October 9 2007
The Wine Spectator announced the winner of their video contest today.
WS Editor Eric Arnold (and newly minted wine author of the book “First Big Crush”) reports:
Peter Hunken and Amy Christine work in the wine industry in their real lives, but their short video, called A Toast to the Little Guys, was selected by WineSpectator.com viewers as the best entry in the site’s first video contest.
The winning video received the highest rating from our viewers (3.78 average out of a possible 5 stars) among the five finalists. It shows the tough work, frequent joys and occasional silly mistakes that shape the experience of producing a small wine label. Hunken, national sales manager for Stolpman Vineyards in Santa Barbara, and Christine, who sells wine for Veritas, an importer in Los Angeles (along with working as a sommelier one night a week), have been making their Hocus Pocus Syrah together since 2005.
Co-founder of the small brand Hocus Pocus, Amy Christine says:
“Our first vintage, it was like having our first child. That’s why we took so much video,” said Christine. “I wanted to make [the video] educational ... [but] one of my friends, who helped me watch the footage and edit it, he wanted to put the story together more in a sweet, reality-show style. So we did the little confessionals. I had a totally different idea, but my friend had a much better idea.”
Check out the winner and the other finalists here. It’s good stuff.
Watching the video reminded me about the power of video. Documentaries at their finest influence and provoke feeling and, perhaps, no other consumable good has as much rich depth to mine than wine and wineries. I hope it won’t be too long before we see wineries employing more video on their web site to communicate their story, help us get to know the people behind the scenes and evoke feeling.
I’ve posted this link in the past, but if you want to see a wine film that expertly mixes the power of image, narrative and music, then check out wine industry auteur B. Napa and his short called “Crush.”
For the decidedly less emotional and more practical use of video, check out this file that shows a party trick for expertly removing a cork from inside a wine bottle.
For a review of the Hocus Pocus wine, see this link to Dr. Debs and her blog, Good Wine Under $20
Posted in, Free Run: Field Notes From a Wine Life. Permalink | Comments (3) |
Jeff
Totally agree with you about the power of video. For the past 2 years I have been filming and documenting the winemakers here in Santa Barbara. Every month I post a new video of any aspect of winemaking. Ultimately I intend to have interviewed every winemaker in SB.
Currently showing is Joey Tensley’s cellar rat Sonny Courtney who is spending this harvest with Yves Cuilleron in Condrieu, an exception to my normal rules but a very important aspect in helping Sonny’s career as well as shining a light into the differences of French and Californian wine making practices.
SBWinemakers is proving to be very influential for the sole reason that I do not cover winemaking 101, all winemakers do something unique with their wines and I try to find those moments of individuality.
The website itself is simply an extension of the wine tours I guide and is designed to enhance the experience of wine tasters who have additional interest in Santa Barbara wines. It is all about supporting our winemaking community. We have some great wines and winemakers here. There is always something new to learn and that is what I try to convey in each video.
I should also point out that while we all applaud Amy and Peter winning the video contest, their wine is what it’s all about and their Hocus Pocus syrah is awesome and is well worth hunting down the limited production. Not just that but the Stolpman vineyard has produced some spectacular fruit, watch out for sangiovese from this vineyard as well as their syrah.
Many thanks and cheers.
Lee Tomkow
Thanks for the kind words for Wine Spectator’s video contest and the finalists. We had a lot of fun with it and hope for even more submissions next year.
A word of response to B. Napa: by “non-commercial”, we meant we wanted videos made by amateurs for the contest, rather than videos made by commercial filmmakers for commercial ends. That’s why “Crush” was disqualified. Also, we set a time limit of three minutes. Both “Crush” and “Topaz,” the other video submitted by B. Napa, significantly exceeded this length.
However, even though they didn’t fit our parameters, we really enjoyed B. Napa’s videos.
Thomas Matthews
Executive editor
Wine Spectator
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Jeff,
Thanks for the mention today.
For the record I entered 2 different videos for this contest.
I was denied entry in to this “Wine Spectator Video Contest” becuase, ( I quote Gloria Frazee of the Spectator’s video department)
“Hi Bret,Thanks so much for the interest, but this first contest is for non-commercial videos.”
So, what would you consider the winning video for Hocus Pocus?
I’m crying FOUL!!!!
Shame on wine spectator.
While i realize that “Crush” is a commercial film, the other entry was not.
“Topaz” can be seen on youtube http://www.youtube.com/bnapa
Nice Video Peter & Amy…i’m sure you will sell more cases than Gorat.