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