Entertainment | 04/11/2009 7:00 am

'You Can Geek Out on Wine' (Video)

By Molly Wood

Editor’s Note: Molly Wood is an executive editor and on-camera personality at CNETTV.com. Molly hosts the weekly Buzz Report video blog, a sort of "Daily Show" for tech news, and co-hosts the hilarious "Gadgettes" podcast, which proves that girls can (and should!) be geeks, too.

A lot of tech geeks are also food geeks. I’m not exactly sure why, but there’s an intersection there between people who are into science and gadgets and high tech and people who are into gourmet food, cooking intricacies, and "Top Chef."

Maybe it’s as simple as the tax bracket, maybe it’s the enjoyment of the latter-day alchemy that is cooking — taking a few things and turning them into another spectacularly delicious thing. Maybe it’s all the great kitchen gadgets. Or maybe it’s that we’re inclined, we geeky types, to geek out on anything, and food is something you can, so to speak, really sink your teeth into. Either way, it’s a trend, and where there are would-be gourmands, you can bet there’s also wine. And you can seriously geek out on wine.

Wine is becoming a juggernaut online. There are wine social networks, online shows about wine, gadgets for wine geeks and even a cut-to-the-chase site called Wine Geeks. It’s such a big deal that I decided to devote this week’s entire episode of the Buzz Report to the wine-online phenomenon — and it didn’t hurt that I got to go to a big party aptly named Wine 2.0 as part of my, um, research.

Enjoy!

Read more about: CNET, Entertainment, Humor, Molly Wood, Technology, Top Chef, Video

9 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Great video Molly. Wine is indeed using the web really well, after a slow start. Here in the UK we’re still running a tad slower but there are some interesting uses with Twitter Taste Live and a new social retailer called Naked Wines which not only encourages peer to peer but also allows direct contact with the winemakers. It’s potentially the new model for wine retailing (check it out, I’d be interested in your views on it - www.nakedwines.com)

By Gavin Williams on 04/11/2009 1:51 pm

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Now your talking my business. I’ve been in Wine 2.0 since its inception….it is am extremely interesting and fun world. My fave wine now is California [Central Valley] Viogniers……very elegant, the hipper, newer Chardonnay.

Smoke [lol] and all of the cool Wine 2.0 guys are in my FaceBook circle. Friend me on FB!

By ~ ~~ on 04/11/2009 3:51 pm

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So Suzanne what’s the word on Malbec and Mendosa? I recently saw a public T V ditty on the region of Argentina and as we will be hosting our wine club next month, I thought South America would be an interesting Wine and dine. any thoughts?

By immoddesta godessa on 04/12/2009 1:52 am

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Hi IG..

I work with mostly California wineries (and some French) and really don’t know too much about Argentina wines.

However, see the poster below Julie, at womenwine.com. She’s the CEO of that excellent site and wine shop….and she undoubtedly would know South American wines. Am sure she’d be glad to point you in a great direction if you email her and say you saw her here.

Also….join me on FaceBook….and then go through all the list of wine groups [probably over 100] I’m in for one that specializes in Argentina wines. I have many wine folks/wineries in my friends circle [Julie, too]…..very fun group. Some of the wine groups crack me up "I Don’t Have a Drinking Problem…I’m from Napa!" etc

Sounds like a fun time! Out here in Carmel we are getting read for ANOTHER Food and Wine Festival….this one starting April 16th in Pebble Beach with over 250 wines and 60 or so top chefs.

http://tickets.pebblebeachfoodandwine.com/?gclid=CJD5yp7c7JkCFQ6jagod1lm-Qw

I definitely need to learn more about Argentina wines so if you and your club find something terrific, pls let me know. There’s just soooooo many great California ones. Our wine industry has a tremendous economic impact here and to the US economy. The Golden State accounts for 95% of US wine exports and we are the #4 wine producing region in the world.

An interesting little tidbit, the CEO of the California Wine Institute [HQd in San Francisco] is GWB’s brother-in-law. He’s married to GWB’s sister, Dorothy Bush.

By ~ ~~ on 04/12/2009 8:41 pm

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IG, In addition to Barabara Taylor’s link….there area ton of wine groups on Facebook, one about Argentina wines….just search wine groups. I belong to nearly with 100,000s of members…just so much can’t keep up! But fun!

Molly, you vid was hysterical….why not load it on YouTube so easier to pass around?

By ~ ~~ on 04/13/2009 5:20 pm

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Hi,

You might enjoy this web site on Argentina wines.

http://www.vinesofmendoza.com/

By Barbara Taylor on 04/13/2009 4:18 pm

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Hi Molly - thanks for the fun broadcast. I run a little company called Women & Wine http://womenwine.com a lifestyle community for lovers of wine, food and travel to inspire, educate and entertain by sharing stories, photos and videos. We also make a connection offline - we held events in 31 cities in the past 18 months for over 7,000 people.

Our weekly radio show Women & Wine LIVE! at the Wine Valet on CRNTalk.com Sundays at 10 a.m. PST - and on Time Warner cable - is available for RSS feed http://tiny.cc/xcRLm and we have almost 100 hours on itunes.

The show tapes in front of a live audience - kind of like the Actor’s Studio - with winemakers and tastemakers - and they get to sip and nibble during the show.

Love to have you come visit us on the "set" at Via Rodeo in Beverly Hills above our tiny wine boutique Wine Valet at Two Rodeo Drive http://wine-valet.com.

BTW, membership to W&W is free - and comes with a weekly newsletter and invites, promos and more!

Just an fyi - in this video, Smoke Wallin calls us the Martha Stewart or Orpah of wine http://vator.tv/news/show/2009-04-06-and-the-wine-20-vator-winner-is.

Cheers!

Julie

julie@womenwine.com

By Julie Brosterman on 04/12/2009 4:41 pm

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Hi Julie,

I belong to Women and Wine, love the idea. Of course, I love wine. Smoke is a great guy, I’m linkedin with him. He has proved me with some assistance.

I’ve been into computer since the 70’s. Oh no I must be a "computer wine geek".

By Barbara Taylor on 04/13/2009 2:42 pm

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Barbara, Julie’s being modest. Womenwine.com was one of the ten best companies selected at Wine 2.0 2009 at CrushPad:

" Wine 2.0 competition were ranked by judges. They were given a score between 1 and 5 for 1) Business idea 2) Business plan 3) Competitive advantage 4) Presentation 5) Team.

A company could potentially earn 25 votes from the judges. Then those votes combined with the popular vote were divided by the number of judges. Judges: Heidi Roizen, founder of Skinny Songs, former partner at Mobius Venture Capital; Richard Rosenblatt, CEO, Demand Media; Bowen Osbourn, M&A, Demand Media; Gary Vaynerchuk, star of Wine Library TV, Alan Citron, executive at Buzznet and J. Smoke Wallin, chairman of Wine 2.0. Here are the top 10, based on votes.

"Curiosk Marketing Solutions, Multineer Magazine, Vinobilla, Vinogusto, Bibola.com, WomenWine,

VintageGraphs, Drync, Snooth and Wine to Water. "

I think wOw should have a wine column with someone like Julie writing it….or a Food and Wine column.

By ~ ~~ on 04/13/2009 5:43 pm