The wine world goes London #LIWF

The wine world gathers every year in May in  London, and so it is that again 2012 I find myself among the wine fairs, RAW and REAL and the biggie LIWSF  at EXCEL in Docklands. The fair is the mecca of wine for the trade. Who attends? Everyone from the producers, winemakers, distributors, agents, cork, glass and winepouch manufacturers, press, wine-writers, and those who consult and  do branding and social media for wineries like myself.

 In 2011 We gathered to taste, to sniff out the new, to spot the grape trends,..... was it viognier was it pinot noir,was it arneis? We chattered we reconnected, we compared, we were delighted and surprised.

Yes we swilled, sipped, spat and sometimes tried not to say that's green, vegetal, vinigerary and disappointing, and to rather say mmm interesting  ....and slowly drift away.

So what will this year bring youll have to check back here and see. 

The fair which lasts three days is an opportunity for wine brands and newcomer single vineyards to do product development, to meet a prospective agent, a place to do new deals, to see your clients, to meet new clients, to savour a glass with old friends and to reconnect.

it was as usual great to meet up again with those WINEYACS from Italy, Portugal, Austria, Spain, France, South Africa, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Finland, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, here  in UK

I will be uploading videos of my talks with the winemakers and wine writers on here and also  on the facebook winesocialclub group, ask to join,,  a unique place  on the web where we talk with winemakers and they talk to each other, I also host Merlot MOndays there all about blend, so tweet me and I will add you to the group.

So see you again  at #LIWSF

success entrepreneur 101

101 entrepreneur work work work, work while you live. enjoy the quiet moments, the sweet moments, they dont come very often. Don't expect understanding or support, sometimes not even your family will understand, but keep investing lumps, heaps of passion, dedication and commitment to that dream and one day success will arrive fleetingly, but dont get complacent, because, she is a hard mistress with a whip, keep refining that dream. Let your body be worn out with striving. Don't take anything for granted.
and dont try to take credit for others work. My 101 entrepreneur

© WiseQueen Donna Jackson

Your KLOUT score how much does it matter?

klout

so I guess by now youre on klout. Yes I am too, I'm on everything, at last count I was on and contributing to 20 social media platforms.

 Now, those of you who have follwed me for years, know I used to write on Tech on this blog and other platforms, but then  last year  it began to bore me stiff, so excuse this brief journey through techland.

Today klout told me I use facebook more whereas in the past, I was on twitter.  Really useful yeah,I dont really believe the score on Klout,  Mine has been  up and down in the fifties for some time now, but then recently dropped to the forties, after they had a problem with the alogrithim, shock and horror! Well I don't take it  that seriously and nor should you.

 Newsflash ! I havent been on social media as much this month I've been too busy.

Lets start at the top ... Justin Bieber, how hard is it to work out that his groupies move in millions not hundreds, anyone who hasn't been asleep continuously  in the last 2 years could work that out, even if they didnt factor in his fan pages.

Then theres the list of people I know who should be on Klout  as major influencers, who don't even have a klout account. Maybe they cancelled last year when Techcrunch and many other techies wrote articles about them being a waste of time. I have read that Klout refuses to cancel accounts and merely suspended them so quite often theres the old account and the new one side by side appearing in the search, as if there were two independant people ... yeah useful-



Many people are still obssessed with Klout, although many industry leaders think they have lost trust, and refuse to reveal how they measure ( apparently because of competition). I will be watching this.
I've conducted my own little expeiment this week and this is what I've found.

Like quite a few others, I dont have only one twitter  account that I tweet from, they measure my influence independently  for @ wisequeen and  @winesocialclub,  that's   understandable. I'm diluting my Klout by not putting all my eggs in one basket if you'll excuse the mixed metaphor.

Then theres the fact, that to be a good Klouter you should have all your social presence linked up in klout so they can measure you across the web. I was and am  an  early adopter of everything from google plus  to flipboard to instagram, to tumblr,  

but my linked in page is apparently linked in wrong, and they can't fix it,  I've tried linking and un-linking it during my Klout  experiment week: as they told me this was hurting my score. I don't do a whole lot over at linkedin other than linking to my twitter etc,

So if you want a good score,  link it all up,
dont give-- but rather take mostly and others should quote, like or RT your content more than you do theirs.  The opposite of being  social,  yes..
Being antisocial 

Then apparently you should conduct yourself thus  (how quite a few of  the ones in the know do),  have very few people you follow and instead have tons of followers.

This ratio is important!!  its not rocket science  I know, but stay with me here, - leading many to unfollow after people follow them. So for example they may have, 400 they are  following and yet 4'000 or 40,000 followers;
making them much more influential acording to Klout.

YAWN::: 0

yes many techies even  state on the site policy,  they will not even bother to follow you unless you have more than 4,000 followers!!

 Well that  leaves me  safe, then,( I  have  4,200 in @wisequeen and 1,500 approx in @winesocialclub, collectively about 6,000 ( winesocialclub being my newer account).

 But No, ,  because I follow back  most  people who follow me, and I try to give back, more than I take online. heres my TWITTER

 P.S. Twitter matters the most on klout.

Then recently in another act of anti-socialsharing, many people removed the google+ button they had for sharing posts on their blogs, as it was slowing them down. Other people like me stopped using foursquare to publicise their movements, because it was pissing people off who had to wade through location tweets on three platforms, and so  were being unfollowed.

People who had followed me for years since 2007 in my other twitter account.  told me  that now  you've joined foursquare Donna we are being swamped, you move too much"  : ) true I  travel a lot!  so I stopped with foursquare location tweets, and location on fb and twitter everywhere replaced that.   Klout tells me this is a bad move.. I should be on foursquare, I'm not and I wont be anymore, same with Gowala. 

Many major influencers migrated from fb to google+ because google owned everything.. is klout punishing them for this?

If you are in the top layer in the eighties and above  which is very crowded with celebs,, as is the bottom, your klout score becomes less  relevent, its the middle that counts, most people are not hiring VIP and celebs ,  and as so many people have said, it really doesnt, matter.

What should matter, and certainly doesnt seem to matter to klout, and its siblings is that real stats and usable data that are useful to leaders and influencers, are not being delivered.

as Chris Brogan a real  major influencer, recently posted :  "Give us stats measurements and information we can use, act on , thats useful.  read it here.

Forget about your Klout score, even my blog has better measurements than they do.
end of experiment.

I'm blogging over at tumblr and loving Pinterest   too, which has grown faster than them all,  its so easy to reblog, always loved it, hope it continues to stay strong. My prediction is they are the future and they  will.

Follow me there and start your own blog.  Do you have real Clout online and in real life?  

How is your score doing?

Southern Hemisphere Seven Springs

I spent the closing months of 2011 and the opening act of 2012 back in my old neighbourhood in Cape Town, driving out to Franschhoek and Stellenbosch to visit winemakers, friends,  hold workshops and to tread old and much-loved paths. my photostream of the Cape visit and all the events is here-    I discovered many new and wonderful things among the old, one of those was Winemaker Riana Van der Merwe of Seven Springs in the Hemel and Aarde valley of the Overberg.

Cape beauty coming into Stellenbosch

Seven Springs was not exactly new to me. I had met both Tim Pearson the owner and Riana at the 2011 edition of the London International Winefair with their first child carefully cradled in their hands. I tasted their first  2010 Sauvignon blanc then, and some months later travelled the length of Marche to the  owner, visionaries and architects of Seven Springs Wines, Tim and Vaughan Pearsons house in Staffolo Marche Italy, perched on the hills looking over the Adriadic sea and the far hills of Umbria. There at their kitchen table I had my second viewing and tasting of their wine, and spent a delightful visit in the home and garden they have so lovingly restored and brought back to life.

Tim is the new  social media success story in wine that we all like to talk about. As a team they are unstoppable and the wines have been sent sucessfully into UK and Sweden, and recently  SW France! and are also carried by wineshops in the Cape. Consult the site for how you can find the wines.  

So back in Cape Town, my tastings of the 2011 much extended family of wines was really interesting and I was impressed at the vision and promise of their wines. Riana joined the us at Jordan winery Stellenbosch for the workshop

 Riana and I enjoyed  a summer lunch and Christmas tasting of the wines taped, and then did another dinner   tasting in January where the wines stood up fabulously with a roast chicken. We also drove out to Franschoek to the Bubbles festival and to visit and taste with  another  winemaker Pieter Hannekom.

So my interview with Riana and the video to watch  (courtesy of Bottle Plate Pillow in the Cape ) for your enjoyment

1. When did you first have the thought of becoming a winemaker?

At seventeen I needed to decide what to study at university, I had thought about interior design or architecture. Then  I went on a weekend trip and met a guy who was a winemaker he was so excited and passionate about his subject he spoke about his friends attending Elsenberg College to study winemaking and I decided then to investigate that. So I enrolled at Stellenbosch University for a degree so excited!! I wanted to do something that invokes passion.

2.what was your first endevour with 7Springs, and the  amount of production?


 I was contacted Tim by email and later  drove out to meet him and Vaughan in Hermanus and as soon as I knew I had the job, the responsibility became mine, the vines were mine, I drove out there alone the next day  and walked among the vines.
our first endeavor was  the  2010 Sauvignon Blanc which I  was  quite pleased with. Small production produced 9,000 bottles. 

3.  If I was to give you a piece of land suited to growing grapes anywhere in the world where            exactly would that be.

Actually I'd like to be right where I am..  cold climate New Zealand may be another choice.

4. What are the conditions and challenges you have had to overcome at Seven Springs?

 
I was never an assistant winemaker who receives orders and work flow, I had worked at Backsberg for a season, but I had to immeadiately deal with a young vineyard, a very steep learning curve. Lack of vigor our vines will continue to mature and our wines will continue to get better and better.  farms arround me are producing wine off 60 year old vines. I need to work up to a style.  I have had quite a few challenges,  first vintage, a winery far from my  vines, logistics,  but I am proud of what we have achieved.

5. If you could choose one grape to work with what would it be?

Shiraz.


6. Do you imagine you would have  been  given the role you play at Seven Springs in the old world e.g. France?
probably not, its unlikely I would have been given this responsibility and make such  important moves without direct supervision. Tim and Vaughan have been involved every step of the way, however they are in UK and on a daily basis I must plan and carry out the work of the vineyard.

7.What Cape conditions make you happy

The Hemel and Aarde valley in the Overberg,  where we have our vineyard, the sheer diversirty of the Cape.  I can be walking up in the mountains and then down in the city within an hour or two promoting our wines, the natural beauty we have here and the the perfect conditions to grow wine.

8 Tell me your average day during harvest.

Get up at five, pack all my stuff in the bakkie. remember  to take lunch and water, for drinking and handwashing.
and my shears, arrive at the vineyard wait for pickers to arrive at 7am. I strictly try to make sure that if they smoke or eat during breaks in picking they must wash their hands or it will be imparted to the grapes. Oxidation is your enemy you dont want grapes lying out in the midday sun, we want to have them picked and on their way by 11am. Once the grapes are picked, we want to get them sorted and crushed asap.  They sort  for a couple of hours I have to supervise all if that.

If Im doing red Im home by 8 pm and with whites it can be 1am.  Then once its in the tanks I can breathe for a moment .
The white wines take longer to get done as we have to leave them on skins  whereas the red is quicker and  easier at this stage.

9. This harvest was your biggest ever right? 2012 what were your challenges, did the  weather smile on you?

Yes we harvested our biggest production,  it was not without challenges picked 56 tons, transport and logistic issues and getting it into the winery at Almenkerk  before it got too hot. the weather  at harvest was good, not crazy hot. Heatwave is good for quantity, less for quality, but during picking once the sugar analysis is done, we must move quickly to pick, and logistics dont always allow that.

10 what is your icon wine so far? what vintage and which wine would you run away with if you had a fire breakout..

Dont feel I  have an icon wine yet . I hope to make a 100% Viognier one day.

11. What would you change about the vineyards you have?

 Have a winery closer to the vines and right now we make the wine Almenkerk and have to transport out  the grapes.

12. Who is your winemaker  mentor in South Africa?

Rosa Kruger

13. What do you want people to experience when they open your wine

The passion, place  and dedication  that went into into making it.

Seven Springs Timeline. 

I thought you may like to know a little more about Seven Springs Vineyard
so here is the story so far. I live in the UK and my main business is in
commercial cleaning in Warwick UK and it
is this that has enabled me to indulge in something I am passionate
about, wine and South Africa. Our first wines were made in 2010 at Iona
Vineyards in Elgin and we hope to build our own winery and tasting room
in a few years time. We produced just over 9000 bottles of wine in our
first year made up of:-Sauvignon Blanc (4400 bottles), Syrah (3000
bottles) and a lightly oaked Chardonnay (2100 bottles). The wines, from
young vines, are of an excellent quality...but I would say that, wouldn't
I. 2011 saw us add a Pinot Noir and unoaked Chardonnay to our 'portfolio'
and we are now making our wines at the Almenkerk Winery in Elgin as Iona
were up to full capacity.

Our intention is to focus on the UK, South African and European markets,
concentrating on effectively marketing the wines through specialist wine
retailers. We wish to work hand in hand to help our resellers promote and
sell our wines. We will expand our markets as our production increases.
As you will see below we have started already achieved significant online
exposure for Seven Springs.

We are absolutely proud of our young winemaker Riana who shows a real
passion and talent for winemaking, the future looks bright.


Website: http://7springs.co.za

Wine Wine Wine #Vinitaly Verona 2012

So Ive been blogging a little less than usual, but covering wine trips as diverse as the Cape, Portugal and Italy will do that to you.

This month saw the  47th edition of Vinitaly certainly the largest winefair in Europe, if not the world. Italy makes an enormous quantity of wine in every price point and they were all there from the bottom of Sicily to the border of Switzerland where I live on lake Como, along with winemakers, marketing teams,  wine agents, brokers, wine ambassadors, olive oil producers, glass bottle manufacturers, and tens of  thousands of  visitors daily from all over the world.

Around the actual main fair are tastings, meetings and dinners of every type, some top-draw some simple, but all facinating. The  Franciacorta pavilion where I spent quite a bit of time between tastings and interviews was packed to the gills all day. It was the pavillion that seemed the most popular, out of the ones I had meetings and tastings in namely Piemonte, Tuscany, Maremma, Sicily, Campagnia, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Umbria, Lazio, Trento, among others,  I wondered why, and spoke with various producers and presidents until I came to the local truth. Its where people start with an aperitivo right at the gate, in its swanky Franciacorta surroundings and then finish off at the end  with a closing drink before leaving from the gate,  makes perfect sense.

Although I must say Franciacorta is growing in popularity as I hear from the leaders in the region, I also visited my old friends who make wine from Bolgheri on the Tuscan Coast to Serralunga d Alba in Piemonte and whose wineries have been featured in this blog.  See my most recent  blogpost  winery visit.

I participated and filmed a fabulous vertical  tasting with the ever lovely Bianchi family of Villa Franciacorta fame, and other friends and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner at their newly revamped villa and  winery. The sumptuous meal attented by press and Franciacorta clients from throughout Italy was a real treat and I shall be writing up my tasting notes when I post the videos with the menu.

The charming couple, our hosts Roberta and her husband Paolo, treated us to a winetour, and  later an evening to remember in true Franciacorta style.

I shall be covering the area extensively, but since I am also  followed by those who are not wine nerds, I will keep this post photographic and stats based.

Here is the link to my full photostream of Vinitaly in verona 2012. If you wish to use the images please leave me a note and I will approve use under certain  creative commons conditions

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wisequeen/7035819111/in/photostream/

So Vinitaly Facts  2012

exhibitors... 94,966 sq.m. of area

 
4,164 exhibitors, 94 international

 
156,033 visitors, 50,066 international

 
2,625 journalists, 328 international

visitors,

wines on show... thousands 

bottles poured during the show, 10's of thousands 

Accomodations occupied in and around Verona in a 100km radius  during the week of vinitaly- every single room, no room at the inn...  and many people travel in for the day from across Veneto, and also Milan, Modena, Parma, Cremona, Bergamo, Como, Brescia and the entire Po plains. to enjoy the show.