BurgundyStreet

Last year we reported on Bin Ends, who gave the public the opportunity to take part in wine tastings via Twitter. Last month, a London restaurant got in on the social media act by crowdsourcing their wine list selection. L’Anima, Time Out’s pick for Best New Italian Restaurant 2009, hosted a tasting for six wine experts, including wine writer Anthony Rose, wine vlogger Denise Medrano and resident sommelier Gal Zohar. The tasters formed three teams to sample Zohar’s short list and settle on the final selection. “Unfortunately,” said the sommelier on his blog, “these enthusiasts, rarely agree with each other.” That’s where the public came in.

For three wine categories where the experts couldn’t reach a consensus, L’Anima uploaded videos of each team pleading their case. Members of the public, who had been given advance notice of the wines and were updated on the selection process, were then asked to vote for the wines that they’d like to have in the restaurant. The exercise proved a successful marketing tool for L’Anima, not least because a prize of free wine and a tour of the restaurant was up for grabs for a randomly chosen Twitterer who tweeted about the process. And L’Anima’s audience benefited too, getting its nose into proceedings that were once the exclusive domain of experts.

SOURCE

NAPA, Calif., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ — WineBid.com, the premier Internet auction of fine and rare wines, is pleased to offer a pristine collection directly from a Wine Spectator Grand Award winning restaurant. Wine Spectator each year gives Grand Awards to highly select restaurants with outstanding cellars. There are only 72 restaurants in the nation that have earned the award, which the magazine describes as “our highest award, given to restaurants that show an uncompromising, passionate devotion to the quality of their wine program.”

The cellar, made up of more than 600 lots, includes historic and modern First Growth Bordeaux and Grand Cru Burgundy, vintage Champagnes and Ports, Super Tuscans, the most outstanding Australian wines, and California’s most admired Cabernet Sauvignons.
Included are:
2000 Petrus, Robert M. Parker Jr. 100 pts
2003 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti La Tache, Wine Advocate 99 pts
1996 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Le Montrachet, Parker 96 pts
1990 Domaine Leroy Richebourg, Wine Spectator 96 pts
1967 Chateau d’Yquem, WS 100 pts
1988 E. Guigal Cote-Rotie La Mouline, Parker 100 pts
1959 Haut-Brion, WS 98 pts
1990 Margaux, Parker 100 pts
1990 Gaja Barbaresco Sori Tilden, WS 100 pts
1990 Penfolds Grange, Decanter 5 stars
1994 Harlan, Parker 100 pts
Established in 1996, WineBid.com is the largest online auction for fine and rare wines with more than 55,000 registered bidders. At WineBid.com each bottle of wine is appraised, inspected and stored in our climate controlled warehouse in Napa, California.