Join us for the first Wine Pairing Weekend [Bloggers Event]

Join the #winePW conversation: You've found your way to the post introducing our first Wine Pairing Weekend held in June of 2014. This is good reading for the back story on the event. The next #winePW is coming up on Saturday, July 12, with the theme "Refreshing summer wine pairings". Head over to the new post for more details on how you can join us!

Introducing Wine Pairing Weekend #winePW
Do you enjoy the interplay of good food and wine? Do you relish the challenge of finding a great wine pairing for your weekend meals? I love the way a good wine pairing enhances a meal. Sure, I enjoying sipping wine on its own sometimes, but for me, the real pleasure with wine comes when it accompanies food. If you have similar inclinations, I'd like to invite you to participate in the first Wine Pairing Weekend blogging event on Saturday, June 14, 2014. This event will be held the 2nd Saturday of each month at the outset, with potential to increase the frequency if the interest warrants that.

I've noticed that I connect with food bloggers around my recipes and cooking interests, and wine bloggers on the wine topic, but haven't found a lot of space on the social web for those of us interested in food and wine pairings.  My first goal for the Wine Pairing Weekend is to create a place for food and wine pairing mavens to share great pairing ideas.

Another goal for Wine Pairing Weekend is to serve as a resource for people searching the web for wine pairing ideas. My blog traffic reports tell me this is info that people what to know. Out of my nearly 500 posts here on Cooking Chat, the most visited all time is Pairing Wine with Indian Food, followed by Wine Match for Roast Pork? Interestingly, the pork one was actually seeking input rather than offering advice! This has encouraged me to blog about any good pairings I come up with here. 

Wine Pairing Weekend #1: Wine Pairings for Grilled Meat
Coming up with a theme for the first Wine Pairing Weekend (#winePW for short and for Twitter) wasn't too hard. Here in New England, grilling season is just getting going in June. Plus, our first event comes shortly before Father's Day, so your post can help ensure Dads who like wine can really enjoy their day.

For #winePW posts, we are looking for wines that go with specific dishes or foods. So the post should contain a description of the wine you paired with the food, and details on the wine's grape varietals and region, so that readers could try a similar wine if they don't have the particular bottle you've described.

Your #winePW post should describe the food your paired with the wine. You can include the recipe in the post, or link to a recipe elsewhere. If you're not including the recipe in the post, be sure to describe the ingredients in the food, and how that informed the wine you selected for the pairing. If your pairing is for something really simple like grilled burgers, a full recipe isn't needed, but be sure to detail the kind of meat and toppings used that influence your pairing.

To recap: #winePW posts should describe how specific wines work with specific foods. While articles that might provide general tips on wine pairing are useful, that's not what we are seeking with this event...but feel free to include links to such advice.

One other content note. You don't have to blog about perfect pairings for #winePW. I'd love to see some posts that talk about pairings you tried that weren't as good as you anticipated. What was the thought process behind what you chose, and what elements wound up not working so well? Maybe based on the experience you have thoughts on what you'd try next time.

Details for participation
Are you ready to jump in and participate in the inaugural #winePW? Here are the details:

• Send an email to tell me you're in: Include your blog url, Twitter handle, link to your Pinterest profile, and any other social media detail. If you know your blog post title now, include that...but you can send me that a bit closer to the event, I'd like to get a sense of who's participating and give some shoutouts and links as we go. The email is winepairingweekend AT gmail.com
• Send your post title to me by Tuesday, June 10 to be included in the preview post. I will do a preview post shortly after getting the titles, linking to your blogs. Your title should include "Wine Pairing Weekend". If you want to get involved after Tuesday June 10, just drop me an email letting me know you plan to post so I can add you to the link list.
• Publish your post between 12:01 a.m-7:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 14. 
• Include a link to the other #winePW participants in your post, and a description of what the event is about. I'll provide the html code you can easily put in your initial post--which will link to people's general blog url--then updated code for the permanent links to everyone's #winePW posts.
• Get social! After the posts go live, please visit your fellow bloggers posts' to comment and share. I'll follow-up later with some specific strategies for that social sharing.
• Sponsored posts OK if clearly disclosed. Please be sure to disclose if your post is sponsored or if you are describing wine or other products for which you have received a free sample.

OK, that's all I can think of for now. Please let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments; or you can also email me at winepairingweekend AT gmail.com. Cheers!