The people in the drinks business are often the best kind of people: their lives are fueled with a passion for something that doesn’t usually result in fame and fortune, and their jobs require them to think for the long term and care about the environment.
If you’re a fledgling sommelier or winemaker, it’s very unlikely that you drive a new car or spend more on clothes than you do on wine. To you, the value of knowing what Montefalco Rosso tastes like is more valuable than a button-down.
It’s time to pour one out
for the people who make wine awesome
To that end, we’d like to point out a few individuals who’ve dedicated their lives to advancing the future of wine. Much of their work is done behind-the-scenes and never makes a blip in major media. It’s time to pour one out for the people who make wine awesome, and helped make the Wine Folly book a reality.
The wine world thanks you, dude.
“The Researcher”
Kym Anderson
No one could be a stronger supporter to open access information than Kym Anderson. A professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide who produced a book (that is freely available online) of all the statistics of grape varieties and vineyards around the world. The book is called Which Winegrape Varieties are Grown Where? It is the first open data source of wine grape information of its kind.
Professor Anderson happily agreed to don his statistical data in support of the creation of Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine.
“The Pro’s pro”
Geoff Kruth
We may have never heard the term pyrazines or would have never questioned standards in wine writing if it wasn’t for Geoff Kruth. Kruth is the president of Guildsomm.com, an educator with the Court of Masters Sommeliers and a key advocate of teaching scientific rigor to wine communicators.
Kruth has been a supporter to Wine Folly for nearly 3 years and pushes us to make our content brighter and better. He continues to push the boundary of our common knowledge on wine.
“The Scientist”
Andrew Waterhouse
People who’ve studied viticulture and enology (grape growing) have a deep appreciation for the UC Davis wine program. It’s tooted as the nation’s best winemaking school and Professor Waterhouse heads up the enology program. Dr. Waterhouse’s work is primarily in wine chemistry and through his studies at the Waterhouse Lab, we learned about phenolic compounds (tannin and anthocyanin–the color in wine) and how these compounds affect health. It’s fascinating stuff.
Dr. Waterhouse has been an expert advisor to Wine Folly and has helped us get through the difficult scientific language of wine to communicate it simply and beautifully. Go science!
“The Storyteller”
Jason Wise
The rest of the world would have never learned how to say “somm-uhl-yay” if it wasn’t for the wildly popular documentary, Somm, made by Jason Wise. Jason showed us the true life stories of 4 people trying to become master sommeliers. He managed to capture the reality of their passion–and desperation,– and it shocked the world. Since its release, Jason has been busy with a new wine movie, Somm 2: Behind the Bottle and we’re excited to delve deeper!
Jason Wise has been the conduit for newcomers to explore the people of wine and he interviewed Madeline in the new film. Thank you Jason for making wine cool again.
“The Motivator”
Mark Oldman
Mark Oldman was one of the early pioneers of the idea that wine can be easy. Oldman founded the Stanford Wine Circle in 1990 after spending a semester at Oxford and discovering the wines of Bordeaux. The premise of his club was simple, to help new drinkers find their way into wine–in a fun and casual way. The club took off and Mark became the smiling face of a new era of wine drinking culture. Since then, he’s produced 2 books, hosted a TV show, and is a regular feature of Food and Wine festivals nationwide.
Mark Oldman found out about the Wine Folly book through Penguin and was delighted to show his support for all-inclusive wine culture.
Get the book
Get the visual guidebook to wine, Wine Folly: The Essential Guide to Wine is an invaluable resource that is both a delight to look at and a powerful resource to reaching your wine education goals.