Classy Panel has some surprises…
The fun part of Virtual Vino LIVE is the variety of “Celebrities” we get to have on our show. The lineup has been great (with many more to come in future shows) and the variety has made it super fun and entertaining…in addition to learning some new vocabulary about wines.
This past week we had two very classy, well known, and just overall amazing people on our Celebrity Panel – Leslie Chihuly and Llew Pritchard grace our panel for the Chardonnay Tasting Show. They joined our “resident celebrity”, Cathi Hatch and the three of them made for one classy panel. From the moment they arrived I knew this was going to be a great show. They were ready to have some fun tasting wine but were also really excited to help a charity, Seattle Symphony Orchestra. What made this special was that all three of our panelists are both board members and have been past Chairs of the Board (Leslie is the current Chair). This is a great honor and to have three in one room is electric!
I don’t want to steal the thunder of the show, but you simply have to watch just to hear the stories Llew kept telling about the history of Seattle, some key players in the Symphony since almost its inception and just simply fun experiences. Even if you don’t like Chardonnay’s, it is worth watching for these stories.
Leslie’s passion about everything she does was also so captivating that you simply felt compelled to support the arts – both from what her and Dale Chihuly (her husband) and the Seattle Symphony are doing. This was amazing and even though I live here and am pretty “connected” to what is going on, she shared some very exciting developments happening at the Seattle Center and about the new Conductor of the Symphony, Ludovic Morlot.
These two had a ton of fun with Cathi and truly demonstrated the meaning of the word “classy” when it comes to people. What a pleasure and honor to have them both on our show…and of course they want to come back again sometime – they are more than welcome back to the cameras and table of Virtual Vino LIVE!!
“Media Mavens” tell it the way it is…
Everyone has heard that, “the media wants to show things the way they really are” – and when they are 
LIVE they usually accomplish this quite well. Well, we had our own LIVE and UNscripted tasting with two highly acclaimed Media Mavens, Nicole Vogel of SagaCity Media, and Pam Pearson of Q13 FOX Television on our most recent show – and boy did they have fun!! They joined Cathi Hatch, our resident Celebrity (read what she had to “say about it”), and the three amigos took off!
We had the opportunity to taste some incredible Sauvignon Blancs from DeLille Cellars, Hedges Cellars, and Matthews Cellars – all of which received rave reviews from our Celebrity Tasters. You can see the SHOW and check out the Celebrities on the site, but what happened behind the scenes and the fun these ladies had was incredible. For the first time on the show, our moderator and facilitator, Brian Calvert, was more speechless than ever before. And not because Brian is shy about talking, quite the contrary, but because these ladies and the show took on a life of its own!
From the moment they walked in the door to Cathi’s house I knew this show was going to be different. They came in with the right attitude, “bring on the wine and let’s have some fun” – and they did. It could have been like no one else was in the room, these ladies were “dialed into” each other and were great friends. The stories were flying by me faster than I could have ever remembered even one of them. The energy was exploding and we weren’t even close to rolling the show!
My prep to them took all of 2 minutes – have fun and enjoy the wines we have today – there was nothing more to say and it was going to be a wild and lively show. They not only knew how to have fun, they knew who they wanted to “taste for” as their Charities and did a great job giving a short, yet impactful description of what they were about. We had the honor of including Junior Achievement of Washington and Seattle Symphony as our two charities. Based on how many people will probably watch this show, want to share it with all their friends and colleagues, and talk about it, I suspect we will be making one of our largest donations from the sale of the wines on this show.
So I hope you enjoy the show – it was tough holding the camera in place while you are laughing…my cheeks still hurt from this show.
How do the Charities benefit?
Now that we have successfully launched Virtual Vino LIVE, we have been getting some inquiries about how the Charities benefit from having you buy wine through our show and site. It’s simple…
At the heart of the show are the “Celebrity Panelists” who typically drink nice wines (usually much more expensive than the ones we feature below $75/bottle). Because of this, they have a palate for wine that is more sophisticated than the rest of us – me included. But we don’t pay or compensate our Celebrities in any way to participate on the show. So why would they do it, other than the fun of getting together with other Celebrities and drinking some nice wines?
Answer – because they know we donate a percentage of the overall sales of wines purchased through our show to the Charities listed on that particular program. For example, if there are three different Charities shown as being “tasted for” on the show, a percentage of the sales of the wines sold because of this show are split equally among the three Charities. So if we were going to donate $300 to the Charities because of wines were purchased because of this particular show, each Charity would receive a quick $100 from us on behalf of the Celebrity and Virtual Vino LIVE.
So the easy bottom line, BUY YOUR WINE through our show and you get a nice discount and just by purchasing your wine, you are automatically helping one of the three Charities because of your purchase. Pretty cool, ‘eh? We believe in giving back and if we can help raise money because we have Celebrities helping sell more wine and generate more revenues, everyone WINS in the process. We like that….
Behind the Scene on a LIVE show…
Ever wonder what happens on a LIVE show when it is being shot? So did I until we started shooting the Virtual Vino LIVE shows. I can tell you it is crazy busy because once our cameras roll, they don’t stop and we don’t edit anything so what you see is what happens from the “camera on” to “camera off”.
That means all the prep work is critical so that when Brian starts of the show with his, “Welcome to another edition of Virtual Vino LIVE…” the show has begun. The beauty is that you get to see our panelist of celebrities the way they naturally are in a very casual and comfortable environment, UNscripted, and LIVE. That was out intent so you could see these people just simply “being themselves” instead of scripted and rehearsed.
The part that makes this fun AND stressful at the same time is how little information our celebrity panelists receive prior to the show – it isn’t much… Basically, they are told this is a LIVE show and we are simply asking them to taste some wines and give us their thoughts and opinions, tell us about the charities they are supporting, and tell us some stories along the way. That’s it!!
They don’t know anything about the wines they taste, they are totally blind and when we pour them in advance of the show, they are in a brown paper bag. All they know is the wines are under $75 in retail price and the varietal (Chardonnay, Merlot, Red Blends, etc.). They also don’t know the questions we will ask or where we might take the conversation along the way. This is what makes it informative, relevant, and FUN.
Two FUN Celebs grace our show!
During the inaugural filming of our LIVE, UNscripted shows, we get to see what local celebrities are really like. This is where they get to be relaxed and simply enjoy themselves with some great wines in front of them.
We h
ad two such people on the show this week to help us launch the Virtual Vino LIVE program – Patty Barrier and JJ McKay. What a hoot. They, in addition to our resident celebrity, Cathi Hatch, were in their element and really go into the show. You definitely need to check this one out!
Patty Barrier is both the Relationship Community Manager for Barrier Motors and a well-known and visible Philanthropist in the Seattle area. Yes, she also happens to be married to Jimmy Barrier, long time landmark in the Seattle area with Barrier Motors. 
JJ Mckay is the Owner of JJMcKayandCompany, a strategy consulting company that helps businesses strategically partner with other corporations, organizations, or non-profits. But JJ may best be known for being named the “Perle Mesta of Seattle” by the Seattle Times for his society hosting of personal entertainment events in Seattle, New York and other cities with dinners, cocktail parties and large scale dinner dances.
They truly enjoyed themselves and they definitely lived up to our goal of a place where Celebrities can have fun talking about some great wines and letting you know why these would be a great addition to a party or dinner or just hanging around the backyard.
$10 Milllion and lots of SMILES
What a treat – having Detlef Schrempf as one of our Celebrity panelists on several of our initial shows. Not only is he a “household name” in our community as a former Sonics NBA basketball star, but there is a lot more behind this incredible human being. Having him participate on our show was truly…
The “Ultimate” Winner…
When the first concept of the show was coming together, it was all about the Wines and the Celebrities. After all, people love to see some familiar names, faces, and icons from the PNW in a natural, LIVE setting just about any time. What could be better… Then it hit me…I know how it could…
Working with “LIVE” Celebrities
The bottom line…they’re just like the rest of us. Camera is about to get rolling, everyone is seated, ZiZi Zinfandel Z-Dog of Cathi’s is not barking and the wines have been poured. It’s time to hit the record button and kick off the show. But just before that happens, you can sense just a bit…
Creating a LIVE show…
It’s finally here, the day of the first show for Virtual Vino LIVE, and we are set to just record the show. Since we are not doing any “editing” of the content from the show, we just need to set up the camera and turn it on and sit back and enjoy. Right? Not exactly……
Introducing our “Resident Celebrity”
After I came up with the idea, there was just one problem. I am not a Celebrity – at least I can freely admit it. But I know a few and one in particular that I knew would not only be great on the show but lives in this world – and is just an…
