2012 Wine Bloggers Conference in PDX: Wine Predator to Ignite!

It’s almost that time again–time for the annual Wine Bloggers Conference!

This year we’re meeting in Portland –close to the Willamette Valley home of Oregon’s justly famous pinot noir and pinot gris! I barely scratched the surface with my trip there last July– highlighted by my visit on my last night to Coleman Vineyard south and west of McMinnville (Gotta love Coleman’s Facebook about page which says: Think globally. Eat locally. Dress casually.) More on Coleman soon!

I’ve made the pilgrimage to the Wine Bloggers Conference a regular part of my wine, writing, and blogging education: I attended the inaugural conference in 2008 as well as 2009 in Sonoma, followed by 2010 in Walla Walla. I also attended the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon as a guest of Enoforum Wine.

I keep going back to the Wine Blogger Conferences because I learn so much about writing and wine–two of my favorite activities combined into one!! It’s amazing to try so many wines from so many regions in such a short time. And over the years I’ve made some wonderful friends as well as connections in the business.

This year in Portland, over 350 consumer and industry wine bloggers will gather on Thursday August 16 for a welcome by Oregon Wine Board. Highlights include speed tastings, a keynotes by Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm and Sideways novelist Rex Pickett, plus many sessions on topics related to wine and writing including IgniteWine! where I will be presenting on “Sex, Wine and the Semi-Colon.” I’m currently debating whether I should include real-life examples of typos or mechanical errors that I come across in wine blogs–but I know that will open mine up to criticism and I am sure there are a few mistakes around here too! What do you think? Is it a good idea or not?

For an example of a great IgniteWine presentation, check out the video above!

In the meantime, please subscribe (in the upper right hand corner) so you don’t miss a single drop!

WBW #79 Gets Literary With Katniss Everdeen & Professor McGonigle

For July’s Wine Blogging Wednesday #79, host Brix Chix Liza prompts wine bloggers to ponder: What wine would your favorite fictional character drink?

I asked my fellow wine predators to send me their answers. Henny Kim sends this submission:

In the time before Panem, I guess people my age weren’t allowed to drink alcohol. Haymitch told me as much when he had time to talk between swigs of his awful booze. Imagine a world where the adult didn’t let kids do things because it was considered unhealthy. A world where children weren’t used as pawns for a vicious game of control and survival. I am thinking about this when Gale shows me the bottle he spotted during our hunt outside District 12. The bottle has a curious shape—like what humans used to call a bowling pin—and contains a dark pink liquid, the same shade of my lips when I’ve been running after wild game and a little out of breath and slightly sweaty. The pretty label shows small leaves and lettering, but the words that stand out are a bold black Sofia and then Rose in a girlish pink script. I wonder about how life must have been in a time when people had their names written on their own bottles and about who this Sofia Rose had been, how sad she must have been to discover she’d lost her bottle in the woods. After Gale manages to pop out the cork, he hands me the bottle, but I hesitate, thinking that since my name isn’t Sofia Rose, this drink doesn’t belong to me. Continue reading →

WBW#78 report & #79 gets literary!

Last month for Wine Blogging Wednesday #78, we got our “viggy on” –which means that, according to host Frank Morgan, over 29 bottles of viognier were opened, tasted, and reviewed on various blogs (including this one). Bloggers wrote about wines from California, Virginia, Australia, Washington, Portugal, and more.

July’s Wine Blogging Wednesday host Brix Chix Liza asks wine bloggers to ponder:

What wine would your favorite fictional character drink?
And she’s offering a prize for the best entry! 
I’m going to ask my fellow Wine Predators to email me their stories and I’ll post them here. While the obvious literary guests should have been fellow wine blogger Deb Harkness‘s heroine from Discovery of Witches and her vampire/geneticist wino sweetheart, I invited Professor McGonigle over for Sunday dinner. You’ll have to wait until Wednesday to hear about what we ate and drank and talked about! (Oh, and there might be pictures as well!)
Wanna play? Here are the rules:
  • Think of a favorite character. Any genre, any timeline, any story.
  • What wine would he/she/it drink? Tell us about the wine. Work it into the story.
  • Extra credit for those who write a scene with the wine
  • Your deadline is Wednesday, July 25th
  • Leave a comment  at Brixchicks #wbw79
  • Facebook BrixChick Liza
  • Tweet @brixchick_Liza
  • Email WBW79 at brixchicks dot com
  • If you are thinking of dressing up as your character, We LOVE that! Instagram us: brixchick_Liza
  • Be sure to use the #WBW79 hashtag.

Pinot Gris from Alsace: Summer Sensation

A few weeks ago, SoCalArtGal, Annie AnyDay, Bacchus Schmacchus and I gathered for two twitter tastings of 9 (yes NINE!) wines in two hours!

That was a lot of wine even for us!!

First we did five wines from the Alsace region of Europe:

Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Brut Rose
The Furst Pinot Blanc
Gustave Lorentz Riesling
Schlumberger Pinot Gris
Trimbach Gewurztraminer
followed by four delightfu, light effervescent and refreshing Vinho Verde wines from Portugal!

But for today, I’m just going to share a few notes about the Pinot Gris, later a bit about the Alsace region and soon, I promise, we’ll share our thoughts on the other wines from Alsace as well as the wines from Portugal! Continue reading →

Celebrate First Day of Summer with Sauvignon Blanc Day!

Thursday, June 21, 2012 raise a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and celebrate SUMMER on Sauvignon Blanc Day!

My friend NYJane is here with me and we’re celebrating the day with a Gary Farrell 2010 Sauvignon Blanc from Sonoma. It’s a very light cool pale yellow, with a slight effervescence that disapates as the bottle is open. It’s fresh, crisp, refreshing acidity: and I gotta say that was  a LONG week of summer school I just had and this wine is readying me for the weekend!

It’s perfect for enjoying with conversation with an old friend, slowing me down after the busy pace of the week. Continue reading →

#WBW78: can you say VEE-OH-N-YAY? Plus beet & mint & OJ & walnut salad

We can say viognier and we did!

We–the Wine Predators plus Que Syrah Sue and NYJane minus Ima Zinner–tasted two viogniers for this month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday–“Get Your Viggy On” hosted by Frank Morgan.

In his blog post, Frank shared that:

  • In the 1960′s, Viognier was nearly extinct with only eight acres planted in the Northern Rhone (via Wikipedia) and about 80 acres throughout the world (via Jancis Robinson).
  • Viognier is the most-planted white Rhone varietal in the United States

Frank shares other Viognier tidbits on his blog including how to pronounce this delightful white wine.

We were up for the challenge! We even went for the bonus points by tasting not one but TWO very different but both wonderful viogniers:

Rosenblum 2008 Kathy’s Cuvee Viognier under $20

Zaca Mesa 2009 Estate Grown Viognier under $30 (on sale at Bevmo now for $20)

with a variety of food dishes from beet salad to trout salad to mac n cheese to just plain sour dough bread to oysters to clams. Continue reading →

#WBW77 & #WBW78: Good Wines for Bad Days & Can You Say Viognier

Alleigh from “A Glass After Work” hosted the May rendition of Wine Blogging Wednesday by asking us what we want to drink after a bad day at work.

As you can imagine, there was quite the range of answers. I looked at a few of the blog posts and I think I like Talk-A-Vino’s best–I was intrigued by his wine selections and agreed with his criteria. Alleigh’s wine choice, a 2008 zinfandel from Ottimino Rancho Bello Vineyard definitely sounded like a go to wine for me too! Here’s my submission for WBW #77.

June’s Wine Blogging Wednesday is almost upon us! The theme for WBW#78 taking place next Wednesday June 20 is “Viognier” aka “Get Your Viggy On” hosted by Frank aka “Drink What You Like” which is often wine from Virginia, his home state, and one that is big on “viggy” –Virginia’s “signature” grape. (Seriously!)

I’m down with Viognier, but not hip to “viggy.” Sorry–unless we’re talking about Viggo Mortensen and both Exene and John Doe are in the room and maybe we’re all tossing about lines of haiku or poetry or doing a exquisite corpse or something.

In the meantime, Continue reading →