PfW
Mission Statement
PfW is dedicated to
increasing wine appreciation by providing wine education,
wine information, and wine training, and offering wine
opinions. Our mission is to spread wine knowledge and
enthusiasm and to dispel any and all snobbery and myth
regarding wine.
The information and
knowledge here is provided FREE of charge. No
"cookies" are left on your PC and there is no "registration" requirement for
access. We have nothing for sale (yet...). If you find us
useful, PLEASE visit our sponsors,
just to show your appreciation...
History
PfW GROUP
HISTORY: During the 1990s, wine coverage by our local
Northern California newspaper was limited to syndicated
reviews (frequently truncated versions, at that), mostly
written by Mid West- or East Coast-based writers,
supplemented by an occasional feature story on wine. The
reviews rarely had relevance to wines available in the
local marketplace and the features were few and far
between.
In early 1998,
Alan
Cannon
approached several friends and associates with the idea
of forming a tasting group to evaluate wines that are
both current and locally-available. Alan contacted the
newspaper's feature editor with an offer to produce a
wine column with local appeal. The editor agreed and
insisted on having one of his staff attend, participate
and write-up our results.
We gathered in May, 1998,
for our first bi-monthly blind tasting. After six or seven meetings, the newspaper
showed no interest in publishing our tastings, but we
continued to meet and taste monthly. Participation waned
somewhat in Spring, 1999, as our voluntary coordinator, the late and fondly remembered
Ron
Radoicich
became seasonally inundated by his vineyard and nursery
responsibilities. I offered (like an idiot!) to take
over.
At that June, 1999,
session, we discussed the possibility of putting our
notes on a website, formalized a name: "Professional
Friends of Wine", and agreed to a few simple membership
parameters and tasting ground rules. We relaxed the
original "current and locally-available" requirements
and ever since have shared and enjoyed
many delicious wines,
compared in some fascinating contexts of origin,
price, and age.
PfW SITE HISTORY: A coworker
of mine, Bob LaFond, had some experience building
websites and was first to suggest the idea of a website for
the tasting group. He offered to get us up and running
and train me to take over, although my very first
experience on-line was in April, 1999.
PfW members pooled
startup costs on a voluntary basis. Bob registered our
domain name and uploaded our first-generation pages in
July, 1999. This was comprised of group tasting notes
from two sessions, supplemented with monographs I had
been utilizing to teach wine appreciation classes over
the years.
From Dummy to
WebDrone
After a couple of training sessions with Bob, I began
reading web-design books, surfing, and asking questions
of anyone who seemed web-savvy. At the end of August,
1999, I undertook to redesign the PfW logo and the site.
I uploaded the new look at the end of October, 1999. In
April, 2000, I added a search engine, reorganized the
entire site file structure, and added a lot of content
that had been accumulating since January.
In March, 2001, with
the goal in mind of making the site faster-loading and
more easily navigable, I implemented a new design. The
file structure was again reworked to allow for future
expansion without the necessity of continually rebuilding
the site.
From
Reverie to Catastrophe and Back
Summer, 2001, was a season of site schizophrenia. Late in
June, PfW was nominated as a TOP
100 Wine Site,
voted upon by readers at Chef2Chef. In the first week or
so, we hovered in the "TOP 10". On July 2, our
host-server mistakenly deleted the entire PfW site. Can
you imagine my mood when I found they had no back up,
contrary to their advertising pitch? As visitors could no
longer find us, low-score votes began dragging PfW down
the rankings.
Trying to find a new host-server extended
the nightmare. Of five candidates which I e-mailed with simple questions
about issues that were either not addressed or not clearly explained
on their respective web sites, only one bothered to answer. I took
a chance and wound up with a bare-bones provider that had no documentation
of the features they advertised and no customer service (five unanswered
e-mails over an eight-day span).
Finally, to my relief, a friend and
long-suffering fellow webmaster recommended CybrHost.
What a breath of fresh air! Although the company was
was purchased, the new ownership retained redundant back-ups, easily configured e-mail and helpful
and available customer service, all resulting in our very amicable business relationship ever since.
Final
Remarks
The present design was uploaded October, 2002, with a new logo and navigation buttons. My plan for PfW is to
continue to improve the functionality and to continually refine, update, and gradually
expand the content. I invite and welcome all comments, pointers to
typos, requests, and suggestions.
CREDITS: People whose assistance, ideas,
inspiration, patience, praise, and tolerance have
significantly contributed are Bob LaFond, Steven Grigory,
Roland Marandino, Alan Cannon, Ray Krause, Sonny Martin
and Jane Ann LaMar. And last, but not least, all the PfW
visitors who have e-mailed suggestions, pointers and kind
words. Thanks & Cheers.
TOOLS:
Life's too short to drink bad wine OR to use a PC that drives you drink for medicinal purposes!
-
Jim
LaMar
