Kansas City Wine Examiner
by Dennis Schaefer
In a report at the Wine Industry Financial Symposium in Napa last week, Wine Opinions, a research provider to the U.S. wine industry, revealed the top 7 wine bloggers, according to their trade survey. The results were ranked by wine blog and frequency of visits. Those in the trade who said they visited these blogs "frequently," as opposed to "occasionally," ranked the bloggers as follows. 1.Eric Asimov, N.Y. Times, The Pour 23% 2.Eric Orange, LocalWineEvents.com 21% 3.Steve Tanzer, International Wine Cellar 15% 4.Jancis Robinson (tie), Jancis Robinson 13% 5.Alder Yarrow (tie), Vinography 13% 6.Tyler Colman, Dr. Vino 12% 7.Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV 9% The survey list was a subset of the wine blogging community, as there are hundreds of wine bloggers, ranging from those who have been doing it for years to those who just started blogging last month. There has been considerable discussion in both the press and wine blogging community about how and if wine bloggers are changing the wine world, whether it be in the democratizing of wine criticism or the influence they have in consumer wine purchases. Interestingly enough, populist wine disciple, Gary Vaynerchuk, who has become a new media cultural icon, was rated dead last by the wine trade. This would seem to suggest that his popularity rests with regular wine consumers and those millennials and gen-xers who are looking to learn more about wine but in a non-old school, digitally direct way. Meanwhile, Eric Asimov's "The Pour" was listed as the most frequented blog, but then he does have the bully pulpit of the New York Times behind him. Later this week, Wine Opinions will release their entire "Market Track 1" report, which will detail the survey findings of the trade panel, as well as a consumer survey panel. Wine Opinions says this will be the most in depth and comprehensive study of U.S. wine consumers and the trade that has been done since the recession began.
Winelibrarytv.com
by Gary V.
Classicwines.com
by Randy Torban
How one man saw a need for organization and created one of the most popular wine communities on the web. Eric Orange is a pioneer in the age of online wine marketing and sales. His concept of an interactive way to help wine advocates find wine tastings not only came to fruition, but has grown to represent the number one place where people go to post and find wine events. For some it is a portal through which industry leaders can market to customers in old and new markets; for others it is a well organized database filled with possible places to test-drive wines. And to think, it all started with the question, "how do I find out about wine events?" Eric Orange, founder of LocalWineEvents.com. Eric is no stranger to the wine world, having worked for an importer in Colorado, coordinating company wine dinners. As the wine dinners grew, so did the number of people interested in them. Wanting to give wine enthusiasts as much information as possible gave birth to LocalWineEvents on July 1, 2000. Eric has been a proud 'father' ever since. Now, in 2008, there are over 1,000 wine postings per week, a rise of 15-20% from last year. Eric explains this rise is due to so many new restaurants holding wine tastings, new wine festivals, and an increase in wine drinkers from the Mid-West. "Despite being beer drinkers, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas are all regularly posting events." It is no surprise that the wine business is on the rise -- there are more regions producing and new generations interested in learning abut wine. It makes sense for wine retailers and wine enthusiasts to come together on the internet -- "People are looking for things to do now, and unlike newspapers that need ample notice, things can be posted online in a matter of minutes." This also correlates to the buying and selling of wine online. Many people are still buying wine in stores instead of buying online. They want the bottles immediately, instead of waiting and comparing prices online. In order to have more online purchasing, consumers really need to see price savings. That is why sites that enable customers to compare prices are ahead of competitors. Eric, a Pennsylvania resident, buys his wine at the best price point he can find it - not always from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Eric and Kate Orange have enjoyed the recent increase in wine events across the country. So is the increase in wine events causing an increase in wine sales? Eric honestly doesn't know. "The majority of people just go to enjoy themselves," Eric says. Some people pay attention to what they are drinking, but most of them don't remember what they tried. This then begs the question of whether or not these wine events help to brand the wineries present. Eric feels that they do help reinforce brand loyalty amongst old markets, and helps market to new customers as well. But he does feel that these wineries and retailers are not doing enough to follow up with those from the events. "It is hard to follow up with customers from wine events; most (representatives) don't even think about it...but they should." The internet is a perfect place in which to do this -- connecting wine event attendees to the wines they just tasted. Still, Eric enjoys watching the growing number of people using the web to search for wine and wine events. He hopes that with so many new events, ticket prices will stay low and the crowds won't get too big. For Eric, the best wine events are the intimate ones -- just like those he used to organize when creating LocalWineEvents.com. Randy Torban is the Director of Business Development and contributing editor at ClassicWines.com
Fox 29 Philadelphia
by Evo
Eric V. Orange on Good Day Philadlephia, Fox 29.
The Washington Post
by Staff
-Join a wine society. The American Wine Society ( http://www.americanwinesociety.org) has dozens of chapters nationwide, including several in Maryland and Virginia. The Washington-based Wine Tasting Association ( http://www.winetasting.org) has as its motto"Making learning about wine fun and unintimidating." -Attend local wine tastings. An invaluable online source is Eric V. Orange's LocalWineEvents.com, which lists thousands of events globally and is searchable by city. Many events are reasonably priced or free. -Get to know your local wine retailers. Sign up for their mailing lists so you'll be sure to hear about their upcoming tastings.
New York Magazine
by Jonathan S. Paul
"LocalWineEvents.com is a Website where your readers can go and check out all the local wine events in the city." --- Gary Vaynerchuk, owner of Wine Library, in Springfield, New Jersey, quoted in New York Magazine.
Restaurant Report
by Jaimie
From Naval Radioman handling top secret cryptographic gear and message traffic, to wine salesman to stay at home dad, Eric V. Orange has always been a man on a mission. Today his five year-old company, www.localwineevents.com is the world's largest online international wine and food events calendar. We sat down with him recently and asked all about Local Wine Events.com. RR: What gave you the idea to create a calendar for people interested in food and wine events? EO: I spent 20 years in the wine business as a rep. I would show up to do a wine dinner with a restaurant and no one would be there. Restaurants and wine purveyors did not know how to get the word out to wine and food lovers about these great events, and this happened in every city I would travel to. Finally a doctor handed me a card at one of these lesser attended events and said, email me whatever you got." It was not long after that exchange that I started Local Wine Events.com. In July, 2000. RR: Isn't there anything else like Local Wine Events on the Internet? EO: There are a lot of sites related to food and wine, but nothing like LWE. I believed that there was a need for an "online gathering place" in which people could post events free of charge to allow for better marketing of such events which take place in every major city in the US and internationally. In addition to the site being free to those who post, they also receive a link back to their own website for more information. This has been been a great boost for restaurants who do wine dinners and charity events on-site. RR: How many people use www.localwineevents.com? EO: Here are a few of my fun facts: We get over 9 million hits every month and 650,000 wine-minded visitors per month are logging on and we know that number is growing. We have had more than 55,000 events which have been posted since we started the company. We send out 35,000 interested consumer email notifications of new events and we have 1700 reciprocal links with other food, wine and spirits related websites worldwide. RR: It seems that every restaurant who does events should use LWE since its basically free public relations and marketing for them. Why don't more people use it? EO: That is our goal, of course. Local Wine Events.com is still a bit of an unknown to many retailers, restaurants, vineyards, and wine wholesalers. The company, which has seen enormous growth, has been mostly due to word-of-mouth from those using the site. "No one believes me when I tell them it's free," laughs Orange. "People need to realize that my service is completely free to people in the wine and food industry." Sometimes I think same-city restaurants are so competitive that they don't want to tell anyone else what marketing tools they are using. RR: Where is LWE based? EO: I am just outside Philadelphia. I am a stay-at-home-dad, which allows me to work during the day and pick up our kids from school. I have always had two missions: One is to be a great father and husband and the second is to have the most successful online wine event calendar in the world. RR: I have heard that you can also sell tickets to events through your site? EO: Yes, because Local Wine Events.com is free to retailers and restaurants, vineyards and wholesalers, it is a unique marketing source for those in or involved with those industries. In addition to providing information about food and wine events around the world, the site also provides a ticketing service for online event ticketing and purchases and provides information and resources for wine-related activities including wine clubs, publications, winery tour information, wine accessories, classified advertising, and products and services related to the wine industry. Restaurants really like that part of the service because it saves them time on the phone and they get instant sales right when the person is thinking about attending. Instead of them having to take another step and pick up the phone, they can click and buy tickets instantly. RR: What is "The Juice?" EO: It is a newsletter tailored to a person's specific region or city. If users sign up for "The Juice," they will receive an email about local events in their particular area. Local Wine Events.com is also great for those traveling on business to various cities so they can access information about events in the cities to which they are traveling. EO: "There are exciting events going on all the time. Sometimes when you are on the road it's nice to have something to do rather than sit by yourself and have dinner. Most of the events are educational as well so aside from having some great food and wine you might learn something new and meet some new people. RR: What kind of feedback do you get from restaurants who try your service? EO: Well, I have never had any complaints in six years! I got a letter from David Ailstock who owns The Cove Restaurant in Sweetser, Indiana. He used Local Wine Events.com when he was having a wine tasting to benefit Cancer Services of Grant City. He told me that they had a huge turnout and because he listed his event on LWE he was able to draw more people from several counties. He wound up raising several thousand dollars for the Cancer Services and he wrote to say how happy he was. That was nice to hear and it made it clear to me that this is just one way LWE can help marketing not only on a business level, but on a charitable one as well. RR: What is the future of LWE? EO: I am currently working on developing a blog so I can personally answer questions and write about various wine and food related topics. We recently added some new features which allows users to store information as well as new categories. For example, if you have an event which is food and wine related there is a combo wine and food category to choose. We also have a category for tastings which could be for wine, beer or tea. I am constantly tweaking and working to make Local Wine Events the best it can be. I have already been approached to expand it even more, but that would take away from my stay-at-home dad role, which I love just as much. I feel lucky I can do this and perhaps a time will come when I will go further with it, but for now, this is a lot of fun and when I created this company, my goal was to have fun with it and provide a great service. I feel as though I am doing both and that makes me even a better dad and husband. Website: http://www.localwineevents.com
Time Out Chicago
by Heather Shouse
BOOZE CRUISE If you knew that Toronto’s annual Whisky Gala was in May and you happened to be a fan of the brown badass, you could organize a trip around it. If you found yourself bored once you got to San Francisco, you could discover a free wine tasting and art party in SF’s Union Square or a Beer Bash in Berkeley. You could do all of this and more once you find www.localwineevents.com. Launched by a Philadelphia sommelier with 20 years in the wine biz, this website for sauce fiends lets organizers of wine, beer and spirits events around the globe list their parties, tastings, festivals and dinners, which are grouped in easy-to-use categories like geographical location and date. There are a ton of links to everything from wine clubs to lodging, as well as clever articles with titles like “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum” and “A Toast to Elvis.” We’ll save the latter for plane reading on our May trip to Memphis for the Grand Wine Auction.
Women & Wine
by Catherine Seda
.... Prices for wine classes vary greatly, but they cost a lot less than it does to travel to the wine regions whose wines you’ll be tasting. To find classes and other wine events in your area, an excellent resource is http://www.localwineevents.com/. They cover 90% of the wine events and classes around the country. Choose by state, then city or surrounding cities—even by local wine and food educators. http://www.localwineevents.com covers wine events and classes abroad as well. I just checked the site and found that this month, while there are no wine events or classes in Manitoba, Canada, there are 138 in New York City, 76 in Chicago, 12 in Indianapolis—the list goes on. I don't know about you, but I think I'll go to Burgunday next week.
Time Magazine
by Sharon Kapnick
localwineevents.com Oenophiles do not live by the drink alone, and at this comprehensive food-and-wine calendar, you can find tastings, festivals, dinners and classes, ranging from a Remarkable Rieslings class at the De Gustibus cooking school in New York City to a tasting of Idaho's best wines at the 8th Street Wine Company, a shop in Boise. Because its coverage is worldwide--this is, after all, the World Wide Web--the listings include such events as a tour of the great estates of Bordeaux and a wine fair in Beijing.
