An extraordinary Saturday in May in the Santa Lucia Highlands last weekend yielded one delicious afternoon. With a dozen or so wine and food bloggers, Hahn Estates was the first winery to establish the Bloggers Block, a 1.5 acre plot of vines, planted in part by said bloggers, dedicated to the work, passion and appreciation of the complimentary relationship among these wine lovers.
Andy Mitchell (Director Vineyard Operations) and Paul Clifton (adorable winemaker at Hahn Estates) and their vineyard team shepharded the noob farmers teaching them about this plot of land, the 720′ elevation in the Santa Lucia Highlands, the soil, the vines (828 Clone/Pinot Noir), the irrigation, the row orientation, etc. All vines may be found on Google Earth where anyone can watch the growth of these baby pinot noir vines. Check out the Google Earth flyover of the winery here.
Essentially it was a day that social media wrought where friends and associates came together to dig in the dirt and laugh together while learning about the beginning, middle and end of wine production. Not bad for just a few hours. After planting our vines, bloggers enjoyed a picnic lunch and wines made from the vineyards where their vines were planted. The pinot noir in the Hahn SLH, among others were featured as the conversation covered everything from vineyard experimentation to your favorite twitter app for the i-phone.
It is still hard to put words to the perfection of the day. It sounds cloying, overblown and off the mark when I reach for the grand adjectives and expressions to summarize this day of planting and connection. One most apt description of all of us is to say that we were like kids in a candy store…and there was a kind of rapt adventure and play about the day’s activities. And still there was learning, out-reach and …well, you probably understand anyway. You seem like a wine lover to me, so I’ll share more photos of the day and leave it at that. I hope you’ll come to the next Bloggers Tasting Forum or host your own.
And who wouldn’t love a romp thru the vines in an open air Yamaha 4-wheeler?
You KNOW the Brix Chicks did!
Links to fellow blogger posts and attendees to follow soon.
Photos courtesy of Philip Woodrow, Hahn Family Wines Director of Marketing and Communications.
Beautiful pictures! Looks so fun. Love, Goddess
Well said. Looking forward to next event. Hey…I can tweet from my phone now! Thnx for all the help.
I had a blast! I’m so glad that I went to this event. Paul took us for a ride back into the vineyards behind the winery – It is absolutely beautiful. I will be going there again!
What could be better that connecting wine bloggers to the earth and the vines, and what a spectacular location to do so. In my opinion, the diversity of voices we encounter with blogs far outweighs the single pointed views prevalent in mainstream printed media. Cheers to all who made this event possible!
Lisa!
What a killer event. Educational, tons of fun, and totally unique.
Hats off to everyone at Hahn for putting this together!
Thanks GlobalPatriot and Dirty…et al. Sometimes the magic of social media is the ability it has to remove obstacles for people to participate…This gathering at the winery was an extreme example of that. Many bloggers drove or flew HOURS to get there…then were personally rewarded by the company of fellow bloggers, the planting of their own vine etc. It was an extraordinary experience…and social networking at its finest!
I really enjoyed your post about wine. I will have to come back again to read some more of them.
Lisa—
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Thanks so much for letting us be a part of it! Awesome recap!
What a RAD idea. Sounds very cool. The blogger block…I’m into it. Can’t wait to catch up with you at WBC this year!
Your stuff is innovative as hell. I love it!
Galen
Thanks. And it is really the participants that make any event or gathering special, amazing, successful…The more social media/networking I do, the more I realize it is just like connecting in person. Wine, relationships and the experience…don’t let the computer keyboard confuse you, mislead you into thinking the connection is any less personal than if you were standing in front of someone.
The people and companies that get that will get and thrive in Social Media. The rest won’t.
[...] Wine Bloggers Conference, Twitter Taste Live, The Open Wine Consortium, the Bloggers Tasting and Planting Forums to name a few; accessible, frequent, groundbreaking online interaction between wine lovers, wine [...]
[...] wine event of which I’ve been lucky to be a part. Hahn Family Wines invited a group of bloggers and social media wonks down to their stunning Estate in the Santa Lucia Highlands for a day of tasting, touring and most [...]
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