The Wine Bloggers Conference

Last weekend (Friday, June 25 - Sunday, June 27) I attended the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla at the Marcus Whitman Hotel and Conference Center, this year's venue. It was the first tine I had attended. It turned out to be very stimulating and informative. Here are some highlights.

On Saturday morning, there was a discussion about the "Terroirs of the Walla Walla Valley" with Professor of Geology Kevin Pogue of Whitman College. The presentation illustrated the importance of terroir (loosely translated as "a sense of place") in Walla Walla Valley wines. In an upcoming blog, I will write a fuller summary of the session.

Later in the morning, Conference participants loaded up on buses in groups of 15 to visit vineyards and wineries. My group's first stop was at the Spofford Station vineyard southeast of Walla Walla on the Oregon side of the valley. Located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, it is a site that was heavily impacted by the Misoula Floods 12-15,000 years ago. The owner, Lynne Chamberlain, was a gracious host and we sampled wines from that vineyard with winemakers (including Brad Riordan of Robison Ranch and Devin Stinger of Adamant). Next, we stopped at College Cellars of Walla Walla Community College, where we participated in a blind tasting of 2009 Syrahs that were aged in different barrels, three in French oak and two in American oak. The differences were striking and revealed how much oak aging influences the taste of wines. Then we went to Long Shadows for a delicious lunch accompanied by a selection of the winery's wines. The '09 Poet's Leap Riesling, the '07 Saggi and '07 Sequel Syrah were outstanding.

In the afternoon, I attended a Breakout Session, "The Washington Wine Industry" with Paul Gregutt (paulgregutt.com), Coman Dinn (Director of Winemaking for Hogue Cellars) and Sean Sullivan (Washington Wine Report). The panel packed in a lot of information given the limited time of 50 minutes. Co Dinn illustrated how much Washington has over California in terms of climate and diversity of terroir. Paul Gregutt asked the question of "what is Washington's signature grape?' For whites, he noted that Chardonnay still has yet to find the best sites, and saw great potential for Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon (a great secret). For reds, there are Cabernet Sauvignon, especially from 35+ year old vines on vinifera roots, Merlot (the best in the U.S.) and Syrah which has a remarkable range of styles. Sean Sullivan noted the dramatic growth of Washington wine, accompanied by a string of excellent vintages (Wine Spectator: '08 and '07, 95+ points, '06, 94 points, '05, 93 points). Of the 650 wineries today, many are small (under 4200 cases a year). Future challenges remain, such as how to sustain continued growth and how to reach across state boundaries. (For a more extensive report on this session, along with graphs, charts, and added commentary, see Sean Sullivan's June 29 post in www.wawinereport.com.)

On Sunday morning, the Conference wrapped up with sessions on wine blogging including "Bloggers, Wineries and PR Firms" which explored the complex relationships among these groups. The constant theme of wineries and their PR is that "we are here to help you." There is an awareness on the need for being on the cutting edge. The Conference ended with a Wine and Food Pairing with Winebow South American, Italian and Spanish wines together with dishes developed by the Marcus Whitman Hotel Marc Restaurant Chef, "Bear" Ullman. A concluding session announced Charlottesville, Virginia as the site of the 2011 Conference.