Erin and Michelle over at Grape Juice chose a whimsical pick for July’s tasting: Brought to you by the letter ‘S’. It was a fun topic (and a tip of the hat to the wonderful children’s program “Sesame Street”) and you can check out their recap of everyone’s spectacular selections.
I’m going to try to get everyone caught up on the last few months’ worth of Wine Blogging Wednesdays, so let’s start where we left off, eh?
Wine Blogging Wednesday #46 was hosted by Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20. She chose White Rhone Varietals as the topic. You can check out her recap for a list of participating bloggers (43 of them!) and their entries.
Before we get to the WBW Logo Contest semi-finalists or discuss the voting, I’d like to thank each and every person who submitted a logo or logos for consideration. There were dozens of great entries and it was difficult for the WBW advisors to narrow it down to the 6 you see below. I was planning to post all of the entries, but that would have been over whelming on many levels.
You can take a look at the final 6 logos here or at Flickr account I’ve created for them.
Voting will happen right here on this site via the poll you see to your right. The semi-final round will run from today until May 31 at 11:59 p.m.
Then, the top 3 vote getters will move into the finals. We’ll update the poll and announce the final voting procedure in early June.
The response to Wine Blogging Wednesday 45 has been so overwhelming that it will take me most of the weekend to write up a proper summary. As of today, 65 entries have been received which I’ve added to my del.icio.us feed for those who want to read along with me. I expect to post a full summary this weekend, most likely sometime on Sunday afternoon Monday evening. Thank you to all for your contributions!
In other news, Lenn will post the finalists in the WBW logo contest on Monday. We had so many entries that we have narrowed the field down to a manageable number to have the community vote to decide a winner. A poll will be posted along with finalists.
Sorry it’s taken us so long to get to the final step in the process and thanks to everyone who sent logos in.
There are four of us here tonight, this is our first time participating so we’ll just jump right into it.
Our first wine is from Alsace, France. Trimbach Riesling 2005 (12.5% ABV, $15)
- Mineral, slate, and a touch of lemon peel on the nose. The palate shows somewhat the same minus the slate, plus a touch of quince in a light to medium bodied frame. Finishes dry. Good value. Great with the veggie fritatta we had for dinner.
Our next three are all German.
First up is Dr. Burklin-Wolf Riesling Estate 2006 (12% ABV, $12)
- Golden-straw in color, scents and flavors of lychee, peach, peach pit, slate, honeysuckle, and granite. The wine was light and dry, and finished somewhat short. From the Pfalz.
The third wine is Hermann Donnhoff Riesling Oberhauser Leistenburg Kabinett 2006 (8.5% ABV, $36)
- Complex yet subtle nose, hard to pick out specific aromas. Creamy, floral, lightly peachy, perhaps some apricot and lime. Rich yet bright, medium-bodied with a long refreshing off-dry finish. From the Nahe.
Our last wine is Joh. Jos. Christoffel Erben Erdener Treppchen Auslese ** 2004 (7.5% ABV, $47)
- Big aromas of apple strudel, spice, and honey. On the palate it is surprisingly light with similar flavors plus orange blossom. Vibrant, medium body, with a very long finish. Seems to need some time to open up fully. Delicious and complex. From the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer.
Gary from Wine Library TV has asked Mott to link up the 59 participants of WBW 44 over at the WLTV forums. Lots of links to check out to find some nice Cabernet Franc from France. Seems like Gary might have also encouraged some more first time participants to our monthly virtual tasting, which is all very good stuff.
For next month, I will again host and I’ve picked my favorite white variety, Riesling as the theme. But I wanted to celebrate the wines made where I think the best examples are found in Northern Europe. So pick up a wine made from Riesling grown in Germany, France’s Alsace, Austria, Northern Italy, the Czech Republic or Slovenia and post your notes by May 7th. If you don’t have a blog, just register and post here.
Can we crack 60 participants next time? I think so…
Video podcaster Gary Vaynerchuk is our host for our next virtual tasting and he’s just selected French Cabernet Franc as the theme. While you can find some Bordeaux blends made up from a majority of Cab Franc — most notably Chateau Cheval Blanc — most of us will look to the Loire valley. There you can find some great wines made at places like Bourgueil, Chinon and Saumur-Champigny. Alternatively, you can look for examples from the south of France where Gary was recently tasting. Either way, pick up a bottle and blog it by April 2nd. Just post your entry to Gary’s comments for this episode of Wine Library TV and he’ll figure out some way to summarize this event.
If you are living under a rock and have not watched Gary’s podcast, check out the following video queued up about where he makes his WBW announcement:
Note: aggregator readers may need to click back to the blog to view this video.
Joel has posted a fine summary of the entries to WBW 43 over at Wine Life Today. In all, a nice turnout and some great stories & wines were blogged. Many thanks are in order to host Joel who welcomed his second daughter into the world just a few days shy of this Wine Blogging Wednesday.
Next month’s theme will be announced shortly but I have a feeling we’ll be picking wines from Bourgueil, Chinon and Saumur-Champigny.
Stay tuned.
Andrew has posted a summary of WBW 42 over at Spittoon. Quite a nice turnout of more than 50 bloggers who used only 7 words in their reviews of Italian red wines.
Joel over at Wine Life Today is the host for next month’s tasting which will be held in just 2 weeks time. His theme is comfort wines where we can choose our favorite wine to unwind with. Join us on March 5th for the comforting results.
We’ve somehow missed posting about Wine Blogging Wednesday 42 hosted by Andrew from Spittoon.
As he posted last month, the theme is Just Seven Words. That’s an Italian red wine summarized and reviewed in just 7 words. No, I’m not making this up. He’s even posted some ideas recently to help but from personal experience, this one is tougher than it sounds.
See you tomorrow with a rather short review along with scores of my friends.
Join us.
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