The truth is, your wine is AMAZING!  I have been drinking this or that from Argentina for several years, since it’s a great value, but I must admit, I didn’t love it.  That is, until the good folks at Benson Marketing and VineConnections put together a blogger tasting to introduce us to their selections from the Mendoza and surrounding areas.  yum!

First, a bit about Argentina in general.  Argentina is the world’s 5th largest wine producing country.  When you compare that to France, Italy, Australia, and the U.S., considering the size of the country, that’s a lot of juice!  There are many varieties that are produced, but the most well known is probably Malbec.  The primary growing region of Mendoza has four sub-appellations:  Lujan du Cuyo; Maipu; Uco Valley; and Eastern Mendoza.  While there is very little natural rainfall, most of the vineyards are between 2000 and 4700′ in elevation, and there is natural drainage from the snows off the Andes above.  I was excited to taste some Argentinian wine that I wasn’t guessing blind at, since most of my prior experiences had been mediocre mass market options form Cost Plus and Costco.

The first wine we tasted was the Celestina Rose of Malbec, a sparkler that was a surprising treat.  I have tasting Sparkling Shiraz before, and was happily surprised at the interesting flavors, but the Malbec was amazing.  This was 100% Malbec, and the low 12.8% ABV was a nice reminder that not all wine needs to be over the top and  punchy.  Since Argentinians in general drink a lot of bubbles, something like 35 liters per person per year.  This wine was a blood rose color, with a yeasty nose and flavors of hibiscus, pink grapefruit and wild strawberry.  It is bottle fermented and aged for 14 months in the bottle, and retails for a low low price of $20.  Buy

Next, we moved on to the Crios Torrontes.  I found jasmine, honeysuckle, honey and wildflowers in this white which reminded me of Muscat.  It was interesting as it was the only wine that wasn’t from Mendoza, but I loved it.  It had a ton of tropical fruit, musk melon, and a lovely perfumey nose.  At $15, it’s a great white for any occasion,especially seafood and salads.  I would love to have this with a nice fruit salad, or even a green salad with a citrus dressing.  Strong Buy

From the whites, we moved in to the red wines of Mendoza. Malbec is Argentina’s signature red wine grape and one of the Bordeaux grape varieties.  Malbec was brought to Argentina by the French in the mid 186s, where it found a new home in Mendoza and thrived in the long growing seasons.  Since Mendoza gets over 300 sunshine days a year, the grape took off.  An interesting point about Argentinian Malbec is that there are now 22 distinct clones, which they plant on their own rootstock.  Most wine in Argentina was produced  for domestic consumption but as the 90 liter per capita consumption decreased, exports increased.  Now, it’s trendy to have your second or third houses in Argentina.  The passion for winemaking has continued to grtow with teh native winemakers, and these wines are terriffic examnples.  In Argentina, large hailstones destroy up to 13% of the grape harvest every year.  Because of this, and small plots of land, grower designated wines are newly developed here.  It is a risky adventure with such hailstorms, since 15% of your crop could be wiped out.  That said, high risk, high reward.  There are now more and more grower labeled wines (we would call them vineyard designate) appearing.

The 2007 Cocina Blend is literally “The Kitchen Blend”, almost everything but the kitchen sink in theory.  This was my favorite of the reds, and with 60% malbec, 20$ Bondara, and 20% Syrah, there was a little bit for everyone.  Bonarda what Argentina calls Charbano, and it add a nice dark back bone.  Run out and buy this wine right now!  It was dark and inky, with lots of pepper and spice, with a fig and plum finish touched with smoke.  There were lots of blackberries, vanilla, and a chewy structure.  It had a kiss of oak and vanilla, after being aged in 20% new Oak (70% French, 30% American) for 10 months.  This wine also retails for $15, or less.  Seriously, run out and buy it right now!  This is a steal.

Next up we have the Pizzella Family Malbec.  This is from the same winery as the Cocina Blend, is was also a favorite.  I found smoked meat and pepper, with cherrires and bittersweet chocolate followed by blueberry.  It was a juicy 100% Malbec, aged for 10 months in 100% French Oak (20% new, 80% old).  The Pizzella family Vineyard is located at 3050 feet, and is closer to the mountains where it is generally cooler. This wine retails at $18, and is also a buy.

The last of my favorites of this tasting was the Mendel Unus.  This is a premier belnd of 70% Malbec and 30% Cab Sav.  This blend had dark cherry, plums, blackberry and dark blue fruit with a slightly vegetal note showing through.  I tasted rich earth, chocolate, bright berry, and vanilla in this sikly blend.  at $50 it was not an everyday treat like the others, but it was worth splurging on.

All in all, I will definitely be exploring Argentina more.  There are plenty of affordable and delicious options out there.  If you are seeking out these wines in the Bay Area, look for them at the Jug Shop, K&L, and the Wine Club.  Try to find wines that are not mass produced.  The cost of producing these gems in Argentina is much less than in the States, or even France, so don’t be afraid to experiment.  At $15 average, you can try many different wines.  Find a producer you like and go have fun!  Another tip that the Vine Connections people taught me is know your importers.  If you find an importer you like and trust, the odds are that you can purchase another wine from them and be reasonable happy.

Go forth adn wine-ducate!

It’s Sunday, the last day of the Wine Bloggers Conference.  I’m exhausted, but I knew that this was a meaningful day since the breakout sessions were happening.  Why the meat of the conference was on Sunday morning after 3 days of wine events seems like poor planning to me, but I’ll address that in my wrap up post.

So up I got, and my savior, the tea fairy, brought me a cuppa to help steel my body for the mornings events.  There were six sessions to choose from.  I’ve included a few links as well, since the presenters were generous enough to post video / Powerpoint content around the web, for those of us who wanted to be everywhere.

• Legalities of Blogging *special thanks to Mike Wangbickler for the video
  
• Monetizing your Blog
  
• Creating Social Networks for Wineries *special thanks to Mike Wangbickler for the video
• Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Media for Wine Businesses
  
• Beyond Words: How Video Content is Changing the Wine World *special thanks to Mike Wangbickler for the video, shown below
  
• Search Engine Optimization

I choose to attend the Beyond Words session and was really glad I did.  This session focused on the current state of video content in the world of wine blogs, for both business and peers.  Lisa deBruin (@winedivergirl) from Hahn Family Winery and the California Wine Life blog, as well as Hardy Wallace (@dirtysouthwine) now the new voice of Murphy Goode (@goodetobefirst), but also author of Dirty South Wine, were joined by Drink This TV founder Bob Asher to talk about these topics.

Is video important?  Why is it important if this is true?  What I learned from Hardy is that video reaches and audience you might not expect it to.  It is still fresh and new int he wine blogging world, and while more and more people are starting to enhance their blogs with video (particularly after the WBC), it is still not widely accepted practice in the wine blogging world.  One notifiable exception to this is Gary Vaynerchcuk, who’s Wine Library TV has been the flag bearer of video blogging for a while now.  Gary V, who was a keynote speaker at last year’s WBC, is a different beast however, in that he specifically review wines for sale in his store, while citizen bloggers such as Hardy and Rick Bakas are reaching their audience with the addition of wine and food pairings, and video tasting.

Video can and will change the way that we blog.  As a person who blogs my passion of wine, and uses the internet to express this passion, Hardy inspires me to get out the webcam and go to town.  Every blogger, and v-logger, has something to say, that’s why we blog.  Video can give us some additional tools to help guide our lofty readers through the murky swamp that is social media.  From a bloggers perspective, it’s easy to create video.  It may not be pretty, but all it takes is a flip cam, a web cam, a phone cam, and some software to edit that video.  Practice makes perfect.

Lisa de Bruin of Hahn Family Wines, who uses video to enhance the Hahn image, suggests that we research our subject matter before we take that leap.  The last thing we want to do is tip toe through the tulips…er…winegrapes, since it’s been done to death.  That would bore our viewers to death and isn’t really adding anything to our blogs.  Brands have a story to tell, and can effectively do this trhoguh engaging video.  Hahn TV is engaging us with interesting facts, engaging conversation, and interesting stories.

Practice makes perfect!  To that end, check out my video debut, teaching you how to say Tempranillo (thanks to Bryan Kane from teh Winery Collective for this embarrassing tidbit).  Now, this was done off the cuff and was not at all expected to end up on Facebook, but it’s fun anyway.

Check it out!  Sorry, just a link …

Furthermore, I will be embarking on a joint project that uses video to taste wine with several peeopl, and engage in discussion about that wine.  More on that to come in the near future.

If you want to see the report for yoru self, check out the videocast that Michael Wangbickler of Caveman Wines generously posted on his blog for us.

[viddler id=21aeecd7&w=437&h=370]

For some other great video bloggers that I follow, check out:

• 1WineDude – Dude vlogs!
• Dirty South Wine – bringing the CRUNK to NorCal!
• Drink This TV – an irreverent, fun, serious but no take on wine tasting
• Stark Silver Creek – an online reporting tool that reports on “all things West Coast” has a lot of great content from the WBC
• A Good Time with Wine – Matt has been doing his videos since I met him last year, and is great at it!

This past Sunday, I was fortunate enough to have my Luscious Lush self and my big mouth invited to a blogger panel discussion, hosted by Lisa de Bruin (@winedivergirl) of Hahn Estates.  At this discussion were several fellow bloggers and industry folks, as well as a large contingent of the Hahn team, who were on hand to discuss their wines as well as how they can more effectively interact with us wine blogger types.

• Andy Mitchell, Director of Vineyard Operations
• Adam Lazarre, Winemaker
• Bill Leigon, President
• Evelyn Pool, VP of Marketing
• Lisa Adams Walter, PR (@lisaadamswalter)
• and of course, our illustrious hostess herself – Lisa de Bruin, Director of New Media Marketing (@winedivergirl)

This event was envisioned by Lisa de Bruin, with a lot of input from various bloggers and industry folks, as an opportunity to open the dialogue between wineries and bloggers.  This has been something of a challenge in recent weeks, and has incited some rioting (friendly fire only!).  Before the lively discussion started, however, we were treated to a tasting of some of the Bin 36 and Lucienne offerings.  Below are my notes from my favorites:

2006 Lucienne Pinot Noir, Lone Oak Vineyard

Rich ruby color.  Rich without being sweet or overdone.  Black cherry, earth.  Strawberry fruit rollup, cherry and plum.  Tastes slightly salty.

The Lone Oak Vineyard is in an area of the Santa Lucia Highlands that produces world

class pinot noir.  Case in point, Lone Oak actually sits between Gary’s Vineyard and Rosellas Vineyard, which are both well known in pinot circles for producing some cult pinot noirs.

We also tasted the 2006 Lucienne Pinot Noir, Doctors Vineyard

This had a much chewier mouth feel, with black raspberry and Bing cherries, followed by plums and earthy spice flavors.

I enjoyed both of these pinots very much, and would say that for drinking along, Doctors is a great choice.  If you are pairing with food, I would suggest the Lone Oak.

This event was just getting under way after the wine was poured.  With our minds flowing freely, the discussion began as to how wineries, other industry professionals, and bloggers can work together.

First, let’s face it.  Bloggers are a rowdy and diverse bunch.  NO two wine blogs really have the same goal, and no two wine blogs are the same.  Personally, I write my blog because I like to share.  It started as a newsletter of events and wines that I was enjoying, and evolved from there.  I choose to write about wines & things that I find inspiring.  I choose not to write about every forgettable wine that I taste, because I don’t have that much time in my life.  But that is me.  Your wine blog might be different, and that’s OK!  The point of the blogger community is that we all have our passions.  Our readers come to our blogs for information, and for different reasons.  I read over 100 wine blogs – not every day, but in general – and each one adds value for a different reason.

• Sonadora, the Wannabe Wino, gives me insight in to her favorite wines and her travels through wine country
• Lisa de Bruin, from California Wine Life and Hahn Estates, gives me a unique perspective on issues in the industry as well as her adventures diving and enjoying wine.
• The Brix Chicks let me peek vicariously in to their world as they pursue their WSET certificates and taste things locally.
• Michael Wangblicker of Caveman Wines writes about shaping the wine blogging industry, and gives me great tips and tricks to improve my own writing.

Each blog is different, each blog is great. The uniqueness of the blogging industry is what makes it magical.

In recent news, traditional media outlets such as the Chicago Tribune have filed for bankruptcy.  As we move towards the next decade, old school traditional media methods are being surpassed by new methods, such as online media and blogging.  As Lisa put it “the shift of influence in the wine world from old print media to new on-line media, especially in the form of blogs with character, variety and accessibility to the variety of wine lovers out there is essential to the success of a growing wine industry.”  I could not agree more.  The next generation of wine drinker is so attached to the web, they are avoiding brick and mortar establishments.

There has been a lot of discussion about where the line is drawn in terms of bloggers and wineries.  I question this, as traditional media outlets get wined and dined and showered with gifts all the time.  I’m not sure why we should be held to a higher standard, just because we are innovative and new.  That being said, if we are clearly writing about a “sample”, as disclosed in our blogs, are we not covering our own asses enough?  Food for thought.

Since I personally, only write about wines and events that are important to me, I am aware that I am giving positive publicity to those wineries / events.  SO what?  How is this different than me saying to my friends, “I had a great wine last night you should try it”?  Word of mouth marketing has been, and will continue to be, the most powerful sales tool in the retail world.  The only different that we, as wine bloggers have, is that we are communicating to a wider audience en masse.

I hope that these conversations will continue, and would love to see winery hosted blogger panels more frequently, across the US.  One question that came up during our conversation with Hahn was about this being  “Hahn Fest” of sorts.  While there was a certain portion of that, I see that as being somewhat obvious, since it was a hosted event.  However, if more wineries like Twisted Oak, participate and pour their wines in a convivial and social setting, the appearance of this can be changed.  Again, I didn’t see this as an issue because it was clear before we went that we were attending a hosted event, with a panel of Hahn employees.

That’s what I think.  What do YOU think?