Wolfe's Wine Shoppe

We hosted a wonderful tasting on Monday at Wolfe's Wine Shoppe in Coral Gables, Florida. Proprietor Jeffrey Wolfe curated our experience, sharing some insight on his selections, as well as the wine industry. I was pleasantly surprised with two items from the lignup: J Lassalle's 1996 Cuvée Angéline and Lewis Cellars 2005 Sonoma Chardonnay. We also shared a bottle of 2003 Napa Valley Red Wine from Matthiasson --much to the delight of our guests. I'd say we all went home full of holiday cheer, and a greater appreciation for the specialized retailer... If you're in the Miami area, make sure you stop in!

Vitechculture

I've been spending increasing amounts of time trying to learn about viticultural best practices and how technology can help winegrowers produce. In that quest for knowledge and understanding, I've held some interesting conversations with a couple of viticulturist who I hope will join us soon in this blog.

The subject of our conversations this past week revolved around vine samples and georeferential mapping of results. Now I have to start studying GPS and GIS applications...

vitechculture

Rats, pass the wine…

Resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant produced by certain plants as a defense against the effects injuries and infections, was found to help obese mice on high-calorie diets live longer and have healthier hearts and livers. The new findings, published in the journal Nature, are the first to show increased survival in mammals, which offers hope that similar impacts might be seen in humans. A 2003 study found similar results in fish. I’ve gotta go tell the family we’re having lotsa stuffing, wine, and fish for the holidays!

Web 2.0?

We're getting more and more questions about this "Web 2.0 thing" (our techies are already discussing Web 3.0). You can read a thorough definition on wikipedia, but here is my simple explanation of the characteristics you should look for in any software application today:

• Ease of use (users only need an internet connection -no software to install);
• Low total cost of ownership without hidden fees for maintenance, hardware, or consultants;
• Users are encouraged to suggest improvements which are quickly implemented;
• Databases and applications that get richer with use; and
• Applications that interact with each other to serve you better.

Huh? To paraphrase Steve Matthiasson in his interview with the folks from Inertia Beverage, if we could apply the Web 2.0 concepts to the auto industry, we'd be able to order a car with "...the torque of a truck, the creature comforts of a minivan, and the fuel efficiency of a hybrid – on lease terms that let us trade-up every two weeks!"

web 2.0

New Partner Hostway

Our new hosting partner is Hostway, one of the top-five hosting providers in the world. The move will result in better performance and reliability for our users. It gives everyone a lot of peace of mind, too, as Hostway is an "old pro" at this, with a global network of killer data centers with great security. On a lighter note, Hostway has data centers all over the world… their clients include Fleetwood Mac, Coca-Cola, and Hershey’s… so our client data is in a very happy place.