Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Boston Wine Writers: Initial Meeting

Last evening, the newly formed Boston Wine Writers met for the first time at Jonathon Alsop's Boston Wine School. Currently, the group is rather informal and meets once a month.

The basic idea is to give wine writers a place to meet each other, exchange ideas and contacts, discuss story ideas, critique each other's work and more. It is free to attend and everyone is welcome to come, not just wine writers. Jonathon states: "As long as you have a passion for good wine writing, it doesn't matter whether you're a published writer, editor, sales rep, importer, restaurateur, blogger, PR person, publisher, wine lover, whatever: you're invited!"

There were nine people at last night's meeting, including five with wine blogs. Some of the attendees included Dale of Drinks Are On Me, Tyler of The Second Glass, Cathy of 365 Days of Wine, and Callie of The Crushed Grape Report. Jonathon provides some food, cheese and snacks for us, and a few other attendees brought some wine and food too. It was a very pleasant and relaxed meeting.

We spent some time talking about ourselves, sharing our backgrounds and current work with wine and wine writing. This led to various discussions about wine, writing, blogging, and much more. Callie also brought a wine article for us to critique. The meeting was a good opportunity to network and discuss relevant issues. I am sure the number of attendees will grow and there will be even greater opportunities. I am sure as well that more people will bring wine articles for critiques.

The current schedule for meetings is:
September 16, 6:30-8:30pm
October 20, 6:30-8:30pm
November 24, 6:30-8:30pm
There will be no meeting in December.

You do not have to attend every meeting. Just come whenever you want. I would encourage all local bloggers and wine writers to come join the Boston Wine Writers. The group can benefit all of us. Though I cannot attend the September meeting, I should be there for the October meeting so I hope to see many more people there.

No comments: