Step in Sergio Esposito‘s Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine and Family in the Heart of Italy – which from the first page pulls one directly into the rental car of he and his brother Sal at the end of an epic 60 winery tour of Italy. Sergio, an Italian born New York wine retailer has embarked on a wine-buying tour of Italy with his brother who got him into the business in the fist place – and within the first pages of reading you are situated within a remarkable life, which I was utterly compelled by because suddenly the retailer I had been up against was given a face. I completely sympathise with the opening sentiments of having a job that on the surface sounds glamorous but in reality can be very gritty – however one quickly learns that Esposito has been doing this for 3 months every year for nearly 2 decades. From my part I was around the East Coast, Mid West and West Coast pushing wine to restaurants retailers and country-clubs tasting wine from 8:30 in the morning to 1am sometimes 6 days a week – and within two years I have more stories than I care to remember. For Sergio and his brother they’re diligently working through 10 wineries a day tasting through varietals and enduring long-drives in hot weather – often what sounds glamorous, and would seem like the setting for a series of Sideways style misadventures through a foreign country ends up being a lot more like work than anyone else could ever imagine. One has to take their hat off to such dedication even though amidst the work it is interspersed with tales of seductive winemakers daughters, raucous Italian weddings and personalities you’re unlikely to forget.

Passion on the Vine is an insight into a life less ordinary from one of the world’s leading wine consultants who can be found on the pages of the Wall Street Journal to the Times to the Wine Spectator itself. Esposito brings the innate raconteur nature of Italian New Yorkers, combined with a mellifluous writing style into a memoir that goes to the heart of what it means to be an epicurean. He illustrates so perfectly how passion, love and romance can go a long way to carrying someone throughout life. Ultimately this is a romance between one man and an entire region which will make you fall in love with Italy; and paints the picture of a dying breed – wine-men who actually love wine, men who excel in their jobs for more than money and people who add value not only to their families but pay their dues to those who have helped them over the years. Esposito’s is a poignant picture of optimism and love in a marketplace that is primarily having the life squeezed out of it by soulless critters.

Esposito re-introduced me to a feeling I nearly lost, and in his words I remembered a part of myself. When one is up against Little Penguin – it’s difficult to find the actual stories and vines and passion in a fuzzy cartoon character. There is no doubt that much of Western Philosophy was built on the back of wine-fueled sentiments; and from the foundation of Western culture there is no doubt that Italians built New York and have made the culture (together with the Irish) what it is today. Esposito, in a tale filled with adventure, comedy and energy has staked his claim to not only being a philosopher, a wine lover and a great New Yorker – but being an advocate and an inspiration to future wine millenials, showing that there’s no real substitute for loving what you do.

Cheerz.

Special thanks to Dianna Tingg from Italian Wine Merchants who has reached out to so many of us on the wine blogosphere, and has shared this wonderful book with us. It is a priveledge to have been given the opportunity to review such a great book.

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Red Wine is a perfect libation for festivals – primarily because it doesn’t need to be kept cold; it doesn’t lose its fizz and if you’re drinking wine locally produced its dirt cheap and super-good. Within minutes of popping the cork however I’d managed to spill the Rioja on my new pants and was questioning the merits of wine in a situation where a shower is hard to find… when suddenly, with a splash of from my water bottle – the wine was gone. Brilliant! Wine proof pants – what more could a young millennial wine-lover at a music festival wish for? I reckon marketing the pants specifically as wine-proof and selling it at Bonnaroo could be a good gig.

Festivals have become huge in the UK – and I guess the States is now picking up. Winemakers have a huge opportunity to sponsor music festivals – because the combination of music, nature, art and alcohol are what festivals are all about. Festivals have re-invented themselves since the days of Woodstock and are a perfect platform for not only entertaining people, but many organisations use them to spread awareness and raise money.

The Green Man Festival coming up next week is one of the most prominent indie festivals – where, much like the Big Chill – and both less commercially than Glastonbury, it promotes organic food, green living, sustainability etc. There’s a huge oppotunity in this concept and I’d really like to see some of the Oregon wineries putting on some music festivals and promoting their wines together with bands from Washington State and around. Many vineyards have acres of land and there’s plenty scope to host festivals on the vineyard grounds themselves. Once millennials cotton onto the benefits of wine and the contribution of viticulturalists to the environment and to local communities – it’ll certainly be the final push needed.

Now that I’ve found a pair of wine-proof pants; and have finally sprung for a decent festival tent whilst having fallen in love with festivals on the first night of Benicassim in a monent of sitting with my wife and two close friends, Will and Anin, drinking Rioja as a pre-game at the campsite with Sigur Ros about to play… I think it’ll be hard to go back to taking normal holidays.

Hopefully next year the Grapethinking team can bring some of the fabulous Tastevine collection to Bonnaroo and some of the other festivals in the US, and one day to the UK – we’ll provide a tent, picnic blankets and a selection of some of the best and most affordable wines from around the world… we’ll leave the music to the musicians though. Don’t forget to bring wine-proof pants…

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If you are in the mood for traveling, or nearby, you should probably set your sites on one of these cities, as they we’re recently ranked The Top 10 Places to Celebrate July 4th:

1. Boston
2. Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard
3. Chicago
4. Mount Rushmore
5. Philadelphia
6. Queen Mary 2
7. San Diego
8. San Juan Islands
9. US Virgin Islands
10. Washington, DC

Enjoy a safe 4th of July and Happy Birthday America!

What is crazy is that none of these firework shows above will compare to the Thunder over Louisville show.  I know Louisville has a great show, so if you are nearby there (Jeff…), it would probably be worth the trip.  As a child, our family would always trek to see Thunder Over Louisville in early April, which is claimed to be the “Larget Fireworks Show in North America”… here is clip from last year’s show:

Also… We have some exciting changes here at Grape Thinking (inside and outside) that we will be sharing with you soon!  Just in case you haven’t noticed, we have made quite a few changes to our site, and have more to come.

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Caveau is a breath of fresh air for the city centre, with an urban-rustic feel to it, combining class and elegance with a laid back environment. The design, lay out and mood leave you feeling like you’ve stepped out of Cape Town and discovered a more modern Franschoek. On the three occasions I’ve been there I’ve shared a bottle of their 2004 Spice Route Mourvedre. Accustomed to the Cape’s usual Noble varietals it’s amazing to see how well other cultivars benefit from the Cape’s rich soils. This is a nice big red that has a faint bloody-Maryesque note on the nose. It’s great to see how this Spanish wine has done – bring on Tempranillo!

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I recently traveled to Reims, Champagne and to Dijon and Beaune in Burgundy. Reims and Epernay are the two big cities in Champagne that attract tourists. Reims was an enjoyable city to walk the streets with cafes lining pedestrian only walkways and a glass of Champagne in hand. The cellars were informative but you certainly don’t have to continue from one house to another, you will be receiving the same information at all. For most houses you need an appointment, which gave me the feeling of not being welcomed. Wine should not just be for a certain group of people that can fit the schedule. We were able though to get an appointment at Pommery and then we continued to Taittinger where there were no appointments necessary.The two tours if combined would have been spectacular, but where one lacked energy the other lacked information. After the tour you are given a glass of Champagne, well actually you paid for it with admission. Most houses are 10 euros, so put a few tours together in one day that will tell you the same information, then you have just wasted a lot of money. Instead I would recommend going to one house and then heading over to a café and popping a bottle and just enjoy your surroundings.

The next stop on the trip was Dijon in Burgundy…
Dijon was filled with friendly faces that knew each other and just enjoyed being. With their cobblestone streets and medieval appeal, it was refreshing to be here. In one restaurant they have a mock guillotine set up with different types of meats hanging from it. The server explained where we were, Place Emile Zola, was the location of guilloting, so they were incorporating history with the dining experience. The people were friendly, the atmosphere relaxing, and then history was alive.

One more place to go before heading back to Paris: Beaune. Beaune was a twenty-minute train ride south of Dijon. When we arrived we walked through the marketplace and picked up cheese and meats from sellers who would happily cut a sample for you before buying. Then of course, being in the land of mustard we had to include it in our picnic we were building. Once that was in order we had to make a decision, should we be tourists and stay in town and go to the houses and only sample the minimal and not really connect with the wine or do we rent bikes and head out into the vineyards and meet with the people who create them? Of course we rented the bikes. We went to Bourgogne Randonnées, right by the train station and the owners mapped out a route for us including vineyards to stop at.

We stopped at a few vineyards but one stood out strong, Château l’Ange Gardien (www.chateu-langegardien.com). We pulled up and it seemed like a scene in a movie. The husband and winemaker, Pierre was just pulling out to go to the fields and his wife Nicole was sitting at a picnic table enjoying her lunch with flowers and trees surrounding her. She immediately came over to us and brought us in to taste her wines. I can honestly say there was not one wine I didn’t enjoy. And then to finish it off she gave us a Kir Royal made with Cassis Liquor, that they also produced, as well as a fantastically refreshing bottle of Crémant.

I could have spent all day and all my money there but we had to move on to our next destination. When we go back into Beaune we dropped off the bikes and café hopped, having a different glass of wine at each. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. Beaune had the friendly appeal of Dijon, but there was something about being there that made you never want to leave. Actually, the woman from the bike shop was originally from Canada and came on vacation to Beaune. Then eighteen years later she never left.

While visiting Château l’Ange Gardien, I learned that there is a natural element in Pinot Noir that aids with digestion. I think the French are on to something here. Go grab a bottle of Burgundy and pair it with something delicious, but don’t forget to Wine Your Diet.

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Being involved in lifestyle marketing really has its perks. When GrapeThinking was in its infancy, and the only client was Tastevine.com, it was really easy to mix business and pleasure. As a group of Millennials passionate about promoting things that bring people together, we didn’t find it too demanding to travel to major cities and throw parties promoting particular wines, and of course, the Tastevine wine community.

As the “tech” guy, my traveling is not quite as adventurous as say Ruarri’s travels to Morroco, or Meghan’s trip Paris, but I do get a chance here and there, and I always try to make the best of it. Apparently, I’m starting a tradition of going to a concert/music festival to complement my business trips.

Late last year, while traveling in Chicago for a meeting with the Dead Grapes Society (an awesome group of wine-lovers), I discovered Lalapalooza was the same night/weekend. After talking with a few of the locals, I found my way to Grant Park, and was just in time to see The Black Keyes, and the last show of the night, Ben Harper, where Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam made a guest appearance.

I’ve always wanted to see Radiohead. They are a band reveled as the modern-day Beatles, and they are currently making their way around the globe on their World Tour… Atlanta being the stop this past Thursday night. Being in town for several business meetings, I called on some friends to see what they were doing, and as would be expected, all of my friends were on their way to the show. After a quick call to Ticketmaster, I was relieved in knowing I could buy a ticket at the gate as there were plenty, and join my friends for what I was sure would be an awesome experience.

This is where it gets interesting. I make it to HiFi Buys (Lakewood) Amphitheater, and am informed the tickets are sold out… WHAT? After a moment shock, the guy behind the counter tells me he does have just one more. I quickly pay for the ticket and rush to the gate where I’m informed that my freshly purchased ticket has already been used… WHAT? Back to the counter I go, where the guy who sold me the ticket takes a highlighter and writes OK on it. Back to the gate, and without hesitation, they let me in.

Once inside, I navigate to where my friends are sitting, and they “sneak” me into the seats of the Amphitheater with them. After catching up, I proceed to tell them the story about my ticket being OK, at which point I pull out the ticket and show them. A few seconds later, we discover that the ticket I am holding is not the Lawn Ticket I assumed, but rather a front row ticket… WHAT?

Needless to say, I ended up not only getting to see Radiohead, but I was able to live the experience from the front row with a $66 ticket.

If you read this post, and you are wondering who Radiohead is, you can listen check out some of their music on the Amazon API widget to the left. Amazon just released the ability to embed a widget that plays mp3 clips, and what a great opp to try it out. (sorry, the tech geek has to come out somewhere)

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Rather memorably – if not because it was highly rehearsed, he would impart his own cultural wisdom onto us between meals and volleys of mint-tea ‘Berber Whisky.’ I think the point he made most strongly was ‘what’s bad for the rest of the world, is good for Berber.’ Primarily – at the heart of it, he was referring to the perception of most in the west that being without money or a place to live is the worst imaginable fate. Whilst for the nomad possessions are often a weight, and the path of desire is one which is unending with constantly moving goal posts. Following directly from the first piece of wisdom was the Berber proverb – ‘the man who is always in a rush, is already in the grave.’

As a young millennial working in marketing in a world of blogs, search-engines, information-aggregators and constantly-on interconnectivity with the world through my news-feeds, newsvine.com, skype, messenger, social networks and g-mail – I must concede that to be in the middle of the Sahara where electricity only trickles in through the generator with enough power to illuminate a couple light-bulbs, and water is collected through capturing condensation, one is perhaps given an unmatched opportunity to pause and take life in a way that no longer seems possible back-home: slowly and as it comes.

Wine is perhaps the greatest excuse we have to sit back and take stock. So often the perception of youth is of an imperative to keep up and constantly expend a frenetic sort of energy rather than just being content to sit back and live in the current moment. No-doubt the alcohol in wine is an incredible relaxant – but more than that, there’s an incomparable depth to each product. I think people sometimes expect to have a sip of wine and for everything to be apparent right there and then – much like it is with a blended Scotch, a beer or a can of Coke. But unlike most things marketed to us, wine is perhaps among one of the only products appealing to millennials in the current marketplace which actually challenges people to find out more, and can fuel discussions at the same time as fostering friendships. I this way wine is like jazz, haiku poetry or smoking a joint – in that it takes you on a journey, and each visit could result in multiple different journeys.

Sitting out with Jacqueline on the knife-edge of one of the larger dunes, overlooking the red sands as they turned a luminescent-blue whilst the sun set and the moon ascended, (even though I would have killed for something deeply rich in red fruit – like a Garnacha Syrah blend…) sans a glass of wine, my mind was still given the distance from the hectic City life, which is a feeling of tranquillity I usually only associate with two glasses of wine. Maybe that’s what wine offers us: escape. Having a glass of wine at the end of the day is not about ‘needing a drink’ but rather taking the time to enjoy the present moment – and in a time when millenials are in such a rush to grow up and fewer people are really fundamentally enjoying what it means to be young – we could all do with taking a little time out to be in the moment, with wine being the conduit between normal life and tranquillity.

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2007 was a tremendous learning curve for us, and 2008 will be the year that our vision of millennial marketing comes to life and we look forward to sharing it with you all.

There’s quite a bit to catch up on from my side, seeing as I haven’t written a post in a while, but we have plenty time for that.

I’d like to introduce a friend of mine to you all, Meghan O’Malley. Meg has just moved to Paris and has agreed to write on our blog about her wine-centric experiences over there, so we’re very privileged to have her writing for us. I first met Meghan in Cape Town, whilst she was on a university exchange from New York. In fact, we first properly met on the Warwick Wine Estate for a tasting of their selection.

Since then, our friendship and wine have been inextricably linked, which makes for easy birthday shopping! Meg will probably be gracing us with her presence on a weekly basis, and when she leaves Paris will be spending a year in the Hamptons wielding her wine-knowledge on the power-set of New York, which I hope she’ll keep us in the loop on.

From my side, my weekly post is coming back into effect starting now so stay tuned. And, as has been the case for all of 2008 so far, Jake and Greg will continue to be part of our stellar line up.

ps. For those of you interested – I just got back from Morocco and if you’d like to check out my pics ->then here’s the link<- unfortunately, as Moroccos is under Sharia, there is no alcohol – so I drank a lot of coffee and virtually no wine…

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Never fear fellow wine enthusiast! Wine and adventure are not mutually exclusive… well, at least in South Africa they’re not. If you drive to Hermanus from Cape Town, which is just an hour away – during June and October, you will not only be able to do some of the world’s best shore based whale watching, you’ll also have access to some of the best seafood you’re like to experience to be accompanied by an array of cheap and excellent Elgin or Durbanville Hills Sauvignon Blancs. And if you’re up to it, you can book a day’s Great White Shark watching – where you’ll be taken out to Gansbaai by one of the few operators. If the weather is good enough, you’ll be treated to a champagne breakfast on the shore – before embarking on the trip. I can speak from personal experience and say that you’ll never treasure a flute of champagne more that when you have it in mind that you’re about to come into close quarters with one of our planet’s most fearsome predators. The next day – once you’ve upped the stakes of your life experiences… you can take a more chilled option by going on a wine route, and perhaps visiting the Hamilton Russell and Southern Right winery, which are less than 20 minutes away.

South Africa is the only country in the world where you can drink their local great white wines before visiting the resident Great White Sharks. And the following weak, you can watch the sunset in a game reserve, washing succulent Kudu biltong down with a spicy pinotage whilst and marvelling over the Lion Pride you had seen that morning. South Africa is where wine and adventure meet.

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Once again, I was to encounter the home vineyard; where seemingly every back garden had its own vines, and either the locals did not know the varietal or had no idea what I was asking them about. But true to what I’d seen in Kefalonia, many local communities had their own hand-presses and barriques in which to produce garagiste wine without the garage.

The wines themselves are a different animal to what we’re used to. The closest comparison would be milk directly from the milk pale on a farm vs. fully pasteurised, low fat milk. Wine has become a beverage of science quite easily separated from its origin; and it takes a glass of wine pressed in a hand-press, fermented in what is perhaps a 4^th fill barrel, treated with wild yeasts and with no instruments to test for phenolic ripeness or remove excess alcohol through centrifuging to go back to what its really all about.

For one thing, there’s sediment, but somehow there’s an extra layer of flavour. Secondly, barrel to barrel there’s little consistency which could perhaps be due in part to the vastly different soils in Greece, influenced by volcanic dust and the like. What I enjoyed most however, was the freedom of branding. I should write to Dr. Debs and tell her about these places which have good wine for well under $20, but I couldn’t tell her the name of a producer, only the name and lot of the family who made it.

While women walked with one another, hand in hand and in love, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the timeless farming system and mode of production that was still being employed. No doubt, poor economy is an influence, and many of the people do it from lack of money because I did see sophisticated, high end producers in financially better off areas. However, there’s something so pure in the old way that got my imagination going. We all know that the US has vine suitable soils in all of its states, and though I can’t quite picture myself keeping a rose-garden in my backyard… my thoughts aren’t too far away from a personal vineyard.

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