Wine Industry People with Strong Kung Foo
At our little company we like to say that when someone has strong skills or do something great that they have “strong kung foo” (yes, I know it is spelled wrong). Today is my blog day and I looked at the ominous screen wondering what should be my topic. Fortunately I was inspired by an email from George Vare (the Chairman of our Board and a great mentor to our entire team) and I thought today would be a nice day to put up a list of people in the wine industry that have “strong kung foo.” This is by no means a comprehensive list, but rather those who immediately came to mind. There are other great Kung Foo Masters out there. I also made an attempt to categorize these people to show where their kung foo is strongest. Please feel free to comment on people in the industry that you think have strong kung foo - I very much would like to see them added to this list.
Grandmaster Kung Foo (A category with only one member)
George Vare
The Legends of Kung Foo
Robert Mondavi
Michael Moone
Winery CEO Kung Foo
Mary Ann Tsai - Luna Vineyards
Erle Martin - Pine Ridge
Scott Weiss - Fosters
Tom Shelton - Joseph Phelps
Best wine sales Kung Foo
Gary Vaynerchuk - Winelibrary.com (and cult of personality Kung Foo)
John Tichenor - Brown Forman
Guys behind the scenes you may not know but they make all the magic but they do, Kung Foo
Chris Edwards - Wine Tasting Network
Tom Wark - Wark Communications
John Hinman - Hinman and Carmichael
Consumer Direct Kung Foo
Miryam Chae - Fosters
Lesley Kiefer Russell - St. Supery
Jennie Haug - Revana
Jason Williams - Lancaster
Samantha Lloyd - Niebaum Coppola
Jim O’Shea - Sterling Vineyards
Matt Wood - Icon Estates
Financial Kung Foo Wizards
Rob McMillan - Silicon Valley Bank
Bill Price - Texas Pacific Group
Prescott Ashe - Golden Gate Capital
Christian Whipple - Pacific Premier Vitners
Vic Motto - Global Wine Partners
Not sure how to categorize their crazy good kung foo, kung foo
Jeff Stai - Twisted Oak
Marc Engel - BRSgroup.com
John Collins - Fosters
Lesley Berglund - WISE, WITS, Aged Cabernet
Tammy Boatright - Wattle Creek
Wine techie Kung Foo
Philip James - Snooth.com
Jason Coleman- Winelog.net
Joel Vincent - Openwineconsortium.com
Michael Brill - Crushpad
People fighting the good fight kung foo
Paul Kronenberg - Family Wine Makers
Steve Gross - Wine Institute
Kenneth Star - SWRA
People that buy ink (digital or real) by the gallon and use it well Kung Foo
Cyril Penn - WBM
Eric Jorgensen - WBM
Alder Yarrow - Vinography
Tina Caputo - Wines and Vines
Howard Goldburg - NYT, et al
Mark Fisher - Dayton Daily News
The Peter Foo Awards (great guys with the name of Peter that have had a major influence on the wine industry)
Peter Marks - Icon Estates
Peter Granoff - Founder of Virtual Vineyards - Ferry Building Wine Merchants
Peter Sisson - Founder of Wineshopper.com - Serial entrepenuer
Now mind you there are many, many more and I just listed those who first came to mind. Here are some suggestions for kung foo categories you may look to add: most innovative small winery kung foo, best tasting room manager kung foo, best winery marketing kung foo, etc, etc - I look forward to your comments and to you helping me add to this list.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Any list that doesn’t include Kermit Lynch is not a list I want to read.
April 30th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Thanks for adding Kermit Lynch to the list - like I said, it was people top of mind and I appreciate the addition - what kind of kung foo would you label him?
April 30th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Paul,
Personally, I’d put him in the Legends of Kung Fu. You could also make an argument for Best wine sales Kung Foo and/or Guys behind the scenes you may not know but they make all the magic but they do, Kung Foo.
In fact, the same could be said for Terry Thiesse!
Whether we like it or not, Robert Parker should be on the list. So should Karen MacNeil, Hugh Johnson, and Oz Clarke. Maybe call it “Critical Kung Foo.”
April 30th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Hi Paul,
Props to Tim of Winecast for his Wine 2.0 Kung Foo.
Cheers,
Becky
April 30th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Becky - I couldn’t agree more thanks to his seminar series.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Thanks very much Paul. Really its my team and not just me doing the Kung Foo at Snooth. Actually, Ryan Opaz (also a kung foo kind of guy) just got us all excited by a project we could build for wine bloggers out there, so we dropped everything and are off on this tangent for the next week!
April 30th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Paul,
I think I can speak for many of us on the list when I say that being included on this list is both deeply honoring and very humbling. This is quite a bit to live up too. I just thought I was having fun messing around with wine and convincing other people to enjoy it too. But one day I look up and realize that all this fun has actually become a career and WHAM!BAM!KAPOW! I’m part of the Kung Food Elite. I guess those martial arts classes in college did pay off. Who knew?
April 30th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Thanks for noting my crazy kung foo! (If you ever see me try a roundhouse kick, it’ll be pretty freakin’ crazy!) I just wish I could be Chuck Norris and ship wine anywhere I want to.
April 30th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Thanks for the honor, Paul. I agree with those who say the list should be longer, and you should definitely be on it as well as Bob Ackerman and his very able group of overacheiving Foo Masters who guide you. So Foo on you too Paul.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Good stuff here, Paul!
I nearly spit my coffee out laughing about the Peter Foo awards.
I think it should be noted for Dale and others that these are “Kung Foo” awards, not necessarily “Bruce Lee” awards.
Kermit Lynch and Bob Parker surely get “Bruce Lee” awards on another day. Though, I’m not sure Kermit Lynch, seeing as how he doesn’t sell online and is an old school wine dignitary, could spell Internet if you spotted him the I-N-T-E-R
I also expect to see you and Michael Brill receiving your own “Bruce Lee” awards down the road.
Game-changing business models only come around once a decade.
Kudos for the thought and the laugh.
Jeff
April 30th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Pls support my mad kung foo ‘girlfriday’, in Finance; the best support to me in DTC channel at TFE: Tara Hensley.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:39 am
Paul: It’s clear from your post that you suffer from a bad case of Foo Fetish. Perhaps you would benefit from some Foo Fighters.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:46 am
Mark - guilty as charged. Trying to hone my own foo into something close to the people mentioned here.
May 1st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I feel honored and foo-wish at the same time responding to this honor/ tripe? Its a ying/yang thang with me I guess. :O)
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:02 am
Paul - we gave ourselves new titles here at snooth reflecting our kung foo skills. Take a look: http://www.snooth.com/team
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Philip - that is AWESOME! Mad kung foo shared by your whole team - keep up the great work.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Upcoming Kung foo star - Kimberly Mansager.
May 6th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Duooh - as I knew would happen, I forget a multitude of people trying to type this blog out as fast as possible. One person of note that is painfully absent is “I’m Scottish but I don’t golf or eat hagas and yet I am one of the best winery GM’s in the industry kung Foo” that goes to Kenneth Rochford of Medlock Ames. My bad my brother.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Paul,
If you can’t categorize the foo, what’s a girl to do?
Thanks for the honor of being included on this grand list and let me know when I have an official title.. And does it give you a foo clue that I arrived late to this party?