Written Scenario

Group 3

Professor Drew Isaacs returns to his lovely home in St. Helena, a sleepy Napa Valley 'burb.  It's been a tough day, what with all the annoying MBA kids, and he decides to pop open a bottle of $100 Opus red wine.  He finishes it.

 

"You know, goddammit, I could do this better!" he exclaims as he smashes the empty bottle against the wall, and dollar signs flash in his eyes.

 

After mulling the idea over the rest of the case, he has a vision of Dionysus.  "You know, you have to measure acid, alcohol, and sugar content, as well as temperature," Dionysus advises in a godly baritone.

 

Drew grows flustered.  "But I don't want to pay a lab to do all this for me. so how could I manage technology to make better wine?!"

 

Dionysus shrugs his shoulders and disappears.

 

"Get back here Dionysus!  What do I do?"

 

This raucous uproar awakens his wife, who, fortuitously, is an environmental chemist.  Drew explains his predicament.  "Calm down, Drew, I got your toys right here."  She goes to the garage and returns with a pH sensor, thermistor, and hydrometer.

 

She throws the equipment at him, and implores him to just be quiet so she can go back to sleep.  "And remember to take the dog for a walk!"

 

"Hmmm. dog. leashes. why does the dog need a leash?  What if the dog didn't have a leash?  What if my barrels were wireless?  And couldn't I combine all these sensors onto one device?  And interface it with my laptop?  Yeah, that's the ticket!"  His wife, still in the room, rolls her eyes at this sorry stream-of-consciousness rambling, goes to the medicine cabinet to fetch her earplugs, and retires for the night.

 

*** Two years later. ***

 

Isaacs, donning a top hat and a monocle, has taken the wine industry by storm.  He's just introduced his "Moté" brand, which has won several prestigious awards, and is increasingly preferred by winos from Los Angeles to Baltimore, capturing a full 10% of the market share.