It’s that time again - time to vote for your favorite Brigade picture!  We’ve again got some stiff competition and the winner will get $250 donated to the charity of their choice.

If you haven’t submitted your Bruliam Brigade picture yet, what are you waiting for?  And if you’ve already sent one in but lost the monthly contest, you need to scrape your ego back up off the floor and send us some new pictures.  We’ll be doing this every month for the foreseeable future, so there are lots of chances to win!

And for those of you who have signed up to receive our e-mails (or are reading this for the first time) and are wondering why you don’t have a Brigade shirt yet, you need to click here and fill out the form to register for the Brigade and receive a free t-shirt.

To vote all you need to do is: (1) click on the bullet next to the person’s name and (2) click the big VOTE button at the bottom of the poll. The poll will instantly update the tally and show you the most current results.  If the system works properly, you will only be able to vote once.  But, you can forward the link or this e-mail to as many people as you want to get them to vote for you.

The poll will only be open for voting until 8am on Tuesday December 2nd so get voting!

If you can’t see the poll or vote properly through the e-mail, please CLICK HERE and you can vote on the website.

Many thanks to Brigade member Karen R. for this great picture taken with some furry friends at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah.  For you animal lovers out there, we’re told that Best Friends will be the recepient of the $250 prize should Karen win this month’s vote.

If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

Update:  Congrats to Grandma Sylvia on her overwhelming win in the October poll.  We’ll be donating $250 on her behalf to Jewish Family Services of Broward County, FL.

Many thanks to Brigade member Dave R. for this picture in the wilds of northeast Ohio with the native Vitis Argentifolia (Silver Leaf Grapevine).  Dave discovered Bruliam from our Doctor’s Crush video on YouTube.  Dave has a passion for the woods near his home and the grapes that grow wildly there.  He has yet to make any wine from the grapes but hopefully we can inspire him to give it a shot if the wildlife doesn’t beat him to the grapes!!  You can see one of Dave’s videos about the native grape vines in Ohio by clicking here.  If you can’t view the picture, please click here.

From 95 to 5, Bruliam has supporters of all ages.  Thanks to Brigade-in-Training member JE (and his parents) for this picture taken while apple picking in Oak Glen, CA.  Now that’s he got some farming experience, maybe we’ll get him to work crush next year?

If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

It’s that time again - time to vote for your favorite Brigade picture!  We’ve again got some stiff competition and the winner will get $250 donated to the charity of their choice.

If you haven’t submitted your Bruliam Brigade picture yet, what are you waiting for?  And if you’ve already sent one in but lost the monthly contest, you need to scrape your ego back up off the floor and send us some new pictures.  We’ll be doing this every month for the foreseeable future, so there are lots of chances to win!

And for those of you who have signed up to receive our e-mails (or are reading this for the first time) and are wondering why you don’t have a Brigade shirt yet, you need to click here and fill out the form to register for the Brigade and receive a free t-shirt.

To vote all you need to do is: (1) click on the bullet next to the person’s name and (2) click the big VOTE button at the bottom of the poll. The poll will instantly update the tally and show you the most current results.  If the system works properly, you will only be able to vote once.  But, you can forward the link or this e-mail to as many people as you want to get them to vote for you.

The poll will only be open for voting until 8am on Tuesday November 4th so get voting!

If you can’t see the poll or vote properly through the e-mail, please CLICK HERE and you can vote on the website.

Many thanks to Brigade member Captain/Uncle Ron N. for this picturesque shot in front of the fishing fleet in San Francisco.  As a frequent recipient of sea sickness at the hands of Uncle Ron in my youth, I can assure you that the water you see behind him is as calm as it ever gets in and around the Bay (and once you get in the Pacific, forget about even trying to keep your lunch down).  Hopefully the Bruliam T brought calm waters!  If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

We’re also pleased to announce that our September contest winners Miles G. and Savanna S. have selected Project Renewal to receive the $250 prize.  The check was delivered last week.

Yeah, we know, our tag line is “wine is elemental”, but in this case it seems eternal.  Many thanks to Brigade members Roger and Karen W. for orchestrating this picture of Grandma Sylvia (age 95!) decked out in her Bruliam finest.  Hopefully all of us young whipersnappers can still enjoy ourselves and our wine when we’re 95!  If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

Kudos to Brigade member Andrea W. for getting this great action shot while water skiing at Bullards Bar Resevoir in northern California.  We’re especially impressed with the technique of holding on to the line with one hand while using the other to make sure that the Bruliam logo is properly displayed.  We just hope it didn’t lead to a wipe out!  If you can’t see the picture, please click here. 

UPDATE:  Congratulations to September poll winners Miles G. and Savannah S.  They  took the prize with 38% of the astounding 173 votes.  Thanks to everyone for participating.  We’ll update you again when Miles and Savannah let us know where they want the $250 donated.

Bruliam hits the streets of Vietnam with this great street-scene shot of Ho Chi Minh City from Brigade member Henry D.  In addition to this picture, Henry brought us back a bottle of Vietnamese red wine from the Dalat region of the country.  We can’t wait to open it up and post our review in the coming weeks.  If you can’t see the picture, you can click here.

It’s that time again - time to vote for your favorite Brigade picture!  We’ve got some stiff competition this month and the winner will get $250 donated to the charity of their choice.

To vote all you need to do is: (1) click on the bullet next to the person’s name and (2) click the big VOTE button at the bottom of the poll. The poll will instantly update the tally and show you the most current results.  If the system works properly, you will only be able to vote once.  But, you can forward the link or this e-mail to as many people as you want to get them to vote for you.

The poll will only be open for voting until 8am on Tuesday October 7th so get voting!

If you can’t see the poll or vote properly through the e-mail, please CLICK HERE and you can vote on the website.

Brigade member Marie C. sends us this picture from the Balsams Grand Resort in Dixville Notch, NH.  Sound familiar?  For you politicos it should.  The Balsams at Dixville Notch is the location of the first vote in each presidential primary season.  All eligible voters in the village gather at midnight on the opening morning of primary season and cast their votes (17 total votes cast in 2008).  The poll closes 1 minute after midnight and the results are widely reported by the national media.  Why all the attention to these results?  They have an odd record of accurately predicting the ultimate candidates of each party.  Who won in 2008?  Barack Obama for the democrats (7 of 10 votes) and John McCain for the republicans (4 of 7 votes). 

Thanks Marie for the great picture and the opportunity to elevate the discourse of this blog beyond booze and dirty diapers!

New York may no longer be the center of the financial universe after the past couple of weeks, but that didn’t stop our Bridage members from showing a little Bruliam pride in Times Square recently.  Many thanks to Brigade members Miles G. and Savannah S.  for this great picture from the center of it all.  If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

A great picture from Brigade member Beth W. at Mango Bay in Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.  She reports that the makeshift diving board was a log strapped to a rock on the shore.   Below, is a look at the lush landscape along the hiking path that took her to the plunge point.  And, yes, she assures us that she jumped (multiple times!)  Kudos go for our first Bruliam pictures on the other side of the international date line.  The bar keeps getting raised, people!!  If you can’t see the pictures, please click here.

Many thanks to Brigade member Dave F. for sending in this great picture from a remote area of Moab, Utah - mecca for mountain biking, off-roading, and rappelling.  We trust that between all of that outdoor adventure, Dave made time for a nice glass of pinot.  If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

A reminder that while you read this we will be at crush for our grapes from Doctor’s Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands.  While we don’t plan to use our feet, we certainly hope it goes better for us that it did for this woman.

P.S.  OK, I admit the headline is a little obscure this week.  For those of you not up on your show tunes, you can click here.

Our first international Bruliam shot comes courtesy of Brigade members Andrea W. and Jesse M. who took this picture near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

In a country known much more for its tequila and beer, it is good to see a couple of Bruliam missionaries spreading the gospel of fine wine!

AUGUST POLL WINNER UPDATE:  With a commanding 56% of the amazing 70 individual votes, our first monthly poll winner is Abhay S. on the Charles River in Boston.  Abhay has asked that the $250 donation prize be sent to KPBS, San Diego’s local PBS affiliate.

When we first started the Bruliam Brigade, we could only dream that it would become such a popular feature of this site.  We’ve given out almost 100 shirts so far and the Tuesday Brigade pictures are by far the most opened and read e-mails.  As the pictures get better and better, the thought of having to choose a monthly winner for the $250 charity prize grows increasingly daunting.

So, what better way to exploit the technology of Web 2.0 and foster our sense of community than to let you duke it out among yourselves.  That’s right, at least this month we’re going to let you vote and choose who will win the $250 for their special charity. 

We’ve placed an online poll into the bottom of this post (scroll down to see it).  To vote all you need to do is: (1) click on the bullet next to the person’s name and (2) click the big VOTE button at the bottom of the poll.  The poll will instantly update the tally and show you the most current results.  If the system works properly, you will only be able to vote once.  But, you can forward the link or this e-mail to as many people as you want to get them to vote for you.

The poll will only be open for voting until 8am on Tuesday September 2nd, so get voting!

If you can’t see the poll or vote properly through the e-mail, CLICK HERE and you can vote on the website.

Pending any hanging chads, election disputes, or Tammany Hall-like political gaffes, we’ll continue this in the months to come.  Let us know if you like this idea through comments on the site or via reply e-mail. 

Brigade member Howard W. shows off his ab “muscle” at Venice’s famous Muscle Beach. 

Don’t worry; Bruliam Wines are 100% calorie, carb, and fat free.  We promise.

If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

Paving the way for an inevitable drubbing of the Pats by our beloved Chargers later this year, the Bruliam Brigade has landed on the shores of the Charles River.  Many thanks to Abhay S. for submitting this picturesque shot.  We’re pretty sure that’s Harvard in the background on the far right, but since we apparently weren’t smart enough to get in, we’re not entirely sure (and, yes, we’re still bitter).

Thanks to Dr. John M. for submitting this scenic shot taken at the top of Mammoth Mountain.  And, like any good mountain man, John rewarded his hard day of climbing by tackling a mountain of a different kind - the pancake kind.  I’m not sure which of our pinots will pair best with pancakes, but it sure is going to be fun to find out.  If you can’t see the pictures, please click here.

It’s hard to say which is more beautiful, the New York skyline at dusk or the always lovely Kristi R.  The combination of the two with a Bruliam t-shirt to boot is almost too much for my poor heart to bear.  If you can’t see the picture, please click here.

We’ve gone bi-coastal, people!  Let’s keep those pictures coming!

First of all, we want to thank all of the Brigade members who keep sending us such fanciful, creative, and exuberant Bruliam photos.  We have some awesome shots to ring in the final weeks of summer. 

Now, without further ado, we’ll announce the first official winner of the Bruliam Brigade photo-art contest.  Drum-roll please…

Because she is a feisty fashionista and a happenin’ hat goddess, channeling the late Isabella Blow in an awesome chapeau, we crown Dr. Kelli H. the July 2008 winner!  A hard core Zin lover, no less, Kelli represented the Bruliam Brigade at the opening day of the races at the famed Del Mar Track by proudly wearing her Bruliam t-shirt, obviously the only accessory that could outshine her spectacular, wine-themed, jaw dropping hat.  Congratulations to Kelli.   If you can’t see the picture, you can click here.

At Kelli’s request we have donated $250 to The Burn Institute, in honor of her late father, a dedicated firefighter.

Keep those photos coming.  We’ll roll over our most recent pictures into the August competition.

Finally - a San Diego picture!  If you can’t see the picture, you can click here.

Many thanks to Karen W. for submitting this great picture taken at the bluffs overlooking Solana Beach.

For those of you who don’t live in San Diego, the weather pictured here is an anomaly.  It is usually cold and windy and rainy all year long.  And we have earthquakes and fires and plagues and frogs. When we’re not stuck in traffic, we’re shooting one another from our cars.  It is really, really, really terrible here.

So, please, don’t move here.

Thanks to Karen R. and Matt M. for showing some Bruliam pride at a recent Dodgers game.  With the Padres playing their worst baseball in a decade, even we’re willing to put up a picture of Dodger Stadium.

Current tally:  LA - 2, SD - 0. 

What’s up San Diego?  You gonna let that cesspool of urban sprawl, smog, congestion, and celebutantes get the better of us?

We’re waiting!

The bar has been set!

Many thanks to Seth M. for providing our very first Bruliam t-shirt picture.  Here he proves that even USC students/alumni have a modicum of taste (limited as it may be…Go Bears!).  If you can’t see the picture, click here.

For being the first to submit a picture, Seth has won $250 toward a charity of his choice.  We’ll let you know what he chooses in a future post.  But the July competition has just begun.  Wear your shirt proudly, and be the next Brigade member to win!

Provide the most interesting or unique picture in your Bruliam shirt and you could win $250 for the charity of your choice.  Many of you have already received your shirts, and the second batch went out in the mail on Monday.   So, by the end of this week all of our Bruliam members should be ready and able to participate.

If you haven’t yet signed up to get your Bruliam shirt, click here.

Can you rise to the challenge? 

UPDATE 7/30/08:  Seth has selected Teach For America to receive his $250 donation prize.

We just received our first shipment of Bruliam Brigade t-shirts.

Before we mail them out to those of you who have signed up for the Brigade, please check your size by clicking here.  The t-shirts are unisex and seem to run a little big.  We want you to wear them comfortably and often, so please make sure you have ordered the right size.  And if you want an extra for your significant other, please let us know now.  Just shoot an e-mail with any changes/updates to brian@bruliamwines.com.

And if you haven’t signed up yet, now is the time!

Wondering how cool you’ll look in a Bruliam t-shirt?  Here’s a sneak peak:

If you can’t see the image in the box above, you can click here to view it.

Not sure what size you are?  Click here for the sizing chart.

Is looking cool not enough of an incentive?  How about $250 for your favorite charity?  Photograph yourself in your Bruliam Wines t-shirt and send it to us.  We’ll post it on the site, and the most creative / unique picture every month will win $250 for your charity.

Still not convinced?  Wow, you’re a hard sell.  Maybe you need to be reminded of the Top 5 Reasons To Join The Bruliam Brigade.

Finally ready to join?  Just click here or scroll up and fill out the Brigade mailing list form, and your shirt will be on its way.

Drum roll, please:

5.  We won’t share your information with anyone.  We will, however, hound you incessantly to buy our wines.

4.  You will get a really cool free T-shirt.  People will find you more attractive when you wear your Bruliam t-shirt.  We promise. 

3.  You will have first priority on buying our wine.  Since we have a very limited production, it is highly likely that only Brigade mailing list members will have an opportunity to purchase our wine.  Signing up is not a commitment to buy anything, you’re just holding your place in line.

2.  You can win $250 for your favorite charity.  Take your picture wearing your Bruliam t-shirt and send it to us.  All of the pictures will end up on this page.  Every month the person who sends in the most unique/creative picture will win $250 to allocate to the charity of their choice.

1.  Having your picture on the Internet is awesome.  Just ask Britney, Lindsay, or Paris.