"wbw" news and stories

While summer saw a trend toward the Italian sparkling wine Prosecco, and rose seemed to be all the rage with the clubbing set, we can't forget the grand master of them all, Champagne.

Sam of Becks and Posh has just completed the Global Bloggers' Guide to Champagne as her summary for Wine Blogging Wednesday. The monthly food and wine bloggers' event had a theme of "Lovely Jubbly Bubbly." The detailed reviews are on each of the individual bloggers' sites, but Sam has done a great job of previewing them.

If you're planning to drink a little Champagne in the near future, this would be a good place to start for ideas!

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With Wine Blogging Wednesday #22 wrapped up by Tim at Wine Cast - who would have thought there were so many red wines still with less than 12.5% alcohol - our thoughts turn to the next theme.

Hosted by Vivi's Wine Journal the theme for round 23 is  Bar-B-Que Wines. What wines do you serve with your burnt sausages, undercooked chicken and wilted salad? OK so I am dissing your culinary endevours, I am sure your BBQs offer an array of delicious specialities cooked to perfection. BUt wine is the thing here. Do you go for a general perpose white, something relativly inocculous or do you go for some full-bodied, mighty red bursting with flavour to match the smoky edge to those hulking slabs of beef?

Whatever your selection would be, Viuv's Wine Journal would like to hear from you by the 5th July.

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Oh yes indeedee, my friends, the top wine blog event WBW (Wine Blogging Wednesday) and the premier food bloggers event IMBB (Is My Blog Burning) are combining in May to create perhaps the largest food blog event EVER!

To be called the Fabulous Favorites Festival this exciting event will occur on Friday May 19. Combining the food and the wine FFF is a food and wine pairing event that the organisers hope "will attract the largest group of participants ever for any culinary blog event."

The concept is simple, with two plans of attack you can choose from.

1. Pick a favorite bottle of wine from your cellar and create/cook a dish that goes with it.
2. Pick a favorite dish in your culinary repertoire and seek out a wine that will pair will it.

Or, if you're feeling really ambitious, create an entire wine-pairing menu of favorites.

While we here at Slashfood seem to be too busy to join in (or in my case too forgetful) the biggest food bloggers' event might just spur a few of us to join in this time.

[Nick had a great post the other day for Sugar High Friday] 

Tomorrow is the monthly highlight in the wine bloggers calendar: Wine Blogging Wednesday.

As is the nature of these blog events a new month means a new host and a new theme. For April the theme is Anything But Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, or Riesling as selected by podcast wine site Wine For Newbies. While the choice may seem limiting by taking out the three main wine grapes there is certainly plenty to explore. Look to Portugal (Bical or Fernao Pires),  or to Spain (Albarino). Italy of course has plenty of grapes to select from and, if you can find them, Greece is smothered with native varietals all suitable for sampling for this event.

France shouldn't be ignored. There is Chenin Blanc in the Loire, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc in Alsace and down south Viognier, Bourboulenc and the Marsanne/Rousanne duo. This is what I enjoy so much about Wine Blogging Wednesday it forces you to look to more interesting bottles and experiment.

[image Andrew Barrow]

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The next round of the world's favourite (actually, only!) bloggers' wine event has been announced by host Wine Expression.

The theme is to be the grapes of the Rhone Valley but expanded to include wines made from these varieties outside of France. That gives 22 different varieties to explore although I doubt many will be found outside of their homeland. I mean, have you seen a Terret Noir, Camarese, or Vaccarese from Australia or other new world country? Sadly, "no," I think the answer will be. But that still gives a huge number of wines to select from.

The Rhone Ranger site is a good place to start looking. It promotes Americas Rhone varietal wines listing producers and stockists and other background details. Grape varieties are also detailed supplying limited information on where in California they are planted.

I'm looking forward to this WBW round as I am a huge fan of the wines and grape varieites from the Rhone.

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