The Wine Curmudgeon

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

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:

DLW 2011: Missouri gets started

A couple of quick notes before today's fun begins. I'll have more on the conference next week:

• We do a media dinner every year on the day before the conference begins, and each dinner has been terrific. Last night's at St. Louis' Annie Gunn's restaurant was no exception. This is how local food should be paired with local wine.

• Speaking of which, the Adam Puchta vidal blanc was a revelation. Not just only $13, but clean, well-made, some apple fruit and acid to balance the fruit.

• Also stunning -- the $9 chambourcin from Augusta. It's a little Rhone-like, but with New World-style fruit. And anyone who thinks that a hybrid like chambourcin can only be green and vegetal, think again.

April Fool's Day 2011

It's April Fool's Day, so it's time for the annual California secedes from the United States to become its own wine country post. "I'll drink to that," says the Guvanator. And who'd have thought the post had a longer shelf life than Schwarzenegger's political career?

And a tip o' the Wine Curmudgeon's fedora to my pal W.R. Tish, who talked me into writing it. Tish has a new venture, quite serious and much worth checking out for New York City wine drinkers -- the New York Wine Salon. Of course, today there are a couple of stories that may not be quite so serious, right Tish?

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.