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.
Regarding Dallas (re:d)
by Hayley Hamilton, The Vine Voice
Happy New Year, and welcome to 2007!! If you are like me, you are wondering where 2006 went, but nevertheless 2007 is here….. are you ready for it? What New Years resolutions have you made? What plans do you have to make 2007 your best year yet? One of my resolutions for the year is to continue my love of learning about wine and educating the members of Dallas Uncorked about wine and food. We hold monthly Dallas Uncorked events throughout the city with a different varietal or region as our focus at each event and I am pleased to announce that we will celebrate our third anniversary in April. But beyond what I do with Dallas Uncorked, I am always on the look-out for great tasting events and dinners around Dallas. I have found one particular resource very useful for informing wine- lovers about some of these events, LocalWineEvents.com. The LocalWineEvents.com website was started in 2000 by Eric V. Orange. Eric’s vision was to give wine lovers a central place where they could find out about events happening in their area, or other regions of the country or world. Born from Eric’s recognition that wine lovers need this type of device to inform us about industry events when we was working as a wine sales rep for Paterno Imports in Colorado. He would arrange dinners and tastings for winemakers visiting the area. He found the most difficult part of the job was informing people about the upcoming event. He also heard people comment, “how can I find out about these things? I only learned of this today” when he would pour at large wine events. He had a thought in the back of his mind that if we had a centralized place where the industry could post their dinners, tastings, festivals, etc. all wine-lovers would benefit. Consequently, wineries, restaurants, wine shops, wholesalers, suppliers and consumers all benefit by making these events easier to find out about. What better “tool” for the food/wine business? And, just like that, he formed LocalWineEvents.com. The real benefit I find on the site is that it is an excellent resource for me to find out about events in my area, but it is also a fantastic place to find out about events in other parts of the country or the world. In planning a trip to Portland last year I searched the site for events that would be of interest, and found the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. This worked out wonderfully well, since I wanted to go to Oregon for the fantastic wine tours, and my traveling companion was happy because we were also able to experience two days of Craft and Specialty Beer tastings from all over the country at the festival. We had the best of both worlds… Now in its sixth year, LocalWineEvents.com has had nearly 85,000 events posted from all over the world and has about 10 million hits to the site per month! Listing events on the site is free, you can also buy/sell tickets to your wine event through the site. Weekly emails are sent out highlighting events in your area. Signing up for alerts is free, as is posting events on the site. It is also a great resource for other wine related links beyond events, like wine gifts and accessories; wine storage; wine auctions; travel and vacation resources for visiting wineries in the US and beyond; beer and spirits links; festival links; educational links; recipe and pairing links; etc. As you can see, it is a helpful tool to the wine enthusiast. In reviewing the latest issue of “The Juice,” the weekly email alert that is sent out, I see that my friends at the Wine Therapist are having a Champagne tasting, a Spanish tasting and there is a fantastic dinner opportunity at Pappas Brothers Steakhouse. You never know what you will find. And, as I resolve to taste more wine in 2007, because surely I didn’t taste enough in 2006, having a tool like LocalWineEvents.com is invaluable. Cheers, Hayley Hamilton The Vine Voice www.DallasUncorked.org
Alexandria Times
by Mari Stull
Wine events in the area LocalWineEvents.com has a rundown of wine tastings, dinners, and festivals around the world. Extensive listings for Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., delivered weekly to your inbox. http://www.localwineevents.com
Seattle Post Intelligencer
by Rebekah Denn
Tonight there's a class on blind tastings. Saturday features a tour of boutique wineries in Woodinville. On Sunday, Union restaurant will host a tasting dinner featuring Mark Ryan Winery and Baer Winery. And it's not even an unusually busy week for Seattle-area wine events. If any of these are your thing -- or if the idea of regular updates on tastings, tours and classes is appealing -- check out the ongoing calendar at Local Wine Events, a free listing service in dozens of U.S. cities, including Seattle (goto.seattlepi.com/r315). The site's free e-mail newsletter, The Juice, provides updates daily or weekly, depending on your preference, and subscribers can specify whether they want information on wine, spirits, beer or any combination.
Dallas Star-telegram
by Jeff Siegel
..... It's hard to nail down how many home wine classes are happening in the United States -- the phenomenon is too new and too splintered for reliable numbers to be available. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence, says Eric Orange, who operates Philadelphia's localwineevents.com, a compendium of wine tastings and educator listings for cities around the country, including Fort Worth and Dallas. Not only is his site getting more listings for wine educators -- four in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where there were none 18 months ago -- but the number of people asking Orange to give home classes or to recommend someone who can has increased dramatically in the last year, he says. ....more
Brian Goodell, The Wine Guy
by Brian Goodell
The Internet really is a mixed bag of good, bad and dubious reading. When searching for information related to wine, you will find everything from scientific studies to self-proclaimed experts, from independent reviewers to advertisements disguised as journalism. Google "wine" and you will receive 426,000,000 hits. Narrow your search to "wine recommendations" and you are still confronted with 23,500,000 results. While there is a wealth of knowledge out there, information overkill is the reality for a person who chooses to begin the learning process online. Fortunately, there are good, reliable, wine related Web sites and some of us have plodded through more than a few and can help you get started. An extremely practical, well-organized site is localwineevents.com. Founder Eric V. Orange describes himself as "a very lucky man with a good idea at the right time and the wherewithal to make a go of it." What you will find is a calendar of events detailing food and wine dinners and tastings, clubs, expos and events of every kind related to food, wine and spirits. These are always kept up to date and icons indicate the category for each event. They are organized by city, state and country, so it's easy to find something close by or in the area where you will be traveling. In fact, links on localwineevents.com will even help you plan and organize a wine vacation. The site is so easy to navigate, you will be able to locate almost anything with a click of the mouse. If you want to attend tastings, join a wine club, or watch a cooking demonstration, but don't know how to find them, this is the place. You also can subscribe to the free newsletter, "The Juice," at localwineevents.com. This is a fun and informative e-mail that you can customize to your location to deliver information right to your "in" box. In addition to the calendar of events, "The Juice" has a weekly wine quiz, answers to frequently asked questions, and informative articles from wine writers such as "yours truly." Those in the restaurant or wine business can post events at no charge. There is also a ticketing system that allows you to sell tickets to your event at no cost. While I certainly have not been to all of the 400 million pages on the Internet related to wine, I have found some very useful and informative sites. I will detail a few others in the weeks to come and I hope they help you grow in your knowledge and experience of all things wine related. If you have a favorite wine site, pass that along as well and we will share the wealth. Write me at goodellwineguy@sbcglobal.net. Until next time, happy pours
Wine Business Monthly
by Bob Ecker
WHAT DO THE FOLLOWING wine event listings have in common? A Merryvale wine dinner in Rancho Mirage, California; a “Rainbow of Reds” tasting in Victoria, BC; and a “Cooking & Quaffing” course at the Cookery School in London? Besides offering interesting tastings and pairings to the public, these disparate events are all listed on a website called LocalWineEvents.com, a mammoth international wine, food, spirits and beer events calendar that is free to consumers, restaurants, nonprofits, educational institutions and the wine trade. “LocalWineEvents.com is a great comprehensive listing of wine events across the country and the world,” said Gwen McGill, director of public relations for Icon Estates in Napa. “It’s easy to search, and it’s easy to post events. It also provides good information about lodging and dining, and even recommends local restaurants that have a corkage fee.” Click the link to read the full article, including a picture of yours truly. EVO
The Times-union
by Alison Trinidad
If Jacksonville were measured by the number of wine events occurring in the area, it would rank fifth in Florida - behind Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando - according to LocalWineEvents.com, an online calendar of wine-related functions around the globe. But maybe that's because other area wine purveyors have not yet heard about the free Web site that advertises events that have a food, wine, spirits or beer theme. Megalopolises like New York City and Los Angeles have more than 100 event postings each, while Jacksonville (as of Friday) had 14. Eligible events include wine tasting, wine appreciation classes, cooking demonstrations, beer brewing contests and culinary tours. Keith Litterick, owner of Make-N-Take Wines in Orange Park, began advertising his Wednesday wine-tasting parties on LocalWineEvents.com in January, the same time he decided to schedule a regular wine tasting. He says he was one of the first in the area to discover the free marketing tool. "Hardly anyone in Jacksonville was using it then," Litterick said. "Now, there's a lot. It's really come a long way." Though business for the make-your-own-wine retailer has "steadily increased" since offering wine tasting, Litterick said he is unsure whether the exposure on the Web site helped. But it couldn't have hurt. "There's no charge, so it's almost like a why-not?" said Joyce Pease of The Joyful Cork in St. Augustine. Pease, who also distributes a newsletter to customers via e-mail, signed onto LocalWineEvents.com about a month ago, after one of her wine distributors showed her the site. Wine guru Eric Orange, now living in Philadelphia, rolled out the Web site in July 2000 to increase publicity for restaurant, vintner and wholesaler events. It has listed more than 68,000 events since then. The site lists events by city, state and country. It also sends a free e-mail newsletter to subscribers, with a calendar of upcoming events and wine-related news articles. Orange, who now works on the Web site full time, makes money by selling separate advertisement space on the site and by providing online ticket sales to some of the events. Although many newspapers (including the Times-Union) publish lists of upcoming wine tasting and classes, those lists generally are limited by geography. LocalWineEvents.com brands itself as a comprehensive calendar of food and wine events around the world. It's a handy site for travelers to use while planning a trip, or for foodies to spot the ultimate culinary experience, whether it's a mile away or a thousand. Lorena Streeter, marketing communications manager for Orlando-based ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, said she prefers using LocalWineEvents.com to promote the chain's events because she can control what goes in a posting. Although Streeter also sends out notices to area publications, the format in which the information is printed (if at all) is out of her hands. ABC does not track business generated from the Web site posts. Most wine purveyors offer wine tasting to lure people into their stores, from liquor stores to supermarkets. Places like Total Wine & More and WorldMarket host weekly tasting events. The events - most of which are free - are meant to be social and inviting, for people to learn what they like to drink and (after a few sips) maybe buy. Some events charge a nominal fee, which usually includes a souvenir glass and discount off a purchase. Most store owners could not calculate how much profit is made from hosting a tasting, free or not, but they said the extra traffic it generates in the store is worth the trouble. "We're happy if we break even on the night of the event, but there are residual effects," said Bob Gibson, marketing director for ABC Fine Wine & Spirits. "When people try out 20 to 30 different things, they'll probably buy something. And it's an opportunity to showcase the store and our expertise." David Trone, co-owner and president of Total Wine, said giving away samples of wine is more about customer service than sales. If a customer is happy and satisfied, sales will follow, he said. Pease at The Joyful Cork says tastings are a common-sense approach to advertising her wines. She hosts free, weekly tasting events to introduce customers to new wines in her store. "I don't bring wine into the store without tasting it," Pease said. "Would you buy a car without driving it?"
