Wine Riot LA

Early last year in 2011, I received a couple of free tickets to an event called Wine Riot hosted by Second Glass in Santa Monica. I didn't know what it was except that it was ALL YOU CAN DRINK wine. Having just started getting into wine at the time, naturally I couldn't pass it up. I had such a wonderful experience learning about the variety of wines from different regions, that I didn't want to miss this year's event which was held at the Majestic Halls in downtown L.A.. So I signed up to help volunteer at their first session and in return for my services, I received a ticket to attend the second session.

Wine Riot in LA (Photo by Gurl in LA)

I met the founders of Second Glass, Tyler Balliet and Morgan First at the volunteer meeting a couple days prior to the event and I must say, these two definitely are the most fun and goofy spirited social entrepreneurs I've ever met. Having been to many events in the past, I've met quite a few.  I knew right away that working with them would be totally stress-free.  As a volunteer, we had to wear these awesome bright blue t-shirts with a bow tie printed in the front and Wine Riot Staff printed on the back, and kudos to Second Glass for having both men's AND women's style t-shirts! As we all know, when there are mass produced t-shirts involved, it's very rare that women's styles are made because you know that means more costs to the organizers. On the morning of the event, I proudly wore my body forming women's Wine Riot Staff t-shirt as I took the Metro Light Rail from Long Beach into downtown L.A. and even received a compliment from the barista when I stopped at a Starbucks for a cup of joe.

Working the photo booth (Photo by Gurl in LA)

At the event, I offered to help out at the photo booth because I figured that's where you get to interact the most with event attendees and help them pose in their most goofy (and drunken) state of mind.  After 4 hours of wine sipping, I'm sure you can imagine how the photos turned out. By chance, the Mister and I were approached by Dan Silberstein producer of L.A. Beerfest hosted by Drink Eat Play, who recognized us from volunteering at his event back in April this year.  It's always nice to be noticed for our time every once in awhile. By the time it was my turn to be a wine snob for the night, I was honestly exhausted from being on my feet most of the day. So I literally only tasted the wine, rather than gulping down the entire pour like I normally would.  I remembered good ones I tried last year but for some reason I did not like this year (i.e. Jams Jar) , then I also avoided the ones I remembered I didn't enjoy last year (i.e. One Hope Wine).  This year, the ones that stood out for me were Madria Sangrias, Loire Valley Wines, and the wine and cocktails from Quady Wines.

The crowd at Wine Riot (Photo by Gurl in LA)

The event had no free food samplings like they did last year from Pretzel Crisps and Coolhaus which was a bummer so if you wanted to nosh on some light bites, you had to order from the only three food trucks that were available that evening. One thing I liked about the event is their mobile app which allows you to mark the wines you like or didn't like and use that as a reference after the event. But the thing about this year's venue was that reception was horribly wonky so I couldn't even use my app most of the time. So perhaps offering free Wifi would be ideal in the future?