French Wine Blogging Wednesdays
Most of you non-French-speaking readers probably missed the historic international event that occurred last week. On Friday, March 30 the inaugural Vendredi du Vin community wine tasting echoed throughout the (French-speaking) world! Vendredis du Vin (VdV) is a francophone equivalent to anglophone Wine Blogging Wednesday LINK. Each month the VdV bloggueur-président (host) of the month selects a news-worthy, challenging, intriguing and/or fun theme for a tasting and invites any and all bloggers to participate. Bloggers taste wines that correspond to the chosen theme and post their tasting notes on their blog in French on the last Friday (vendredi) of the month. Simple, no?
In my opinion, virtual tastings like Wine Blogging Wednesdays and Vendredis du Vin are a great way for bloggers from different backgrounds, experiences, and even living on different continents to connect around a shared passion. The first VdV was a raving success with 16 participants from France, Canada and the U.S., tasting 37 different wines. The theme was “Moins de Douze” (Less than Twelve), meaning the wines tasted had to cost 12 euros or less and have 12% alcohol or less. It is relatively simple to find tasty wines that satisfy each of these criteria, but combining them makes the task approach the impossible. The journey is long, but the rewards of success are great - a good wine at a good price that won’t leave you hungover the next morning. This challenging/rewarding theme was chosen by the intrepid caviste, blogger and VdV host of the month: Laurent Baraou of Parlons bien, parlons vin. It was largely thanks to his enthusiasm, connections and consistent recruiting efforts that the first VdV was such an unexpected success. Three cheers for Baraou, président!
For those of you who recall those high school French lessons here is the official VdV blog. For those of you that are less ambitious here is a link to the Google translated version.