War on boxes, fall of machines, Bordeaux, theft ? sipped & spit

SIPPED: irony On his bulletin board, Robert Parker calls a “courageous visionary” who will say “enough is enough” and drop Bordeaux prices 20% for the 2010 vintage from the previous year. He later shrugged off any personal responsibility in the rise. SIPPED: moxie Chateau Pontent-Canet released their price for 2010 (about $140 a bottle at [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/Y5oKfj0KJTs/

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Vote in the Wine Blog Awards!

So, there’s this thing called the Wine Blog Awards which is sort of a hybrid of the Oscars and the People’s Choice Awards.

The awards combine a juried review along with popular voting and recognize English language wine blogs in a number of categories like, “Best Writing,” “Best Business Blog,” “Best Wine Reviews,” “Best Overall,” and so on.  There are eight categories overall and not all blogs are a fit for every category as there are a few specialty areas like, “Best Single Subject,” “Best Winery Blog,” etc.

Like all awards, because we take our cues from popular culture, most people are “humbled” and diffident when named a finalist and/or a winner, and secretly (or not so secretly) peeved if they’re not acknowledged.  If nothing else, this is a measure of the influence of the awards in the online wine writing community.

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I’ve been a finalist or a winner since the inception of the awards in 2007, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I like winning.

However, up until last year, I was winning awards because of my blog design – which, frankly, I conceived, but I paid for with the help of an ace designer.  So, these were hollow victories because it had nothing to do with writing, where I put in actual effort.

Then, last year, I had a breakthrough of sorts and I was a winner in the, “Best Business Blog” category – recognition for writing capably about wine marketing and the wine industry.  Yes!  This was good because the purpose of this site is to write column-style and make the wine business (behind the lifestyle façade) interesting and accessible.

Flash forward a year and I’ve been named a finalist in three categories and they’re not the design category (thank goodness). 

Please vote for whomever you deem worthy in the Wine Blog Awards.  You’ll see that I’m a finalist in the following categories:  “Best Overall,” “Best Business Blog,” “Best Writing.”

Vote here.

As always, thanks for reading Good Grape and helping me, a schooled journalist, but non-professional writer, pursue my interest in wine while scratching my creative itch and hopefully, as George Bernard Shaw, perhaps the most oft-quoted guy that nobody knows what he’s known for, said, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/vote_in_the_wine_blog_awards/

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TasteCamp East:Bloggers Arrive in the Finger Lakes

This is one of my favorite times of the year.  I’m fortunate enough to be included on the list of wine bloggers and writers who get asked to attend TasteCamp East, organized by Lenn Thompson and Evan Dawson at The New York Cork Report. Last year, Long Island Wine Country hosted our group and although [...]

Source: http://familylovewine.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/tastecamp-eastbloggers-arrive-in-the-finger-lakes/

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Tasting Room Time in the Napa Valley

It?s that time of year again. Bud Break is all around and the vines begin a new growing year in the wine country. That dreary, cold, and raining period is over and tourists now can flock to the tasting rooms again. Wineries are ready to receive and pamper all tourists. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/tasting-room-time-in-the-napa-valley/

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?Petrol? is a flaw in young Riesling: Olivier Humbrecht

The petrol note sometimes found in young Riesling is a flaw according to Olivier Humbrecht. And we lack a better vocabulary for the petrol note that many Riesling aficionados cherish in older bottles. The winemaker at Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace who makes 40 different wines a year commented in New York last week that the petrol [...]

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