You may remember that when I first moved to Texas, I took a job hawking wine for one of the many wine “brokers” here (in the bizarre, anachronistic, archaic, and labyrinthine system through which wine is sold in this good ol’ boy state, where bowling shirts, deals made in strip clubs, and dry counties shape the topography of the business). I certainly don’t regret leaving that job (which I took to learn the lay of the land), nor do I regret the friendships I forged during that “hunker down and move forward” (à la Johnny Cash) time of my new life here.

Apulian winemaker Paolo Cantele, pictured above playing Chicken Shit Bingo at Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon with me and Tracie P in April 2009, is one of those friends. Paolo is a true humanist winemaker and our conversations in the time we spent together ranged from wine to Pasolini to politics to music to European literature to fine art (ask Paolo to tell you the tale of his hilarious encounter with Italian actor Ninetto Davoli).

A few months ago, Paolo asked me to give him a hand with a new and ambitious social media and technology project (in Italian, German, and English). One of his recent innovations (among many other high tech tools employed for marketing) is his new QR codes, which will appear on the back labels of his new vintages. How cool is that? But unlike the handful of northern winemakers who have begun using QR codes to send you to their corporate home page, Paolo’s link sends you to media created especially for each wine, including a video with Italy’s young, hip sommelier dude Andrea Gori and lots of other juicy info and images. Very cool stuff… Check it out here. (You can grab the code using your mobile device from the screen, btw.)

QR codes are the future and will soon begin to redefine the fabric of our consumerist lives in the U.S. (they already have in Asia and are beginning to take hold in Europe). And now they represent what is perhaps the newest form of wine writing!

I created the QR code below to link you to one of my favorite posts (use your smart phone to find out which one).