We're very excited to announce the launch of TasteLive 3.0! This release features a major redesign, stability and speed updates and many new features! Surf on over and check it out, and be sure to watch the calendar for upcoming events!
Features in this release:
Page Redesign: Chris made some major updates to the look and feel of the TasteLive front page and each of the winery pages. You'll find a slicker interface, easier navigation, streamlined photo and video adding and less scrolling.
Live Video: Streaming video has once again returned to TasteLive via Ustream and Youtube. Watch for live streams during upcoming events.
Enhanced Profile Pages: Clicking on "My Profile" or the avatar of another user will take you to the profile page where you will see TasteLive posts and replies, Twitter and Facebook links, and user profiles.
Search: Just a few updates to search and trending topic handling
Stability: Since Greg launched the custom TasteLive engine in December, we have experienced zero issues with the live feed. With this release he's added several new speed updates and additional spam filters. Beyond this, several other bugs have been fixed.
We're in the process of updating the event calendar for March, April and May... Be sure to check in often for all the upcoming events from our winery partners, and stay tuned for more big news coming soon!
TasteLive is expanding our retail, restaurant and trade networks! Signing up below will add your business to our partner program and will give you the ability to host TasteLive.com events at your establishment. Working with our winery and trade group partners on consumer driven live tastings is a great way to market your business online and through the vast Tastelive.com networks.
No committments, no fees, signing up below will simply add your name to our email list to receive details on partnership possibilities for upcoming Tastelive events.
Join a few dozen local tweeps as we taste through 4 of the newest releases including the Bin 36 Duncan and Sachs Proprietary Red 2006, a blend of Cabernet, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Petite Verdot and Merlot.
Come join JJ Buckley as we host our first TasteLive! event featuring the Barossa Valley's Elderton Wines. This exclusive "Command Performance" tasting will feature eight wines from the Elderton portfolio, including their flagship wine, the Elderton 'Command' Shiraz.
Taste | One of the Barossa's most lauded wines, the Command Shiraz has been highly rated over the years by both Robert Parker and The Wine Spectator - In fact, WS has awarded it between 93 and 99 points for nine vintages straight! Command is rarely opened for retailers, let alone consumers, so this will be a real treat indeed! We'll also have a look at Elderton's super reserve cabernet, the 'Ashmead', a delicious cab-shiraz-merlot blend 'Ode to Lorraine' and more. (See below for the full tasting menu. ) For onsite guests, discussion will be led by acclaimed JJ Buckley Australian wine expert, Chuck Hayward.
Tech | For TasteLive participants, Elderton proprietor Cameron Ashmead will lead a virtual discussion on four of the eight wines while answering questions from TasteLive participants around the U.S. We hope many of you will also join in the virtual discussion with Cam via the TasteLive platform. All you need is a Twitter account, then register as a TasteLive participant at www.TasteLive.com/eldertonestate. WiFi will be available at the event venue if you wish to bring your laptop and login to the TasteLive website. You can also participate via Twitter using your iPhone or Blackberry by tagging your tasting tweets with an event designated #hashtag (i.e. #ttl #eldertonwines). We'll have a few TasteLive 'experts' hanging around to answer newbie questions and a monitor running the TasteLive feed so you'll be able to see it in action.
This exclusive tasting will be held with our event partnerLocal Kitchen - a neighborhood restaurant and wine bar located on San Francisco's Rincon Hill. Local is dedicated to sourcing as much of their food from local farms, artisans and fisherman as possible. Tasty tidbits from Local's kitchen and wood-fired oven will be provided.
Elderton Command Performance - A JJ Buckley TasteLive Event
$20 per person
Thursday, February 25th, 2009, 6pm to 8pm
Local Kitchen 330 1st Street, San Francisco CA 94105
RSVP is essential - Space is limited to 40 guests!
THE WINEMAKERS — AMERICA’S ONLY REALITY TV SERIES ABOUT WINEMAKERS AIRS AS PART OF 24-HOUR PROGRAM MARATHON ON PBS SATURDAY, JANUARY 30TH, 2010
WASHINGTON, DC January 21st, 2010 ... The Winemakers television series began airing nationwide in October 2009, but if you missed it don’t worry. The Winemakers and Uncorked: Wine Made Simple will air as part of 24-hour program marathon on PBS January 30th.
Your senses will be put to good use as PBS explores the world of wine. First, follow a group of aspiring wine makers as they compete to create and launch their own wine label nationwide on The Winemakers, TV’S first ever reality TV series about wine. Then host Ted Allen (Queer Eye, Chopped) will explore the “how-to” of wine appreciation on Uncorked: Wine Made Simple. This marathon is perfect for the wine novice and con noisseur alike.
Take the Great American Wine Riddle Challenge and Win a Trip To California’s Paso Robles Wine Country!
Think you know something about wine?
Well then you might just win a trip for two to California’s Paso Robles wine country including roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations and VIP tour of the region’s wineries. All you need to do is solve four “wine riddles” before anyone else does and post your answers on The Winemakers Facebook page! For more details click here.
Join the Host & Cast of The Winemakers for a Virtual Tasting Event Featuring the Winner’s Wine onwww.tastelive.com
The winner of season I of The Winemakers produced a 9,000 case brand and is available at retailers nationwide. Join the winner of the show onwww.tastelive.com on January 30th from 3PM to 6PM Eastern Standard Time for "virtual" tasting of the winner's wine plus wines from the Rhone Valley, Paso Robles and Spain. And You can also meet cast members from season I and II. To find out more about the event click here.
Barossa superstar Elderton Estate launches their TasteLive page tonight at 8pm EST with an event with owner Cameron Ashmead. Join in as a group of east coast wine bloggers join Cameron to taste through 4 of the estates current line up including "The Command" single vineyard Shiraz that is just arriving on store shelves.
This is an incredible opportunity to taste one of Australia's very best wines! Tasting begins at 8pm EST at http://tastelive.com/eldertonestate
Selections include: 2008 Unoaked Chardonnay2006 Shiraz/ Cabernet Sauvignon2006 Barossa Valley Shiraz2005 The Command Shiraz
About Elderton Estate: Elderton Wines is a small, family owned and operated winery, situated in the heart of the Barossa Valley. The Elderton vineyard which was planted in 1904 by Samuel Elderton Tolley, was purchased by the Ashmead family in the late 1970's and started producing labelled bottled estate wine from the 1982 harvest. It was well after a decade of hard work and toil that the winery shot to prominence in the early 1990's, after winning the prestigious Jimmy Watson Trophy at the 1993 Melbourne Wine Show. There has been an amazing amount of further wine show success including the World’s Best Shiraz Trophy at the 2000 London International Wine & Spirits Competition. Elderton has also enjoyed being the darling of the worlds wine press, with great endorsements given by James Halliday, Robert Parker, The Wine Spectator Magazine as well as countless others. Furthermore, in 2005, Elderton was named in the Top 100 Wineries in the World by Wine & Spirit Magazine. The real strength behind the Elderton success is the ancient 72 acre Barossa Floor Vineyard, which produces fruit of the highest quality year in year out. Each block on the property is cherished but the two standouts are the 104-year-old Command Shiraz block and the 64-year-old Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon block. The wines of Elderton are enjoyed worldwide for their amazing qualities which come through from varietal character, regional definition and the unique and robust personalities of the Elderton team. In 2008, Elderton will celebrate our 27th vintage as a winery and the Ashmeads still believe that the best is yet to come. Recent Press: "Elderton’s flagship is the single vineyard Command Shiraz, a wine with serious aging potential, and one with which all other South Australia Shiraz must be compared. The opaque purple/black 2005 Command Shiraz was aged in French and American oak puncheons (500-liter barrels). It offers up a sexy/kinky bouquet of wood smoke, lavender, leather, game, mineral, black raspberry, and blueberry pie. Voluptuous on the palate, complex, and dense, it demands a decade of cellaring after which it should offer hedonists much pleasure through 2035. " -97 Points | The Wine Advocate
Wednesday evening will mark the launch of our first east coast TasteLive winery page! We're very excited about our partnership with Finger Lakes Wine Country and can't wait to bring more of these wines to people all over the country! Tomorrow's event will be hosted by our friends Lenn Thompson from the New York Cork Report and will focus on Finger Lake Cabernet Franc."I'm exited to announce today that I'll be co-hosting a live Twitter tasting of four cabernet franc-based Finger Lakes wines as a part of TasteLive. My co-hosts are the folks from Finger Lakes Wine Country (FLWC), who have definitely embraced new and social media more than any other New York wine organization. FLWC launched a TasteLive page a month or so ago, and this will be the first event to really kick off the page. There will be many more, so stay tuned for more announcements.For this edition, we'll be tasting these four wines: Fox Run Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Franc/LembergerHazlitt 1852 Vineyards 2007 Cabernet FrancRed Newt Wine Cellars 2007 “Sawmill Creek” Cabernet FrancRooster Hill Vineyards 2007 Cabernet Franc Too often, people dismiss red wines from the Finger Lakes, but I think participants are in for some surprises with these wines, even though I've only tasted two of the four myself."
Tonight, January 9th, Ridge Wines will launch their TasteLive page with the first event of 2010. This is just the first in many events to come this year from this historic producer. Read all the details below and go right to TasteLive.com/ridgevineyards to follow the actions.
"Join us for our first After Hours of 2010 with an opportunity to pick up the latest ATP offering: the 2006 Zinfandel Caboose from the Nervo Vineyard. We will also taste the 2007 Chardonnay Santa Cruz Mountains Estate, the 2007 Carignane Buchignani Ranch and the 2007 Lytton Springs.
At the Monte Bello tasting room we welcome Cowgirl Creamery with several enticing offerings. Cowgirl Creamery began in 1997 with the goal to create farmstead quality cheese on a small scale production, much like fine quality wine. Ridge stands firm on having a respect for the land our grapes are grown on. We support local artisans whose products have a sense of place and share our ecological values.
At both tasting rooms we will introduce a new way to taste wines together and launch our TasteLive page. While we taste through the wines live in the tasting rooms you are encouraged to tweet while you taste with other Ridge fans in the Virtual Ridge Tasting Room online. Can’t make it to the event in person? Taste along with us at <www.tastelive.com/ridgevineyards>. Once you create your free account with TasteLive you can post your tasting notes and questions directly onto our page and see what others have to say!
Following the conversation is easy— You can either log onto <www.tastelive.com/ridgevineyards> (do this before the event starts) and follow and tweet from there, or just mark / tag your tweets with the hashtag #ridgewines. Then follow the tag on your twitter application of choice.
This event is complimentary for all Ridge ATP Program Members (+1 guest per membership), and an RSVP <http://www.ridgewine.com/ridge_vineyards_events/rsvp.tml> by December 30 is required to attend, and to pick up your shipment."
