There's #Cabernet in the Bin at Bin 41 Wine

The twitter machine is an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle, inside a mystery. Much like the deep sea or outer space, its frontiers are in many ways still unmapped. We know that in the deep sea, there are fish, and fish-like things. In space, there are stars and planets and such. In the twitter machine there are people in images the size of postage stamps and then lots of hashtags, and “at” signs; otherwise know as @.

Like any new frontier, this can, of course, be very perplexing, but some people are naturally talented when loosed in a new frontier. Rick Bakas is one of those people. He talks a lot about bacon, but he'll also say very insightful things about wine and social media (which is really just code for the twitter machine, and maybe facebook).

On September 2nd, Rick Bakas unleashed a twitter-based, singular yet plural ode to one particular wine: Cabernet. Cabernet is often seen as the most luxurious of wine varietals. It can be big and brawny, as is often the case in California; or it can be more nuanced and elegant here in the winederful state of Washington. In both cases it can be mindnumbingly beautiful. And so, #Cabernet was born.

People all over the world took part in this #twitter tasting of the Cabernet variety. I went to West Seattle and met up with my twitterati friends from Seattle at Bin 41. Bin 41 is a small family-owned wine shop in the heart of West Seattle, in the area known as the Junction. Junction sounds like a fancy word for Intersection, but somehow better. So, well played, West Seattle. This wasn’t the first time I’d been to Bin 41, and it’s an excellent wine shop. It’s small and personal with a very impressive selection.


Bin 41 hosted six smaller Washington winemakers and their Cabernets or Cabernet-based blends. Guardian Cellars poured their 2008 Chalk Line blend and Bart Fawbush poured his Bartholomew Wine blend Reciprocity. There were also Cabernets from Forgeron, Beresan and Balbao winery. Two other blends were poured by Stevens Winery, their 424 and Patterson Cellars Red Mountain blend.

For $5, the approximately 130 guests were given access to six pours of some of Washington's smaller boutique wineries as well as pizza from Talaricos, located just across the street. The wines were fine examples of what Washington Cabernet is capable of, both on it's own and as a blend. Two of the wines that I'd not had before were the Guardian Cellars Chalk Line and the Stevens 424. I thought both were very well done. Jerry from Guardian Cellars called the Chalk Line blend his "pizza and Doritos wine." While I agree the wine is approachable, I feel like it's a good example of Washington fruit worthy of a bit more appreciation than that.


This was the first foray into a twitter event for Jon and and his wife T, who own Bin 41, and he was very happy with how the evening turned out. From an attendee perspective, Jon and T certainly know how to bring the community together and I hope this is the first in a long line of twitter events at Bin 41.

(Check out information on Bin 41 tastings and classes here.)

You're a Shining Star, You're a #PinotNoir

On July 15th the relatively famous #PinotNoir tasting will be "on and popping," as the kids say. A collection of twitterati have put together yet another varietal-focused virtual tasting. The trick here is that they've got it set up like some kind of battle royal thing, where the fake wrestlers all "fight" each other to determine world domination. In this case the organizers hail from some of the greatest Pinot Noir producing regions of the country: Atlanta, Georgia. Though I jest about Georgia's Pinot-producing acumen, these characters, Ed Thralls of Wine Tonite and Joe Herrig of Suburban Wino along with one of our favorite Northwest wine bloggers, Tamara Belgrade of Sip with Me, have put this little donnybrook together.

While there have been a plethora of twitter tastings lately, what I especially like about this one is the smack talking, fake wrestling element of it. Rather than all of us singing the praises of the wines of Washington or the Chardonnays of (gulp) California, we're talking smack and shouting out loud about our favorite Pinot spot. Californians will be talking about Carneros and Sonoma Valley and Napa (which I believe is an auto parts place?), and I of course will be flying the flag for the Willamette Valley.

The good folks at Willamette Valley Vineyards have sent me some exquisite weaponry for this "battle royale of Burgundian origins." While fake wrestler types often use things like chairs, ladders, or crow bars to bludgeon their opponent, I will use the 2008 Founder's Reserve Pinot Noir. This is far more effective than any old ladder, 'cause odds are, it's damn delicious. I haven't had it yet of course, but in one day... Boom.

So folks, get out there and hit the streets for Pinot Noir, and it's greatest growing region, the Willamette Valley. Some of the Willamette Valley's finest establishments are hosting tweet-ups to allow you to gather together and tweet from the same room. Some are offering amazing deals on their wine, like Duck Pond Cellars and the aforementioned Willamette Valley Vineyards. So it's really a win, wine, win situation.

How do you play along, you ask? Get your twitter machinery and a bottle of Pinot Noir ready to roll; if it's not Willamette in its origins, then I wonder about you. From there, taste that wine in your glass and unleash a torrent of twitter descriptions on the whole wide world, making sure to use the hashtags #PinotNoir (one word) and #WV for Willamette Valley. There are other hashtags for California Pinots, but I don't believe in that sorta thing. It's unnatural. Tweet away about your #WV #PinotNoir and we'll make sure that the world's finest Pinot producing region get's its due.