You can find the previously posted information in the original blog post here. But stay tuned here for updates as they happen!
Update: Deadline for making your submission to A Really Twisted Job has been extended to July 31st! Note that this is 10 days past the final announcement date for those other guys.
Wow, finding a half hour to spend getting out a blog post these days is getting harder and harder... OK, so: We received quite a few very strong entries, and it was pretty tough sorting through all of them. But of course, sort we did, and we have a winner! Included in our entries were limericks, haiku, and a bribe (not of cash, but bacon! mmmm bacon...) - sent by folks from marketing pros to food writers to rocket scientists.
We'd like to thank everyone who took the time to send in an entry!
We had to pick only one, but some parts of some entries were just too much fun to pass up, so we have a few honorable mentions. First, honorable mention for the best use of pop culture vocabulary that didn't exist last week, we have Rachel Driver's entry which began:
Bill Schmeitt gets honorable mention for the best email that wasn't his entry:
Anne Bannon earns an honorable mention for the best entry that could (and will) become our official tasting note!
Finally, the winning entry was sent in by Mike Holland - below is how the back label will actually look. Congratulations Mike!
There is a winner, but creating a proper announcement is a bit too challenging on an iPhone... As soon as I can get near a larger computer I will do so. Stay tuned!
First, if you aren't already following me on Twitter, then please follow @eljefetwisted. (You can also follow @Twisted_Oak to just get occasional brief announcements, but that's boring.)
If you are on Facebook, you can find the Twisted Oak group here, and there is also a Twisted Oak Fan Page here. Or just friend me up here. (And you can even join the Calaveras Winegrape Alliance group here!)
Why am I bringing this up now? Well, if you hang out on these social media sites there is a pretty good chance you have some rudimentary writing skills. And having writing skills makes you qualified to write the back label for our 2008 Calaveras County Ruben's Blend!
The last day to enter is this Sunday, March 15th. Get on it!
I haven't seen a match book ad in quite a while (do they even still have those?) but I can remember match book ads that had little pictures that you were supposed to draw, send in, and maybe win a "scholarship" to an art school.
Well, we're not offering art school, and we can't draw worth a darn anyway - but if you can write the best back label for our 2008 Calaveras County Ruben's Blend, you'll not only receive a case of the 2008 Ruben's for your trouble, you will also bask in the knowledge that your words will be permanently and forever baked into hundreds of bottles by our friends at Bergin Glass Impressions.
We're not just offering a case of wine, we're offering immortality!
The competition ends on March 15th, just a few days away - enter now!
The 2008 Ruben's Blend is 46% Roussanne, 41% Marsanne, and 13% Grenache Blanc. This is the first vintage that we have been able to source Grenache Blanc and it won't be the last. The GB gives this blend a brightness that is a little different from previous vintages - I'm pretty excited about it!
This is also the first vintage that we can proudly say is 100% Calaveras Grown fruit, with Marsanne and Roussanne from Dalton Vineyards and Poole Station Vineyard, with the Grenache Blanc also from Poole Station. The wine was 60% barrel fermented (that would mean 40% in stainless steel) and was aged in 1-yr and 2-yr old French oak.
Fermento's tasting notes indicate aromas of pears, cream, peaches, truffle, ginger; and flavors of lemon, pears, walnuts, fig. The mouthfeel is full-bodied and bright as well, clean, soft, well-balanced, and it finishes long with pears, fig and some lingering lemon. Ah, that lingering lemon...
You don't have to use any of these technical details to win the contest (no one ever has, actually), but it might help!
Just for fun, below is a recent image of our puppy Garnacha Blanca ("Nacha" for short). Seemed appropriate.
Probably the worst way to follow up a contest is with another contest, but don't say we didn't warn you! We have some schedule pressure to be ready to bottle by the middle of April so we need some killer copy from you right away! Enough whining, let's get back to wining and to the heart of the matter... The official rules!
1. Write up to about 100 words for the back label of the Twisted Oak 2008 "Rubens Blend". (It's our white Rhone-style blend of Marsanne, Roussanne, and Fermento knows what else.)
2. You can write about anything, but it should at least have something vaguely to do with Twisted Oak and Ruben the Rubber Chicken. It'll certainly help your chances - but feel free to surprise us!
3. Submit your words by email to tastingroom@twistedoak.com by March 15, 2009. (Yes, it's a short deadline - deadlines build character!) Be sure to include your birthdate and a daytime phone number.
4. You may enter as many times as you can stand to. All entries become the property of Twisted Oak Winery. Twisted Oak also reserves the right to make minor edits to the winning entry for any reason, especially for that government compliance stuff we have to deal with.
5. Decisions of the Twisted Judges will be final. You might be able to bribe the Twisted Judges, but you have to find them first.
6. The winning entry will be announced on El Bloggo Torcido (that would be here) on March 17, 2009. Probably not in the morning. You know how it is.
7. If no entry is deemed rubbery enough, no Grand Prize will be given. Yes, that would suck.
8. We will ship El Prize-o Grande to any state we can legally ship to. We will make every effort to get it to you. However, if you live in a restricted state we may have to "get creative". (Put another way, having an Aunt Edna in the state next door could be very helpful.) If we are unable to deliver it due to state or local restrictions, we reserve the right to substitute another prize of similar value.
9. Everyone who enters at least once will receive one of those now-popular coupons for free shipping
on your next purchase from Twisted Oak Winery (by internet, phone,
fax, or carrier pigeon.) Limit one coupon per person (if
you enter a hundred times, you won't get a hundred coupons - but you
may earn our admiration or loathing...!) The coupons will be delivered after the contest completes.
10. Offer void where prohibited, or wherever the glorification of rubber goods is illegal.
Oh yeah - there's a GRAND PRIZE! If your back label is selected, you'll receive in compensation for
your efforts a case of the 2008 Ruben's Blend upon its release later this year. And every bottle will have your back label on it! How 
-ing cool is that?
I will post the technical details you may choose to use (or not use) to help write your back label, as soon as I can pry them out of Fermento. Good luck!!
Beauty Salon Rubber Chicken! With luck, a Twisted Posse will be riding down to Modesto to deliver the grand prize - a three liter bottle of River of Skulls!
We'd like to thank everyone who entered (you'll be receiving your prizes soon) and everyone who took the time to vote!
Speaking of contests - the Twisted Contest Season is not over yet! Stay tuned for details coming up next month! (Or sneak a peek at last year's archives to see what we might be up to...)
Running around like a... well, you know. Blasting off back to San Francisco for the Dark & Delicious tasting. Results of Take Your Rubber Chicken To Work Week 2009 will be posted this weekend. Cheers!
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