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View from the Punt – Perspectives on WBC11 from the Other Side of the Bottle (Part I of II)
The 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC11) in Charlottesville, VA has come and gone. Much like the anticipation and excitement leading up to many major holidays – like Christmas for some, or Thanksgiving – WBC11 came with much anticipation and excitement, and went very quickly. Too quickly, for me.
Given the number of different venues included in the three day event – over a dozen wineries and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello – conferences like WBC11 have a lot of moving parts and require an insane level of logistics work. Behind every successful event like WBC11, there are people that work tirelessly (and, without much thanks) to make the event successful. In the case of WBC11, major kudos and huge thanks goes out to three ladies that worked for a year to make this year’s event a massive success – Annette, Amy, and Mary Catherine from the Marketing Office of the Virginia Wine Board. WBC11 could NOT have happened without them! Tamra and Danielle from the Virginia Tourism Corporation, and Stacey from the Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association also deserve a big thank you for helping make WBC11 a memorable event as do Allan, Reno, and Elle at Zephyr Adventures for taking a chance to bring WBC east bound. Last, but certainly not least, a special thanks to each winery that took their time to pour for us – especially those who poured at Monticello. Each of your respective, and collective, contributions is appreciated!
If history is a reasonably accurate indicator – postmortems from WBC08, WBC09 and WBC10 – many WBC11 recap posts will provide the standard laundry list of what some attendees did and did not like about the event and Virginia wine, perhaps a mention of a few wines from the speed tasting, and of course the obligatory rant about the heat.
Rather than add to the list of predictable topics, I wanted to provide a perspective that is rarely presented in WBC recaps (only seen a couple in the past, but could have missed them) – that of the person pouring the wine.
Although many of us in the wine blogosphere are quick with our opinions, many (most, all) of us are not as keen on soliciting feedback from those at the other end of the bottle. Below are a few thoughts from those that made the wines and cider we enjoyed at WBC11 possible…
“We met bloggers from California, Oregon and many other places, who all seemed impressed with the quality of the wine and the passion of the growers and winemakers. It speaks volumes that what is essentially a “volunteer army” (since most — if not all — aren’t paid for their work) would travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to meet one another, learn more about their avocation and how to be better at it, and welcome the opportunity to enjoy Virginia wine in a magical setting like Monticello. The bloggers were engaging and genuinely interested in learning what distinguishes Virginia wine from that of other regions. I, for one, like an educated consumer. We came away impressed, and we look forward to having them visit us at Annefield.”~ Stephen Ballard, winegrower,Annefield Vineyards
Seems like all the bloggers just like to write about what a wine smells and tastes like. I already know what my wine smells and tastes like. I don’t need the blogger to tell me that. Where is the depth and analysis? ~ Winemaker that poured wine at WBC11
Although I do not fully agree with this winemaker’s opinion because not all bloggers write tasting notes, this is a very important point, and is often shared with me when I ask winemakers/winery folks about their thoughts on the blogger crowd. For anyone at WBC11 paying attention during the Eric Asimov and Jancis Robinson keynotes, one realizes that more depth and analysis is needed in the wine blogosphere. This message certainly resonated with me and I know many other bloggers took note as well.
No doubt a number of the blogs I read most often (which is actually quite a few) will take a more serious approach to their writing – from more professional coverage of winery visits, to sharing more of the story behind the wines they try, to more overall analysis. I certainly need to, and plan to work on improving my writing and analysis, and look forward to watching the wine blogosphere step up their game as well. (More on my personal WBC11 take-aways in a subsequent post.)
‘We enjoyed having the bloggers up at DuCard Vineyards and they seemed to appreciate the uniqueness of our gorgeous rural Madison County mountainside location, but I admit I was worried that perhaps they were getting hives … not from the heat but from the fact that in our remote area we don’t have cell coverage or wi-fi at our tasting room. Our customers don’t seem to mind, and in fact enjoy the respite from technology, but I did see some of the bloggers banging on their iPhones trying to figure out what was wrong…. And I noticed that their posts were time stamped the very minute they were back in range after hitting the road.’
~ Scott Elliff, owner, DuCard Vineyards
‘I thought WBC11 was great, and think the blogging community is great and that we need to read blogs as wine producers and not say ‘This person doesn’t know what they are talking about’ and say more ‘How can I fix this potential issue or maximize on a particular skill or asset?’ I think it is great that the Wine Bloggers Conference exists because if nothing else it shows that bloggers are working toward constantly bettering their skill and their knowledge of the wine industry.
I think the only criticism I have about the whole experience goes back to one of the things Jancis Robinson wanted to stress: self-editing needs to happen a bit more often, particularly with micro-blogs (Twitter). There are a couple of bloggers that lost a little bit of credit due to unprofessionalism. Whether you believe someone is annoying or whether you drink too much and don’t do it responsibly is any one persons choice, but I would warn against public display. This can hurt the respect of the entire blogging community to traditional print journalists and the industry by using few people’s actions to show what can happen in this new type of media. I personally found some of the “off-colored” remarks amusing, but they were also not really necessary to show ones thoughts as a wine blogger and was completely irrelevant to wine which is the story they say they want to write about.’
~ Jordan Harris, Winemaker, Tarara Winery
Jordan makes a great point here about some of the ‘off-colored’ and unprofessional tweets that came through the WBC11 Twitter feed during the conference. I certainly expected to see a few negative comments since a couple of the attendees seemed to bring many preconceived opinions about Virginia wine with them. Or, if the opinions were formed at the conference, they appeared to be based on tasting just two or three Virginia wines, and not taking the time to taste through the array of wines available.
Thankfully, the handful of negative tweets that were related to wine came primarily from just one person, who preferred to spend most of their time parked in one of the cushy chairs in the lobby, ensconced in their own perceived awesomeness, dispensing snarky tweets about all that’s wrong with Virginia wine, no doubt holding the view that life is unfair because someone of their elitist pedigree has to spend a weekend in Virginia wine country with the regular folk. There are always a few who seem to forget that professionalism and courtesy is a two-way street!
I must admit I do find humor in those few that take themselves so seriously, and thumb their noses at mortals like me who do not recognize their wine-blogging-godliness. (they simply need to get out in to the real world a little more often)
‘Despite the oppressive heat I thoroughly enjoyed pouring my wines for all the bloggers at WBC11. Many bloggers I know only through tweets and have not had the opportunity to meet them in person until now. Plus I made many new blogger friends and had the chance at the end of the evening to hang out with some fellow winemakers, some of which I only knew via twitter. We took a little time taste each other’s wines and catch up a little, which is a very rare moment. I felt honored to support the WBC11, renew and make new connections, and meet up with my peers.’
~ Derek Pross, winemaker, Gadino Cellars‘From our point of view, we thought the wine was received quite well with a lot of positive feedback, to the point that a retailer up in Ohio wants to now carry our Petit Manseng and we’re discussing possible distributors. As far as something I would change, it would be the speed tasting events. I know everyone was trying to tweet/facebook/write notes for their blog in a very short amount of time, but because everyone was frantically typing, there was not a lot of back-and-forth conversation about the wines. We felt like we were talking at people more than to them, and spouting the same spiel over and over rather than having questions asked of the wine/winery/vineyard, etc. I’m not sure the “speed tasting” is something we would participate in again because I’m not sure it’s the best way to form an opinion about a wine.’
~ Stephanie Wright, Lovingston Winery
I couldn’t agree more with Stephanie on this point. Although I found the speed tasting novel and interesting during my first Wine Bloggers Conference experience in 2009, I’ve totally lost that lovin feeling completely for this chaotic format. Given the time constraints – less than 10 minutes for each wine – this format is unfair to the winery staff pouring the wines, as well as to each individual tasting, asking questions, and tweeting. I hope the speed-tasting/live-blogging does not return for WBC12 in Oregon.
‘Having the bloggers at the winery was my favorite time as we really got to chat about our philosophy, as well as pour some new wines. I got some valuable feedback about the wines. The group was fairly quiet though but warmed up towards the end, and then back to the Omni for the red wine tasting, time between events was a bit short. That would really be my only negative is that I felt pretty rushed to be at multiple places, but that might have been our fault, for being involved in every event. I thought for the most part, that the bloggers were pretty knowledgeable, open minded about Virginia wines and all negative comments I thought were fair.’
~ Stephen Barnard, winemaker, Keswick Vineyards
Given the amount of feedback I received from the Virginia cider/winemakers, I decided to post ‘View from the Punt…‘ in two parts. Part II tomorrow… including a winery’s take on the speed tasting format…
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Questions, Comments, Complaints, Random Observations? Contact Me Here
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Great coverage as usual. You just generally roll that way though. I’d love to know more about Stephanie’s comments on the OH retailer… mostly because I fell totally in love with Lovingston’s Pinotage and want to be able to get it here! I’ll be contacting her for sure!
Thanks for all YOU did to ensure such a great success. it was wonderful seeing you again. I’m organizing twitter tastings for #OHwine in the fall, if I can encourage your participation.😉
Hi Tammy – Great seeing you and Frank this weekend as well. I hope you guys made it back to OH safely, along with plenty of Virginia wine. I’m glad we were able to visit more at Jefferson yesterday afternoon. The entire weekend was so hectic and crazy, felt as if we only had seconds to connect with everyone.
I appreciate your kind words, and would definitely like to participate in #OHwine twitter tastings. Cheers!
While I didn’t go to the conference, I enjoyed reading all the tweets and living vicariously through them. You yourself were a major mover-shaker in this event and you deserve a lot of credit for its development and success. So I lift my glass (of viognier, petit manseng, norton, cab franc . . .whatever VA grape variety you wish) to you and your hard work and inspired drive.
Wow, thank you, Leanne – I appreciate your words. Although I had nothing to do with making WBC11 a success, I will lift this glass of water with lim (on a wine fast right now) and pretend like I did. 🙂 Thanks!
Frank – way to raise the bar on WBC wrap-up posts! Jerk – now we have to try and keep up. Really creative angle for looking at the conference. In talking to winemakers, the overall vibe seems to be that most bloggers came here with open minds and wanted to fall in love with Virginia wines.
As for the few who didn’t, I’ve been reminding myself that an airplane is not a transmogrifier, If a closed-minded dbag goes in, the same thing comes out.
LOL – well I certainly have many welps on my head from banging on the ‘clever and original’ bar you guys have been setting for quite a while. (still not sure if I’m there yet). Oh… and great point about that transmogrifier thing… Cheers to you and VWD! I hope you’re celebrating with anything but wine tonight.🙂
Nice post. Interesting angle and good read. Cheers~ Alana
Thank you, Alana – I appreciate your comment. I believe I recall a tweet that you were not able to make it – I feel you missed a great conference and some hot, humid weather. BTW, still use ginger ale recipe you posted many months ago. I like lime so I use triple lime – so it’s like ginger-lime juice. Thanks!
Great to meet you at WBC! I thought I would hate the speed tasting, but both times I sat at a table with just a 2 or 3 people versus the full tables. This wound up being a great format as the winemaker was able to sit down with us and really talk for a few minutes. You could see the relief on their faces when we invited them to sit down! A few even poured themselves a glass to enjoy with us.
Love your fresh perspective, and it’s great to hear what the participating wineries are experiencing.
Re: “Seems like all the bloggers just like to write about what a wine smells and tastes like. I already know what my wine smells and tastes like. I don’t need the blogger to tell me that. Where is the depth and analysis?” This person fails to realize that most bloggers aren’t writing for the winery/winemaker who obviously knows what his/her wine smells and tastes like, but for the consumer, who probably doesn’t. Also, to what depth and analysis is this person referring? If every blog geeked out on the science, I suspect wine-blogging would be very short-lived indeed. I loved what Jancis recommended, however: Write about the experience of drinking the wine. The poetry, the literature, the language, the love that is in every bottle. Despite Eric’s advice, few bloggers heeded his advice and tossed the descriptors for the speed-tasting that immediately followed his keynote.
I have my own fair share of typos (usually the combination of trying to tweet with fat thumbs while not wearing my glasses, and it embarrasses me!), but I don’t believe the need for self-editing is unique to bloggers. Traditional media is ridiculously full of typos. The sad fact is that in our information-bombardment culture, we err on the side of getting the information out and suffer the consequences. It’s unfortunate, as a poorly prepared message often fails in delivering what the writer intended.
Indie Vinos has done a speed-tasting event with a slightly different format, and both the wineries pouring and the tweeters enjoyed it. (Or else they were blowing smoke up my skirt. Quite possible.) I actually enjoy that format, and I look forward to reading your follow up. I can definitely see how it would be frustrating for the winery, especially if they haven’t been exposed to the format before.
I truly enjoyed the event and find it fun to meet the people behind the “handles.” But I have to confess that I was appalled at the lack of manners and professionalism at the tasting events, especially from a group of self-professed experts.
Looking forward to Portland already!
Karin: I appreciate you stopping by to comment. Regarding the comment from one of the ‘winemakers,’ I have asked this person to jump in here to elaborate on the comment (not sure that’s going to happen). Although I can’t speak for this particular winemaker, I believe I ‘get’ his/her point that many bloggers focus on the obvious (I’m certainly guilty of this), rather than telling a story. One’s ability to write about what ever topic, in which ever way, they choose is the beauty of the blogosphere IMHO.
From time to time, usually during my quarterly laptop file purge, I will reread old posts from two or three years ago – painful. Like many of our blogging brethren, I have mastered the art of the typo.
Like you, I noticed a definite lack of manners that was more noticeable than at WBC2009 (so glad others noticed this). I’m not sure what to make of this relaxation of common courtesy, but wonder if some of the participants took WBC2011 less serious because of the conference being held in Virginia. (I hope this is not the case).
As a huge fan of Oregon Pinot, I am absolutely looking forward to WBC2012. In fact, Bob Wolfe’s Oregon Pinot Noir Club is the very first wine club I ever joined. Off topic – but he does a great job for Oregon wine. My wife and I had the chance to spend a long weekend in Portland and down in the Willamette Valley last year while I was out that way for an extended work project.
Great post! Some great points, and it’s really interesting to hear things from the winemakers’ perspective. I appreciate the points you and Stephanie made about the speed tasting. I kept thinking that it must be tough for the winemakers. And as a blogger, I felt torn between trying to engage with the winemakers and learn more about their wines, and trying to tweet something coherent about the wine. The whole thing felt very rushed. Definitely a fun and unique event, but like Stephanie said, probably not the best way to form an opinion about a wine. Also, without time to rinse our glasses, I felt that we weren’t always getting a clean sample of the wine, especially by the time we got to the 12th wine.
Thanks, Lesley. Given the packed agenda (which is a great), I felt rushed throughout the entire conference trying to reconnect with old friends and meet new Twitter friends. Although I am not a fan of this speed tasting format, and hope that Zephyr removes from the agenda for 2012, I will admit that I still purchase a couple wines I first tasted during the WBC09 speed tasting, and found one this year (Talisman Pinot) that I will continue to purchase beyond the conference. See you at WBC12.
Having had the pleasure (albeit very hot!) of pouring our wines at Monticello Fri evening and then having to leave town for the rest of the weekend, I found that reading the tweets kept me connected to a party I hated to leave! The breakout sessions Friday were informative and entertaining (great job moderating Local Wines, Frank) and meeting the many bloggers from all over our country and Canada was a delight. They are a group as passionate about their work as we are about the grapes we grow and the wines we make from those grapes.
A suggestion… It might be interesting for bloggers to get a deeper appreciation for the connection between work done in the vineyard and the wines that come from them. Perhaps in Oregon, in addition to the winery tours, educational vineyard tours might be included so bloggers can gain more insight into that connection. It was probably fortuitous such an option wasn’t available this year, given our near record-breaking heat/humidity wave!
Congrats to all involved for putting together what I perceive to be a conference of resounding success.
Christine Vrooman
Ankida Ridge Vineyards
Christine—I think you bring up a great point—and it’s one I often think about as I’m working in the vineyard. I’ve wondered how much consideration the vineyard work is given by wine blogger as that person swirls the end product in the glass.
Sometimes, its difficult to read a dismissive tweet/review about any local winery—especially when I’m taking a break to tweet what’s going on afield or like last weekend, when I was worrying about whether my vineman would stop working by 11am, like he said he would. I think about it especially in the heat of summer, when we get up as early as possible to keep up with the tedious leaf canopy management. Or in really cold weather, when we’re pruning as quickly as possible.
I think that’s why I dig reading Brad Johnson @ Winedustry.com and http://twowinebrothers.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-drink-local-wine.html —I know Brad’s been out in the vineyard, putting in volunteer hours, getting involved in the process. I also dig brother Terry Johnson’s rif on lessons that could be taken from other industries and applied to wine, especially the marketing of wine. Yeh, they swirl, sniff, sip and spit—but they provide a broad perspective and they are unfailingly, generously kind to local wine.
I think it would be a great pursuit for more wine bloggers to explore what happens in the vineyard and how its expressed in the glass—or explore aspects of their personal/professional life in relation to wine.
Well said. Growers and winemakers alike toil mightily over what winds up in the bottle. Whether a reviewer likes the wine or not, if they have any vague notion of the work involved, then they will surely write respectfully. It seems WBC would be a great place for wineries to gain this type of insight.
Amy Tsaykel
Tin Barn Vineyards
Frank,
Way to show your leadership and ability to connect varying perspectives! I told you it was clear you are the man on the ground for the VA wine blogging community.
I can’t say the speed tasting is the best event I’ve ever been to, but I did in fact try to engage over the wines that grabbed my attention. My notes didn’t bear that out very well, which is something I could work on if it were to be scheduled again. I won’t argue if it is dropped, especially if others really feel it doesn’t work.
As far as folks who were the negative nelly’s of the bunch I honestly feel bad for them. I think they choose to roll this way because they lack the ability to be original and decide being controversial is the next best thing to get attention. I might not be the most well connected or the the most well educated wine blogger, but I know wine is about people and being respectful is the only way to be authentic and truly worth spending time with.
The feedback presented here is worth thinking over and I hope more folks will.
I was asked to write a piece for the Barren Ridge folks. They are looking for thoughts on why it was important for the event to be in VA. Coming from a small, underdog winemaking region I am sure I can dig in and come up with something, but I don’t take that challenge lightly.
Jason
I appreciate your kind words, Jason. It was great to meet you at WBC – your enthusiasm throughout the conference was refreshing! I much agree that some take the approach that ‘being controversial is the next best thing…’. I look forward to reading your piece on Barren Ridge – their Vidal was a big hit at the conference. Thanks again for ‘The Next Harvest…’ I look forward to digging in to learn more about the people, wineries and wines of NE. Cheers!
Jason – I’ve enjoying reading your posts on several different blogs. I also enjoyed your presentation at the ignite wine event. I’m sorry we weren’t able to meet one another in person @ WBC11, but I hope our pathes cross again soon (before WBC12)!
Cheers,
Amy Ciarametaro / #VAWine
Great to see a post like this that goes beyond a snippet of opinion and presents multiple perspectives. You raise good questions for all of us to consider. Thanks.
Thanks – was really hoping that we’d get some winemaker views from the conference.
While the speed tasting is certainly a love-it-or-hate-it format, the winemaker who is complaining about bloggers talking about how a wine tastes is missing the trick. They’re not blogging for him/her, they’re blogging for an audience who probably has no idea how his/her wines taste. If that winemaker doesn’t want the free publicity to the bloggers’s audiences, then… well, then I guess they must be selling out all of their wines already…
Cheers!
Joe – Thanks for stopping by to comment – I appreciate your input here. Given the fact that many of Virginia’s wineries are quite small relative to our neighbors to the west, there are wineries here that do sell out each vintage (surprisingly, many sell out via the tasting room – which is gold!). Obviously, there is always room for more positive publicity, and sales. I believe every business owner (and winemakers are ‘owners’ whether they have legal equity stake or not) should be forward looking and embrace all opportunities for positive exposure.
I have a few more winemaker (including winery staff) view points to post late tonight. Thanks again for stopping by. See you in Portland, in AUG2012.
I look forward to seeing you again, man!
And of course agree with Jeff – like any other media field (on- or off-line), there will be a mix of people and some who don’t do their best to represent the community. Maybe I think that % is smaller than he does, but I think it doesn’t take the curious and interested wine producer all that long to discover who can add value and help them in those communities and who can’t. Cheers!
Good stuff here, Frank.
Like you, I loathe the self-important blogger. Unfortunately, they do number a fair percentage.
There are small people in every walk of life and when given the gift of attention (perhaps unwarranted) by the industry they show their colors.
Once wineries dig into the wine blogosphere a little deeper they’ll find out who the pretenders are from the contenders and they’ll be more informed about who takes their work seriously and who is there to party and bitch and moan as an entitled hack.
Every year there are a couple of bad apples that are off-putting to WBC wineries and I can only hope that the wineries take the time to really get to know, read and understand some of the wine bloggers who invest a lot of time and effort into quality work. This will offset the leeches who suck the teet of well-intentioned hospitality.
Jeff
Jeff – Thanks for stopping by to comment. Was great to catch up this weekend. Hope you and David had a quick (as quick as 9+ hours can be) and uneventful drive home. Although a couple attendees didn’t enjoy their experience, I believe most had a great time reconnecting with old friends and making new ones here in Virginia (perhaps not with the heat, though).
I appreciate the professional example you’ve set in the wine blogosphere (and the ForbesWinosphere as well). Cheers!
Outstanding perspective, Frank. And so very nice to meet you.
I’m going to echo Jeff: let the curmudgeons be curmudgeons. They may stir the pot a bit, but most of us reasonable folks know that there’s going to be the lunatic fringe, and they can just be removed to get to the median: bloggers who- whether serious or more social- love this stuff and understand that wine is, ultimately, meant to be enjoyed. I think the overwhelming majority came with an open-mind about Virginia, and most had to have tasted at least one local wine that made them reconsider their position of lesser-known growing regions.
Even more importantly than the wine, though, was the camaraderie. Yeah, some of us get caught up in the party a little too much (present company included), but I think that speaks to the fact that a bottle of wine has brought people together and sparked conviviality. Any beverage that can draw people from thousands of miles away to a little town in the hills of Virginia is more than deserving of a few toasts and cups overflowing (in my opinion).
And to Jeff – you seemed to lump the “party” in with the “bitching and moaning entitled hacks”. Perhaps fair, but I disagree. I think (and hope) most of us knew when to behave and when not to, and that the vast-majority of good-natured shenanigans do not reflect poorly on others.
Thanks, Joe. Great to meet you as well, and share a glass of cider. It is amazing how wine can bring people together. Let me know if you find yourself here in Virginia – otherwise, I’ll see you in PDX.
Frank, great approach to take for your wrap up – love the personal perspectives.
Frank,
Great post. I want to thank you for doing such a good job in pre-educating us about Virginia wine through your Twitter posts, setting up Twitter Tasting Live events and everything else you did. I know you have a paying gig and I definitely felt much more prepared with the VA wine history, varietals and a knowledge that some of this juice was really good.
Many thanks, Melanie. Was great to finally meet you in person. I am so proud of how the Virginia wine industry embraced the WBC11 group, and I appreciate how eager they all were in communicating with and educating bloggers leading up to WBC11 by supporting all of the Twitter tastings (5 in total). Looking back, I wish we would have had a few more to introduce even more of the group to Virginia wine prior to the conference. It has been great to have you part of several of the live tasting. See you in Oregon – will be another great WBC!
Frank: Thanks for putting this piece out there. It is cool to see the reponses from several of the blogging community to the wineries perspectives.
I do think that those that intend to be disrespectful or run with negative pre-concieved thoughts will ultimately be forgotten. It is usually quite noticable in the writing style and dis-regarded by the public. The biggest piece that I found pretty harshis that these tweets were displayed on a huge screen at the front of the room. If a comment is constuctive, cool, if it is beligerent, less cool.
Overall I thought meeting so many people from around the country, and yeah those from Canada too (I have to love talking to people from my old stomping ground) was awesome. It did seem that the main majority had a great time, which you should with wine. If you aren’t having a good time enjoying wine with new and old friends, well, time to find a new hobby.
It is interesting to hear the criticism about the speed tasting. I honestly thought it was pretty cool. I think they hype up the 5 minutes so much that it makes you feel it is faster than it is. I would do our tastings slightly differently now knowing what it is like, but I could see how they could be a lot of fun and quite entertaining. As a winery, it should be our goal to entertain the blogger enough that they pay attention to you more then your tablet or laptop. Could make for some fun presentations.
In the vein of the “party” – this is an HR blog that i read regularly (I might be all wine now, but I was 17 years in HR…) talking about parties at conferences. Please note my comments about WBC11 – we were tame compared to some I’ve witnessed.
http://thecynicalgirl.com/women-at-hr-conferences/
Great comments and feedback – I’m compiling stats, blogs and commentary on the OHwine at the conference – so if anyone has an opinion, please share! The good, the bad and the ugly are all welcome. I actually want to know what people think!
#shock #dismay
Per speed tasting, I feel for the pourers who do often seem to be ignored, but I have to admit that I love the format. Not at all good for conceiving well-considered opinions, but great for obtaining a quick lay-of-the-land (I’m sorry that there wasn’t more focus on East-coast wines during the speed tastings for this reason) and ideas for what to revisit later. Perhaps some folk are well able to form a fast judgement and tweet it out to all and sundry, but I’d rather make a few notes (old school-style), ask a few questions, and avoid positively or negatively biasing anyone else with a hasty judgment. Incidentally, to any wine-pourers reading this, I found it much easier to deal with someone who provided basic info about the wine and then shut up to let us taste and ask our own questions rather than firehosing the table.
Christine, just a note that the WBC2010 in Walla Walla included the kind of educational vineyard tours you described. I can’t speak for everyone, but my bus was treated to a superb vineyard walk with one of the area’s finest viticulturists, followed by an extensive winery tour at a separate establishment. I’m not sure if the VA winery hosts were given different info or if they had different personal agendas/preferences or if the heat just put a damper on everyone, but — knowing the Willamette valley wine scene — I’m inclined to trust that we’ll return to a bit more robust education next year.
Hello Erika – thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic. Although I am not a fan of the ‘speed tasting’ and hope this format does not make a return for WBC12 (although I suspect speed tasting will be on the agenda), I like your approach of putting the technology away and going old school with a pen and paper. I appreciated the vineyards walks (at Quivira for me) at WBC09… but I just do not think a vineyard walk would have been a great idea in Charlottesville. BUS #4 made a stop by Pippin Hill Vineyards, and the owners offered a vineyard walk to anyone who wanted to go. I believe a few on our bus did accept the offer to join the winemaker on the walk, as I retreated to the cool comfort of the tasting room. See you in PDX!
What a great read, Frank! I was disappointed too in some of the inappropriate tweets that went out, but thankfully, there were only a few. I was thrilled to be part of WBC11 and can’t wait till the next one!
Am already planning a visit back to Charlottesville for a long weekend of history and wine!
Was great finally meeting you in person at WBC after communicating on Twitter for so long. As you are probably aware, Charlottesville is absolutely beautiful in the Fall – a great time to revisit (perhaps a WBC 11.5 ? 🙂 Cheers!
Hey Frank,
It was great meeting you at the WBC this year. You make some great points in your piece and I applaud your wonderful thought provoking efforts to wake up some folks to the fact that the wine-world does not orbit around their personal universe. I’ll be adding your blog to my feed reader and look forward to reading more of your thoughts and perspective in the future.
Cheers!
You know it’s an excellent post when it generates this much discussion.
re: speed tasting – As a first-timer in this environment, we didn’t know what to expect, and we were consequently ill-prepared. I noticed Keswick did a smart thing with a pamphlet containing tasting notes, winery information, etc.:approach the table, hand them out, and focus on the wine. I’ll be doing this at WBC12 for sure. I really felt the speed tasting environment would be much better served if seating was arranged in wine-bar style, with bloggers facing the server from across a long table. And I think that the “speed tasting” would perhaps be more functional if there was a “start” bell after rotating, giving tasters a chance to collect themselves before the new server/wine “firehoses” the table (credit Erika for the term.)
re: winemaker comment about in-depth analysis and the ensuing blogger reactions – I understand both sides. The winemaker wants to see more substantive evaluation of their artwork (I don’t know – more philosophical musings on depth, concentration, balance, style, composition, alcohol, fruit character, varietal intricacies, technique, fermentation/aging, and ?) …it’s a bit like a painter at an art showing hearing comments like “I love the color!” when the artists’ natural response is “are you kidding me? Years of sleepless nights went into this, and all you see is the color?” …But I also see the blogger side: you’re blogging to give people an idea of what you’re tasting, and you’re tweeting in 140 characters. And to the average consumer, if wine isn’t all about taste and smell…what is it supposed to be about? So going back to the artwork analogy – if the colors don’t match, why put it on the wall? I think the winemaker’s comment is more artistic frustration than it is a misunderstanding of audience. At the end of the day, we all know that the financial supporters of the wine industry isn’t a giant graduating class of Master Sommeliers; it’s you and me.
re: professionalism and social media faux pas – first, G.E. Guy from SipSS: you get comment-of-the-day award for dropping “transmogrifier” (and subsequent explanation.) Hilarious. Generally speaking, I think you guys and gals covered it here. On one hand, wine is one of the most subjective pursuits of happiness on earth (I said “one of” the most) – and in this country, everyone has a right to voice their opinion; but on the other hand, as my pops once told me, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Then again, where would this lively discussion be if not for a few colorful characters (pun intended): discussing the nuances of yeast selection and trellis options? Please, I think I’ll have me a few angry tweeters to gossip about. There’s time enough for viticulture and fermentation science discussions in those lunch-included-conferences, without bogging down my vino-sipping, blog-commenting escape from the mid-workweek doldrums.
re: vineyard/winery tours – I’m disappointed to hear that some expectations weren’t met. Virginia has such a fascinating agricultural story: it’s so mixed with unique trials, challenges, obstacles, and successes (read: character,) that it’s every bit worthy of a willing blogger’s mind to explore. All I can say is that I hope it was the heat that really put a damper on things. Virginia, like any other place on earth, really deserves its spotlight…ours just so happens to have a real wine story to tell, and so few people realize it.
re: participants at WBC11 – I’m extremely satisfied with the generally open minded approach to Virginia wines, and I’m a bit disappointed that not every participant in the live wine blogging session(s) was able to taste from every participating Virginia winery. For WBC12, I might suggest an organized “wine festival” style tasting after the “live blogging” event, where willing participants are able to visit the wineries that they missed, and sample their offerings.
-Allan Delmare, Rappahannock Cellars (we poured 2010 Viognier on Friday, and 2009 Cabernet Franc on Saturday)
Allan – thanks for sharing your thoughts on this post. I will be posting PART II this afternoon – I decided to hold off a couple days due to the response from this post. I appreciate so many winemakers and winery team members taking their time to comment and share their thoughts here. Although I think everyone associated with WBC11 – Zephyr, Virginia Wine Board, VTC, and all wineries – I suspect there will be a number of changes at WBC12. I do wonder how many different the comments would have been if the weather had been 75 degrees every day. Oh well – I had a great time! 🙂
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