Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Making a move out of the neighborhood, but home remains the vineyard


I've been at this for almost two years now, and to a large part it's a blog that has remained a largely a secret around the wine community. Much of that is my own fault: just not taking the time to bring it up to speed on Facebook and Twitter. Some of that has been the dinosaur syndrome -- not adapting quickly to new technology -- and a lot of it has just been the factor of time; i.e., not enough of it.

So it makes sense to move this to a platform where more should see it and be able to spread the word. I already blog
sports fan issues on pennlive.com here at the Harrisburg Patriot-News. As of today, I've also switched The Wine Classroom to its new address: http://blog.pennlive.com/wine. Please bookmark that address.

That's really all that's changing. I'd like to continue looking at the regional wine industry, focusing on those who are now old-timers in these parts (hello
Chaddsford and Blue Mountain and Boordy and Basignani, to name a few) and the many others who are just beginning to cast their fates in the soil and climate that provide a home for the vines. And by doing so, making more people who live in the mid-Atlantic some idea about how the wine industry is growing around them and where it's headed.

Still feel sometimes like I'm searching for my voice: It's neither
graperadio.com nor Gary Vay-ner-CHUK of the Wine Library, two of my favorites sources of information on wine. It's probably closer to Pierre Carafe, a favorite nickname bestowed by a previous colleague who's known to more people as Joe Sixpack than Don Russell.

While still feeling much the novice, I know much, much more about regional wines and wineries than when I started. And there's plenty more to discover. I'll be happy to share that knowledge as I'm learning.

1 comment:

Swirl Smell Slurp said...

Hi Paul,

We're starting a new feature on our wine blog Swirl Smell Slurp: United Slurps of America, wherein we will review wines from each state in the union. Your fine state of Pennsylvania is first up on our journey. Care to join us?

The idea first started brewing while we were on a road trip from Los Angeles to Texas. Each state produces wine, so why not try the local stuff in each state we drive through? Back home in Los Angeles we decided to take the adventure further and taste wine from all of the states and to make the project collaborative. To add some local flavor, why not have wine bloggers from the states we’re drinking to contribute with their reviews posted alongside ours?

It's a bit short notice, but this weekend we will be drinking Penns Woods wines and posting our review early next week. The line up: Chardonnay Reserve 2007, Traminette 2008, Merlot Reserve 2005. If you can get your hands one or more of these wines, we would love to add your review to ours.

In case you have not looked our blog, our tasting format is "She said: (review here)" and "He said: (review here)," see these examples: http://swirlsmellslurp.com/category/big-macs-mondays/

We would love to make you the third reviewer..."The Wine Classroom said:" with a clever little icon next to the review.

Hope you will join us.

Cheers,
Sacha and Jason

SwirlSmellSlurp.com