Random Wine Tidbits

Lots of quirky little things going on in the greater wine industry right now:

• I wish I'd known this. Here I just spent 3.5 days in Chicago and didn't visit the Art Institute. They have an exhibition running through September 20 called "A Case for Wine".  Trust me, I'll be heading back to Chicago before this exhibit disappears.

Continuing the celebratory summer mood initiated by the historic
Modern Wing opening, this exhibition marks the first time a fine arts
museum has explored art through the vine.

Wine has played a role at the Art Institute of Chicago almost since
the museum’s inception in 1879. A major European expedition to acquire
classical antiquities for the fledgling collection in 1889 resulted in
the purchase of several pots originally used for serving and storing
wine. In 1890 the Art Institute made its first serious foray into the
realm of Old Master paintings with the purchase of 12 Netherlandish
works, including Jan Steen’s Family Concert which shows
guests drinking out of distinctive Dutch wine flutes while listening to
music. In 1927 the Art Institute purchased half of the Jacques Mühsam
Collection of European glass with funds provided by Julius and Augusta
Rosenwald, providing the museum with superlative examples of
wineglasses from the 15th to the 19th century. This cross-departmental
exhibition presents nearly 300 wine-themed objects, including selected
loans from other institutions and private collectors, tracing this
beloved libation’s surprisingly significant role as a stimulus and
source of artistic endeavor from ancient times through the modern day.

• You know those oh-so-popular Crystal Light (and similar) powders you can add to your bottled water? You can now get your wine in powdered form. A Swiss company called Katadyn, which makes powdered food for hikers, wants hikers to have access to wine. It's not actually called wine either, as it isn't made from grapes. It is simply flavored to taste like wine (in particular, Italian Chianti). Italian winemakers are all up in arms, but really … how good could this taste?

• Starbucks is going to try to return to the old-school style of coffee shop, which means offering beer and wine. They're just trying this at three stores in Seattle to see how well it will work. If it succeeds, look to see a glass of Cabernet offered beside a fancy Coffee on the menu. Of course, Starbuck's is still closing around 1,000 stores, so if it does take off, there may not be a Starbuck's near by to take advantage of it.

Dream Job: I Need Your Help to Get It

What a week!  First the redesign, then the Cincinnati.com news. Now I've got one more bit of news, but this one requires YOUR help. A lot of your help.

You don't have to donate anything except about a minute of your time to click on something safe. I think you'll get a chuckle out of the whole thing too.

Murphy-Goode Winery is offering a 6-month, $60,000 position to someone who wants to promote the winery via social media. They'll even provide you with a rent-free home in Healdsburg. Seeing as how I'm a wine blogger and a social media consultant, it seems amazingly up my alley. I want this job. Really bad.

In order to get this job, I had to create a 1-minute video. I thought about embedding it below, but really, I want to drive you to the site to vote. You get a screen cap instead.

So many people seemed to just sit and talk about wine. I think wine is part of the job, but understanding social media and marketing is more important. So I tried to tell a story, and I used the Wizard of Oz to do it. Of course, it's also an excuse to dress up like Dorothy.

WinemeDineme readers will notice a guest appearance by Julie as the wonderful Glinda the Goode Wine Witch. The video was shot at Harmony Hill, so my HUGE thanks goes out to Bill, Patti, & Evan for letting us traipse through the vines and borrow their dog. Kevin, his brother Steve, and Steve's girlfriend Sarah round out the cast. Filming was done by recent foodie blogger, Bryan.

I created an accompanying web site at http://www.rainbowgoode.com.
It's fun because it hosts the extended version (after all, it's hard to
tell a story in a minute) and the blooper reel. The blooper reel still
makes me laugh. Dogs are fun to work with ..

On the RainbowGoode site, you can view the various ways I'm trying to market the video, trying to drive votes. I am using every bit of social media I think is relevant – from my LinkedIn groups to this blog, from Facebook to Twitter. I picked up some Google AdWords and grabbed some bit.ly URLs. I'm amazed at the things that were available still.
I'm also not discounting traditional media, sending press releases to everyone I can think of. Want one?

I'd love to make the Top 50 folks, and hopefully, the Top 10. At the very least, maybe I'll land a social media job of some sort from all this effort. But in order to do any of that, I need your votes.
The contest ends June 19, so vote soon, vote often, and tell your friends!

… That’s Fit to Print

Today I've got two big things to announce, so we'll start with the new partnership. I'm happy to say I've entered a partnership with Cincinnati.com and the Cincinnati Enquirer as one of the first members of their blogging network.

Julie and I met some folks from Cincinnati.com when we spoke several weeks ago at a Cincinnati Women Bloggers session. Cincinnati.com has been really reaching out to embrace social media in the last two years, and from my perspective, a partnership seems like a great way to drive new traffic. Julie and I will both be featured on the Living, Blogs, and Food pages. We've got other big ideas cooking with Cincinnati.com, so it should be an exciting year.

Now, in case you're worried, I haven't "sold out" to the Enquirer. You'll always find me at wine-girl.net. There's a badge over in the far right column of the site showing that I'm in their blog network, but that's it. That's the only change, except hopefully we'll see more readers and get some more conversations going in the comments.

For readers who are new, you can check out my policies and disclaimers.

•  I'll always let you know when I get a free bottle, meal, or class.
• Getting something free doesn't always mean I'll give it a good review.
• I reserve the right to delete your comments if you are rude or crude or are a spammer.
• I will still write what I want, when I want. Cincinnati.com isn't handing out story ideas or anything.

This is a fun new adventure. I look forward to meeting new readers and continuing the dialog with my loyal readers.

Changes are a-comin’

Just a quick note to let you know you might be tripping over construction tools around here over the next 6 weeks or so. As we have time (outside of the "real" jobs), we're going to start re-designing this blog with the help of some of our talented graphic designer friends. We might even move to WordPress. Don't worry though – as long as you're getting here via wine-girl.net, you'll find us no matter where we are.

Our first two changes are rearranging the column layout a little (sort of like rearranging the furniture) and upgrading our happy face scale to have a little more depth and dimension.

Cheers!

Paella at Every Place

Remember that awesome birthday party I had where Hector, from Paella at Your Place, came to create amazing paella at my home?

Well, you can have some too. This Friday, Hector will be at Liquor Direct in Fort Thomas from 4-8 pm, cooking up a tasty paella right there in the middle of the store to accompany a Rioja tasting. Just Friday though – he won't be around on Saturday, so gather ye rosebuds paella while ye may. As always, tastings at Liquor Direct are free of charge.

Can't make it on Friday? On March 26, Hector will be dishing up a seafood paella to accompany a Spanish Whites tasting and class at The Party Source. Cost is $20 (includes a $5 gift card) and includes several wines, paella, 2-hour wine education session, and most likely some of that addictive Vermont sea salt butter.