• Get munchies… check
• Get beer… check
• Pick some wines to drink… partial check
• Make sure I know who is playing… check

Who are you rooting for?

Fo Drizzle. Well, I thought it was funny. Thanks to my son for that one. It’s quite appropriate given Northern California weather this week.
And continuing the totally useless, non-wine-related theme of this blog entry…
I stumbled upon this interesting site: One Sentence – True stories, told in one sentence.

The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America announced that Sarah Palin will be the keynote speaker for their convention in April 2010. The WSWA is the national trade organization representing the wholesale tier of the wine and spirits industry.
This is a truly an appropriate pairing.
Gov Palin is a noted expert on wine, wine distribution, and viticulture having for several months governed a state that borders British Columbia, a producer of ice wine.
I believe the organization will be changing their name to WTFWSWA.

I’ve got to admit it. I’m tempted to spend the $20 to order this game.

From plant to pick to press to pour, run your very own French vineyard!
Create the vineyard of your dreams in 10 of the most important wine regions of France. Commanding operations from your very own French chateau, build your winery, plant and tend your vines through all four seasons of the year, and hire staff to harvest and process your grapes. Produce 50 French wines such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Pinot Gris and Champagne from more than 40 different grape varietals, all in the ultimate goal of becoming a wealthy wine baron!
-Wine Tycoon Website.

Please note, I have no connection with nor is this an endorsement of this game.

1. Hard Habit to Break – Chicago
2. Happy Xmas (War is Over) – The Moody Blues
3. Melt My Heart to Stone – Adele
4. Folsom Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
5. Coming Home – Fleetwood Mac
6. One Irish Rover – Van Morrison
7. The Number of the Beast – Iron Maiden
8. I Think I Smell A Rat – White Stripes
9. Lady Madonna – Beatles
10. Bye Bye Love – Simon & Garfunkel

Feel free to share what happens when you hit “shuffle” on your iPod/MP3 player.

I hope so, because that’s what this is. I am editing (or in my mind, reblogging) my very first blog post that was originally published on our site on March 1, 2005. That’s back when we first launched our site… back right before we released our first wine. It seems longer than 4 years ago.
In March 2005, I struggled to capture with bits and bytes the passion and experience that we wine enthusiasts share. Wine is personal. Whether as part of a big celebration or an intimate evening, a bottle of fine wine adds far more than just liquid refreshment. I thought that a blog would be a great way for me to share our story with you and provide a forum for you to share your’s. Many of our friends old and new wanted to know what it was like to start and run a winery. Well, a lot has changed in the online world in those four years. (A lot has changed in our wine world as well, but we’ll save that for later posts.) Blogs have gone from being a quaint piece of software supplementing a web site to being major media and information sources. The Presidential election of 2008 proved that blogging had gone mainstream — or perhaps I should say Mainstreet.
And now we have Social Media. I’m not sure if anyone can predict where Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and all their e-kin are headed. I know many folks think of these apps as toys or a waste of time — if you’re reading this, you probably aren’t in that group — and many who think they represent the biggest advance in digital interaction since email. We’ll see. But one thing is clear. Businesses (including tiny wine businesses) ignore all of these new communication avenues at their own peril. A business will risk missing a whole generation of customers if they simply decide that a static webpage, word-of-mouth, and traditional print media will bring success.
On the back of our bottles, we mention that there are stories behind every bottle of wine. With the relaunch of our Vintner’s Journal blog tied in with our new Facebook page, we’re starting a new chapter in our story and a new way of telling it. I hope you enjoy.
I’ll be reblogging (with some edits) several old posts over the next few months.