European Wine Bloggers Conference Begins October 14, 2011

This evening we set off to Italy for the European Bloggers Conference IV. We are very excited because the agenda of conference sessions and wine country excursions are ?molto fantastico.? We can only wonder how we will be able to manage the consumptions of so much fine wine and food that the Italian wine consortiums have in store for the 216 wine bloggers that will attend this amazing wine soiree. The conference headquarters are in Brescia, Italy, which is situated in the heart of the Franciacorta wine territory, notably known for its fabulous sparkling wine. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/european-wine-bloggers-conference-begins-october-14-2011/

Marika Dominczyk Marisa Coughlan Marisa Miller Marisa Tomei

Gift Baskets

It seems that every year the gift basket business gets bigger and bigger. From corporate gift baskets to those of us who simply don’t know exactly what to buy for our loved one’s…..gift baskets offer a real alternative and the industry is growing as a result. While I can appreciate that every business (like every [...]

Source: http://winewithmark.info/archives/668

Natalie Portman Natalie Zea Natasha Bedingfield Natassia Malthe

And the Winner is...


28 people entered our drawing for a pair of tickets to the 2012 Boston Wine Expo - 25 via comments on this blog post and 3 more via email. I assigned the comments numbers 1 through 25 with the number 1 going to the first comment. Entries 25 through 28 were assigned to the email entries.

The random number drawn was "6":

...so the winner is Glen! I'll reach out via email and connect him with the folks from the Expo to get him his tickets. Congratulations! Enjoy.

Thanks for the participation everyone. For more information and to purchase tickets to the Expo visit their website.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/1mHyCI0wA28/and-winner-is.html

Monica Keena Monica Potter Monika Kramlik Moon Bloodgood

A ?Zinful? Experience

Last Saturday I was lucky to be able to attend the Zinfandel Festival at Fort Mason in San Francisco. ZAP, The Association of Zinfandel Advocates & Producers celebrates Zinfandel America?s Heritage Grape and is dedicated to preserving the history of Zinfandel through the Heritage Vineyard at UC Davis. It is the largest single varietal tasting [...]

Source: http://blogs.fairplex.com/blog/wine/?p=36

Nelly Furtado Nichole Robinson Nicky Hilton Nicole Richie

Experience ? Borrow someone elses

?Experience is something you don?t get until just after you need it. - Steven Wright? Never a truer statement spoken. Winemakers live by this motto as they craft their blends, each year learning from the previous year?s mistakes. This is why we have regions tied to single grapes, or styles of winemaking. Without others’ failures and triumphs [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/NlFgJb8GHII/

Patricia Velásquez Paula Garcés Paulina Rubio Paz Vega

A gift for the best of 2011

It is the time of year for giving gifts. If you think of Christmas gifts, you might imagine a box, lovingly wrapped in paper, with a bow on the top. You might, if you are like me, imagine a well crafted (but last minute) email with a voucher attached, but gifts come in many forms. [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheWineConversation/~3/zZtFTBKRwqY/

Salma Hayek Samaire Armstrong Samantha Mathis Samantha Morton

Coming Soon: Scoop the Spectator 2011

This time we're playing with Fire. Or should I say for Fire. A Kindle Fire - one of this year's hottest gifts valued at $199 - sponsored by New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Company (mystery shopper store review).

The Spectator unveiling begins Monday November 14th so we'll run our contest starting Friday, November 4th 2011 at 9:00 am Eastern.

To help in your research before Friday morning, and to understand why it's important to get your guess in early, here are the rules we'll be playing by:

  1. Guesses are submitted as comments on a follow-on blog post that will be published Friday morning. Don't leave your guesses here - wait until Friday morning and leave it as a comment on this blog post.
  2. One guess per person.
  3. The first person to guess a specific wine "owns" that wine as their entry.  Subsequent guesses of the same wine aren't useful so look at the previous comments before submitting your entry.
  4. If nobody guesses the Wine of Year, the guess with the highest position on the list will win the prize.
  5. Not that they'd try, but Wine Spectator editors aren't allowed to enter.  And if you have inside information please don't spoil the fun for others by entering.  But if you do know please E-mail me and let me know. ;)
  6. Since the Kindle Fire is US-only at this point, a winning entry from outside the U.S. will receive a $199 Amazon.com gift card.
As you'll recall last year we played for a $75 gift certificate. This year we're playing for a Kindle Fire so I expect the competition to be more fierce.

Until then, hop on over to Grapes the Wine Company's website and sign up for their newsletter. If you like wine deals like I do you won't be disappointed. My thanks to Daniel Posner for this sponsorship.

See you back here Friday morning!
(click here to subscribe if you'd like an email notification after the contest is live)


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/8T_9ypVBuC0/coming-soon-scoop-spectator-2011.html

Malia Jones Malin Akerman Mandy Moore Maria Bello