Welcome to a rather long-overdue episode of 1WD TV, in which I get geeky with wine maven Doug Frost and give him crap about the wines he *didn’t* pick for his list of Portugal’s 50 Greatest Wines. We express communal love for Madeira, and then Doug sort of disses Napa, but generally shows why he’s one of the most well-regarded wine educators and tasters on the planet. To find out why Doug’s picks are so controversial, fire up the vid!

1WineDudeTV Episode 56: Portugal’s Best Wines? (With Master Wine Geek Doug Frost)

I was able to get a few minutes with Doug when I was a media guest of Wines of Portugal for a lunch event at NYC’s Harold Pratt House, during which Doug and fellow Master Sommelier Evan Goldstein discussed the Top 10 wines from Doug’s list of 50 – which we then tasted paired with various (mostly meat – in fine Portuguese tradition!) courses.  My thoughts/ratings/ramblings on those controversial top ten wine picks are below, after the jump…

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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!

It’s that time of year again, people.

The time when you get to have your say on what constitutes the best of alternative wine coverage on-line. The time for you to vote in the 2012 Wine Blog Awards.

The 2012 WBA finalists have been announced today, and as it has been since the WBA’s inception, that list solicits mixed emotions from me.

I’m thrilled to be a finalist again this year for both Best Overall Wine Blog and Best Reviews On A Wine Blog. The latter is a particular point of pride for me, as reviews have become such a large part of my little corner of the wine universe on-line, and the nod comes despite the fact that not a single numeric value has ever been levied against a wine in a review on this site. I think that speaks to the fact that there really is a place for alternative takes on wine quality, and that the time for wines of context – and reviews with context, with story, with humanity – is quickly coming upon us. But I’ve no idea why everyone insists on separating the name of my blog with spaces when it gets listed in things like this, as if the title needed to be pronounced with tension and gravity, like someone on the bridge of the Enterprise was announcing the countdown to impact of an incoming proton torpedo… “twenty… seconds… to… impact… 1… (space) Wine… (space) Dude…!”

Anyway… I’m equally thrilled to see great writing and fantastic independent wine coverage by friends of mine acknowledged in that list (re-posted below after the jump in its entirety). Congrats to all of the finalists!

I’m not so thrilled that the list fails to include others that I admire (such as Courtney Rich, whose wine pairing photography blog is among the most daring pieces of alternative wine coverage to hit since, well, since wine blogs themselves hit the scene about five years ago… there are others, too many to mention probably…).

I’ve had firsthand experience in how the WBA judging process works, so I know not every great blog will make the finalist cut, and massive kudos are due for Joel Vincent and the team organizing the WBAs; I was on a WBA improvement committee during the last several months, and I debated, conversed, and watched as Joel and the WBA team implemented nearly every one of he great suggestions that came out of that committee (most notably opening up the judging process to the same transparency that we in the wine bog-o-world demand of ourselves and of others).

Enough of my babble – polls close July 26th, so get out there and vote, and make your voice heard! I won’t turn down a vote for me, but I won’t be giving you any free wine if you do throw me a vote (well, not unless you come to my house to drink with me…)…

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My friend Paul Mabray, of Vintank, recently gave a keynote address at an event held in Dijon, France, called “The Perfect Storm: How digital tools are forever changing the way we sell and market wine.”

I didn’t attend (alas), and I’ve no affiliation with the event apart from a random one: its organizer (another friend, Eve Resnick), showed a photo of me when presenting her findings from a recent study of U.S. and Chinese wine bloggers (see inset below – ironically, that picture was presented adjacent to text describing the average wine blogger, and apart from being male I don’t actually meet the rest of the criteria on that slide!).

Anyway, I’ve been beating a similarly-toned drum to the one that Paul has been sounding when it comes to how to approach wine online, so it’s nice to see that Paul’s keynote struck a resonant chord with the attendees in Dijon (with a few tweeting that the figures and ideas Paul presented “blew my mind”).

What I sincerely hope is that Paul’s slide deck strikes a similar chord with wine brands here in the U.S., because the fact is if Paul’s presentation doesn’t blow your mind, then you are not paying enough f*cking attention to what is going on in and around the wine business right now.

Mind-blowingness embedded below for your enjoyment – and if you’re in the wine biz, please do yourself a favor and read EVERY slide; then go out and be awesome. Paul’s deck clearly demonstrates in the included figures alone that the time to debate whether or not your online social presence is important is long, long past. That time is much better spent on testing those online waters, connecting with your consumers, and finding out what does -and doesn’t – work online for you and your brand.

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