Wine Bloggers – Are We in a Competition?

June 29, 2012 by 20 Comments

The Best!

This subject was actually asked of me last year. I got thinking more about it with last week’s fantastic Watermelon Thump & Chef Throwdown event at William-Chris Vineyards where media including bloggers and writers were invited.

Now that I am being invited to some media events or attending conferences which bloggers and writers can attend, it made me sit back and think. For example, I went to the DrinkLocalWine Conference in Colorado where bloggers attended from around the country. I was going to write a blog post or two about the event while others were going to do the same, in addition to using Twitter during the conference. During the Twitter Taste-Off, I saw some tweets and thought, “That was good. I wish I had said that.” But did that mean I was competing with them to see who had the best tweet? The same holds true with any blog posts written for the conference.

I have read other blog posts which involved meeting a noted winemaker/grower or visiting a winery, and admittedly was a little jealous because I hadn’t met them or visited that winery first. But does that mean we are in competition to see who’s first? Most likely I’ll meet or visit the same someday.

I’m going to use my fellow bloggers and writers from last weekend’s William-Chris Vineyards event as an example. It’s usually common practice if you are a blogger and you get invited to an event, there’s a good chance you’re going to write about it. Last week there were at least 9 bloggers and writers, and more which I did not know or get a chance to meet. After the event the blog posts started appearing. Here are the bloggers with Twitter handles I know and either their blog posts of the event or their main website (in Twitter alphabetical order):

So if you look above, there were at least 7 blog posts written about the event. Is one better than another? Or is it just a different perspective with a different writing style and different photos?

I’ll pick out a few people from the list. Russ Kane, the self-proclaimed Texas Wine Czar, is arguably the most experienced of the group writing about Texas wine. He has a book out now about the Texas wine industry called The Wineslinger Chronicles (http://wineslinger.net). He has a great writing style and when we write about the same topic in a blog post, I wish I could have written that way. He does have a writing background though. Sure, I have a book out too (shameless plug http://ussholt.com) but that doesn’t mean I’m a writer. Perhaps it would have been different if my major at college was Journalism instead of Computer Science.

There are others on the list such as Denise Clarke and Jessica Dupuy who have passed the first level of the Court of Master Sommeliers’ educational program. They obviously know more about wine than I do and probably will always know more. I do not have enough time to study for the wine exams, although they do sound fun, let alone try to find time to write posts for this blog. At least it takes me considerable time to write one post.

A lot of us started a blog last year or some this year so we are all determining our writing style, what to write about, and so forth. But does that mean we’re competing to see who eventually has the best blog?

I look at all this and compare it against what a lot of us are writing about, Texas wineries and wine. When I first started talking to winery owners, I was surprised to learn they aren’t competing against each other. If one has a piece of equipment break down, the nearest winery loans them theirs. If another has cold storage and another doesn’t, they’ll let the other use it. They’re all in it for one common goal: improve the Texas wine industry.

So what is my answer to the question posed at the top? The majority of us blog or write as a hobby, so I do not believe we are in a competition as we are doing the same thing, trying to help improve the wine industry. And with the Texas wine marketing budget gone, anything we can do should help.

We all have different followers on Twitter. From now on, if I see one of my fellow blogger’s tweets about a new blog post, I will be retweeting it. I am finally going to find an RSS reader and start following my fellow blogger’s posts and most likely learning from their experiences too.

What do you think? Are wine bloggers in a competition?

Filed Under: Information Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

DrinkLocalWine Conference 2012 from the Day After

April 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I had the pleasure of attending the DrinkLocalWine conference 2012 held in Colorado. This was my first DrinkLocalWine conference and hopefully it will not be my last. I was interested in the conference when I saw the schedule and then have the chance to meet some of the people in person who I follow on Twitter. Of course the primary purpose of the conference is to make people aware of regional local wine.

The conference was held in a church at Metro State College Campus in Denver. The day before the conference I found the campus using my GPS just so I understood where parking would be the next day. On the morning of the conference, I volunteered to drive Olivia Wilder who was going to be holding her radio show during the Twitter Taste-Off, and had her equipment to bring. I got my car and then realized I had left my GPS in the hotel room. With the Sheraton Downtown being a maze of corridors and elevators, it would have taken some time to go back up to the room to get the GPS. Olivia was very understanding and patient when we got lost, but we eventually found the campus using the map on my smartphone. GPS’s are great, but sometimes you can depend on them too much.

We arrived in time for the start of the conference and the first seminar was titled “Colorado’s Terroir and the Challenges of High Altitude.” There was a panel of four people, like each of the following two seminars, and they discussed the problems with growing grapes in Colorado.

First seminar

Most of the vineyards in Colorado are in the western part of the state. The biggest counties which produce the most grapes are Mesa and Delta. Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot are the most popular varieties grown. 2009 had winter damage and they are still recovering from it and as a result, some growers are downsizing or exiting the industry.

A big advantage of growing in Colorado is there is no phylloxera on the Western slopes. Pest control is usually not a problem in the vineyards. Colorado has low humidity which results in low disease problems whereas frost is the greatest concern. Most vines are also on their own rootstocks.

Vineyards are in competition for space though with more lucrative peach orchards. Panelist Horst Caspari, Professor and State Viticulturist at Colorado State University, even admitted if he wanted to make money, he would grow peaches.

The next seminar was “Local Food, Local Wine, and Why They Don’t Like Each Other.” The issue of trying to get people to drink local wine and food was discussed. Colorado has some of the same issues with local food and wine as Texas does. People want to eat and drink local but when they go to a restaurant, there are no Colorado wines on the wine list. René Chazottes, director of wine and master sommelier at the Pacific Club, said what is very true. A customer can go to a restaurant wanting to drink local wine. But if they are expecting a certain style of wine and the local wine is made in a different style, they are confused and they switch to what they know which happens to be non-local. Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post and co-founder of DrinkLocalWine made a good point when saying, “The wine has to be good no matter where it comes from.”

Second seminar

Evan Faber, Beverage Director at SALT, was very energetic with some of his ideas to get people to drink and eat local. Jensen Cummings, Executive Chef of Row 14 Bistro and Wine Bar, said most people who drink Colorado wine are people who come from out of town looking for something local. They need to get Colorado residents to learn to drink local wine.

The final seminar was “Consumer Perception of Colorado and Regional Wine.” This panel included “normal” consumers of wine which included Chris Anthony, professional skier, Jennifer Broome, KDVR-TV meteorologist and host of ” Explore Colorado,” and Jay Leeuwenberg, former NFL player. They provided their perceptions of why they may or may not drink local wine. There were a lot of great ideas to try and get residents to drink more local wine, but most people have made the same suggestions before such as festivals and using social media. Again, the pricing for local wine cannot be much more than other wines if it is desired to drink local wine.

Third seminar

Next came the Colorado Blind Challenge where three panelists were going to do a blind tasting pairing three Colorado wines with three California wines. As a surprise to us, they had found enough wine glasses in Denver and we were all going to do the blind tasting with the panelists. The first pair of wines were white and I correctly identified them as Rieslings. I was impressed even though nobody else was. :) The next turned out to be Viogniers and the last were Cabernet Francs. I’ll be honest that I didn’t get any pairing correct as to which the Colorado wine was. That is just how good they were. It was a fun time had by all trying to do the guessing.

Blind Tasting

After a nice lunch it was time for the Colorado Twitter Taste-Off sponsored by Nomacorc. 24 Colorado wineries had two wines each and we had three hours to taste as much as possible, tweet about them, and basically have fun doing so. The #drinklocal #colwine hash tags on Twitter were flying around during the tastings. It was an experience getting to taste and try to come up with roughly 100 characters to tweet about the wine. This was my first tasting of this kind and I had to use the dump bucket otherwise I would not have been able to walk out of the room. I still could not do the spitting part though and from looking around, not many others did either. Everyone then voted on their best white, bed red, and then either the people’s favorite or media’s favorite wine. Awards were then given to the favorite wines.

After a long day, another successful DrinkLocalWine conference was over. Everyone enjoyed themselves and I know for sure that if I can make it, I will be attending the next conference too.

 

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Nomacorc

April 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I’ll admit I had not heard of Nomacorc until I was reading my Twitter feed and saw Paul Bonarrigo from Messina Hof had answered a question from somebody asking about cork taint. He said he was not concerned with cork taint because he was now using Nomacorc closures at Messina Hof.

After I decided to go to DrinkLocalWine’s conference DLW 2012, I noticed that Nomacorc was sponsoring the Colorado Twitter Taste-Off. Here was their name again.

We are VIP members at Messina Hof and one of the many benefits are quarterly VIP receptions. We went to the first VIP reception of this year and I made a point to speak to Paul Bonarrigo about his comment on Nomacorc. He said he loves them and is using them in Messina Hof’s wines which are usually priced under 15 dollars. Using Nomacorc closures will avoid any potential cork taint. He said the closures insert and extract very easily and they have been getting great feedback from their customers.

I found Messina Hof’s switch to Nomacorc closures very interesting. We have taken more than a few tours at Messina Hof with different tour guides, and I remember at least one commenting by their wine bottling machine how Paul uses only natural corks and would probably never change. Obviously never say never as new and improved technology is always happening.

Nomacorc Select Series

I then had to do some research on Nomacorc to learn more about this closure. I learned that Belgian businessman and wine connoisseur Gert Noël got the idea to create an alternative wine closure at a family party after opening several bottles of wine that had been ruined by cork taint. Noël and his son Marc started in 1993 to create a wine closure based on foam extrusion technology. The team spent six years in research and development before introducing the first Nomacorc closure. The company was established in 1999 in Zebulon, North Carolina, by Marc Noël.

Nomacorc has now become the world’s largest producer of alternative wine closures. Since their formation, they have expanded into the European market with the addition of operations in Eupen, Belgium and Yantai, Shandong, China.

Interestingly instead of it being a solid closure by looks, each closure consists of a foamed inner core layer and a flexible outer skin. Nomacorc closures look and feel like a natural cork while addressing the problems of cork taint, breakage, crumbling, and inconsistent wine preservation. Nomacorc now has a portfolio of wine closures with each one designed for different winemaking styles and makes billions of closures a year. Their latest is called the Select Series which has four unique products.

Opening a bottle of wine which did not use a natural cork never bothered me before. But from now on I will be looking at the alternative closure I might pull out and appreciate the benefits of using them

 

Filed Under: Information Tagged With: , , , ,
«Older Posts
Newer Posts»