You Know You’re a Wine Snob When…

…you find yourself ‘aerating’ your milk by swirling it aggressively in the glass. Heather Hope

… you unscrew the bottle cap from a Bud Light. And you sniff it. Jerry Pierson

…you bring your own stemware to a restaurant.

…you refuse to drink out of the box and insist on putting the wine in a glass.

Carol Prucha Evans <— oh SNAP, Should I admit that Carol is my mom?!

….you use a points rating system for the drinking water: 98 points, 2010 vintage ala tap water, some mineral taste on the palate, little to no nose and not dry at all, very quaffable and inexpensive…. Gary Krimont

…you carry a corkscrew in your pants pocket! @WLarryC

… you take some of your wine bottles to a friend’s apartment for recycling so the garbage guys won’t think you have a problem. 😉 Naomi Whitmore Pollack

…you bring your own aerator to a restaurant @HipsForHire

…when its Riedel or nothing else! @abryksa

…when you won’t drink a bottle of wine less than $20. @DaveBenjamin

…When your friends refer to you as “The Cork Dork”Jeff Morrow

…you must precurse a statement by saying, “I’m not a wine snob, but…”Jason D. Brumley

…you start making cute things for the house out of all the corks you’ve collected. Steven Petersen

…when you scoff at the fact that a resturant only offers “house red” or “house white.”

… It takes you longer to take the first sip than it did to pour it in the glass. Ariana Emery Burgess

… you fly 1500 miles to drink your favorite wine instead of drinking it at home!!!! Scott Miller

…every time you purchase a bottle of wine, you then check Wine Spectator online for the rating.Emily Campen-Mrachek

… you post a question on FB and twitter asking what makes other people a wine snob 🙂 Tom Black <– Oh JAB!

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THANK YOU Twitter and Facebook Fans For… well… writing this blog post for me! I put the question out there “You Know You’re A Wine Snob When…” and got an amazing response. Any response with an @ symbol and a name after it is the Twitter handle of someone I follow on Twitter. All other responses have a link to Facebook accounts. ‎What a stellar Social Media Community I am involved in!

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Think Outside the Box: What’s With the Weird White Wine?

Want to bring something besides Chardonnay to your next BBQ?

It’s starting to feel like Summer again here in Seattle, so lets talk white Wine! I have been lucky to travel many parts of the world in the name of cheese and wine. During my travels I have discovered all sorts of  white wine varietals and blends that I would deem unique Summer Sippers. Here are a few wines that my Twitter Wine Master Minds and I recommend tracking down for  swig of something a bit outside the box.

Vernaccia (one of my personal favorites). I discovered this little easy drinker while riding my bike through San Gimignano, a little medieval town in Tuscany, Italy. My first taste of it was in the form of gelato flavored Vernaccia, which I admit was not as good as the wine itself. I buy about a case every Summer; most wine shops carry at least one bottle (which usually has dust on it and can be found behind quicker selling wines).

Soave (Highly recommended by myself and @YasharWineMongr). This is a wine that Yashar and I have agreed upon as one of the easiest to drink Winter white wines (next to Champagne). For me, it is a year-round sipper that drinks amazingly well with food. Soave is a dry white wine from the Veneto region in northeast Italy, principally around the city of Verona.

Vinho Verde (@AtlantaWineGuy): This wine is great for St. Patricks day, and just about any sunny Summer day! It’s a drink now kind of wine that has a green tint to it. Many of my friends think it’s only suitable for white Sangria, but I disagree. I have consumed plenty of $7 bottles of this affordable green wine.

Merwah & Obaideh (@RickBakas and @TexasWineGuy). Man oh man, I had to look this one up. These are Lebonese grape varietals that make up wines such as Chateu Musar’s popular white blend. Obaideh has been rumored to be the ancestor of the Chardonnay grape, and has a Semillon-like appeal.

Catarratto (@DivinaCucina) is a white Italian wine grape planted primarily in Sicily where it is the second most widely planted grape after Sangiovese. Overproduction in recent years has led to this grape being a substantial contributor to the European wine lake problem. Catarratto can make full bodied wines with lemon notes… Learn More

Siegerrebe (@WineBeerWA) is a white wine grape that is grown primarily in Germany with some plantings in England, Washington State, and British Columbia’s North Okanagan… Learn More

And that is just a few! Please add your favorite ‘outside of the box’ white wines in the comment section below… I’m always looking for new treats!

~Some descriptions in this post were sourced from Wikipedia, with links to learn more.

Tasting 200 Wines in 3 Days: Sensory Overload?

Do you think an average wine blogger can really ‘taste’ wine and get a good assessment of it at the Wine Blogger Conference 2010 (#WBC10)? A discussion with Jay Soloff, owner of Delille Cellars (@DelilleCellars on Twitter).

I’m sitting here having tea and gluten-free muffins with Jay Soloff, co-owner of Delille Cellars, which has been deemed ‘Washington States Best Winery’ time and time again. My meeting with him was not to interview him, it was tea between friends. But our conversation developed into a perfect blog topic. It went a little something like this…

Barbara: I tried well over 30 new wines a day at the Wine Blogger Conference 2010 last week. Not only was the amount of wine tastes that were thrown our way overwhelming, but there was a constant buzz of music, conversation and sales pitches, along with a general palate fatigue of 30+ WA wines a day, which started at 9am, and ended well past 10pm. Can a non skilled palate make a sound judgment under these conditions? If the point of our tasting is to let our followers in on some best kept #WAWine secrets, is an event such as this effective, as say, an hour in a tasting room or sipping a bottle of WA red with dinner?

While at WBC, I avoided any attempt to tweet or blog wine reviews, and wonder what type of assessment could truly be made in an atmosphere of that nature. For me, tasting wine in a crowded room, filled with music, people chit chatting with me about up-coming wine events etc is almost impossible (even with many years in the wine industry, and many trade tastings and events such as Taste WA). The distractions are just too numerous. I decided, instead to focus on the personalities of the wine makers, their history and story, and how I could help them get the word out on their wine. Every wine maker I spoke to, and every wine that I tried did leave an over all impression on me… but man was it tough to make a sound assessment!

Jay: Yes, that is something that wine makers/owners think about when at tastings. We at Delille Cellars have discussed our presence at large tastings numerous times, and what it means to us in terms of Return On Investment (ROI). We conclude that we don’t care about ROI at all… not even a little bit when we pour our wines to hundreds of people. We can’t weigh the value of any of our marketing effort, our aim is just to be accessible! You never know today what participation will yield down the road. What you give is what you will get. Not everyone we taste on our wines in a crowded, distracting, room will take away what we really want them to (a great introduction to our wine), but they may take with them the experience, a bit of our history, and the ability to have asked me direct questions.

Barbara: That is so perfectly ‘wine’. The wine industry is particularly unique to me in that you are selling more than the juice. You are selling a lifestyle and an experience. It seems similar to what you are saying to having a presence at a large tasting. I am glad to hear that you don’t need to measure the results of giving tastes of your wines to people, such as the Wine Blogger Conference. This leads me to ask you a question about why Delille doesn’t seem to be investing much in Social Media. Why is it that wineries are apprehensive to use that same ROI marketing concept with Social Media?

Jay: Wow… that’s a very great point Barbara, Social Media marketing has been sitting in my gut as something we need to do. Unfortunately, there are 4 owners, not just me.

Barbara: We’ll talk about that next time we meet for muffins Jay. Thanks for answering my questions.

I would like to hear more from the people that feel they are able to make a sound judgment about the wines tasted in this type of environment, especially during ‘speed tasting’. For me, WBC was a great way to learn about new wineries, places to eat and stay etc as a way of steering my followers to new cool things. As for getting a good grasp on the wines that were poured, I may have to buy them all and taste them one by one in my kitchen with dinner!

Inside the Head of The Owner of A 9,000 Bottle Wine Collection!

An Interview With Cliff Chung, Owner of One of Seattle’s MEGA Wine Collections

* See Below for Information Regarding How YOU Can Purchase Some of Cliff’s Collection at a GREAT Discount!

I have known wine makers, Sommeliers, Master Sommeliers, Certified Wine Educators, General Managers/owners of 5 star dining establishments, and pretty much anyone I could introduce myself to in the wine industry. The inter-workings of the industry are very well known to me. What is not, however, is the consumer side of wine. Sure, I know people who have beautiful collections, fine dining parties, and even some who sip Cristal with lunch like it’s water (though I have yet to be invited along). What I have never tapped into until now, however, is the deepest layer of consumer that can be found. I call it Obsessive Collective Disorder (OCD), and I finally got to meet a fellow who’s been hit by the bug! While many of us in the industry are completely enamored by them and their very mysterious existence, the normies may consider them over the top, and just plain eccentric.

*Email Cliff at cfchung@comcast.net for Information About the part of His Collection He Is Selling!

Thank You Purple Cafe And Wine Bar in Seattle

A Few Quotes I collected From Cliff After The Interview:

“From the mid 2000’s till 2009 I bought 95% of my wine from Garagistewine.com, after a friend recommened I check out it’s website. I did and was hooked after that. So now I have about 9000 bottles, 3400 of which were purchased fro Garagiste over the last 4 years”.

“I buy bang for the buck wines that can age. I didn’t but to be a collector, but a drinker and sharer of wine. People point out that I can’t drink all that wine, but when i past on, someone will inherit a nice stash of wine”.

“People drink wine too early and too fast at meals. We look for instant gratification. Open the wine, especially reds an hour or two before the meal, decant if needed, pour into a glass to let it breathe, sip while you cook and notice how the wine flavors and aroma evolve”.

“Make friends with the venues that sell wine. Some local food stores have great discounts available”.

“There is a glut of wine out there. Many bargains to be found. And winemakers throughtout the world are getting better at making good to great wine at good prices”.