Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The sign at the gas station reads “Would you like a carwash? If yes, pay 15 cents less per gallon and the carwash is just $5.”
Sounds reasonable enough — the gas station is going to give me a discount on my gas provided I also spend money with them at the carwash. Happens every day [...]
Thursday, January 7, 2010
With a nod to Bob (that’s MR. Dylan to you, sonny!), the New Year has rendered me a bit nostalgic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely jacked up about 2010 and the future, but sometimes I drift off into thinking about my past. I’m guessing you do too.
Life does throw out interesting ‘twists of fate’. [...]
At the heart of Humanitas Winery is a dedication to making honorable wines (let’s hope all wineries have that mission!) and to helping those less fortunate. We care, as the North Bay Bohemian so succinctly put it, ”…not only where the grapes come from, but where they go” — meaning we clearly care about the quality in the bottle — but also [...]
Friday, February 20, 2009
For a lot of us in the wine business (and I assume other businesses), our lives revolve around beverages. Usually this is coffee in the morning, water during the day, and wine at night. Some people would actually say this is an addiction. I’m here to say that for me, at least the coffee part, [...]
Thursday, February 19, 2009
I had a chance to return to one of the really fine Napa Valley restaurants the other day to meet up with an old friend. ‘Cook‘ in St. Helena is a favorite of many locals and huge find for tourists — very intimate — excellent food. It is also a marvelous place to order dinner [...]
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
I’ve been reading Michael Pollan’s ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ and am loving it. This post, however, has nothing to do with the book – but I am blatantly stealing the title – with a nod to Mr. Pollan.
The Winemaker’s Dilemma is something entirely different. It is about the strategic decision to invest in direct to the [...]
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Holidays are at once inspiring, enlightening…and tiring! For us, as a family of five, it means travel, entertaining, packing…and basically a lot of work. My wife has a wonderful lexicon for these kinds of things — she clearly differentiates a ‘trip’ from a ‘vacation.’ In essence, a ‘trip’ is where you pack up all [...]
Monday, November 24, 2008
The word ‘Humanitas’ is Latin & translates into words like ‘human nature’, ‘philanthropy’, and ‘kindness’. But to me, the logical word is ‘humanitarian’. And with a winery dedicated to giving back, I am always interested in and fascinated by compelling charitable organizations. I am particularly drawn to groups that ‘provide a leg up’ to those [...]
Monday, November 10, 2008
In this era of ‘green’, I am intrigued by the carbon footprint of wine industry. As an agricultural product, grapes are relatively (or so I am told) low impact, especially when compared to row crops like lettuce, or grains such as wheat, barley, corn, etc. However, it still takes a great deal of energy to [...]
I used to work with an amazing group of people. As any ex-Mondavi employee will tell you, ‘back in the day’ there was no finer winery for which to work. There was a true sense that nothing was impossible and when an idea came up, the response was ‘how can we make that happen?’ In [...]
