Wine Bloggers – Who and What Are We?

( My #WBC11 wine blogger posse photo-bombing dinner with some locals peeps. )

Wine Bloggers – Who and What Are We?

In the opening paragraph of my first #WBC12 post, Doon,Been, What, Huh? – Matters of Experience I conjectured that “The wine bloggers conference is a lot of things to a lot of people, or it should be.” I can further clarify what I meant here by saying that the Wine Bloggers Conference attendance is composed of a wide range of different people with a diverse set of interests. There really should be something for everyone. But do we truly come together despite our diversity?

Diversity is a good thing by so many measures. Lots of different ideas and tastes being co-mingled keeps things interesting. But diversity does have its challenges. Developing a coordinated community with common goals when such diverse interests are in play is the particular challenge I am thinking of.

First off, who are we?

1. First we've got the writers. These talented folks know how to write and could write about anything, but they are passionate about wine so that is their muse. Whether they attempt to educate about wine or write flowing, beautiful prose about wine appreciation, writers are constantly looking for new experiences to inspire them. This group often gets a specific session at the conference where consideration of what makes a blogger a writer and how bloggers should factor writing into their efforts takes place. Just so I am clear, not every wine blogger is ever going to be in this group. Why? First off some folks don't aspire and others don't focus on their writing enough. For some wine blogging is strictly about providing information and not experience, and the quality of such writing is always going to be viewed differently. Others still use photos or video as their medium and the few words they do write glue things together pretty well. 
2. We've also got our educators. Many of the conference attendees are wine educators in some capacity, and their pursuit of life-long learning about wine, food and other beverages drives them to be at the conference and anywhere they can learn more. Meeting new people to share their experiences and education with is implicit it their being. Some in this group find themselves at the front of the content sessions leading discussions or moderating panels.
3. Then we've got our producers and agents of wineries. Some of the attendees to the broader conference are producers (winemakers, tasting room managers, marketing managers, etc) and enjoy both sides of the conference. Attending the conference for the potential exposure, educational content and the overall good times positions them well to meet new followers and share stories from their corner of the wine world.
4. People who represent trade associations, media outlets, product suppliers, co-operatives and legal interests are yet another group. Bloggers that are specifically focused on the wine business and not consumer topics also fit in here. This group is the poster child for the ideas presented here because the people within it have their own diverse priorities. Much like producers they are angling for both additional exposure and new channels for their products and services to be available in.
5. We’ve got our buyers and sellers. These are the wine buyers, wine shop owners, distribution agents and folks from all parts of the wine supply chain. These folks are often hunting for new wines, new accounts and new markets.
6. We’ve got folks who are zeroed in on specific topics or have personal politics that prompt them to focus on certain aspects of wine and the wine business. They are on the ground looking to answer specific questions and be advocates for specific choices. In Portland I’d say this group was best identified by those folks who were interested in the bio-dynamic, organic and sustainable themes.
7. What connects us all and acts as an umbrella for folks that don’t specifically identify with any of the above descriptions? This is the group is made up of what I am calling the wine enthusiasts & networkers. This is where that drive and second life travelling to hang out with wine people where wine is made and enjoyed is what for fun comes from. These people best represent what could be considered the uber-wine-consumer, educated, mobile and thirsty. I think the consumer thread binds us together more than we admit. I'm going to drill into my thoughts on this topic in an upcoming post. This group is made up by people who are really interested in using wine to live well. The agenda here is pretty basic, fun (the party people fit in well here) meeting new people, experiencing new wines & food resulting in a shit-ton of good memories to take home. 

Some attendees cross-cut several of these definitions and the groupings are being presented more to illustrate the diverse priorities than to represent a hierarchy or a legitimization of one class over another. People new to wine blogging might not initially fit into any of the specific camps and can self-select over time.

What we end up with is a pretty diverse set of priorities to coalesce.

This diversity can be witnessed first hand by looking at the growing blog post directory from #WBC12.

So where do we go from here?

How do we build a coordinated community embracing all of our inherent diversity? What are the common goals? Is a code of ethics and standards, something all good-functioning communities or associations need, something we all will aspire to? 

Flipping it around, what problems do we currently wrestle with because of this diversity? Are there aspects to the Wine Bloggers Conference that shake out the way they do because of the need to transcend all these differences?

Problems exist and anytime we get together as a group I have little doubt that we all want events to be better than they have been before, but that only happens when we recognize and work on the things we’ve struggled with and don’t like. But do we, or is it just a small group of folks who have recognized the needs and their role in stewarding us along?

Here are a couple (and just a couple) of my observations from #WBC12 that I think we as as a community could use some work on:

• Respect for presenters and guests to events. Seriously. We all need to shut up when someone is addressing the group. Gossip at a break. If you can’t contain yourself, excuse yourself and go somewhere else. This is an ethics and standards thing. Respect should be given to those that have been invited as guests to participate in our events. We should extend this respect to our peers who might care about something we clearly don’t if we can’t keep our yap shut.
• Proffering and furthering bad or meaningless advice. The giving of advice is a serious business, and we should take the opportunity to give it to others more seriously. The best examples might be “be yourself” or “write in your own voice”. What do they mean? When saying this does the person mean “take the time to better understand who you are and your motivations so you can be aware enough to write and engage with them in mind?” If not, I think a key point is being lost. Even if this is the intended meaning, the two statements really aren't the same thing and the generalization is nowhere near as useful on its own as we might hope. When one of the goals of our group is to support each other we should make sure the advice we give is useful.
• Impact measurement. Everyone in this group is curious about the impact we might have, some even pronounce it specifically, but where is the evidence? In order for us to answer the impact and influence questions we have to define how to measure these cohorts and consistently capture data in order to do so. We can’t wait for anyone else to do this. Why? Because they won’t be trying to answer the same questions and they won’t have the trust of enough of our ranks to make it real.

Overall these are some big questions and I don’t presume to have complete answers to any of them. I have my opinions about certain realities found in those questions, but I’ve yet to conclude how I relate to others on the same topics. One of the major realities, something Joe Roberts (1WineDude) articulated so well already this week in Wine Blogging Isn't Dead, is that wine blogging is still very young and we are short on answers of what and when results should be expected from us collectively. Maybe some conversation and follow-on posts in response to this will help me and the community at large with these quandaries.

So I ask these questions to all you, my peers I the wine blogging community. Who are we?  What are we? What should our goals be? How do we take this community to the next level?

Cheers!

Jason

Divided and Conquered

( Photos courtesy of Brian Samuels Photography. )

By so many measures it would appear that as a people we are more divided than ever. Political divisions, ideological divisions, racial divisions, economic divisions, religious divisions, pick one. We seem to embrace these divisions. These divisions make us weak.

By dividing ourselves along lines we don’t often even fully understand we are weakening ourselves and opening the door for those who might try to exploit those divisions to control us or for their own personal gain. When these divisions are used to attack one another irreparable damage is done and the divisions are more likely to be sustained and magnified. This is even when the divisions make no sense and the differences they are based on harm no one.

In describing the tactics and strategy of the battlefield SunTzu used the words divide and division quite a few times. A divided army is weaker and easier to conquer. A divided people are confused and will form allegiances out of fear and not common sense.  Maybe we think about war too much.

Throughout history poems, stories and songs have been written about the ideas that divide us and the bad that comes from it. You’d think we might learn something from our own pop culture.

It doesn’t have to be like this. For it to change though people need to better grasp the responsibilities that come with our rights to liberty and freedom of expression. These rights aren’t absolute and after you consider the documented responsibilities (look it up) that come with those rights you realize that our divisions are in the grey area just beyond. Individuals have to choose differently if they want society to be stronger and they themselves more deserving of respect.

Last week I took a pretty good beating on the subject of who is an amateur winemaker and whether people who make wine from ingredients others than grapes (juice, kits, fresh fruit) are really pursing the craft of winemaking and are deserving of respect. For the record, I didn’t start the debate and it isn’t a new one. On top of that  the people who I took those shots from are a minority with a very specific winemaking bent and a terrible attitude. Their words attempt to divide the community of amateur winemakers and create a hierarchy within it.

Why? Well, after exchanging a number of messages my take away is because they want to. It must make them feel better. Initially the gripe is that one particular wine competition, the one hosted by WineMaker Magazine which is the largest amateur-only competition worldwide, doesn’t make a distinction between grape-based and non-grape based wines within the red & white wine categories. This results in kit-based wines having a chance at winning best in show and grand champion awards. And they often do. This is a fair gripe, and one that might bear consideration by those in a position of authority, but that has to be a reasoned, civil discussion in order for it to have meaning.

The fact that many other competitions make a kit vs. grape distinction with a separate category or a separate competition all together isn’t a fact I will hide. Which is the fairest way to judge the whole collection of wines? Well, that is a question that has no objective answer in my opinion. Rejecting this opinion is the right of any who wishes, but doing so with negative sentiment, name calling and damning statements about the organizers and people involved doesn't do one bit to move the conversation along. I’ll also note that many of the same competitions that make this distinction also exclude fruit wines all together. You don’t see me getting my panties all twisted up over it, and I’m one of the biggest champions of, and winners for, fruit wines in the community of people who make wine non-commercially. I enter those competitions which support the wines I have available and accept the results happily. Other winners are not taking anything away from me. You can split this hair, but in the end what does it matter? This is all done for fun, right?

My suggestion that the players in this stalemate roll it up and walk away drew the most vibrant comments. I was called a fascist for this. I was not allowing people their freedoms but I was taking mine on the other side. Bullshit. I was merely suggesting that the focus should be on the responsibilities that come with the freedoms of speech and expression. First and foremost when the freedom of speech is used to assail the reputation of others and divide a community that is legitimate in its construction, this right is being wielded irresponsibly. That is not an opinion. This is something we see every day and even the youngest among us know enough to recognize it. If we can’t do this walking away assures things are not made worse. My suggestion of being positive and inclusive rather than negative speaks to this directly. Why try to tear down a piece of a community you claim to be proud to be a member of? Why does it matter so much how people do what they do? If they are having fun and enjoying the fruits of their labors why relegate them to the trash heap just because they do it in a way you find personally detestable? Furthermore, why do it so publicly?

For the attention that’s why. And that’s how all this goes wrong. The personal need placed above the goals and mission of the community. Insecurity. Jealousy. Spite. All of these ideas can be wielded to breed hate and discrimination. We don’t need any more of those tired, played out ideas in the world.

What is the lesson here? Whether you are a winemaker, wine writer or just a consumer your attitude and engagement with the broader community matters. Pick a different community and this lesson applies just the same. We must all strive to focus on those things that bring us together and not the things that divide us. If you take a negative path doesn’t your negativity outweigh any positive contributions you might be credited with making? I surely think so. Choosing to divide rather than bring together weakens and devalues a community. Flaunting a bad attitude only reflects negatively on the person sporting it and reduces the respect they might otherwise command. No productive conversations can occur. People will walk away rather than keep listening. And they should. If there is a hierarchy in any of this it is here, and attitude matters.

In closing I offer this. When choosing your next words consider how they will help to promote a more positive world that includes as many ideas and people as possible. This open mindedness is rewarded as the communities of people who surround you respect you for what you give and not what you get. We all get stronger and all live better for it.

Cheers!

Jason

Portland, Ho!

( Hand laid stone walkways at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland, OR)

With a little under four months to go until the 2012 North American WineBloggers Conference (#WBC12) in Portland, Oregon I’ve only begun thinking about any expectations and my usual research into options for post-conference touring into wine country and beyond.

I’ve only been to Portland once and it was for all of about four hours. It was 2010 and my wife and I were on a post-WineMaker Magazine conference vacation to Seattle. The conference had been in Stevenson, WA and the trip to Seattle would take us through Portland so we planned a short side trip to take in a little of the city.

It was a cloudy, rainy day and while that wasn’t a positive facet of the jaunt, we made the best of it as we always do. We found a Sunday market and craft fair down the along the river and wandered through the stalls to get a sense of the place. With coffees in hand we powered our way through the business district which was justifiably quiet for a weekend day. What little of the city we saw was friendly, walkable and full of vendors offering all manner of food and drink that could keep gastro-explorers like us busy. Coming back has always been on the short list.

( Lan Su Chinese Garden )

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. Nestled in between blocks of commercial buildings the Lan Su garden is an incredible oasis from the bustle of the city. The high walls ringing the garden and tea house remove visitors from most of the city, although the taller buildings on the adjoining streets are visible and the sounds of traffic do creep in. Margot and I spent the remainder of our time in Portland taking in the flowers and ornate decorations of the garden, finishing our visit with tea and dim sum. By the time we left we had properly transitioned to vacation mode (from conference mode which feels like work sometimes) and were sporting big smiles with the expectations of a few days in Seattle at the fore.

I got thinking about Portland and Oregon wine this week from #winechat, hosted by Frank Morgan and Tamara Belgard, that was focussed on Oregon wines as a bit of pre-gaming for #WBC12. There was a diverse selection of wines being tasted from broadly known names like Sokol Blosser, Willamette Valley Vineyards and Domaine Serene to many smaller labels, R. Stuart, WillaKenzie and Helioterra to name a couple, that I and others had and have yet to experience firsthand.

I went with the Domaine Serene 2007 Yamhill Cuvee Pinot Noir. My experience with Oregon Pinot (only a little mind you) is that it typically straddles two worlds. The presentation of the fruit is soundly New World, but it is often restrained from what people may be used to in say Sonoma or Santa Barbara Pinot. For the earthy component, which is typically fully accessible, it channels more of the Old World. Is this experience legitimate? Until I taste through a few more labels and sub-regions I can only say that I’ve had confirmation of this offered by a few folks with more exposure to the wines, so I think I’ve got a decent context.

The Serene Yamhill Cuvee fit my experience well. Ruby red with no hints of purple or youthful color. The nose on the wine is moderate and a blend of fruit and earth. Dark red cherries and raspberries were my immediate fruit notes. I then picked up graphite (minerality in a specific form I think), some spices and a bit of dry earth, leaves and maybe even some tobacco. The oak was there, but not abundant. This wine is very smooth with cleansing acidity. This is definitely a Pinot that will shine on the dinner table and as yet I haven’t considered how I might pair it to better understand its character.

Beyond Pinot Noir most of my Oregon wine experience is with Pinot Gris. I reviewed a few wines from the state in a trip report from the2010 vacation. I didn’t make it into OR wine country on that trip so I have no visual context for what it might look like from any other wine-making area I’ve been.

So my limited experience and desire to better understand what I think I know about Oregon wine sets up a few expectations for the upcoming trip to Portland and the Willamette Valley.

• I need to taste many more wines, both Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris
• I need to explore the other styles that are made there that aren't on my radar
• I need to get a feel for the food and other local beverages including the beer and distilled spirits
• I need to get out into wine country and learn more about the geography, soil, climate, grape growing methods and winemaking practices
• And I need to have fun doing all of that so I will be sure to want to come back and delve even further

My wife and I have a couple extra days after the conference on the calendar and while we plan to hit wine country one of the days we are also hoping to go see the Oregon coast, visit the Rogue Brewery and go on a self-guided tour of Portland hitting some of the food and beverage hotspots like Distillery Row, Voodoo Donuts and the Urban Wine Trail.

Now that I’ve gotten started thinking about #WBC12 I have realized there is a healthy task list out in front of me. One of the first items is to put together my Twitter list of attendees so I can get to know some of the other folks who will be in town for the conference. I’m sure I will get plenty of recommendations from locals and folks with regional experience to fill in some of my “what to do” slots.

With this trip to look forward to getting through the circus at the office and the manual labor in the garden at home will be just that much easier. If you will be in Portland for #WBC12 I look forward to meeting you, seeing you again and spending some quality time getting to better know the wines or Oregon.

Cheers!

Jason

#WBW72 - Helping Japan

When I saw the theme for #WBW72 that was posted I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I don’t have a lot of experience with Japanese food and don’t feel that I have discovered any local restaurants that would be worthy. Trying something new was the obvious conclusion, and I do that best at home.

The events that have unfolded after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear concerns in Japan are heart breaking. On the one had you want to think that we have come so far as a civilization that scenes like we saw shouldn’t have been so easy to create. Then you remember exactly how powerful nature is and how small we really are. Unfortunately the people of Japan have a long road back to a place close to where they were before all of this, and there is only so much any of us can do to speed that along. But we can help. And reaching out and lending a hand becomes of symbol of what we have in common and what we share no matter how much or how little our support changes the reality as it stands. At the bottom of this post is a link to the Red Cross donation site where you can lend support to those in need.

The plan I crafted was to make Miso Soup and Vegetable Tempura at home, neither of which I have done before. Sake would be a generally obvious choice for pairing, and with that in mind I decided I would do something else; two things actually. I decided to pair a homemade Belgian White beer with the soup and a Gruner Veltliner with the tempura.

I am lucky to work right on the edge of Boston’s Chinatown so picking up ingredients I don’t usually stock at home would be reasonably easy. Many of the packages in the C-Mart are labeled with a combination of Chinese ( I think) and English so finding certain ingredients can be a challenge. I did alright and found my seaweed, bouillon, tofu, tempura flour, miso paste and green tea during my lunch hour.

I made a pot of green tea for us to enjoy while we cooked our dinner. I find tea to be a really great way to drink water, and if you drink tea with no caffeine and minimal sugar there really isn’t any downside. On these cool in-between days of later winter and early spring a hot glass of tea can make a big difference!

Miso Soup
(makes 4 servings)
4 cups water
2 tsp chicken soup bouillon
1/2 cup miso paste
1 tablespoon dried Wakame seaweed, soaked in room temperature water
1/2 cup cubed tofu
3 chopped green onions

Bring the water to a boil. Dissolve the bouillon into the boiling water using a whisk. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the cubed tofu.

Drain the seaweed and add to the pot. Simmer for several minutes. Turn off the heat and move the pot off the burner. Add the miso paste to the soup and whisk smooth.

Ladle into bowls and add the green onions. Serve immediately.

The soup was paired with a homemade Belgian White beer. I chose this pairing after seeing it pop up in a search for pairings with Japanese food. It caught my attention because it wasn’t something that was obvious to me, and I love to try new things. Believe me when I tell that this pairing worked beyond my imagination. The soup is salty and the creamy beer cut that salt incredibly well. The citrus and spices in the beer meshed in with the soup swimmingly and was a combination worth savoring.

When I crafted this plan I felt that by expanding my knowledge of Japanese cuisine and trying to some classic dishes at home I would be projecting a symbol of care and understanding in a small, but meaningful way. I hope this same bump in enlightenment is shared by all the folks involved in #WBW72. Who knows when roles will be reversed and we will be in need of the support of folks from afar.

The second part of our meal was vegetable tempura paired with the Durnberg 2008 Select Gruner Veltliner. First the wine review.

Durnberg Gruner Veltliner 2008

Light gold color, brilliant with a little sediment. Citrus & herbs showed up on the nose. I found citrus, green apple, minerality and a little spiciness in the mouth. Balanced acidity, with a clean medium length finish. I liked this Gruner but was surprised as the light amount of sediment in the glass. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the wine, but I found it to be unusual. It presented itself as very food friendly with the balanced acidity that could go in different directions depending on the flavors in the food you paired with it.

For the vegetables we selected:
Asparagus
Avocado
Broccoli
Red Pepper
Sweet Potato

The choice of avocado was done very late in the game after I happened to see a tweet from someone who mentioned having avocado tempura and loving it some much. I’ll try that!

The tempura batter was 2 cups of the tempura flour and 1 & ½ cups of ice cold water. I read that the two keys to tempura are using cold, cold water in the batter to suppress the gluten development and making sure the surface of the items to batter and fry is dry before battering it. I put the water in the freezer 20 minutes before using it and laid all the cleaned and cut up vegetables on paper towels and patted them dry.

The cooking oil, I used a clear soy-based frying oil, should be about 360 degrees before you being to fry anything and once you begin you will need to turn up the heat a bit to maintain the temperature. The process of frying is a visual one, you are looking for a light golden color to the finished product. Laying the fried items out on paper to soak up the excess oil is another excellent step in the process.

We also made a simple dipping sauce for the tempura using Tamari soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger and green onions. Just a little gives a nice zip to the fried vegetables.

Tempura is an art form and I am sure I didn’t get it as right as I will with more practice. What I can say is that it took longer than I thought to fry everything, but when it was done I was quite happy for the effort. The texture of the lightly breaded and fried avocado is pretty freakin’ amazing. That and the sweet potato paired with the wine were my favorites. The wine found solid matches with everything including the asparagus. Asparagus can be a tough wine pairing food, but I guess when you bread it, fry it and then pair it with a notoriously food-friendly wine you should expect to come up aces.

So it was with tempura in one hand and a well matched wine in the other that I sent kind thoughts of support to our friends struggling in Japan. To help them by supporting the mission of the Red Cross please use the link below to make a donation.

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000&s_subsrc=RCO_BigRedButton

Cheers!

Jason