What's it like to "taste" wine live, online?
The concept sounds totally geeky, but it turns out that it kicks all kinds of ass.
For a few months running (since its inaugural run), I've been taking part in the Twitter Tasting Live event hosted by BinEndsWine.com. In summary:
- You buy a sample pack from BinEndsWine.com, they ship said wine to you
- You sign up at twittertastelive.com
- On the 3rd Thursday of that month, you log into twitter.com and taste live along with participating wine bloggers & wine lovers from all over the world, and the BinEndsWine.com staff, usually joined by a winemaker associated with that month's sample pack of wines.
The real kick-ass portion is that it takes the social connection that wine gives us when we drink it together, and extends it instantly across cultural and geographical boundaries.
For a wine geek like me, it's a blast to see the jokes, comments, tasting notes, and questions coming from different personalities (some on different continents) tasting the same wine that I am having at the exact same time. We don't always agree, but the wine does help us connect - amicably. Couple that with what I'm doing locally (hosting a wine tasting dinner party centering around the same wines), and I'm in 7th wine heaven.
Now, here's what's up for the next Live twitter tasting happening on Sept. 18...
I will be joining the BinEndsWine.com staff LIVE at Wine 2.0 in NYC at 7PM ET.I'll be at the BEW booth, drinking their wine, blogging about the event via twitter, stealing BEW's water, and maybe making them bring me wine crackers! Or something like that. BEW will also have staff from CA wine producer Michel-Schlumberger on tap LIVE, to answer questions about his wines (which are this month's focus for the tasting).
The event is being co-hosted by Wannabe Wino; you can also check out BinEndsWine.com for more details.
After the dust settles on the twitter live tasting events, I usually also provide more focused reviews of some of the wines from the event on my twitter wine "mini" reviews feed (please note this is NOT the twitter feed I use during the live tastings!). Below are a my "mini" reviews for a few of the wines included in the last twitter live tasting of Hugel's Alsace wines:
Hope to "see" you on-line and LIVE at the next tasting - friend me up beforehand and let me know if you're joining in.
Cheers!
3 comments:
in principle it helps to cross boundaries, but if the wines are totally inaccessible (such as these as they do not export) it is impossible, and not particularly relevant, for us non-US participants to get involved.
If you couple that with the timezone issue (rather difficult for non US Twitters to be involved live anyway) I have a feeling this will have to end up being a US only event, and we will have to create our own events in other countries.
Interesting concept, but a few issues still to be addressed
Any ideas?
Robert,
Your concerns are all right on the money for the interenationa crowd. We've got plans to address each of these. Let's talk.
-C
ahhhh, quit yer cryin', Robert!
:-) Just kidding - great points. I think that Craig has some plans to take this international...
...not sure what they are yet though...
Craig...?
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