Category Archives: Social Media & WIne

WBW #73 “Spark” Round Up; WBW #74 “Sparkling” Announced

In response to Cork Dork’s prompt to write about a wine that connects to what sparked your interest in wine blogging, ten bloggers let him know in time to join in his round-up and a few more bloggers chimed in with posts after–better late than never!

Here’s the Wine Blogging Wednesday #73 “Spark” round up.

Here’s my response to the “Spark” prompt–I mentioned Ridge Zinfandel, Grateful Palate Shiraz, and Enoforum wines from Portugal with a review of Twisted Oaks Tempranillo,

Next up, keeping with the idea of “spark” write about value “sparkling” wine. Hosted by Wine Cast aka Tim Elliot, Wine Blogging Wednesday #74 participants will join the 2011 sparkling wine trend; in 2011 Americans consumed 20% more Champagne; like the recent popular Proseco, Moscato went from an unknown sparkler to one that has been produced and appreciated more (even in a Barefoot Bubbly version!).

In the past five years, I have discovered the pleasures of various sparkling wines with food, not just as a special occasion beverage or for a toast. And so it is with great pleasure that I look forward to participating in February’s Wine Blogging Wednesday. I’ve got a rose cremant in mind to pair with ham as well as trying that Barefoot Moscato, Chateau Ste Michelle’s 2005 Luxxe, and ?? with oysters and ?? After all, this is still my birthday month and I’ve got more celebrating to do!

If you too would like to join in, you are welcome! The prompt for Wine Blogging Wednesday #74 includes these instructions:

Just pick a sparkling wine from any appellation, made from any grape but make sure it sells for $25 or less a bottle (€20, £16). This should open up a lot of interesting selections, from Crémant de Bourgogne, to Cava, to California & New Mexico sparkling, sparkling Shiraz, to even well chosen grower Champagne. Just post your notes by February 15th and ping me @winecast on Twitter or email me with your link at winecast (at) gmail (dot) com.

Oh, and I’ve having a birthday subscription drive until the end of the month! Please subscribe in the box in the upper right hand corner! It’s easy to get Wine Predator in your inbox and join in the Wine Predator fun! I’ve got big plans for 2012 and I hope you will be along for the adventure!

SOPA, PIPA & Wine Blogging Weds #73 January 18: Where’s the Spark?

Tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18 is the first installment in many, many months for Wine Blogging Wednesday. An online event where wine bloggers have gathered around a theme for over six years, I always enjoy participating and while the number of bloggers may have waned, I still think Wine Blogging Wednesday offers value to bloggers and to wine consumers.

Appropriately themed “Spark,” the 73rd event attempts to spark new interest and hopefully light a fire again for this formerly monthly wine blogging event. The “Spark” theme urges wine bloggers to return to that which sparked their interest in wine blogging in the first place.

Host Corkdork  writes, “I know you’ve grown and your wine knowledge has expanded, but it’s time to revisit the kind of wines that sparked your desire to blog, retaste, and share. January’s challenge, “Spark”, is to re-visit the wine that first turned you on to the infinite wonder of the world of wine.”

Post your “spark” story on Weds. January 18; the host will follow-up with a round-up. Let Corkdork know you’re got a spark to contribute to the fire. And come back to read about mine!

Ironically, tomorrow many sites including heavy hitter Wikipedia are going “dark” to draw attention to the SOPA legislation.

According to Gizmodo,  “The momentum behind the anti-SOPA movement has been slow to build, but we’re finally at a saturation point. Wikipedia, BoingBoing, WordPress, TwitPic: they’ll all be dark on January 18th. An anti-SOPA rally has been planned for tomorrow afternoon in New York. The list of companies supporting SOPA is long but shrinking, thanks in no small part to the emails and phone calls they’ve received in the last few months.”

So what is SOPA? or PIPA? At first, it sounds like a good idea–it is supposed to protect content providers. But Gizmodo argues that “SOPA is an anti-piracy bill working its way through Congress that would grant content creators extraordinary power over the internet which would go almost comedically unchecked to the point of potentially creating an “Internet Blacklist” while exacting a huge cost from nearly every site you use daily and potentially disappearing your entire digital life while still managing to be both unnecessary and ineffective but stands a shockingly good chance of passing unless we do something about it.”

So call. Or email.

I am planning on joining in as well and staying off the internet tomorrow. Not sure what this might mean for Wine Blogging Wednesday–or my own participation!

International Food Bloggers Convene on Santa Monica With A Focus on Wine

Gwendolyn Alley blogger author writer poet This weekend, Food Bloggers from around the globe but especially from California will convene near Santa Monica’s famed Third Street Promenade to exchange tips on blogging, to try new and exciting foods, and to learn about how to incorporate wine into food blogs by tastings and pairings and by attending a Saturday afternoon session on the topic where I am one of the panelists! I’ll be focusing on how to create compelling content about wine.

3:30 — 4:45    Session: How to Incorporate Wine into Your Food Blog sponsored by The Crusher. Hosted by Michelle McClendon, Winemaker, Don Sebastiani & Sons, Gwendolyn Alley, Blogger, Wine Predator, Michael Wangbickler, Balzac Communications

For many cultures around the world, wine is an integral part of people’s daily lives. It is served with every meal (okay, maybe not breakfast) and enjoyed with friends and family. Walk into a restaurant in France or Italy, and you will likely see a bottle of wine on every table. In America? You are as likely to see beer, cocktails, or Coca-Cola as you are wine. Inexplicably, most Americans are intimidated by wine and are afraid of making a mistake when purchasing a bottle. But the simple fact remains that wine doesn’t have to be complicated and can be enjoyed by anyone. In this session, we’ll explore ways for you to integrate wine and wine reviews into your blog to further enhance your and your reader’s enjoyment.

Here’s the complete agenda for the 2011 Food Bloggers Conference in Santa Monica. I’ll be attending and blogging the sessions on Saturday and possibly Sunday (I couldn’t attend today Friday because of my son’s 8th birthday party!)

And I promise to post the key points of my own session–I’m thinking about putting them up before the session so people can follow along!

Who am I? Of course you can read my “about” page.  Here you can read recent press about me.

Last May, influential blogger and wine publicist Jo Diaz named me a “woman wine blogger who matters.”

PS While it’s not about food or wine or blogging, I will also have my book Middle of the Night Poems From Daughter to Mother :: Mother to Son with me for sale and signing.

Th. Sept 1: Celebrate Sep-Tempranillo or Cabernet? Or Both? Here’s How!

You’d think there were enough days in the year to devote one day per varietal or style or region or…but as recent events have shown, I guess there’s not.

For example, Ed Thralls claimed August 18 for #pinotsmackdown and Thirsty Girl claimed it for “pink” port. (And yes, I would have participated in both events, thank you both very much for the invitations, except my port didn’t arrive in time!)

Now, September 1, the Tempranillo folks are horning in on Cabernet Day!

For most people, it will be easy to participate in Cabernet Day. I’d bet it’s the most common and well known kind of wine around. You can register here (it’s free!) and learn more about participants and participating wineries but you don’t have to. http://cabernet.eventbrite.com

Tempranillo might seem a bit more “exotic” than cabernet sauvignon but according to The TAPAS Society, Tempranillo, which is indigenous to Spain and used in Rioja and Ribera del Duero wines, is planted in 500,000 acres of the world’s vineyards making it the fourth planted varietal in the world. While most of it is grown in Spain,  Tempranillo is grown in the United States, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, France, Portugal, Turkey, Canada, China, Thailand, and more.

Personally, I’ll be at the Burning Man Festival, Black Rock City Nevada, doing my part to celebrate both days! I might be at the Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro or playa info in center camp but easiest might be just celebrating at the Black Rock Cellar since that’s where I’ll be storing the wine! Continue reading →

Dianne Jacob at WordCamp SF 2011: how to have a killer food blog

So last night I was at Meteor’s new release party in Napa. (More on that later–wow a night! What wines! Pictured is the tree where we watched the meteors and the moon and enjoyed desserts!)

And today? I’m at WordCampSF 2011 in San Francisco listening to Dianne Jacob, food blogger, and a blogging coach for food bloggers.

And I’m blogging about it here for you because I know many of my wine readers are also very interested in food. Personally, it’s all about the food AND the wine together that makes big magic for me!)

Dianne Jacob promises the share the 10 things you need to know to become a well-known food blogger including how to write a recipe, how to become part of the community, get comments, take food photos, etc. She’ll show examples of WordPress food blogs and explain why they succeed. (Who’s Dianne Jacob? Scroll down to the bottom!)

1. Tell moving stories around food.

Tell good stories like David Leibovitz. Tell a story period! Otherwise people don’t care–about you, your brand, your blog. Your recipe is only a recipe, information. Tell a story.

2. Shoot gorgeous photos.

Check out Delicious Days to see some examples. Crop your photos. Use repeated patterns. Study art and use the techniques of the great artists. Your iPhone may not do the job. (Speaking of, I better take a shot of Dianne! And I wish I had some pictures of those amazing sliders from last night at Meteor…the food was so wonderful! Yum! Okay, back to Dianne…)

3. Learn how to style food.

Avoid shadows–use white poster board to reflect the light.

It’s not enough to be a great writer to have a successful food blog–you have to also offer great photography.

4. Take process photos. Continue reading →

TasteLive: #CrushIt for The Crusher 6/9

Last month’s #PlanetBordeaux Twitter TasteLive tasting was fun but a bit of a fiasco: the wine went to the wrong address! Wine Blogger David Rodriguez waited there until FedEx redelivered then drove back to my house to join the group of wine enthusiasts I had gathered who, while waiting, were tasting wine from Planet Bordeaux, Enoforum, and two Crushpad projects.

By the time the Planet Bordeaux wines arrived that we were supposed to be talking about, everyone on twitter had already tasted through the line-up! We joined in at the last minute with the last rose…

Fortunately, this month’s #CrushUp wines arrived the same day as the Planet Bordeaux wines–plenty of time in advance of the Taste Live on Twitter event Thursday, June 9 from 4-6pm (Pacific time). The Crusher wines are  from Don Sebastiani & Sons and originate in Clarksburg, California, an AVA  in the Central Valley formed in 1984.

How can you participate? Don Sebastiani & Sons will be hosting tweet ups in Sacramento, Seattle, Chicago, and Trenton, NJ at the same time–one big national party live and online. In Sacramento, winemaker Greg Kitchens will lead the discussion and field questions.

You can also pick up The Crusher and tweet and taste along with us–or follow the tweet stream on twitter checking out the hashtag #crushit.  These are the ones we’ll be tasting (and in this order):

The Crusher 2009 Chardonnay
The Crusher 2010 Rose
The Crusher 2009 Pinot Noir
The Crusher 2009 Petite Sirah
The Crusher 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon

Check out http://www.donandsons.com for info about the wines and the Clarksburg region.

Jo Diaz Names Wine Predator As A Wine Blogger Who Matters

Recently Jo Diaz discussed Steve Heimoff’s column “Beyond Blogging” about  Jeff Lefrevre’s column “How to Become a Wine Wonk” in Forbes. (Did you follow that or did it get too incestuous?)

In his column, Jeff recommends several wine sites and wine bloggers worth reading and why. His list of 12 sites includes Joe Roberts aka 1 Wine Dude, Alder Yarrow of Vinography, Tyler Coleman aka Dr. Vino and Steve Heimoff of Steve Heimoff.com, all fine wine bloggers, many I have come to know, some better than others, at the various wine bloggers conferences and through social media.

Steve talks about monetization among other topics and in a comment on Steve’s blog, Jo not only points out that the wine bloggers worth reading and writing about were all males (and I think they’re all white as well), but she was also willing to follow up on this topic on her own blog and to discuss this in public AND call attention to the fact that women in wine end up on the “living” section of the news. (Another commenter left this link with numbers to back up the observation about gender and race).

Jo then listed women wine writers that she thinks have “grace and style, who are blogging and have sites that really matter.” And –here comes the good news–I am featured on her list of these women wine bloggers!

For her article, Jo compiled the photo above. From  left to right, you’ll see Megan Kenney aka Sonadora of the blog Wannabe Wino, Sondra Barrett Ph.D who blogs at SondraBarrett.com, Alana Gentry who blogs at girl with a glass, and finally myself.

Jo’s article includes a nice write up about each of us then goes on to mention Pamela Heiligenthal of Enobytes, Gabriella Opaz of Catavino, Jancis Robinson, Leslie Sbrocco, and Karen McNeil.

So if you’re looking for some weekend reading, you might explore one or more of these sites–written by both men and women. And certainly you should make Jo’s blog part of your regular reading!