Exactly two months ago we read a Twitter post about Murphy-Goode Winery’s call for applicants for a Really Goode Job as their Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent for six months this summer and fall and it was love at first sight. An opportunity to combine our journalism and new media skills with our love of wine and the Cali wine country lifestyle AND earn some much needed money to fuel the remaining years and miles of our Trans-Americas Journey? We’re in.
So we shifted gears, quite literally pulling our little road trip over to the side of the road in Ajijic, Mexico where we sat out the swine flu and began conceptualizing, writing, shooting and editing our application video, complete with an original soundtrack. We worked hard, but made sure we also had fun tossing around ideas for the video over many, many glasses of wine with our friends.
During the video production process we also began taking our love of wine from the conceptual (we love it, we drink it, it’s part of our life, duh) to the concrete: why do we love it and how can we become the best vessels for most effectively communicating all the wonderful things about wine, winemakers and the wine lifestyle to as many people as possible?
We worked hard, got creative, stayed committed, met new people and learned new things and made sacrifices–the same approach we used to make our Trans-Americas Journey a reality. We’ve even returned to the U.S. from Mexico in preparation for the call (or email or Twitter) we hope is coming our way.
Every day for the past two months we get up in the morning and screen all the new application videos over coffee. Then we hit Twitter to spread the word about the funniest one of the day. Then it’s time to read through the best new posts on various web sites from contenders and non-contenders and post some mini-thesis of our own as the conversation about how best to use web 2.0 tools to market wine and boost brands rages on across the internet on neutral sites like Andy’s Goode Life.
Through it all we’ve honestly been too busy to be nervous. Until now. In less than four days, on Friday June 26, the folks at Murphy-Goode Winery will narrow down the 1,000+ applications they’ve received to 50 finalists. In mid July those 50 will become just 10 and those final finalists will be brought to the winery for some in-person evaluation and other Sonoma shenanigans.
The other night, as we opened a couple of bottles of wine from a winery in New Mexico (the fume blanc was good but the chardonnay was somehow leaden and thin at the same time), it hit us how invested we are in getting this job. As the last of the sunset light turned the Franklin Mountains above El Paso a tender shade of pink, we started feeling applicant anxiety for the very first time. If we get this job we not only earn the right to an amazing continuation of the hard work, creativity, learning and commitment we’ve already invested in the application process, but the future of our Trans-Americas Journey will be assured. If we don’t get this job, well, we prefer to stay positive.
As Friday approaches we’ll be self-medicating by planning a brief return to the road to visit some area wineries (watch this space to hear all about what we discover in Texas and New Mexico wine country). With your help and a little luck we look forward to celebrating Friday’s announcement with a bottle of 2003 Murphy-Goode Wild Card Claret (possibly the last bottle to be found in west Texas) which we’ve been hoarding in our friends’ new wine refrigerator, which we’re still on the fence about.
Please, if you haven’t already watched and voted for our one minute application video, make like an Iranian and GO VOTE!
For a tiny town, Bernal–less than an hour from Querétaro–has a lot going for it, including Peña de Bernal (Bernal’s Boulder or Bernal Peak) which is, according to some estimates, the second largest monolith in the world after Mt. Augustus in Western Australia. At 350 meters (1150 ft) tall it’s also the fourth tallest (or third tallest, again, depending on who you ask) monolith in the world after Mount Augustus, the Rock of Gilbraltar and Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio.
As you can imagine, a pedigree like that attracts a lot of rock climbers. The rest of the scant visitors to Bernal come for the town’s own unique brand of peace and quiet.
Peña de Bernal, seen from the porch of our room at the Parador Vernal, is one of the largest monoliths in the world.
Bernal was designated a Pueblo Magico by the Mexican government in 2005 so it delivers a pleasantly stuck-in-time look and feel with simple buildings, festive colors and a central square dominated by a lively church. Old men sit around and do what old men do while younger men gallop down the cobbled streets. Every once in a while a woman pokes her head out of the shop or restaurant she’s running. It is altogether nap inspiring.
While in Bernal we stayed at the Parador Vernal about a 10 minute walk above town itself. The hotel’s mediocre and poorly translated web site doesn’t do its quirks and charms justice. The lobby is largely populated by big colorful birds in even bigger ornate cages. Our room, #8, had one wall that was painted entirely electric green and featured a huge loosely looped wool area rug that felt like walking on a sheep. The bed was comfortable and the view of Peña de Bernal couldn’t be beat. Some of the hotel’s other rooms (there are 13 in total), however, seemed a bit small and dark so ask for room 7 or 8 if you plan to stay the night. Or just pop up for a bite or a drink in the dining room or outdoor bar with an unobstructed view of the monolith.
Peña de Bernal rises above the tiny town of Bernal.
A wedding at the church of St. Sebastian in Bernal.
Throughout Mexico it seems like we rarely see beer on tap, so we were surprised and delighted when we walked past a pretty cafe with outdoor seating and cerveza de baril on the menu. And that’s not the only beverage surprise the area had in store for us…
Peña de Bernal features a hypnotic light show every Saturday that goes on for more than an hour.
If you don't have a horse you can flag down the Asian-style tuk-tuk that plies the streets of Bernal.
About 30 minutes from Bernal in the town of Ezequiel Montes is the Cavas Freixenet winery complete with tours and wine sales and a kind of manic crowd on weekends that seems intent on downing as much of their newly purchased wine and sparkling wine right then and there at tables and chairs set up in an open-air courtyard.
We missed the last tour of the day so we just wandered around trying not to get between the Mexican couples and families and their wine. Weirdly, there wasn’t a single black bottle of too-sweet Cordon Negro sparkling wine that we associate with the Freixenet brand in the U.S. In fact, none of the wine for sale even had Freixenet on the label–the sparkling wine was called Petillant and turned out to be just as sweet as Cordon Negro.
There's more to drink in Mexico than just cerveza and tequila.
As you know, we’re roughly three years into the Trans-Americas Journey–our five year 200,000 mile working road trip through North, Central and South America. And it’s cool as hell. But last month we were tempted with an opportunity worth putting our little Journey on hold for.
The Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County, California is looking for a Wine Lifestyle Correspondent for six months (learn more about what the heck we’re talking about here). Essentially, they need someone (in our case, two someones since we’re applying together) to learn more about wine and meet other wine lovers and potential wine lovers then blog, vlog, write, photograph, film and social media the heck out of the experience in order to promote wine in general and the Murphy-Goode and Sonoma County brands in specific.
The biggest part of the application process, so far, is a 60 second video that we produced and submitted. Check it out and vote for us if you can. It’s funny, even according to non-relatives, and it’s just a minute long, so there’s not much risk on your end.
So for the past six weeks or so we’ve been doing what we normally do–blogging, making videos, twittering, reaching out to our fan base and friends and family online, maintaining a blog and building out our web site and drinking wine–but with the focus shifted to this new and exciting goal.
Q: When I drink red wine, I often get the dreaded “red wine teeth,” which is an embarrassing condition to have at a party when I intend on talking, smiling, or otherwise showing my newly wine-stained chompers. And is there any way to reduce this affliction without hampering my enjoyment of reds?
Near the tail end (get it) of the whole hysterical and (in our opinion) unfounded swine flu mess in Mexico where it all began, we found ourselves walking down Calle 5 de Mayo in Queretaro. As we passed an ultra-hip clothing store the window display caught our eye. There, next to dangerously low-riding jeans and pricey canvas handbags, was a t-shirt with an adorable pig on the front (shades of Charolette’s Web) captioned with the words “el cerdo es innocente,” the pig is innocent.
We balked at the roughly $15 price tag, then we saw the model number:
Virus H1N1.
Priceless.
The Pig Is Innocent! Eric's new favorite t-shirt shot in front of the main cathedral in Zacatecas from the balcony of awesome room 404 at the Santa Rita Hotel.
You’ve probably heard of ice wine–a dessert wine made from grapes that have been frozen on the vine which concentrates their sugars. But Wine Ice? It was news to us too but anything that has wine in it is worth a try and a few pesos so when we were tipped off to a local concoction of homemade lemon ice drowned in red wine at an ice-cream shop called Nieveria Italy in Querétaro, Mexico we went full steam ahead.
Nieveria Italy in Querétaro, Mexico has been in business since 1940 and is the home of Nieve de Limon con Vino Tino.
We were skeptical. The whole thing sounded like a slushy version of the neon pink wine coolers the cheerleaders used to drink through straws in high school. We became even more skeptical as we watched the guy plop a scoop of pale lemon ice in the bottom of a plastic cup then fill the cup from a jug of cheap Mexican red wine sitting by the cash register.
But then we tasted it, and, yum! The lemon ice gives a summertime pop to the solid red wine that lightens and brightens the whole thing up but not in a bubble-gummy (or cheerleadery) way. Somehow, the combination improves both ingredients and melds them into a drink so tasty we got brain freeze from sipping it so fast and very nearly turned back for seconds.
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