Hello amateur winos out there,

Today’s mini-episode of The Amateur Wino is a tongue-in-cheek message to the winners of the contest. For those of you who don’t know, Hardy Wallace – a candidate I liked a lot from the start and twittered about a while back, won the whole shebang.  Rocky Slaughter, whose video I also liked enough to twitter about, got an internship as well.  A week or two ago, Rocky was kind enough to invite me to do a guest post on his blog – which got me thinking about the idea for this episode – so this may land on Rocky’s blog as well, Also, Kamary Phillips, who I’m not as familiar with, got a consultant position.  Congrats to all of you guys!  Here’s what I wanna see from you all! Cheers! -Alan

P.S. Thanks also to the Murphy-Goode folks for the goodies used in this video – they were received as part of a care package sent to all of the top 50 

The Amateur Wino Episode 9: Message to the Murphy Goode winners from Amateur Wino on Vimeo.

My message to the winners of the Murphy-Goode contest – Hardy Wallace (lifestyle correspondent), Rocky Slaughter (intern), and Kamary Phillips (consultant); congrats guys! I was a contestant who made the top 50. You can see more about this at www.amateurwino.com.

Hi everyone,

So, the Top Ten candidates for the Murphy-Goode contest were chosen this week, and unfortunately I wasn’t one of those picked.  But I really want to thank all of you for your awesome support! Also, there were some really excellent people chosen and you can see them here – I’m no expert on the various candidates but my personal favorites include Rocky Slaughter (hilarious video and great energy), Todd Havens (he really is a really good guy!) and Hardy Wallace (he’s fun and a really knowledgeable wine guy through and through).

As for me, it would have been nice to get paid to vlog about wine for a while, but I’m happy to be moving onward and upward with The Amateur Wino series, especially since I won’t be limited to one winery and can continue to spotlight great wines from all over the world! And in that spirit, here’s Episode 8! Also, upcoming episodes will include less instructional and more personal and funny bits, including (if I can talk her into it) some cameo appearances by Plee featuring her culinary creations including her yummy ice creams! Cheers! -Alan

The Amateur Wino Episode 8 Wine Pairing and Cabernet Franc from Amateur Wino on Vimeo.

In this episode, we profile an acclaimed cabernet franc-based wine from the Loire Valley of France, and do a little experimentation to learn about the effects of pairing the same wine with different foods

Wine featured:  2006 Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Granges