Wine Bloggers Conference - Supporting Each Other

 Many of you must think, "A Wine Bloggers Conference, they must sit around and drink and get drunk all day." I know that's what my dad would of said.  Truthfully that isn't what happens.  Ok, yes, we do taste lots of wines, but if we drank them all we'd all be on the floor by noon and there is lots to do, lots to learn and lots of networking to be had, so I spit. Well most of the time.  My saying is if it's really, really good, drink it!

The conference began out with me missing my connection in Las Vegas due to storms in JFK. So arriving the next morning I missed my winery tour of Stoller Vineyards.  Bummed, because I was really interested in the LEED Certified winery, I headed downtown to check out the food carts of Portland.  WOW!  I wish we had these in Poughkeepsie.  All kinds of choices, Korean, Thai, Mexican, American, FroYo, Gourmet Grilled Cheese and more.  I had my favorite,Crab Rangoons and Thai red curry which was enough to feed three people (and inexpensive), sat in a park, ate and people watched.  After lunch being Portland was having a heat wave and it was 100 degrees out, I headed for a brew pub and found Henry's 12st Tavern.  What a selection of beers!(the picture below is just a sampling of the taps) I had the bartender pick out a brew for me and it was called Ninkasi Total  Domination.  Perfect fit for me since some people think I'm totally dominating. Quite refreshing too.

I am not going to go on about the day to day festivities, seminars,keynotes and trip to Cartlon.  I will tell you the five days were packed with information, wine tasting and lots to eat.  I will cover them in other posts as I sort through all my information, pictures, video and audio.

One of the things that struck me the most at this conference were when numerous people came up to me and told me that if it wasn't for me and my blog they wouldn't know that the Hudson River Valley AVA existed.  WOW!  I can say my efforts are working in exposing the wine region I live and grew up in as I watch it evolve.  

It was also very humbling when people came up to me and told me how proud they were that I took my blogging one step further and created a wine label. Not only a wine label, but produced locally with grapes sourced within NY and appeals to a large audience.

We are a close knit community and each of us have a passion for wine and we write about it in our own unique way. We support one another, collaborate together and are sounding boards for other ideas and research. I feel very blessed to be a part of this community.  I will be adding more blogs to my blog roll and hope you have a chance to check out my fellow bloggers, their views and reviews.