Project Y-ine

Saturday morning we woke up ready to see more of what Austin had to offer.  With the thought that our Friday couldn’t be topped, we headed over to the South Congress shopping district to the South Congress Café.  Here we enjoyed housemade Texas salsas, mimosas and AMAZING smoked gouda potato pancakes.

Then we shopped… Monkey See Monkey Do and Big Top Candy were the highlights of the day and we spent hours rummaging around the toys (including a non-Twisted Oak rubber chicken) and candy (including some chocolate covered bacon).

After a quick stop at the Colorado River in the 100 degree heat, we headed to Fino, a Tapas restaurant and bar (on Twitter). We ended up staying longer than we did at Whole Foods.  Jennie and John (aka MisoHungry and WindAddict aka a food blogger and a photographer) met back up with us to drink European Wines, veggie and non-veggie tapas and maybe the MOST AMAZING VEGETARIAN meal of my life.   I gave the chef full range to make a veggie dish for me and he created a paella style dish, with toasted angel hair pasta, beets, golden tomatoes, chickpeas, peanuts, green onions and a mix of spices that had coriander, curry and a bunch of other spices that I cannot even begin to remember.  The entire table devoured it in minutes.

Then on to dessert.

As most of us said, “No, no, no” to eating anything else, Jennie said “Yes, yes, yes” so we ordered a Vanilla Yogurt Mousse Tart with Boozy Cherries…. Yup, I said it.  Boozy Cherries.  We asked for more because the brandy soaked cherries were just too delicious.  Inspired, Jennie is even making some herself (and mailing some to me).

The three hours at Fino may be the most I have ever laughed at a fancy restaurant. We three bloggers and two photographers (another thanks to Baconator for the amazing shots) must have caused a spectacle, whipping out our cameras and laughing at our antics.  Good thing laughing burns calories because we ate a lot.

With the amazing meals I have had in Austin I am happy that my blog is all about my adventures in food, wine and marketing.  I don’t have to subject myself to one topic.

Well, at least on my own blog.  Project Y-ine is all about Generation Y and their drinking preferences and habits, but I couldn’t help but talk about some of the amazing place both food, wine and beer related in Austin…

After two amazing beer nights in New Orleans, Shana and Wenchie decided to “take a break” from beer for a night of vino with the authors of Another Wine Blog in Houston, TX. Another Wine Blog is the brainchild of Amy and Joe, a husband-wife team dedicated to wine, food and home-brewing. They currently reside next to NASA right outside of Houston, TX — but something tells me that may change in the very near future (wine country or bust).

The night began at a fun little pub called Boondoggles. Poor Shana. Just when she thought she was finally getting an evening of wine — we ended up at a pub. The beer menu was decent (a mix of corporate, craft, local craft & German imports). The food menu was your classic fried pub fare and pizza goodness.

Prior to that night, neither Shana or Wenchie had never tasted a beer from Texas. Joe steered us towards Saint Arnold, a local Houston brewery. Naturally, Wenchie went with the IPA. Shana went with the more mild tasting Amber Ale. Wenchie’s IPA went very well with the spicy, fried appetizers we ordered as well as the “Tejas” pizza (chorizo, andouille sausage, onions, jalapenos, Texas goat cheese, romano and provolone cheese). Shana’s Amber ale went well with the vegetarian “Santa Fe” pizza (black beans, roasted corn & red peppers, red onion, cilantro, romano & provolone cheese, over a buttermilk ranch sauce).

From there, we went to a wine bar for some vino and dessert — where Wenchie got the opportunity to play chess. She got her ass kicked ass kicked by Joe — but that is neither here not there.

The next morning, Amy took the ladies of Project Yine to see some of the rockets at NASA. It is assumed that, at some point or another, everyone dreams of being an astronaut — well, Wenchie did at least.

After the brief stop at NASA, we found ourselves back on the road headed towards Austin, TX. Lucky for us, this leg of the road trip was the shortest.

For some time now, both Shana and Wenchie have been wanting to visit Austin– but for different reasons. After all, Austin is a college town — young, hip, progressive and unique. And on top of that, it is also the “Live Music Capital of The World.” What is not to like?

Being the bacon and pork obsessed human that Wenchie has become in the past year, it was only natural that we visit our good twitter friend — the one, the only, the most infamous — BACONATOR. Luckily, he turned out to be of the non-serial killer type and was willing to put us up for 2 … errrr 3 … nights. (After two nights of awesomeness, we extended our stay an extra night.)

Unfortunately for Wenchie, but fortunate for Shana and Baconator, we only had one night of beer consumption in Austin. BUT OHhhh what a glorious night it was …

Prior to arriving in Austin, Wenchie had already setup a night of beer debauchery and fun with Chris Troutman from a local Austin beer blog called “Beer Town Austin.” And from there it spiraled into a super awesome Austin tweetup (aka organization of people who interact via twitter) involving local beer geeks drinking local beers in local beer bars and noshing on local food.

The first establishment we visited was The Draught House Pub & Brewery.

Much to The Wench’s surprise and UTTER delight, The Draught House had New Belgium’s La Folie on tap. Now for those of your who live in states where New Belgium is distributed, this might not sound like a big deal. But, for the poor deprived Wench, it is. La Folie is New Belgium’s original wood-conditioned beer that rests in French Oak barrels between one and three years before being hand bottled, numbered and corked. It is deep crimson brown in color with a pungent apple cider vinegar and wild yeast aroma. The taste is smack you in the face, pucker-up the lips, destroy the sides of your cheeks sour. Think sour cherries and tart vinegar with a slight hint of old wet wood.

Starting off with La Folie definitely set the mood right. Austin food blogger Jenny Chen took the whole mood to another level when she showed up with two coolers full of boozy confections. In addition to authoring the blog “MisoHungry Makes It With Moonshine“, Jenny is also the local founder of the Cupcake Smack-down. In honor of our visit to Austin, she whipped up 3 out of this world recipes made with local Austin beer.

1. Drunken German Chocolate Cupcakes – 512 Cask Pecan Porter Cake filled with coconut, almonds, and Irish Cream topped with chocolate pecan praline liquor butter cream and a maple bourbon pecan

2. Drunken Lamingtons – twist on the traditional Lamingtons recipe adding beer (Shiner Bock for this particular batch) to the cake batter, and 512 Pecan Porter to the chocolate syrup.

3. Uncle Billy’s Coffee Porter Cupcakes – Uncle Billy’s Coffee Porter Chocolate cake filled with kahlua and nutella, topped with a Irish Cream Cream Cheese frosting and cocoa roasted almond.

The boys from Beer Town Austin also met us up at The Draught House. They organized a tasting of all the Texas beers on tap with the owner and brewmaster. Chris and Wenchie filmed the tasting and the footage will be released in the near future after it is edited. We tasted several beers and, instead of listing them now, we will wait to reveal them when the video is ready.

Shana was a good sport the whole time. Although, most of the beers she tasted were not to her liking — she did find a few that made her happy

The next stop of the night was Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que. Almost immediately after arriving, the GM Ryan took a few of us on a tour of Uncle Billy’s brewing facility. Ashley captured the tour on video and the footage will be released after minor edits. Following the brewery tour, we were given a few sample flights of Uncle Billy’s beer. Ryan led us through an official tasting of each beer — which was also captured in soon-to-be-released video footage.

Wenchie’s favorite Uncle Billy’s beer was definitely the Double IPA. SHOCKING, we know. It has a nice balance of malt and hops — with the 3 C’s being the main hops used. Shana drank liquor — SHOCKING, we know.

The beer tasting was followed by more of MisoHungry’s amazing cupcakes as well as a burger run.

The Texas beer experience ended here. The remainder of time spent in Austin involved a few cocktails, lots of wine, BBQ, ice cream, endless amounts of hot sauce, amazing food and a crazy night of rock band.

Stay tuned for more information on our cross country road trip!!!

Cheers!

We spent our second night in Austin at home.  Ashley and I needed to attempt to catch up with our writing, uploading of photos/videos and Baconator had a company party to attend for a bit.  Of course, while working we opened up a bottle of Twisted Oak 2005 Calaveras County *%#&@.  The name alone is a reason why Gen Y’ers like ourselves like this wine, but as I have previously stated, a name may get us to purchase once, but it will not keep us coming back.

Please feel free to insert your own pun about the name  *%#&@ and statement above here.

This wine is the perfect combination of teenage humor and a great blend (28% Mourvedre , 23% Mourvedre , 33% Syrah, 10% Grenache , 6% Grenache).  It is perfect for wine newbies and wine connoisseurs…  In fact, Amy & Joe of Another Wine Blog forced their local wine shop, Chelsea Wine Bar to carry (and sell out) this wine.

When Baconator and his ex-roommate, Monica came back we knew we needed to open a few more bottles, including the crème da la crème of the Twisted selection – The 2007 Calaveras County River of Skulls and partake in the awesomeness that is Rock Band (a staple in many Gen Y group of friends).

The River of Skulls and *%&@ are perfect companions to singing at the top of your lungs to songs such as “Spider Webs” by No Doubt or “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.   Wine provides a much more classy way to rock out.  Not to say that beer wouldn’t also work, I just love the idea of singing:

Risin’ up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I’m back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

It’s the eye of the tiger, it’s the cream of the fight
Risin’ up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he’s watchin’ us all in the eye of the tiger

…. all while holding a glass of wine.

Austin, Texas is definitely a food city, one which should be a candidate to host a season of Top Chef.  Keep Austin Weird is the slogan of the Austin Business Alliance as a promotion for local businesses and local is a concept that the people of Austin take very seriously.

We were only supposed to spend two nights here, but we loved it so much we extended our stay.  In order to explain why I need to take you through the insanity that was our time spent in this city.  This post will focus on the first night/day so check back later for more delicious images and comments.   Our host, the sarcastic Baconator (his name is being withheld to protect the guilty) was our tour guide and definitely showed us some of the hottest places in Austin.  All photos in this post where taken by him.

THURSDAY NIGHT: I will let The Beer Wench elaborate, but we visited two different brew pubs our first night in town, meeting up at the Draught House with BeerTownAustin, MisoHungry, JonButterworth, SugarMamas, and CaptianKirkW and then with ILoveBeerBlog, elmachuca and WindAddict at Uncle Billy’s on restaurant row.

MisoHunry, aka Jennie, aka an amazing food blogger and baker with the blog: http://misohungrynow.blogspot.com/ made two types of cupcakes and a sponge cake for our adventure.  The kicker – All sweets were made with beer as one of the ingredients.  She doesn’t sell her creations, but instead gives them away to fellow foodie friends and restaurants she visits.  She also was the creator of the Austin Cupcake Smackdown.

To end the night, Baconator took us to visit the hot bar section of the city where we passed by Cedar Street bar, an outdoor bar/concert venue that could be seen from the sidewalk…. The white rap duo rapped “I’m on a Boat” as we went into Péché, an amazing Absinthe bar and restaurant.   As Baconator said, it is the best place to take a date (if you like them).  The bartender asked Ashley and I several questions about our preferences and came back with the most amazing gin/champagne cocktail I have ever put in or around my mouth called a 79.

FRIDAY DAY: We wake up.  Drink some coffee, check Twitter and Facebook and emails — you know, the typical morning stuff (including forgetting to eat breakfast) and then off to the flagship WHOLE FOODS store.

This store is a must see for any foodie who visits Austin. We spent over an hour alone browsing the massive wine selection and the beer alley.   They just opened a New Belgium KRIEK Lips of Faith beer that they let us try.  Ashley loved the sour cherry taste, me and Baconator (a notorious beer hater) did not find it pleasing to our palettes.  Ashley bought a few bottles of this rare blend though.

To see my many images that I took with my iphone, please visit my posterous post I posted.

We decided to purchase a few bottles of wine and a massive amount of tapas, BBQ, salad and my vegan tofu salad to eat in their upstairs cafeteria.

Wines:

Vinos Sin Ley G3 “Caliu” 2006 a Spanish Garnacha and perfect companion to our marinated mushrooms, artichokes, roasted veggies and a Texas goat cheese made in a blue cheese style.

Big House Pink 2007 Rosé, a decent Central Coast rosé to go with the Texas hot sauce and BBQ.  After the feast, I realized why Texas drinkers drink rosés and white wines…. Or beer…. They eat ALOT of spicy foods and a rosé is the perfect component to some Texas brisket.

After our feast we visited Tears of Joy to try some Texas hot sauces and salsas.  Ashley was tempted by their deadly sauce and lived.   It is another awesome spot to check out, even better after a bottle of wine or two!

After some HOT sauce and my Epiphany that “Hot Sauce is Hot”  we needed to cool down, so we rode in the back of Baconator’s truck (yes it is legal in Texas and no, it was NOT cool).

To better cool ourselves off we went to Amy’s Ice Cream aka the coolest ice cream store I have ever been too.

“Sex, drugs and Rocky Road”

This place is just too amazing to describe, so I will elaborate in pictures.

The best thing about this day was that it was only the beginning….

Most of this trip involves Ashley and me driving.  48 hours total driving time is what Google maps gives us, which does not include traffic or pit stops.

3,000 miles.

I write this in Houston, which put us at approximately 14 hours and 1,000 miles in.  We have driven from Tampa through the Florida panhandle, though Alabama, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana. And then from NOLA through the bayou of Louisiana and 100 miles into Texas, to Clear Lake, Texas.  Our hosts, Amy and Joe Power from Another Wine Blog (and some of the coolest non-Gen Y’ers I have met) live in a suburb of Houston, right by NASA.

We have driven all the way through 4 states (okay more than half of FL), a tropical storm, swamps and a few large cities.  We have seen just as many Waffle House’s as McDonalds and more billboards about steak or BBQ then I have ever seen in my life.

So, what do two twenty something’s do for that long?  Well, sing at the top of our lungs to pop and 80’s music of course.

Project Y-ine playlist so far:

So What, Pink (which we deemed our NOLA song because it pumped us up when driving into town)

Hanging Around, Kings of Leon

Poker Face, Lady Gaga (which we deemed our Texas song because of lyrics “I wanna hold em’ like they do in Texas Plays”)

Shock me all Night Long, ACDC

Semi Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind

Girls just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper

Waking up in Vegas, Katy Perry

Love Games, Lady Gaga

I Gotta Feeling, Black Eyed Peas

And last, the official song of “Project Y-ine” is Fire Burning On The Dancefloor by Sean Kingstone.  This song seems to be the most popular on radio stations and Ashley’s ipod and it is one we definitely can rock out to in the car!

“PROJECT YINE TAKES NEW ORLEANS BY STORM!” No pun intended.

Okay, so maybe the pun is intended.

As of 4:30pm on Monday, August 17th, Project Y-ine has been in the amazing city of New Orleans.

Naturally, there are so many things to do, to see, to eat and to drink here. And unfortunately, we only have a day and a half to fit it all in.

Luckily for us, Shana’s good friend from Healdsburg grew up in New Orleans and her parents offered to put us up for the two nights we are in town. We had some expectation prior to arriving, yet we really had no idea what was in store for us. AND OH MY WORD, let me just tell you — the house we are staying in is absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD. It is an enomrous three story mansion with tall ceilings, hardwood floors, spacious rooms and large bathrooms. The house is beautifully decorated with antiques and each and every room has prominent New Orleans character.

Our hostess was kind enough to take us out to dinner the first night. We went to a very lovely Mediterranean restaurant called “Lebanon’s Cafe.” I know what you are thinking — WHY ON EARTH GO TO A MEDITTERANEAN PLACE IN NEW ORLEANS?? WHY NOT CAJUN AND CREOLE? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? Well, Shana is a vegetarian and traditional New Orleans cuisine does not necessarily cater to her dietary preferences. Today, however, we have vowed to find a place that serves vegetarian creole/cajun cuisine! (With meat, of course — cause heaven forbid The Wench goes through a meat withdrawl … mmm Andouille Sausage)

After dinner we met up with a beer blogger friend of Ashley’s — The Beer Buddha (aka Jeremy Labadie) — at The Avenue Pub on St. Charles St. Well as it turned out, we were at THE quintessential beer bar in New Orleans. Overall, Avenue Pub has the best beer selection in town and, as a result, it attracts some of the biggest beer geeks — errrr beer enthusiasts in town.

Almost the entire crew over at NOLA Brewing Company showed up to the pub at some point or another during the evening. We had a great time talking to everyone about the local craft beer scene and filmed a few video interviews. NOTE TO SELF –> Interviews in busy bars are not conducive to good footage. Neither is poor lighting.

We are working on the kinks as we go along, so please be patient.

After enjoying some well-crafted beers at The Avenue Pub, our new friends took us to the most HOLE-IN-THE-WALL bar EVER. It was an old garage — like house garage — that got turned into a bar. The only thing that marked the bar’s location was the randomly placed Christmas lights that hung outside of it. Only the real locals know about this place — and for a reason. It’s name is Snakes & Jakes. Not sure what the story is behind the name, but it sure fits.

Today, we are getting off to a very late start. After 10 hours in the car and a night out on the town, we are both overly exhausted. HOWEVER, it is a beautiful day and we are looking forward to touring a bit of the French Quarter and stalking down some Generation Y-ers to interview.

For more up-to-the-minute updates on Project Y-ine, follow us on Twitter –> @ProjectYine @sharayray @TheBeerWench

Cheers!

I am currently sitting in the airport in Dallas for the last 45 minutes, officially doubling my time spent in this state.  My next flight into Tampa leaves in 40 minutes and I don’t really feel like shopping in the Texas themed shops – So here I am writing.

I just grabbed a cranberry vodka to attempt to relax my brain from how excited I am about the adventure I have awaiting me when I get into Tampa and wake up tomorrow morning.  All of our planning and efforts will start tomorrow and I feel a sense of relief over me as I realize I now need to step back and enjoy the ride.

There is no one even close to my generation in the TGI Friday’s bar right now.  Just a few older guys drinking their beers and watching a football game, ignoring each other.   It reminds me of being in an elevator where you smile at the other people and then look at the ground, not wanting to talk to each other.

The Gordon Biersch bar in Sacramento had a few Gen Y’ers, including my bartender.  We chatted for a bit about the study and I asked him about his wine drinking habits.  He told me that he only purchased wine for dinner events and when he would step foot into the wine aisle of a grocery store he would instantly be overwhelmed with which wine to choose.

“If you pick a cheap bottle of wine, it looks as if you don’t know what you are doing,” he said, “But, I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a bottle.  So I always end up buying a bottle I already know.”

When asked what label, he told me he honestly didn’t remember and that it was just something his parents used to buy.

That seems to be the case with a lot of people I have talked to over the years.  The wine aisle is a scary place for people who don’t know what they want.  So many decisions, so many labels, so many varietals….   Does picking the ‘right’ bottle really influence what people think of you?  Does it even matter?

Many people seem to be in the same boat as my new bartender friend, they try to find the right balance of buying a bottle that is not too cheap, but not too expensive.  Something that they had heard of but not something so common that it isn’t ‘special.’

Okay, it is now time to board the plane, so look for a post of my adventure in Tampa soon!

*shana.

The term Social Media (on Wikipedia) is broadly defined as a type of social interaction that includes:

1. Concept (art, information, or meme)
2. Media (physical, electronic, or verbal)
3. Social interface (intimate direct, community engagement, social viral, electronic broadcast or syndication, or other physical media such as print)

We have the hub of our social media expose, this website, but it wouldn’t be complete without the added interaction with our fellow blogger friends (aka content producers).   Project Y-ine wouldn’t be happening if it wasn’t for the amazing people who have supported us with help, blog posts, tweets, comments, etc.  and I wanted to give a shoot out to our favorite articles on Project Y-ine.

Sacre Bleu Wine wrote to me asking a few questions about the project, they even found some lovely images of us on Ashley’s Facebook page.     Project Y-ine: Millennial Drinking Study takes to the Road

Marcy Gordon wrote a hilarious parody of our trip to the South in Scenes from a Gen-Yine Road Trip.  If the South is anything like this you will see me stopping this project short and hoping on the first plane back Cali.

Amy and Joe will be allowing us to stay with them during our stay in Houston, TX and they wrote  about the project and Generation Y on their hilarious wine blog, Another Wine Blog.    Project Y-ine – World Tour 2009 | another wine blog

This past Wednesday, Randy and Kaz allowed Ashley and I to jump on Wine Biz Radio last minute to talk about Project Y-ine and our first trip.   Listen to the podcast of  A Being Of Pure Id.

Thanks again to anyone reading or helping out for all of your support!

*shana.

Yes, Project Y-ine is a social media based journal about our experiences from the road and meeting members of Generation Y, but an article from the website Under 30 CEO got me thinking about traditional media and how easy it is for people who are so connected to the online world (for example, you will hardly ever see either myself or Ashley sans iphone) to forget that not everyone is like this.

Another aspect of this study is to see what issues mean the most to my generation, how they like to get their information and how long they spend online vs. doing other activities, so I look forward to learning more about people who do not judge others by what cell phone they have or people who do not necessarily check their Twitter account before they get out of bed.

The article 10 Things Gen Y Won’t Pay for made me chuckle, but I also realized that each one of these apply to me.  I wonder how many of these also apply to other Gen Y’ers reading this post.   Let me know!

Some of the 10 that seem to apply to me more:

News: Twitter, Facebook and iGoogle are my news sources.  I have customized what I want to read online and I have done it all for free.  No way you can take that away from me now, Murdoch and Fox News!  While, I agree that “Quality journalism is not cheap” and that “a newspaper that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting”  I think traditional media needs to figure out another solution then to start charging for something people has received for free for a while.

Wireless: While traveling through the south on this first adventure, one thing I am semi worried about is the possible lack of wifi options on I-10.  I even tweeted about that today and was reminded that McDonald’s actually has wifi now.  I realized that I am so spoiled here in Sonoma County and have stopped going to my favorite coffeeshop in Healdsburg because it does not have wifi.  I haven’t stepped foot in an actual Starbucks for some time now, so I honestly don’t know if they charge for wifi or not….  If they do, it looks as if Ashley and I will be stopping at a lot of McDonald’s on our trip!

Long Distance: Many people I know never change their cell phone numbers when they move.  I got my first cell phone plan when I moved out to Napa on my own almost nine years ago. My number is a Napa number and it has not changed while living in San Diego, Sacramento and now in Healdsburg.  This also applies to roaming charges…. I mean, I will be traveling across country.  I remember once having to pay over $100 in roaming charges when visiting Vegas many years ago…. Thankfully this will never happen again.

Mail: I do not remember the last time I sent anything in the mail. All my bills are online and I now drop off my rent check to the rental management company in town. Though, I did receive a post card from my best friend that he sent to me on his honeymoon thanking me for helping out with the wedding.  I will be honest and say that when I read his postcard, I started bawling.  It meant so much more than an email from them… Even if they are not very technologically savvy or insane as I am with social networking.

So, back to my original point – While this study is a social media expose, there will be some traditional elements to all of this, including actually meeting some of my online friends in person.  So, if you would like to receive a postcard from us during this first Project Y-ine trip, please comment, email, facebook message or DM us your address and we will send you something from one of the  many amazing cities we are planning on visiting.

In order to bring this back online, we would love for you to scan the postcard and post it on one of your websites – Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, your blog, our Facebook page, etc. (of course linking back to us).

Why do a research project on the drinking habits of Generation Y?  After all, the overwhelming majority of wealth in the world sits in the hands of the Baby Boomers.  They are the greatest consumers of — well, everything — and they have tremendous purchasing power.

It is only logical for the wine & beer industry to target the wallets of the world.  Yet, by doing so, marketers are missing out on reaching the largest and potentially most influential generation — Gen Y.

So, who belongs to Generation Y?

The exact dates of Generation Y tend to vary depending on the source but, for the most part, this generation includes those born between 1980 and the first half of the 1990s — give or take a few years.  This generation has also been referred to as the Echo Boomers (children of the Baby Boomers), the Millenium Generation (or Millenials), the iGeneration and Google Generation (the birth of the Internet occurred during this generation).

Generation Y was the first generation to grow up with the Internet and, as a result, they are completely immersed in a digital world — constantly communicating and connecting through the use of digital mediums.

As consumers, Gen Y tends to be more savvy than marketers give them credit.  They are both financially cognizant and brand conscientious — seeking both cheap and elite products and experiences.

The youngest of Generation Y is preparing for college and the oldest have begun to penetrate the work force with a vengeance.  As Generation Y continues to emerge into the work force and the Baby Boomers continue to retire, the landscape of America is increasingly changing and will change even more dramatically within the next decade.

Although the entire generation has not yet reached the legal drinking age, those that have leaped over the 21 year benchmark are affecting the alcohol industry tremendously.  When it comes to beer and wine, Generation Y is in a prime position to be influenced by marketers as well as develop brand preferences.  Studies show that the older members of Generation Y are becoming increasingly interested in both wine and beer.

What are the major factors that influence Generation Y’s drinking habits and beer & wine purchasing behaviors?  That is one of the major questions that Project Y-ine hopes to answer.  What is most important to them –> Price?  Brand?  Peer influence?  Commercials and advertisements?  Popularity?  Exclusiveness & rarity?  Wine & beer reviews?  Wine and beer blogs?  The questions are endless.

Project Y-ine is armed with surveys, Flip cameras, digital cameras, laptops & iPhones.  The goal is to get into the minds of Generation Y –> and broadcast those thoughts to the world via the use of social media platforms.

Get ready, folks. You are in for one heck of a ride! CHEERS!