What is #WAMerlot, Exactly?

Has the staff at The Oregon Wine Blog turned its back on the future?


Social media seems to be the cutting edge. Just when you think you've got this whole blog thing down, you have to learn the twitter machine. Then, you think you've figured out the best content for your wine-centric readers, and you look around and realize you're the only Northwest wine blog not dripping in sexual innuendo. (We gotta do something about this, fellas.) And me, being the old man of the blog, I've got enough to overcome just to learn the lingo of these young punks. So here I am trying to take The Oregon Wine Blog one step into the technological future.

Next Thursday, before the madness of Taste Washington begins in earnest, a twitter event of spectacular proportions will be taking place. The event, organized by "Look Out! There's a guitar behind you!" Josh of the wine blog DrinkNectar, is a spin off of a #CaliCabs event that took place earlier this year. (Or so I've been told.) #WAMerlot is an opportunity for you, the drinker who uses the twitter machine, to taste and tweet about it all at the same time. The event takes place on Thursday March 25 and it can really happen anywhere. Granted, you need Merlot (from Washington), a mouth, and the twitter machine. (You should probably have some way to open the bottle as well.)

What you do next is simple and fun: you drink the Merlot and you tweet about it. (Tweeting is what you do on the twitter machine.) In order to fully participate you should also end your tweet with the following: "#WAMerlot" (the young people tell me this is called a hash tag). There are several Washington wineries, about 80 or so (the goal is 100) participating and several of the twitterati (the goal is 1,000) will be tasting and tweeting from living rooms, tasting rooms, barrel rooms, all sorts of rooms. The hope is to have the "largest simultaneous tasting of Washington wines ever."

In addition to the wineries and twitterati there are ten "prominent and influential Washington wine writers/bloggers from across the state." We didn't make that list, either. While it's clear we have some work to do here at The Oregon Wine Blog, it'll have to wait, because yours truly is participating in #WAMerlot, tweeting from Full Pull Wines in Seattle and then there's Taste Washington to go to. In an effort to redeem us I am currently campaigning for "Most Handsome Wineblogger" at the World Wine Blog Awards of the World. Hell, I'm not getting any younger.

To participate in #WAMerlot, register here.