Now this is marketing! It's fun, edgy, satirical, and the name of the wine is mentioned over and over again. Check it out!

Tickets are only $25 Outdoor movie screening at Dubost Winery Saturday, August 21 7:00 P.M. Q & A with “B-Girl” writer-director Elizabeth Dell and producer Emily Dell Movie Trailer: B-Girl Dubost Barbecue Complimentary wine tasting Wine may also be purchased by the glass or bottle. All proceeds will support the PASO ROBLES YOUTH ARTS FOUNDATION For information and to purchase tickets call: (805) 226-8463 Email: kdubost@dubostwine.com 9988 Chimney Rock Road, Paso Robles The Paso Robles Youth Arts Foundation will also be hosting a viewing and dance-off on Friday, August 20th 6 p.m. 3201 Spring Street, Paso Robles, CA For more...

Friends and fans, enter your email address for a sweepstakes package of creative marketing services worth over $750! The sweepstakes ends August 26, so enter now for a chance to win a refreshing style upgrade for your business.

As clearly as I can recall, Ridge was the first extra-appellate winery to actually put "Paso Robles" as an appellation on their label. A daring move for a winery with a fine reputation—to align itself with an area that, at the time, was commonly associated with cattle farming and the subterranean Estrella River, which disappears entirely under its sandy riverbed every summer. Imagine it is 1959. Driving down Highway 101 to the beach towns of Morro Bay and Cambria, Dusi Vineyard was a charming stop on the way to a clamming weekend with the wife and kids.

From Sheldon Haynie, Lightheart Cellars, San Martin, CA: "It's an excellent training manual that we will use to orient new volunteers and as a seasonal refresher for the part time family and friends who may be assisting, as well as for ourselves, as a reminder of things we haven't done in a year. Your style of presenting the 50 tips makes it an easy read, and the block highlights set off salient points well. The many anecdotes and observations make the do's and don'ts more sensible in context. We'll be buying several." Editor Eric Arnold at The Daily Sip says:...

Later this month we'll be discussing some sales points and examples of a quality call-to-action in using email marketing. Bur first I want to let you know about this special at iContact. I use iContact for all of my email marketing. From May 26 – May 31 2010, they’re offering up to 20% off their email marketing prices when you use coupon code MAY2010. With iContact, I can easily create, send, and track my email newsletters and promotions. To sign up visit iContact today. I also offer email list management and sales messaging to my clients. For one low monthly fee you receive email list storage, formatting, copyediting, messaging scheduling and tracking reports. Email me for details: mary@centralcoastwineblogs!

In his wine industry blog Fermentation, Tom Wark provides this excellent advice in an article called Ten Things Every Small Winery Must Know: "Many small wineries will contract with wholesalers in their home state and other states. The biggest mistake wineries make when working with wholesalers is selling them a pallet or half pallet or quarter pallet of wine to them hoping the wholesaler sells the wine. If you really want them to sell your wine after they buy it, you'll need to demand they do so by staying in touch with them regularly.

A glass full of wine tasting tickets, the aroma of Greek cooking, and rowdy country rock music—you’ll find it all during the annual Paso Robles Wine Festival this coming weekend, May 21-23. Our historic and shady park will host 12,000 visitors heading for wine tasting, music and picnics. Although much of Paso Robles is always balmy and breezy, downtown Paso Robles is framed by steep western hills that block the ocean winds. The buildings surrounding the town square also limit air flow, so weekend temperatures in the park may be in the upper 90s. For those of you who will be joining us for the weekend, here are my Top Ten Tips for enjoying the Paso Robles Wine Festival in style.

I enjoy going to the Templeton Farmers Market every other Saturday morning. I have a rolling sport cart, which I fill to overflowing with sweet onions, asparagus, and artichokes. If you are planning to spend a Saturday wine tasting in Paso Robles, there is simply no finer way to start the day than by strolling through the farmer’s market. And for lunch, a stop at Farmstand 46 is an absolute must. Enjoy lunch on the outdoor patio with a glass of wine, or pack it up and take it with you for a leisurely wine tasting trip down Vineyard Drive.

Just ask your Wine Festival visitors to type #pasowine in their wine tweets on May 22. If every winery in Paso Robles asks for just 20 #pasowine tweets, I think we'll see Paso Robles Wine Festival in the Top Ten trending topics on Twitter!

Most of the more established wineries know these angles aready, but if you are new on the circuit--or still working through your first five years of post-festival debriefing--get a leg up on organizing for festival crowds with the following tips from other wineries. First - Choose your top priority Understand the difference between sales and hospitality, and choose ONE for your priority. Both goals should be customer-oriented however. You can DO both, but in order to do so effectively, you must have just one priority.

Volunteers aren’t really ‘volunteers’ in the usual sense of the word. They are ad hoc assistants. They should be paid—and paid well, perhaps a combination of cash and wine—and be warned they will work hard on their shifts. They should also have your best interests at heart—on everything from sales to cleanup. How many volunteers should you have for an event?

When customers flock to your tasting room this coming festival weekend, whether they buy one bottle or one hundred, you'll want each customer to become an ambassador for your brand—and that means giving them information. I usually recommend to clients that you craft a postcard handout. Postcards, unlike full size tasting sheets or newsletters, can be affixed to refrigerators and bulletin boards.

Although we are seeing signs of general economic recovery, the last year has been a hard slog for small winery and vineyard owners. In an economic downturn, the luxury good, hospitality, and travel industries are often the hardest hit. Among our associates, chins are held high and stories of silver linings abound. But industry vendors and salesmen are telling a different story--one of back payments requiring COD status, higher returns, downtrending sales, and equipment foreclosures. Now more than ever, it's important to have a clear-eyed view of your business' health, ratios and sales trends. In a climate where bankers are looking at every new loan application with a jaundiced eye, and subjecting renewals to greater scrutiny, it's impotant to be able to identify and address each of the signs that your bankers will be looking at. Even if you feel that your sales and bottom line are healthy, you may be surprised to see your business in a different light by applying some of the ratios below. And if your business really is healthy, then you should be able to present these ratios with pride and explain what you are doing to protect and increase them. In a white paper by Debra Ellis of Wilson & Ellis Consulting describes the Ten Hidden Signs Your Company Is Sinking and Some Life Preservers. We'll discuss each of these ten issues in a little more detail, including what you can do to improve your business health, but here is the list in simple form . . .

What, exactly, does Central Coast Wine Blogs do? What I do is make your dreams possible. In fact, I may occasionally take you outside of your comfort zone and show you the possible. For instance, when I met New York cookbook author Brigit Binns, who is also known in culinary circles as roadfoodie, I was instantly charmed. Who hasn't heard of roadfoodie, the sassy vixen who has documented her culinary travels across the US and around the world? Brigit is the author of 23 cookbooks, including some gorgeous Williams Sonoma selections. When I met her last month she was working hard on a couple of cookbook drafts and taking a month-long hiatus in Paso Robles to relax and finish her recipe testing. But her current dream is to write a cookbook inspired by the central coast, where she spent many glorious summers as a child.

Central Coast Wine Blogs is now the #1 blog on the topic of wine on Facebook's Networked Blogs list. Come on, central coast bloggers! You belong in the Top 50 too. Go to NetworkedBlogs today and submit your blog. (You can also get a cool widget like the one at right to add to your blog.)

Saturday, August 22 10 am to 5 pm The Paso Robles Olive Festival is under way in the downtown city park! Olive oil producers from all over California will be serving their oils for tasting, a culinary row will serve up samples of food made with or inspired by olive oils (including free olive oil ice cream), beer and wine tasting, and an olive oil cooking contest. Visit Paso Robles Olive Festival for more information, recipes, and photos. Even if you can't attend, you can enjoy an olive festival in your kitchen every night just by trying a new olive...

Driving through wine country in the spring, you may see grass and clover growing between the vineyard rows. Weeds? Maybe, but more likely what you are seeing is a cover crop. Many cover crops are annually reseeding grasses or clovers. These are generally mown 1-3 times throughout the spring and the green thatch is left on the ground as a natural mulch and nutrient base for soil organisms. In late spring or early summer, the crop is allowed to set some seed, and then the whole crop is plowed under so that it doesn't compete with the vines during the dry summer months. Some vineyards, particularly those with erosion problems, may use perennial grasses which form a thick sward that holds the soil in place, and also provides traction for farm equipment in wet weather.

Saturday, August 22 10 am to 5 pm The Paso Robles Olive Festival is under way in the downtown city park! Olive oil producers from all over California will be serving their oils for tasting, a culinary row will serve up samples of food made with or inspired by olive oils (including free olive oil ice cream), beer and wine tasting, and an olive oil cooking contest. Visit Paso Robles Olive Festival for more information, recipes, and photos. Even if you can't attend, you can enjoy an olive festival in your kitchen every night just by trying a new olive...

Have you ever wanted to work crush at a winery? Learn the secrets to securing a job as a harvest intern or cellar rat!