Welcome Clark Smith (intro post, and instructions)

Please post your questions individually as threads - one thread per topic of discussion - and join in on the discussions when Clark is able to participate.

Here’s a brief bio, as provided by Clark:

I’ve been making and selling wine since I dropped out of MIT in 1972, first as a retailer in the east Bay and then in the cellar at Veedercrest prior to the BS and MS degrees at UC Davis, after which I was founding winemaker at R.H. Phillips in the Dunnigan Hills and then went on to start WineSmith Wines and Consulting, out of which grew patents for reverse osmosis methods for alcohol and VA removal. This gave birth to Vinovation in 1992, which specialized in developing new winemaking tools including ultrafiltration, electrodialysis and micro-oxygenation.

I make Eurocentric experimental wines for my own WineSmith brand (balanced, very long-aging Bordeaux style Cab Sauv and Cab Franc, Faux Chablis and Beaune-style Pinot Noir, and for Diamond Ridge Vineyards and Two Jakes, for whom I have been experimenting in high ticket sulfite-free Bordeaux varieties for over a decade.

In 2008, I got out of the technology business because I thought writing about wine, particularly the 99% of winemakers who own tiny brands with no distribution who need their stories told, was a better use of my time. This year, U.C. Press published > Postmodern Winemaking> , which spans a broad range of technical and social issues about which too little is being said. I also have taught a course in Fundamentals of Wine Chemistry for 29 years and am an Adjunct professor at CSU Fresno and Florida International University where I teach online introductory classes and conduct research on Wine and Music, cognitive enology, and minerality, and give edutours of the Republic of Georgia.

I sing in two local choruses and am working on a CD of songs about the real wine industry.

For those who haven’t yet read the book, but wish to, you’ve got 3 weeks or so in which to do so - some holiday reading, perhaps? Here’s a link to Amazon’s listing of the book: http://www.amazon.com/Postmodern-Winemaking-Rethinking-Science-Ancient/dp/0520282590

Welcome, Clark!

Does anyone know when this gets started?

Tonight after 12m?