Agent of Travel


You gonna eat that, big fella? 'Cause I got a wife and nineteen little chipmunks to feed . . .
Lighthouse Point chipmunk, photo by me.

Usually my travel schedule calms down right after the middle of December, with perhaps a conference or two until Fall rolls around again. This year is a bit different. In addition to the usual, I've been on the road seemingly for a week or two every month, from Victoria to Winnipeg, Ontario (twice), Quebec, California, etc. Today I'm in Ohio, in lovely Cuyahoga Falls attending the LD Carlson retailer conference. LD puts on a great event, with vendors (including Winexpert) from all over and some excellent speakers. This year it's Kevin Graff from Graff Retail, who always does a great job, and has crucial things to teach any retailer who listens. Of course, I'll be doing a presentation this afternoon as well. Kevin is a tough act to follow, but I'll do my best.

After this I'm off to China for a week. It's my first trip there, and because I used to live in Japan, I know it's going to be the same mildly disorienting experience, stepping off a plane into a country with such a potent dynamic, familiar things going on in profoundly different ways, and masses of people moving, being and doing stuff all around. It should be pretty interesting!

After that it's Virginia and environs, and then it should be quiet until the Fall--of course, that's what I said back in January. If I have one more week of trips I'm worried my garden is going to die of neglect, or that my cats will plot my gruesome murder. But before I get too far ahead of myself I wanted to post some of my pictures from California.

The Winemaker's conference in Santa Barbara was a gas. Despite my very busy schedule I managed to catch up with a lot of my old friends, and make some new ones. It was especially good to get a chance to sit down with all my fellow columnists from Winemaker Magazine. It only happens once a year and it's an excellent opportunity to complain about the editor and publishers (Kidding, Brad and Betsy, we all love you!)

Happy folks doing what winemakers do best: sharing their bounty

Brad (left) explaining the publishing industry to Wes Hagen.

Queen of all she surveys, Alison Crowe is a Queen-Bean California winemaker and quite the Wizard

Betsy and Kiev from Winemaker doing some form of product research

David, Chris and Carl from Winemaker. Chris appears to be drinking the world's most oxidised wine.

Evenings were lovely, but by the time the sun went down those patio heaters came in handy

Setting up for my oak trials tasting. 300 people, seven glasses each, it was a chaotic half-hour!

Tasting the oak trials. It went really well, and I think folks learned a lot about the difference between pre and post fermentation oak use

A special shout-out to my friends Rex and Barbara from Walnut Creek. Not only did they haul away their usual wheelbarrow full of medals (Rex's Elephant Heart Plum wine is deliriously wonderful--I wish I could make fruit wine that good) their Contra Costa Wine Group won Club of the year again, and Rex and Barbara were (yet again!)  Winemakers of the Year!

Showing how it's done: congratulations to the Contra Costa Wine Group!

Why is this man smiling? Because he needs a ladder to climb down from his pile of medals! Rex Johnson.

After the conference and associated hullaballo and shenanigans (all very much fun) my wife and I did some wine touring and wandered up the coast a bit to see California by car. The weather was mostly spectacular, except for a bit of rain on the last day. We to the coastal highway as far as we could (we were stopped when the road ran out, scraped off the face of the earth by a landslide!) and managed to see some beautiful spots.

Sea lion at Lighthouse Point, getting sanded

View from the pool deck, Hearst Castle

Bird of Paradise, from outside the courthouse in Santa Barbara

Monk-eying around at the Mission in Santa Barbara

We hit Pismo Beach (I had to go since I heard Bugs Bunny mention it when I was a little kid), Carmel by the Sea and San Francisco. While it was a nice couple of days, by the time we got back it was good to be home again, even if it meant facing the wrath of Spot, who likes to decorate the carpet when I leave him in the care of others too long. Ah, it's nice to be missed.

Speaking of which, back to the conference!

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