Two online-ish wine tastings

If you're quick, there are two wine tasting events in the coming days that you may like to join in with. Both of these are to some degree techno-tastings, though that's nothing to fear. Sharing your findings with your fellow tasters on either occasion demands no more skill than that required, for example, to send an e-mail. First is Wine Blogging Wednesday 68, which will take place on Wednesday 21st. This month's theme is Gamay; so all you have to do is buy some wine made from that grape - a good excuse to give one of the ten Beaujolais cru wines a whirl (we have four villages: Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas and Moulin-à-Vent you can choose from) - and give it a write-up. You can do this on your own blog if you have one, by adding your review as a comment on host Frank Morgan's post announcing the event (link above), or by sending Frank an e-mail. If that seems too easy,

Extra credit is possible. Pair your Gamay of choice with a meal and include photos and tasting notes. Or, have a group tasting with friends, or people pretending to be your friend just to drink your wine.

The other event is based closer to home and is the fourth in a series of tastings using the messaging &c. service twitter (all you need is a twitter account and a spare hour or so from 9pm onwards on Sunday 25th April). Bubble Brothers, Curious Wines and Karwig Wines have led the charge, hosting the first three sessions in turn, and now it is O'Brien's who have volunteered to pick a mystery bottle for the pleasure and puzzlement of anyone who wishes to join in. Once you've bought your bottle from O'Briens, who will have done their all to render it outwardly unidentifiable, you keep an eye on twitter at the appointed hour while sniffing and slurping your purchase. Brian Clayton explains it all much less haphazardly than I do, here. There is a whole lot of this kind of virtual-social wine shakin' goin' on at the moment. Naturally this brings out of the woodwork a good few naysayers who think that wine tasting online is contrary to the sociable spirit of the stuff, if not contrary to human nature itself. Ah well.