WBC16: Day 2 – Speed Tasting, Reds
A few days ago I told you about the live blogging session at the Wine Bloggers Conference 2016, dedicated to the White and Rosé wines. On the second day, we had a similar session, only now dedicated to the red wines. The same format – 60 minutes, 19 (or so) tables, 25 (or so) wines, 5 minutes to taste, take pictures, ask questions and share impressions in the social media, of course. Also with the higher chance of damage – clothes damage, it is, as we were dealing with red wine and time-pressed pourers. But this is part of fun, isn’t it?
Same as before, I would like to offer to you my twitter notes. Just to make it even more fun, you can compare my notes with Jim Van Bergen’s, a fellow blogger we had a pleasure of sharing the table with (alongside other great people – I think we had the most fun table in the house).
Here we go:
Wine #1: 2014 The Federalist Zinfandel Lodi ($17.76 MSRP) – very nice start for our Reds extravaganza
Wine #2: 2013 Windrun Pinot Noir Sta Rita Hills (100% Pinot Noir, blend of 5 clones from Lafond Vineyard) – nice and classic California Pinot
Wine #3: 2012 Corner 103 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County – clean and varietally correct
Wine #4: 2012 Prie Vineyards Zinfandel Lodi – another excellent Zinfandel
Wine #5: 2012 Trione Vineyards Henry’s Blend Alexander Valley (35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, 13 % Petite Verdot, 13% Cabernet Franc, 5% Malbec) – a welcome deviation from Zinfandel, a classic Bordeaux blend. I also realized that my tweet didn’t have the picture, so picture is now included:
Wine #6: 2013 Peirano Estate ‘The Immortal’ Zin Old Vine Zinfandel (120 years old vines!) – if anything, the age of the vines commands utmost respect. Note that my tweet incorrectly puts the vintage as 2012, where it is 2013 (I blame it on the speed).
Wine #7: 2013 Klinker Brick Farrah Syrah Lodi – an excellent rendition of one of my most favorite grapes
Wine #8: 2013 Abundance Vineyards Carignane Lodi (90% Carignane, 10% Petite Sirah)
Wine #9: 2014 Oak Ridge Winery OZV Old Vine Zinfandel (Zinfandel/Petite Sirah blend) – Number one selling Zinfandel in California and a great value at $10.99
Wine #10: 2013 Harney Lane Old Vine Zinfandel Lizzy James Vineyard Lodi – one of the best Zinfandels in the tasting
Wine #11: 2013 Michael David Winery Inkblot Cabernet Franc Lodi – in the land of Zinfandels, we finished tasting with an absolute standout of 100% Cabernet Franc – you have to taste it for yourself
Here we go, folks. As you can tell, I can’t even count – we had 11 wines and not 10 during these 60 minutes, but yes, it was lots of fun. And I’m far from being done talking about Wine Bloggers Conference 2016 in Lodi.
Until the next time – cheers!
WBC16: Day 1 – Speed Tasting, White and Rosé
One of my favorite sessions at Wine Bloggers conference is one hour of pure madness, called Live Blogging, or Speed Tasting. Everybody sit at the round tables, 8 people per table. Each table has a number. There are winemakers with their wines, and typically there are more winemakers than there are tables. Each winemaker gets exactly 5 minutes to pour and present their wines. Each blogger has this exact same 5 minutes to taste, write notes, take pictures and do whatever else they are pleased. At the end of 5 minutes, each winemaker has to move to the next table – no exceptions.
This session usually has love/hate reception from bloggers. I personally love it, and I take that “live” part of this speed tasting very seriously :), twitting about each and every wine as we get to taste them. Now I would like to present to you the recap of this session, so here are all the wines and all of the tweets as this session was evolving in the real time – you can read my notes as part of the tweet:
1st wine – NV J Vineyards Brut Rosé Russain River Valley – delicious start, don’t you think? One of my favorite Californian sparkling wine producers
Next wine: 2014 Concannon Vineyard Asemblage Blanc Reserve Livermore Valley (Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon blend):
Wine #3: 2014 Peirano Estate Vineyards “The Other” Lodi (65% Chardonnay, 25% Sauvignon Blanc, 10% Viognier)
Wine #4: 2014 Kenefick Ranch Pickett Road White Napa Valley Calistoga (75% Grenache Blanc, 20% Maarsanne, 5% Viognier) – the winery describes this wine as “possibly the best food wine on the planet” – considering the acidity, they might not be too far off. Plus, look at the varietals used in the wine – very interesting.
Wine#5: 2015 Left Coast Cellars White Pinot Noir Oregon – had an opportunity to taste this wine before – 100% Pinot Noir and 100% White, delicious:
Wine #6: 2015 Troon Vineyard Longue Carabine Applegate Valley Southern Oregon (blend of Vermentino, Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne)- I already wrote about this wine, so here was the second encounter 🙂
Wine #7: 2015 Corner 103 Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma Valley
Wine #8: NV Oak Ridge Winery OZV Rosé California (blend of Zinfandel and Chardonnay):
Wine #9: 2014 Peirano Estate Vineyards Chardonnay The Heritage Collection Lodi – very classic and an excellent value at $14.99 (mentioned in the tweet):
Wine #10: 2001 The Lucas Winery Chardonnay Lodi – this wine deserves its own post, and I wish I had time to visit the winery. This 15 years old California Chardonnay was absolutely mind blowing, deserving the highest praise. The balance and freshness on this wine were just spectacular. Might be easily the best California Chardonnay I ever had (okay – too bold – one of the best for sure):
And we are done here – 10 wines, 60 minutes, lots of fun. The red wines speed tasting took place on the Day 2, and the report is to follow.
Until the next time – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – WBC16, Up and Coming in this Blog and more
First and foremost – Wine Bloggers Conference 2016 (WBC16) is starting this Thursday, August 11th in Lodi, California. Most importantly – I’m flying Thursday morning to attend it! While wine is of course an important part of the event, what I’m really looking forward to is connecting with fellow bloggers. Being around of wine blogosphere for 6 years allowed me to make many friends. While I met some bloggers in person, many are still only virtual, and based on registration list I hope to add some faces to the names.
I’m also looking forward to learning more about wines of Lodi, which I have rather a limited exposure to. And the so called “Speed Tasting/Live Blogging” sessions are something I enjoyed very much at WBC14, so I’m definitely looking forward to doing it again. I will do my best to report on the WBC16 escapades, but it will not be easy, as an event gets quite overwhelming. In any case, if you are attending WBC16, I hope to meet you face to face.
Now, I need to tell you – lots of Pinot Noir is coming to this blog in the near future. I just finished working on the series of interviews with Oregon winemakers, and we all know that Oregon is a Pinot Noir capital of the United States. There is lots of passion, wit and hard work, which I can’t wait to share with you all – along with some tasting notes. Expect to see this series posted throughout September/October time.
Talking about blogging plans, we will be also talking about Italian wines. And not just Italian wines in general, but one of my most favorite Italian wines – Amarone. Cesari Vineyards, a family-owned winery in Veneto, was one of the Amarone pioneers, formed in 1936. To celebrate 80 years of producing great wines, Cesari Vineyards reached out to the group of wine bloggers, so look for the blog posts, tweets and pictures coming out under the hash tag of #IAMarone.
And we are done for today. The glass is empty – and it takes a lot more time for the refill to arrive nowadays – but the refill is still on the way. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage: #MWWC19 Theme, Stumbling Upon and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start with the theme for the new round of the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge, #19 (#MWWC19 for short). The winner of the previous round, Traveling Wine Chick, have chosen the theme, and it is (drum roll, please) … “Choice”. This theme sounds a lot simpler than many of the recent ones, such as “Crisis” or “Serendipity”, but there lies the challenge of making such a regular word a main element of the blog post. Well, good luck to all, and for all rules and regulations, please consult this post – most important is the submission deadline, which is September 14th, so you have enough time to get your creative juices flowing.
Next I want to mention that Wine Bloggers Conference 2015 (WBC15 for short) will be starting on Thursday, August 13th, and it is taking place in the Finger Lakes region. Lately, Finger Lakes wineries had been producing the wines of notice, moving past excellent whites into the world of reds. I’m sure that all the attendees will be into a treat and will find quite a few surprises, such as Saperavi wines – I heard that they are delicious, and wineries have a hard time to keep them around (sell out very quickly). I will not be attending, but I wish to all the bloggers to have a great time and taste a lot of great wines. And I’m really curious what the location of WBC16 will be – I hope it will be the Texas, as Texas wines are nothing short of phenomenal and it is time for the people to get to know them.
Now, let’s talk about an interesting subject – promotion of your blog. When it comes to the blogging, most of us write because we enjoy it – but we also want to be found and our writing to be enjoyed by others, and that is what “blog promotion” is all about. I recently came across an interesting article called 30 ways to promote your blog posts, which contains wealth of great advice. Among other tools, I saw a mention of Stumble Upon, which I heard before, but never used. I checked with some of Connecticut bloggers on Facebook, and many people find Stumble Upon a great tool, so I decided to add this capability for the blog post sharing. I learned that WordPress.com used to offer the Stumble Upon sharing button, but not anymore – but then I came across this post which provides detailed instructions on how Stumble Upon button can be added. Without talking about promotion, I found lots of interesting articles with the help of StumbleUpon – here is one example for you – “22 Foods You’ve Probably Been Eating The Wrong Way Until Now“. If you use Stumble Upon, I would like to know what is your take on it. And by the way, I don’t know if you are aware of the two pages I have in this blog, under the menu of Resources – one of them is called Best Blogging Tips and second one is Technical Tips for Bloggers – I use those pages to collect interesting articles and “how to” as it relates to the blogging – check them out.
Last for today, really a local update – I made changes to the page called Grapes of the World, to properly reflect all the grapes I tasted so far in my Wine Century Club journey. Why is that important? Will tell you very soon.
And we are done here – the glass is empty – but the refill is on the way. Until the next time – cheers!