I just got back from San Francisco (again) where I attended Wine 2.0, a meet-and-greet/wine tasting setup by the folks at RadCru. It was a great event, well worth the long flight out to the west coast. I was able to meet many of the folks we’re partnering with and a couple of our new blog authors who should be posting soon. Below is a quick recap of just some of the interesting people I talked with at the event.

Some of the most important people I met were Jeff (el Jefe) from Twisted Oak Winery and Josh (of Pinot Blogger fame) from the Capozzi winery. We’re in the process of getting both Jeff and Josh setup as authors on this blog. They’re both extremely busy guys, but we know that anything they can contribute here is going to be of huge interest to our readers.

Josh and I talked a bit about WineLog, specifically on how we can partner with wineries to keep them in touch with how our users are rating, tagging, and commenting on their wines. I wish I could have talked to Josh more about his winery, which is just getting up to speed. I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned here or read his blog at Pinot Blogger to find out more.

Jeff, co-owner of Twisted Oak Winery, is an even more interesting character in person than in writing (maybe we can get him to do videos for the blog). He’s a proud self-labeled geek (Jeff is heading out to the desert next week to launch rockets). I also met Scott, the wine maker for Twisted Oak, who anyone around could tell is super smart and passionate about his work. The Twisted Oak wine was truly exceptional. I’m a huge fan of tempranillos, and the Twisted Oak 2004 Tempranillo was an excellent specimen.

I was also able to meet Susan, Ryan, and Zach from Triggit, who are as nice in person as they have been to work with. Triggit provides affiliate links for us, which power many of the “buy” buttons on the site. Their technology is really amazing. I’m impressed so far with how accurate they are at lining up our data with that of their retailers. It’s not an easy task, as every winery, wine store, and site like ours has its own identifiers and naming conventions. In addition, Triggit’s system will force retailers to compete for our users’ business, allowing Triggit to get us the lowest prices for our users and the highest commission for us.

Another interesting person I met was John Plevyak from Metaversatility. John is Josh build the Second Life version of his winery. He is a computer scientist, and we enjoyed talking about the recommendation technology behind WineLog. Our conversation makes me want to release faster some of the more sophisticated recommendation stuff we have in the works.

I didn’t take notes, but nearly all of the wine I tasted was pretty good to excellent. I wish I had time to write about them all. Hopefully they’ll get in touch with me an guilt me into mentioning them. One winery in particular I was impressed with was Pendleton Estate Vineyards & Winery. Michall Pendleton was at the event, and his passion about his wine was contagious. I liked everything of his I tried. His 2005 Petite Syrah was excellent and will be even better in a year or two. I also enjoyed hearing the story about his 2004 Celebration Cuvee, a wine he made to celebrate the birth of his daughter.

Other mentionable attendees were Peter Nudi from Appellation America, who was pimping a new wine aerator affectionately called the “wine bong”, and Julie Tucker from SmartsCo, a company that is publishing some pretty cool books and games aimed at aspiring wine aficionados.

There were some people in attendance with whom I didn’t get to talk. There’s Paul from Inertia. He and the other folks working and blogging at Inertia “know their stuff” when it comes to the wine industry and technology.

Alder, from Vinography, is another person who was on my short list to meet, yet somehow we didn’t run into each other. Alder has the idea that tasting note sites (which WineLog could be described as) are doomed to fail. We obviously hold the opposite opinion, and I was looking forward to the chance to “argue” with Alder in person.

Some people from BottleNotes were at the event. BottleNotes is… okay I’ll say it… a competitor of ours. I obviously hold no ill will towards them or their product. I imagine they would have much of the same ideas and passions as we have, working on a similar product. So for that reason, if no other, they would have been interesting to get to know.

My trip to San Francisco and time at Wine 2.0 was a complete success. I’m sure that there will be many follow-ups with the folks I’ve met and talked to. I also got to spend the day before the event working and hanging out at the Citizen Space with Chris Messina, Tara Hunt, and many other fascinating “web people”. I’ll be writing up my experience there on the Stranger Studios blog.

Overall, this trip gets a 5 out of 5.