Houston's Daily Court Review
by John Tompkins
Jun 18, 2004 -- If there’s one thing Eric Orange knows it’s wine. The Wichita, Kan., native has worked at all the different stages in the process of making wine including work in the vineyards. “I was looking for something to do when I got out of the Navy,” Orange said. “I ended up in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., at a winery and I liked it.” He started out farming the grapes that would eventually be used to make wine. “I was essentially being a farmer,” he said. “I spent a lot of time on a tractor.” Orange said he soon grew tired of farming and then opted to go into wine sales. He said his knowledge of the vineyards gave him an advantage. “It gave me such an edge in sales,” he said. When he and his wife moved to the Houston area in 1999, Orange said he wanted to create a Web site that would become a community for wine lovers. “I was trying to figure out how to combine wine and the Internet,” he said. Orange wanted to build the site himself so he took a few courses on computer and Web programming. He also studied the Internet and how sites gain more hits. “There’s a whole cottage industry called search engine optimization,” he said. “I have done really well with that. Because of that, I get a huge amount of traffic.” In July 2000, Orange launched his site, http://www.localwineevents.com/, in an effort to create a worldwide community for wine lovers. “Within the first month I got 10,000 hits,” he said. “I will surpass three million hits this month.” With the large number of visitors to his site, Orange has been able to sell advertising. Despite the site’s success, Orange said he does not want to overdo the advertising or the flair of his site because he doesn’t want to discourage users. “I set it low because I want it to be consumer-driven,” he said. “I really try to keep it clean. My main goal is to keep building this thing up until it becomes the wine calendar of the world.” One of the best reasons to own a Web site, Orange said, is because it’s cheap and efficient to start and operate. “The initial investment in a site is development,” he said. “I set it up to be self-sufficient. It is more than paying for itself. One of the things I really try to stick with is automation.” The biggest cost for the site, Orange said, is the effort required to keep it updated. “As it grows exponentially, it increases my workload quite a bit,” he said. “More than anything it costs you time.” One aspect of his site which has become very popular is education about wine. “People want to be comfortable looking at a wine list,” he said. “For so many people, it’s a huge intimidation. Wine education is a huge interest.” On the Web site, Orange lists many different wine educators that his visitors can contact to learn more. It is these affiliations that Orange finds to be important for his site. “I am certainly interested in collaborations,” he said. “I truly believe I have built a tool for this industry.” John Tompkins can be reached at john.tompkins@dcrhouston.com
The Houston Chronicle
by Michael Lonsford
Jun 16, 2004 -- On the Web: Want to know about wine events in the area – or all across the country? Houstonian Eric V. Orange has the Web site for you. It's www.localwineevents .com . You can "advertise" your wine events, access nearly 1,000 links, sell tickets (at no cost to you) and get e-mail notification of events. Popular? The site is getting 3 million hits - a month.
The Miami Herald
by Victoria Pesce Elliott
Jun 16, 2004 -- WINE SITES South Florida oenophiles who haven't discovered localwineevents.com will want to take a look at what is dubbed ''the largest wine and spirits calendar in the world.'' Listings are free, and you can search for events locally or in a city you intend to visit. It was created by Eric Orange, who is certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers and the International Wine Guild. Also worth a look is winesearcher.com, whether you're comparison-shopping fine bottles or generic plonk. A 1985 Lafite Rothschild Paulliac, for example, is priced from $189 to $546 at retail outlets around the world.
Santa Cruz Sentinel
by Sentinel Staff Report
Jun 12, 2004 -- SANTA CRUZ — Wine lovers in Santa Cruz County can find local wine and food event listings through a Web site that includes events occurring in the Santa Cruz Mountains and other nearby areas, including Monterey and Santa Clara Valley. Texas-based entrepreneur and wine aficionado Eric V. Orange created LocalWineEvents.com in 2000 as a free service for retailers, restaurants, vineyards, wholesalers and others to post information about international wine, spirits, beer and food events with a link back to their own Web site for more information. LocalWineEvents.com aims to collect the information in one place so that consumers can find it more easily. Orange says the site receives more than 2.5 million hits per month, has 15,000 interested consumers receiving e-mail notification of new events and has received coverage in U.S. News & World Report and the Wall Street Journal. Event posters can sell tickets to their event free and display a calendar of all events for their area, among other features. Orange says the site lets event-hosting businesses and charities show the world their area is a "fine wine" destination, and it saves consumers from having to be on multiple e-mail or newsletter lists. "Also, people who are traveling to the area from out of town or out of state without direct knowledge of local businesses are able to see what’s coming up during their visit," he said. A recent check of LocalWineEvents.com showed that it listed seven upcoming events in the Santa Cruz Mountains, including Bargetto Winery’s Father’s Day BBQ on June 20 and Spain Comes to Byington at Byington Winery in Los Gatos on July 10.
Akron Beacon Journal
by Beacon Journal Staff Report
Jun 02, 2004 -- Interested in attending other organized tastings? Dozens are listed on the Web site www.localwineevents.com. Scroll down to the Ohio section (or any other state) and click on the city closest to you. Many Akron-area events are listed under the generic Ohio link. You'll find times, costs, locations and descriptions for the events, which range in price and scope from wine store samplings with nominal fees to elaborate multicourse wine dinners.
Hollister Free Lance
by Valerie Brockbank
May 27, 2004 -- I can remember the first time I used the Internet. It was more than ten years ago at Stanford University when the commercial side of surfing was just starting to gain some acceptance. The first site I visited was a bed and breakfast next to a vineyard in wine country. Now most of us can’t imagine a world without the Internet. I use it for research, mostly, and for planning, traveling and my tourist activities. Unlike the library, the information is often not well organized and the source is usually a little vague. I have found searching for wineries and wine events hit and miss, and it can often feel like you’re looking for a needle in a haystack. I’ve spent hours trying to track down an event I heard about on the radio like a bloodhound on a fading scent. Why not have a one-stop events listing for wine events? That’s what Eric V. Orange thought when he started www.LocalWineEvents.com in 1999. His banner says it’s the largest wine and spirits calendar in the world, and you can find events from all over the world listed here by country and city. Best of all, it’s is easy to use. “I designed it so that the surfer can get anywhere in two clicks,” he said. Eric is more than an average vinophile, he got his start in the wine industry helping a New York City entrepreneur start a vineyard in the Hudson Valley. From there, he moved into sales with a large distributor of Italian wine and most recently held a marketing position with Wineshopper.com before it disappeared in the dot com bust. He knows the wholesalers, the retailers and the restaurants all over the nation; he’s an insider with a finger on the pulse of great wine events. “I’ve been to wonderful winemaker dinners where only six people show up,” he explained. “Anyone in the wine industry has had this happen, advertising is very difficult. I wanted to find a forum where events could be found easily. Many of the people who visit the site tell me they plan their business trips and vacations around the event listings.” LocalWineEvents.com works by allowing anyone with a wine or spirits event to post for free after it has been reviewed by Eric. Once an organization posts an accepted event they get to update their postings themselves. It is a very grassroots and friendly way to get a comprehensive amount of reliable information. Today, on his site, I visited my home town of Ottawa to find out I will be missing a Groovy Grapes Tour of Australian and New Zealand wine. In the Bay Area, I have more than 41 events to choose from over the next few weeks. You can sign up for weekly regional e-mail updates at Eric’s site and he won’t share your information with anyone else. Other features include a list of articles on wine, and coming soon Eric is introducing a ticketing system so you can buy tickets to the events listed within a few clicks. His statistics are impressive: Nearly 28,000 events have been posted, with more than 2.5 million hits a month; 15,000 interested consumers receiving e-mail notification of new events; and he offers 1,000 reciprocal links with food, wine and spirits-related Web sites worldwide. LocalWineEvents.com is a great resource if you are looking to do something wine-related this long weekend, and for wineries, wine bars and wine shops this is a great way to advertise your events for free to a worldwide audience. “I wanted to design a site that has educational benefits, and where my visitors don’t feel put on the spot,” he said. “Friends have been telling friends about the site, and interest has been building for years. It’s a great tool that benefits everyone.”
Contra Costa Times
by Mike Cleary
May 12, 2004 -- Eric Orange also e-mailed me with details of a free Web service (LocalWineEvents.com) that allows retailers, restaurants, vineyards and wholesalers to post information on events. You can learn about upcoming wine, beer, spirits and food events. To date some 26,000 events have been posted and the Web site receives more than two million hits per month. It's very easy to access. To test it, I searched for something entertaining to do in June anywhere on the Central Coast. Up came a long list of auctions, winemaker dinners, special release parties and links to back to each of the events' Web sites. Suffice it to say, I bookmarked this site.
The Wall Street Journal
by Dorothy J. Gaiter And John Brecher
May 05, 2004 -- Where New Experiences Take Flight It Doesn't Take a Wine Snob To Love a Wine Tasting; Our Nationwide Guide .....There also is a national site called localwineevents.com2. In other words, tastings are easy to find. (We're primarily focusing here on walk-around tastings, which are great in their informality, but we're big fans of winemaker dinners, too.) -Just a mention, but I will take it- EVO
Los Angeles Times
by Valli Herman
Feb 12, 2004 -- The grapevine THE BIG PICTURE www.localwineevents.com: A website devoted to all things wine -- tastings, dinners, classes, fundraisers and news, covering the U.S. and abroad. In L.A. alone, there were 72 events listed this month.
Restaurant Wine
by Ronn Wiegand
Dec 01, 2003 -- Great news! There is an excellent free Internet site that can help you attract more customers to your wine dinners, tastings, classes, and special events. At www.LocalWineEvents.com you can list upcoming wine events in your restaurant, which are grouped by date and location on this site and can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection. The site, of course, does not take any responsibility for guaranteeing you traffic. And, for the record, it doesn't permit promotions, sales, or special offers. Just events, pure and simple. And it has several key benefits that should send you racing to your computer: 1. It's free. (The site offers a section of classified ads; but there is no requirement to advertise.) 2. It's painless. The form to submit an event takes a couple of minutes to fill out. (For submission guidelines, go to: www.LocalWineEvents.com/submission guidelines.php) 3. It's fast. Once submitted, events are usually posted within hours, if not minutes. 4. Reach the right audience. Your event posting automatically triggers an email to people in your geographical area who have specifically asked to be notified of upcoming wine events. (But for this reason, it is also best not to post your event more than 2 months in advance, since that email is sent only once.) 5. Sell tickets to your events through LocalWineEvents, at no cost to you (a small fee is added to the ticket price, similar to what ticket agencies do). 6. It offers worldwide exposure to your events. While most of the events listed are based in North America, the site is accessed by tens of thousands of visitors, many from overseas 7. Your posting can be updated or changed easily. If you register (itself an easy process), you can change the information in your posting immediately, without having to have it screened before being reposted. 8. It's not exclusively for wine events, but also for any spirit, beer, or food related event, including cooking classes and cheese tastings. LocalWineEvents.com is owned and operated by Eric Orange, a wine industry veteran who resides in Houston. Orange says that both traffic and event postings at the site have skyrocketed in the past year (it was founded in July, 2000). Now, every month, about 50,000 unique, wine-minded visitors access the site and approximately 2,000 new events are posted. Orange says that approximately 75% of all the postings are for wine events held in or by restaurants. Restaurant managers, wine directors, and beverage managers: are you listening? RESTAURANT WINE® Issue #94 © Copyright 2003 by WIEGAND and BOBLITT, FLP. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced without written permission.
