I love this picture.

Paul Frankel, winemaker for Sculptera Winery, shares his story on how he jumped into the wine business. www.winejump.com

We at SanTasti recently realized that everyone in the wine world always gets asked or asks their peers “how they got into this business?”

It is a story we are all familiar with and it requires little thought to answer, only a quick recollection of each of our histories and the events that lead us down the path to jumping into the wine business.

We also realized that these 30 second to 3 minute stories are perfect for the web and that is exactly where we are going to put them.

This is where winejump comes into play. A place to share our stories on how and why we jumped into the wine business.

My goal with all of this is to put a face on the wine industry. And provide another medium for all of us to connect with our peers and supporters.

The videos you see on the site are ones that I have filmed while out on the central coast visiting wineries and promoting SanTásti.

If you are outside of our area on the central coast then I strongly encourage you to film your own videos and send us the youtube link. It’s not that hard, you can do it. All you need is a webcam and your personality. We’ll take care of the rest. For those who have videos up on winejump… put them on your site… show your customers who you are and why you do what you do for them.

Our wines and foods are all interesting in their own right, but it’s the people that stand behind them that we are really interested in here at winejump. And that’s exactly what we are going to feature.

Dolfin Chocolate

Noir au Poivre Rose (Dark Chocolate with Pink Peppercorns)

Belgium

52% Cocoa

$5.00 (2.47 oz.) from DrexeliusChocolates.com

Score: 85

As I open the delicate pink package fit for a queen (or a dedicated and obsessed chocolate lover like me) it unwraps like an invitation and out wafts an amazing combination of dark rich chocolate and…pepper?! Yes, that’s definitely pepper.

After removing the bar from the package I break off a piece a rub it in between my fingers and inhale deeply. The pink peppercorn is exotic, but at the same time surprisingly warm and compliments the chocolate perfectly.

I take a small bite and it bights back as the chocolate melts on my tongue. The pepper seems to blend into the background as the vanilla and espresso flavors come to the front of the palate. This one’s a keeper! I think my dad will love it too – a true pepper fanatic.

I’m thinking of pairing this fabulous chocolate with a peppery late harvest syrah or zinfandel…or maybe right after dinner with that last glass of syrah.

Check back soon for the next chocolate review!

Special thanks to DrexeliusChocolates.com for providing the premium chocolates for review.

-Nicole

SanTásti, what does it mean and where did it come from? This is a question we get all the time and I figured it warranted a solid answer for those who are curious. 

Anyone who as ever tried to name a business, brand or product knows how hard it is. It’s like naming a child – you don’t want people making fun of your baby on the playground. It’s very difficult to find an original and appropriate name that isn’t taken. The last thing you want is to get sued by Coke as soon as you’ve developed some good will and recognition behind your brand.

The days leading up to Paso Robles Wine Festival were laden with wonder. I wonder if it’ll be roasting hot again this year for the park. I wonder if the people will show up. I wonder how busy we’ll be. At home, I take the pressure off of a big weekend like this by singing “It’s Festival time again” in a Frank Sinatra meets Will Ferrel imitating Robert Goulet sort of way. I know, I’m a bit weird. But if you’ve lived through festival weekends in the tasting room, you know you have to have a sense of humor about it all. It’s crazy.

So, Friday I took advantage of tickets my company had to get into the Reserve tasting in the park. I tried about 20-ish wines from all three sections, favoring the Reserve and Library wines side of the park. It was still roasting hot outside, but I enjoyed myself because I ran into a friend from school and because I was able to visit Andrew & Nicole at their table in the park too. Followed up by a margarita and a fantastic dinner at Thomas Hill Organics, I was charged up and ready for the festival weekend.

Saturday – the big dance. Typically this is the busiest day for us, and we would have SanTasti at the tasting room to help keep the folks pouring in cleansed before they hit our bar. One thing I love about having Nicole and Andrew at the tasting room is that everyone seems to stop and chat for a couple of minutes, and when they get to us, not only are they REALLY ready to taste, but they have great comments about the product, the idea, and the creators. Number one comment – “what a smart idea…and it works!” We know.

It was a pretty crazy day in the tasting room, but much more manageable than in the past. Typically for festival weekends we hit what I call “3-deep”, meaning that’s the number of bodies that get stacked into our tasting room to get their hands on the good juice. This festival, not so much. We barely hit “2-deep”….but our sales were fantastic. And, we did pretty darn well on selling SanTasti so folks could keep-on-keep-on-keep-on-keep-on-tastin’ on down the road…(I’m telling you, festival weekend makes you sing weird songs).

Now that the bulk of festivals are over (until October), I’m personally looking forward to getting back on the road and distributing for the team. What the people gotta know is that there is something to help make them smile…when wine tasting. Summer, here we come!!!

Just a couple of weeks ago, I experienced an “out of the tasting room” pouring event called Hospice du Rhone (a.k.a. HdR). Last year I was at this event in a volunteer capacity, and was amazed at the turnout of people. This event features wines made from Rhone varietals, and there are 22 types of grapes that are allowed in wines from the Rhone area of France. HdR brings winemakers from across the world, and my tasting experience, which I’ll get to in a bit, spanned from Paso Robles, California to Sonoita, Arizona to the Cote Rotie and Chateauneuf du Pape regions in France.

I was excited to be on the pouring/winery side of the table for Denner Vineyards this year and interact with a lot of people trying our wines. We also had bottles of SanTasti chilled and ready to pour for folks because lots of tasting = ripe opportunity to have a dead palate. The doors were opened and in came the event attendees. It seemed to me that this year’s attendance was down. I remembered last year and since the table we were pouring at was right in range of seeing people walk into the hall we all were in, I could tell there were less people. All the same, we kept busy and we were slinging SanTasti to just about everyone that walked up to us. I kept politely insisting “please cleanse your palate before we start tasting.” And they did. Some would say “Oh yea! I need that!” or “Oh, how does this work?” with curiosity and/or enthusiasm about something new.

If I could tell they just had a red wine (the glass never lies) and they wanted to try our white I would say “Let’s get your palate cleansed and reset to go back to white” and everyone would and many would say “Oh! That’s great. I do feel clean.” We know.

Andrew & Nicole were busy. I escaped our table to taste a bit and I carried a whole bottle just for me around. I wanted a clean palate, and a little guerrilla marketing never hurt anyone. Wines from Paso Robles, Arizona and even from France, all tasted great. I blew through 10 tables in about an hour…about 30 wines tasted without a hitch. And, I really don’t mean for this to sound like a commercial, but now more than ever, I wonder how in the world it is that people taste anything after wine 5, 6, 7 or beyond without this palate cleanser.

HdR was great – the lower attendee count meant elbow room for everyone, which gave everyone time to try wines and interact more with wineries pouring…which, as a consumer education fanatic, was great to see and experience. 6 pm was cutoff time and we had our “test patron” come at 6:03 asking for wine to which I declined to pour. There was no way I was going to jeopardize our and HdR’s licenses to pour – she could have been from the ABC. Frank and I packed up and booked SanTasti to pour at our tasting room on the Saturday of Wine Festival for a demo…we can’t get enough of the stuff! And me? I’m all about enhancing the consumer’s opportunity to learn more through a clean palate.

Last week Nicole and I spent some time up in Sonoma County to demo SanTasti for some barrel tastings. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun pouring the new SanTasti for everyone at Harvest Moon and Hop Kiln wineries. The weekend was an overall success for both of the wineries with hundreds of people coming out to sample the wines. These barrel tasting events are a bargain for the weekend wine warriors. For about 20 bucks you get to go around to all of the participating wineries and taste a couple of wines out of the barrel and what’s behind the bar and in the bottle. On top of that, the wineries usually provide food that pairs with what is being tasted out of the barrel. It’s a great deal for those on a budget and usually a great time to join a wine club or two to take advantage of some special offers.

We poured SanTasti for a lot of people over the weekend and we were very excited to see that people are really starting to understand the value of our product and a cleansed palate as they were grabbing four packs left and right. We really appreciate the support and enthusiasm from all the tasters over the weekend who gave us the opportunity to show them the who, what, why, and how’s of SanTasti. It’s all a part of the educational process of highlighting how SanTasti is not water, it’s a palate cleanser.

One of our new SanTasti friends took this picture of Nicole and I. if anyone else has any SanTasti sightings please send them in to info@santasti.com. Thanks William, it was a pleasure meeting you too!

Nicole Chamberlain and Andrew Macaluso with SanTasti in Sonoma

A quick heads up. I spent the weekend at Harvest Moon right next to the barrel of 2007 Zinfandel. This Zin was coming out fantastic out of the barrel. It is a four vineyard blend from vines within two miles of Harvest Moon in the Russian River Valley. The fun part was tasting the 07 out of the barrel and then trying the 06 out of the bottle. SanTasti really came in handy hear when tasting out of the barrel because unfinished wines are… well, unfinished for lack of a better word. I’m really looking forward to the 07 Zin. They will be bottling in July and releasing the vintage in October if my mental notes are correct.

To wind it up I’d like to say check back often for more blog posts. More of us will be posting in the near future. Lastly, for those who have signed up for the newsletter, it’s coming soon. I promise.

Thanks all you SanTastians,

-Andrew