GrowSmarter's VitSmarter | The Easiest Online Vineyard Management

Green Vineyard Management

2010-04-12T13:11:00.000-05:00

Nice video of Parducci Winery (http://www.parducci.com) in Mendocino, California. Known as a green winery, it is reportedly the first carbon neutral winery in America. What did Parducci do to achieve this difference and accomplish such a unique green way of being?

Take a look at the video – it describes their process from the dirt to the bottle. How difficult would it be for you to…

· Switch to solar and wind powered energy;

· Purchase grapes from local vendors;

· Practice organic farming methods and pest management practices;

· Use eco-friendly packaging.

Is this something you are interested in replicating?

FYI – Our friends at the Napa Valley Grapegrowers Association have an upcoming 2-day event called the Organic Winegrowing Conference. Click here for more details: http://www.napagrowers.org/owc.html

VitSmarter Working on linux

2010-03-05T13:18:00.005-06:00

We never expect to have users using VitSmarter on linux, but we are glad to have them, because we develop on Linux. Here is a video we made for our first user in Linux. Thank you! View in HD

Google Health Predictor?

2008-11-12T15:45:00.006-06:00

Fascinating article from the New York Times...

A new symptom of the flu is a Google search... yes, in addition to coughing, fevers, and sore throats is the Google search. Take a look at the graphic!

How Obama Won It With the Web

2008-11-05T22:21:00.004-06:00

FastCompany has a great article on the effectiveness of one candidate's web-based campaign.

Both candidates used the Internet to reach voters. But Team Obama mastered the medium early and exploited it to the hilt. Along the way, it changed politics -- and perhaps government -- forever.

Vote!

2008-11-04T09:43:00.001-06:00

The United States presidential election of 2008 is scheduled for today. Aside from addressing some top of mind issues like the economy, this election marks the first time... ... two senators are running against each other; ... both presidential candidates were born outside the continental US (McCain = Panama; Obama = Hawaii); ... a woman or an African American will reach higher office; ... and possible scenarios like having the oldest first-term president (McCain) or a Catholic VP (Biden). I do expect (hope?) voter turnout will be higher... so look for a comment or two on my "user experience" at the polling booths. I also encourage you to check out some cool tools like this interactive map from CNN -or the variety of tools on Google.com including mobile, news, and a fun maps of the candidates' journeys. If you haven't already, GO VOTE!

Register to Vote Online

2008-10-06T09:03:00.003-05:00

As fans of webware, we have come across some tools to register to vote that are easy-to-use and free (we like these types of tools!):

Which one do you like?

Google Chrome Beta

2008-09-03T14:28:00.003-05:00

Surprised that Google now wants us to use their web browser? Not really. Their web-based tools are pretty cool (we use quite a few including Analytics, Google Earth, and Google Docs). We're currently testing the integration of the browser with web apps, like VitSmarter.com. We'll let you know what you find. In the meantime, click here to download Chrome.

Web 2.0 Ideas that Failed

2008-07-14T08:07:00.001-05:00

Interesting post here from Fast Company. Their summary:

With all of the hype surrounding Web 2.0 companies like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, it’s easy to forget that lots of Web companies still fail. Here are 10 that failed in the past year – and why.

VitSmarter Video

2008-05-28T20:29:00.004-05:00

Take a look at our promotional and instructional video. Let us know what you think!

Go now to Vitsmarter

Robert Mondavi

2008-05-19T12:12:00.006-05:00

Robert Mondavi died on friday at age 94. He is credited for having led the growth for California wines. Born in 1913, he attended Lodi High School and studied Business and Economics at Stanford University. After persuading his father to acquire Charles Krug winery, he founded the winery bearing his name in the late sixty's. The rest, as they say, is history...

In addition to great wine, the winery sponsored great educational programs that included great music acts, as well as chefs (Julia Child, Alice Waters, Paul Bocuse and Joel Robuchon);
he worked with great winemakers including Warren Winiarski (Stag's Leap Wine Cellars), Zelma Long (Zelphi, Vilafonte), Mike Grgich (Grgich Hills) and more;
Launched Opus One with Baron Philippe de Rothschild (of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux);
Partnered with well-known winemaking families including the Frescobaldi family in Italy, Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errazuríz in Chile, and Rosemount in Australia;
Launched, in 2001, Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts;
He and his second wife, Margrit Biever, launched the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis --as well as the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at UC Davis.

Microsoft: It's About Web Services, Silly.

2008-04-23T14:41:00.003-05:00

Microsoft’s chief software architect, Ray Ozzie, wrote an interesting memo which seems to shift their mission from creating software to creating a mesh between people and devices. To paraphrase, he says the value of Microsoft’s software will depend less on what it can do on its own than what it can do with others. More validation that web-based services trump software. Read the full memo here.

Wine's Carbon Footprint

2008-04-21T14:40:00.002-05:00

Interesting read: http://www.drvino.com/2007/10/30/calculating-the-carbon-footprint-of-wine-my-research-findings/

Google Tool Searches Future

2008-04-01T19:47:00.006-05:00

Google Australia launched new functionality that allows users to search one day in advance. In other words, Google's gDay™ uses MATE™ technology to create a sophisticated model of what the internet will look like tomorrow.

How? Don't ask me. I'm still trying to figure out other cool tools like GOOG-411 and Google Earth.

I think the concept was best summed-up by a user who stated, "This is old news. I read about this announcement yesterday on Google."

UFW Black Eagle Wine

2008-03-31T10:03:00.004-05:00

The United Farm Workers' Union (UFW) announced the availability of their "Black Eagle Wines" -which they say will help bring awareness to farm worker rights.

The Black Eagle Wines website describes their 2000 Merlot, 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, and 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Web 2.0 Expo

2008-03-07T06:59:00.001-06:00

The second Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco takes the pulse of the Web ecosystem and looks to its future, training a spotlight across the Web 2.0 universe to illuminate how the Internet Revolution is being created and delivered. Web 2.0 Expo is for the builders of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists, people who have experiences to share and a passion for learning--the hot new thing, lessons from failures, innovations and inspirations, and the practical applications of all of the above.

Click on the button below to learn more about the conference.

Amazon Wine?

2008-03-05T10:04:00.005-06:00

No, not wine from the Amazon, or wine from Hyppolyta and her crew...

...instead, plans from Amazon.com ("the world's largest online retailer") to enter the wine market.

Read full article here from the Financial Times.

SoBe Wine & Food Fest

2008-02-22T13:36:00.002-06:00

Ready for the seventh "Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival" showcasing wine producers, chefs, and foodies? It is hosted by Southern Wine & Spirits of Florida and Florida International University (FIU) to benefit FIU's Teaching Restaurant and the Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center, both located at FIU. Make sure your bring "the official card" or deep pockets!

The technology behind VitSmarter

2008-01-04T14:09:00.001-06:00

Go now to Vitsmarter

VitSmarter is here!!

2008-01-04T14:06:00.000-06:00

Smarter Vineyard Management Software

The free, online, and easiest way to manage wine growing! VitSmarter helps you increase quality. Additional benefits include greater uniformity, cost savings, and better operations. You don't have to buy new computers, install any software, or hire additional staff. We take care of the bits and bytes so you can focus on the vines. VitSmarter takes a fresh, simple approach to vineyard management. Our tools help you spend more time where it matters; in the field with your grapes. Go to VitSmarter now!

PBS | The Grapes of Math

2007-12-19T09:42:00.000-06:00

Tonight's episode of PBS' Wired Science will skim the surface of the use of technology and science in the vineyard/winery (see "The Grapes of Math" preview below). It should be an interesting program.

What do you think?

Paris Hilton's Wine-in-a-Can

2007-12-13T09:13:00.000-06:00

Here's one for the purists...

Made from the "noble prosecco grape," the sparkling wine in a can is described as the "...perfect 'starter drink' for your night or a special pleasure as a reward at the end of the day."

Full story here.

YouTube video here.

Enjoy!

WineCommune on BusinessWeek

2007-12-11T10:51:00.000-06:00

BusinessWeek profiles WineCommune. I enjoyed reading how they got their start. Read here.

Melbourne Food & Wine Fest

2007-12-10T09:11:00.000-06:00

Over 140 events are planned for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (Feb 22 to March 8, 2008). Billed as "the largest of its kind anywhere in the world," it promises events like the world's longest lunch... More details here.

Grape Varieties?

2007-11-21T11:02:00.000-06:00

Similar to last question; is there a definitive list of grape varieties? We appreciate your feedback as a comment to this post.

Appellation, AVA, Denominazione...

2007-10-09T15:49:00.001-05:00

We want your thoughts on the best source by country/region to define the terroir. France has the "Appellation d’origine contrôlée" governed by INAO; and the USA has the "American Viticulture Areas" approved by the TTB. Is there a definitive list of appellations, AVAs, etc? Please post your replies as comments.

VitSmarter Coming Soon!

2007-10-02T10:36:00.001-05:00

We are weeks away from the Beta launch of VitSmarter - the free and easiest way to manage grape growing online. Please contact us if you would like to participate in the Beta Program.

eSkye Sold!

2007-10-02T10:12:00.000-05:00

Constellation Software Inc., a Canadian firm that provides software and services to a variety of industries, announced on October 1 that it has completed the acquisition of the business assets of California-based eSkye Software, LLC.

See the CSI press release here.

“The acquisition of eSkye’s winery software division provides CHS and Constellation the opportunity to enter a new vertical market and apply our proven operational models and strategies” said Bernard Anzarouth, VP, Business Development of Constellation. “While not a large platform acquisition by Constellation standards we are excited that we have been able to establish a toehold in yet another interesting vertical market."

No Match Program on Hold

2007-10-01T21:59:00.000-05:00

A U.S. federal court judge today extended an order preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from launching their program to root out illegal immigrants in the nation's workforce.

Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for Northern California, after a two-hour hearing, extended a temporary restraining order for 10 days while he prepares a decision on the legality of the department's efforts.

Breyer's order also blocked the Social Security Administration (SSA) from sending out 140,000 letters to employers with employees whose names don't match their Social Security numbers.

Full Reuters story here.

Key Biscayne Wine Tasting

2007-09-28T08:14:00.000-05:00

We're happy to announce the 3rd Annual Key Biscayne Wine Tasting will be held on Wednesday, October 10th from 6-9 PM in Key Biscayne. The evening’s proceeds will benefit the Key Biscayne Rotary Club Foundation, Key Biscayne Community Foundation, and its affiliated charities.

Southern Wine & Spirits of South Florida is sponsoring the event, and providing the opportunity to sample wines from California, South Africa, Italy, Autralia, and France. Click here for more information.

Happy Birthday Google!

2007-09-27T08:54:00.000-05:00

Ok, not related to viticulture, but definitely relevant to technology... and probably many other things we do (and google).

The http://www.google.com/ domain was registered in 1997 and the company was launched one year later. Although the exact date changes, Google has recently stuck to the 9/27 date, when it displays a special doodle on the search page.

[Funny. The doodle serves to remind me that I have one week before my anniversary... Thanks Google; and happy BD!]

Social Operating System?

2007-09-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

Here is a new one: Social Operating System. SOS?

I usually think of Microsoft or Mac whenever I hear OS. The Bay Partners' press release announcing the AppFactory program to develop Facebook applications referred to the Facebook platform as a new "social operating system" (Facebook countered with the FB Fund - another topic for discussion).

The promise of a Facebook Economy worth billions of dollars is sure to lure more developers -- in addition to 30 million users as of 7/10/2007.

Is this hype? Not sure. I'm too busy figuring out how to manage winegrape quality using Facebook.

Bullish US Wine Executives

2007-09-19T09:34:00.000-05:00

Robert Smiley, from UC-Davis' Graduate School of Management, released his annual report on the state of the US wine industry at the Wine Industry Financial Symposium.

The survey found respondents optimistic about the state of the industry, given the growth of the US wine market. It also found exectives concerned about the long-term impact of climate change.

[See the UC-Davis press releases for 2007, 2006, and 2005 for the evolution of optimism].

I hope the good news will prompt some of the participants to (1) explore the increased competition from markets whose domestic markets are shrinking, and (2) focus on immediate actions to understand and mitigate climate change.

No time to be complacent.

Friday Funny

2007-09-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

Harvest now; immigration later...

2007-09-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

Growers do not have to worry about becoming the enforcement arm of immigration policy, yet.

The US Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arm issued a rule called the "Safe-Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter" which was to take effect on 9/14/2007.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a temporary restraining order against the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration (SSA) which enjoins and restrains those agencies from implementing the aforementioned rule. A hearing to consider an injunction that would extend this stay is scheduled for 10/12007.

This is a good time to learn more about the implications of this rule.

One of the most compreshensive sites I've found is UC Berkeley's Agricultural Personnel Management Program. Their procedures page offers links to SSA, ICE, US District courts, and broader analyses of of the regulation.

Another great resource is AgSafe.org, a non-profit coalition that is holding informational sessions on the regulation throughout California (Napa, Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Fresno).

Wine Wedge*

2007-09-05T04:34:00.001-05:00

A buddy gave me a "Wine Wedge" set. I thought I'd toss them in our kitchen's catch-all drawer, until my wife pointed to the four bottles of wine cluttering the counter. (She probably wanted them put away; I thought she was suggesting I should lay them flat).

I don't think wedges are going to put the cellar-builders out of business, but they do make for a practical "on-the-fly" solution to stack wine bottles on the kitchen counter, or in the fridge.

Kudos to the folks that made a simple and practical solution that taps into our desire to stack things, like bottles, into pyramids.

*Not wedgie, mind you - though here is a good one from Scrubs on YouTube.

Geek IQ?

2007-09-04T09:09:00.000-05:00

OK Mensas and Mensos! Test your Geek IQ with this online quiz from InfoWorld. Questions range from the easy:

What celebrity on this list co-founded a still-functioning Internet business? (William Shatner, Al Gore, or Alyssa Milano)

...to the ones that remind me of high school...

Given two water faucets, one hot and one cold, and one bucket. The hot water fills the empty bucket in eight minutes. The cold water fills the bucket in seven minutes. Then I make a hole in the bucket such that the full bucket drains in four minutes. Now take the empty bucket, with the hole, and place under both faucets together. Turn on the hot and cold water at the same time. How long does it take to fill the bucket halfway?

Enjoy!

Busting Vineyard Myths | Franson

2007-08-29T10:37:00.000-05:00

Here is an awesome article by Paul Franson written in Wines & Vines summarizing a recent ASEV conference entitled, "Busting Wine Myths."

Some of the myths Franson mentions:

- Dropping fruit concentrates the rest;

- Vertical positioning improves quality;

- Deficit irrigation improves quality.

If any kind reader has a link to these presentations or white papers, please let us know!

Miami Int'l Wine Fair

2007-08-26T09:02:00.000-05:00

Did you know Florida's wine industry is a $1.8 billion market?

The 6th Annual Miami International Wine Fair will open its doors at the Miami Beach Convention Center to thousands of wine trade professionals and avid wine aficionados during the second weekend of September 2007. The event is presented by Infiniti and will benefit the American Red Cross.

This has become one of my favorite events to find boutique wineries from around the world. See you there!

Business 2.0 | Fred Franzia

2007-08-24T14:03:00.000-05:00

"The Next Disruptors" is the Business 2.0 cover story for September 2007. Coincidentally (?), page 84 has an article by Joel Stein entitled, "Two Buck Chuck Takes a Bite Out of Napa." The article's intro:

"Fred Franzia, the man behind America's favorite bargain vino, has a big mouth and an even bigger winemaking empire -one that's scaring the bejeezus out of his elitist rivals."

Check out the article (interesting contrast to this May 2006 article in Inc.). As the fourth largest US wine company, Bronco Wine Company is a quite a force.

Skype Lessons

2007-08-22T07:20:00.000-05:00

Last week's downtime of Skype's VOIP service was a great reminder to consumers that we have options that could quickly replace faulty service... and to vendors that consumers can quickly replace faulty service!

Huh?

Simple. When we figured out on Friday that we could not communicate via Skype with our developers in Mexico City, we quickly switched to GoogleTalk (available as a gadget, too) and carried on with business.

Skype alternatives such as Gizmo, GrandCentral, and Jajah all reported a nice uptick in business. According to Alexa, traffic to Gizmo tripled in three days, and GrandCentral hit a four-week high. Jajah reported a 50 percent increase in user registrations following the Skype outage.

We've returned to Skype, though I don't expect all of our customers will be as forgiving if we suffer a similar outage. Gotta stay on our toes!

Growers as Homeland Security Agents?

2007-08-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

One more thing to worry about.

Employers, including many grapegrowers, are now the link between immigration compliance and the Social Security Administration.

Under the Department of Homeland Security's August 10th reforms, employers are liable for fraudulent documents and must fire employees unable to clear up problems with their Social Security numbers. Employers who fail to comply will face fines and sanctions.

In the past, the Social Security Administration (SSA) sent employers a "no match letter" to inform employers of discrepancies between an employee's name and Social Security Number. These letters are now considered constructive knowledge for an employer to conclude that the employee lacks legal status --and follow procedures to resolve the mismatch, or terminate the employee.

See this summary from Saqui and Raimondo for more detail.

Doddaballapur Wine

2007-08-17T08:49:00.000-05:00

A New York Times article ("India’s Whiskey-Drinking Elite Make Room for Wine") reminded me to look up the name of a wine a techie-friend tried on a trip to Bangalore, India.

The recommendation was for Grover Vineyards La Reserve, a Cabernet Sauvignon / Syrah blend made by a family that has been growing winegrapes in India for nearly twenty years.

Grover Vineyards seems to be doing quite well. They've been advised by Michel Rolland since 1995, affiliated with Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin of France since 1996, and have grown to nearly ~200 acres.

Flat world...

Harvest is Coming!

2007-08-14T17:29:00.000-05:00

The nice folks at Cork Board have a nice entry on "Five ways you can tell the annual grape harvest is near."

We have a list from the Vitechculture (viticulture + technology) perspective... which really becomes different interpretations of the "deer in the headlights" look of our grapegrowing friends.

Why? They're trying to figure out -using our application, calculators, papers, and toes- when to harvest what... Our report, dubbed the "o5heet" (for obvious reasons), tells many of our users what their gut has told them all season; you can't process twenty tons if you have the capacity for five...

In any case, this is a great time to write about our users, as most of them don't have time to read silly blogs. They're too busy using the application at 2:42 AM on Monday morning trying to sort out where the crews and bins need to be. Read email? Answer the phone? Sleep? Fuggedaboutit!

So, if you see any of these brave and disoriented souls in the next few weeks, offer them some coffee, walk them back to their trucks, and point 'em back to the vineyards...

SLWC Sold!

2007-08-01T14:38:00.000-05:00

Wow!

Warren Winiarski announced on Monday the sale of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars to a joint venture between Marchese Antinori and UST, Inc (NYSE UST), owners of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. The $185 million sale price was disclosed yesterday.

The acquisition, although characterized as a small by Reuters, is big news in the wine industry. It is also the most surprising sale, following similar news this week from Duckhorn Wine Company and William Hill Estate.

For greater detail, please see this article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Da Wine!

2007-07-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

A Chitown buddy of mine recently gave us a bottle of 2005 Mike Ditka's "Kick Ass Red," made in partnership with the Mendocino Wine Company.

I won't offend our readers with my simplistic review of the wine. Instead, I point you to a January 2007 blind tasting by the Chicago Sun Times of the 2004 Mike Ditka Kick Ass Red against a 1998 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon.

Is this fair?

It is when you consider the "unbiased" panel included columnists Mark Brown, Elliot Harris, David Roeder, and Paige Wiser. The 50-50 vote leads us to one conclusion; you'll have to try Da Wine! yourself...

The truth about blogging

2007-07-27T10:06:00.000-05:00

From Hugh McLeod on GapingVoid

Windows Vista | Our Take

2007-07-25T15:36:00.000-05:00

Some of our users are asking us if they should upgrade to MicroSoft Windows Vista, so I guess it is time we weighed in on the evolutionary (though not necessarily revolutionary) product that was five years in the making and has been available for nine months...

BOTTOM LINE

If you need a new PC and it comes with Windows Vista, go ahead. Otherwise, we see no reason to upgrade (especially if you have an older PC).

GOOD

Cool Mac-like user interface;
Better stability, fewer crashes;
Improved security.

NOT SO GOOD

Costly ($200 - $400 depending on version);
Hefty hardware requirements (you might need a new PC);
Some compatibility issues with non MS applications;
Lots of little enhancements, but no single compelling reason to upgrade from Windows XP;

BTW - here is a funny tutorial on installing Windows Vista.

CNN Money | Entrepreneurial Vintners

2007-07-25T08:34:00.000-05:00

I was happy to see a CNN Money.com article yesterday featuring two of my favorite CA wine producers: Hall Wines and Michael-David Vineyards. Read article here.

The article described the advantages of operating a small wineries. I particularly liked the emphasis that both groups place on grassroots marketing.

A visit to the Hall Wines website shows how a small winery can have a huge presence on the web. Another strategy is explained by David Phillips, "We're constantly on the road, spreading the message."

Good luck to both, and keep making great wine!

RethinkCompliance.com

2007-07-19T12:34:00.000-05:00

Inertia Beverage Group (IBG) announced the development of a FREE web-based compliance tool for the wine industry (click here to read the announcement in Forbes).

IBG's "Rethink Compliance Tool" will lower the barriers wineries face in shipping direct to consumers, mainly the time and expense required to comply with the rules and regulations in 50 different states. The tool will launch to the public at the end of Q3 2007. It is a web-based tool (of course) that promises greater access to wine for consumers and greater access to consumers for wineries. Way to go IBG!

Wine Industry Tech Symposium

2007-07-17T12:39:00.000-05:00

The 2007 Wine Industry Technology Symposium was held in Napa today. This year's theme was "Technology Best Practices for the Wine Industry" and it featured some interesting speakers with fascinating advice...

The CIO of FedEx Kinko's, Richard Maranville, said, "You guys are just at the beginning of using technology. If it's not something you're doing today, it's definitely something you're going to be doing tomorrow, because your competitors are doing it."

The wine industry's "shock jock," Gary Vaynerchuk* of WineLibrary.com (TV) encouraged wineries to embrace the web to find and understand wine consumers and to sell more wine. He went on to say, "Take control of your brand. Put out the information you want out there. Reach the consumer direct, so you're not at the mercy of anyone….You have to care. If you're good, you're going to win. Doing the right thing always wins."

...my unbiased summary?

"USE THE WEB TO DO THE RIGHT THING."

====

* Gary described a wine as "not obnoxiously over the top and fake as many of these types of wines are. Instead of a full face-lift and boob job and suction and all of that, maybe this just got a nose job."

Organic trumps local?

2007-07-11T11:12:00.000-05:00

The Guardian reported a University of Wales Institute in Cardiff study that found the majority of food's ecological footprint comes from food processing, storage, packaging and growing conditions. The researchers argue that a 2% of the environmental impact of food comes from food miles - the distance food travels before it reaches the consumer - and thus misses the big picture. A better system would consider all environmental impacts (e.g., land required and the amount of energy used to grow, harvest, process, package, and transport the food).

The researchers recommend that consumers should not base their choices on distance alone, as local food could have a larger footprint than food flown halfway around the world. They go on to say, "the footprint for wine is just too high."

[This assertion is supported by a 2006 study from the University of Siena which compared the conventional and organic production of Tuscan wine. This study found that a conventional farm requires twice the amount of natural resources, expressed in terms of global hectares.]

Server configuration

2007-07-02T15:42:00.000-05:00

We're optimizing our server configuration this week. Though we're doing the DNS changes during this week's Independence Day holiday and have structured the changes in such a way that the server downtime should go unnoticed by our users (given the timezones that we span, there is no "ideal" time), we still wanted to get the word out to prevent any unnecessary anxiety attacks. In addition to being fully backed up in multiple sites and on multiple media, your data is not the subject of our work and the only thing that you may notice is temporary system availability issues. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please don't hesitate to get a hold of us.

Wine social networking site

2007-06-20T17:04:00.000-05:00

We want to send a shout out to the folk at the newly released Wine & Spirits Industry Forum, where "for a short introductory period" you can get a 3-month Premium Membership for free (your other options are $199/quarter or lurker).

Though we foresee some future changes to their business model, we are happy to see initiatives that bring more folk in our industry into the new millennium.

Good luck guys!

Released | House of Mondavi Book

2007-06-20T01:35:00.000-05:00

"The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty" was released today (see Amazon listing). Described as "an epic, scandal-plagued story that built—and then spectacularly lost—a global wine empire." Should be an interesting tale of family politics and wine industry's consolidation.

Read an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal. Also, the folks on The Cork Board posted a great interview with author Julia Flynn Siler.

Delivery of Software as a service

2007-06-14T10:49:00.000-05:00

Webware now threatens traditional software according to The McKinsey Quarterly article entitled: Delivering software as a service. Based on some solid research, the article points out how the SaaS model is increasingly a growing priority for many CIOs an VCs.

This is, of course, great news for those of us who have embraced the principles oftentimes encompassed in the term "Web 2.0"; and, conversely, a challenge for software developers who refuse to modernize.

But the authors also point out that it's not a stroll in the park for the SaaS providers:

The next frontier —we might call it software as a service 2.0— will include new classes of applications which are actually better suited for online delivery and seamlessly integrate with on-premise applications.

Based on this news and on our tireless efforts to bring viticulture into a new era, we've decided to build a list of SaaS providers who cater to the wine industry. If you (or someone you know) offers webware useful to vineyard and winery operations, please send us a quick e-mail referring us to your web site - we'll make sure to include you in our list. Stay tuned for the publication of this list...

On sustainability

2007-06-12T09:33:00.000-05:00

We got some very interesting feedback on the green/biodynamic posts (1 and 2). They ranged from skepticism, through cautious optimism to nonchalant dismissal of the controversy. Thanks to Matt, Paul W, Jared, Debby Z, Paul M, and some anonymous respondents.

For several years I’ve been involved in the field (as in: “the trenches”) of sustainable use of natural resources – from aquaculture to silviculture (and just about everything in between). In this time, I’ve seen first-hand some of the impacts of these practices on the environment, but, more importantly, on business results.

Based on my experience, the adoption of environmentally-friendly processes improves operational efficiency and financial sustainability. My big question is whether or not my experience applies to vineyard operations.

Here’s a classic example: in forestry, many loggers still clear cut the Amazon jungle to arrive at the species of tree they want to fell, leaving the resulting “waste” to rot or burn (sometimes usefully as compost or fuel, but oftentimes, just detritus). This requires the use of multiple teams of chain saw operators, spotter, skidders, trucks, etc. – when you factor in diesel and salaries, it becomes a huge tab. On the other hand, once an operation has geo-tagged species, mapped the trees, and planned their harvest, one crew has the same productivity in logs per day of the first example, without the environmental cost, AND has reduced direct costs by close to 90%. Of course, switching costs from one to the other aren’t trivial: GPS hardware, species census, precision mapping, planning, GIS and all the required training has an upfront cost, which is why we still see a lot of clear cutting in the Amazon basin, but, based on my interviews with folk in the field, this cost is recovered in the first year!

I can quote similar examples in other fields (shrimp farms, coffee, quinoa, babasú, etc), but won’t bore you with the details.

Bringing the meandering discussion back to general terms, I think that the crux of the matter is that up to 60% of the world’s ecosystems have been degraded or are being used unsustainably on one hand, while on the other, there appears to be little financial incentive in the short to mid-term to correct this trend (see post 2).

For those of us that agree with Jared Diamond’s theories (neatly and convincingly explained in his book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed), it is easy to see the source of the controversy: according to the “uninitiated” masses of decision-makers, the cost of sustainable practices is not easily transferred to the market, making it financially unviable for the practitioner to adopt sustainability.

Furthermore, the very use of the term “sustainable business” (in my mind, simply: the impact of current practices and the subsequent future required remediation) is controversial. The scientific community has no clear answers, as the reported research results are couched in terms that can be discounted / misinterpreted on their conservative / probabilistic or alarmist / extremist terms. Admittedly, the scientific community has a tall order – how do you explain to the masses in clear understandable terms the behavior of a complex system without oversimplifying (which opens you up to criticism as an activist or sellout) or confusing the audience (which opens you up to misinterpretation or obscurity).

I think that, in the end analysis, as is the case with many decisions in the field of strategy, you need to find a position that sits well with the “who” and the “why” of the operation (sometimes seen in mission and vision statements), and then make it happen. I just wish more organizations were true to their “who” and “why” (so much Corporate Social Responsibility blah, blah out there), and less concerned with justifying the “how”. I guess that I just concluded that the customer doesn’t matter. Hmm…

Auction Napa Valley

2007-06-11T10:34:00.000-05:00

Last weekend marked the 27th Auction Napa Valley, raising more than $9.8 million during the annual four-day event. Proceeds fund non-profit initiatives in healthcare, youth services, and affordable housing...

My wife and I had the pleasure of attending a couple events, including friday's Taste Napa Valley, featuring some of the region's best restaurants and vintners. Hats off to Thomas Keller (French Laundry) who was quite amused (and a wonderful sport) when my wife refused to sample his food; and Mike Grgich (Grgich Hills) who commended my wife for her wonderful taste in wine... ...and then looked at me as if to say that her choice in men could be improved...

Saturday's live auction was impressive. The highlight was Lot 24 "Return to the Roots---The Best of Napa and Italy" from Staglin Family Vineyards - comprised of wine, a six-day driving trip in Italy with the Staglins, and a Maserati. Congratulations to the anonymous couple from Woodside, CA who placed the winning bid!

SFDC...

2007-06-04T17:24:00.000-05:00

We’ve been Salesforce.com users for the better part of a year now and are very happy with how it helps us with our CRM. Lately, however, we’ve become even more intimate with SFDC while working with their AppExchange platform. The “On-Demand Business Applications” not only provide some great webware for running any company (with the characteristically low TCO of the SaaS model, PLUS the ability to do some pretty creative mash-ups), the application builder is very straight forward – with a little process knowledge, anyone could easily put together some great applications. It’s like Google for companies.

Lean IT

2007-05-31T11:40:00.001-05:00

I just received a great article on Applying lean to application development and maintenance from the folk at The MacKinsey Quarterly.

The authors apply Lean Manufacturing concepts to Application Development Maintenance.

Feel free to contact us if you need more ideas on how to improve your IT ROI.

E PLURIBUS VINUM

2007-05-31T11:32:00.000-05:00

On May 30, 2007, CAWG declared independence as a country – One Nation Under Vines - where life is grape, citizens have the right to bear vines and Arnold Schwarzenegger can be president.

Naturally, it is a marketing campaign that is differentiating California grapes on the basis of growing conditions, experience and sustainable growing practices make a difference in creating world-class wines,

What do you think?

Visit One Nation Under Vines for more information.

Customer, always right?

2007-05-29T18:21:00.000-05:00

Following up on my last post on the subject, here's a headline that hurts: Consumers don't care about organic, Fairtrade or biodynamic wine.

So the science-based growers think it's bunk and the consumers don't care, what gives?

Salesforce Developer Conference

2007-05-29T09:39:00.000-05:00

We attended another great event by Salesforce.com ((NYSE = CRM) on 5/21; the Salesforce Developer Conference in Santa Clara. The day kicked off with a series of presentations by Marc Benioff and Parker Harris describing the vision, some solution AppExchange examples (the Adobe Apollo demo was pretty neat), and the keynote by Guy Kawasaki. As always, his presentation was both funny and insightful (and available online).

We spoke with some Salesforce techies and fans... and are getting pretty geeked about the Salesforce platform and the potential it holds for webware!

Most peculiar, however, was Salesforce's "cautious approach" about Google. They showed off some integration with Google Apps (REALLY COOL), but they had a weird vibe about it...

Something in the works?

Snap Shots™

2007-05-23T11:26:00.000-05:00

I just added Snap Shots™ to our blog (it took me all of 3 minutes to complete!). Basically, when you hover over a link, you'll get a preview without having to navigate away from the site - you can confirm that the link is of interest before you load a new page or tab in your browser.

The interesting part is that it is a "smart" preview - it displays the content that you really want to verify. For instance, when you hover over a link to wikipedia (say, the definition of Web 2.0), a link to Google finance (say Microsoft's latest NASDAQ performance), or a link to IMDb (say the latest news on Pirates of the Caribbean) you just get the right content. It works with a whole host of platforms, so check out Shots Central for more info.

How cool is that?!

Pest Moth in Napa

2007-05-17T09:28:00.000-05:00

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have confirmed the detection of a single adult light brown apple moth on May 9 in a residential area of Napa.

The Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) is an exotic pest that can affect a wide variety of plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables. The insect feeds on over 250 plant species, including eucalyptus, apple, oak, willow and grapes. The larvae will feed on grape clusters, increasing botrytis infections. It can be controlled using Bt (Bacillus thuringensis bacteria) insecticides and insect growth regulators.

The moth has recently been discovered in other areas of the San Francisco Bay Area. Agricultural officials have established a quarantine including portions of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin and Santa Clara counties. The quarantine is expected to expand soon due to more recent detections of the pest in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties.

SB 556, a proposed bill introduced by California State Senator Patricia Wiggins (D – Santa Rosa) to address the potential threat posed by the LBAM was approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Widgets & Gadgets

2007-05-17T09:21:00.001-05:00

No we're not talking Econ 101... these are new buzzwords for pretty cool publishing tools. Don't worry, we'll help you make sense of 'em. This is an example of a widget.

Widgetbox makes it REALLY easy to make and publish to myspace, blogger, facebook, google, and more.

It should also help make sense of the video we blogged about in this entry on April 26.

Salesforce in Santa Clara

2007-05-16T21:05:00.000-05:00

We are headed to the the Salesforce Developer Conference in Santa Clara next week. It promises to be a busy day with the usual presentations. We're most excited about the chance to talk with like-minded webware developers, as well as a chance to play with cool AppExchange solutions.

See you there!

NO DWT in WA!

2007-05-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

The Seattle Times reported the crackdown on DWT - Driving While Texting - in Washington State. Under the new laws, drivers who read and compose text messages or talk on a cell phone without a hands-free device could face a $101 ticket.

Neither offense will be enough to get a driver pulled over by the police, but we think it is a good start.

Just for the record, we discourage any attempt to Grow Smarter While Driving (GSWT)!

Growers Investing in Vineyard Technology

2007-05-16T09:42:00.000-05:00

54 % of the wine growers and vintners responding to the 2007 Vineyard Economics Seminar Survey said technology is the most important area of their business that will require additional investment over the next three years.

These results were presented yesterday at the The Wine Industry Symposium Group's 12th Annual Vineyard Economics Seminar. A summary is also found here on the Wine Business Monthly website, and in the most recent edition of the publication.

Powdery Mildew & Botrytis

2007-05-16T09:21:00.000-05:00

The nice folks at Winery Exchange have posted a couple maps from Terra Spase illustrating:

See their notes on the Gubler-Thomas Powdery Mildew Index, as well as the Broome Botrytis Risk Index.

Profitable promotions

2007-05-15T13:55:00.000-05:00

I just got the link to this very interesting article on sales promotions from the MIT Sloan Management Review that some of the folk selling wine may find useful: "Any sales promotion worth its salt will increase sales, but creating a profitable promotion is more difficult."

Among various other examples, the article compares GM's 2005 "Employee Discount for Everyone" summer pricing promotion (quickly copied by Ford and Chrysler), to the Cadillac Under Five challenge which aired during the Superbowl (following the promotion, sales of the Cadillac V-series jumped 25%!).

Based on the results of their research, the authors propose three features of successful (profitable) sales promotions:

It provides the sponsor with a period of exclusivity because it precludes or delays imitation but encourages quick buyer response.
It does not rely on discounting alone, but communicates something about the company, the brand, or the specific goods or services offered.
It is launched by companies that have some differential advantage in the marketplace already.

Especially important, in my view, is creating the opportunity for the buyer to respond easily and quickly to the promotion - and here's where the web can really help out...

IT as a source of competitive advantage?

2007-05-09T10:10:00.001-05:00

The most recent McKinsey Quarterly article on IT Strategy (The next frontier in IT strategy) reports the results of a survey of 72 senior IT Executives in North America: "IT executives say that they are now helping to shape business strategy but need to improve their ability to tap innovation."

The authors propose that the focus of a company's IT strategy should not only span several years, but should be a proactive part of the formulation of business strategy - evolving from a simple support of business needs by taking into consideration technology trends and the competitive landscape.

I guess I wasn't all too surprised to see that the survey respondents gave their IT strategy lowest points in harnessing emerging technology and taking into account competitors' IT capabilities. They didn't rate themselves very highly in introducing new technology, as compared to the competition, either.

How do you feel about the role IT plays in your organization?

IT Change Control

2007-05-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

One of the major things about our service that goes unnoticed is our change control process (good scenario found here). This is a key element of our IT operations that helps us keep track of who did what ...where... when... and why...

It seems a little silly, but this is one of the cornerstones of our security, as well as our ability to provide uninterrupted service. Like our users, I rarely think about it --but now that I am, kudos to our development team for maintaining this best practice!

Green wine?

2007-05-03T14:43:00.000-05:00

I'm no viticulture expert, but given that we do get some requests from a couple of our users to include moon phases in our application calendar, for instance, I was wondering about the general consensus in the community.

From what I understand, there will be more of these kinds of requests for us to include biodynamics in the winegrowing practices we support through our webware.

I know articles like this one are quite controversial, given the lack of scientific support for many of the practices that biodynamic growers adhere to, but there is a growing niche for grapes grown "in tune" with the environment. If the growth in this type of demand follows the organic market or alternative medicine trends, why would you NOT follow Mike Benzinger's example?

What do you think?

Hold the Water

2007-04-30T23:43:00.000-05:00

Here's one from the archives.

In April 2006, Mark Greenspan wrote a nice article on Vineyard Water Management Fallacies in Wine Business Monthly.

He urged us to resist the temptation to irrigate in June when the temperature begins to warm up, and to stress the vines by avoid giving them too many resources. He goes on to explain the importance of the pressure bomb and the porometer, and gives a nod to soil moisture monitoring (our Australian partners will be glad to hear this).

Glyphosate-Resistant Horseweed

2007-04-27T09:09:00.000-05:00

Garrett Buckland made us aware of a new article from California Agriculture on a weeds resistant to glyphosate herbicides (e.g., Roundup).

The authors suggest developing an integrated program to prevent the onset of herbicide resistance in horseweed. They go on to recommend adopting a resistance management strategy for this weed in glyphosate-resistant crops.

Click here for the full report.

Tech controversies

2007-04-27T09:01:00.000-05:00

A friend of ours in Australia pointed out this post from the Capozzi Winery Blog about Precision Viticulture (PV). I like it because in very few lines (and some comments), Josh manages to summarize the whole techie vs. farmer controversy quite well.

Contrary to "popular" belief, as Josh argues, the use of technology is all about winegrowers spending the optimal amount of time out in the vineyard. We all agree that Quality Time with the vines is the principal key success factor to great grapes.

As such, we'd believe that the use of PV (and our webware) actually lessens the amount of time a farmer needs to spend in front of the computer (or in an office), freeing up time to for you to spend in your boots, thinking about and making the important viticultural decisions - how much time are you spending putting together your Pesticide Use Report (PUR), for instance?

Where's the controversy?

BUY software?

2007-04-27T08:49:00.000-05:00

Buying software is expensive, and so _______ (pick one: antiquated, antique, archaic, dated, dowdy, fusty, old-time, outdated, outmoded, out-of-date, passé).

The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-04-26T22:03:00.000-05:00

We attended the Web 2.0 expo last week in San Francisco. We'll post more about the sessions we attended... but we thought we'd share a cool video entitled "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" from Michael Wesch. He is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology Kansas State University (should we worry?) - Enjoy!

PS The video was first released on YouTube on 1/31/07 and broadcast at the Web 2.0 Expo on 4/16/07.

Email Bankruptcy!

2007-04-26T10:22:00.000-05:00

Alex and I recently traveled for ten days, and only replied to urgent email. Upon our return, we spent a good part of this week sorting through pending email.

Here are three suggestions, in increasing severity, that might free you from email administrivia and any guilt associated with knowing you are getting buried by email while you sleep:

Batch your email time. Let everyone know that you will only check email twice a day, at specific intervals.
Take a Sabbatical. You might want to reserve this one for Harvest. Let your contacts know (use autoresponse) that "...due to Harvest, there is a possibility you may never reply to your email. Please call my mobile phone to discuss urgent matters: (xxx) xxx-xxxx."
Declare Email Bankruptcy. Lawrence Lessig (a well-known internet visionary) in a now famous note, coined the term when he declared: “Dear person who sent me a yet-unanswered e-mail, I apologize, but I am declaring e-mail bankruptcy.” He noted that he had spent two work weeks sorting through unanswered email, and determined that he would not be able to catch up.

I'll let you guys know if Alex stops responding to my email. :-)

NVG | Ahead of the Curve

2007-04-25T00:38:00.000-05:00

Our friends at the Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG) held the first annual "Ahead of the Curve" on April 19. I found two presentations fascinating:

Bill Cascio, from Glazer Family of Companies, described the Global Luxury Wine Market and concluded the following: "The wine industry is changing fast from a highly fragmented supply driven agribusiness to a competitive professional luxury brand building beverage industry."

Bill closed his session with a couple recommendations, including:

Accept the reality that you compete with the global wine world.
Proceed cautiously and conservatively with price increases. Add value.
All tiers need to raise the game to enhance our US share.

Paul Wagner, from Balzac Communications, focused on strategies and tacticst to market your vineyard (stand out from the crowd). I particularly liked his thoughts on what makes you special:

If you can’t explain this in seven words or less, you will not be successful.
It has to be in terms that your customers care about.
It has to be about quality
It has to be true.

Kudos to the NVG for such an insightful session!

Wine 2.0 | June 1, 2007

2007-04-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

Hot off the press! This year's Wine 2.0 event will be held on June 1st at Club Sportiva in San Francisco.

Wine 2.0 is a wine industry networking group featuring the newest generation of emerging companies, services and communication tools that are changing the world of wine. Participating players are using technology to change the way wine is made, marketed, communicated about or sold.

Mark your calendars; See you there!

El Mundo Web 2.0

2007-04-23T14:14:00.000-05:00

El uso de la tecnología Web sigue en aumento y ahora tenemos el llamado Web 2.0. No se trata de nueva tecnología si no de una actitud: crear aplicaciones realmente interactivas con el usuario y que sean de muy fácil uso.

Muchos de nosotros siempre hemos trabajado asi, utilizando metodologias y estandares para hacer los proyectos de esta manera. Lo mas chistoso es encontrar a un Guey 2.0 que se sorprenda que en Mexico trabajamos asi. ... con equipos en Chicago, y clientes desde California a Australia.

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Free yourself (+ your budget)

2007-04-14T14:48:00.000-05:00

We recently found an article by David Terrar about the savings in the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) that webware provides over traditional software. Though it's almost 6 months old, I think the message bears repeating. I agree with David in that one of the key values that webware brings to its users, in addition to the financial aspects (TCO), is that it liberates them to concentrate on their core activity and leaves the technology to folk (like us) whose core activity is software. Thus, if you're into spending some Quality Time with your vines and grapes (and eventually, wine), why would you want to spend so much time worrying about install versions, bug patches, servers, or disaster recovery?

RAID 1

2007-04-03T18:04:00.000-05:00

Otra tema genial en nuestro servidor es que cuenta con RAID 1, este sistema permite tener una copia espejo de todo el servidor, permitiendo restablecer el sistema de inmediato en caso de falla, tomando el disco duro dañado y remplazándolo con uno que este en buen funcionamiento y una vez instalado se copiará en forma automática del que esta en funcionamiento, esto también es uno de los servicios de nuestro proveedor HOSTWAY.

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New Monitoring Tool

2007-04-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

Terminamos una nueva herramienta de control, que verifica periódicamente que cada uno de los servicios que administramos funcione correctamente. Si hay un problema con cualquiera de ellos, la herramienta notifica vía email a tres de nuestros administradores.

Además genera un reporte de todas las revisiones, el cual se puede consultar vía web por nuestros "vitechcultores."

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RAM Upgrade = Powerful Engine

2007-04-03T17:27:00.000-05:00

La verdad con los ocho procesadores y los 4Gb de RAM, estamos con un superserver genial. La ultima vez que trabaje con una máquina similar, de 8 procesadores también, con 3Gb de RAM y que tenía 4 sistemas operativos instalados a la vez, era porque era una empresa multinacional con X usuarios y Z ubicaciones, así también por hardware nos mantenemos a la vanguardia. Y por supuesto esto proporciona un servicio de punta a nuestros usuarios.

(X y Z son valores muy altos) TRANSLATE TO ENGLISH

Don't Run with Scissors

2007-04-03T14:03:00.000-05:00

We all know a good password prevents unauthorized use of our systems. Unfortunately, all the other precautions you take to safeguard your data are only as strong as your weakest link, which might be your password scheme.

Here are some suggestions we recently shared with one of our clients.

Change passwords frequently;
Use at least eight characters, including numbers and symbols;
Use different passwords to avoid a larger security breach;
Avoid using words you can find in a dictionary (these are easier to crack);
Don’t use combinations of your personal information (like your child’s name and birth date).

And from the “don’t run with scissors” category: Set up a new user if you need someone to access your data while you go on vacation… with webware, you don't have to share your system, much less leave your user name and passwords written on a post-it note on your PC monitor.

Disaster Recovery Plan?

2007-03-30T09:25:00.000-05:00

Microsoft’s “Small Business Security Checklist” recommends various strategies to deal with the constant onslaught of viruses, the ever-present possibility of hardware failure (a hard-drive becoming damaged, for instance), and the permanent risk of hacker intrusion. In addition to a strong firewall and anti-malware software, all the files on your computer should have at least a weekly backup to a safe medium. But is this a realistic recommendation?

Honestly, when was the last time you backed up all the data on your computer or updated the virus definitions? If a thief were to break into your home or office and take everything, could you comfortably restore all your data? Would the “system restore” reflect your most recent advances? How much time would you have to dedicate to this activity to be back up and running? Most of us operate on the “auto pilot” provided by our system or trust that our IT department is on top of things – sometimes this works well, other times, it just doesn’t.

It is exactly these kinds of issues that occupy a lot of our time. Because some of world’s most distinguished winegrape growers trust us with their data, we’ve hosted the application and database with Hostway in Chicago, where our data is written simultaneously on redundant drives (if one stops working, the other kicks in seamlessly). We have the latest in virus detection and control; a state-of-the-art firewall, and work meticulously at username and password integrity. We do daily backups in Chicago and weekly/monthly back ups to multiple mediums (hard drives that are off line, DVDs, CD-ROMs) in multiple offsite locations.

Our users don’t have to worry about the latest virus or about a recent breakout of hacker activity; they don’t have to worry about natural or man-made disasters; they don’t have to install and maintain software on their computers to use our application all they need, as is the case with most on-demand software (aka webware), is an Internet browser like Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox. Of course, they are still vulnerable to loosing or misplacing their username/password and responsible for protecting their machines from attack, but even if someone took over their computer, their data would still be safely ensconced in one of our multiple backups. Can you say that of your information?

Our users don’t even have to worry about updating their version of PremiereVision with the latest functionality or bug fixes – we do it for them on a continuous basis – this frees up their IT support staff to help them with real issues. Our philosophy is to liberate our users from technology so they can focus on growing great winegrapes, supported by the right information at the right time.

As an aside (it’s just begging to be said), reflecting the trust that has been deposited in us, we NEVER do anything with the data unless we receive a specific request to do so from the owners of said data. No exceptions.

RAM Upgrade

2007-03-29T16:57:00.000-05:00

El día de hoy aumentamos nuestra memoria RAM. El incremento a 4GB de RAM nos permite ofrecer servicios adicionales sin la preocupación de límites de memoria. Adicionalmente, nuestro equipo es veloz gracias a sus ocho procesadores.

Esta es una gran ventaja de utilizar un proveedor como Hostway. Nosotros evaluamos el performance de nuestros sistemas cuidadosamente, y cuando queremos mejorar la capacidad podemos hacerlo en cuestión de minutos... y económicamente.

En pocas palabras, si pensamos en los hamsters que corren en los sistemas, muchas empresas tratan de engordarlos y pedirles que corran rápidamente. Nuestra empresa utiliza conejos ágiles que se multiplican cuando lo necesitamos...

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Cool People & Tools

2007-03-29T14:24:00.000-05:00

I was pretty geeked when Steve Matthiasson, one of our “subject matter experts” in viticulture (he hates it when I call him a SME) graced our blog with a neat entry. One of Steve’s counterparts on the technology side is Alex Torres, a Java webware guru that has been doing magic for us since April of last year.

Naturally, I’ve been bugging him to blog about technology. He agreed… …on the condition that he’d write in Spanish, as this was most efficient.

So, with all the pomp and circumstance a blog is capable of, we are thrilled to announce Alex’ first blog… and the Google Translate utility we’re going to use for some posts…

Any risk of getting lost in translation? As long as Alex speaks in layman’s terms, the translation is pretty good.

SaaS => Webware

2007-03-28T05:34:00.000-05:00

Paul McNamara, from Coghead, raises an important point about the need to use new (accurate?) terminology to describe our exciting, web-native era. Put simply, the use of the term "software as a service" (SaaS) emphasizes the technology element (software) we want our clients to worry less about.

Does this really matter? Yes! We should not think of our amazing web capability in terms associated with stodgy technology. In Paul's words...

"When technology changes the patterns of consumption in a fundamental way, then something very important is happening. A new era is dawning and new terminology is needed. Words matter.

People are able to do things with web-based applications and information services that they simply can’t do with software that’s installed on a local machine or running in a client-server environment. And because of this, web-based applications will reach market segments that have been beyond the reach of software apps."

His analogy to the paradigm shift of phonograph records to radio is right on. Although radio enabled us to hear phonograph records over the air, to describe it as "Phonograph as a Service" (PaaS?) undermines the fundamental shift in content consumption brought on by the radio era.

So what do we call the "paradigm formerly known as software as a service"? WEBWARE (a term coined by Rafe Needleman at cnet).

Long live webware!

webware

Web 2.0 | Use & Learn

2007-03-17T20:11:00.001-05:00

I continue to field the ocassional question about "this web 2.0 thing" --so I thought I'd share a silly suggestion: watch a teenager use the internet. Yeah, I know you're busy... but take the time to discover how things have changed since you were a teenager (or twentysomething).

Ready for more discovery? Sign up for a youtube account...

Feeling daring? Sign up for myspace.

Whatever you do, do not keep your head in the sand for too long. Most of us will have to work with the new generation of internet users. More importantly, think of what our children will be exposed to... my kids (three children under five years) are already avid joost-watchers...

web 2.0

Visit Sicily via Russia

2007-03-14T15:20:00.000-05:00

I enjoy coming across real examples that the World is Flat… like this great website, SicilyWineValley.com, which promotes the Trapani wine region on Sicily's western coast. The valley's 2,460 square kilometres contain approximately 166,000 acres of vineyards and over one hundred wineries. The website does a wonderful job of guiding you through the wineries within the regions of Marsala, Erice, Alcamo, Pantelleria, and Salaparuta.

The fact that one of the curators of your virtual tour is located in Moscow is quite remarkable. Alberto Maiorana, Co-Founder and Managing Director of SicilyWineValley.com, recently moved to Russia.

That might explain the impressive photographs; it gives Alberto a piece of "home" whenever he needs it.

mini Y2K

2007-03-12T08:06:00.000-05:00

Remember the fear that computers would interpret the year 2000 as 1900?

I am happy to report that yesterday's switch to Daylight savings has gone smoothly (aside from our family's mad-dash to get the kids to school on time), and we survived what has been dubbed, "mini Y2K."

In 2005, Congress thought more early evening daylight would result in energy savings, and decided to mandate Daylight savings for the first Sunday in April -not the second Sunday in March. In some cases, some software and computer systems do not accomodate the change, and you may see manifestations of it this week (it is a good idea to confirm your appointments).

Luckily, our "software on-demand" world allowed us to verify our systems last week, and you will see everything working fine with PremiereVision. Now if only I could adjust my kids' internal clocks that easily...

Innovation process

2007-03-08T15:27:00.000-06:00

I was recently reading up on project management and came across this interesting post by Dave Garrett in which he argues that innovation should follow Whirlpool's example, using the innovation pyramid that Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter talks about in this interview. For us at Grow Smarter, the base of the pyramid (Product Replacement) happens almost daily, as we improve functionality to PremiereVision. The second tier (Marketable Innovation) requires a bit more effort as we add features following our users' suggestions. The third and fourth tier (New Products and New Business) is something we're also actively involved in - our recent development of a Grape Exchange for the Napa Valley Grapegrowers falls into this category as does some work we're doing with friends from California and Australia. Based on some of the kinds of insight that Dave Garrett highlights, we're rearranging our activities to follow a more top-down approach (as projected in the innovation pyramid, of course). Our New Business vision will help us assign resources to New Products development and Marketable Innovations, which, in turn, will help us better focus our efforts in the Product Replacement. I can hardly wait to have this conversation with our Zen viticulturist...

March Newsletter

2007-03-02T09:48:00.000-06:00

With budbreak upon us soon, we thought of a few suggestions for you.

See our March 2007 Newsletter.

Risk : Greatness

2007-02-28T18:41:00.000-06:00

Flying back from selling wine in Chicago, I have to reflect on the wine tasting I attended. Some Napa wines and some from Bordeaux. The luscious yummy wines were from California, but the interesting and balanced wines were from France, with the possible exception of an older Dominus, that could have been a Bordeaux. Chicago being a Bordeaux town, the night before I had shared way too much Bordeaux and some great steaks with the friends I was visiting. We felt great and woke up fresh. How many times have you heard this story? Part of the balance those wines have, in addition to balance in the glass, is that they work so well as part of a balanced meal, and a balanced lifestyle. The alcohol tends to be 2-3 percentage points lower than our wine. The next day at the tasting the Bordeaux snobs were complaining to me about the California wines, saying that we “just grow alcohol.” I took exception, but couldn’t defend my home as vigorously as I’d like, because the truth is that our wines are high in alcohol, and unbalanced in that respect. I think it is out number one wine fault—much more of an issue than brettanomyces or VA. We send out squeaky clean wine that still has one major fault—it’s hot and pungent with alcohol.

I sometimes think it’s a question of maturing as an industry, but our alcohol levels have gone up, not down, as we have become more successful. I don’t agree that in general the higher levels are on purpose, to raise scores, or to be more “New World” in style. I partly think that we have developed an industry-wide cellar palate that doesn’t notice the creeping alcohol levels, but I also think that many winemakers just have a hard time dealing with the high sugar levels required for ripeness. A big part of the issue is that a lot of the time we need long hang times to get ripe. As a viticulturist, I see that as the number one issue to be addressed. Different canopy practices to get different anthocyanin levels are pretty neat, and selecting the proper rootstock is important, but how to we deal with our most prominent and problematic wine fault? It is clearly a vineyard problem, as it has to do with ripeness.

One major theme keeps coming back to me. We take excessively good care of our vines. We fertilize too much, water too much, control pests too well, remove all of the competition, and generally create conditions which allow excessive photosynthesis. The soils and climate in Napa have been shown over and over again to be capable of making wines that stand with the best in the world. That fact cannot be argued. But for some reason, maybe the American nature in us, we push for healthier and better, by doing more and more. Maybe we need to have more faith in the terroir, and allow ourselves to do a little less.

A few weeds, a little mildew, some nutrient deficiency symptoms, some water stress as the grapes are ripening—these things can reduce sugar accumulation—we know this from our jug wine days. But we’re not growing sugar any more. We are growing wine, and just as with people, a healthy level of adversity builds character. Why do we need a healthy canopy at harvest? Why would we want that? Why would we not want the canopy to look a little shabby, the vines digging down into their reserves to just barely ripen the fruit, fruit that is concentrated, rich, ripe, and balanced…at 23.5 to 24.5 brix, the correct level of ripeness for all but the past few vintages.

There are lots of scientific theories for why a struggling vine makes better wine. We’ve focused on berry size, but barely scratched at the surface of the complex web of hormonal and biochemical signaling in the plant. The fact that understanding the importance of and how to manipulate the mechanical simplicity of “skin to pulp ratio” is a recent scientific achievement points to how primitive our understanding is. The grapevine is an amazingly complex chemical factory—but chemical-making carries a biological cost—there needs to be a good reason for the plant to go to the effort. Seconday metabolites help the plant deal with adversity—and so it stands to reason that some adversity means that more metabolites will be made. Roots stressed for water send signals throughout the plant telling the various parts to adapt. Genes switch on and off. The wine is getting made on a daily basis.

Managing struggling vines means that there is more risk. That is a simple fact. Trying to achieve greatness entails risk. If you stress the vines too much before harvest, and a north wind kicks in, there might be some shrivel. If you keep the water on as harvest approaches, afraid to take that risk, you may never know what the wine could have become. There is a razors edge between stress and distress. “Benign neglect” requires a closer eye and a steadier hand than does simply serving up the groceries and giving the vines everything they need. Pushing all of the buttons every time doesn’t require a lot of monitoring or record-keeping. If the groceries are being given more judiciously, the way to manage risk instead becomes more monitoring, thinking and worrying. As the saying goes, “the best fertilizer is the farmer’s footsteps.”

For some reason it has become a popular notion that vines need a green “functional” canopy to ripen the grapes. That’s true if the crop is large, and the block may not make sugar, but at a reasonable cropping level, in Napa, “making sugar” isn’t the issue. The genes that create flavors are in the berries. All the canopy is doing is making sugar. And, if it is stressed, sending hormonal signals to the fruit to get ripe. What kind of signals is a healthy green canopy sending? Signals to make green fruit?

With my vineyards, and my wines, I have been struggling with alcohol, and even while picking earlier than most, am unhappy with the levels in my wine. I want to make a rich, complex, balanced, 12.5% wine. Maybe I’ll get there. But to that end I am doing less to the vineyards. And I am feeling more challenged as a viticulturist, because I have to watch constantly to keep from going over the edge. There is more vintage variability in Bordeaux, because sometimes things don’t work out. And sometimes they achieve greatness. We have the tools and the climate to keep things from heading too far south. But if we won’t take any risk, how do we achieve greatness?

Steve Matthiasson

viticulture

Pruning Zen

2007-02-27T19:25:00.000-06:00

Here is a great excerpt from Steve Matthiasson's seasonal notes:

"The reason I prune every vine myself is because each cut requires a decision, and while there are many people who can make that decision as well as I can, there are very few who care as much as I do. On the weak vines the cuts should be low, with one bud showing, and one down at the base. This will result in less fruit for that vine. On the strong vines, the cuts should be a little higher, with two very clear and prominent buds, for more fruit. The spacing between the spurs is important, both for this season and for future seasons. The bottom bud that is left should point away from the neighboring spur, so next year's spur will be better spaced. If the spurs are too crowded, one should be removed. I space the spurs further than most pruners do, to maximize quality, even though the yields will be lower. With very weak vines, the entire cordon should be shortened. These types of decisions need to be made instinctually, since there is no time to stop and think-there are way too many vines to prune. Our 1.7 acre vineyard block has 1543 vines on it, requiring around 30 cuts per vine, or 46,000 cuts. It's a zen job, thinking, and cutting, and moving down the rows, the work taking so long that it is only after two months of spending several hours to a half day per visit that the gratification of being finished finally becomes a reality. There is a lot of work yet to come this season, but we can get help for that. The most critical job is done."

Steve Matthiasson, Winter 2006

viticulture winegrowing

User Group

2007-02-26T15:56:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful session last tuesday with some of our PremiereVision users.

As Garrett posted two weeks ago, our goal was to have users share their experiences, and to listen to all feedback (good and not-so-good). We plan to hold these sessions on a quarterly basis, and will figure out how to get some of our southern hemisphere users participate (one of the ways we are going to do this is through online communities; more to come on this note).

Thanks to everyone for participating. We hope you were as pleased as we were with the outcome!

Web Collaboration

2007-02-16T07:23:00.002-06:00

"Hey, you need to talk to..."

I love hearing that in a conversation. But when a person in McLaren Vale, South Australia, suggests you talk with someone in Adelaide (who in turn recommends you talk with a good friend in Emeryville, CA)... ...oh, and you want to include your VP of Business Development, who is in Bolivia?

I'm happy to say we did just that, quite effectively, thanks to several web services:

CommunityWalk reminded me how poorly I fared in geography class;
World Meeting Planner told me Adelaide is + 9.5 GMT;
GoToMeeting allowed us to see each others' PCs;
Skype allowed us to communicate.

It won't be long before we see a mashup for at least three of the four services we used.

[check out this map... I needed it for Mr. Protzmann's geograpy quizzes!]

web mashups