Appreciation, Wine Bloggers: New Media

A giant thank you to my esteemed colleagues, wine lover bloggers and interested spectators who have watched with interest, fanned up with passion or snickered with disbelief about the “Banned in ‘Bama” issue turned campaign that peaked as the summer was pedaling to its end.
President of Hahn Estates, Bill Leigon, also passes on his gratitude [...]

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Bloggers Planting Forum

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 [...]

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Get Your Hands Dirty: Bloggers Planting Forum

IF you thought you knew what the Bloggers Tasting Forums were all about, you may be surprised by the next in a series of Blogger/Winery meet ups.   Next month Hahn Estates is dedicating approximately 1.6 acres as “The Bloggers Block”.  The prime vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation will be planted throughout May.  [...]

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facebook: fan or fail?

I have been on facebook for a while…maybe a year or two.  Several friends dragged me after I had already spent time assembling a MySpace page…also a year or two ago.  At first it seemed like a great place to semi-connect with friends and family through photos & messages.  Fast forward to today.  In addition [...]

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Converting Your Own

I’m kind of in my own world here both at my company and in the wine industry, living in social media.  Ok, wait!  Yes, there are a few hands-full of early adopters, bless you!  The wine bloggers, the tech savvy, the curious, the adventurous…you know who you are.  But on average, in the general part [...]

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Hospitality is @RogerSmithHotel (#tweetuprsh)

Every commercial for travel, wine, restaurants, tourism, etc. all end up being about lifestyle, hospitality and the extraordinary lengths to which the hosts will go to take care of you during your stay with them.  Once you have the essentials met, a comfortable bed, room essentials (iron, mini fridge, mini bar, toiletries, wifi, i-home …) [...]

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ZAP Sessions/Wine 2.0

I like the combination of Educational Sessions for the Wine Trade, paired with Trade and/or consumer tastings the way ZAP and Wine 2.0 programmed over the last few days.   These smaller opportunities to connect and learn from other successful wineries or wine businesses is both valuable for guiding and directing our business as well [...]

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Blogger Certification: Helpful or Counterproductive?

Conversation among wine industryprofessionals, marketing strategists and wine bloggers this week includes talking about some kind of Wine Blogger Certification, or a standard that ends up with a Seal of Approval in order to quickly and easily provide bloggers access to events, wineries, industry programming and so on.  I can see why some business people [...]

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New Media Coming of Age:Bloggers Lounge at ZAP!

This press release is from the ZAP/Wine 2.0 Tasting.

Wine 2.0, the innovator in social networking and events in the wine industry (www.winetwo.com) and ZAP, Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (an organization of Zinfandel wineries and Zinfandel consumer enthusiasts, www.zinworld.org and www.zinfandel.org), invites you to participate in “Winery Best Practices,” an education session on January 30, 2009 [...]

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Yes it Works: But not how you think.

Proof of ROI in Social Media:
That’s for the boss’ bottom line.  But I think the real ROI isn’t measured by the bottom line.  The most valuable investment we all make in social networking is our time and ourselves.  Without those two things invested…and invested authentically, there is no real return.  How do you measure and [...]

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