Wine blogging at WineZag and staying connected in its parallel social networks involves a time and energy commitment yielding grimaces of sympathetic pain and confusion from just about anyone I unveil the details of my dedication to. Except, of course, fellow bloggers and social media mavericks that live in the very round world of social media and wine blogging, where the intensity and authenticity of an author’s content and participation is known to come back full circle in deliciously fulfilling and rewarding ways. To get a glimpse of this, I thought it might be fun (and somewhat redeeming) to share a typical week of events to confirm my total man hour allocation to WineZag produces rich personal dividends and reassertion of its founding mantra of “wine as a lubricant for human connection holding no bias.”
I am heading to the Northwest for a few days of respite with my wife and dear friends with an agenda that plants us in Woodinville, WA on a Sunday. I have been to Woodinville, but never on a Sunday, and I was looking for informed local knowledge about where to eat well and taste some really good wine. I recently participated in a Washington Merlot tweetup hosted by Josh Wade and knew him to be fairly connected to the Washington State wine scene through his blog Drink Nectar. Josh just announced his exciting new foray into traditional local media, something I spend my non-WineZag hours working at, and after a “welcome to my world note” I asked for some Woodinville tips. He quickly turned me over to Shona Milne who blogs at Woodinville Wine Update. After exchanging a few tweets, I received this generous and thoughtful email from Shona this week:
Adam:
Here’s a list for you to consider.
Food: Herbfarm www.herbfarm.com
Purple Café in Woodinville www.purplecafe.com
Barking Frog http://www.willowslodge.com/wine_dine/barking_frog.html
Teddy’s Bigger Burgers http://teddysbiggerburgers.com/locations.html
Russell’s Dining http://www.rdlcatering.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=58
Russell’s Café in Molbaks http://www.rdlcatering.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=57
Teddy’s and Russell’s Café in Molbaks are more for lunch and casual. Others are great for dinner.
Wineries and Tasting Rooms open on Sundays:
Alexandria Nicole Cellars www.alexandrianicolecellars.com
Brian Carter Cellars www.briancartercellars.com*
Chateau Ste. Michelle www.ste-michelle.com*
Columbia Winery www.columbiawinery.com
DiStefano Winery www.distefanowinery.com*
Efeste www.efeste.com
DeLille www.delillecellars.com
JM Cellars www.jmcellars.com*
Hollywood Hill Vineyards www.hollywoodhillvineyards.com*
Novelty Hill Winery www.noveltyhillwines.com
Tefft Cellars www.tefftcellars.com
*Some of my favorites, but they are all good.
Happy Wine Trails
A week or so ago, I blogged about 1991 Clos Centeilles which I picked up at Vintages in West Concord, MA run by Eric Broege. I said some nice things about Eric and his shop, an impressive inventory of authentic quality wine that I have yet to see under any other New England wine shop roof. I was humbled by the shout out that Eric, a man of deep knowledge and amazing palate, published this past week:
VINTAGES in WineZag
What an inspiration to meet ADAM JAPKO recently, a dedicated oenophile who documents his wine experiences in his blog WineZag. Well-written with an informed and refreshing point of view, it rewards investigation. Adam wrote these kind words about Eric Broege and VINTAGES after stumbing into one of our typical over-the-top tastings of Barolo, and a days-old bottle of 1991 Clos Centeilles Minervois.“I owe the discovery of this wine to Eric Broege, President and Wine Director at Vintages. I break habits hard, so I only recently connected and started doing some business with Eric at his shop in West Concord which appears exclusively stocked with wines he wants to personally drink, especially the deep Barolo, Barberesco, and Burgundy inventories. He travels to Europe regularly and clearly searches out honest, natural, artisan wines that express their unique geographies. It does not take long to see that Eric’s passion and knowledge are respectively effusive and deep; both impressive and most certainly infectious.”
One of my favorite bloggers is Steve Heimoff, who continues to write about wine outside of his duties at Wine Enthusiast magazine for his blog, non-creatively named, “Steve Heimoff.” Steve raises really interesting topics with an authentic and educated edge that serves as platform for many of the wine industry’s most interesting voices (read: Charlie Olken) to unleash their views. I recently added a comment to Steve’s post about wine marketing and social media and was subsequently pinged by Napa Valley wine publicist Julie Ann Kodmur, who sent me this email:
Dear Adam:
Hello from St. Helena! I’m a publicist here and read with interest your comment on Steve Heimoff’s blog this morning and then tracked back to discover Wine Zag, etc.! You made some very important points—hope they generate more comments back to Wine Zag….
By way of introduction, a news item from one of my clients, below…
Look forward to being in touch, warm best wishes,
Julie Ann Kodmur
707/XXX XXXX
For Immediate Release
Contact: Julie Ann Kodmur, 707/XXXXXXXX, julieann@swansonvineyards.com, www.swansonvineyards.com
I am on the road in Atlanta this week and was sad have to turn down an invitation to a #PinotNoir Twitter Tasting and Smackdown event that is being held in New England by another local Boston wine blogger Amanda Maynard. When she heard I was going to be in Atlanta, she connected me with well known Atlanta blogger Joe Herrig at Suburban Wino who let Amanda and me know that the Atlanta event was unfortunately sold out. They subsequently connected me with Matt who blogs at Wineheimer in the ATL, who had a change in plans and could not make the event and offered me his ticket to the tasting.
This is a fairly typical week of rewarding engagement. I run a social media content marketing outsource business with more than 1000 clients that we do a pretty good job for. It has stopped surprising me when I get asked by new and old clients how they will know their social media marketing campaigns are producing results for them. From my vantage point, as you can see from this one week snapshot, you won’t ever have to search too far for those answers. Now, if I just had more time….