The WBT Pre-Game Show ? 4488: A Ridge Blog

WBT!

No, not a Women?s Badminton Tournament.

Nor the World?s Best Tetherballers.

Rather, it?s the Wine Bloggers Tasting, and this is the Pre-Game Show!

I?m your host, and I?d like to introduce the players who?ll be taking the field for this very special event.

But before we begin, a bit of context:

This tasting series debuted back in March of 2010, and?while?we?ve certainly played host to?a veritable who?s who of Wine Bloggers, it hasn?t only been Wine Bloggers we?ve hosted. We?ve had food bloggers, culture bloggers, music bloggers, drinks bloggers, and more.

And, while there have certainly been a great many welcomed and returning faces, we?ve also had a great time?debuting new participants as well.

The new edition of our WBT, set for tomorrow afternoon at 1pm, is no exception; in fact, we?ve got on tap one of the more diversely exciting?assemblages we?ve yet set glassware for.

Behold! (In no particular order ?)

First up, Jeska?& Brad Kittenbrink, better known as ?Geeks With Drinks!? Lovers of Gourmet Food Trucks, brewers of beer, and stealers of cocktail cherries, these San Francisco-based bloggers are debuting at our series tomorrow, and we?re really looking forward to meeting and tasting with them! To get the flavor of their flavor, please give a read to the following:

http://geekswithdrinks.com/?p=71

Next, the Rad Man himself, one of the hecka best wine bloggers going, and possibly the only other wine blogger out there besides yours truly who comes in fairly high in the Google queue if you search for ?The Never-Ending Story!? Of course I?m speaking of Jeff Solomon, esteemed author of the Stay Rad wine blog. You can read a fantastic sample here:

http://stayradwineblog.com/2011/07/28/this-changes-everything/

Our next blogger is ? well ? Jen. And I?d tell you more about her, but I?m still trying to ?Chase? her down! Meaning, of course, we?re speaking of Jen Massey, author of the blog ?Chasing Jen!? Jen is debuting at our series as well, and we can?t wait to host her! You can read an example of her fine work here:

http://chasingjen.com/2012/01/23/wine-fried-chick-legs-and-rain-pure-comfort/

Next up, Fred Swan, he of the NorCal Wine Blog, an indisputable Gold Standard for Wine Blogging in ours, this Golden State. Selfishly, I?m going to recommend a post of his in which he wrote about?our?tasting series; though not because of that, per se, but rather, because he referred to me as the ?Instigator-In-Chief,? and I think that?s quite groovy. You can read his work here:

http://norcalwine.com/blog/51-general-interest/684-on-wine-jazz-and-inkblots?q=ridge

And for our next participant, may I present Erin Grant, a wine blogger with a mission, currently tasting her way through an entire planet?s worth of wine varietals. To read a sample of her fine writing on the blog ?Give Me Grapes? please click below:

http://www.givemegrapes.com/2012/05/gold-country-wine.html

And here?s another debut for you; in fact, it?s a double-debut! Mark & Tristan, who write, amongst them, three blogs! Dig these:

http://www.winelog.net/blogs/markur/

http://positivepalate.com/

http://hahnwinery.com/blog/hahn-harvest-2012-begins-today

(Yes, that?s the Hahn Winery blog there in the #3 spot; Mark writes that one! Quite cool ?)

And now, I must say, there are few things that I find more emotionally and morally satisfying than an East Coaster happily transplanting to the west; it?s clear affirmation of what I truly believe; that Northern California is indeed The Promised Land. Melanie Friedman is just such an ex-pat, and she brings vital real-life winemaking experience to her blog endeavors; case in point the following post on her blog ?Wine Maven In Training?, entitled ?Gravity Flow Winemaking at Vineyard 29?:

http://iheartnywines.blogspot.com/2012/02/gravity-flow-winemaking.html

And then there?s my man Ed Thralls. You?ve recently seen him name-checked here on this blog, because we co-hosted ? with the subversive, soulful and wise Sasha Kadey ? a panel at this year?s Wine Blogger?s Conference (which you can read about on the fantastic Luscious Lushes Wine Blog; sadly, Thea won?t be in attendance at our tasting tomorrow, but you can dig her spirit as she writes about our panel; just click here.). Ed gets it every which way, and there ain?t no one I respect more; check the sample:

http://www.winetonite.com/2010/08/07/in-search-of-soul-and-grapes/

Rachel Voorhees?has been known to taste a wine or two in the company of the above-noted Thea, but mark my words, she is a publishing powerhouse in her own right, and an enviable fount of oeno-energy; check out a sample of her great work below:

http://rachelvoorhees.com/2012/09/drunken-fruit-salsa/

Yet another debut at our Wine Bloggers Tasting Series will be the writer behind VineBuzz, Rich Reader, who I am already quite fond of because he uses words like ?genotype? when talking wine blogs, and who writes the following from the 2011 iteration of the Wine Bloggers Conference:

http://vinebuzz.biz/node/106

A rather newer member of the Wine Bloggers Tasting family is the writer behind FoodPorn.com, which is, for my money, one of the most brilliantly executed, fully-fleshed?out, conceptually-driven blogs out there; this blog doesn?t miss a thematic trick, and it?s well worth a read. Here?s a great sample:

http://foodporn.com/1pescygourmet/2012/04/pebble-beach-food-and-wine-not-a-bad-sunday.html

Perhaps inevitably enough, FoodPorn.com will be in the company of WineA&*^#le.com, which, despite the sardonicisms?inherent to the name, actually provides some cracklingly intelligent?perspective on our industry. Dig a bit of the vibe here:

http://wineasshole.com/2010/03/03/cakebread-and-the-cuvee-de-fail-rubaiyat/

And that, is our team, and they?ll be taking the field at 1pm PST tomorrow!

If you wish to follow along with the tasting, just tune in with your favorite twitter-filter, and watch out for the #RidgeVineyards hashtag!

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Tags: Chasing Jen, FoodPorn, Geeks With Drinks, Give Me Grapes, Hahn Winery, NorCal Wine Blog, Positive Palate, Rachel Vorhees, Spirit and Wine Blog, Stay Rad Wine Blog, VineBuzz, Wine Bloggers Tasting, Wine Maven In Training, Wine Tonite, WineAsshole

This entry was posted on September 22, 2012 at 3:56 pm and is filed under Events & Photographs, Monte Bello, Press Reviews, Social Media, Viticultural Salmagundi, Wine Blogs, Wine Tales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://blog.ridgewine.com/2012/09/22/the-wbt-pre-game-show/

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