All nine of the Adventure Auction Lots are sponsored by a Russian River Valley Winegrower member and the money for each lot will go to raise funds for educational programs and future events. There are many reasons why Single Night will be epic, but these Adventure Lots is one part of the night that we are most excited about.

We guarantee, these Adventure Lots will be the most fun you will ever have at an auction.  Check out this video to find out a bit more:

We all think our Adventure Lots Videos are the best, so we are asking you, our awesome Facebook Fans, to vote for your favorite one! Please visit our video tab on the Next Generation Wine Facebook Page and click LIKE on your favorite Adventure Lot video.

The video with the most ‘likes’ will win.

*Though you do have to be a fan to ‘like’ a video!

To make this even more fun, we will be giving away one round-trip ticket for a future trip from Horizon/Alaska Air AND a ticket to Single Night to one random Facebook fan who participates!

Winners will be announced next week, so make sure to vote right away!!

Thanks!

Some restrictions from Horizon/Alaska Air:

• Travel Valid thru – January 28, 2011
• Blackout dates – Nov. 23,24, 27-29, Dec 22-24, 26-27, 2010 & Jan 1-4, 2011
• Fare Type – Unrestricted Coach Class
• Route Authorized – Roundtrip on Horizon Air/Alaska Airlines in the Continental US, Alaska and Canada (excludes Hawaii and Mexico)
• Other restrictions may apply

Our first task was to throw a party….

Not just any party, but an event that showcases what makes the Russian River Valley stand out among most other wine regions – The focus on single vineyard wines.  Thus Single Night was born.  I will go into more detail later, but Single Night will be a night where other young wine lovers can go and be educated on where there favorite wine comes from.  In addition, there will be some amazing food, music and other special promotions that I cannot discuss at this moment.  My favorite part about this whole event (other than the fact that I get the honor to help out with promotions) is that there will be 8 different “Adventure Lots”  -  Auction lots that are much different than any of the boring ones I have heard about or been to in the past.  These Adventure Lots are made for groups of people, thus would have to be bidded on by a group of friends.

I am not sure about you, but I KNOW my group of friends would love to go wine tasting and get to go on a specialized hot air balloon ride with one of my favorite winemakers….

More details to come!!  For now, find us on Twitter and Facebook:  @NextGenWine or Facebook.com/NextGenerationWine!

The Wine Road is hosting their 18th annual Winter Wineland event where wineries all throughout Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley and Alexander Valley will be pouring wines, among other fun events.

This year will be my first year attending this event, but if it is anything like other Wine Road events, I will make sure to plan for the unexpected… And most likely will spend most of my time at my “happy place” Michel-Schlumberger.  This year it is a bit different.  This year, they are actually a client of mine and I will be helping out with online promotions for them.  So yes, they are a client of mine…. But also (in my own opinion) they have the best Winter Wineland theme –

The Winter Wineland Olympics at Michel-Schlumberger will be hosted on January 16 & 17th

Many Winter Olympic “stars” have signed on to make appearances just for the event, pouring wines and helping with the Michel-Schlumberger Winter Games.

New Releases will be poured (yes, I am talking about Malbec), paired with food from Relish Culinary Adventures and playing some of your favorite Winter Games with a MS twist.

Another winery that shouldn’t be missed (and yes, is another client of mine) is HANNA Winery & Vineyards.  They are going back to the 50’s during the two days of Winter Wineland with poodle skirts, classic cars, your favorite 50’s foods and even an Elvis impersonator…  Both their Alexander Valley and Russian River tasting rooms will be open.

If you haven’t already bought your tickets, then go here to purchase them for only $40… The price will go up after the 11th!  So make sure to get them before-hand!

While I have been a bit slow on the wine blogging, I am still active with my wine drinking and once I get everything done that comes along with starting a new business (licensing, banking, tax stuff,etc. etc.) then I should have more time to get back into blogging (fingers crossed).

I have my Funny by Accident wine blog and should probably keep ShanaRay.com separate from my wine blogging, but for now I am at a standstill trying to juggle all of my brands. 

Any suggestions on what I should do? Should I keep ShanaRay.com has my wine blog, or transfer my wine blogging over to Funny by Accident completely??  Just curious….

So, as for now, this is my website where I write about wine, food, beer, shoes, unicorns and some social media.

Whatever the shiny object that gets me excited that week is….

Today’s shiny object that has distracted me from my work is my new Christmas tree sitting in the Two Five Media headquarters.  Here is a sneak peek at it with lights on it.  Ornaments and more pictures to come soon.

Good friend, Hardy Wallace (Lifestyle Corespondent for Murphy Goode) will be the main presenter, discussing different social media sites and guidelines/tricks for each.  Keri Hansen, my co-presenter for the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau will be teaching people how the Tourism  Bureau uses Social Media.  Matthew Ashcroft, a local Internet Professional will be  helping attendees to get started.  And I will be coming in to talk about how social media marketing starts off with a strategy, giving examples of case studies from brands I have worked with.

To see the pdf of the Wine Road Invitation, click here!

Though, just note this seminar is only for Wine Road members only…  If you are interested, I am setting up a series of more seminars that revolve around the hospitality industry starting in Jan 2010!  Email me if you want to know more!

Just like I saw during the Barrel Tasting and Passport events in Dry Creek Valley this past year, the crowd  was younger.  I wasn’t the only one who noticed, according to the Press Democrat, “The demographic this year seemed to shift to a younger, hipper crowd of folks in their 20s and 30s.“   This just proves that my idea for Project Y-ine is a great idea and that wineries (and restaurants) need to put more effort into reaching out to this demographic.  The Taste of Sonoma isn’t a cheap event, and at $95 to $160 a ticket, yesterday showed that my generation is willing to pay for the finer things in life.

They had a Taste 2.0 section where anyone could go onto Twitter or Facebook, which was awesome considering MacMurry ranch had no service for us AT&T users (for people like James Marshall Barry who has Verizon, it was humorous).  My one issue with this was that they did not use this service ONCE themselves, though they did post a status update and video on their Facebook Page. But then again, I tweeted enough about the event for everyone.

In addition to running back to the Taste 2.0 booth, I took pictures of everything I ate during the day.  Thankfully, it is tomato season, so the theme of many bites to eat revolved around this fruit.  Keep in mind as you read this post that I am a vegetarian, so I was only able to eat some of the food at the event…  Thankfully, my Sonoma chefs kept me in mind when creating their veggie dishes (or so I like to think).

The apple-ation cocktail from Cyrus in Healdsburg was an amazing apple brandy cocktail that only the mixoligst’s at Cryus could create.  They provided recipes, but considering I cannot pronounce one of the words in the recipe, I am not sure how easy the drink would be to recreate….

The mini ice cream cone was a yummy combination of goat’s milk and cow milk ice cream made with Delice de La Vallee cheese (made by Sheana Davis, my favorite cheese lady and organizer of all chefs at the event).

The Bellwether Farms cheese was amazing too, but sadly only located in the Visa Signature section, so most of the guests were not able to try it.

Bacon was also another theme with bacon pizza, pea shooters with bacon topping from John Ash & Co, BLT’s from Bovolo/Zazu and bacon wrapped figs from the girl & the fig and I did get some pictures of these items for you carnivores to enjoy:

If I could give out a prize for my own personal favorite booth of the day, it would have to go to Sondra Bernstein of the girl & the fig and ESTATE in the city of Sonoma.  She truly embodied the Taste of Sonoma by providing three separate ‘tastes’ all made with her restaurants namesake – figs.  The figs wrapped in bacon I couldn’t eat, but I went back for thirds of the fig desert and her fig coolers.  By popular demand, I think quite possibly mostly by me, she posted the recipe for this refreshing and delicious cocktail on her website.  Oh, and I already asked: Yes, they are on the menu at the girl & the fig.

Overall, I ate much more than I drank, but I did visit many of the amazing wineries that Sonoma has to offer.  It was my first time being at an event that solely showcased my favorite county.  Even though each appellation had their own tent, I overheard a lot of comradery and respect for the other wineries and tents.  All together an amazing day in an amazing county.   For more of the pictures I took of the day, please go here, here or here.

Yes, I have been back from my first trip for Project Y-ine for a week now, but this past week has been filled with meetings, Congresswoman Woolsey fun and showing Ashley Routson (aka @TheBeerWench aka my@ProjectYine partner in crime) around wine country.   We visited Russian River Brewing Company, Michel-Schlumberger, Bella Winery, St. Supery, Kaz Vineyards and of course, the Dry Creek General Store & Bar… And this is only a few of them.

Tomorrow I will be throwing myself into the food and wine culture at the  TASTE of Sonoma event.  This large Sonoma-centric event will be at the MacMurray Ranch property on Westside Road in Healdsburg.  Over 150 Sonoma wineries will be there, along with over 60 local chefs, so I am not sure which I am more excited about — The wine or the food!  It will be my first time at this 30th annual event and I am sure I will have lots to write about next week!

Labor Day weekend is always an eventful time in Wine Country, for some it is the last weekend of Summer and for others it is the last weekend of freedom before the long hours of Crush take over lives.  A Labor Day BBQ at Mounts Family Vineyards, Bird Day at Michel-Schlumberger is on Saturday and Steve Pile will be singing on both Saturday and Sunday at Bella Vineyards & Wine Caves…  All in my favorite appellation- Dry Creek Valley.

Speaking of Dry Creek Valley, the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley are hosting an event dedicated to the appellation’s flagship varietal, zinfandel, on the following weekend called ZinTopia.

On September 19th, the SoulShine Blues Band will be playing and guests can enjoy wines from Dry Creek Valley wineries and eat local food from local chefs.   And, if you purchase a ticket and enter the word ZIN then you will receive 30% off the purchase price of $75.   Did I mention there will be a grape stomp?

September and October are my two favorite months here in Sonoma County, each year I celebrate my birthday, stomp on the fallen leaves, eat so much candy I cannot walk on Halloween and laugh at the Australian interns that take over the Healdsburg bars during Crush.  It is truly an amazing place to live or visit….

We are traveling around the United States, conducing interviews with members of Generation Y that are over the legal drinking age (aka people 21-33).  The project is an attempt to get into their heads and find out what goes on up there when they go to purchase wine or beer at the store. To truly do a study, unlike any other, that focuses on the next generation of wine/beer drinkers.

This first leg of the project takes us from Tampa, through NOLA, Houston & Austin, TX, Southern New Mexico, Phoenix, LA and back up to Northern California — aka The South!

But, you can read all about that here: http://www.projectyine.com.

See you all in a city near you!

We were greeted by ViniPortugal and the European Wine Bloggers Conference for another Tasting Party put together by Gabriella and Ryan Opaz of Catavino, a wine marketing company based in Spain.  Here we tasted many different types of wines from Portugal, including a bottle of Ribatejo Doc (the actual name of the brand is actually a bit confusing to me) and Oscar and @Cork_Dork even convinced me to try some port.   So here I was trying the lightest of the Portuguese wines to one of the heaviest and I was able to enjoy each in their own way (I will leave the next post to talk about tasting notes and the winery, since I do like to do my research before I aimlessly talk about the wine).

Meeting Ryan and Gabriella was one of the big highlights for many at the WBC, even if they didn’t know that until they were told.   I may not have had the chance to hang out with them for more than a few minutes each; I could tell how genuine they were.  Especially when Ryan gave away his last few bottles to me said that he was happy to give them away to someone who would truly enjoy them.  Oh, I definitely will.

Doesn’t hurt that they said I had a “brilliant smile” in their blog post about leaving the conference.

I will admit – I am a Sonoma County girl at heart.  I love Pinot Noir and a crisp Sauvignon Blanc from the Russian River Valley.  My tasting trip to Napa wasn’t a complete failure, I did find out that a Pinot Noir from the Carneros region was quite tasty (at least the one from Cuvaison Estate Wines was) and Ehlers Estate, Conn Creek and Cornerstone each had an amazing Cabernet Sauvignon (well out of my price point, but amazing nonetheless).

I will also admit that I know very little about the wine regions of Spain and Portugal and would love to expand my knowledge of these wines more than just thinking they are all about heavy reds.  Thankfully, I now have three wines from Portugal to drink and learn about, as well as many new international and cross county friends from my second day at the #WBC09.  And, possibly a trip to the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon, Portugal this fall (hint, hint), but that is a different story.  

Sunday’s panel Beyond Words: How Video Content is Changing the Wine World with Bob Asher, Lisa M. deBruin, Hardy Wallace, and John McWeeny which was sponsored by the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley was the educational highlight of the conference for me.

Each of the panelists had a different perspective of the world of online video and each has equally interesting tips on how to integrate video into the social media landscape.

Hardy first talked about how easy it is to jump in and get started with simple tools like a Flip Video camera and some editing software on your computer (even better if you get a new laptop with a web camera and this software already built in).

“I have 0 talent and 0 skills, but video content is the total future.  If you are not doing video, you are not on the edge.   Video appeals more to non-wine people….. People might think, I don’t want to reach Wine Spectator or a blog, but hey, maybe I will check that 55 second video out”

Lisa came out stating that she was going to be a Buzz Kill – “Hardy makes it look easy… He is talented even if he says he is not…. And if you are a brand and want to use video to show off your winery, it really is not that easy… The tools make it easy, but to create good content is, you need to know what you are doing.”

She suggested that we need to do our research on what other are doing.  Skipping through the vineyards with classical music is a cliché and it has been done.

She also reminded us that brands already have a story to tell through video — Through fun events, new wine releases, good personalities, good customers (all possible talented camera friendly people) all stories that wineries have going for them. There is also no formula for viral.

“Let subjects lead and pull the story.”

Hardy’s final words were that no one started off a “good” blogger – They just jumped into writing and developed their audience and skills over time.  His advice to people is to not just sit there and wait till your videos are good, don’t hold yourself back… Get comments and feedback and put yourself out there.   Practice makes perfect.

So inspiration kicked in and I decided to create my very first video below.

Cheers to seeing you all next year in Walla Walla.

*shana.