Calling All Bloggers: Regional #Wine Week Begins October 9

Calling all wine bloggers for the 4th annual Regional Wine Week – the week to blog about “wine from around here, wherever here happens to be.”

Regional Wine Week grew out of DrinkLocalWine.com, the website created by Wine Curmudgeon Jeff Siegel and myself three years ago to shine a light on all the news about local wines that was showing up in the blogosphere rather than the traditional wine media. The idea was to recruit bloggers to write about wines from “The Other 47” – states other than California, Washington and Oregon – and we would link to them on DrinkLocalWine.com. That way, the website can serve as a portal for regional wine news. Planning a business trip to St. Louis? Look here for info on what Missouri wines to try while you’re there.

DrinkLocalWine.com has since grown (modestly) to include an annual conference. We’ve been to Texas, Virginia and Missouri, and next April we’ll be in Colorado. This year’s Wine Bloggers Conference even took on a regional wine flavor with its visit to Charlottesville. I hope some of the 300-plus bloggers who participated will sign up for Regional Wine Week as well.

And participating is easy: Please send us an email at drinklocalwine@gmail.com to let us know if you’re going to write something and include your Twitter handle if you have one (and don’t forget to link to the DLW site in your post). And spread the word — anyone, whether professional wine writer or not — can submit a story to be linked to on the DLW site.

Last year we encouraged bloggers to attempt haiku about local wines. This year’s contest will be to write a 47-word essay about your local pour. Submit it to drinklocalwine@gmail.com between October 9 and October 15. Prizes include:

• Tickets to DLW 2012: Colorado, the 4th annual regional wine conference in Denver in April 2012;
• Autographed copies of Todd Kliman’s best-selling book, The Wild Vine;
• Copies of The Sipping Point, written by Laurie Forster, The Wine Coach, as well as two combo packs of the book and her DVD; and
• Packages of Wine Shields, the innovative way to preserve open wine.

Since Regional Wine Week happens during harvest, it’s usually a happy time for the wine industry. This year, at least in the East, we’re experiencing a “once in a decade” vintage, with lots of rain and dreary weather testing vintners patience, temperaments and skills. All the more reason to drink local and post about it during Regional Wine Week.