I’m here at the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference and it’s time for the “About Wine Blogging” breakout sessions! Our choices are:
• Wine Blogging 101 with Colby Vorhees, Joe Power and Catie Walker
• Advanced Wine Blogging with Joe Roberts, Jeff Lefevere and RJ Hilgers –
• Wine Blogging and the Wine Industry with Craig Camp, Lori Narlock and Bob
Silver
I’m with the Advanced Wine Blogging with Joe Roberts who just won the best wine blog award 1 Wine Dude, Jeff Lefevere Good Grape (who won two awards!) and RJ Hilgers and taking notes on suggestions from Jeff Lefrevre at Good Grape. Here’s his four main points:
1. Work Smarter Not Harder
2. Work on your writing
3. Develop your brand
4. Capitalize on trends.
Best Overall: 1Wine Dude aka Joe Roberts
Best graphics: Good Grape
New wine blog: swirl smell slurp
Best Single Subject Wine Blog: New York Cork report
Wine Blog: Been Doon so Long
Wine Reviews: Bigger than your head
Blog writing: Catavino
Industry/Business: Good Grape
These are all great blogs to check out and follow. I’ve met many of these folks who were both competing and winners and they’re really great too.
Steve Heimoff tastes 5000 wines a year–professionally.
He’s also controversial when it comes to wine bloggers.
In his keynote, which I am enjoying with some AUS shiraz samples of the tasty Mollydooker The Boxer and the absolutely juicy joy of Carnival of Love, he starts out with discussing how this is a transitional phase of wine writing from the era of “ivory tower” wine writers to a more democratized wine writing via Robert Parker who wanted to write in a way to make wine more popular and wine writing more available to the level of the average person.
Now he points out it’s the third wave of wine writing where women are now writing about wine.
The top down model of wine writing has changed radically with the spread of social media so that now there are thousands of wine writers publishing on the web using various social media platforms–primarily blogs.
He sees how blogs provide writers an opportunity to write in a stronger more personal voice. Having a blog allowed him to write without the chafing of the yoke of an editor. Continue reading →
Cave B on the Columbia Valley Gorge was our first stop on our drive from Seattle to Walla Walla. There, we enjoyed the view (wow!) and sampled wines from 15 different wineries which are making wines from the Columbia Valley. Highlights on this tasting follows.
We then drove about 2 hours to Prosser’s Milbrandt Winery for a delightful tasting of wines from Yakima Valley producers and vintners. Live music and food which they grilled right then and there. More highlights on that too.
We closed the day and our driving at Walla Walla Vinters where they made us feel just like family and right at home for a casual home made pizza and wine sunset dinner in the vineyard where I took lots of photos.
From CSM, we continued to gorge ourselves on wonderful food and wine and BEER too…about which I will have to add more to this post later because the whole world is moving so fast I am dancing through time trying to keep up!
To all those wonderful Woodinville wineries who shared their wines and stories on Wednesday, I promise to do my best to post some highlights as soon as I get a chance! And to all those who are looking forward to learning about Washington wines, you won’t need to hold your breath because when I catch mine, I will!
Somehow I did it. After a two hour nap, I jumped in the car at 4am Wednesday and drove to LAX where I made my flight, connected with my friend the painter Fred Betz, and we found our way from the airport to Chateaus Ste. Michel in Woodinville and caught up catch up with the other wine bloggers on the WBC-or-Bust bus just in time for a lesson in food and wine pairing. Pictured at right is the way the sunlight pours into the room leaving a pattern on the concrete floor.
Needless to say, all of the food and all of the wines were fabulous.We started with four different reislings paired with Asian inspired cuisine, then four merlots with some manchego cheese and tender duck breast, and finishing with a late harvest riesling infected by the “noble rot” paired with a simple cookie and fresh raspberries.
For more details about what I learned, and to see more iPhone photos, keep reading!
Where did I go and why? We went on a road trip to Flagstaff, Utah, and Colorado where we tasted one awesome rhone style wine from grapes grown in the Sedona area (more on this later!), we camped and explored red rock Utah, and finished our trip in Colorado where we stopped at Guy Drew Vineyards tasting room (pictured) for some surprising and delightful wines.
But now I’m getting ready for the 2010 vintage of the North American Wine Bloggers Conference which starts this Friday in Walla Walla Washington thanks to a WBC scholarship. I leave Wednesday morning for a dawn flight from LAX to Seattle where my friend Fred Betz will pick me up for a quick visit and an even quicker lesson in how he can blog and use social media to help promote his business as a painter.
Fred will drive me to Woodinville where I will join the WBC-or-Bust crew of winning bloggers at Chateau Ste Michelle for a lesson in food and wine pairing (complete with food and wine of course), followed by a tasting, a lunch and more wine, a visit to Pike for a guided beer tasting and brewery tour, a few minutes to our selves then dinner at the Waterfront Grill with more wine! I’ll post as much about it and as often as I can!
After all that, I’m meeting with friends Danika Dinsmore and Tod McCoy of En Theos Press. Tod just published and released a book Danika wrote and which I edited so we will be celebrating that too and talking about other writing and publishing projects. Tod has asked me to be on his editorial board as well so we may discuss that too.
I know it sounds like a grueling day, doesn’t it? I can’t wait–I just hope I can sleep tonight!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 