Colorado Twitter Taste-Off
The Colorado Twitter Taste–Off took place during the afternoon session. Twenty-two Colorado wineries poured two of their wines for conference attendees. Everyone voted for the best red and best white wines. Best red award went to Ruby Trust Cellars for their The Smuggler. The best white wine went to Guy Drew Vineyards for their Pinot...
Consumer Perception of Colorado and Regional Wine
The third Drink Local Wine session was led by Richard Mauro, Colorado Springs Gazette. The three panelists included Chris Anthony, professional skier; Jennifer Broome, Morning Meteorologist KDVR-TV and host of “Swept Away with Jennifer Broome”; and Jay Leeuwenberg, former NFL player. Richard Mauro began the session on consumer perceptions. He introduced the panel of wine...
Colorado’s Terroir and the Challenges of High Altitude
The first seminar focused on Colorado’s Terroir and the Challenges of High Altitude. Richard Leahy, national wine consultant, moderated the session that included a panel with Horst Caspari, Professor & State Viticulturist, Colorado State University; Stephen Menke, PhD, Associate Professor of Enology, Colorado State University; and Bruce Talbott, Vice President, Talbott Farms. Horst Caspari gave...
Drink Local Wine Conference Kicks off with Media Welcome Dinner
The 2012 Drink Local Wine Conference opened on Friday evening with a media welcome dinner at the Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion. Media, wine growers, winemakers and state officials mingled as we drank a Bookcliff Vineyards 2010 Muscat Blanc and/or a Cottonwood Cellars 2008 Lemberger. We had the Muscat Blanc and paired it with...
Pre-Drink Local Wine Conference Winery Visits
We flew to Denver a couple of days ago to visit some of the wineries south of the city prior to the start of the Drink Local Wine Conference. Later today we will check into the Denver Sheraton and register for the DLW Conference. On Wednesday we visited Spero Winery and The Infinite Monkey Theorem...
An Ultimate Drink Local Experience
With the Drink Local Wine Conference coming up soon I thought about what may be the ultimate drink local wine experience. This experience would be different for everyone. For me, the ultimate drink local wine experience would be a wine made from grapes in my backyard vineyard, just a few feet away from our kitchen....
Prepping for the Drink Local Wine Conference
Prepping for the Drink Local Wine Conference in Denver on Saturday. So exactly how does one prepare for a conference? Well, I looked at several hundred vineyard photos that I took a few years back while visiting wineries and vineyards in Colorado. Then another way to set your mind is to drink wine from the...
Colorado High Altitude Vineyard Scenes
The 2012 Drink Local Wine Conference takes place in Denver, Colorado. Many of Colorado’s vineyards are growing in altitudes between 4000′ and 7000′. These photos are from two previous visits to vineyards and wineries in the breath taking beautiful state of Colorado. The Colorado Rivers runs past the vineyards at Canyon Wind Cellars in Georgetown, Colorado....
Wine Tasting Thousands of Miles Apart
A group of writers used Twitter to renew our friendships and taste wines together. This was our first tasting together since February 4th in Napoli, Italy. This time we tasted four Messina Hof wines. The day also reminded Kathy and me about our first Drink Local Wine Conference that was held in Texas and featured...
IWINETC Blogger/Media FAM Wine Tasting
When you spend a couple weeks with a group on tour you begin to establish bonds. In January and February of this year we went on a blogger/media FAM tour of wineries in Umbria and Campania Italy. The trip also included the International Wine Tourism Conference in Perugia. We arrived in Italy a few days...
Tasting Room Etiquette
I noticed a discussion on LinkedIn in the winemaker’s group about people that have perfume or after shave on when attending a winery for a tasting. Most of the comments pointed to not wearing perfume or aftershave because it can interfere with the wine tasting experience. Perfume is only one example of tasting room etiquette....
Southern Virginia Wineries Gain Recognition
Marshall Molliver of Molliver Vineyards explained that at one time the wineries in the Southern Virginia wine region didn’t know that each other existed. Now they help each other with ideas, wine testing, events and festivals. One of the programs that brought recognition to the wineries as well as consumers and wine travelers is the...
