While today’s post gets straight to the red wines we tasted at our table (and here’s a link to all of the wines tasted), I do want to mention that I am working on posts about some of the panels and sessions, including the rather controversial one with the professional print wine writers.
Remember, while there are a few links to websites, you can click on the highlighted @followedbywineryname to go to their twitter page which will link to their website to learn more about these wines.
And here’s a pro tip: bring an envelope or folder to put the handouts from the red tasting and another from the white tasting to make it easier when you go to write-up the post! And wineries, be sure to give us some sort of hand out to help us in the those critical 5 minutes about what’s in our glass, price, twitter handle and more so we don’t need to interrupt you for these details while you are telling us your story. Or wineries: be the one to GIVE us a folder with your brand on it and suggest we put all of our notes inside! (Because while I brought the folders to the hotel, I didn’t bring them down to the tastings!)
One of the events that people either love or hate at the Wine Bloggers Conference is the Speed Tasting. Similar to Speed Dating, bloggers are introduced to a wine and have five minutes to respond with questions and to make notes and take photos, maybe even get out a tweet too. Some people–well one person anyway, Christopher Watkins of Ridge–can even tweet their notes in haiku–that’s 17 syllables for those of you who may have forgotten your poetry 101.
This year, I didn’t get to sit next to Christopher (because he wasn’t there) but I did get to sit with Wilfred Wong, formerly of Bevmo, as well as some other fun folks as we tried our best during the Speed Tastings. Continue reading →
I admit that I always have the best of intentions to do a blog post (or two or three) following each twitter tasting I do (and I do 1-4 a month or thirty or more a year), but more often than not, even though I usually have one person dedicated to taking notes, and we usually have some great images of the wines and the food we paired them with from posting them on twitter, too often that’s all it is–best intentions for a dedicated post although I often sneak in a reference or a review into another blog post. I figure I did my “job” of tweeting and I better move on to other writing projects (on this or another of my blogs or poetry or essays or?)
I know of at least one blogger and prolific tweeter, Marcy Gordon, who is cutting back to only six twitter tastings a year so she can focus more on other activities. I know for me sometimes I wonder if my time that I spend on a twitter tasting would be better spent on writing.
#ArrogantFrog#PinotNoir uses ecofriendly approach to avoid polluting the environment where the wine is produced. Great job, @paul_mas!
However, at this point, I will continue to say yes when I am invited to participate because I always learn something–maybe something new about the region or wine making, or, in the case of the #Arrogantfrog twitter tasting, about the farming and the sustainable practices of the Paul Mas brand which you can watch here on this ustream link: http://ustre.am/1fqNt.
Before I get to posting about the Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Barbara where I tasted hundreds of Santa Barbara County wines as well as wines from Greece, Portugal and other wine regions of the world (and brought back over a dozen open bottles of wine to taste and write about!), I’m going to France via a twitter wine tasting tonight with Arrogant From by Paul Mas! If you don’t have the wine, you can
This live tasting features owner and winemaker Jean-Claude Mas and the discussion will be lead by Michelle McCue, McCue Communications who I met for the first time at the Wine Bloggers Conference!
Follow the conversation on twitter by checking out the hashtag #ArrogantFrog.
You can ask questions too via @paul_mas, hashtag #ArrogantFrog. You can send them via me and I’ll forward them or ask them yourself. They will do their best to get all of them answered by Jean-Claude, depending on time.
I’m here in Santa Barbara at this year’s Wine Blogger’s Conference. On Saturday night, we’ll find out where we will go next year! Before the conference officially started, on Wednesday I spent time with Larry Shaffer at Tercero, learned about the various AVAs in the Santa Barbara region with Fred Swan of the San Francisco Wine School and toured Star Lane winery in Happy Canyon, then checked into the Santa Ynez Marriott in Buelllton for the conference proper.
NOTE: Heading to the Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Barbara? Here’s a quick intro to a few wineries in Ventura County that folks on the way to WBC14 might want to try…Also, the first winery mentioned, Labyrinth, will be pouring in the red speed tasting.
On Chardonnay Day, which is the Thursday before Memorial Day every year, Pineapple Helen and I made a plan, and in the early afternoon, we hit the road in West and North Ventura County search of Chardonnay. Continue reading →
— Gwendolyn Alley, Art and Wine Predator (@ArtPredator) June 18, 2014
Twitter wine tastings are fast and fun–and you get to taste wine in a community of friends without leaving your own home! You can compare notes, learn from experts, test your palate against other wine influencers, consumers, and bloggers, and also get ideas for food pairings.
Open to everyone, the trick is to find out about these tastings in time to get the wine so you can join in! Some of the wines are obscure, and the point of the tasting is an introduction to them. Other times, the wine is a new release.
For this week’s tasting, which takes place from 5-6pm PST Weds June 18, the wine, Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc, is easy to find at most grocery stores while next week’s tasting which features Crémant d’Alsace Bruts will likely need you to go to a specialty wine store.
So what wine do you need to get and how do you take part?
trick is to find out about these tastings in time to get the wine so you can join in! Some of the wines are obscure, and the point of the tasting is an introduction to them. Other times, the wine is a new release.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 