So, I’ve been pretty cagey about this but here’s the official announcement: Ryan O’Connell is moving to California for part of 2012.  The company I’m working with in California is looking for new wines and new business opportunities and they think I can help.  I think I can help too. I’m leaving tomorrow.  I’ll be [...]

This article compares research findings about wine tourism in Champagne and the Languedoc.  If you’re looking for a vineyard to visit in Champagne, I suggest Tarlant who organized my entire trip there.  If you’re looking for a vineyard to visit in the Languedoc, I suggest mine because I want to meet you. While I visited [...]

I’ve played a lot with graffiti in the past few months and it’s always been pretty popular.  So I should probably post it here on the blog which is a tad more permanent than facebook status updates and tweets. Sud de France launched an ad campaign with these posters that feature a model who might [...]

One of the best parts of the recent European Wine Bloggers Conference in Brescia, Italy is the post trips. Wine regions like Franciacorta (the primary sponsor for the event), il Soave (the region I visited on Sunday), and many others invited bloggers to tour wineries, see historical sites, and taste local food and wine. These [...]

I attended the Université de la Vigne et du Vin in Ferrals-les-Corbieres, a small village in the heart of Languedoc wine country.  This post is a summary of my day.  A full pdf of the event program can be downloaded. In brief It was pretty cool.  The Uni is a real home-grown event where some [...]

Today was LanguedocDay, and it was a great day even though I didn’t do anything special for the occasion.  The fact is that stuff is always happening in the Languedoc.  As luck would have it, there was a big Languedoc conference about wine and communication today in the tiny village of Ferrals-les-Corbieres.   And then I [...]

November 10th, 2011 is Languedoc Day.  Show that you’re participating with a free registration on the LanguedocDay event page. What is Languedoc Day? Languedoc Day is an opportunity for lots of people to discover or learn about one of the largest winemaking regions on the planet.  This beautiful stretch of land on the Mediterranean coast [...]

2011 Vintage Report People have been asking me about how the vintage is going to turn out since back in August.  I’m always hesitant to guess at quality that early in the game, and this year is a perfect example of why we shouldn’t be too confident in our speculation. All year, the vines were [...]

We started the machine harvest on September 15, 2011.  The weather’s been perfect and the grapes came in very cool as we started predawn (4h45AM).  A few surprises but lots of good things to report.  High hopes for the rest of harvest and the potential of this vintage for the entire Languedoc Roussillon! I don’t [...]

I got to see a lot of British friends while I was on Naked Wines UK Tour this summer.  Even Jancis Robinson, the queen bee herself attended our London tasting.  And she had exceptionally positive things to say about the innovation at Naked Wines and also the quality of wine. Overall quality of Naked Wines [...]