Atop a luscious, 500 meter hilltop in Tuscany lies the fortified village of Montalcino. Once a stopover on the main path from Florence to Rome, today it is home to one of the world’s great wines, Brunello de Montalcino. Yes, the soil and climate are perfect for growing Vitis Vinifera. Yes, the old Sangiovese vines are well established. But the big difference is expertise. After centuries of winemaking, and nearly 200 years focusing on Brunello, these artisans have forgotten more about fine wine than most countries will ever know. They produce a rich, dark, leathery red wine with a complex aftertaste that will last until your next birthday. These wines are best sampled using a modern-day tourist contrivance, the Brunello Bus.
Atop a 600 foot plateau in Everett, Washington sits the Fluke Corporation. It, too, straddles a major avenue of commerce, as Boeing makes 777s and 787s next door. The glacial till left over from the last ice age does not support much besides Douglas Fir and Red Alder, and the persistent drip irrigation from the sky favors indoor activities. Here, the locals have developed a deep expertise in Digital Multimeters, DMMs. Beginning with the MIT root stock of John Fluke, Sr. in 1948, then cultivated by grads of Stanford and the University of Washington, Fluke has developed a deep commitment to durable, real-world Test and Measurement equipment. They conceptualize, design, test, build and service a diverse collection of DMMs for connoisseurs who appreciate and use fine test tools.
From the Fluke cellars, here are the latest releases of the 2009 vintage:
- DMM de 289, TRMS Electronics Logging Multimeter; Best-in-Test award winner has all the capability of a top-end handheld DMM plus a high resolution graphical display to support logging and TrendCapture
- DMM de 233, Remote Display Digital Multimeter; Ultimate crowd-pleaser, voted coolest meter…ever. Wireless communication allows the display to be up to 30 feet from the measurement point.
- DMM de 28 II, TRMS Industrial Multimeter; IP 67 waterproof & dustproof, completely sealed for use in harsh environments. Throw it in a wine-vat and play go-fish. It’ll still work.
And yet, these exciting new flavors still have to beat the long-term success of this all-around leader:
- DMM de 87-V, Industrial Multimeter; The ultimate “real-man’s” meter.
To sample one of these vintages, see your Fluke distributor today.