Has regional wine entered the mainstream?

This tweet, from last week ?s monthly Texas wine Twitter event, says it all:  ?Hey @DeniseClarke and @VintageTexas [two of the event ?s organizers] — who knew we'd do #TxWine at a national retailer like @WholeFoods

Certainly not me. When we started DrinkLocalWine five years ago, the idea that one of the leading grocers in the country would participate in a regularly scheduled regional wine event ? and offer free samples — was not even worth thinking about. We had enough problems convincing consumers wine was made in states other than California, Washington and Oregon, let alone marketers with multi-million dollar budgets.

But there we were, sipping and tweeting, on a cold and rainy Tuesday night at several Whole Foods across the state, as well as a variety of wine bars, restaurants and retailers that served Texas wine. And then, about 45 minutes into the event, the evening ?s hashtag, #TxWine, was trending at No. 1 on Twitter. Which, even for a Twitter neophyte like me, means something. #TxWine ain ?t no Kardashians.

Hence the headline for this post. Is regional wine finally more than a novelty? Is it an accepted part of the U.S. wine business. The answer, I ?m happy to say, is yes. Companies like Whole Foods don ?t do events like this out of the goodness of their corporate hearts; they do it to make money. And nothing speaks mainstream acceptance like getting it from a company with almost $13 billion in sales.

This doesn ?t mean there still isn ?t work to do, and I saw that Tuesday night. We had a couple of people at my Whole Foods who brought their regional wine attitude with them — arms crossed, eyes squinting, and minds less than open about wine that wasn ?t made in a real wine region. But that ?s OK ? we know how much the Wine Curmudgeon enjoys a challenge.