Calling all slurpers
Posted by Her on February 9, 2010 
We’ve been brainstorming about some ideas for the blog (over a few glasses of wine, of course) and this is by far my favorite, cleverly named by Him: “United Slurps of America.”
It comes down to this: every state produces wine, so why not taste at least one from each? Genius. (And being suckers for maps and design, we’re already imagining a big map of the U.S. with little wine bottles tacked to the states we’ve sampled wine from and a cool logo for the project.)
The idea first started brewing while on our recent three week road trip from L.A. to Texas (we meandered). In each state we tried the local stuff, so why not take it further? We’d like to try wines we have yet to review (so no Gruet from New Mexico…oh, wait). We would also love to make the project collaborative.
Care to join us?
To add some local flavor, why not have wine bloggers from the states we’re drinking to contribute with their reviews posted alongside ours? Fun, right?
If it does not appeal to you, recommendations of what to drink from your state will also happily be accepted and credited. As are samples from wineries or distributors…with no guarantees of positive reviews, of course, and with full disclosure from us as to how we acquired the bottles.
Leave a comment here, on Facebook, or Twitter if you’d like to slurp with us. Cheers.
Copyright © 2009 Swirl Smell Slurp: A Wine Blog | All Rights Reserved
Just found you blog from 1winedude’s post about really liking your blog! AND I LOVE YOUR BLOG! It is fab! I like the comical twist…something I strive to use in my wine blog.
Anywho, being a native Texan and a newbie wine blogger ( vinouslyspeaking.blogspot.com/) I would LOVE to taste right along with you and add my comments, but I still have one more semester left in my Masters in Wine Biz program in Dijon. BUT I would def recommend contacting:
Torre di Pietra (http://www.texashillcountrywine.com/tdpourwines.html),
Grape Creek (http://www.grapecreek.com/)
Becker Vineyards (http://www.beckervineyards.com/)
to see if you can get your hands on some of their wines for your new idea. I know Texas has several wine trails, and I am a bit biased coming from San Antonio, so I am closer to these vineyards in Fredricksburg, but I think they def worth looking into….if you haven’t already.
Good Luck on your new idea and I look forward to following along!
We live in VA, and there is some great local wine here (it’s nearly all we blog about in fact) – if you’re looking for recommendations, let us know. The stuff that’s a bit harder to get is usually the better drinking wine – but there are exceptions.
Hi Fellow Slurpers:
I would love to slurp and blog with y’all. Recently relocated to Dallas from the lush winery land of Northern VA, I am looking to fall in love with some Texas wines and maybe some other finds along the way.
Let me know how we can get it rolling.
In vin
tc
Ceci Sipper:
Thanks for the nice words and for your wine recommendations…we’ll contact the wineries you linked to.
We did a Grapevine, TX tasting room tour while on our road trip at the beginning of the year. Must admit, my favorite wine was one from Grapevine’s sister city…in Austria.
Good luck in school, it sounds great.
VA Wine Diva:
Enjoyed looking at your site…all those wineries you’ve visited, wow. The links are going to be useful. We would love to hear about any specific wineries that you particularly enjoyed.
Cheers.
Hi Teia:
So happy you want to join in on the fun. We received some Texas wine recs from Ceci and are going to contact the wineries. It’s funny we also had a comment from VA peeps too… Nice synchronicity.
Once we’ve picked out the wine/s we’ll get in touch and start our slurping.
The He of this He/She blog is from Dallas and we were just there over the holidays. Had a fantastic and boozy night at The Joule… http://swirlsmellslurp.com/2009/12/the-joule-cool/
Talk to you soon.
ps–Your site is super fun. Already passed on your Valentine’s gift idea to Him…
There’s a vineyard/winery in the next town over from me here in SoDak…Schadé Vineyard (http://www.schadevineyard.com/). Their schtick is that their wines are made from SD-grown products. I have no idea if they’re any good, as I haven’t sampled any in the 5 years I’ve been here…But maybe this will give me the kick in the pants to go to one of their wine tastings!
Cool, Rachel…you can be our South Dakota Slurper.
I’ll contact Schadé and see if there is anywhere in California to buy the wine (I’m thinking no), if not I’ll have them ship a bottle. I’m thinking we should try for the Dakota Red or Oakwood Table Red. (Saw the wines from the link you gave.) Let me know when you plan on going–we can coordinate a blog post, etc.
I should’ve done a little more research before I made my original comment–Here are 3 more (possibly better) vineyards in SoDak: http://www.prairieberry.com/, http://www.bellejoliwinery.com/, and http://buffalorunwinery.com (that one seems to have a server issue as I type this). I’ll check my local liquor store this weekend, but I suspect that I can probably get my hands on most if not all the SoDak wines in town (although I probably will still make it a point to go out to Schadé, just so I can have the experience of having gone to an actual wine tasting!).
Hi Guys,
Love the blog, first of all. Next, and more importantly, I am the Wine Director (title given to me because if you want some of our wine, I will direct it to you…) at Penns Woods Winery in PA. Just stumbled onto this posting and I would love for our wines to be represented in your tasting. And more importantly just to talk with you guys and shoot the shit. Anyway, I don’t know if you’re gonna be in PA anytime soon, but shoot me an email at jason@pennswoodswinery.com and I can try and get some samples sent you you. Specifically, I think our Merlot (and Merlot’s from PA in general) is one of the best representations of our style and what we are trying to accomplish at our winery. It was also just given a positive review by Gary V and Joe Roberts (1WineDude) has given us compliments several time. Anyway, let me know if I can set you guys up for a tasting.
Cheers,
Jason Malumed
Please add me to your blog.
Phyllis
I know that people in the USA are looking for good Tokaj wines and
cannot find them. The retail is still very limited.
Hello from Maryland! Just picked up your post from the folks over at drink local wine. Although the industry here is far more nascent than in PA and VA to the north and south, I’m blogging about our local wines over at freestatewine.wordpress.com and would love to get involved with your project! Unfortunately it is still illegal to ship wine in and out of MD because our state legislature is beholden to the liquor lobby. I will reach out to our state wine association and see if they can help send some samples your way.
This is an interesting coincidence, but last year my wife and I set a similar goal to visit a winery in each state to taste their wine. We’re still early in the process but have hit VA, DE, NJ, PA and CA with plans for OR this summer. You’re right on with that map idea – so much fun to look back and remember all those great wines and friendly winemakers.