Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 9:32AM
here the winery of Anas family, if you want to visit.
This is what Gary Vaynerchuk said about the wine from this family! Watch
BIG C
Ill be loading Winemaker interviews all this month.
Donna Jackson.
Changing the wine world one wine at a time.
Sunday, November 14, 2010 at 4:24PM I woke up yesterday to a standing start, went into my office, booted up my computer and realised as I was preparing to write my blog post, I could not write about one more start up, Tech wiz-kid, or Tech-meet.
I felt like the Grinch, and I was going up the mountain just in time for Christmas.
No, I had been covering Techcrunch 50s, Le Webs and just about every other Tech-infested corner of Europe and UK solidly for five years, I was done. Tech per se, had become as about exciting to me as warmed-over porridge.
Yes, I wanted to express myself about the people I meet in Tech, or out in the vineyards. I wanted to write about the crazy, wonderful, life I lead, meeting the people who inspire me, and interviewing them for fun, no angles.
Somewhere between the lastest apps and storage systems, between comparing twitter (which I adopted rather early pre @wisequeen) and facebook, between klout, posterous and "social media gurus"( my least favourite nom de plume) and gimmicky software : the juice had all been sucked out and what was left was a dried up orange half. Tech had become Tack.
I wanted to laugh, to poke fun at myself mostly, and also at some of the extraordinary others that I meet along the highways and byways of the Blogging/Tech superstrada.
So far it has been an amazing journey, meeting people face to face as diverse as Queen Rania of Jordan, and @ChrisBrogan (who this month I share workshop duties with in Berlin). People like @GaryVee who I hated watching online, until I got him, met him, traded jibes with, and grew to love.
New Yorkers like Elin McCoy, Ex LA girls like @missrogue Tara, winemakers, serial entrepreneurs like Nicolas Berg, Politicians the list goes on and on.
But I also write on wine, social media and branding of course and these remain my first loves. And I will cover those till my last withered finger drops off. This year Im speaking on wine+socialsharing in Porto, and then in Berlin on B2B and social tools.
I'm also so excited to be invited to cover the wine event of the year in #Paris
I am no technophobe, ask anyone, I was the first person around to buy an mac air, mac pro, iphone, a flip, a flop, a dropbox. But Oh Lord, spare me.
So tech may sneak in by the back door of all the apps and app makers I talk to daily, Tech may sneak in through the side door via the VC s, but I'm not taking it that seriously anymore, because I think its got a little narcissistic of late. Cest la vie
Queen of all she surveys,
Her Middleness
@wisequeen
Donna Jackson
Leave a comment if you care to, don't if you don't.
Monday, July 5, 2010 at 9:21AM So those of you who follow the blog probably might have heard, I'm on a social media consulting/wine tour of Chile and Argentina. The countries most known for their stupendous natural beauty, vineyards and warm hospitality.
Well the last two days upon my arrival have proved to be no exception to that.
We arrived in Rio to 20 degree warmth in the middle of winter and were greeted by lost luggage and a flight diversion, the staff at the airport were to a man kind considerate and helpful. They put us on a flight that was returning to Santiago Chile (our destination)which was practically empty with more hostesses than passengers. They assured us our luggage would follow via Sao Poalo.
The flight over the coast of Rio with its miriad off offshore islands bridges and hilltops, was incredible from our low altitude we could see aquamarine water fridged by the long white beaches stretching for miles. The Christ statue on a hilltop, ships coming and going. The scale of this country Brazil and its coastline and interior are mindbogling! and we boggled.
As we stretched out wherever we wanted, on the LAN state of the art, brand new jet and enjoyed our lunch and Chilean wine, I started to get into the Mood of South America, Caliente!
We flew over the vineyards of Mendoza and Cordoba in Argentina right on the border of where we were to land in Santiago Chile among foothills cascading with neatly tended vines. But first, we had to cross those white peaks that stretch into the blue heavens and form the spiny ridge that separate Argentina from Chile, The Andes. The very name of these soaring mountains, snow-covered almost always, but now in winter glistening white in the sun, inspires awe.
We landed and our hosts Davide and Annamaria and their family began to show us the beauty and hospitality that is Chile. Santiago is bigger and more modern than I thought, and the old town awaits my exploration this week.
We headed out to their ranch style home north west of the city at the foot of those Andes mountains very close to the big ski runs.
Their rambling Tuscan style home on the hillside with its view of the snow covered mountains greeted us in splendid sunshine. The warm hospitality we received at a BBQ aound their infinity pool which reflected the beauty of nature back at us, was a lovely welcome for us where Chilean friends joined us in drinking our first Pisco sour ever. A mountain of the biggest mussels Ive ever seen were steamed and eaten out of their shells with a lovely dressing, while, an entire Beef Sirloin which was slow grilled on the coals and sliced up to be served with a crisp salad and creamy potato dish was sublime. Washed down with great organic Chilean red from the brothers nearby estate. But more about the wine is coming, so follow the blog over the next few weeks, to discover how Chile unfolds itself to me via the vineyards and its hospitable people.
A tweet up is planned in Santiago with Paloma the foremost authority on social media and development in Chile and myself, so watch this space.
photos Donna Jackson
VIVA CHILE!
Wisequeen
Donna Jackson
Social Communications and Branding specialist
Monday, November 9, 2009 at 12:52PM Friday, August 8, 2008 at 1:27PM 
