Dover Canyon Winery

The Economy and Sound Decisions

This year has been a roller coaster for our local economy, which is very dependent on tourism and wine trade. The year started off well, and our March Zinfandel Festival weekend, which coincides with the release of our spring wines, was the largest sales weekend in the ten-year history of our business. Summer foot traffic dropped with the escalating prices of gas, but at the same time we enjoyed a higher percentage of first time visitors to Paso Robles from both northern and southern California. It seems people were adventuring closer to home and staying in the state, rather than driving or flying out of state for their summer vacations. Now gas prices have plummeted again, but news of a recession is tightening wallets.

On the wine discussion boards, where wine geeks and collectors gather, attitudes toward buying triple-digit bottles of Napa cabernet have veered sharply from last winter’s aggrandized boasting over rare and Veblun-priced acquisitions, to cautious consideration of quality-to-price ratios.

What does this mean for you?

The Pepper Rebellion

Zinfandel—a mysterious vine, a flirtatious wine, versatile with food and satisfying on its own. For too long, zinfandel has been the poster child for pizza, a wine regarded by critics as less than noble, a peasant primitivo good only for Tuesday night burgers, a wine lacking in chateaus, royal bloodlines and moldy caves.

In its struggle for market share, it has been overcropped and overextracted, diluted of spice, and hyped as an everyday drinker. It rarely commands the prices of even the most plebeian California merlots. So why do producers bother with it?

Zinfandel is a challenging wine to grow, to produce and to enjoy. It is an intellectual wine, layered and complex, with a fruit and spice dichotomy. It is a winemaker’s wine, full of mystery, challenge and rebellion. It is the James Dean of wine.

If you would like to join our viral rebellion, just write a brief treatise on why zinfandel is deserving of respect, or in support of its peppercorn qualities, publish it on your website, blog, or an online forum and we will list you as a member of the Pepper Rebellion.

Paso Robles: An American Terroir

An extraordinary look at the soils and geology of Paso Robles, Paso Robles, An American Terroir is the result of ten years of study and exploration by soil scientist Tom Rice. Dr. Rice heads the soil science department at California Polytechnic Institute in San Luis Obispo, and their soil science program is understandably the largest and most popular in the United States. As the local "dirt guy," Dr. Rice has also done soil surveys for a number of local vineyards.

The book is lushly illustrated with color photos, charts, graphs, diagrams and aerial shots. Paso Robles: An American Terroir is divided into two main sections—the first third of the book deals entirely with the geologic origins of the Paso Robles area, its soils, parent soils, geography, wind tunnels, water issues and climatology. It is densely factual, but attractively broken up by color art and photography, and Dr. Rice’s "prose cards."

Dr. Rice created the narrative prose cards for his introductory soils class, as a way of helping his students visualize the science. "If a scientist can take science/tech language and rewrite it in a form that any layman can understand, then that person will truly understand it." He would frequently choose a photograph he liked or simply sit down outdoors at a site, and write a semi-poetic prose narrative, weaving a story about a soil or landscape and how it integrates with plants, animals, and native ecology.

"While a lot of people might think of soils as being inanimate, I think of soils as living, because of the integration of the mineral with the organic material, which includes microbes, roots, decomposing leaves . . . I think of every soil as an individual . . . and every individual as a soil."

Join us for a Live Chat on Thursday at Cellar Rats!

Cellar Rats is a new online discussion forum, created and hosted by Dover Canyon. Our first live chat will start Thursday, February 21^th at 6 pm Pacific / 9 pm Eastern. Guests are welcome, and registration in the forum is not required to enter the chat.

• Just go to Cellar Rats
• click on the colorful "Chat" icon at the upper right
• pick a chat name
• and you’re in!

I have no idea what we’ll be discussing in this first chat, but one question is sure to pop up repeatedly: "What are you drinking tonight?"

Cellar Rats differs from other online wine and culinary boards in that it was created specifically for the wine industry, with a focus on winemaking and wine industry trends. Not all the discussion threads are entirely serious. We have a thread on rattlesnake recipes, for instance, but I’ve had some trouble getting my hands on a snake!

Everyone is welcome, and we hope to have a fun and lively discussion in the chat room. I hope you’ll join us.

Inside a Wine Scam, Part V: The Worm Turns

"To whom do lions cast their gentle looks?
Not to the beast that would usurp their den.
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.'"

William Shakespeare: Henry VI, Part 3

_____________________________________

At first, the callers are hesitant. "Hello, my name is . . ." "I’m a chef in the Midwest, and I sell gourmet products online . . ." "I’m with a skin care products firm in San Francisco . . ." "We broker handcrafted jewelry to catalog buyers . . ."

After a stumbling start, they race to the finish. "We almost made a huge mistake."

Through their calls and emails, I learned that even sophisticated firms can be targeted by this wine scam. "We frequently send wine overseas in containers," reported one winery. "Although the email seemed a little odd, it was the price of shipping that alerted us, as we get much lower rates. While researching the shipping company online we came across your articles. Our customer was ‘John Nelson’."

Another caller explained that they ship products overseas to catalog buyers. "They are usually English speaking, but often dictate personal correspondence to a native-tongue assistant. Sometimes the emails we receive have very quirky English, so when I received the ‘birthday’ request, I thought it was odd enough to investigate, but I would have filled the order had I not been warned. Thank you!"

And as they say, the worm turns . . .

Maria Bruhns at Kirigin Cellars emailed to report: "I did some Googling and got nowhere, until Betaway emailed me where to send the $3300…to an Ashley Lowe, at, you guessed it, 315 N. Main St, Alene. I googled the address…got a café! Called the café, disconnected. Next search result gave real estate offices…it’s abandoned!"

And now the prey become the hunter . . .

Inside a Wine Scam: Money Orders

Diane Raubach at Security State Bank in Chehalis, Washington agreeably answered some questions for us about the safety of accepting money orders for internet sales.

Question: Can Money Orders be cancelled even after the bank has made the funds available? Is there a time limit in which a Money Order can be cancelled? Or can it happen at any time?

Inside a Wine Scam, Part IV: Who's in Your Wallet?

In our last post, customer John Nelson asked me to run four stolen credit cards, accept the stolen funds, and then wire $2500 from our bank account to a Ms. Jeanette Springer.

He requested a Western Union wire transfer. However, in order to receive the wire transfer a living, breathing person must show up, produce identification, and be able to identify details regarding the transaction. (In Alpha Trans’ full communication, they ask for our location address, the money transfer control number and the exact amount of money sent.)

I expected our ‘front man’ and ‘shipping company’ to be based in San Francisco or Los Angeles—far enough away to get lost in a crowd, near enough to pick up the wine order. I also assumed right off the bat that anyone showing up to receive the money would have false identification. I imagined a nervous Nigerian immigrant who splits his time between swabbing restaurant floors and stealing electronics. Or a dreadlocked pimp with gold chains, gold rings and gold teeth, perfumed by Turkish coffee, opium and Moroccan cigarettes. Or a pale, anorexic computer engineering student with severe gambling debts.

But our anonymous law enforcement advisor is right—they want us to send the money several states away. Even then, I expected someone in a city, anonymous and unnoticed by most.

Instead, our trail takes us to Aline, Oklahoma. Population: 415 (and dropping).

Inside a Wine Scam, Part III: "It Ain't TV, Lady"

John Nelson sent us four Mastercard credit card numbers for his wine order. As I related here, they were all stolen.

"Identity theft is the # 1 crime in America today, even ahead of murder," said Angela of Sears National Bank as we went through the credit cards one by one.

Nevertheless, I contacted John’s shipping company, Alpha Trans, and these are the instructions they sent . . .

HERE IS THE INFORMATION FOR YOU TO GET SHIPPING PART OF THE PAYMENT SENT OUT VIA WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER.

NAME: Jeanette Springer
STREET :315 N Main St
CITY: Aline,
STATE:Oklahoma
ZIPCODE: OK 73716
COUNTRY: U.S.A

EXPECTING TO HEAR BACK FROM YOU SOON .

After some amateur sleuthing on Jeanette, I contacted the FBI regional office in Oklahoma. "What’s this all about?" snarled an agent. "Um, who am I speaking with, please?" I asked. "We don’t give out our names for security purposes," he said.

Thoroughly intimidated, I didn’t want to point out that I was looking at their website, which lists at least a dozen names—including first names, last names, and middle initials, presumably to prevent inter-cubby confusion. Moving on, I explained the scam and the fact that a front man was operating in their area, and we might like some help observing or catching him or her. "This isn’t TV, lady," he sighed. "We have legal issues."

He asked for all the details . . . and after trying my best to explain, I finally asked, with some degree of exasperation, "Do you have an email? I can simply send you a description of what’s going on, with all the correspondence, including email headers for tracing." "Oh, yeah, that would be good," he replied. "Hold on, I know this office has an email . . ."

In the meantime, a northern California law enforcement professional (who asks to remain anonymous due to jurisdictional protocols) agreed to an interview on these scams . . .

If someone feels they have been scammed, whom should they contact first? What can they expect to happen?

Inside a Wine Scam, Part II: The 'John Nelson' Letters

I received an email offering to buy some wine from a Mr. ‘John Nelson’.   Here is John's initial email.

Hello, my name is John Nelson, an American . I live and work here in Seoul, South Korea. Actually when I was around last year for christmas holiday, I got a bottle of one of your wines from a friend as a gift and I love the taste .Since then , I have been planning on getting your wines for my birthday party ...coming up soon here in Seoul, South Korea. I will be making my payment via my American based credit card . I am registered with a shipping agency here in Seoul, which has representatives in USA . So you are not get the wines shipped but the wines will be picked up at your winery by this licensed shipping agency .The shipping agency have all the appropriate exportation documents and permits. . . Kindly get back to me so that I can make my orders . Thanks. John

Let's find out a little bit more about 'John Nelson.'

Inside a Wine Scam, Part I: How the Wine Scam Works

This isn't the first time a wine blogger or reporter has written about the Nigerian wine scam.  There's a pretty funny riff on the 419 'advance fee' scam, written by Jack at Fork & Bottle and published by Alder Yarrow at Vinography. Ric at TORBWine holds the evil Nigerian forces at bay even though they want to order Dom Perignon.

Nigeria is a poor country, but you've got to give them credit for hard work.   FraudWatchers offers internet chat forums for victims and fraud watchers, but the moderators there also have a separate forum for scammers who post there.  The subforum heading reads, "This forum is where all posts made on this board by criminal scammers (yes, they really are *that* stupid!!) are placed for the search engines."  I got a kick out of  Another Genius Scammer.