Write Off the Vine – Texas Wine News (TXWine, VAwine, WBC11 and Beyond)

Write Off the Vine – Texas Wine News (TXwine, VAwine, WBC11 and Beyond)

WBC11 Stats and Recap Aggregation

Throughout the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC11), Virginia wines were showcased from regions throughout the Commonwealth.  For those number-hungry Virginia wine fans and WBC’ers, below are a few Virginia wine statistics compiled by the Virginia Wine Board.   In addition to these stats, below is an aggregation (current as of July 28, 11pm ET) of WBC11 related posts.

•Total number of conference participants: 336

•Total number of states that the bloggers were from: 21

•Total number of countries that the bloggers were from: 4

•Total number of VA wineries featured: 47

•Total number of VA wines featured at VA Wine Board sponsored events   (does not include wines from Saturday, July 23 winery tours): 78

•Total number of VA wineries featured on July 23 tours:  17

•Total number of VA wine regions that featured throughout the conference from participating wineries: 7 (Blue Ridge, Central VA, Eastern Shore, Northern Neck, Northern VA, Shenandoah Valley, Southern VA)

•Total number of Virginia AVAs that featured throughout the conference from participating wineries: 4   (Eastern Shore AVA, Monticello AVA, Northern Neck AVA, Shenandoah Valley)

•Total number of “Tweets” (#wbc11, #vawine): 15,206

•Total number of “Twitter Impressions”  – #wbc11, #vawine: 43,506,241

More: http://drinkwhatyoulike.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/wbc11-stats-and-recap-aggregation/

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WBC11 – Wine Bloggers – Who Are We?

While attending the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville Virginia, we met many friendly, fun, and fascinating bloggers. Here are a few:

See YouTube Video at: http://youtu.be/WxWpuC2bH0Y with our impressions of WBC11.

• Wine Biz Radio
• Vermont Wine Media
• Bring Your Own Wine
• The Wine Hub
• Wino of the Year
• Red White Boston
• Wild 4 Washington Wine
• Dallas Wine Chick
• A Glass After Work
• Vineyard Vlog
• Toledo Wines and Vines
• Virginia Wine Time
• Vintage Texas
• The Cork Chronicles
• NC Vineyards
• Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

More: http://winecompass.blogspot.com/2011/07/wbc11-wine-bloggers-who-are-we.html

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WBC11: Charlottesville, VA – From The Cork and Caftans

The tasting back at the hotel, the Other 46 (wine from states other than California, Oregon, Washington, and NY), featured wines from Maryland, Missouri, Texas, Virginia and Indiana. The Texas Tempranillo from Lone Oak Winery was impressive as was the lineup from Virginia’s Tarara Winery. For the most part, the whites did better than the reds, which, depending on the state, seemed to either battle as a whole against under-ripeness, over-ripeness, or over-oaking.

http://www.corksandcaftans.com/2011/07/27/wbc11-charlottesville-va/

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WBC11: Live Wine Blogging – Whites and Rose’ from Toledo Wines and Vines

Sample a wine every five minutes for one hour? Sure, no problem. This is the Wine Bloggers’ Conference version of speed dating. It’s fast and fun and some great new wines were discovered.

Llano Estacado Vivana 2009, Texas. Blend of Gerwurz, Riesling, Viognier, and Muscat Canelli. Retail $22.95. Dry. Nice blend. 500 cases.

http://toledowinesandvines.blogspot.com/2011/07/wbc11-live-wine-blogging-whites-and.html

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Eating Our Words: Wine Time – Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs.

by Jeremy Parzen/Houston Press

Vintage Texas: If you’ve been following along here at Wine Time on the Eating Our Words blog, you know we’re never hesitant to lead with Vintage Texas in our weekly wine blogging roundups. Author Russ Kane is by far the top Houston-based wine blogger, and he’s our No. 1 resource for information on Texas wines. When he entitled a post “Wild, Crazy and Fast-Paced Time for Texas Wine at The 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference in Virginia,” we could not help but be intrigued. Russ served as Texas ambassador at the conference. Here’s his account of the “non-stop action.” (Photo via EnjoyBordeaux.com.)

More: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2011/07/tasting_notes_this_week_in_win_6.php

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GOTEXAN Twitter Tuesday Featuring Texas Winemaker Raymond Haak

Please join us for the next GO TEXAN Twitter Tuesday on August 2 at 7 p.m. Our special guest is Raymond Haak, owner and winemaker for Haak Vineyards and Winery in Santa Fe, Texas (near you!). During the Twitter chat, Raymond will discuss this year’s Texas grape harvest and what he’s seeing in his vineyard, and will taste and talk about these three wines:

• 2010 Haak Vineyards and Winery Reserve Blanc du Bois (dry)
• 2008 Haak Vineyards and Winery Tempranillo
• 2007 Haak Vineyards and Winery Madeira Blanc du Bois

We hope you can pick up one or more of the wines above and participate in the Texas Twitter Tuesday.  During the Twitter chat, you can follow Raymond on Twitter @Haakwinery and GO TEXAN @GOTEXAN.  Please use the hashtag #GOTEXAN.

If you’re new to Twitter, here’s how you participate: just sign up for a free Twitter account at www.twitter.com. Go to the Tweetchat room set up for Texas Twitter Tuesdays: http://tweetchat.com/room/GOTEXAN. No registration is required. In the Tweetchat room, participants are invited to follow tweets, add comments and share thoughts. Participants should use the hashtag #GOTEXAN with Tweets, if using TweetDeck or another tool.

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What You Should Know About Texas Wines

The first Texas “modern” winery, Val Verde Winery, was founded in Texas in 1883.  By 1890, Texas had over 25 wineries. In 1919, Prohibition put a pause on wine production, but the wine industry began again after Prohibition ended in 1933. By 2001, Texas had 46 wineries. In 2005 Texas had 85 operating wineries. But today Texas boasts more than 220 wineries.

In 2001 Texas had 1800 wine-related jobs. By 2009, there were nearly 11,000 wine-related jobs. In 2001, Texas wineries produced nearly 600,000 cases of wine. By 2009, 1.2 million cases were produced. In 2001, the Texas wine industry had an economic impact of $133 million dollars. By 2009, the Texas wine industry had an economic impact of $1.7 billion.

More: http://www.texashomesites.com/what-you-should-know-about-texas-wine

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Mitch Daniels’ New Deal: (At WBC11) A Chicken In Every Garage and 8 Traminettes in Every Cellar (Some TXwine too)

Clearly all the wine at the Wine Bloggers Conference was not from Virginia.  Given this, I wanted to take the time to let you know a bit about the contexts in which we tasted non-VA wine as well as my general impressions about some of the wines I tried.  Just lik3 when I talked about the VA wine centric events yesterday, I’m not trying to give you tasting notes for each wine.  Rather, I’m trying to give you a sense of how the conference worked along with mentions of the wines that stuck with me and why.

The Texas table offered 2 viogniers and 2 tempranillos.  I was impressed with the two viogniers being poured, so clearly this is a grape that’s doing well in Texas as well as Virginia.  The tempranillos were less my thing, but I think that had more to do with their youth and the amount of oak aging involved.  Hopefully I’ll get a chance to experience more Texas wines in the future.

More: http://swirlsipsnark.com/?p=6766

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Leave your worries on the road at Grape Creek Vineyards

Tucked just off Highway 290, on a popular stretch of gorgeous countryside sits the Grape Creek Vineyards. For a little bit of Tuscany in Texas look no further than this place for some shade and leisure. It’s here that owner Brian Heath says “wine is the center of the experience.” From interactive cellar tours to learn more about the wine-making process, to tasting samples straight from the barrel…Grape Creek is the real deal! And if that doesn’t convince you, how about the over 100 medals their signature wines have earned in just the last two years? Take the Bellissimo, for example. It’s a super Tuscan style red and my personal favorite. Cheers!

See Video: http://goodtaste.tv/2011/07/leave-your-worries-on-the-road-at-grape-creek-vineyards/