Denise Medrano (aka The Winesleuth)
Who is The Winesleuth?I’m an American ex-pat who is fascinated by wine. Previous to my arrival in London, I had done a sommelier course in Buenos Aires, Argentina so I knew I wanted to be in the wine trade but where to start? I started where so many people in the UK wine trade start, Oddbins. I was fortunate in that Oddbins back then had a great wine education partnership with the Wine and Spirit Educational Trust and I was able take the WSET courses. I currently have the WSET Advanced Certificate as well as holding a UK personal alcohol license.
Another advantage to working at Oddbins was that I had access to all the wine trade shows. Imagine, being able to go and try as many wines as you could in one day! Whew! I have to admit, I didn’t do much spitting back then and the next day, I was wishing I had at least taken better notes. I started looking around on the web for blogs that covered the London wine scene and found there were none. Well, none that appealed to me. None that were a mix of trade and consumer views and opinions. And none that really talked about what a great centre of wine this fabulous city of London is. So I rolled up my sleeves, bought a domain name and the rest, as they say, is The Winesleuth history.
What The Winesleuth can do for you…
Since starting The Winesleuth I’ve gotten to know the London wine trade very well from both the on-trade and the off-trade perspective. My motto is “always looking for the good stuff” and I do my best to seek out and write about the more interesting wines out there. The Winesleuth has also given me the opportunity to meet so many amazing people, from winemakers to chefs, to food bloggers and fellow wine bloggers from all over the world, all of which I get to write about for my own blog. Although I do write The Winesleuth for me, I am available for feature length freelance writing assignments.
I’m also available for wine consultations, wine tastings, wine recommendations, food and wine matching and how to use social media in relation to wine. Don’t know how twitter works? Can’t get your head around the whole bloggers scene? Want to get connected with the blogosphere? I’ve been around and am very active and engaged with other food and wine bloggers, so just drop me a line: denisemedrano@gmail.com
I do accept samples for review although I cannot guarantee that it will be a glowing review. I prefer to write about wine from a positive point of view. I know and appreciate how difficult and what a long time it takes to get from the field to the table. If I do however come across a truly badly made wine, I will most likely let my readers know to steer clear! If you’d like me to review any samples, please do drop me an email.
The Wine Sleuth 
You have a great blog here. I’d really like to request a wine review on behalf of a wine client of mine. I’ve emailed you with the details. Keep the great posts coming.
Hi there!
Do you feature South African Wines? We have some really stunning International Award Winning wines but somehow these do not get the attention they deserve. Some of our lesser know boutique Wineries are also producing some really stunning wines.
Hi, please drop me an email with more details and I will get back to you. thanks!
Great to meet you today, looks a great blog as well
Dear Denise,
I’d like to exchange links on our blogs. I feel that many of your readers would appreciate what my blog has to offer. Readers can use my site to find Wineries, wine bars etc. throughout North America. They can also follow my daily Video Vocabulary of Wine where we interview a winemaker or winery owner about a specific term used in the world of wine. The videos are being compiled to create the first ever video wine dictionary! Just for fun I’m also producing a new web series called “Just A Taste.” Each week we review one wine and give updates from the world of wine in a humorous format. You can watch a webisode here: http://www.winetrippingtv.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=36&Itemid=50
I sincerely believe that my blog is offering something new and unique in the world of wine!
If you would like to exchange links, please send me an email and I’ll get yours up on my blog roll right away.
Thank you,
Dan Ganshirt
WinetrippingTV.com
Hi Denise,
We met briefly at the Wine Bloggers Conference. I’ve just bee checking out your site. May I suggest that you enable an RSS feed on the blog, so that people may subscribe? I think you will find that you get more readers that way.
Dear Denise,
Greetings from Mutineer Magazine. I see you will be attending the Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma, and I wanted to touch base with you as I’ll be attending and covering the event for a feature story in an upcoming issue of Mutineer Magazine. We are doing a feature story on wine blogs, and will be doing interviews at the Conference to try and put faces and stories to burgeoning wine blogosphere. Here is a link to a PDF of the recently released second issue:
http://www.mutineermagazine.com/docs/MutineerIssue2.pdf
If you are into the magazine, please share our efforts with your blog readers. Feel free to share the PDF link with anyone or even post it on your site.
We are fully committed to being a resource to the blogosphere and doing our part to help develop it into the most relevant format it can be, and I am excited to meet you in person at the conference.
Cheers!
—
Alan Kropf
Mutineer Magazine
7510 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
http://www.mutineermagazine.com
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