As the Beatles sang, “All You Need is Love.” I think they might have mean to add wine and chocolate too. Love, wine and chocolate – three things that calm chaos, diffuse differences, and elicit emotion. Nectar Tasting Room and the Spokane Winery Association have the perfect opportunity for you to impress your sweetheart for Valentine’s Day. Join us (and 19 other participating locations) for Spokane’s ValenWine Weekend, February 11-12.

Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 5pm each winery will be showcasing wines paired with chocolate. At Nectar Tasting Room each of our five showcased wines will be on sale and we will have FREE samples from Pixie Dust Chocolates and Sweet Frostings Cupcakes.
Looking for love? We’ve got you covered. Your wine loving lover will love the ValenWine pack of our custom Valentine’s wine label, flowers from Just Roses Plus and a chocolate pack from Pixie Dust Chocolates. Get all three for only $49.99.

Spice up your evening with a bottle of “Shameless Hussy” Barbera or “Good in Bed” Sparkling; 25% off two or more.

Need some divine sweet port to go with your dark chocolate. Enjoy the amazing Terra Blanca Port Forte.

Tasting fees apply ($5) and as always Club Nectar members taste for free.

Download the Spokane Winery Association map here

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The Spokane Winery Association is an alliance of 19 Spokane-area wineries that work to promote regional wine products. The Spokane Winery Association’s mission is to promote communication and interaction between the wineries of Spokane, to promote economic development through winery tourism and to increase the awareness and profile of the wineries in the Spokane area. Members of the alliance produce an eclectic blend of distinctly Washington wines ranging from intense, rich reds and crisp whites to complex blends. For more information visit www.spokanewineries.net.

January saw the start of our second year, our best weekend ever, and some great new initiatives at Nectar. In 2012 you will see more menu options, a greater focus on the wineries that share the space and more focus on renting out our great space. We have hired two talented event coordinators who will be booking out Nectar for birthdays, corporate events, fundraisers, and other fun activities just for you. Visit our PRIVATE EVENT RENTAL page and contact events@nectartastingroom.com to book your event. The month of love is here. See how Nectar is helping you celebrate your special someone with a month of fun events.

February 2-4

Thursday – How about a Groundhog’s Day special. Buy a glass of wine and get your second for 1/2 price. Stop by after work with a group of friends and enjoy. Mention the groundhog and save.

See all the First Friday spots

Friday – Nectar is a proud participant of the February Visual Arts tour. Enjoy an evening of drawings, paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, photography and other visual art. Take in diverse live performances, including music, dance and theatre and don’t forget the exceptional shopping and dining Downtown has to offer. At Nectar we are featuring of “Expression of Hope, Strength and Joy.” Local artists and photographers have paired with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to raise awareness of the wishes occurring in the community. Live music; Karrie O’Neill, singer and song writer, on acoustic guitar.

Saturday – Wine tasting in downtown Spokane is so much fun. Get out and enjoy some great wine at Nectar, Barrister, Caterina, Cougar Crest and more. If you’ve never done The Final Sip, stop by from 9-10 pm for a fun time with wine.

February 9-12 (All you need is love, wine and chocolate)

Saturday / Sunday – Wine, chocolate and flowers! Nectar joins the Spokane Winery Association for a weekend of love, wine and chocolate. Stop by at 11am on Saturday and Sunday for a fun wine tasting that includes chocolate pairings Pixie Dust Chocolates and FREE cupcake samples from Sweet Frostings. Each of the five wines in the tasting will be on special.

Need a special Valentines gift? Get our ValenWine gift pack that includes a custom label wine, flower arrangement from Just Roses Plus and chocolate (quantities limited).

MUSIC SATURDAY – Joe Caruso 6:30-9:30

February 16-18

Bring in your dead presidents and save for President’s day weekend.

Friday – Music from Mark Ward 6:30

February 23-25

Thursday – Closed for a private event

Friday / Saturday – We welcome Bob Delf of Northwest Cellars for the weekend. Bob will introduce a few new wines and offer some great specials. Enjoy music from Eric Neuhauser on Friday and Olivia Brownlee on Saturday. Music starts at 6:30

Pinterest is now one of the top five drivers of referral traffic to brand / product web sites. What is all the Pinterest craze? How can proper use of Pinterest drive traffic to your web site? In short, Pinterest is a highly addictive visual sharing tool where users ‘pin’ items they like onto virtual boards. Think of it as a virtual vision board or even a visual version of your ‘favorites’ folder. The social side to Pinterest is users who follow you or your boards can share (repin) your items onto their boards, creating a viral aspect to the things you like. The kitchen counter top you pinned from Home Depot to your “kitchen remodel” board may inspire another kitchen remodel 3,000 miles away from you.

How is Pinterest Driving Traffic?

An image is either uploaded by a user or pinned from a web site. Those images attached to a web site will always be connected to that domain name. As users click the image to see a larger size or more information about your kitchen counter top they are taken to the web site in which it was pinned from. Boom, traffic to Home Depot!

I started noticing a trend in November with more traffic to my “7 Creative Uses to Recycle Wine Bottles” post. The majority of the referral traffic was coming from Pinterest. I made a mental note and started to watch traffic more closely to other visual and viral images. In looking at the last 30 days of referral traffic to my web site, Pinterest outnumbers Facebook 3 to 1. The 800 million user network was losing the referral game in my world.

Best Practices for Businesses

Rule #1 – Avoid “SELLING” – Pinterest is not about selling, it is about sharing. Let your product images speak for themselves. Users will virally share your product and the referral traffic will lead them to your site. From there, you need a good rule #2.

Rule #2 - Develop a conversion strategy. What are you going to do with that traffic once it is on your site. Do you make it easy for users to buy your product, download your recipe, opt in to your mailing list? If done right, you can convert the eyeballs to dollars.

Rule #3 – Organize your Pinterest boards. Be thoughtful about how you organize your Pinterest boards. Make it easy for a user to understand what you’re about and how your products relate to each other. Whole Foods has a great Pinterest board that is engaging, fun and educational. A local company, Apple Brides wedding event planners, does a great job of showing users how to plan a wedding. I also like to see brands create a few boards that have nothing to do with their product. If appropriate for your business add boards like “Books I like,” or “Things that Inspire Me.”

Pinterest is still in BETA and will naturally evolve over 2012. It’s easy and it’s fun, but be warned it is highly addictive. Give it a try for your business or brand and watch the referral traffic to your site grow.

Below is an infographic from Mashable.com explaining more.

TWO UPCOMING CLASSES ON PINTEREST $19.99

2/2 @LaunchPadINW http://pinterestclass.eventbrite.com/ (almost sold out)

2/9 @Nectar Tasting Room http://pinterestclass2.eventbrite.com/

While you’re here, follow me on Pinterest.

Prepare your palate for culinary pleasure. Nectar is pleased to announce the visit of the popular and acclaimed chef Frank Magana on January 29 for our first dinner of 2012. If you love wine and amazing food, you won’t be disappointed in this fabulous five course dinner.

Chef Magana gained a stellar reputation as the premier wine country chef in the Columbia Basin, Prosser and Yakima with his winery event catering and restaurant Picazo 717. Frank’s newest venture, Chef Magana Catering, continues that tradition and gets Frank back to his roots of working directly with wineries.

Visit Chef Magana’s web site for some great recipes and LIKE his Facebook page for great wine and food information.

Wine and Dine with Chef Frank Magana January 29

This exclusive engagement is limited to 40 people at the beautiful Nectar Tasting Room at 120 N Stevens. Ticket prices include tax and 18% gratuity for Frank and his staff (small event processing fee added to ticket price).

$85 / $75 for Club Nectar members (and their guests)

ORDER NOW

THE MENU

Tapas Served Family Style

Tosta con Sardinas, Roasted Garlic Mushrooms, Cherry Chipotle Pork Empanadas

WINE: NW Cellars Unoaked Chardonnay or NW Cellars Brut Rose

Winter Salad

Mixed Field Greens, Apples, Craisins, Grape Tomatoes,

Brown Butter Croutons and a White Balsamic Vinaigrette

WINE: Skylite Cellars 2010 Viognier

Pan Seared Shellfish Cakes with a Tangy Thai Aioli

(Scallops, Crab & Prawns)

WINE: Hard Row to Hoe Petit Verdot

Porcini Crusted Flat Iron Steak,

Gorgonzola Butter, Pancetta-Caramelized Onions

Sautéed Yukon Potato Gnocchi

WINE: 2009 Anelare Cabernet Sauvignon

Duet of Dessert:

Dried Cherry & Apricot Bread Pudding

WINE: Terra Blanca Port Forte

A quick look at the list of winners reveals another very strong showing for Washington wines. The highest recognition going to Barnard Griffin as the 2011 Rose of Sangiovese sweepstakes winner for that category. Other Washington wineries winning “Best in Class” are:

• Dry Riesling > 2010 Chateau St. Michelle Riesling $9
• All other white wine > Nicola’s Redmark 2009 Table wine $10
• Grenache > 2009 Maryhill Proprietors Reserve Grenache $19.95
• Cabernet $20-$25 > 2009 Milbrandt The Estates Cabernet $24.99
• All other reds up to $20 > Kiona 2009 Lemberger $11.99

One of our very own Nectar Tasting Room wineries scored well at the SFWC too! A huge congratulations to Walla Walla’s Skylite Cellars for the following recognition. Two of these wines are new to Nectar, so you better stop on by and give them a try.

• GOLD – 2008 Walla Walla Valley Soiree (Category: All Other Red Varietals/Blends – up to $19.99)
• SILVER – 2007 Yakima Valley Minnick Vineyard (Category: Syrah/Shiraz – $25.00 to $29.99)
• SILVER – 2007 Walla Walla Valley Estate (Category: Merlot – $25.00 to $29.99)

Skylite’s wine maker, Robert Smasne also received some top recognition in a very high quality category. Congrats Robert:

• GOLD – 2008 Owens Reserve (Category: Bordeaux – $50 and over)
• GOLD – 2008 Carmenere (Category: All other red – $20 and over)
• SILVER – 2009 Grenache (Category: Grenache)

See the complete list of award winners at winejudging.com

This will get you everywhere, every time with a guy. What can I  say, we’re pretty simple folk.

Another reason why I prefer PCs over MACs – they just seem to understand me.

Ain’t this the truth. You’re not a true friend if you let your buddy sip on the White Zin.

Classic quote. I’ve seen this at several friends houses.

Men are like fine wine. They all start out like grapes and it’s our job to stomp on them, keep them in the dark, until they mature into something you’d like to have dinner with.

No one likes a quitter. Drink up!

No comment!

So that is why the the Christmas tree always dries up before Christmas.

Do the right thing…make the call…don’t be that guy.

One of my all time favorite wine quotes…ain’t it the truth!