The Wellesley Wine Press: Wine Spectator's Grand Tour 2013 Dates and Locations

Accolades

I was quoted in The Boston Globe about legislation that would permit winery direct sales to Massachusetts:

“This is good news for Massachusetts wine enthusiasts, who will now be able to purchase wines they currently don’t have access to,” said Robert Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine. “This is also good news for Massachusetts in general since it will mean new revenues.”

I wrote this article in WellesleyWeston Magazine featuring local food & wine experts like Chef Ming Tsai, Mike O'Connell Jr., Chris Minervino, and Austin Moran. Check it out!

I shared my thoughts on the direct shipment of wine to Massachusetts with CBS Boston during hearings at the State House.

This site was listed as one of the Top 100 Wine Blogs:

https://alawine.com/wine-blog-rankings.html

Our Scoop the Spectator contest was mentioned on Palate Press:

"Bob Dwyer, a Massachusetts-based wine blogger, has created the coolest parlor game in wine, and for once it’s a wine contest that does not involve blind tasting.

I used to think the entire concept of a Top 100 list was silly. This year, mine was the first guess on Dwyer’s site."

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reached out for a quote on the expansion of the number of licenses each retailer in MA can hold:

"Robert P. Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine at thewww.wellesleywinepress.com, calls the state’s liquor laws bizarre and favors a wider availability of wine. For consumers, it would be more convenient to be able to buy wine at a supermarket while shopping for food, he said."

“You have this strange exclusion of wine, which in Europe is considered a grocery item,” said Mr. Dwyer. “Here it’s considered the demon rum.”

Wine Spectator picked up on our 2011 Scoop the Spectator contest with these remarks:

"trying to predict the annual Wine of the Year is a popular parlor game among enophiles. This year, blogger Wellesley Wine Press held a contest, with New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Co. awarding a prize of a Kindle Fire e-reader to the first commenter to correctly guess this year's top wine before it was announced. Unfiltered was impressed with the number of Top 10 wines prognosticated by Wellesley's readers. "Senelwine" guessed Château de St.-Cosme Gigondas 2009, our No. 10 wine, "Mike M" guessed Quinta do Vallado Touriga Nacional Douro 2008, our No. 7 wine, "James Z" guessed Baer Ursa Columbia Valley 2008, our No. 6 wine, and "RichardPF" nailed it, winning the Kindle, and the respect of his wine-loving peers. Looks like Wellesley's readers know their wine."

Boston's CBS affiliate WBZ-TV stopped by to discuss why wineries still can't ship wine directly to MA consumers more than a year after courts ruled they should be able to.

WBUR, Boston's NPR news station, did an audio interview with me for a piece discussing MA Question 1: Repealing the Alcohol Sales Tax.

The Chicago Tribune's Bill Daley mentioned the site in Rosé: A wine for more seasons. I said "For me, they're like pumpkin spice coffee drinks: best enjoyed early in the season". Bill alsogave the site a shout-out for a piece the Capitol Case Clubcontributed about restaurant wine service. I thought it was a great example of how print wine writers can effectively engage wine bloggers.

The nice folks at Foodista, The Cooking Encyclopedia Everyone Can Edit, named this site Wine Blog of the Day for this entry featuring GoBYO. Thanks!

Budget Bacchus named this site Wine Blog of the Week. Check 'em out!

Boston University wine educator Stacy Woods mentioned this site alongside wine blogging powerhouses Vinography and Fermentation. Wow- that's great company to be in! Thanks- I appreciate it.

WBZ-TV, the Boston CBS affiliate, interviewed me aboutMassachusetts wine shipping laws. It was kind of surreal having a camera crew in our kitchen but we enjoyed it! Check it out:

Wine Enthusiast Magazine called me a "wine accessory guru". Thanks! I appreciate it.

NPR's Public Radio Kitchen linked to my pieces on "Syrah: The Steroids of the Pinot Noir World" and "Watching the Wine Community Rumble". Thanks for that! I am humbled, and I feel just a little bit like the Car Talk guys do when they say "And even though Roger Clemens stabs his radio with a syringe whenever he hears us say it, this is NPR: National Public Radio."

The Boston Globe's website has been linking to my recent entries as part of their expanded local coverage includingWellesley. I truly appreciate that as it has driven a lot of local traffic to this site.

It was really nice of Thomas Matthews, Executive Editor of Wine Spectator to leave a comment and then check back and answer some questions I had. Awesome guy! Check it out here. And here.

Thanks to The Boston Globe for including The Wellesley Wine Press in their list of local blogs in the Food & Drink section. Check it out here.

The Wellesley Wine Press was just added tohttps://wine.alltop.com. Alltop is an interesting topical take on sorting through the best sites on the Internet- check it out and see which sites are listed for topics you're most interested in.

Wine Spectator's Grand Tour is a self-paced walk around wine tasting featuring 200 fantastic producers, each pouring one of their signature wines. Many of the wineries send the winemaker and/or owner. The tasting includes a light buffet and a souvenir Riedel wine glass and costs $200.

Dates and locations for 2013:

San Francisco - Wednesday April 24th (Marriott Marquis)
Las Vegas - Saturday April 27th (The Mirage)
Chicago - Friday May 3rd (Navy Pier)

I attended the event in 2011 when it came to Boston and it was the best wine tasting I've ever been to. What I liked about this event:

So many of the wines being poured are hard to find at retail. Like Kosta Browne for example.
Many of the wines are being poured by the winemaker or owner. Like Pontet-Canet for example.
The event wasn't overly crowded, at least the 2011 event in Boston. You could walk up and get a taste of $200++/bottles of wines like Chateau Margaux or Mouton-Rothschild no problem.

Note that these Grand Tour events are not to be confused with Wine Spectator's New York Wine Experience which features sit-down seminars where Wine Spectator Editors moderate tastings of the year's Top 10 wines and such. That event is in October 2013 and costs quite a bit more when attending the seminars. The New York Wine Experience does have a "tasting only" option that costs about the same as the Grand Tour. Just wanted to mention this so you're aware of the different options coming up this year.

Glancing at this year's list of participating wineries here are (just a few) that I'm looking forward to tasting:

Joseph Phelps
Pontet-Canet
Cos d'Estournel
Round Pond
Bibi Graetz - Testamatta
Caymus
Kosta Browne
Lynch-Bages
MacPhail
Merus

We visited Chicago this past summer and had a great time. Here are some reviews to help get you thinking about where to stay, dine, and visit:

Bonus: The Cubs are in town with day games at Wrigley Field Friday and Saturday!

Looking at flights out of Boston they're quite affordable and at convenient times for an overnight. Short flights, fantastic restaurants, awesome hotels, and a world class wine tasting. I hope we can make it. Who's with me?

Further Reading:

Any chance you might be able to make it? If so let me know - I'm hoping to make it and I'd love to say hello. You can reach me at wellesleywinepress@gmail.com or @RobertDwyer on Twitter.

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