On October 5, 2010 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts awarded Second Glass founders for "entrepreneurial spirit and innovation in business." Morgan First accepted the award for the company from State Representative Linda Dorcena Forry. The award party was planned with all of the winners for Inc Magazine's 30 Under 30 for 2010. Pretty awesome, right? Read the full post on the Boston Innovation blog. [caption id="attachment_190" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Second Glass staff, Anthony Roldan, Morgan First, Maureen Hautaniemi and Holly Gordon"] [/caption] [caption id="attachment_192" align="alignnone" width="241" caption="Award from Commonwealth of Massachusetts"] [/caption]

Inc. Magazine picks Second Glass for this year’s 30 under 30 - their annual selection of “America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs” who bring innovation to market, build unique brands, create and nurture trends, give back to their communities and to the world, and make money along the way. Tyler and Morgan are featured in the magazine's main article, where reporter Donna Fenn highlights their ability to build communities both online and in the physical world at events like Wine Riot, where "you'd be hard-pressed to find a wine snob in the crowd." Check out the profile and the awesome video! You can also see the team sporting the signature Second Glass photobooth in their featured picture. Way to go, team!

In an article titled "Wine, declassified: Today’s oenophiles are embracing wine’s unstuffy side", Stuff Magazine highlights Second Glass and names co-founder Tyler Balliet "the Prince of Boston's Wine Revolution". The article illustrates the new generation of wine drinkers who seek out classes, tastings, and events, and in doing so "smash the industry's idols and forging a new class of wine lovers". The article highlights Second Glass, Wine Riot, and this year's Summer Smackdown. A quote from Tyler concludes the article: "The biggest misconception people have is that they can be wrong. Everybody's worried that they can make a bad decision, but at the end of the day, the absolute worst-case scenario is that you get drunk. And how bad can that be?" Check out the full article here!

Over this past weekend, I was one of about 30 judges at the NextGen Wine Competition. Taking place in Santa Rosa, CA the competition was the very first of its kind. Gather some of the top Millenial wine experts in the country the competition set out to choose wines indicative of this new generation that is leading the growth in wine sales. While I was judging, Morgan First was volunteering, helping the competition run smoothly behind the scenes. There were over 700 wines to taste and only one day to do so. The 30 judges were broken down into multiple panels, each in charge of awarding about 120 wines either no medal, a bronze, silver or gold. If all of the judges on a panel awarded the wine a gold, it was considered "double gold." From there, all of the gold and double gold wines moved on the the finals, commonly known as "sweepstakes." These were re-tasted and revoted on to get Best in Show. While preliminary results were revealed at the competition, we're waiting for the official results before we post anything. Check back or checkout our recent tweets from the event.