July started by coming down off the high of the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference. With June being a stellar month in traffic, business adventures, and local media attention, I figured July would be a small let down. Boy was I wrong. July saw some major milestones and goals for DrinkNectar. We surpassed 3000 fans on Facebook and on Twitter and achieved 10,000 page views for the first time. One post hit the magical 1000 view milestone (see below). I also made some significant steps in laying the foundation for what will hopefully be a new business in the Fall. Photographers were hired for Spokane Wine Magazine and I started the effort of selling ad space for the November launch.

I continued my focus of writing at least one post per weekday (going on six months now) and ended the month with 26 posts and 22 formal wine reviews. I’m very honored to have the DrinkNectar wine reviews included in the HelloVino iPhone application. One of my favorite events of the month was the blind wine tasting party we hosted with a group of 12 friends. My top wine of the month came from that tasting.

Wines of the Month

Best Value Under $15

2008 Waterbrook Melange Blanc (Reviewed Here)

• The Stuff: 30% Riesling, 20% Gewürztraminer, 15% Viognier, 10% Sauv Blanc, 10% Chardonnay, 10$ Pinot Gris, 5% Muscat; 4000 cases made; 12.2%ABV; 1.4% residual sugar 
• The Swirl: Very light pale, nearly clear with a hint of beautiful honey highlights 
• The Sniff: Taken by surprise with the abundant perfume, sweet honey, peach and lychtee fruit. A fantastic aroma that keeps you coming back for one more sniff before you sip. 
• The Sip: Not knowing the blend, I would have pegged this for a Riesling. The distinctive Riesling / Gewurz flavors come through but are contrasted with a nice mouth coating of the Chardonnay and the floral components to the Viognier. The wine is amazingly complex for the price point and delivers great off dry sweetness balanced by medium acidity.  
• The Score: At only $15 retail, this is an amazing value. I love the nice subtle honey flavors that balance well with the wet stone minerality. I score this wine a solid 3+/5 

Runner Up: 2008 J.Lohr Estate Syrah $10 – (reviewed in same video as above wine) 

Best Wine

My favorite wine of the month completely changed my perspective of Pinot Noir. I gravitate toward Bordeaux varietal grapes of Cab, Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec, Petite Verdot and Carmenere. The Pinot Noir Twitter event, rocked my Pinot world!

2008 Belle Glos Las Alturas Pinot Noir (Reviewed Here)

• The Stuff: 100% Pinot Noir from Las Alturas; Aged 9 months in 60% new French oak; 14.8%ABV
• The Swirl: Medium dark plum and crimson colors that borderline Merlot. About 70% opaque
• The Sniff: Close your eyes and picture yourself in the kitchen. Your grandma just baked her world famous cherry pie. The room is filled with aroma of bright ripe cherry, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and that slight burnt aroma from the pie filling that spilled on the rack. That is this wine!
• The Sip: The aroma comes across very well on the palate as well bringing supple fruit flavors that showcase the amazing winemaking and extraction achieved by Joe Wagner. This Pinot Noir is without a doubt the best Pinot Noir I’ve had to date and is an established baseline for me.
• The Score: $44; a wine to remember, long for and diligently seek out. 4+/5

Runner Up: 2006 Signorello Estate Padrone $110 (Reviewed Here)

Cool video of Joe Wagner, winemaker of the wine reviewed above!

Other Highlights from July

The Posts That Made Me Spit Wine Out My Nose

wkelterer Something new for ALP. I interview my first grape. Find out why Merlot is sad no one cares anymore. http://bit.ly/aLTjVT

vinotology Breaking News – Wine Bloggers Win Powerball Lottery http://bit.ly/cmpX2J

sipwithme A Tasting Room Nightmare – the most obnoxious tasting room guest http://sipwithme.blogspot.com/2010/07/tasting-room-nightmare.html

A Geeky Fun Non Wine Tweet

Minervity Lego Star Wars: Hilarious Stop Motion Recap Of Entire Trilogy – http://bit.ly/cwKhm7

The Coolest Use of Technology in a Tasting Room

tomcwark Tom’s New Fermentati The iPad in the Wine Tasting Room http://bit.ly/dcplTl

Favorite Piece of Social Media Information

Sung_H_Lee 10 Ways to Make Your #Facebook Page NOT Suck http://ow.ly/25uR5 RT @panah

Favorite New Blogger Feature

This tweet was part 16 of the series. Be sure to check out the rest of the creative cork ideas on Wine Harlots! WineHarlots Put a Cork in It! – Part Sixteen: Holy Cow! http://bit.ly/bGUYzZ

DrinkNectar Top Post of the Month

This post was the definition of viral. I tweeted the post a few times and then stepped away to do some “paying job work.” I checked in with Google Analytics at 10AM and the post had already been viewed 300 times. The month ended with the post having 1000 views and being re-tweeted almost 100 times! WOW!

http://drinknectar.com/2010/07/12/7-creative-uses-to-recycle-wine-bottles/