I’m really not sure that there could be many other things that would be more fun for a social media junkie like myself than tweeting while drinking wine with a bunch of people who are doing the same thing. But, that’s just what I’ll be doing tomorrow evening!
I’m really looking forward to taking part in the #TGTaste Chat with Thirsty Girl and Villa Maria Estate Wines. We’ll be tasting two of their Sauvignon Blancs:
2011 Villa Maria Estate Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc – SRP $14.99
Click here to download a PDF Info Sheet for this wine.
2011 Villa Maria Estate Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc – SRP $19.99
Read tasting notes for this wine.
Now, I’ve been fortunate to have already tried the Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc and really, really enjoyed it. It has a nice, fruity, floral flavor. As I’ll be tasting alone tomorrow night, I’ve decided to open the Cellar Selection to taste during the Twitter Tasting.
About Villa Maria Estate Wines
This year Villa Maria is celebrating 50 years of winemaking. Founded by Sir George Fistonich, it remains a 100% New Zealand and family owned business today which a strong commitment to sustainability.
– Villa Maria was the first wine company in New Zealand to declare the winery a “cork-free zone,” sealing all wines from the 2004 vintage onwards with a screwcap to ensure quality in every bottle. It was also the first New Zealand producer to employ professional viticulturists and is a leader in sustainable viticulture and winemaking.
– Sauvignon Blanc The Sauvignon Blanc grape is originally from the Bordeaux region of France. It is planted in many regions around the world and can be made in a crisp, dry style like at Villa Maria Estate or as a dessert wine. Flavors can range from aggressively grassy to very tropical and sweet.
Why Twitter is a Great Social Medium for Wine Tasting
Twitter is so much like one big chat room that it seems like a natural fit to use it as way to gather people together at a specific time to tweet, sip and discuss wines. Wine drinking is very much social by design and with Twitter, it creates the opportunity to talk about wines with people from all over the world that you likely would not otherwise meet and converse with. And, because Twitter chats are public, it creates a good level of visibility for both the wine and the sponsors of the Twitter chat.
There is also the opportunity for others to jump in who may not be tasting the wine of the night but who are interested in discussing wine with others.
Using tools like TweetGrid, Tweetchat or Twitter Fall, you can easily follow along with the conversation and reply to anyone else who is also participating in the chat. You can also use a social media monitoring dashboard like Hootsuite to monitor that hashtag that’s been assigned to that specific chat.
For those who need metrics of how the overall chat went, you can use tools like Tweet Reports or TweetReach to gather some data about the reach and types of tweets that took place during the chat period.
#TGTaste: The Details
#TGTaste will start at 5 pm PDT/ 8 pm EDT tomorrow, Wednesday, May 16. It will be moderated from the @beathirstygirl Twitter account with head Thirsty Girl @lesliesb (Leslie Sbrocco) participating from her Twitter account.
Villa Maria Wines will be tweeting from @villamaria_wines with Master winemaker Alastar Maling tweeting from his account at @alastairmaling.
Follow the hashtag #TGTaste (and tag your tweets with it as well) to follow along with the fun and see what others are saying about these wines.
This will be a great opportunity to find out more about New Zealand wines and in particular about Villa Maria Wines.
What Twitter Chats have you participated in?