ShanaRay.com

Yes, I am a Millennial.  I may get made fun of by my fellow wine blogging friends for being young, but I am the epitome of a Millennial Wine Drinker (this also includes not taking the time to edit my posting to realize that I meant to say epitome instead of epiphany).  Okay, well maybe since I did grow up in Sonoma County my palette is a bit more solicited than an average middle American youth’s palette.  Then again, maybe not.  I judge wine on the experience that I have within the setting that I am drinking the wine (hence why this wine blog is about my experience rather than the tasting notes of the wine) and I will even admit to purchasing wine because of an animal on the label, a clever slogan or even a bright colors (Fat Bastard Chardonnay fits all three of these criteria)

Back when I was working on the Clos du Bois campaign in 2007 (see some of my work here) I did extensive research on Millennial’s and their wine consumption habits, coming to the consultation that if you do not have at least a portion of your Marketing Plan that talks to the younger generation then you are missing out on the big picture.

While we may not all be purchasing ultra-premium wines and joining in on high end wine club memberships, we are wanting to learn about wine and are a very passionate and social group.

We have left the toga parties in our past (some of us) and are going to and throwing dinner parties where bringing a bottle of wine and a knowledge of what to pair it with is in full regard.  We have grown up with advertising, so flashy gimmicks that I mentioned above are not the way to win us over.   We are eager to learn more, but of course we want our teachings to be fun and informative.

I don’t want to say that wineries must cater to us, but there are some things that you could do to embrace a younger generation (as well as others you may be trading down during this recession).  Lisa de Bruin had started with some good ideas of how wineries could work with wine bloggers and I think that same thinking could be applied to the Millennial generation:

Maybe a lower end wine club with deals for those entering in to their first wine club membership?

****Or maybe just a deal for one wine blogging Millennial who has not found the right Wine Club to be a part of*****

Picture taken by Em Mota.

Or a social media strategy that gets your consumers active in contests and promotions of your wine?  *Cheers to Twisted Oak Winery and El Jefe for showing us that wine can be a lot of fun

I believe that the brands that acknowledge Millennials will have a great long term strategy.

The Zinquisition said it best in the blog post about the Press Democrat’s atricle on how us Millennial’s seemed to ruin the Barrel Tasting for some older visitors, in Madcap Millennials Long Live the Queen

“Think how far your marketing dollars go when the crowd gathers at your winery and HAS A GOOD TIME and then spreads the word via their own circle of friends electronically!”

Yet another brilliant publicity ploy from El Jefe at Twisted Oak Winery is the idea to get people to take their “Twisted” rubber chickens to their places of work.  Yes, last week was take your rubber chicken to work week, or #tyrctww if you are talking about it on Twitter.

Though, I never made it into my real office because I was traveling to San Francisco for the ZAP fest and to help assist Alice Medrich on her segment on chocolate crostini’s on the View from the Bay (yes, I thought about taking it here, but I had too much other stuff to bring), I did take some great pictures and had a lot of fun with my four rubber chickens.   Yes, perhaps some things did get a little out of control.

My week started off with some social media work from my kitchen with three of my four chickens.

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My fourth little guy was lost, which my first reaction was that he was kidnapped.  My friend Kevin designed a milk box so that I could properly let others know that he was missing.

Finally, my roommates found him, hiding next to our beer fridge and brought him back to me safe.

He visited my PR class with me and then we were off to visit San Fransisco where we both drank wayyyyyy too much zin.

It is a lovely Saturday morning in Alexander Valley. The weather is a surprising 75 degrees in January, it may be global warming but at this time in my life I am loving the Northern California heat. The perfect opportunity to eat breakfast and drink some wine on my back patio.

Since I spent a whole post talking about my morning habits, this post is my official Wine Blogging Wednesday (or Saturday) post*.

I bought the Morningstar Veggie Bacon Strips and the other ingredients for my Vegan “Bacon”, Potato, and Green Onion Frittata with the full intent to create this meal and drink it with my 2005 Bella Vineyard Zinfandel.

Great tagline:  “Bring home the bacon  — Leave the Guilt Behind.”

Once I got home and opened my tofu bacon strips, I was even more hesitant to make this whole meal and be disappointed in the texture and the taste of the tofu bacon.Seriously, look at it… I t looks like a fruit rollup and smells like a chemical version of paprika.

Tofu bacon has always been the “Everest” of tofu by-products for me… Something I have no real desire to try, but I feel like it is something I should — just to say I tried it.  After my tofurkey attempt last Thanksgiving, I am hoping that the tofu bacon could restore my faith in tofu products that attempt to taste and look like meat.

Anyways, this post isn’t just about the tofu bacon or my thoughts on bacon in general.

Yes, bacon still stalks me online.  No, I still have no desire to eat it.

But it is about the wine pairing (it is called Wine Blogging Wednesday, not Shana’s thoughts on breakfast).

What I ended up pairing with my zinfandel is the tofu bacon, frozen hashbrowns and a side of wheat toast.  The cherry and raspberry flavors, along with the hint of cinnamon of the zin actually did pair very well with the tofu bacon’s attempt to taste like the real thing. The bacon had a smoky paprika taste that in theory wasn’t too bad.

Of course, once again – It was the texture that got to me.The “bacon” was a limp and rubbery, a failed attempt to come anything close to the crispy greasy piece of pork that everyone is so obsessed with.

So after getting through two pieces of the tofu bacon, I decided that this product wasn’t for me and finished the glass of wine with my hashbrowns and toast.

The Bella Zin is a great “food” wine, especially savory items like hashbrowns or possibly real bacon.It compliments the food without overshadowing it.It is also great on its own.Which, after I ate my breakfast, I drank while watching the birds in my backyard play in the one small puddle left over from the last rain (sometime in December).

Another attempt at a tofu product that is supposed to taste like meat ending in an epic fail.I feel like am letting my fellow Vegetarian’s down with my blogs about disliking tofu….  But seriously, I love tofu…  I just think it needs to stick to the basics and not to try be something it is not.

I am still on your side Monsieur Tofu!!

*Another thing of focus for me in 2009 is my procrastination habits.Two weeks to do write this post and I wait until the day after the deadline too post it.Ooops.

The January Wine Blogging Wednesday challenge has left me taking a deep look at my morning habits. El Jefe of Twister Oak Winery (yes, the winery with the  infamous Rubber Chicken) asked us to pair a glass of wine with breakfast. A great and difficult concept that has finally got me excited for a WBW challenge.

On a normal weekday I wake up, check my email, play a round of Scrabble on Facebook and then I GET OUT OF BED. This method isn’t necessarily unproductive. Actually, it is a nice change of pace from the years of having to jump out of bed, quickly get ready and run off to work at 8AM. Though it leaves me with an unsettling feeling like I am missing something. Maybe because I do all of this while half asleep.

I usually eat my breakfast of either a packet of oatmeal or an English muffin and peanut butter and a cup of Yerba Mate tea when I get into work.

This week marked my first week back in college. I decided to take a PR class at the Santa Rosa Junior College on Tuesday and Tuesday mornings which means that now my morning habits will have to include some type of breakfast so I don’t go broke and fat from grabbing a chocolate croissant every morning.

My new goal is to get out of bed, make breakfast, shower and then get on my laptop to answer emails and eat my breakfast — away from the comforts of my comfy bed.

As I ponder if my attempt to change my breakfast habits will actually play out in the long run, my mind wanders back over to wine and what breakfast items wine pairs with. El Jefe did say that any sparkling wine would not work with this challenge because it is too easy.

The recipe I decided to go with is adaptation of one from ChooseVeg.com. A Vegan “Bacon”, Potato, and Green Onion Frittata.  I have been been one to follow direction, nor did I want to eat “baco’s” I changed the recipe slightly.

Since I have been harassed constantly about bacon over the last few months (on Twitter, Facebook and even in real life) I decided this would be my chance to test out tofu bacon. Yes, tofu that is made to look and apparently taste like bacon.

The meal is now planned, but now I have to figure out which wine goes best with my vegan and tofu bacon frittata. Thankfully, I am more of a savory breakfast eater than a sweet one (though DO NOT get me started on waffles) so the wine choice was relativity easy— A bottle of 2005 Bella Vineyard Zinfandel that I picked up from my latest wine tasting adventure.

So….

I just realized I wrote too much for me to want to put in one blog post so be on the lookout for another posting about my adventures with wine and tofu bacon.