Texsom 2012 Kick Off: It’s Got It All

Texsom 2012 Kick Off: It’s Got It All

People started arriving for Texsom (The Texas Sommelier Conference) in Dallas yesterday evening. The air was hot, dry and still. But, as the morning session started the wines were cool, wet and refreshing and attendees at Texsom were getting their last charge of excitement as one of the nations premier wine events kicked off. Proof of the building excitement for this event are the Twitter stats that started at about 76,000 media impressions per day on Thursday, increased to over 280,000 yesterday and built up today to an outstanding 360 tweets generating 1,184,724 media impressions, reaching an audience of 226,255 followers!

Anybody that didn’t know what to expect must have been locked in a very dark closet for the past month without a smart phone. There has been an outpouring (pun!) of social wine media on the event through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a whole host of blog posts.

Today’s Day 1 festivities included a dedicated social media track with a Social Media (SM) Boot Camp by Tony Jones and an afternoon session by SM expert Rick Bakas. Parallel to the SM track was a morning tasting workshop designed to illustrate the Master Sommelier deductive tasting process (Old World – New World; Cool Climate – Warm Climate; New Oak – Neutral Oak; etc.). The Master Sommelier method of wine tasting has been referred to as a wine taster’s equivalent to an artillery gunner’s tried-and-true methodical way to hit the target (fire one long and one short, then bingo you got it!). This was followed by an ultimate wine (and geology) geek experience, The Kimmeridgian Chain by Wayne Belding MS. The latter brought together continental drift theory, French wine country terroir and tastings of wines from Sancerre, Champagne and Chablis in a way that remarkably enough either put you to sleep or will keep you awake with excitement tonight.

Linking the Texsom festivities were myriad tweets: some light and witty, some enraged by travel hiccups, and some enlightened with knowledge:

SM Lessons:

@purplejules: Don’t worry about the # of followers. Concentrate on quality interactions. #TexSom #SMBootCamp

 Wine Geekdom:

@WineORL: Wines from Kimmeridgian soils tend to have sea shell character, intense minerality, and depth of palate #Wine #texsom #WayneBelding

@1337wine: fungus thought to impart terroir to wines. mycorrhizae. article here: http://t.co/WbUm4azj  #texsom #fb…  @VintageTexas: “@1337wine: fungus thought to impart terroir to wines. #texsom #fb”<terroir=vines+mushrooms!

Somellier Wisdom:

@benwood27: RT @ShitMySommSays: In Texas, according to the NRA, Sommeliers SHOULD carry guns #texsom

Miscellaneous:

@TravelNewsPR: TexSom Conference Kicks Off at Four Seasons Resort and Club in La Colinas – D Magazine http://t.co/U25QQWrN

@italianwineguy: RT @VintageTexas: “@canterburywine: Think heat is biggest prob Wrong! #TEXSOM much2learn abt #Texas #terroir frm @canterburywine & @guystout #TexSom tomorrow”

@Oinospell: I shud know not to take a bankrupt airline. AA f*d up at ORD. Delayed to #texsom. Wasn’t invited to SM day anyway

@VintageTexas: @DeniseClarkeTX and @JDewps studying for CWE exam while at #texsom From #eyeinthesky! http://t.co/CpWo0rnt