Watching Your Adopted Grapes Grow

So I was catching up on my blog reading over the weekend, and went to visit the Winehiker and a nifty little icon caught my eye. I clicked on it and it led me to a site called Adopt A Grape.

It may be the coolest site I've found in a long time. And what a great concept! It's meant to help consumers like you and me learn more about the process of making wine--from budbreak to barrel aging. No money changes hands; this adoption is all about feeling a sense of connection to a particular grape varietal in a particular vineyard. It's packed with video clips, timelines that let you know just where the grapes are in the growing cycle, and you can leave comments and questions, too.

I'm not sure who the genius was behind this, but the owners of the vineyards are Duane and Susan Hoff of Fantesca Vineyards, the folks who also dreamed up Fortune Corkies, blog about their experiences, and in general get what wine 2.0 is all about. All the grapes up for adoption are from their Spring Mountain vineyards in Napa Valley. When you sign up to adopt a grape, all you have to do is select a user name, a password, and enter your zip code. Then you are presented with some options of grapes for adoption. Once you adopt a grape, you will receive updates with pictures and information about the grape's progress.

I had the choice of adopting some cabernet grapes, or some petite verdot. Of course, I picked petit verdot (how could I not, after loving the Escafeld PV so much?). Here is a picture of the location where my adopted petit verdot grapes are now growing and, according to the August 15 report, beginning to take on some color or veraison. And also a picture of the vineyard taken a bit closer up.

Adopting a grape is a whole lot of fun--and it's free. In our hectic, modern, faster- than-the-speed-of-light lives, it's nice to be connected to something that moves more slowly, and that we can't control. I can sit by my computer, batting out emails and answering the phone, knowing that somewhere to the north the sun is ripening petite verdot grapes. And when they're harvested, I'll be among the first to know. Thanks to Russ the Winehiker who found this treat, posted the icon on his site, and got me hooked!

What's Your Wine Sign?

Do you read your daily horoscope in the paper or on Google? If so, do you know what your astrological sign might say about your taste in wine?

I was surprised to discover that there are a lot of places on the web that try to link wine to the 12 signs of the zodiac. Here are a few for you to check out in order to beat back the Tuesday doldrums.

Australian wine writer and educator Martin Field has put together a slightly-tongue-in cheek guide to how your astrological sign influences your wine habits. Mine says I have a low boredom threshold--which is true. It also says I have to watch out in case I start binge drinking. I don't worry too much about this, because I can't drink more than two glasses of wine a night without falling asleep in my dinner!

Not into western astrology, but prefer something with an Asian influence? A similar article by Ed Soon links your Chinese Zodiac sign to wine. According to Chinese astrology, I'm a Snake, and that means I should like Chardonnay (oops...sometimes the stars get it wrong) and Beaujolais (right on!). Thanks to the Celebrate Wine blog for drawing my attention to this post.

Of course, where the stars go, money is sure to follow. Wine.com has found a way to link astrology to their wine search engine, to help you find the perfect bottle for you, or for someone you love. For an Aries like me they recommend syrah or shiraz (which I love). They haven't profiled all the signs yet, but they have covered Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer. If you're not on the list yet, I'm sure they'll get to your sign soon.

Messages in a Bottle

Ryan over at the CalWineries blog alerted me to Fantesca Vineyard's efforts to get consumers to submit wine quotes that they might want to use on the corks that seal their artisanally-produced wines in the Napa Valley. They call them "Fortune Corkies," incidentally. If you submit a quote that Fantesca uses, you get a hand-bottled magnum of their highly-regarded cabernet from the Spring Hill AVA in Napa. Previous "fortune corkies" have included quotes from Galileo, Ben Franklin, and even the most prolific author of all--Anonymous. Send your ideas to fortunecorkies@fantesca.com.

Thanks for the heads up, Ryan. And if you haven't checked out the great information that Ryan and Ben have drawn together at the CalWineries blog, make sure to give their site a look.

Thursday Wine Procrastination: Games and Quizzes for Slackers

I'm having a difficult time concentrating on the mountain of work that I need to get done before the holidays. Looming deadlines, impending holiday festivities, and the horror of post office lines--aargh. You too?

Here are some Thursday diversions to make the end of your work week just a little more enjoyable. And, they're both wine related.

First, while surfing around Italian wine and food blogs (see above on procrastination) I found a link on Esalazioni Etiliche to an entertaining computer game for wine geeks courtesy of my favorite London wine merchants, Berry Bros & Rudd. Their Wine Binning Game puts you in the role of someone who has just inherited Great Uncle Algy's country house, Pickering the butler, and underground wine cellar. It tests your knowledge as you answer questions by putting wine bottles in the appropriate bins. If you succeed, you learn the secret of Uncle Algy's cellar. After the game, more procrastination can be had clicking through BB&R's superb wine information, aged Bordeaux selections, and wine-tasting dinner announcements.

Not esoteric enough for your procrastination? Head over to the new wine store chain, Best Cellars (logo on the right side of the page), and take their Do You Know What You Like? quiz. Best Cellars is pioneering a new approach to wine selling, that uses flavor profiles like "Fizzy," "Fresh," "Soft," "Smooth," and "Big" to categorize their wines rather than more classic varietal or geographic sorting methods. The quiz will direct you to the Best Cellars flavor profiles that are most closely aligned to your current taste preferences. These nifty logos (right) help guide you through the stores and the online site. All of their wines have great value and are from all over the world. They also have a Beyond the Best selection of wines that represent "best values from around the world irrespective of price." While their everyday wines typically are priced under $20, the Beyond the Best selections are more expensive wines that still have excellent QPR. With stores currently in NY, DC, MA, VA, and TX here's hoping that they go nationwide soon!

Happy procrastinating--then get back to work.