Tag Archives: DrinkLocalWine.com

DLW 2011: Missouri — Virtual tastings and the future of wine

DLWMO Logo The scene was surreal. There were 21 Missouri wineries in the hotel ballroom, 100 or so people tasting wine, and a large screen at the far side of the room. The screen, changing constantly, was displaying real-time comments made not only by everyone who was in the room tasting the wine, but by people throughout the world commenting on the comments that were being made about the wine. And there were pictures.

Or, as Eric V. Orange, the founder and CEO of LocalWineEvents.com said to me, as we watched what was going on in middle-aged disbelief: "Wow. I never imagined it would be like this."

Twitter tastings, like the one we did for the 2011 DrinkLocalWine.com conference in St. Louis on Saturday, are nothing new. They've been hip and au courant for a couple of years, and not just because of the technology. Virtual tastings allow wineries, wine regions and other groups that don't have big budgets to do tastings that offer big results. The reach is impressive: Those 100 people in a hotel ballroom can turn their tweets about Missouri wine into millions of impressions on Twitter, which can get picked up through other social media like Facebook and even end up in Google search results.

What's new, and what was so impressive this time, is that so many people who weren't there wanted to know about the wines that were being tasted. And that's something that will continue to push the wine world in a completely different direction — one that continues to squeeze wine criticism. More, after the jump:

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Time’s regional wine story, one more irritating time

Time magazine's notorious regional wine article has reared its patronizing head again, and just in time for DrinkLocalWine.com's third annual conference this weekend, DLW 2011: Missouri. The Balloon Juice blog, which seems to mix wine and politics, posted a brief item about a regional wine dinner and then linked to the Time story.

Arghhhhh.

More, after the jump.

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DLW 2011: Missouri is this weekend

Years ago, when the Wine Curmudgeon was in the newspaper business, I didn't even know there was such a thing as event planning. These days, I get to do it.

That's because DrinkLocalWine.com will hold its third annual conference this weekend in St. Louis, focusing on Missouri wine. Which has given me the opportunity, for the third year in a row, to add event planner to my already long and bizarre resume. (What, I haven't told you about bagging groceries or working at Burger King?)

And a great event has been planned. My thanks to DLW's Katy Jane Bothum and January Wiese, who did so much heavy lifting, and to Danene Beedle of the Missouri Wine and Grape Board, the conference's primary sponsor. What makes it great? We have our legendary Twitter Taste-off — expanded by an hour and you get to keep the Riedel glass that you use. We have winery tours. We have wine seminars. We have the soon to be legendary Missouri Blind Tasting Challenge, in which we dare any wine snob in the audience to tell Missouri wine from California wine. So far, none of them have accepted the challenge, which isn't surprising. And there might even be a surprise or two, given my new-found reputation.

So if you're in the St. Louis area this weekend, stop by. A few tickets are still available, and they're cheap, cheap, cheap — just $35 for the Twitter Taste-off, which includes wine from two dozen Missouri wineries, a buffet reception with the winemakers and media attending the conference, and the Riedel glass. You can buy tickets on the DLW web site.

DrinkLocalWine.com 2011 conference tickets on sale

And such a deal — a Twitter Taste-off, plus winemaker reception, for just $35. And who says regional wine isn't a recession buster?

The details are on the DLW Web site. Our third annual conference is April 1-3 in St. Louis, focusing on Missouri wine. This should be especially fun, because Missouri produces top-flight wine, but does so with hardly a European wine grape in sight. The state's 121 wineries specialize in hybrids and native American grapes like the norton, vidal blanc, and seyval blanc, and they regularly win awards at some of the top competitions in the world.

What’s wrong with regional wine

There has been a lot of love for regional wine on the blog this week, as the Wine Curmudgeon does his bit to support DrinkLocalWine.com's regional wine week. And rightly so — regional wine is a legitimate part of the wine world, and it deserves recognition.

But that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. There's a reason, even though the number of U.S. regional wineries has increased 10-fold since 1975, that California still produces 90 percent of all U.S. wine. Some of the problems, like distribution laws that favor large, national wineries, are out of the regional wine business' control. But there are other areas where regional wineries can help themselves. After the jump, a few thoughts about how regional wine can get better.

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DrinkLocalWine.com and regional wine week 2010

This is DrinkLocalWine.com's third annual Regional Wine Week, in which we highlight regional wine throughout the United States. Who would have thought, when Dave McIntyre and I came up with the idea 3 1/2 years ago, that it would have led to DLW, wine week, and our annual conferences?

The funny thing, as passionate as I am about local wine? I'm still surprised that so many other people care as much as they do about regional wine. During my time at the State Fair of Texas over the past couple of weeks, the crowds were good, lively and asked intelligent questions. And we got the usual questions from people about how to start a winery or a vineyard.

What is even more encouraging is that the next generation of wine professionals is so enthusiastic about regional wine. Just two examples from the Fair: Hunter Hammett, the 30-something sommelier at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, told how he served Texas viognier to a group of French guests — and how much they enjoyed the wine. Devon Broglie, the equally youngish wine buyer for Whole Foods in Texas and the Southwest, said that regional wine sales have flourished at Whole Foods during recession, despite the slowdown in the rest of the wine business.

There is more demand and more interest in regional wine than ever before. This week on the blog, I'll highlight regional wine — the good and the bad, because nothing gets better unless you understand what the obstacles are.