My Wine Education

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!

Wine with Your Movie

The new Cinema de Lux has opened near the Florence Mall. It's about time, as the Florence movie theatres were a bit rundown.

Apparently the new theatre has two pricing structures: standard and VIP. I haven't been to the new theatre yet, but there is a Muvico in Boca Raton with similar pricings and offerings. It's where I saw Chocolat. I splurged and purchased the VIP ticket, which entitled me to a loveseat, decent food, and a wine/beer list. I don't know how much of that is available at the new Cinema de Lux, but a good friend sent me the wine list:

Vivid Whites
Chardonnay, Trinchero  $7
Chardonnay, 5 Rivers  $7
Sauvignon Blanc, Nobilo  $8
Pinot Grigio, Ecco Domani  $6
White Zinfindel, Barefoot  $6

Robust Reds
Cabernet, Trinchero  $7
Merlot, Red Rock  $7
Pinot Noir, Gala Rouge  $7
Shiraz, Virgin Vine  $6
Shiraz, Bridlewood  $8

Draft beer includes Blue Moon, BBC American Pale Ale, and more, $4

Draft beer is a rather good price. I've also seen worse wine prices, although keep in mind you can get a $6 glass of white zin from a retail $8-9 bottle. Gala Rouge Pinot Noir, for which I've paid around $12/bottle, is a fun, easy-drinking pinot.

Enjoy the movies!

Celebrities and Branded Alcohol

No, I'm not going to write about Lindsay's latest bad choices or Paris's latest drink of choice. But I will be writing a print article soon on celebrity-branded alcohol.

I tend to prefer the wine side of things, where celebrities such as Tool's Maynard James Keenan get hands-on with the winemaking process (Caduceus/Merkin Winery). But there are also other products out there - like the Limoncello to which Danny DeVito so funnily lent his name.

As I gather information over the next month or so, I'll also have to start sending away for press kits and making an attempt to schedule interviews with famous people. So, what celebrity-branded wines and liquor would you suggest I cover for the article?

Cheers, and happy 2008!

Pearls Before S-Wine

Pearls Before Swine is my favorite comic strip. I came across this particular strip in my daily calendar and had to share. You can view the Pearls web site here.

Click to view the full-size image.

Wine 2.0 comes to late night tv

Set your Tivos: Gary Vaynerchuk, unintentional spokesman for the Wine 2.0 movement, will be on Late Night with Conan O'Brien Wednesday evening (or Thursday morning, depending on your perspective). Around here, Conan airs on NBC at 12:37 am.

For those of you unfamiliar, Gary has taken the wine world by storm with his video blog over at Wine Library TV. His unpretentious, over-the-top video reviews are friendly, funny, and unique. He's become something of a legend in Wine 2.0 circles, which includes blogs. He took his family's wine store in New Jersey and made it approachable and fun. He started the Wine Library TV phenomenon. He formed a company and purchased Cork'd. Gary is on a roll. As Dr. Debs put it, there is probably a Food Network contract in his future.

Ratatouille Wine a Goner

Not long ago I posted about Disney's Ratatouille wine  - a French chardonnay that was coming to Costco. I was pretty excited. What I didn't realize is that the marketing folks behind the actual label were unfamiliar with basic laws. Let's call it the Joe Camel Effect. You don't put cartoon characters on the label.
Guess what? They put Remy the Rat on the label and people began to complain. Needless to say, Disney pulled the wine.
Oh well!

A Nutty Undercurrent

Some humor for your day, from Red & Rover.

Disney Ratatouille Wine from Costco

I am a Disney freak. I admit this with little to no shame. I love all things Disney. Released this Friday, the movie Ratatouille is my perfect film. It's animated, it will have enough humor geared to adults, and it's about food & wine. Well, it's also about a talking rat who wants to be a chef. Once you get past the rat part (a rat - couldn't they have picked something else?), it's a fun concept.

So when I read that Disney is releasing a wine with a Ratatouille label through Costco, I got pretty excited. Heck, I might even join Costco to get this. (Not that there's a Costco overly close by ...) I don't know what label they are re-branding, if any, but the wine will be from the Burgundy region and retail for $12.99.

I Must Have It.

I want two bottles. One to drink and a spare in case I screw up the label remover on the first one.

July 13 Update: Oops! Disney decided to pull the wine.

 

Paris: One Night in Bordeaux (Phew! It's a joke!)

I refuse to believe this little tidbit is real. It's got to be an April Fool's joke, right? My brain refuses to process it. But if it is ...

Why oh why? Oh Bordeaux.

According to decanter.com, Paris Hilton is set to be the new face of Bordeaux. Of all people. She has signed on to promote a summer ad campaign in the US and Europe. The tagline? Paris: One night in Bordeaux. The campaign will be launched in June at VinExpo, with Paris arriving in a golden hot air balloon.
I can't see how her face will help Bordeaux in any way. I can't even understand why they chose her as opposed to someone with some class. A girl who is flirting with 90 days in jail due to driving with a suspended license. A license that was suspended because of driving under the influence. A girl who is more known for her sexual acts than her acting.

Why is this the new face of Bordeaux? Ugh. I'm going to cross my fingers that this is an April Fool's joke. And if it is, well, cheers to Decanter for having a sense of humor!

UPDATE, 4/2/07: It's an April Fool's Day hoax, thank goodness. Admittedly, I'm insanely gullible and fell for all sorts of things yesterday. (Truly, I dread April 1 every year.) However, it's entirely possible that the Paris Hilton thing could have been true. People hire her as a spokesperson all the time, for reasons I can't figure out. That's where we are today in marketing - bad "celebrity" endorsements. Come on, you almost believed it too, right? Do you know the only thing (other than the date) that made me raise my eyebrows? That she was landing in a golden balloon. That's the only thing that seemed a little "off" for me.

Sparkling Wine for a sparkling evening

The Academy Awards. A night when the stars sparkle on the red carpet. I liveblogged the Oscars for another blog, so I popped open some sparkling wine for the sparkling occasion. I pulled an Australian sparkler out of the closet for the evening: a NV Thorn-Clarke Brut Reserve that we'd picked up at Cork and Bottle for around $14.99 in early December.
This purchase is a prime example of my susceptibility to atmosphere. At a tasting, when I'm in the moment and enjoying several different tastes, involved in conversation, I may positively love a wine. When I get home and open the bottle a few weeks or months later, I often wonder what I fell in love with originally.
This particular wine is 50% chardonnay and 50% pinot noir. It shows golden in the glass, with a slight blush tint. There is a definite citrus flavor, with lemon, and, as you continue to drink the wine, more peaches and pears.
It's not that this is a bad sparkling wine. It's much better than a lot of low-end sparklers. However, it's not the best of the bunch either. In the $10 - $20 range, I can find a lot better sparkler. If offered to me, I might drink this again. But I probably won't buy it, with one caveat. This sparkler would work perfectly in a Bellini, with its heavier peach undertones.

Our score: