial narrative, The Uncultivated Life, wine, wine business
This post is from Scott.
Americans and American wines are known throughout the world as adhering to the premise of Bigger is Better. Napa cabernets and chardonnays are in general the epitome of this, but in truth this has crept into wines up and down the west coast. Whether it is cab or syrah or pinot noir, or pick your favorite white, the story is the same – jammy, sappy, oaky, and/or high alcohol. But I’ve never been more shocked by this than when I tasted a rosé from a very well known PNW winery the other night. I know this isn’t exactly rosé season, but I was surprised to see it on the shelf so I bought it. I laughed on the first taste – it had tons of residual sugar, added acidity, and it was spritzy. Everything you would expect from an American rosé trying to emulate those refreshing rosés from France , but in an in-your-face, outrageously obvious kind of way. It was not refreshing, but I’m sure your kids would like it because it tasted just like strawberry soda.
I wondered, why would anyone make a rosé that tastes like that?
Tags: chardonnays, Napa cabernets
Was reading a Curious George story from the late 1950s to our young son the other day. In one of the scenes is an image of a reporter carrying one of those old-time cameras, the boxy ones with the big flash on top, looked like she was looking down on it to take the picture instead of holding it to her eye. You know what I’m talking about? Anyway, I soon put our little guy to napping and came downstairs thinking of that camera, about how in many of my favorite children’s books I share with Sam there are a good many dated items like the telephone in the big green room, or this box camera, or horse-drawn wagons, etc; in essence, objects from the past that my son might never come to know because they are no longer relevant to our cultural landscape.
Alone with my cup of coffee, Scott across the table finishing up Hugh Johnson, A Life Uncorked (look for a book report soon – I’ll try to get Scott to expand on his thoughts for this one), I began to think about something I had read recently in the March WS, about an idea from the past that I wonder if more and more people might never come to know, or even worse, to dismiss: the farm-to-wine connection.
Tags: A Life Uncorked, Burgundy, Curious George, Finger Lakes, Hugh Johnson, James Molesworth, single vineyard wine, vineyard, wine
While watching the Academy Awards the other night I started thinking (what an incredibly boring show, even with Alec and Steve, so what else to do?): How are films made? Besides the obvious of a great script and dialogue and scenery and costumes, lighting, etc., and of course the greatly talented actors and directors who bring it all to light, at the end, it all gets pieced together after numerous takes. Get the line wrong? Take 2. Get it wrong again? Take 3. And so on, and so on, take after take until it’s just right. Then, it’s edited down, soundtrack and whatever else applied, and there you go. Oh, if it could be so in the wine industry.
Tags: Academy Awards, vineyard, wine, wine industry
HIGHLIGHTS: Architects Meet Us On the Hilltop. Building-Wise, What Do We Really Need Now? Fan Keeps Up Much Needed Urging. Moving Along: To Do List.
COUNTDOWN: 35 WEEKS
Now that eight weeks of The Little House On the Hilltop (TLHOTH) project have come and gone, let me share what’s happened since the last post:
Tags: Digital Media Design and Fabrication, Mt. Hood, The Dalles, vines, vineyard, Wasco County, wine
A “guest” posting by Scott. I need to get this guy out here more often.
WS’s Harvey Steiman posted a piece on Feb 23rd discussing his recent surprise while tasting the ’05 Ch. de Pez. I’ve had this wine many times, not the ’05, but the ’88, ’89, and ’90. They were classic wines back then, and I don’t know about now, but I have a hunch about their current style. When Steiman first rated this wine, probably back in ’07 or ’08, he scored it an 88. In his recent tasting he liked it so much that he said he might start drinking Bordeaux again and scored it a 90. I know that there really isn’t any difference between an 88 and a 90 score, e.g., it’s got to be something like 88 +/-2 or 3 or 4; an 88 is not absolute, exact. However, for the critic and the consumer a score of 88 is 88 +/-0, or, it IS absolute in their minds.
The crime here is most consumers won’t give much consideration to wines scoring less than 90, so Steiman’s original score of 88 probably hurt de Pez’s sales in the US, but now a couple years later he scores it a 90 and says he might start drinking Bordeaux again because of it. Wine critic scoring is 100% subjective and not at all precise, and when those imprecise scores are around critical break points, like 90, then it can have considerable impact on sales.
Tags: Bordeaux, Harlan Estates, Harvey Steiman, James Laube, James Suckling
This just in!
Made voice contact with the Architecture and Fine Arts Departments at Portland State University, two in one day. They are interested. Spoke about expectations and timelines and touched briefly on what the University can and cannot do on private property. The most exciting part was when I was told, “I think this is something we can do.” Which is HUGE, as that means we will continue the conversation. It of course is yet to be seen how it might all play out, but the big thing is there is movement. And interest. In fact, I sent my Architecture Professor contact some more info (directions, etc.) so he can go visit the hilltop directly. Yoohoooo!
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