I’ve attended a few wine tastings hosted by the friendly folks at WineTwits and I’m excited to see and hear that they are putting together some tasting events available to the public.

The events, named Taste Challenges, compare wines of the same varietals or made in a similar way, against one another in blind tastings. The purpose of this type of event is to allow wine fans to taste the wines, share their thoughts on them via Twitter, see what other tasters have to say and pick their favorites. The Taste Challenge series begins with a tasting of two Italian DOC Pinot Grigio wines on 3/24 at 8:00 PM EST.

WineTwits is promoting a neat giveaway associated with the event – a chance to win a trip for two to Venice, Italy (see details at www.WineTwits.com).

Folks interested in participating in the upcoming Taste Challenge can take advantage of free shipping on all orders of the Taste Challenge Tasting Kits ($30 per kit). The kit includes the two wines being tasted, which have a retail value of $40.

To register for the event, and for details on the Venice trip giveaway, visit www.WineTwits.com.

The fine print: I’m not affiliated with WineTwits nor am I benefitting financially from these events. Online / Twitter wine tasting is fun and WineTwits is king of the space.

I attended Wine Twits’ Spit & Twit event last week at City Winery in New York City.  The launch event for this concept was very well-attended and featured over 100 wines from around the world.  Steve and his team from Wine Twits really did a great job putting this event together.  The concept is simple: 1) Taste a wine 2) Spit (or not) 3) Twitter about the findings.  Large TV screens throughout the room display live feeds of the tweets as patrons send them.  Neat, no?

I enjoyed some pretty great wines and met fabulous folks in the wine trade, and found the space at City Winery to be ideal for this type of event.  Each winery, or wine distributor, featured his/her product at tables set up throughout the place and patrons made their way around the room savoring wines from around the globe.  A sponsor of the event, Riedel, provided each guest with a fine piece of stemware upon arriving, and this made the tasting all the more enjoyable.

Some of the wines I particularly enjoyed were:

2008 Alder Springs Roussanne Westerly Vineyard

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon To Kalon Vineyards

2004 D’Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz

2007 Ravines Wine Cellars –Cabernet Franc

2007 Ravines Wine Cellars – Pinot Noir

2007 Benziger Signaterra Pinot Noir, Bella Luna Vineyards

I’m looking forward to seeing where Wine Twits will host its next event.  Count me in on the concept of tasting then tweeting my findings.  

I attended Wine Twits’ Spit & Twit event last week at City Winery in New York City.  The launch event for this concept was very well-attended and featured over 100 wines from around the world.

While I enjoyed some pretty great wines and met fabulous folks in the wine trade, I especially enjoyed the two wines served by Cult Vines, whose motto is “is to provide the finest wine to discreet connoisseurs and collectors”.

2008 Alder Springs Roussanne Westerly Vineyard

2008 Cult Vines Roussanne

This golden honey colored Roussanne has a beautiful nose, huge mouthfeel, bright apple flavor.  This wine is well-balanced but with higher alcohol content and would be outstanding with food.  Could use some cellaring.  Chardonnay drinkers, move over to this wine.

Price:  Around $49

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon To Kalon Vineyards

2007 Cult Vines Cabernet Sauvignon

It was difficult to pull myself away from the lush fruit aroma in order to actually sip this wine, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed when I did.  This Cabernet offers the darkest, opaque purple hue that’s easy to simply stare at for a while.  This wine is full of ripe fruit, especially blackberry, and young, not at all unpleasant, tannins.  Craved a rare porterhouse after the first sip.

Price:  Around $125