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Author Archives: aleksi

Carolyn Blakeslee

October 3rd, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (0 Comments)
The EWBC Scholarship is introducing the two main receivers of this years scholarship for EWBC 12, which is held in Izmir, Turkey.

BLOG: The Frugal Wine Snob, www.TheFrugalWineSnob.com

FIRST TIME AT EWBC: Yes, and looking forward to it!

BACKGROUND: Besides being a musician, artist, and Mom of four children age 11-22, since 1986 I’ve been a magazine and book editor/designer/publisher, and have enjoyed a sideline as a gardening and restaurant-review newspaper columnist.

BLOG MISSION: “The Frugal Wine Snob” is dedicated to “wines that cost less than $20 but taste like a million bucks.” I started the blog to keep track of my tasting notes, grow as a person, and share my finds with others. It has been a labor of love and learning, as well as a wonderful journey of meeting happy, passionate people.

WINE-WRITING GOAL: I recently returned from Willamette Valley, Oregon (North American Wine Bloggers Conference and a magnificent pre-conference excursion). The trip was mind-blowing. I listened to people I admire, including Randall Grahm; met several bloggers I’ve looked up to for a long time; and met several independent artisanal winemakers, who gave me a glimpse into the power of pursuing one’s life dreams and the rewards of producing the very best wine they can. The sense of connection, and the excitement associated with the rapidly burgeoning world of artisanal winemaking, generated not only inspiration and joy for me, but also an idea for an international wine magazine (print, web, multimedia, mobile/tablet/social media, events, intimate tours, etc.) about independent winemaking. Although the majority of wine sold is produced and distributed by large conglomerates, the vast majority of wineries are actually small producers that can be described as family-owned, independent, “craft” and “artisanal.” Winemaking is exploding worldwide.

BENEFITS I ENVISION FROM BEING AT EWBC 2012:

1. The international connections I would make in support of this new notion and network would be amazing.

2. My exposure to people and winemaking in an unknown-to-me area would be hugely beneficial to my worldview, particularly as someone with the intention of producing an international wine project.

3. It would be a helluva lot of fun.

4. Knowing what I know now from having been in Portland, I am absolutely certain the scholarship and being there would benefit me in ways I can’t possibly begin to imagine.

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Wojciech Bonkowski

October 2nd, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (0 Comments)

The EWBC Scholarship is introducing the two main receivers of this years scholarship for EWBC 12, which is held in Izmir, Turkey.

My passion for wine started in 1997 with a bottle of casual Bordeaux and followed rather convoluted routes before I started posting tasting notes on internet wine forums in 1999. So in a way I was born digital. In 2001 I moved to London for a year, tasting the heck out of myself and selling wine over the counter at Oddbins Canary Wharf where I learned, among others, that when HSBC secretaries at 9am ask for “D.P.” they mean Dom Pérignon for the big boss’ breakfast.

In 2002 I returned to Poland to write the first Polish guide to wine (3 editions, 25K copies, with co-author Marek Bie?czyk), co-fund the first Polish consumer wine magazine, Magazyn Wino, run the first Polish wine awards, etc.

In 2009 I decided I didn’t have enough work and started blogging in English at www.polishwineguide.com and Polish at www.winaeuropy.pl. In 2012 I launched www.winicjatywa.pl, an online wine magazine which with the help of some great contributors, has soared to become Poland’s no. 1 wine medium. The Winicjatywa adventure continues are we develop innovative ways of embeding social media into our wine writing. I have never refused to taste a wine but given the choice, I focus on the wines of Italy, Central and Eastern

Europe including strange places like Croatia, Greece and Lebanon. I don’t particularly like wine competitions, and what I enjoy most is getting on the ground and roaming around wineries meeting vintners and talking about their past and future, embracing wine’s diversity and immensity. It has long been a little dream of mine to find more opportunies to taste more Turkish wines. Having been at the receiving end of some lovely Öküzgözü and Bo?azkere acids and tannins I’m really delighted to be awarded a scholarship for the 2012 EWBC in ?zmir.

When I don’t blog about wine I blog about tea. And I have another life in which I research 19th-century Classical music.

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More congratulations!

September 28th, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (0 Comments)

It feels great to be able to give something to all of the applicants and we did!  Here is the receivers for the other scholarships. I have also added link to their blog / twitter account so you can get know them.

Huge congratulations to you all from the scholarship team and the voting panel!

2 Hotel Scholarships
Veronique Cecilia Berretto
Arianna Armstrong

4 Travel Bursaries
Atakan Aya
Lotte Karolina Gabrovits
April Henning
Richard M James

2 Tickets for EWBC
Charlie Foley
Alex Down

Hope to see you all in Turkey!

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Congratulations!

September 24th, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (2 Comments)

The amazing winners are for this years EWBC Scholarship are..

Carolyn Blakeslee and Wojciech Bonkowski have been awarded with the main scholarship to EWBC 2012 in Izmir! A huge, huge and even huger congratulations to you both! We will contact you personally for more details.

The decision was made by the EWBC Scholarship panel. This years panel consisted of Roger Kolbu, Andre Riberinho, Katie Myers, Anna Savino and Prateek Arora and including us Magnus Reuterdahl and Aleksi Mehtonen.

That is not all for this year – we will be giving out some other, smaller scholarships this year as well including a hotel scholarship, travel bursaries and of course tickets to the EWBC 2012 conference. You’ll be contacted personally.

Thank you all who sent their application and took their time to write us some smashing stories. Hopefully we will see you all in Turkey with the help of these little scholarships mentioned above.

We would also like to thank you everyone who donated. You made this whole thing happen – we love ya!
We also received some donations from the #winelover’s meetup in Stockholm, so thank you for that. A special thanks to Nomacorc for their donation as well!

See you in Izmir and let’s toast for the winners either now or at the location!

Best Regards,

Magnus and Aleksi

 

 

 

 

Notes: Updated 25.09.

Nomacorc Q&A with Katie Myers

September 12th, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (0 Comments)

Here is the Q&A with Katie Myers from Nomacorc!

1. Why in your opinion is the scholarship important?

Blogging is uniquely conducive to sharing and engaging authentically in an open forum. Compared to traditional media, many bloggers have other commitments, responsibilities and even other jobs that may not allow a focus on blogging as a sole profession. Supplemental programs, like the EWBC scholarship, are important in allowing bloggers to attend the conference regardless of cost, and provide an opportunity to strengthen networks, expand knowledge, and ultimately improve the quality of discourse. We are thrilled to support EWBC’s scholarship program and provide opportunities for more bloggers to participate.

2. How has the wine blogging scene affected Nomacorc, has it been positive and do you think that wine blogging is crucial and very important for the wine industry?

Without a doubt, wine blogging is critically important to educating consumers and the industry. It has grown in relevance as bloggers have developed individual voices and expertise. In doing so, bloggers have built loyal followings and audiences.

Over the past several years, Nomacorc has worked wine bloggers across the globe to share information about our oxygen management technology. We’ve received positive feedback from bloggers, from those that have visited our facilities in Belgium and the U.S. to those who simply recognize that we actually don’t make those “hard to remove” plastic plugs. We are continuing to educate and share news about our innovation and technology, continually adapting what we do and share based on interest levels and feedback from bloggers.

3. What do you think will be the benefits for the scholarship receivers and how would like you to see them gaining from the EWBC experience?

This conference is truly an opportunity for attendees to engage, exchange and learn. From panels on SEO and plugins to workshops on managing oxygen in wine, attendees are exposed to a wide variety of topics that are relevant to them and their audiences. Not to mention a (likely) unfamiliar winemaking region – Turkey! Our hope is that scholarship recipients will soak it all in, and share what they have gained with the rest of the online wine community.

Nomacorc and updated information!

August 25th, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (1 Comments)

We’re glad to announce that a big sponsor, Nomacorc! We have also received several other donations, mainly via EWBC 2012 participants will make it possible for us to send at least two persons on scholarships to Izmir! Wohoo!

We will keep the door open for more sponsors and more donations until September 15th – so please keep it up!

At present we have at least five qualified applications and we’re hoping for more so send your application today!

We would like to send a big thank you to Nomacorc and to all the people who has given away their VAT – from the EWBC tickets.

Aleksi & Magnus

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Update from the team!

August 12th, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (0 Comments)

The EWBC is all about connecting, finding new interesting ideas and changing them. It’s about discovering and learning new things around the wine world. The common interest is what connects us. Travelling to the EWBC can sometimes be expensive and this is why EWBC Scholarship was formed. It’s here to help the enthusiastic applicants from all around the world in their expenses when travelling to this years EWBC in Turkey.

Where are we at?

We currently have 5 amazing applicants from from cross the pond in California and from Texas. Europe is also presenting theirs from Poland and United Kingdom.

What we now need is donations to help get one or two of these applicants to this years EWBC in Turkey. You can easily make an donation through our Donate page or if you wish to make and larger donation or contribute in other way just fill out the Contact Us form.

As a donator, you migth ask how this can benefit you?

You’ll get to meet an great person(s), find out who they are, what makes them tick and of course make a new #winelover friend! In addition we’ll promise you a special gift at the EWBC and a hug!

Thank you and cheers!

Aleksi & Magnus

Donations are up!

April 13th, 2012 | Posted by aleksi in ewbc | scholarship - (0 Comments)

We are happy to announce that you are now able to donate. Just click Donate, fill out the form, click submit and you will be transferred to a PayPal site where you can finalize the donation. 100% of the donations will be used to sponsor one or two bloggers for the EWBC 2012 conference in Izmir, Turkey.

If you have any questions or face any problems while donating, contact us right away. Oh, and, every donator will receive a nice and shiny badge at EWBC Turkey.