Happy birthday mom

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Mom. Happy birthday to you. I enjoyed our road trip to St. Louis, Missouri. Our night out at Mango Peruvian Cuisine. Our time sparring at the Wisconsin Grape Growers Association Spring Vineyard School at Wollersheim Winery. Our early celebration of your birthday and too much Dairy Queen ice cream cake (well at least I had too much DQ). I love you so much. You are the best mother. You are adventurous, fun, loving, and my best friend. Happy birthday Mom!

Please don't call me kiddo

Hi my name is Becky Rochester. The next time I meet you at an event or visit your tasting room, please don't call me kiddo. I am 30 years old, know a thing or two about wine and deserve the same treatment and respect you would give to someone who appears older or perhaps looks richer than me.

Too many times, people assume that this customer will purchase more wine than that customer, and most of the time they are wrong. I know. I have been on both sides of this scenario. I have worked in tasting rooms and have been surprised by who purchases cases versus bottles versus not purchasing anything at all. Flat out. You cannot tell!

So treat everyone like they are your best customer. It comes down to one thing--their experience with you at your winery. This experience will determine whether or not they will become a customer for life, a marketer of your wines, a Facebook friend, if they Tweet about you to friends, if they become the mayor of earn a badge for visiting you a lot, if they join your wine club and how much wine they will purchase. A bad experience equals bad memories equals bad marketing by word of mouth equals little or no wine purchased.

Here is the thing. Younger people are drinking wine. They may even know more about wine than the older generations. I am a Generation X, but most of the time I get mistaken for a Millennial. Hey. That is alright with me. I am hip and cool, love to try new things and am always looking for my next adventure.

I don't like to have to follow up my name with a quick summary of my resume, but most of the time I do so people take me seriously. So if you are curious as to what I have been up to over the years, here is a link to About Me: http://iwasbornwithasuitcaseinmyhand.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html.

Now that I am done venting, I feel a whole lot better. Last weekend I was asked how old I was at least five times. I am a motivated hardworking Midwestern woman who doesn't sit still. So yes. I have accomplished a lot at a young age. Next time someone calls me kiddo, I will call them an old fart.

Drink Local Wine Missouri

I spent the weekend with my mother in St. Louis, Missouri at the Drink Local Wine event. DrinkLocalWine.com's goal is to spotlight wine made in the 47 states and Canada that aren't California, Washington, and Oregon. It's the brainchild of Washington Post wine columnist Dave McIntyre and wine blogger Jeff Siegel, the Wine Curmudgeon. DLW 2011 follows the success of the first two conferences -- in Dallas featuring Texas wine in 2009 and in Loudoun County Virginia wine in 2010. Next year the DLW 2012 will be hosted in Colorado. Could 2013 be in Wisconsin? I don't see why not.

There was a great line up of media folks who attended the event:
Media lineup for DLW 2011 Missouri:
• Jay Bileti, Arizona Vines & Wines
• Mary Bloch, Around the Block
• Kate Canterbury, Capturing CoMo
• Dave Falchek, Times-Shamrock Communications
• Doug Frost, DougFrost.com
• Lisa Shara Hall, Wine Business Monthly
• Kimberly Henricks-Friedhoff, Slow Foods St. Louis
• Tom Johnson, Louisville Juice
• Russ Kane, Vintage Texas
• Todd Kliman, Washingtonian Magazine; The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape
• Gil Kulers, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Wine Kulers
• Michael Levine, KC Wine Buzz
• Dave McIntyre, Washington Post; Dave McIntyre’s WineLine
• George Mahe, St. Louis magazine
• Trish Meyer, Janet Kaeberg, Discovering Midwest Wines
• Catherine Neville, Brandi Wills, Kristin Brashares, Feast magazine
• Eric V. Orange, LocalWineEvents.com
• Angela Ortmann, St. Louis Wine Girl
• Chris Perrin, BlogWellDone
• Joe and Ann Pollack, St. Louis Eats and Drinks
• Michael Renner, Sauce magazine
• Ron Ruggles, Nation's Restaurant News
• Jeff Siegel, The Wine Curmudgeon
• Andrew Stover, ChiefWino.com
• Karen Tedesco, Family Style Food
• Jenny Vergara, Making of a Foodie
• Mike Wangbickler, Balzac Communications; Caveman Wines
• Olivia Wilder, Olivia Wilder Times

One of the media attendees was Olivia Wilder. She hosts a blog talk radio show called Olivia Wilder Times™. Her guests are varied and interviews informal and conversational. The best part is she is also a fellow Wisconsinite. Todd Kliman, food and wine editor, restaurant critic for the Washingtonian magazine, and author of "The Wild Vine;" co-hosted the live show with Oliva.

Check out Olivia Wilder's live blog talk radio: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/olivia/2011/04/02/live-from-the-drink-local-wine-conference. I am featured in minutes 62:30-69:30 and talk about the Wisconsin grape and wine industry.

While they kept busy tweeting about the wines and each other, I tasted, not drank, wines from 21 wineries in Missouri. My favorite white varieties at the tasting include Vignoles, Seyval Blanc and Chardonel. As for the red varieties, the Norton, Missouri's famous grape variety, was produced in so many different ways that I had a hard time putting my finger on whether I was a fan or not. I am sure if I paired Norton with some food, I would change my mind. Riedel even developed a special Norton glass for the variety. Which makes me wonder if Wisconsin will ever have a variety and if so what will it be?

We left Friday morning and arrived in St. Louis around 5:00 PM. Friday night my mother and I explored downtown St. Louis, seeing the arch and enjoying a great dinner at Mango Peruvian Restaurant. Saturday we attended the event, and Sunday drove 8 hours through Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin and arrived home around 5:00 PM. Overall, it was a great event. I had the opportunity to meet my counterparts from Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, other attendees and media people who are open minded about wines and who can help spread the word to consumers.
For more information on Drink Local Wine, please visit: http://www.drinklocalwine.com/.