Tuesday, October 27, 2009

For those vested in growth of regional wine, DrinkLocalWine a site for sore eyes


It's already a few weeks ago since the second Regional Wine Week, where bloggers from places other than the West Coast chimed in on wines and wineries in their region. All the content was linked to this DrinkLocalWine site.

Co-founder Dave McIntyre, who writes on wines on a blog called
wineline, responded to an e-mail Tuesday morning about how it went by saying that that had more people involved this year and from more states. "We are thrilled to have some coverage of Michigan, more coverage of North Carolina and Georgia," he wrote. "We also have tremendous interest from Texas bloggers, many of whom attended our first DrinkLocalWine.com conference in Dallas in August."

The founders noted on their site that they welcomed more contributors to Regional Wine Week despite the economy, which has taken out some members of the mainstream media as well as other independent bloggers.

"So this year's output was as welcome as it was unexpected," they wrote. "But it shouldn't have been. We, more than anyone, should know that regional wine is an accepted, full-fledged member of the wine community. That people -- a lot of people -- want to write about it should not be surprising."

And next year's, the third annual, already is tentatively planned for Oct. 9-16. Planning also is under way on a second DrinkLocalWine.com conference. The first one earlier this year was held in Texas, in believe. Next year's seems targeted for a location in northern Virginia during the weekend of April 24-25.