It was a revamp in the making for a damn long time but finally, FINALLY! We pushed on latest effort out today. On a Friday no less!
VineSugar is growing and in lots of different ways. We're got a great new content team that is furiously publishing new wineries everyday. We're also building a kick-ass winemaking community for the home wine makers out there. We also launch a wine Q&A section for those of you who want to share their knowledge or have questions too.
And that's not even half of what's on the horizon!
Please dig around and let us know what you think, what you like, what you dislike. Feedback is always welcome.
About this Wine Blog
This blog aims to make wine a little more approachable. Amateur winemaker, Ryan O'Donnell talks about winemaking techniques, tasting experiments, events, gadgets and more. This is Ryan's exploration of all things wine.
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Category: Website Updates
Finally Released
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So many updates in the works...
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My apologies. Tim and I have been working furiously on a (in my opinion) badass new version of VineSugar which we were hoping to release in June. After many discussions and talks over MANY glasses of wine, we opted to increase the scope of work to include features and functionality that should make out system even more robust. I can't elude to too much just yet.
The reason for my apology is because I've held back updates to this site in anticipation of launch our new release soon. Since we're delaying things a bit, I'll be publishing BOATLOADS of new tasting notes, articles and more to the site.
Thanks goodness to because I missed yapping about wine for the last few weeks!
The reason for my apology is because I've held back updates to this site in anticipation of launch our new release soon. Since we're delaying things a bit, I'll be publishing BOATLOADS of new tasting notes, articles and more to the site.
Thanks goodness to because I missed yapping about wine for the last few weeks!
Interview with winemaker Matt Michael
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I'm excited to announce that we've posted a great Q&A with winemaker Matt Michael of Baldassari Family Wines (also assistant winemaker of Sebastiani)
I had a blast meeting Matt and learning what he had to say about his winemaking approach. Check out the full article.
I had a blast meeting Matt and learning what he had to say about his winemaking approach. Check out the full article.
Thinking a Merlot could be fun
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I've continued fleshing out features on this site as well as general house cleaning of things but I was playing a bit with my wines and doing some tastings to see progression.
The Cab and Malbec are turning out great but the Zin is turning out to be rather unbalanced. It's still very sweet but the hydrometer reading come in the negative range. The PH is low and acids are high. In retrospect there's a LOT I should have done differently but I was too excited at the time and rushed through too much.
I'm thinking though that I'd like to make 5-gallons of Merlot to ultimately blend with my Cab and Malbec. I think if I could make a jammy, fruit forward Merlot, the blend would be amazing.
Look in the coming weeks for the beginning of some Merlot from Brehm Vineyards.
The Cab and Malbec are turning out great but the Zin is turning out to be rather unbalanced. It's still very sweet but the hydrometer reading come in the negative range. The PH is low and acids are high. In retrospect there's a LOT I should have done differently but I was too excited at the time and rushed through too much.
I'm thinking though that I'd like to make 5-gallons of Merlot to ultimately blend with my Cab and Malbec. I think if I could make a jammy, fruit forward Merlot, the blend would be amazing.
Look in the coming weeks for the beginning of some Merlot from Brehm Vineyards.
sooo... what do you think?
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This has been a busy holiday break but it's time this website return to what made it fun in the first place. I've cleaned out the database of the comment spam, outdated links, pointless blog entries and a whole lot more.
You probably noticed I reorganized the header links which should make things a little easier to navigate. Each section got some lovin' in the design and refresh department too. This site was screaming for cleanup.
The biggest new thing is the beginning of the "My Cellar" section. As you may or may not know, I'm dabbling in winemaking now so this is my place to display my batches, step-by-step. Since winemaking is becoming an obsession, I would guess a lot of attention goes to making this more interactive.
For those of you who know your wine labels, can you guess the bottles used in the homepage mast picture? If you get them all, I'll send you something cool.
You probably noticed I reorganized the header links which should make things a little easier to navigate. Each section got some lovin' in the design and refresh department too. This site was screaming for cleanup.
The biggest new thing is the beginning of the "My Cellar" section. As you may or may not know, I'm dabbling in winemaking now so this is my place to display my batches, step-by-step. Since winemaking is becoming an obsession, I would guess a lot of attention goes to making this more interactive.
For those of you who know your wine labels, can you guess the bottles used in the homepage mast picture? If you get them all, I'll send you something cool.
We're switching gears a bit here
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It's been a LONG time, I know. I'll spare you the "bla bla bla" work excuses and just say that I started a hobby that has re-inspired me...
I'm making wine now!
I'm going to be retooling some things here in the next week or two. This blog will be more geared towards to ins-and-outs of winemaking and the occasional blip about the industry. The "news" tab is getting a face-lift too.
All in all, this site is going back to it's roots. A website by Ryan for Ryan... and people interested with what I'm tasting and making of course. No more "guest" writers or nonsense like that.
I'm making wine now!
I'm going to be retooling some things here in the next week or two. This blog will be more geared towards to ins-and-outs of winemaking and the occasional blip about the industry. The "news" tab is getting a face-lift too.
All in all, this site is going back to it's roots. A website by Ryan for Ryan... and people interested with what I'm tasting and making of course. No more "guest" writers or nonsense like that.
Wine Country Maps for Your Enjoyment!
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You know those fold-up maps for each region of wine country? You always saved them for your trips. Well, we've collected a lot over the years and realized it would be cool to have them in an interactive format. So that's what we did.We're always being asked, "Where should we visit when we're in wine country?"
With the interactive maps, you can now see maps of wine country and the wineries around but you can also see ratings and acclaims inline with the listings so now there's no questions =)
We know that some regions don't have many wineries listed but rest assured, we're working on adding all the wineries. There's a lot and we're just a small group of wine geeks...
Hang tight [Updated]
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Bear with us while we're updating things around here. We're going back to basics with this site and are building efforts to bring our readers the information they're looking in a much more cleaner, easier fashion. We've got lot's of things coming this week too so check back later.
We apologize if this the site goes up and down or if you notice some wanky looking things.
[UPDATE]
We're all done updating things. If you still see funny things going on, please contact us to let us know.
So what's new you ask?
Security
We added security around comments. The spam we were bombarded with was outrageous so that was out primary goal.
Removed Old Stuff
We took out a few sections like the Blogger Aggregator and Industry News. Frankly, there are much better resources out there for that kind of stuff and we didn't really enjoy maintaining it either.
Clean RSS Feeds
Too long were the feeds corrupt or mis-formatted. They're good to go now!
Infrastructure for Newbies
We've got marketing gurus and interns now helping us compose content for the site so we needed to build an infrastructure to support them (and give credit where credit is due).
Clean(er) Design
Some of the design aspects of the site just didn't work and it wasn't very clear how to find the information that was offered on the site. So... we tweaked things up a bit to hopefully remedy that.
Like I said before, I have so much more coming too but that's all I'm going to announce for now. I've missed working for VineSugar... it's good to be back!
We apologize if this the site goes up and down or if you notice some wanky looking things.
[UPDATE]
We're all done updating things. If you still see funny things going on, please contact us to let us know.
So what's new you ask?
Security
We added security around comments. The spam we were bombarded with was outrageous so that was out primary goal.
Removed Old Stuff
We took out a few sections like the Blogger Aggregator and Industry News. Frankly, there are much better resources out there for that kind of stuff and we didn't really enjoy maintaining it either.
Clean RSS Feeds
Too long were the feeds corrupt or mis-formatted. They're good to go now!
Infrastructure for Newbies
We've got marketing gurus and interns now helping us compose content for the site so we needed to build an infrastructure to support them (and give credit where credit is due).
Clean(er) Design
Some of the design aspects of the site just didn't work and it wasn't very clear how to find the information that was offered on the site. So... we tweaked things up a bit to hopefully remedy that.
Like I said before, I have so much more coming too but that's all I'm going to announce for now. I've missed working for VineSugar... it's good to be back!
Wonder no more. VineSugar is back with a vengence!
Category: Website Updates | Comments (2)
Yea, I know... I was out of the game for a long time. I blame the corporate rat race. It somehow sucks you into a black hole of real-life Office Space moments. I figure you have the right to know what went on.
I took a job at a very large financial institution in Pleasanton California as their Senior Designer. It was all good but the pace and politics burned me out after 2 years. I couldn't stand it any more and left.
I started my own creative design agency (to pay the bills) and focus on VineSugar. I always wanted this to be a fun place for people to discover wine without the snobbery, and DAMNIT that's what I'm gonna do!
So check back often and click through the links. There's a lot of buried content in the links! I'll be adding more useful features and making everything as organized as possible for you.
Also, I BEG you to let me know your thoughts. What would you like to see? What do you think is a waste of time? Any feedback is good so speak up you website lurkers!
Tasting Notes Explained
Category: Website Updates | Comments (1)
OK, I gotta brag for a minute. I had friends tell me that they love wine but never understood where some of the descriptors come from. Being the resourceful guy I am, I thought I could not only remedy that but make it possible via this website.
Now, on all tasting reviews on this site, you will see keywords called out which you can rollover and read the definition or description of that keyword. So now you can read where "earth" or "oak" comes from without having a seperate place to look it up.
I hope this feature helps. We'll be constantly adding more keywords but feel free to send in terms you want explained.
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