A few weeks ago we were asked by Napa Valley Vintners, the trade organization for Napa’s leading wineries (270 plus to be clear), to assist them with a brand positioning and creative concept project. Needless to say, we were very pleased to able to assist the world’s leading wine region to maintain its leadership position.

While working on this program, I met Michael Honig of Honig Vinyard and Winery one of Napa Valley’s most successful Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc makers. Michael has a unique vision and a human rather than overly corporate approach to the marketing of his wines. I thought that Michael’s thoughts on the business of wine and wine marketing would make for an entertaining show. Here is part one of a two part interview. By the way, since personal recommendation is a major influencer of wines purchases, I highly recommend Honig’s Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc.

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I need to send someone a very special gift. I just remembeed that last January I wrote about eCreamery - a DIY ice cream company. The perfect e-gift for this ice creamoholic, and maybe you!

Microsoft has launched Windows Live, its new search engine. I don’t have the time or inclination to figure out if this search engine is any better than Goggle and the others. But, I did do a quick image search on “Peter Levitan” in each engine. Here are the results:

Live = 2 (one is from www.podcasting360.com)

Google = 6

Yahoo = 0

Ask = 2

I guess that Google is still my favorite!

He, 17 years old says, “Hey, I just marked 6 tee shirts to buy on this new site.” She, mom says, “Are you kidding me, I bought two shirts for you on Threadless last year.”

Web 2.0 meets fashion meets social marketing meets designer community meets personal expression. That’s the elevator pitch for Threadless. Their words:

“Threadless was created to give designers and artists an opportunity to unleash a little creativity and display it to the masses. Anyone can visit the site, download our templates and submit a design. Then, the designs are voted on. The winning designers receive $1,000 in cash and prizes, huge amounts of notoriety and their design printed and sold on a tee.”

With tee shirts as ultimate fashion statement (just watch one episode of Entourage), it is easy to see that a mass clearing house for tees has to work. So much more interesting plus a business model. Hey VC’s, please, no more MySpace rip-offs.

Yesterday I mentioned a smokers shop - you go in, light up, smoke goes into an air cleaning system, only men - in Tokyo. Well, here it is. Smokers Style. Go figure!