OpenBottles

Vintage SCU Update and Raffle Prizes	Aug 27, 2008
So, Vintage SCU is sold out (we like to think it’s because OpenBottles will be there). We want to make sure that we make a huge splash at this event, being the first big wine event we’ve ever sponsored. We will have lots of stuff going on at our booth, including a HUGE raffle. Just check out the top 3 prizes: GRAND PRIZE: Winery tour and food pairing for 4 (yes, four) at Pendleton Estate Vineyards & Winery. Many thanks to Pendleton's owner and winemaker, Michall, for donating this awesome prize! FIRST PLACE PRIZE: A bottle of 2007 Vina Moda Sierra Foothills Viognier signed by winemaker and owner, Nathan. This wine recently won Best of Class and Best of Region at the 2008 California State Fair. Many thanks to Vina Moda Winery for the outstanding donation!! SECOND PLACE PRIZE: A 3 liter bottle of Manzanita Creek Finetti Ranch Zinfandel signed by Manzanita Creek’s winemaker. Special thanks to Lance for donating this wine from his private collection. There will be other really cool prizes too, so do come by and check it out. For every review you write at Vintage SCU you’ll get one raffle ticket. We’ll have computers set up at the event, and we’ll be giving away tasting notebooks and pens (so you have no excuse). Enter as many times as you want. Many thanks again to Pendleton Estate Vineyards & Winery, Vina Moda Winery and Lance for donating these amazing prizes and helping to make our first event a memorable one! See you there.
Posted By: sagi \| Category: News & Updates \| Permalink

Announcing Our Newest Feature – the Corkboard	Aug 25, 2008
Last night we released a new feature we like to call “the corkboard.” Our corkboard is the electronic counterpart of the real world corkboards we’re all familiar with – it’s a place for people to “pin” comments on other members' profiles (check out the cool pin icons). Every member has his or her own corkboard (just go to the corkboard tab on a member’s profile). If you want to compliment Lance on his awesome review, go ahead and post a comment on his corkboard. Or if you want to tell people about your new house, go ahead and post it on your own corkboard. Of course, you can delete a comment from your corkboard if you want. Just log in to your account and go to the corkboard tab. I’m personally really excited about this new feature because I love the communication that it enables. Over time, we’ll add more features like attaching pictures and icons (or whatever else you guys want). So let’s go and post some comments, but be careful not to poke your fingers – those pins are sharp!
Posted By: sagi \| Category: Tips & Features \| Permalink

Do You Remember a Year Ago?!	Aug 22, 2008
In addition to launching our 3.0 site and sponsoring our first wine event, the OpenBottles database of wineries and wines continues to grow at at huge pace. As of today, there are 4,100 wineries and 31,000 wines listed on our site. To put this into perspective, last year most of the wineries consisted of only California. Today we have wineries from all over the world including Australia, Spain, Italy, China, Chile and Argentina!! OpenBottles would like to thank our community for making this the best site for reviews and information. Cheers!
Posted By: Lance \| Category: News & Updates \| Permalink

Please Welcome B Cellars	Aug 21, 2008
I’m happy to announce our newest winery member - B Cellars. Located in Napa Valley, B Cellars is committed to creating perfectly balanced and complex wines. The winery’s name and logo (the letter “b” and the degree symbol) refers to BRIX, which is the term used to describe the sugar content in grape juice and is one indication of a wine’s potential for greatness. Founded in 2003 by successful retail entrepreneur, Jim Borsack, and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts senior executive, H.E. Duffy Keys, B Cellars’ focus is to produce exceptional artisan wines by employing a multi-vineyard strategy, and to develop distinct flavors by blending wines from mutually complementary varietals. Together with Master Winemaker, Kirk Venge (who was named one of the top 20 new winemakers in the world by Food & Wine Magazine in October 2005), the three produce three premium blends from Napa Valley’s finest red wines. Their hard work has paid off already as can be seen with the numerous awards and high marks that their wines receive. I’m thrilled to welcome B Cellars to our community. Please join me in welcoming them by sharing your B Cellar wine experiences (if you’ve been lucky enough to try them).
Posted By: sagi \| Category: Winery Members \| Permalink

OpenBottles at Vintage Santa Clara (Sept 7)	Aug 7, 2008
Some of you may know that I'm a Santa Clara University alum. Every year for the past 24 years, SCU has put on charity wine and food event called Vintage Santa Clara. This year is the 25th anniversary of this wildly successful event, and we're going to be there! OpenBottles is proud to sponsor this event and the worthy causes that will benefit from it. If you're in the area, I highly recommend that you attend. Tickets are only $45 and they sell out fast. Nearly 40 wineries will be pouring their wines, and nearly 20 restaurants will be providing their fine cuisines. The event is on September 7 from 1:30pm - 5:00pm. OpenBottles will have a booth right in the middle. We'll be giving away lots of cool stuff, including our always-popular tasting notebooks. We'll also have computers set up so that people can leave reviews about the wines they taste. We'll also have a huge raffle. Every review gets you a raffle tickets. The grand prize is awesome! (You'll have to stop by to see what it is). To buy tickets, please visit the SCU Alumni Association website at http://www.scu.edu/alumni/events/vintage/. I'll be sure to post pictures from the event. Hope to see you there!
Posted By: sagi \| Category: News & Updates \| Permalink

Openbottles pays a visit to Livermore Valley including Winery Member Page Mill	Jul 22, 2008
Another year, another birthday! Last year OpenBottles ventured to Napa Valley, this year we went to Livermore Valley. This was the first time to this wine region for Sagi and I. We made it to 5 wineries (some good, some not so good). Our first stop was Tamas Estates, a sister winery of Wente’s and within the Wente tasting compound. You get to taste 4-6 wines for a $5 tasting fee, if you are a wineclub member you get to try their reserves. The servers are friendly and the wine bar is a good size. The wines are very dry and I recommend that this not be your first winery of the day. On the downside, you do not get the $5 waived if you buy a bottle and the sign is tiny (we flew right by). The next stop was Bent Creek Winery. Bent Creek’s tasting room was a little difficult to find after parking, but the OpenBottles contingent had a blast! There was no tasting fee, the wine was excellent (tasting around 8 wines) and servers were friendly. The tasting room is a little cozier and probably could fit 6 people. We also picnicked at the winery and got to chat with one of the owners. This definitely is a winery that I will visit again. Next we went to Bodegas Aguirre. The tasting room has a wrap-around tasting bar and where approx 12 people can taste. On Saturday, there was only one server which meant little time to chat. There is a $5 tasting fee which is waived if you purchase a bottle. The wine was not to my liking and the service was okay. The next stop was Page Mill Winery, one of our member wineries. I have always wanted to visit the winery, but since they moved to Livermore Valley it has been difficult to visit. The tasting room is tiny (around 4 could fit at the bar), but they do have chairs in the tasting room and an outside patio where you can taste your wine. Being a fan of their Pinots, I had to try the 2005 Bien Nacido Vineyard Pinot Noir, but to my surprise I liked their 2005 Napa Valley Syrah even better. The servers were really friendly. They were showing us maps of their vineyards and we got to taste their soon to be released 2006 Vintner’s Select Zinfandel. They do charge for tasting which is waived if you buy a bottle. Our last winery of the day was Fenestra. Another winery with no tasting fee and they were serving more than 20 wines. The tasting reminded me of a production line. Start at one end and work your way to the end of the tasting tables. I am not a big fan of mass production wineries, but there were a couple red varietal (Touriga & Alvarelhao) that I never had and wanted to give them a try. The servers had little time to discuss the wines, but were as friendly as time allowed. The wines were reasonably priced and there were nice grounds (picnic tables) around the winery. All in all, we had a wonderful time in Livermore Valley. There were some really excellent wines, but the one thing that was surprising was that many of the wineries charge a tasting fee. So where will OpenBottles visit for my next birthday? If you want to be invited, sent me an email (lance@openbottles.com) and I will include you on the invitation list.
Posted By: Lance \| Category: General \| Permalink

Site Updates and New Features	Jul 13, 2008
We've been getting lots of great feedback on the new OpenBottles. We take that feedback very seriously and we always try to incorporate it into the site for a better experience for all of our users. So, this weekend we launched a bunch of updates based on all that feedback. We added categories to the discussions so you can browse the topics by categories. We also simplified the buddies page and added a new feature that allows you to invite your friends to join OpenBottles. Finally, we updated the login page to use your email address to log in instead of your username. This will make it easier to log in (so you don't have to remember your username). That's it for now. Thanks for all the feedback. More new features are coming soon. Stay tuned.
Posted By: sagi \| Category: Tips & Features \| Permalink