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Austin Blind Tastings Scheduled for August/September

Wednesday nights at 6:45pm (by Reservation Only)

Beginning Wed., Aug. 6th we will begin a new series of blind tastings at Green Pastures. AS usual, we will blind taste six wine. But this series we will pair the selected wines with a selection of exotic/international cheeses that we will also taste blind.

This will be a great opportunity to learn great new wines and cheeses.

These tastings will be every Wed. night with a complimentary reception at 6:45 and the tasting beginning at 7:09. The cost is $25 per person and there will be an optional three course dinner following the tasting for $25 additional.

We will have more details and the online reservations setup shortly after July 4th.

Austin Winery Dinners Scheduled the first Thursday of Every Month

Beginning Thursday, August 7th Wine Bat will be hosting a series of Single Winery Dinners at Green Pastures. This will be a wonderful opportunity to try a range of selections from a single winery and also learn about that winery. When possible, I will be hosting these tastings with a rep from the winery. I'm speaking to a number of wineries now and the list is starting to look pretty good. As usual, we know the cuisine prepared by Chef Charles Bloemsma will be delicious and exquisitely paired to the wines we pour. I hope to have all the details and pricing by July.

We will have an opening wine and hors d'ouvers reception followed by a four course dinner. All dinners will start promptly at 7:15pm.

Big Website and Knowledge upgrades this Summer

by Wine Bat founder, Damon Young

It may have seemed a bit quiet here this summer, but things have been cooking below the surface at Wine Bat.

First I went to New Orleans for the Society of Wine Educators conference in New Orleans. It was a great wine and education event and I attended dozens of informative seminars, including highlight sessions with Texas wine stars Guy Stout and Miss Jane Nickles. I passed the exams to become a Certified Wine Specialist and will be returning next year to go for the Wine Educator certification.

The Wine Bat website is being moved to a new content management system: Drupal. This should make it much easier for me to manage the front page content and list & take reservations for events. But the big news is that we might actually get the wine database loaded and have the online cellaring capabilities.

These new features will enable you to search our database of over 40,000 wines. This will provide you information on all these wines and give you the ability to: see Winebat ratings for the wines, enter your own ratings for the wines, and track wines you taste and/or purchase.

I am very excited about these features and we have been trying to get them implemented for almost a year. It has been much more difficult and time-consuming than I ever imagined, but I think we will be finished by the end of summer.

Holiday Planning

Wine Bat offers Holiday Event planning. Call Damon at (512)961-6151 for information, details or ideas to help you bring a little wine into your holiday festivities.