Marc Hinton of Enobytes just wrote a story he called, Oregon Pinot Gris gets Mentored into Stardom, after attending the Oak Knoll Second Annual Pinot Gris Symposium that we just pulled off:

“Greg Lint, president of Oak Knoll Winery who is no stranger to developing new marketing concepts was keen to pull everyone together to share the knowledge. Greg’s decision to seek the help of Jo Diaz of Diaz Communications was a wise move.  Jo started the hugely successful “P.S. I Love You” campaign in California to bring more attention to Petite Sirah. Her efforts in that campaign have clearly been successful. Have you purchased a bottle of good quality California Petite Sirah lately? They are getting pricy.”

I commented:

“What a great wrap up. Until I listen back to the recording for my own story on Wine Blog, you’ve refreshed so many details for me.

“It was a great day, with so many talented people. I’m getting a lot of feedback on it, and I know we’re onto something.

“Something else that you’ve turned me onto… because I only get ‘er done… is the fact that Petite Sirah’s prices have increased. I’ve only been watching the increase in growers and producers (62 combined growers and producers in 2002; now over *1,000* in 2012). I hadn’t thought about how everyone established back then is also now really doing better in their pricing…”

Paul Gregutt of Wine Enthusiast and www.paulgregutt.com wrote:

“I’m just back from delivering the keynote at the 2nd annual Oregon Pinot Gris Symposium. This one-day event, hosted by Greg Lint and Jeff Herinckx at Oak Knoll Winery, and organized by Jo and Jose Diaz, was even better the second time around.”

[It was made really great by the stellar line-up of winemakers/presenters: Joe Dobbes, Jeff Kandarian, Jesse Lange, Greg Lint, and Ellen Brittan.]

Both Marc and Paul’s comments really got me thinking…

When we started the campaign in 2002 for PS, there were only 62 known Petite Sirah growers and producers. Today, there are over 1,037 in my database. That’s about 100 a year growth, and in that growth are the Big Dogs of the world with their $50-$100 bottles of super star Petite Sirahs. Most – but not all – don’t want or need our support, live the good life, while they also elevate everyone else all with their classy neighborhood wines. This is good as we all chug forward on this Petite train… the little engine that could is still climbing up that huge mountain, though, with a long way to go.

I hadn’t ever thought of my real job in all of this being a mentor that could take an underdog into stardom, until I read Marc’s words. What a great concept and endorsement for what I’m able to do and have done with my life. It’s humbling, yet very rewarding to have that kind of quick endorsement in a story’s title…

Here I am with yet another varietal star on the crest of being born… It’s also hip to be Pinot Gris…

So… the pricey rock stars… $50 to $100+ [PSILY members have a link]

• Concannon Vineyard
• Mounts Family Winery
• Robert Biale
• Robert Foley
• Silkwood Wines
• Stags’ Leap Winery
• Vincent Arroyo (Thanks, Enobytes )
• Behrens Family Winery
• Corte Riva
• Pride Mountain
• Scholium Project
• Sean Thackrey
• Switchback Ridge
• Titus (Thanks, Enobytes )
• Turley

If you know of any others, please let me know. I’ll add them to this list.