So… are you completely sick of hearing about this Twitter Taste Live stuff yet?

If not, check out the latest installment of Wine Biz Radio, which will air via podcast tonight at www.winebizradio.com, which features Thea of Vinquire.com, Craig from Bin Ends Wine & TTL, and Faith from Hospice du Rhone and me talking details about the upcoming TTL event on April 17th.

What’s especially cool (well, to me anyway!) is that the wine selections for the East and West coast U.S. portions of the event have been announced!  If you’re interested in the way-cool wines that I will be leading us through at 7PM ET on April 17, the details are included below.

Get yourself over to the TTL website and RSVP – and get yourself over to BinEndsWine.com and order up the East Coast selections!

April 17th @ 7pm Eastern:
Hospice du Rhône producers from California and Australia will be the focus of this event. Joe Roberts from 1winedude.com will be joining the Hospice to host the event  live from the Wine Riot in Boston, Ma.  Join us and 500+ of your fellow wine and twitter lovers as we cruise through some of California and Australia’s top Rhône style wines.

Selections:

Rutherglen The Alliance  (Viognier/Marsanne) 2006

Fireblock Grenache 2004

Four Vines The Peasant (Grenache) 2006

Bonny Doon Le Vol Des Anges (Late Harvest Roussanne) 2007

Cheers!

By the time you read this, I will be en route to Strasbourg, France – not a wine-related trip I’m afraid, but I will be trying my darndest to get to nearby Alsace at some point during the week. If I do, you’ll be among the first to know, because I will be posting like… well, like a drunken American touring Alsatian wineries. If not, then posting here on 1WineDude will be, at best, sporadic during the week.

Which is fine, because there is still some super-exciting shizz going down! Which brings me to today’s topic:

BIGGEST. TTL. EVER.

Actually, it might be the BIGGEST On-line Wine Tasting Event. EVER.

22 Varieties

On April 17th, Twitter Taste Live is teaming up with Hospice du Rhone, which is not only the biggest non-profit business league promoting Rhone wine varieties, they also host one of the biggest wine shin-digs of the year. In their own words:

“Each year, HdR produces an exceptional three-day event that is globally regarded as the single most essential and enjoyable gathering of international Rhône wine producers and enthusiasts. Attendees expand their knowledge of the 22 Rhône varieties, while rubbing elbows with the winemakers whose passion spurs the inspiration and energy that sets the tone for every seminar, meal, and tasting.”

That gives this TTL event the option of picking from 22 kicking grape varieties, as well as their various combinations which probably works out to something like 412 billion. Or thereabouts.

3 Time Zones
Because of the team-up with HdR, all of the stops are getting pulled out for this one.

The April 17 TTL event will be held across three different time zones – GMT (UK), ET (U.S. East Coast), and PT (U.S. West Coast) – and co-hosted by a different wine blogger in each of the three event regions. Each time zone will focus their TTL tasting on wines made from a different subgroup of the 22 Rhone varieties.

I’ll be co-hosting the East Coast event, since we all know that one will be the coolest, right?  Here’s the skinny…

We’re still finalizing the wine selections, but the kickin’ East Coasties will be sampling 4 wines:
- A sparkling Muscat a Petit Grains
- 2 Different styles of dry Grenache-based reds
- A Grenache Blanc dessert wine

Oh, yeah, baby!  That lineup is gonna be the shiz!

But that is certainly not all – I will be co-hosting LIVE from enemy Patriots territory in Boston, where the Bin Ends Wine crew and I will be joining Boston’s The Second Glass and 500 of our closest drunken friends at Wine Riot! 2009 in Boston’s happenin’ South End!

So, to recap: Twitter Taste Live, Hospice du Rhone, The Second Glass, Wine Riot! 2009, 1WineDude, 500 loud & crazy drunken Bostonians, and the option to continue the party across two other time zones on the same day.

I’m not just stoked for this event, I am uber-stoked for this event.  I am 6-year-old-on-a-Mountain-Dew-and-Twinkiehigh stoked.

BIGGEST.

On-Line.

Wine Event.

EVER!

Be sure to check out the TTL event site to RSVP and get updates on the event as they’re finalized.

Cheers!

Those (recently hungover) of you who took part in the 10th Annual Open That Bottle Night may still be wallowing in the glorious, albeit headache-riddled post-celebratory vibe of having enjoyed a special bottle of wine for no particular reason at all.

That’s right, baby – we opened it up, and drank it all… just because it was there!

Those of you who joined me and the dozens of others in the interactive, on-line tasting for OTBN at Twitter Taste Live might also have come away with a few other realizations about wine in the world of high-tech.

I certainly did. And I’m not talking about the fact that Craig and the Bin Ends Wine staff did such an excellent job rounding up great wines from the Wilson Daniels portfolio, as well as hosting the event (though those things are certainly true).

No, I’m talking about some truths that run deep into the world where fine wine and technology intersect – and they are truths that anyone involved in selling wine in this highly interconnected world had better sit up and notice, stat.

And here they are…

3 Truths Revealed from the 10th Annual Open That Bottle Night

1. Wine is more social now than ever.
   It probably seems silly to point out that wine is a social beverage, since as a collective populace we’ve known that for a few thousand years.  But it is worth pointing out that the Internet is highlighting wine’s social gadfly status and taking it to new and ever-more-interesting heights.Open That Bottle Night probably saw its largest participation ever this past weekend, thanks to the advent of social network.  On-line social networks (including Twitter Taste Live and the Open Wine Consortium) were all over OTBN this year.  Let’s look at the twitter event – thousands of new twitter accounts are created every day, and the network handles millions of messages on a daily basis.  The OTBN Twitter Taste Live event trended to the #2 topic during it’s run this past weekend – which means that potentially millions of on-line eyeballs were watching a several dozen wine lovers chatted to each other in real-time about what they thought of the Wilson Daniel wine selections.  Which leads me to truth #2…
2. The Internet itself IS social networking.
   Millions of people may have been watching the OTBN TTL event, if even for only a few minutes.  That is a golden marketing opportunity in terms of exposure for Bin Ends Wine and Wilson Daniels.  While it’s still a bit small-time in comparison to television ad exposure, it’s far cheaper and far more effective, because a) more and more people are turning to alternative means (like the Internet) for product recommendations and b) those same people are more willing to trust a friendly recommendation than one given to them in a one-way message from traditional advertising.The days of one-way, traditional media advertising – including advertising for wine – is going the way of the dinosaur and Wayne Newton’s career. Leading us to truth #3…
3. You don’t need a master plan to get started in getting social, but you’d better get social now.
   Twitter.com doesn’t really have a master plan for utilizing the Internet and on-line social network to make money.  Bin Ends Wine and Twitter Taste Live probably don’t have one, either.  But it doesn’t matter right now – they’re in the game, pushing the envelope to see what will and won’t work in the space.  Bottom line is that whoever is involved in making wine social on-line right now is going to reap the benefits, even if they’re not sure what those benefits are yet, and it doesn’t cost them much in terms investment (or overall risk) to do it.If you’re in the wine business and you’re not part of this trend, you need to get involved, and you need to do it NOW, even if you don’t quite “get it” – it will come to you eventually, so not understanding the clear benefits of using social networking needs to be the last thing you’re worrying about.

As for the wines we tasted for OTBN, here are my mini-review takes:

05 Marc Kreydenweiss Kritt Pinot Blanc “Les Charmes” (Alsace): Citrus & pear, w/ a honeyed finish that seems to last for an hour. Great buy.

06 Domaine Pierre Morey Aligoté (Burgundy): Someone just shot an acid laser into my mouth! Needs seafood cerviche (the rawer the better).

05 Domaine Marc Kreydenweiss Perrières (Costières de Nîmes): Brings the barnyard funk, in a good way, w/ dark cherry, leather, & bacon. Yum.

06 Tenuta di Biserno Insolgio del Cinghiale (Tuscany): Kickin’ blend with tobacco leaf, smoke, & dark jammy fruit. Prepare ye some Bison!

Hey, look at that, there’s an example of how this social on-line stuff spirals outward in ways that you don’t think about right away – those mini-reviews are even more exposure for the Wilson Daniels wines, at almost no cost to them… so those 900+ of my twitter followers who didn’t see the wine reviews this weekend in real time might catch them if they’re among the few hundred following my wine mini reviews, or they could be among those visiting the blog daily, or they’ll see them if they are part of the few hundred that subscribe to my blog via email…

I think (I hope) that you get the point – start getting involved!

Cheers!

(images: twittertastelive.com, 1winedude.con, twitter.com)

What, too many acronyms for ya? WTF!??

I wanted to send a big THANK YOU out to Gary V. for mentioning me & 1WineDude.com on a recent episode of Wine Library TV. Thanks, bro!

I also want to send out a big CONGRATS to the fine guys over at Volta wine, whose wine Gary reviewed on the same episode. As frequent 1WD readers will recall, 1WD was the first ever media review of Volta’s inaugural wine. Good guys, really, really good wine, and a fantastic start for such a newcomer on the wine scene. I’m personally very glad to see Volta tearing it up and getting stellar reviews, and I’m looking forward to watching how their wines progress in the years to come (and hoping that they keep sending me some of the Howell Mountain goodness!)…

Click below to watch Gary’s show in its entirety:
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The other way-cool thing going on this week is that we have two – count ‘em, two – Twitter Taste Live wine tasting events going on before the end of the week!

The first of these is being hosted by the venerable Dr. Vino (Tyler Colman). The theme is “Drink Local!” and is a response by Tyler to the annual release of Beaujolais Nouveau (which can be sort of like the Bud Light of wine). I will be drinking (surprise!) the local Penns Woods 2004 Ameritage red blend for the event.

This TTL kicks off TONIGHT at 8PM ET. You can check back here on this post to follow the action live below, and also to get a recap of the event. Details on how you can participate can be found on TwitterTasteLive.com.

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And finally -don’t forget that tomorrow night at 8PM ET, there is yet another TTL event - this time we will be tasting wine for charity, sampling the vino from Humanitas. Check out more about the story behind Humanitas at their website.

I will be posting tomorrow so that you can follow along live, or, if unlike me you have a life on Friday nights, you will be able to catch a recap of the twitter-ing (that probably isn’t a word, is it?).

Cheers!

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)