On the way to WBC 09…
Following my nostalgic tasting adventure at Ridge on Thursday–a minerally, bright, balanced food friendly 07 S Cruz Mountains chard, a lively young Dry Creek 07 zin full of black fruit, a 07 Paso Robles zin from 85 year old vines smoother and full of red fruits like cranberry and raspberry, followed by two zin splits: a lively, minty 07 Geyserville zin, and ending with a 06 rich, thick, creamy and yet puckery Lytton Springs–“Baby Beluga” (that’s the name of my 90 white Westy VW van you see in the Ridge lot) and I continued up 101 to Santa Rosa to help conference organizer Reno Walsh and a few other volunteers stuff 265 True-ly nifty natural fiber wine bags with goodies. I can’t wait to try the Kachina Port with the chocolates from the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission or the Pinot Noir Chocolate cherries from Bouchaine using one of several openers we received while reviewing info on one of several removable drives!)
I was going to have a quiet evening reviewing the materials in my bag and munching on chocolates. But then Joel Vincent, one of the organizers and the man behind the Open Wine Consortium, invited me to join a group for dinner at a restaurant he found using Yelp and Twitter.
Ten of us walked down from the Flamingo Hotel to Monti’s restaurant where, as soon as we were seated, everyone turned over their menus to look at the wine list! Read more…
On my way up to the Wine Bloggers Conference 2009 in Santa Rosa Sonoma County CA, I stopped at Ridge. Even though Ridge is probably my favorite winery in Caliornia, partly because I got my start there and partly because they make GREAT wine, I haven’t been back since my last day working in the tasting room a million years ago.
It’s changed quite a bit. For one, there is a tasting room, not just a picnic table set up outside. And there are lots more picnic tables, many of them under a shade structure.
The views are the same–spectacular–and so is the wine. Honestly, I’d forgotten how wonderful it feels up there close to the sky, looking out over the fog fingers to the mountains ringing the SF Bay. And the wine, everything I tasted was lovely, full of perfect impressions of pleasure onto my palate.
I was spurred to visit for several reasons, one being that I discovered Ridge’s blog recently–it was started only a few months ago–and I really liked the writing there.
So I was overjoyed when, even though the tasting room is officially only open on weekends, they let me in–and I spent some time tasting wine and talking wine, writing, and blogging with tasting room manager and chief Ridge blogger, Christopher Watkins, who has an MFA in poetry.
For his one year anniversary at Ridge, he posted a series of poems about life about there. So, in honor of the Wine Blogger’s Conference, and for this week’s edition of the poetry train, instead of offering some of my poetry, I give you Christopher Watkins, who I will be nominating for a wine blogger award next year. Enjoy.
Crisp autumn morning;
a deer heart’s worth of inno-
cence stirs my soul.
In a clearing, the
new wind reminds me, you can
fall off a mountain.
At the insistence
of the wind, thin mountain brush
fidgets, pointing east.
Birdless, the wind-swept
air; snakeless, the cold, dry soil;
empty, my mouth, of words.
As might a painter’s
palette imitate the sky,
I try the mountain.
The wind, stripping our
revisions away, reveals
the first masterpiece.
Stone greets vine-root, brush
greets breeze, sun greets fog — Grateful,
I take autumn’s hand.
If terroir is a
sense of place, then my soul is
a moveable wine.
Here at the Wine Bloggers Conference 2009, I’m watching some crazy videos produced by Hardy Wallace, the new Murphy-Goode guy. He says all you need is a Flip HD camera and away you go, making wine videos. Use some local musicians for music. He makes it look super easy, fun, eminently watchable and enjoyable. Capture it, put a hook in it, make it fun, he recommends. Video can be super short, simple, and captures people’s attention; using video drives that traffic back to your site.
“Lunchtime is the new primetime,” said a New York Times headline in July 2009. And people are doing that watching on-line. On-line video is content, is ads that a consumer chooses to watch. Brands can create compelling content and consumers will search for it, find it, watch it. Read more…
This morning at the Wine Bloggers Conference event at the Culinary Institute of America, we get two keynote addresses along with our crusty croissants and coffee: one by Barry Schuler and one by Jim Gordon.
To stand out as a blogger, according to Jim Gordon, editor of Wines and Vines, know your subject, get the facts from the source, get the facts right, stake a claim and mine it, stay ahead of the pack, and look beyond the blogosphere for topics.
Wine industry trends include
climate change and impacts on wine, especially an increase in fires and how that’s going to come out in the wines; water wars over what will be grown and how water will be used with competition between greens and grapes which may encourage more dry farming
finding local wines stories, and encouraging locapours
14,000-18,000 new acres of wine grapes planted in CA in 2009, much of it pinot noir following the explosion of interest in it after the film Sideways came out
new wine packaging–trying to be more green
Saturday Keynote Speaker: Jim Gordon: The Future of Wine Writing and Blogging. Jim has been covering the wine industry as a reporter and editor for more than 25 years. He credits his stint with the St. Helena Star in the 1980s for introducing him to the wine business and many of its emerging stars. He then went on to be managing editor of Wine Spectator for 12 years and is currently editor of Wines & Vines.
Now we break up into 8 groups, all on different buses for some adventures in the Napa Vineyards–with lunch and dinner too!
In his keynote address “The Future of Blogging and Social Media,” Barry Schuler says wine offers a moment to celebrate.
Well I’ll certainly drink to that!
Barry Schuler @BSchuler took suggestions for topics to cover during his Keynote Address at the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference related to his topic. ”New Technologies and their Application to The Business of Wine” which he’s now giving this morning from 10:30 to 11:15 at the Napa Valley’s Culinary Institute of America on Saturday, July 25th. And since the wireless here works great, I’ll be posting right along as he’s talking!
Schuler calls himself an authentic internet historian, and he’s got the cred for that claim, for sure. According to the conference website, “Barry’s multimedia firm Medior created interactive technologies for AOL; after Medior was acquired by AOL, Barry worked his way up to be Chairman and CEO of that company. Today, as managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, he’s funding next-thing projects in the tech world. Barry also serves on the board of Synthetic Geonomics and is CEO of Raydiance, which is developing laser technology for healthcare use. He and wife Tracy co-own Meteor Vineyard, located in the Coombsville region of the Napa Valley, with winemakers Bill and Darnine Dyer.”
In his talk, Schuler points out:
There is no analog to wine in other businesses.
Every bottle holds a story.
Every tasting is an adventure.
Wine is larger than life.
According to Schuler, there is an insatiable desire for Read more…
WBC 09: The Real CIA is in Napa
The real CIA, the CIA that I really appreciate, operates undercover and without weapons around the world making it a better place, a safer place–for our palates.
That’s where I am right now–sitting in the third floor of this wonderfully appointed old stone building, enjoying fresh warm stratas (a crustless quiche kind of thing) and fresh warm delightfully crisp flaky croissants.
We came over the mountains from Santa Rosa on the windy, scenic road in a series of large shuttle buses. Even though it is still mid-summer, the drought in California is bring fall color early to the hillsides, mixing in gold with the green, with poison oak flashing red here and there.
Then winding up the stairs three floors and into this hall at the CIA. Lots and lots of winding. Too much for my sensitive stomach!
This CIA is the Culinary Institute of America, a non-profit culinary school which if not the best school, aspires to be the best. Among other classes they offer a $750 tasting of french wines with Robert M. Parker, Jr. At that price, you can expect some impressive wine and company–and $500 goes to the CIA.
15% preferred pricing for attendees at the WBC 09.
4% malbec 4% petit verdot 92% cab
feel the bottle!! heavy duty rub your fingers on it it’s engraved!
200-700 hillside south sw facing
the punt is bigger than my thumb
100% of the proceeds go back to the HS for college scholarships and equipment, other school needs.
Each year a celebrity winemaker 2007 Lee Martinelli JR a graduate of the El Molino program “what comes around goes around”
Merry Edwards first year.
Cloudy? Unfiltered? typical of the Martinelli winery to be unfiltered
14.8 technically dry but there’s some RS in there; very sweet
Benovia 07 Pinot Noir has lots of body for a pinot, silky on the tongue, a bit warm 14.5 but not too hot. Yummy, not much in the nose, lots in the mouth.
Never heard of it? No surprise–this is their second vintage only but watch them–expect something great…if you can afford it go for it!
THEY SAY: Expresses the terroir of the region, suggests to match with mushrooms. Retails at $55 sold through mailing list primarily. 37o cases. Mostly a pinot winery some chardonnay and a little zin because they have a zin vineyard.
It’s the San Francisco International Poetry Festival
Weds. July 22-Sun July 26
Wednesday, July 22
-
Words with a View
In celebration of the San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the SFPL is hosting an exhibition featuring art and broadsides from participating poets. Exhibition runs from July 11 – August 2, 2009
-
Red Poet Film Screening
Join us for a documentary film about Poet-in-Residence for Friends of the SFPL, Jack Hirschman, directed by Matthew Furey.
Jack Hirschman will be present.
6:00 pm at Koret Auditorium, Main Library
Thursday, July 23: Look for me at this one!!
-
Jack Kerouac Alley Kick Off Party
Join musician Jonathan Richman to celebrate the kick-off of the 2nd Biennial San Francisco International Poetry Festival with an outdoor party featuring poetry and music.
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm at Jack Kerouac Alley
Friday, July 24
-
Main Stage Poetry Reading
Join us for a wide variety of international poetry readings, hosted by devorah major, with a special reading by San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane di Prima.
with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Zhai Yongming, Ignatius Mabasa, Maram al-Massri, Diane di Prima, Alexander Skidan, Nguyen Qui Duc, Roy “Chicky” Arad, Daisy Zamora, Cletus Nelson Nwadike, Anna Lombardo, Menna Elfyn, Paul Flores
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm at Palace of Fine Arts Read more…
art predator 