Secrets revealed! Lose weight with wine!

winebratsf — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 05:00:47 +0000

Dateline – Biggest Loser Ranch, Tustin CA

Source say Gillian is now force feeding her team red wine. That’s right, that mystery concoction that everyone told you will make you fat, will make you thin! I found this proof on the internet:

Before wine diet

Reverse-It-All, the secret ingredient in red wine, has been found to increase your endurance as well as cut weight and reduce the risk of diabetes. Reverse-it-all also activates the wonder twin powers, in the form of the longevity gene. Reverse-It-All is only found in the skins of red wine grapes, so I encourage you to use your red and pink wine intake accordingly.

After wine diet

While skeptics state that you would need to drink hundreds of glasses of red wine in order to reap the benefits of Reverse-It-All, I am here to prove them wrong. According to the renowned Bacon expert, Rick Bakas, “Wine doesn’t make you fat, it makes you lean…..against a wall, a chair, the floor, other people….”. Therefore, I am going to experiment with the Red Wine Diet.

The key to this diet is the judicious use of a good red wine. For my first week of dieting, I meandered through Chile, starting with the Viu Manent Secreto Malbec 2006 You can see the full review by clicking through. This Malbec is a chewy wine, that brings notes of smoked meats and leather. Chewing your wine 40 times before swallowing has been shown to fill you up faster.

First, you start with this rich red wine. Pour yourself a glass. Sip it slowly, enjoying the full flavors. If you are having trouble picking out taste profiles, pour yourself another glass. Repeat. At NO TIME may you eat real food while on this diet. It is very important that you drink an entire bottle each night, in order to get the correct amounts of Reverse-It-All flowing in your system.

If you are having hunger pangs, I would suggest that you try a critter label, such as Pink Goat. The critters on the label are actually steeped in the wine, which should help you get your protein levels stabilized. This wine hails from Chile as well, and is made from the blood of real goats. This will provide you some protein, and help tide you over until you can eat real food again.

Alternatively, if you are searching for divine inspiration with your wine diet, try the Montes Cherub Rose of Syrah. This traditional Syrah Rose is refreshing and will help fill you up, while having a cherub sprinkle you with good luck.

For the complete details of The Red Wine Diet, please refer to the user guide, which is available on Amazon.com.

Am I certifiable?

winebratsf — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:55:30 +0000

There has been an interesting conversation going on for a while now, about how we measure wine bloggers. This question is not without controversy and it sparks a lot of thought. The folks at Vintank, and new powerhouse in the Wine 2.0 world, have even challenged us to create an experiment on how to measure the ROI of social media and blogs.

How exactly do we measure a blogger’s success or contribution to the webiverse? That’s the key question that is being asked by many wineries and PR agencies as they strive to determine who they should send samples to, give special treatment to, and dole out perks to.

Should we have a Wine Blogger Seal of Approval? Should there be some sort of credential? I am divided on this issue.

A credential is a badge of honor. Think of press credentials. You don’t have to necessarily be a good journalist to get one, you just have to be a journalist. That gives you access to crime scenes, events, and trade shows with the expectation that you will do something in return – report on it.

On the other hand, certification implies that your blog must meet a certain set of standard criteria in order to gain access to the elite group. This is where i have an problem, as I don’t know how you create a specific set of standards for a group of people that are essentially writing Op/Ed pieces. Yes, there are professional bloggers out there, in the likes of Alder Yarrow of Vinography. However, the vast majority of bloggers are hobbiests with a passion for wine. If i write something that you don’t agree with, does that make me wrong? I hope not. An opinion is an opinion. I don’t have to like the same things you do.

The issues that have come up are one of access to a privileged elite of wine. These benefits have been taken advantage of, much like in traditional media. Clearly, a few bad bloggers spoil the merlot.

How do we prove our worth to these industry peeps that are we are worthy of the perks? I am all for weeding out the leeches, those that write a post once and expect to get free tastings for 10 or free passes to every event. The question is how do we accomplish this without being exclusionary? The wine industry is finally starting to tune into the importance of the bloggersphere. By placing barriers to access, aren’t we taking one step forward and 2 steps back?

Michael Wangblicker of Caveman Wines and Lisa de Bruin of California Wine Life have posted thier ideas on this subject as well. Some of thier suggestions as well as mine are below, with my comments in red.

Age of blogs – There is high turnover on blogs. An older blog may indicate that the blogger is here to stay. This might be true, but an old blog might be stale. This needs to be used in conjunction with other measurements to be effective.
Average Number of posts per month – The more frequently a blogger posts, the greater likelihood that their audience will be larger. This is true in general, but how do we set the bar?
Other Social Media channels – Does the blogger have a good following on Facebook, Twitter, etc.? It may indicate that their readership is larger than implied by visits to the blog. I think this is important for the bigger picture. A blogger who is not hooked in to other social media avenues is not getting the full picture.
By Readership? This might be the strongest option, but i still question how you measure readership. Do we need a central hits per day list? If I post on a holiday instead of a weekday, will i be penalized for not hitting prime time?
Quality of writing? How do you measure this? I think I am a good writer, but you may not. This is too subjetive. These guidelines have to be objective to work.
Their own level of wine education? Measuring bloggers on their knowledge of wine is putting the cart before the horse. There are many bloggers, including myself, who started their blog in order to educate yourself. Rating based on knowledge is going to increase the blogger vs. trad media war that is still going on and the elitism that is perceived witll be exacerbated.
A Blogger Organization, such as Wineblogger.info, can be helpful in identifying those that want to be part of the bigger collective. If you take the time to associate with such an organization, chances are you are more interested in writing and your blog than the free tasting at Winery X.

I’m not sure that any of these are the answer. I personally don’t want someone telling me my blog is good enough to be part of the club, because that’s not why i blog. The more technical KPI’s are tricky and somewhat difficult to ascertain, as the analytics tools are still being developed. In addition, some people blog on a common site, and you cannot truly gauge visitors.

My feeling is that we need to be INCLUSIVE and not EXCLUSIONARY. It is important to have open communication with the industry. Clearly, bloggers don’t like people that give us a bad name any more than the industry people do but we need to figure out how to weed them out of the bigger mix without alienating the masses.

I’m curious as to your opinions!

Luscious Lushes » random musings

Secrets revealed! Lose weight with wine!

Dateline – Biggest Loser Ranch, Tustin CA

Am I certifiable?