What’s it like to “taste” wine live, online?

The concept sounds totally geeky, but it turns out that it kicks all kinds of ass.

For a few months running (since its inaugural run), I’ve been taking part in the Twitter Tasting Live event hosted by BinEndsWine.com. In summary:

1. You buy a sample pack from BinEndsWine.com, they ship said wine to you
2. You sign up at twittertastelive.com
3. On the 3rd Thursday of that month, you log into twitter.com and taste live along with participating wine bloggers & wine lovers from all over the world, and the BinEndsWine.com staff, usually joined by a winemaker associated with that month’s sample pack of wines.

The kick-ass portion of this is not just live access to the winemaker (you can easily imagine the amount of cool info. you can get out of them by asking them questions live about the wine you are drinking at that moment).

The real kick-ass portion is that it takes the social connection that wine gives us when we drink it together, and extends it instantly across cultural and geographical boundaries.

For a wine geek like me, it’s a blast to see the jokes, comments, tasting notes, and questions coming from different personalities (some on different continents) tasting the same wine that I am having at the exact same time. We don’t always agree, but the wine does help us connect – amicably. Couple that with what I’m doing locally (hosting a wine tasting dinner party centering around the same wines), and I’m in 7th wine heaven.

Now, here’s what’s up for the next Live twitter tasting happening on Sept. 18…

I will be joining the BinEndsWine.com staff LIVE at Wine 2.0 in NYC at 7PM ET.
I’ll be at the BEW booth, drinking their wine, blogging about the event via twitter, stealing BEW’s water, and maybe making them bring me wine crackers! Or something like that. BEW will also have staff from CA wine producer Michel-Schlumberger on tap LIVE, to answer questions about his wines (which are this month’s focus for the tasting).

The event is being co-hosted by Wannabe Wino; you can also check out BinEndsWine.com for more details.

After the dust settles on the twitter live tasting events, I usually also provide more focused reviews of some of the wines from the event on my twitter wine “mini” reviews feed (please note this is NOT the twitter feed I use during the live tastings!). Below are a my “mini” reviews for a few of the wines included in the last twitter live tasting of Hugel’s Alsace wines:

	06 Hugel Gentil (Alsace): A kitchen sink blend of Alsatian grapes. Citrus, flowers & stone; good, but it’s got a bit of an identity crisis. 05:41 AM August 28, 2008
	06 Hugel Gewurztraminer (Alsace): Lychee & limes, a hint of orange rind, and just really well put-together. Pair it with Indian take-out. 09:08 AM August 24, 2008
	04 Hugel Riesling Jubilee “Grand Cru” (Alsace): Peeps like me love petrol & vinyl with our rose water & citrus. Buy this if you’re like us! 06:51 AM August 23, 2008
	01 Hugel Gewurztraminer Vendage Tardive (Alsace): Viscous, loads of citrus, lychee, & autumn leaves. Holy Hannah it’s good! But not cheap. 10:26 AM August 22, 2008

Hope to “see” you on-line and LIVE at the next tasting – friend me up beforehand and let me know if you’re joining in.

Cheers!

The next superfunkadelic and ultra-exciting twitter LIVE Tasting Event is nigh upon us!

On Thursday at 7PM ET, I and my cadre of Philly-area wine geeks (henceforth to be called the 1WDP – or 1WineDude Posse) will be tasting what looks to be some stellar wines from Alsace stalwart Hugel & Fils, LIVE via twitter. Hit up BinEndsWine.com for the details on how YOU can join up for this event!

What’s more, the 1WDP will also be video broadcasting the event LIVE, so you will get to see things like a) just how smarmy my wine geek friends are, b) how short I really am, c) what my kitchen looks like, complete with the way cool Wire Chicken, d) how I look and fail at typing as I get progressively more and more inebriated!

To witness the madness, just come back to this post and view the embedded video herein. If you dare!

UPDATE: If you are joining us for the tasting event, head over to this link and register your bad self so everyone else participating follows you on twitter!

Speaking of the twitter tasting event, last week I hosted a giveaway for anyone leaving a comment to suggest what food to serve with all of that great Alsace wine during the twitter tasting event. Thanks to all those who participated – I also want to commend you for suggesting so many dishes that made me drool but have an almost negative chance of my wife cooking them (e.g., pork bellies). You can check out the stellar suggestions here.

With the help of my dog (don’t ask), I randomly selected two winners from those who submitted comments… and there are…

First Prize (1WD T-shirt): Bradley Cooper!

Second Prize (1WD eBoook): Bloviatrix!

Congrats! I will be contacting each of you to deliver the goods.

See you (or, rather, you may see me) on Thursday!

Cheers!
(images: newsday.com)

In preparation for the upcoming Twitter Tasting Live Event (hosted by Winecast & BinEndsWine.com) on August 21st, I’m giving away FREE 1WineDude.com gear!

This round of the live twitter wine tasting will focus on the fabulous Alsace wines of Hugel & Fils. Mrs. Dudette and I will (once again) be hosting a group of local wine geeks and industry folk to taste the wines – while yours truly captures the (increasingly inebriated) tasting comments from our panel via my twitter account.

Of course, we want all of you folks to join in on this fun as well and taste along with us, and the rest of the twitter live participants (twitipants?). Check out BinEndsWine.com for details on how to join up.

I may also be streaming the (increasingly inebriated) 1WineDude group commentary via my Yahoo! Live channel!

Anyway, help me out and YOU could soon be wearing a Men’s “Wine Rules!” T-shirt, or a Women’s “1WineDude.com” cap sleeve T-shirt! Or be reading through the cool tips & tricks of wine tasting in my eBook!

All you have to do is help me & Mrs. Dudette prepare for the twitter tasting. Easy peasy nice an’ squeezy!…

Here’s the skinny:

• Mrs. Dudette and I need to cook for our guests, and we need YOUR help! Leave a comment on this here post anytime between now and midnight ET Sunday, August 17. In your comment, tell us your favorite food to pair with wines from Alsace.
• I will randomly select two winners from the comments.
• Next week, I’ll post a round up of my favorite pairings from the comments, and will announce the winners:

  First Prize: A 1WineDude.com T (as described above)!

  Second Prize: A free copy of the 1WineDude.com Wine Tasting Guide!

Nothing to it.

So get cookin’ already!

Cheers!
(images: allposters.com, cafepress.com)

The BinEndsWine.com twitter live Spanish wine tasting event turned out to be quite a lot of fun. Hopefully some of you got to follow along on-line!

Never mind that my party messed up the order of the whites – it doesn’t change anything that we ‘tweeted’ but it did probably confuse a few people in twitter-land. We were too buzzed to care, though…

I had originally hoped to include commentary directly from the twitter submissions, but there were just too many responses to be able to do this. So instead I thought I concentrate on what I (and my tasting partners-in-crime – Sugendran from WCDish.com & Heather Wright from Cellar Door Imports) thought to be the best wines of the night:

• Best White: Pazo de Senorans Albarino 2007 – Take a grapefruit, stuff it with peach, soak it in alcohol, and sprinkle almond on top. Viola, you’ve got Pazo de Senorans Albarino 2007! This wine is absolutely killer, and the finish will kick your butt with tasty citrus for several minutes.
• Best Red: Bodegas Mustiguillo “Mestizajes” 2005 – Heck of a lot of acidity for a red. It’s all Southern Rhone on the nose, but without the mousy-ness. It’s partially tank aged, with some of the wine seeing French oak barrels. Any way you slice it, the red fruits are balanced so well that this wine is a total steal for the $15 price tag.

So there you have it – some very tasty wines and a great deal of electronic cross-continent comradarie via twitter. I’m looking forward to doing this again!

Cheers!