zinful zap events: the grand tasting.
Saturday was the big ZAP event – The Grand Zinfandel Tasting! According to my favorite wine geek and partner in wine glass breaking, Ward of WineLog Blog aka DrXeno:
“Over 275 wineries, 400 wines, countless other food and wine specialists and 10,000 attendees will be participating”
Judging from what I saw from my bird’s eye view of only one half of the event, I believe it. As I was taking my pictures one person noted that this year is one of the ZAP event’s slower years.
No matter the amount of people, I know I was extremely thankful to be there. Being a Sonoma County girl, I know the power that the Zin (especially Dry Creek Valley) has on people. Even though it is still my second favorite varietal, it is still a great wine to drink on it’s own or paired with great hearty food — Great for the Winter time.
The reason I was able to enjoy this grand tasting was because of Lisa of Hahn Wine Estates aka WineDiverGirl who introduced me to the “Bloggers Lounge” organizer, Wine 2.0. An online company and social network dedicated to social media and events in the wine world. Wine 2.0 allowed us bloggers to come to the Grand Tasting and enjoy the free wifi, networking opportunities and to have a place to sit back and gather our thoughts of the event.
The wineries were split up into two different rooms based in alphabetical order. I stayed in the I though Z room for the most part, highly concentrated on the T section.
The reason: Truett Hurst Winery, their three zinfandel’s, one pinot noir, one petite sirah, owner Phil Hurst and General Manager Jim Morris. The Zins were a perfect balance of being bold without over powering the taste buds and the company was one of the most welcoming, friendly and humorous out of all wineries there. It doesn’t hurt that they happened to be the only winery there that was on Twitter (please comment if I am wrong) – and we (Ashley, Ward and I) are all Twitter obsessed.
I sent this image to Twitter of us three with Jim.
An image I sent to Twitter saying that Truett Hurst “gets” Social Media: Truett Hurst is Everywhere.
Without naming names, I will say that some of the wineries that were there were semi to extremely close minded to the thought of social media. Visiting as many wineries as I could, I talked to many of them about what they were doing online to promote their brand. Most of the response to my question was “What is Twitter?” or “I do not know how to start” or “No, we don’t believe in that.” Needless to say, I took all their business cards and have sent an email letting them know I would love to speak to them more about the power of social media for brands.
I tweeted my frustration while at the event and my favorite response was from Penelope Gadd-Coster, owner and winemaker of Coral Mustang Winery.
“Most wineries don’t even blog, let alone do any social networking”
It reminds me of a past wine client and their CEO who thought that the internet was not where their customers where… This was a year ago…. So much has changed, yet so much remains the same.
I am just thankful to be in the presence of innovators such as the folks at Wine 2.0, fellow wine bloggers who I now call my friends and wineries such as Truett Hurst.
