Lifetime Vintage’s Blind Tasting Bundles – An Incredible Study Tool

Published on June 3, 2020

Recently I moderated a virtual blind tasting sponsored by the California company, Lifetime Vintage. Being in Europe, I wasn’t able to sample the wines myself, so I got to play detective.  I listened to Kendeigh Worden of The Grape Grind, Noelle Harman of Outwines, Jeff Burrows of FoodWineClick, Lauren Walsh of The Swirling Dervish and Dylan Robbins, CEO of Lifetime Vintage, describe on Zoom–from across four different states and an ocean–the wines they were tasting.…

Published on June 3, 2020
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60 Second Wine Review — Chateau St-Jacques d’Albas Blanc

Published on May 29, 2020

Note: This wine was a sample received from the Languedoc Outsiders. A few quick thoughts on the 2019 Chateau St-Jacques d’Albas Blanc from the Pays d’Oc. The Geekery In 2001, Englishman Graham Nutter purchased his 90-hectare estate in the Minervois region located in the hills around the famous walled city of Carcassonne. Historically a notable stop along the Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle pilgrimage trail, viticulture here dates back even further to pre-Roman times. During the 11th century, a…

Published on May 29, 2020
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The Booming Popularity of Instagram Live Wine Events

Published on May 19, 2020

I call them the “Witching Hours.” Every day starting at 5 pm, my smartphone buzzes alive with notifications. Someone is going LIVE on Instagram! Then another and another! 6 pm, 7 pm until they finally start to die off around eight. And that’s just the first round of Witching Hours for IG events in Europe and South Africa. Like clockwork, if I forget to shut off my phone, I’m sure to be awakened at 2…

Published on May 19, 2020
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Wine Shopping in the Age of Social Distancing

Published on May 14, 2020

I just had an intensely uncomfortable experience. Since France started easing Covid restrictions on May 11th, I’ve been itching to get out of the house. So today I took the plunge and walked to my local wine shop to pick up a few bottles. When I got there, I made a note of the shop’s safety precautions posted outside. Everyone must wear a mask. Only two customers allowed in the store at once. Maintain at…

Published on May 14, 2020
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60 Second Wine Review — Peter Zemmer Pinot Grigio

Published on May 10, 2020
by  in 60 Second Reviews
Note: This wine was sent as a sample. A few quick thoughts on the 2018 Peter Zemmer Pinot grigio from the Alto Adige. The Geekery I’ve been studying Northeast Italy for the D3 Wines of the World unit of the WSET Diploma and one stat about Alto Adige really took me by surprise. The area is hugely dominated by cooperatives, which make around 70% of all the wine from the region. Now most of this…
min read Wine marketing

Now is the time for wineries to think BIG with online wine events

Published on May 6, 2020
by  in Wine marketing
Since the launch of VirtualWineEvents.com, I’ve been stunned by the response. Even though the site has only been live for a few days, we’re going to hit more than 100,000 pages read by the end of today. We’ve haven’t even climbed to the top of Google search rankings yet. So nearly all of this is coming from word of mouth. However, the big driver behind the “pages read” number is that once users are on…
min read General, Wine marketing

A New Tool to Help Promote Online Wine Events

Published on May 4, 2020
by  in General, Wine marketing
My post last month on How Can We Make Virtual Wine Tastings Less Sucky? generated quite a response. While most of it came from wineries seeking honest feedback on their VTs, I also received numerous inquiries from folks wondering how I was finding these events. For me, it was relatively simple because they’re popping up everywhere on social media. But when I went to Google “Virtual Wine Tasting,” I quickly realized what a chore it…