First up I totally surprised myself by capturing the title in the 3rd annual Young Winos of L.A. March Madness blind tasting tournament. It was down to the wire, and took a lucky (if slightly educated) guess of Australian Shiraz to pull out into the lead and never look back. With this outrageous victory comes a little bit of free wine, bragging rights although to whom I'm unclear, and D's lavish praise "that's cool, what's for dinner again?"
The next day I received notice that people all over the country had donated money to support wine bloggers who could not afford to attend the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, and a committee had chosen The Vino File as a recipient of some of that money in the form of a partial scholarship. Besides being obviously honored, and grateful that this community respects each other enough to do this, I am really very excited to attend and learn. I want The Vino File to be better (although I would argue it can only go up from here), and I know that a lot of people that I respect will be attendance and offering guidance in sessions and workshops. Honestly this tops the news that 'V' has returned to ABC this Fall as the most exciting news of April 2010.
Finally last week the wine tweeters and blogosphere erupted over the introduction of House Resolution 5034, a bill that would drastically reduce the ability of alcohol producers to challenge state laws that inhibit direct shipping and other means of distribution that cut-out the wholesalers. Huh? What does that mean? The law gets quite technical and may be of no interest to your average wine consumer. Just to say, this is the type of law that is so obviously brought to our House of Representatives purely out of lobbying and special interests and one glance at it clearly shows whose interest is represented (BIG hint: it is the large alcohol wholesalers). I can not claim to understand the downstream effects of this particular legislation but I know that it really chaps me that a state-mandated layer of commerce (which seems a little unconstitutional itself) has the power to eat up our House's time debating the merits of further protecting them and limiting the rights of others. Enough about that.
Coming up this week on The Vino File I will reveal that I have discovered my favorite grape. No, I did not come upon some obscure varietal bottling that changed my life. I simply evaluated where I tend to spend my money after tasting dozens of wines and it comes down to one grape much more frequently than any others. Look for that.Additionally, if I can find my notes I will write up my trip to visit Anglim Winery, owned and operated by Steve and Steffanie Anglim. They are making and selling some great wine out of their tasting room in downtown Paso Robles.
And most important my dog Zack will make his first appearance on the blog. Have a great week!!!
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