DrinkLocalWine.com

New York Cork Report wins blogging award

The New York Cork Report is the 2011 winner for best single subject wine blog, the third year in a row that founder Lenn Thompson's blog has won.

Local wine VIPs

The co-founder of DrinkLocalWine.com, Dave McIntyre, meets the founding father of the regional wine movement, Thomas Jefferson, at the Wine Bloggers Conference.

DLW 2012 will be held April 27-29 in Denver

DrinkLocalWine.com will hold its fourth annual conference April 27-29, 2012 in Denver, focusing on Colorado wine. The state’s industry is one of the most unique in the wine business; its high altitude produces growing conditions that are different from all but two or three other regions in the world.

Colorado’s approximately 100 wineries grow European-style grapes, and have had tremendous success with cool-climate varieties like Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Cabernet Franc. The Colorado Wine Industry Development Board is the conference's primary sponsor.

“Our excitement about hosting the Drink Local Wine conference in Denver in 2012 runs a mile high,” says Doug Caskey, the wine board’s executive director. More, after the jump:

DLW co-founder at Wine Bloggers Conference

Washington Post wine columnist Dave McIntyre, co-founder of DrinkLocalWine.com, will speak at the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference on July 22 in Charlottesville, Va. McIntyre will appear on the "Drinking Local" panel with two other top regional wine writers: Lenn Thompson, founder of New York Cork Report, and Rémy Charest, blogger at The Wine Case in Canada. The panel will be moderated by noted Virginia wine blogger Frank Morgan of Drink What You Like.

“This is not only an opportunity to spread the word about regional wine, but also to spread it to an audience that may not be familiar with it,” says McIntyre. “Lenn, Remy and I should be able to offer some convincing reasons why regional and local wine matters – and it’s not going to hurt that we’ll be in Virginia, which produces excellent wine.”

DrinkLocalWine.com's goal is to spotlight wine made in the 47 states and Canada that aren't California, Washington and Oregon. It's the brainchild of McIntyre and wine blogger Jeff Siegel, the Wine Curmudgeon. The organization holds two major events each year – a conference spotlighting regional wine in one of the other 47, and Regional Wine week in October, when bloggers and writers from across the U.S. and Canada write special pieces about their favorite regional wines.
The 2012 DLW conference will be held in April, spotlighting Colorado wine. The 2011 conference was held in Missouri, the 2010 in Virginia, and the inaugural 2009 event in Texas.

Local food goes with local wine

Which is one of the points we're going to make at DLW 2011: Missouri, set for April 2-3 in St. Louis. Or as top-rated Kansas City food blogger Jenny Vergara said: "That's something I'm just beginning to get my arms around. Why can't we approach local wine the same way we approach local food?"

That's a question more and more people are asking, and it will be the subject of one of our Saturday morning panels: Does 'Locavore' = 'Locapour'?, moderated by DLW co-founder Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post. This topic always brings out the best in the panel and the audience -- especially when someone thinks local food doesn't go with local wine.

The conference will be held at the Doubletree Westport in suburban St. Louis. Ticket packages start at $35, which includes the Missouri Twitter Taste-off -- two wines each from some two dozen Missouri wineries. You can buy tickets on-line at the link. The complete schedule is here.

Doug Frost at DLW 2011: Missouri

Doug Frost, the dean of U.S. regional wine writers, will be one of the featured panelists at the third annual DrinkLocalWine.com conference, focusing on Missouri wine and set for April 2-3 at the Doubletree Westport in suburban St. Louis. Ticket packages start at $35, which includes the Missouri Twitter Taste-off -- two wines each from some two dozen Missouri wineries. Complete schedule is here.

Doug's claims to fame are many. In 1991 he passed the rigorous Master Sommelier examination and two years later became the country’s eighth Master of Wine, and was only the second person in history to complete both exams. Almost two decades later, Doug is one of only three people in the world to have achieved both distinctions.

He is also one of the country's leading advocates for regional wine, and has been so for almost longer than there has been a regional wine industry. Doug's philosophy is simple, and it's one we share at DLW: "Wine from around here, wherever ‘here’ happens to be."

States boost local wine

From Bloomberg Businessweek: "A decade ago, only a handful of states subsidized wineries, according to WineAmerica, the industry trade group. Now all U.S. states offer funding for them."

Locavore and locapour

DLW co-founder Dave McIntyre offers some perspective on the eat local and drink local movements: "Winery folks chafe at what they perceive to be a Washington area bias against local bottles."

Regional wine week 2010: Thank you

It was another banner year for regional wine week, and we appreciate it very much. How could it be not be outstanding when so many people went to so much trouble to write a haiku about regional wine? We'll have a final tally later this week about posts and states, as well as the haiku winners.

We'll also have an announcement soon about DLW 2011 in Missouri.

Regional wine week: Friday -- The Going to Missouri edition

DrinkLocalWine.com will hold its third annual conference April 1-3, 2011, in St. Louis, where we'll focus on the unique and fascinating world of Missouri wine. Why unique and fascinating? Because not only does Missouri produce top-flight wine, but it does so with hardly a European wine grape in sight. The state's 121 wineries specialize in hybrids and native American grapes like the norton, vidal blanc, and seyval blanc, and they regularly win awards at some of the top competitions in the world. Our thanks to the Missouri Wine and Grape Board, which is the conference's primary sponsor.

DLW 2011 will include an expanded Missouri wine tasting, so we can invite more wineries and you can have more time to taste them. We'll have three seminars featuring some of the top names in Missouri and regional wine, and we've added a Saturday reception where you can meet the state's best winemakers, wine writers, and wine personalities.

We'll have more details next month. You can look for updates here, follow DLW 2011 on Twitter -- the hashtag is #DLW2011 -- and look for news on our Facebook page.

Today's regional wine week entries include New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Michigan. And our haiku contest continues to get entries. Who'd have thought so many people wanted to write haiku about regional wine? Don't forget to vote for your favorite haiku by clicking its like button.