HdR #TTL OMG!

Last night was the largest global online event ever. The phenomenon of Twitter Taste Live has taken off with a life of its own. In case you’ve been living in a cave… actually, even that’s not an excuse, since I do… Twitter Taste Live is a concept developed by Bin Ends Wine whereby Tweeters everywhere, who are interested in wine, collect virtually at a designated time and date on Twitter to taste through specific wines and post comments. By appending the hash-tag #ttl to your tweets, others can follow the conversation either on tastelive.com or through third-party Twitter apps. It started out small at first, but has grown into a Twitter phenomenon with not only people virtually attending but also gathering at special events to share the experience IRL (in real life).

Last nights event saw the most people participating ever in a TTL. There were gatherings in the UK, the East Coast, and on the West Coast. The west coast event took place at ESTATE restaurant in the City of Sonoma. The recently opened restaurant is the latest venture of well known Sonoma chef Sondra Bernstein. The event was VERY well attended, and Sondra and crew did a bang-up job as hosts.

The theme for this particular TTL (they all have specific themes), was celebrating the Hospice du Rhone. There were specific wines we tried from various winery sponsors, as well as other Rhone-style wines other people brought. To me, the most surprising part of the evening was that Randall Graham of Bonny Doon was in attendance. It was quite an endorsement for the event.

I must admit that when TTL first started, I had my doubts about how successful it would ultimately be. But, last night convinced me that TTL is here to stay and will continue to grow. The wineries that participated that evening got some great recognition and most probably a few more fans. If you haven’t gotten on the TTL bandwagon yet, you’d better start running cause it may pass you by.

Tags: hospice du rhone, sondra berstein, ttl, twitter, twitter taste live