Wilma Does Walla Walla - Part 1

In between blogging seminars, tips on social media and networking 2010 style (aka digital schmoozing), I learned about wines from the Yakima Valley and Walla Walla appellations. I even learned a little bit about wines from Idaho. For a somewhat jaded wine gal like me, I found it all fascinating and great fun. Besides, for once in my life, I was the one being entertained, not the other way around!

The conference offered a very diverse schedule with one common theme, WINE. We learned, we blogged, we networked, we tasted. And, we did something completely new to me -- live wine blogging which was kind of like doing a sales pitch on steroids. In less than 4 minutes, I had to be as engaging, charming and informative as humanly possible while pouring wine for a table of bloggers who were blogging online. When the bell rang, I rotated to the next table. This was repeated for a total of 27 times. That’s a lot of hot air coming out of one red head!  

I had a few “aha” moments along the way.  First, I got to meet some of my favorite bloggers including, Jeff Lefevere of goodgrape.com, Joe Roberts of 1winedude.com and Grace Hoffman of cellarmistress.blogspot.com.  We quickly bonded, with no pretence of who we are or where we are from. I never felt a sense of competition (like my blog is better than your blog…) and was impressed with the amount of passion, innovation, risk, hard work, and dedication wine bloggers possess. There was a sense that somehow, even though no one is really quite sure to what extent, wine blogging is making a difference. It is a valid form of wine education that is growing by leaps and bounds. As an example, when Tom Wark of fermentation.typepad.com started blogging five years ago, there were fewer than 100 wine blogs. When Jim Laube encouraged me to start mine nearly 3 years ago, there were approximately 500. Today there are over 1000. Clearly, something BIG is happening, we’re just not sure what it is or where it’s taking us.

What we can be certain of is that we have become a nation of wine drinkers. And with this is the insatiable curiosity that exists with learning about wine. Because, no matter how long you’ve been drinking or how knowledgeable one becomes, there is always MORE to learn and MORE to taste. For me, that’s a rather enticing proposition. As long as my liver can handle it, I’m up for the task!