Today I have the pleasure of introducing global winetripper and local resident, Dan Ganshirt, exclusively to Beaconeers. What is a winetripper you ask?
Who is Dan Ganshirt? Tell us all about yourself:
I was raised in Santa Clarita, so many of your readers probably already know a bit about me. A few years after high school I moved to Italy to re-establish my family roots, and spent the next 10 years splitting time between the US, Italy and Switzerland while going to school and working.
I see that your pilot for Winetripping TV was just a couple of weeks ago. Please tell readers about it:
We shot the pilot in Santa Barbara County, mostly in Santa Ynez. It was great fun, but it was a bit overwhelming. I’ve never produced, directed, written or hosted a show before and for the pilot I had to do it all. Needless to say I’m not going to take on so much for future episodes.
The episode you can watch now on our website is a local trip that all the readers can take. Each episode is intended to be one day in wine country. Hopefully you learn a little about wine, but even more importantly we want you to watch the show thinking: “I wish I was doing that!
” It’s all done with a subtle sense of humor and a fresh fast-paced attitude.
Do you have a wine trip coming up or are you culling from your years of travel?
Well, I would love to be in South Africa right now for the World Cup and do a little tasting while there. Unfortunately, it’s a little late for that. However, we plan to shoot more episodes of the show in September in most of the major wine producing regions of California. After that who knows. The show is intended to be an international unscripted travel series, so I guess we’ll go wherever the production company at that time sends us.
Don’t you find it generous of Eve to interview you, because even though your site is global you do live in her town. The wine town she considered her own. Please tell readers how different you two are and why they can benefit from supporting both.
I think the sites are very different and yet equally valuable to local residents. I imagine that word for word there’s more wine information in Eve’s website. For example, every Friday I do a Top 10 list about wine. One list I did a while back was the Top 10 Reasons to Drink Fortified Wines. Only 4 of the 10 reasons were valuable wine information; the other 6 were humorous lines about fortified wines.
On my site you’ll find very little about the local wine scene. Instead, you’ll find valuable bits of universal wine knowledge embedded in humor. We’re also building a directory of wine that will allow you to find a bar, restaurant, hotel, etc. that focuses on wine. If you’re traveling to Chicago to visit family, you should be able to find a great wine bar while you’re there.
Our directory called “Favorites” on the site will allow wine lovers to find wine businesses wherever they go! We have a goal of adding 10,000 listings all over the country to our “Favorites” section within the first year. You should see the listings start growing over the next month as the salespeople come on board.
Share one of your wine stories with us:
I think one of the best stories I have is already on the website in the blog section. The alternative title for it was “A Sexy Story of Sleeping with Two Women and Taking a Bath with an Old Austrian Dude”, but the wine knowledge portion of the story is about how I fell into learning about Vienna’s Heurige wine culture. Don’t be scared off by the title of the story my wine drenched website is family friendly.
I’m currently working on a story about a street performer we met in Rome who we lovingly named “Pissy the Clown.” Although it would have been entertaining the clown wasn’t drinking wine, but we were and it gave me an opportunity to give my philosophy about everybody’s favorite drink. www.WinetrippingTV.com
Eve Bushman has been reading, writing, taking coursework and tasting wine for over 20 years. She has obtained a Level Two Intermediate Certification from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, has been the subject of a 60-minute Wine Immersion video, authored “Wine Etiquette for Everyone” and recently served as a guest judge for the L.A. International Wine Competition. You can email Eve@EveWine101.com to ask a question about wine or spirits that may be answered in a future column. You can also seek her marketing advice via Eve@EveBushmanConsulting.
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