Thursday, November 5 2009
Southern Charm
Downtown Atlanta. Looks different from that movie I saw--less burny.
Another Friday, another airplane and a chance to catch up on my bloggery pokery. It's been another zoomy week for Technical Services, aka 'Mr. Vandergrifts Chaos Emporium'. Monday I hopped on a Delta flight to get to North Carolina, via Minneapolis. I tend to be a linear thinker, so the idea that I can't always just go straight from airport A to airport B seems wacky, but the amazing and incomprehensible world of airlines dictates the use of hubs to direct traffic around. Funny, what I think of when I hear 'hub' is a greasy wheel bearing that's making horrible noises and is going to cost me money . . . there's a metaphor in there somewhere, I'm sure.
Normally for business travel I try to fly in the same day I'm working–no sense in staying another night in a hotel if you can avoid it just by getting up early enough. Likewise, if I finish an event and I'm within four hours of home by car or six hours by plane, I don't care how late it is: I pack up and head home, not so much as to save on another hotel room (although that's good too) as to be at home with my family as often as possible.
This leads to some very contemplative late-night drives through the interior of British Columbia. I find the midnight run down highway 97C and the Coquihalla Highway to be soothing and far from falling asleep at one or two a.m., I feel energised. It's a great time to get some thinking done, or to listen to that new CD I've been meaning to give a play. Alone in a car you can listen to all your guilty pleasures, like 80's music, or those cartoon theme songs on your iPod that nobody knows about.
Gear up, flaps down, into the wild orange yonder, again.
But when you're travelling three time zones east, you're behind the eight ball. Not only does that mean at least six hours of flight time and usually a connection at some hub, it adds three hours to the day from time zone changes. Even if you got the first seven am flight in the morning, it's the end of business before you get to your destination. So I overnighted near Raleigh-Durham airport and caught up with my esteemed cohort David Stuart the next morning. David is LD Carlson's national sales manager and a good pal who knows his customers and almost as importantly, a good place to get a beer in nearly every city in America.
If you've never been to North Carolina, it's an awfully pretty place, with friendly, shiny people. The whole 'Southern politeness, Southern charm' cliché is an amusing shorthand in popular entertainment where I come from, but to experience the real thing, first hand, is almost disconcerting the first time you get a slew of genuine kindness, concern and manners from everyone you meet. Not that Canadians aren't polite and friendly, and even gracious, but there's something about ladies who call you 'sugar' or 'darlin' ' and lay a friendly hand on your arm and smile when you reply–it makes you want to be warm and friendly right back.
Of course, lest you think Southerners are softies who would let less mannered folk run roughshod on them, it isn't the case. Apparently the phrase, 'Well aren't you something!' isn't necessarily complimentary, no matter how politely spoken! Not that I got any of that on this trip, because the folks I was seeing were all really heated up to talk about wine and home winemaking, everywhere I went.
A thorn flanked by roses--Rick and Peggy at Winecraft
We did an event the first night for Rick and Peggy at Winecraft in Atlanta. They've got a fine shop with a strong cadre of really dedicated winemakers, and we've wanted to do a Limited Edition tasting event for them for years–it was finally their turn to get some Tim-time.
It almost didn't happen: at the last minute, literally two days before I hit dirt, the space they had booked became unavailable. With much scrambling and re-arranging the night was saved by their friends Sultan's Turkish-Lebanese restaurant in the same mall they're located in. Although the space was tight (few restaurants have enough room to seat 60 people classroom style, plus pouring tables, food stations, a projector set-up and a screen) but it was fine and cosy, and went off without a hitch. I love Mediterranean cuisine, (there's this Turkish salad made with lamb's brains in olive oil and lemon that's to die for) so I'm afraid my stomach was growling from the smells of the cooking while I was talking. One real bonus, however, was that one of my menu items paired to the Trio Blanca white wine (a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Blanc) was hummus–we were in very, very good hands for that! Thanks for the great effort in pulling off a wonderful tasting in trying circumstances Rick and Peggy–well done!
The talk went fine, I did my how-to-taste-wine lesson and as usual it got some laughs. I guess there's nothing like watching someone snort and wheeze wine up his nose and then gargle with Shiraz to loosen up a crowd. Afterwards while people were circulating for the tasting portion I got a lot of really good questions. New markets are great. While I've heard the questions before, the folks who ask them are always fully engaged, and you can almost see what (for me) is a pretty simple answer light them up with understanding. It's really gratifying, and I never get tired of it.
Ask me how to get your autographed copy!
We also gave away some copies of Winemaker Magazine's guide to Wine Kits. A lot of folks aren't yet aware of it, but our retailers are getting more and more mileage out of it as time passes. I just heard from the marketing wiz at Winemaker (poet and sharp-dressed man Kiev Ratee) that we've gone through almost the entire original print run, so and it's a bestseller! Unfortunately, that's not going to let me buy a castle like J K Rowling, but I'm pretty happy with how many people have gotten hold of it. Almost everyone who got a copy at the event came up to get me to autograph it. Autographing your own work seems like such a weirdly cheesy thing to do that I feel like a fraud, as if I'm actually deluded enough to think I'm famous, but luckily most people are in on the joke and have a bit of fun with it.
One really cool thing that I got to see that night was the picture below:
That's a very small Rolls-Royce . . .
That's the back wall of the garage of John Feight, of Roswell Georgia. In case you don't recognise the rolling vista, have a look around the top of this kit box:
John runs The Foundation for Hospital Art: "More than art, a chance to love and comfort people in hospitals." If you've ever spent any serious time in a hospital (my definition is anything over an hour–hospitals are pretty low on my list of places to hang out) you know that the cheerfulness a pretty scene in a lovely piece of art can provide comfort, and promote a sense of well-being. Jack's a pretty special guy, doing what he does, and I'm massively flattered that he chose to use our artwork in a space he sees everyday when he comes home. How cool is that?
Next day we were off to see Mark at American Brewmaster, dropping in on his store to have a look around. I've been hanging with Mark for years, at various conferences, but this was my first time for a site visit. He's recently done some re-merchandising in his retail area and it looks great, lots of room for Winexpert product, well laid-out and nicely displayed. He's got a busy operation going on in all directions, and it's obvious that he needs some more space to carry inventory, both for the wine kits and the beer side of his business–we joke in the industry that needing to expand is a headache, and the very best kind of headache you can have.
Businessman, raconteur and darts champ--the total package!
The event that night was another success, with a good room, lots of people showing up and catering provided by a local company that did a knockout job with all the foodstuffs. The only hitch at all was when a lady was rinsing her glass and inadvertently dumped it into the bowl of honey we were using with the Pacific quartet pairing–she was mortified, poor thing, but Mark actually had a 5-gallon pail of honey right under the table and another bowl was instantly filled.
[The honey thing is kind of interesting: I chose two food pairings with the Pacific Quartet, one is the honey and the other is Chèvre, soft goat cheese. The wine is a blend of Gewürztraminer, Vidal, Muscat and Chenin Blanc, and is just off-dry and very fruity. The idea is that first you taste the wine (always taste the wine before you try the food: it establishes a baseline of flavour from an uninfluenced palate) and then eat a bit of the Chèvre on a cracker.
For those who haven't had Chèvre, it looks a lot like cream cheese, but it's got a much more complex flavour, tart, tangy and a wee bit wild from the goat's milk it's made from. When you try the wine after the cheese, it suddenly seems much sweeter, almost like dessert wine: rich, unctuous and superbly fruity. That's because you're the acid receptors in your tastebuds are over stimulated and won't convey any more sourness for a moment. Thus the acid in the wine is cancelled out and you get a lot more fruit and sugar.
Next you taste a dab of the honey and follow that with the wine. Because your sugar receptors are overloaded and won't transmit any more information about sweetness the wine suddenly becomes much drier, with minerality, crispness and a taut, intense structure. The transformation is amazing, and really drives home the changes that food pairing can make in a wine–and vice versa.]
We had the opportunity to go out and have a beer with Mark afterwards at the Flying Saucer pub (rapidly becoming my favourite chain beer place in the USA). Something I did not know about Mark until now: he is a champion darts player, taking on all comers and going for the bulls-eye like a demon.
How could you not smile, in a clinch like that? Bob surrounded by his wife Debbie
(and her sister--I didn't get your name!)
Next day it was up 'n' at 'em again and off to Alpharetta Georgia. It's a lovely town, and Beer Necessities is a really impressive consumer wine and beer making shop. In the old days (anything longer than ten years ago in this industry) the image of a lot of 'homebrew' shops was of a dusty, crowded lumber-room of a place, with grain dust on everything, a great big dog sleeping in the doorway and gimme posters tacked to the walls in lieu of décor. I'm happy to say that for the most part that's not true any more, but nobody has gone further in the opposite direction than Bob Carlton. His store is spankin' shiny and new with plenty of space, high ceilings and very warm and friendly look to the place. He's also got classroom space for teaching beer and winemaking.
At the end of the night David engaged in strategic quality control.
Bob's event was cool, with some great folks in attendance, including Carl, who has made over 800 wine kits! That's approaching my territory, but Carl says he has lots of friends and family who help him enjoy the fruits of his labours. I'm not sure I've heard of anyone outside of the industry who's ever made that many kits, so my hat's off to him.
We had to duck out early, as I had the first flight out from Atlanta in the morning, but it was great to see a little bit of the south again. Between warm sunny weather, great barbecue (thanks for all the recommendations!) and friendly folks it was almost like being on a really rushed vacation!
Next week I'm off to the Northeast: I've got events planned for Keystone Home Brew, Mr. Steves and Wine, Barley and Hops, along with some educational programming for my friends at Vintner's Circle. It's going to be a busy week, but there should be a little time for a cheessteak and a quick jog up the steps of the Philadelphia museum. See you there!
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