Once again, I’m partnering up with the New York Wine Expo to help try to get some of you lushes to this annual – and seminal – Right Coast tasting event in the Galleria at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in NY.

This is a big shindig, and one in which you’ll have the opportunity to taste 600 (!) or so wines from 200+ (!) global exhibitors. For a bit more of your hard-earned money, there are also optional seminars on topics such as California Pinot Noir, Italian cheeses, and Cool Climate Finger Lakes wines.

But one of you won’t have to shell out their hard-earned money to go to NYWE this year, and many more of you will shell out less than the sticker price!

I’m happy to announce that one lucky 1WD reader will receive a free ticket to the event’s Grand Tasting on either Friday March 1st, 6pm-10pm (an $85 value) or Saturday March 2nd, 1pm-5pm (a $95 value) – it’ll be winner’s choice!

And if you play along and don’t win, fear not – when we announce the winner next week, we’ll also be giving you a discount code that’s good for $15 off Friday and/or Saturday tickets (if ordered on or before Feb. 28, 2013)!

Here’s how it will go down:

• Leave a comment on this post telling us (that’s the royal us), which wines, producers or regions you’re most looking forward to trying at the tasting (here’s a list of who will be pouring) and why. You’ll have until 5PM ET on February 4th, 2013 to leave a comment.
• On February 5th, I will announce a randomly selected winner from the comments, and will also reveal the discount code that can be used for those who didn’t win but still want to save some dough when they purchase tickets.

If you’re planning on going (and you should, as it will give your wine tasting IQ a seriously rapid boost), check out my survival guide for getting through big tasting events alive (Hint: Spit!).

Cheers – and good luck!

Welcome to the Weekly Wine Quiz, you lushes oh vino-inspired peoples!

This week, we are combining the quiz with a giveaway, the giveaway item happening to also be the source of said quiz: the brand-spankin’-new edition of Kevin Zraly’s excellent (and long-running) Windows On The World Complete Wine Course (worth about $20; I received a review copy).

Here’s the skinny on how this will work:

• You post a comment on this here post with your guess for the correct answer to the quiz question on or before 11:59PM PT TODAY.
• Tomorrow (December 8th), I will post the official answer, and randomly select a winner from those who answered correctly in the comments. You need to have a mailing address in the continental U.S. (and have commented with the correct answer… duh…) to be eligible to win.

Ready? Let’s do this!

(According to Kevin Zraly’s Windows On The World Complete Wine Course), what was the most planted red grape (by acreage) in California in 1970?

Cheers – and good luck!

My friends the World Wine Guys (aka Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen) have been busy lately, it seems.

First, they publish the Fire Island Cookbook just in time for Summer, and now that Summer is coming to a close they’re already back on the shelves with another well-executed tome, Wines Of The Southern Hemisphere (Sterling Publishing, about $24).

I’m not sure how they did all of this, but I am starting to strongly suspect that illegal human cloning is involved, because the work that seems to have gone into these releases is bordering on astonishing.

I like the book, and since I received two sample copies (not sure how or why that happened), I’ve decided that we’ll give away TWO copies to two (separate!) lucky 1WD readers…

Read the rest of this stuff »

Kicking off another giveaway, just because I can (hey, it beats being bored!).

This time, we’ve got a brand new Vinturi Essential Red Wine Aerator (about a $35 value) to give away, something that I recently acquired from a gift basket left for me during Auction Napa Valley 2012. It’s branded with the Folie à Deux logo, so as long as you’re cool with that then you’re good to go for our latest giveaway!

If you’re curious how well the it operates and the impact that it has on red wine vs. using a decanter, check out my previous Vinturi review (in summary: not as good as old-fashioned, time-tested decanting, but certainly not a slouch and it does help some wines to open up quite nicely).

Now, listen up because due to my travel schedule – Rioja coming up next week, and then Crete very quickly thereafter (for a piece that will probably run in Sommelier Journal in 2013) – this giveaway will NOT run for the normal one week period here on 1WD, but will end Saturday, June 23 (when I will randomly select a winner from the comment authors).

Here’s the skinny: Comment on this post (twitter and FB comments are welcome, as always, but they won’t count as an entry in the giveaway), with your answer to this question: When – and how – do you decant your reds? Is it only for older wines, younger wines, unfiltered wines you think will throw some sediment, or all three? Do you use alternative methods, like aerators, or a blender (seriously – search the site, that blender-as-decanter topic has gotten some airtime on this blog!).

We’ve talked near and around that question before here on the virtual pages of 1WD, but have yet to really get into it. So… shout it out in the comments!

Cheers – and good luck!