(published in the Santa Barbara News-Press on January 14, 2014)
Let’s call
the wine grape harvest a race. Then,
you can liken the crack of the starter pistol to the precise moment a grape
leaf emerges from its bud. What follows
is a no-holds-barred game that lasts most of the year, with teams of growers
and winemakers descending on fields of vines and striving to capture essence in
a bottle. The checkered flag that waves
in the end is the barrel’s bung, sealing in the freshest of wines as it begins
its journey toward maturity.
Wouldn’t
understanding this – and seeing it, in real time, even, and through myriad media
– elevate one’s appreciation and enjoyment of that wine?
 |
| Fernandez uses a camera mounted on a drone helicopter to film a vineyard (credit: Jeremy Ball) |
That’s the inspired
notion driving Wil Fernandez these days, and an ambitious project that aims to
capture Santa Barbara County’s 2014 harvest in its entirety.
“I spent a
lot of time [last] summer in wine county, taking a lot of pictures, and I soon
realized that what I was doing was documenting viticulture,” says Mr. Fernandez, 35. “And I thought, why
not take it up a notch? And create a
dramatic documentary, digitally distributed through different channels and
platforms, that followed the story of the vine from beginning to end? And in real time?”
The
multi-tier project, dubbed Vintage 2014, will depend on multiple video cameras
rolling simultaneously. Content will be
collected daily, from bud break to grape crush, at several strategic vantage
points throughout the county. And,
rather than collecting video to edit into a full-length documentary later,
video will be released as short episodes throughout the year. Photo essays, social media content and audio
broadcasts will also emerge throughout the year.
Filming is
set to start in March, when initial bud break is expected, and last through
October or November.
 |
| Periodic photo essays will be part of the multimedia Vintage 2014 project (credit: Jeremy Ball) |
Mr. Fernandez’ vision for the website that will house his project:
“All content will live on a map of Santa Barbara County that can be explored by
space and time. You see the map, at a
wide scale, and you can flow through from March through October. And different types of media will pop up,
depending on the timing during the growing season. You’ll be able to see what’s happening in the
Sta. Rita Hills and the Santa Maria Valley at the same time.”
The project features some formidable local talent; the visuals are
under the direction of Michelle and Jeremy Ball, the award-winning husband-and-wife
team behind Solvang-based Bottle Branding.
And funding is being raised online, through the cloud sourcing web
site Kickstarter. Pledges of support are
open to the public, and for any amount; a $10 pledge gives access to private
behind-the-scenes footage, like bloopers, while $75 gets a commemorative
t-shirt made of organically grown cotton.
The initial goal – which has not yet been met – is $20,000, pledged by
this Friday, January 17th, to pay for equipment and develop the web page. Subsequent drives will be earmarked for
things like producing time-lapse video of the entire 9-month production, an
interactive 3-D map and a soundtrack recording of original music by local
artists.
Fascinating. But “ambitious in
scope and cost,” as Morgen McLaughlin, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association, puts it; though, she admits that “the idea is
innovative and it would be exciting to see this project come to fruition.”
Mr. Fernandez says he’s got the energy to do it. “I move very quickly,” he insists.
In fact, the former ad executive from L.A. is not new to high-stakes
endeavors. He’s run ad campaigns for BWM
motorcycles, banks and pharmaceutical companies. Once, when he ran a project for Gloria Ferrer
sparkling wine, he launched a food truck tour that doled tapas nationwide and
included online tie-ins through QR codes.
But when he got bored with life in Marina Del Rey four years ago, he
hit the road. He’s had no physical
address ever since, actually. He’s been
driving around in a 40-foot Winnebago.
And of all the places it’s taken him, Santa Barbara – and the wine
valleys on the other side of the mountain range, in particular – appeals to him
most.
“When I first went over the hill and saw the Santa Ynez Valley, I got
all tingly. I just found something
special. I was blown away,” says Mr.
Fernandez.
“Stress melts away when I go over that mountain. It’s a little paradise. And it’s like a yo-yo. No matter where I’ve been in the last four
years, I keep finding myself back here.”
This past summer, that included falling hard for the wine industry,
the agriculture that defines it and the people who drive it. And it included becoming convinced that the
caliber of Santa Barbara wines rival those of Napa and Sonoma. The fact they’re in their shadows is, rather,
a matter of marketing.
 |
| Fernandez hosts a pop-up Santa Barbara wine tasting in Phoenix |
Over the last few months, Mr. Fernandez has aligned himself with
about a dozen Santa Barbara County wineries.
He’s their marketing consultant, under the banner Central Coast Wine
& Food (CCWF). And he’s organized
pop-tastings and intimate winemaker meet-and-greets with consumers,
restaurateurs and media in key markets across the country, like Houston,
Phoenix, New Orleans and Miami.
The Houston event included a video simulcast, via Skype, with Cold Heaven winemaker Morgan Clendenen, which allowed attendees to ask her
questions, live, as they tasted her viognier for the first time. It also helped secure a Texas distributor for
Flying Goat Cellars winemaker Norm Yost.
He says he’s benefited from Mr. Fernandez’ “new ideas, and the fact
he’s using new technologies. And I like
his energy.”
In November, Mr. Fernandez hosted a virtual wine tasting and live
Q-&-A session over Twitter with Clos Pepe Vineyards winemaker Wes Hagen;
the internet audience included several influential bloggers who sipped the 2009
Clos Pepe pinot noir simultaneously and interacted with the winemaker
digitally.
Next week, he’ll be hosting a series of intimate winemaker events in
Key West, Florida, during the five-day 2014 Key West Food & Wine
Festival. CCWF
is a sponsor. Among the presenters will
be Laura Booras, general manager at Riverbench Vineyards & Winery; she’s
taking 50 mason jars with her, filled with Riverbench dirt, for guests to whiff
while they sip the pinot noir that grew in it.
“We’ve never been at this festival before,” she says.
 |
| CCWF pop-up tastings feature iPads to display winery info as well as gather consumer feedback |
And up next, Vintage 2014. The
multimedia project is the next chapter in what is, at its core, a labor of love
for Mr. Fernandez. It’s meant to bring
the vineyard to the people, and increase sales. “There is a clear correlation between the
amount people pay for a bottle of wine and whether they’ve been to a vineyard
before,” Mr. Fernandez says, based on man-on-the-street surveys. “Is it because they have more money to spend,
or because they have an appreciation?
When you see everything that wine goes through – nine months of an
uphill battle and all the things that can go wrong in between – you appreciate
it more.”
The footage and multimedia elements that are released throughout
will, in the end, be archived. There are
also plans to submit a comprehensive documentary to film festivals. But the biggest thrill for Mr. Fernandez is
in simply capturing the precise time and place encapsulated in every wine. “So when, say, the 2014 Clos Pepe pinot
actually comes out, you’ll be able to drink a bottle and go back to the web site
and look at Clos Pepe Vineyard – and what was happening there throughout the
year – in all different kinds of media,” he says. “It’ll be
an epic experience.”
For more information, go to vintage2014.com.
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