The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine bloggers: Do we really matter?

The answer, apparently, is yes, if a recent academic study is to be believed. Researchers at the Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute found that wineries, and in particular smaller and regional wineries, could benefit immensely from blog-driven publicity.

What’s most interesting about the study (which apparently doesn’t exist on-line, but is available in summary here) is that it came to what I think is the right conclusion despite some serious problems. Even the authors realize that, noting that it’s almost impossible to get a handle on how many wine blogs exist.

It cites the Complete List of Wine Blogs at vinography.com. but that looks to be at least a year out of date. I’m not on it and neither is DrinkLocalWine.com, and the Vinography list is also missing a half dozen or so quality and important wine blogs that I follow. The other authoritative list, at alawine.com, was last updated in January 2009, so it’s not much help either.

More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Domaine du Tariquet Classic 2008

The French region of Gascony is most famous for d’Artagnan, the fourth Musketeer; Armagnac, the local brandy; and foie gras. As for wine? Well, it’s the kind of region that only the Wine Curmudgeon could love.

The wines are cheap, dry and fruity, low in alcohol, and food friendly, all of which are hardly au courant among the over-oaked, over-priced, and over-alcoholic wines that are most popular these days. Plus, Gascon wines are made with grapes that the Wine Magazines consider insignificant, and the only way a Gascon wine would get a high score is if d’Artagnan held the tip of his sword to the reviewer’s throat.

So bring on the Domaine du Tariquet (about $9), a white blend made with ugni blanc and colombard. It has lots of crisp green apple fruit and even some citrus, and it’s difficult to beat this for a quality sub-$10 wine. It’s in the $10 Hall of Fame, and should be back in 2010.

Serve this chilled, by itself or with almost any kind of summer meal that isn’t red meat. And it’s not bad with Chinese takeout, either.

Technorati Tags: wine reviews,wine of the week,white wine,$10 wine,cheap wine,inexpensive wine,Domaine du Tariquet,French wine,Gascon wine

Winebits 91: Notes from the DrinkLocalWine.com conference

• That’s a lot of tweets: Our Twitter guru, Russ Kane, is also a whiz with a spreadsheet. He estimates that the conference and Saturday’s Texas Twitter Taste-off generated 200,000 impressions. Which makes my analysis yesterday seem right on: For the cost of dinner, some hotel rooms, and the venue rental, Texas wine probably got more publicity in a day and half that it received from the mainstream wine media in its 30-year history.

• What to do about next year? We’re going to hold a conference in 2010, and so far we have had interest from Arizona, Colorado, New York, and Virginia (but not Missouri, oddly enough, given its role as the first- or second-leading regional wine state). We’re also thinking about expanding the program and finding a way to work in winery visits. If anyone has any suggestions for sites or thoughts about the program, you can email us here. And what do you think about adding a DrinkLocalWine.com retail space to the Web site?

• The Cordon Bleu was amazing: I get to eat at a lot of the best restaurants in Dallas and elsewhere, and our dinner Friday night was as good as anything I have had at most of those places. The scallops put most fine-dining restaurants to shame. The chef-instructors and students were top-notch and professional. Yes, I used to teach there, but when it comes to food and service, the only bias I have is for quality.

Technorati Tags: regional wine,DrinkLocalWine.com

DrinkLocalWine.com conference: The video

The sound is a little spotty, but this is 3 1/2 minutes of regional wine thrills and excitement from last weekend. I have to admit, since I did the editing, there are probably one too many shots of me. But Dave tells the funniest joke. We’ve added a drinklocalwine site on YouTube, as well.

Technorati Tags: DrinkLocalWine.com,regional wine,Texas wine

DrinkLocalWine.com conference: Sip, spit, Tweet

The Wine Curmudgeon is a Chicago Cubs fan. Which means, to paraphrase the immortal Steve Goodman, that we expect the worst and aren’t surprised when worse than that happens. Or, as Goodman wrote:

You know the law of averages says:
Anything will happen that can
That's what it says
But the last time the Cubs won a National League pennant
Was the year we dropped the bomb on Japan

So when I tell you that the first DrinkLocalWine.com conference was a huge, massive, unqualified hit, I’m not just spewing PR. It really was. And I’m kind of surprised – pleasantly, but surprised nonetheless. More, after the jump:

What do you do with all those empty wine bottles?

Use them to water your plants, of course. How about this, from CBS’ Early Show via Lifehacker? And my favorite part? William Moss (the fellow who isn’t Harry Smith) says this is actually more work for the gardener -- who has to empty the wine bottles. The bit about the wine bottles is toward the end, the final 40 seconds or so. It's actually pretty clever.

On Monday, a report from the DrinkLocalWine.com conference, and I think we’re even going to have video.

Technorati Tags: wine bottles,wine videos

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Texas wine videos

A bunch of them, in fact, as the Wine Curmudgeon gets ready for the first DrinkLocalWine.com conference this weekend. I’m off to the airport later today to pick up some out-of-town wine writers.

The videos, put together by the state’s GoTexan program (which, in a shameless plug, is also sponsoring the conference), discuss the wine industry in Texas, offer interviews with leading winemakers, and record the state’s first cyber tasting. There are cowboy hats, a video about the Black Spanish grape (one of my favorites), and cheesy soundtrack music. What more could you want?

The first video in the series is after the jump.