terroirist | 4488: A Ridge Blog

Posts Tagged ‘terroirist’

The WBT Pre-Game Show

September 22, 2012

WBT!

No, not a Women’s Badminton Tournament.

Nor the World’s Best Tetherballers.

Rather, it’s the Wine Bloggers Tasting, and this is the Pre-Game Show!

I’m your host, and I’d like to introduce the players who’ll be taking the field for this very special event.

But before we begin, a bit of context:

This tasting series debuted back in March of 2010, and while we’ve certainly played host to a veritable who’s who of Wine Bloggers, it hasn’t only been Wine Bloggers we’ve hosted. We’ve had food bloggers, culture bloggers, music bloggers, drinks bloggers, and more.

And, while there have certainly been a great many welcomed and returning faces, we’ve also had a great time debuting new participants as well.

The new edition of our WBT, set for tomorrow afternoon at 1pm, is no exception; in fact, we’ve got on tap one of the more diversely exciting assemblages we’ve yet set glassware for.

Behold! (In no particular order …)

First up, Jeska & Brad Kittenbrink, better known as “Geeks With Drinks!” Lovers of Gourmet Food Trucks, brewers of beer, and stealers of cocktail cherries, these San Francisco-based bloggers are debuting at our series tomorrow, and we’re really looking forward to meeting and tasting with them! To get the flavor of their flavor, please give a read to the following:

http://geekswithdrinks.com/?p=71

Next, the Rad Man himself, one of the hecka best wine bloggers going, and possibly the only other wine blogger out there besides yours truly who comes in fairly high in the Google queue if you search for “The Never-Ending Story!” Of course I’m speaking of Jeff Solomon, esteemed author of the Stay Rad wine blog. You can read a fantastic sample here:

http://stayradwineblog.com/2011/07/28/this-changes-everything/

Our next blogger is … well … Jen. And I’d tell you more about her, but I’m still trying to “Chase” her down! Meaning, of course, we’re speaking of Jen Massey, author of the blog “Chasing Jen!” Jen is debuting at our series as well, and we can’t wait to host her! You can read an example of her fine work here:

http://chasingjen.com/2012/01/23/wine-fried-chick-legs-and-rain-pure-comfort/

Next up, Fred Swan, he of the NorCal Wine Blog, an indisputable Gold Standard for Wine Blogging in ours, this Golden State. Selfishly, I’m going to recommend a post of his in which he wrote about our tasting series; though not because of that, per se, but rather, because he referred to me as the “Instigator-In-Chief,” and I think that’s quite groovy. You can read his work here:

http://norcalwine.com/blog/51-general-interest/684-on-wine-jazz-and-inkblots?q=ridge

And then, emerging from the ravenous oeno-belly that is the monster we call Terroirist, comes Steven Washuta, returning for his much-anticipated second turn at our #WBT wheel. Check out some of his work on the VERY highly-regarded Terroirist blog:

http://www.terroirist.com/2012/04/discovering-monterey-county-part-i/

And for our next participant, may I present Erin Grant, a wine blogger with a mission, currently tasting her way through an entire planet’s worth of wine varietals. To read a sample of her fine writing on the blog “Give Me Grapes” please click below:

http://www.givemegrapes.com/2012/05/gold-country-wine.html

And here’s another debut for you; in fact, it’s a double-debut! Mark & Tristan, who write, amongst them, three blogs! Dig these:

http://www.winelog.net/blogs/markur/

http://positivepalate.com/

http://hahnwinery.com/blog/hahn-harvest-2012-begins-today

(Yes, that’s the Hahn Winery blog there in the #3 spot; Mark writes that one! Quite cool …)

And now, I must say, there are few things that I find more emotionally and morally satisfying than an East Coaster happily transplanting to the west; it’s clear affirmation of what I truly believe; that Northern California is indeed The Promised Land. Melanie Friedman is just such an ex-pat, and she brings vital real-life winemaking experience to her blog endeavors; case in point the following post on her blog “Wine Maven In Training”, entitled “Gravity Flow Winemaking at Vineyard 29″:

http://iheartnywines.blogspot.com/2012/02/gravity-flow-winemaking.html

And then there’s my man Ed Thralls. You’ve recently seen him name-checked here on this blog, because we co-hosted — with the subversive, soulful and wise Sasha Kadey — a panel at this year’s Wine Blogger’s Conference (which you can read about on the fantastic Luscious Lushes Wine Blog; sadly, Thea won’t be in attendance at our tasting tomorrow, but you can dig her spirit as she writes about our panel; just click here.). Ed gets it every which way, and there ain’t no one I respect more; check the sample:

http://www.winetonite.com/2010/08/07/in-search-of-soul-and-grapes/

Rachel Voorhees has been known to taste a wine or two in the company of the above-noted Thea, but mark my words, she is a publishing powerhouse in her own right, and an enviable fount of oeno-energy; check out a sample of her great work below:

http://rachelvoorhees.com/2012/09/drunken-fruit-salsa/

Yet another debut at our Wine Bloggers Tasting Series will be the writer behind VineBuzz, Rich Reader, who I am already quite fond of because he uses words like “genotype” when talking wine blogs, and who writes the following from the 2011 iteration of the Wine Bloggers Conference:

http://vinebuzz.biz/node/106

A rather newer member of the Wine Bloggers Tasting family is the writer behind FoodPorn.com, which is, for my money, one of the most brilliantly executed, fully-fleshed out, conceptually-driven blogs out there; this blog doesn’t miss a thematic trick, and it’s well worth a read. Here’s a great sample:

http://foodporn.com/1pescygourmet/2012/04/pebble-beach-food-and-wine-not-a-bad-sunday.html

Perhaps inevitably enough, FoodPorn.com will be in the company of WineA&*^#le.com, which, despite the sardonicisms inherent to the name, actually provides some cracklingly intelligent perspective on our industry. Dig a bit of the vibe here:

http://wineasshole.com/2010/03/03/cakebread-and-the-cuvee-de-fail-rubaiyat/

And that, is our team, and they’ll be taking the field at 1pm PST tomorrow!

If you wish to follow along with the tasting, just tune in with your favorite twitter-filter, and watch out for the #RidgeVineyards hashtag!

Tags:Chasing Jen, FoodPorn, Geeks With Drinks, Give Me Grapes, Hahn Winery, NorCal Wine Blog, Positive Palate, Rachel Vorhees, Spirit and Wine Blog, Stay Rad Wine Blog, Steven Washuta, terroirist, VineBuzz, Wine Bloggers Tasting, Wine Maven In Training, Wine Tonite, WineAsshole
Posted in Events & Photographs, Monte Bello, Press Reviews, Social Media, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Blogs, Wine Tales | 1 Comment »

Thoughts On Being Best Overall – AKA – The Final Countdown!

July 26, 2012

It’s THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Meaning, it’s the LAST DAY to vote for your favorite wine blogs in the 2012 Wine Blog Awards!

And dig this, we’re nominated in not one but two categories, including the grand high llama of awards, BEST OVERALL! That, plus the Best Winery Blog category!

(If you’d like to read some thoughts on the Best Winery Blog award, you can do so by clicking here.)

(And should you be so inclined as to vote - for us or otherwise - please click here.)

–

And now, some “proper” thoughts on being a finalist in the Best Overall Wine Blog category …

–

To be perfectly honest, I dislike bits of writing — epistolary, essayish, or otherwise, that begin with “to be perfectly honest.”

But in this case, if the cliché fits …

To be perfectly honest, I feel a tad conflicted asking you for your vote, I mean, Best Overall Wine Blog? That seems like awfully high praise. I mean, there are literally hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of wine blogs out there, and a great many of them are really and truly excellent, in that Raymond-Chandler-Made-Crime-Fiction-More-Than-Just-A-Genre-Genre kind of way; meaning, there are a great many blogs out there that are ostensibly about wine, but are really much more than that; they are instead essentially the anthologized essay collections of gifted and insightful humans who are working out their places in the cosmos via an addiction to the word, the way, and the line, with wine as their paradigm and prism; the afflatus by which they become amanuenses to Bacchus.

That’s the first conflict.

And then there’s the Ron Washam problem, who, in his capacity as The Hosemaster of Wine, once wrote that “Wine blogging is the attention-seeking barking of lonely poodles.” By which logic this award becomes … Best Overall Lonely & Barking Poodle?

I jest of course. Ron writes a wine blog too, despite the cloak of irony, and a damn good one. He’s a finalist too, by the way!

Anyhow, back to the real sense of conflict. I mean, look at my colleagues in this category! (And please note, I say “colleagues,” not “competition!”)

–

Best Overall Wine Blog, Finalists:

–

How on earth do I in good conscience recommend “4488: A Ridge Blog” against all that talent and track record, all that prowess and perspicacity, all that sagacity and superability?

Take Jamie Goode. In just the time that I’ve been writing this blog, he’s racked up the following, to name just a few:

2012 Shortlisted for the International Wine and Spirits Competition Communicator of the Year award

2011 Shortlisted for Roederer International Wine Awards – Wine Website

2010 Shortlisted for Roederer – Wine Website

2010 Shortlisted for Roederer – Artistry of Wine

2010 Shortlisted for International Wine and Spirits Competition Communicator of the Year award

2008 Shortlisted for International Wine and Spirits Competition Communicator of the Year award

I mean, that’s a whole lot of shortlisting! My hat is off to Mr. Goode, I must say!

–

And how about 1 Wine Dude? He’s already WON this category before (in 2010)! Plus, dig all this:

•#14 on IntoWine.com’s 100 Most Influential People in the U.S. Wine Industry 2012

•Best Wine Tourism Feature Runner Up – 2010 Born Digital Awards

•Top 3 Wine Blogs – Wine Enthusiast

•Top 100 Wine Tweeters – alawine.com

•MyMediaInfo’s Top 10 Wine Experts on Twitter

Hats off to you too, Joe Roberts!

–

And then there is Terroirist! I mean, my lord, they’ve got, what, ten different authors writing for them? Eleven? Their roster goes to eleven! And nearly all of them certified somms and/or professionals in the wine industry! That’s like than All-Star Team of wine writers!

Hats off to you as well, all you Terroirists!

–

And lastly but certainly not leastly, Jameson Fink. About whom I have to say, this is a man after my own heart (for whatever that’s worth!).

As but one example, on the About page of his blog, you’ll find the following (which I read as a bit of a Mission Statement of sorts):

I’ve visited vineyards and wineries in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, France, and Italy. (Also California, Washington, and Virginia.)

I like t-shirts and jeans with my wine.

I’ve spent over six years working in the retail wine business.

I’ve worked in restaurants and bakeries in Flagstaff and Chicago.

I live in Seattle, the whole time in Capitol Hill.

I’m also fond of beer and cider.

I will dazzle or dismay you with an overabundance of parenthetical asides and exclamation points. (Seriously! It’s who I am!)

I’d rather be drinking Champagne.

I love v-neck sweaters.

I’m happy that you read all of these, and hope you’ll visit often.

–

To which I respond:

–I too am wearing a V-neck sweater, and I too would rather be drinking Champagne (I am currently drinking tea, which I love! But it’s not Champagne!).

So, we have all that in common (plus, I too used to live on Capitol Hill in Seattle! And I lived in Chicago too!).

But then, Paul Mabray of VinTank singled out Mr. Fink as one to watch in his article “The 9 Most Important Wine Bloggers in the US.” And he did not mention this blog. V-neck sweater notwithstanding.

So, Mr. Jameson Fink, my hat is off to you too! Your work is still new to me, but I’m loving what I’m reading; your effortlessly conversational style, your sublime reconciliation of the high and low brows of wine and writing, your humor, your insight, and your consistent enactment of the wine blogger as passionate outsider marching to a funkier rhythm; it’s all very exciting to behold.

–

And then there’s us. Me. This. 4488: A Ridge Blog. What do we have to offer, against all the above?

Well, first off, Ridge. That’s what this blog, and this author, have going for us. We have Ridge. The history, the story, the chronicle. The philosophy, the world-view, the faith. The wines, the vineyards, the people. The narrative, the experience, the odyssey. The land, the locations, the legends. The story.

And that’s it. That’s what this blog is all about. Put most simply, storytelling. A tale, a teller, a listener. The in-the-moment enactment of the most basic of human ritual; togetherness. We tell our stories to each other to remember we’re alive.

Read a back label on a bottle of Ridge wine. That’s the star this blog sights by.

This is Ridge Vineyards, making wines of place. And this is 4488: A Ridge Blog, writing tales of place.

–

If you’d like something perhaps a bit more tangible, I give you the following: links to the Top 10 posts on this blog in the past year, based on total readership (in no particular order):

The Oak Wars: French vs. American -or-
A Barrel Of Information About American and French Oak -or- More Fun Than A
Barrel Full Of Grapes!

Zoot! And Poetry, And Wine, And Jazz,
And Steve Martin, And The Muppets, And Jack Kerouac!

Building Monte Bello: The 2011
Assemblage

What IS High Alcohol In Wine?

Blessed Are The Cheese-Makers!

My Wine Pages: My Ridge Anniversary!

Things I’m Thankful For …

Li-Po and T’ao Ch’ien: Chinese Wine
Poetry

LOVE.

Thelonious Monk!

–

Funk power. Over and out.