How Grapeshare Came To Be
There are some wines we remember because they’re remarkable: maybe they had specific hints of spices we like, or an aroma that reminded us of warm apple pie or maybe even a particular bitter-sweet taste we’re fond of.
Most often, though, I think wine is about the people and the context. I, for example, always reserve my best wines to drink with family and friends.
The context also has a lot to do with how I perceive wine. If it’s a boring day, with boring people and uninteresting food, it will be hard to enjoy a good wine, even if it’s an excellent one. On the other hand, sometimes an okay wine can be perceived as quite reasonable when I’m enjoying myself.
These pleasant moments, coupled with people we truly find pleasant and enjoyable, and a bottle of a good wine, can leave deep impressions in our lives. I have lots of such moments: when I proposed to my wife and our first wine together; when my mom and dad came to visit my wife and me for the first time; when I’m sharing wine with my brother or my good friends, and so many other little moments.
Today, because it’s such as special day for us here at Grapeshare, I wanted to recall one such moment that left an impression on me: when Spicer and I discovered that besides us both being geeks, we also shared a passion for wine. And on this one evening in Bend, Oregon, we had dinner together with our wives. The girls were enjoying the food and the wine while Spicer and I talked all night about how there is no good tool out there for making it easy to track the wines we drink. Other than peeling the label off and sticking it onto a “wine journal” that is never read again, how else can we track and rate our wines? The tools that did exist then were not suitable: either they didn’t work with cell phones, or their interfaces weren’t what we were looking for, or they were just as complicated to use as maintaining a blog. We wanted something easier and beautiful. And something that we could use to not only track wines, but discover new ones. Discover people who are like us and like the grapes we like.
So, on that night, and for so many days after that, we came up with Grapeshare—our wine-sharing tool for wine-loving geeks like us.
The company of our families, good food and the kicking-off of a great idea made me pay special attention to a simple but delightful wine we were sharing that night: this 2008 Spanish wine, Tres Picos, from the Garnacha grape.
With this, I now invite all of you to join our growing family of Grapeshare.
Cheers.
Grapeshare Co-Founder and Chief Wine Officer.
