As you read this I am on heading to Sonoma for the Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference and the Wine Bloggers Conference. I am looking so forward to this.  It's the first time I'm attending the Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference.

My first stop is Sacramento to visit with my friend Patty.  We are going to head up to the Shenandoah Valley in Amador County today to do some wine tasting.  This will be my first time in that wine region and I am hoping to visit BellaGrace Vineyards as their 2015 Vermentino  was included in my February 2017 Wine Bloggers Conference Scholarship Fund Wine Club.

Sunday I am heading to Santa Rosa, CA where I am going to do my part in supporting the economy after the fires. I know Monday I am going to visit Cynthia at Passaggio Wines and I hope to visit Flanagan Wines because it's been a while since I met Eric in the Vintner's Collective tasting room.

Then it's on to the two conferences.  I hope to learn lots. Visit with old friends and meet new ones.  One of my favorite people Doug Frost is the keynote speaker at the Wine Bloggers Conference. Doug and I go way back to the New York Wine & Food Classic and I had the opportunity to judge with him at Ultimate Wine Challenge.  He is full of knowledge and quite a funny guy.

I'm off to do my part and buy some good wine and eat in some wonderful restaurants in Sonoma and Napa. If I have a chance I will try and post some of my experiences. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and you'll be able to keep up with me.

Finger Lakes Wine Country Trip: NY Wine & Food Classic to Wine Bloggers Conference #WBC15

I just got back from a packed filled week in the Finger Lakes.  Here are some of the highlight of my week that began working at the New York Wine & Food Classic which is a wine competition of all of New York State wines.  When that concluded I moved from Watkins Glen to Corning for the Wine Bloggers Conference.

I had a week full of eating, drinking and learning lots.

Chef & Wine Judge Jerry Pellegrino preparing our opening evening dinner

Smoke Salmon Belly which was amazing

All the wine glasses ready for the final sweeps

The view from our room at Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel

New York State wine tasting I hosted in my room Wednesday

Tour of the Corning Glass Museum

Wines of Virginia at Hand & Foot Restaurant

A trip to Finger Lakes Community College to see REO Speedwagon. Me and Bryan Hitt the drummer

Ribera &  Rueda wine seminar and tasting

Education on the bus to Wagner Vineyards

Along with wine & cheese on the bus

All local and homemade dinner at Wagner Vineyards

Chocolate covered onion and Tawney Port pairing

Pouring Hudson Valley Wines at the NY wine tasting at Rockwell Museum

Jordan Wines after party

Miner after party

Packed room for my seminar on Blogging to X

Alsace Riesling seminar and tasting

Austria Riesling tasting

Conclusion dinner at the Corning Glass Museum

Banfi after party

Spanish wine after party

Time to go home and back to reality

Finger Lakes Bound for Classic and #WBC15

It's going to be a busy next week as I travel to the Finger Lakes.

Prepping for dinner first night at Classic

I usually make this trip to work the back room at the New York Wine & Food Classic to gain knowledge and bring it to my Hudson Valley Wine & Spirits Competition.  This year the Wine Bloggers Conference is also in the Finger Lakes right after the Classic.  That was luck!  I get to spend an entire week in the Finger Lakes.

Chef Pellegrino preparing dinner

Working the back room at the Classic the beginning of the week is hard work.  We are up early, carrying trays of wine flights, taking care of our panel of judges.  There is no room for error or a stumble (all the wine filled glasses will break) I haven't been to the gym lately to work on my arm strength.

I learn so much working at the Classic and not to mention the people I meet.

There is no rest. The Classic is over on Wednesday and Thursday evening begins the Wine Bloggers Conference.  So what goes on at the Wine Bloggers Conference?

Yes we drink wine and we spit lots of wine too.  We learn about different wine regions and processes of making wine.  We get to meet and talk to wine makers and we learn about digital marketing.

This year I am sitting on a panel for one of the break out session called Blog to X. I'm really excited about this as the others on the panel are not only friends of mine, but we are all pretty dynamic people with lots of information to share.

The subject I'm speaking on is blogging to consultant.  What I learn with my blog and marketing myself as the Hudson Valley Wine Goddess and in turn help other businesses market themselves.

Friday evening I got asked to pour Hudson Valley wines at the Wines of NY reception. I get to share my love of Hudson Valley wines with 300 other wine enthusiasts.

It's going to be a long week.  I guess I can sleep when I get back, but watch out, I might be cranky.

My blog will most likely be dark this week.  But please follow me on twitter and facebook for all my update during my week in the Finger Lakes.

Twitter @hvwinegoddess
Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/HudsonValleyWineGoddess

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.

Take me to Virginia Wine Country #WBC11

It was the summer of 2003 a family trip to Williamsburg VA and the surrounding area with friends.   We enjoyed wine and this was before my journey into the wine industry.   I own a travel agency thats focus is on sending people to various wine regions throughout the world, so when I am in an area and there are wineries I try to visit a few,  even with young kids in tow.  (Kids are now 17 and 19)

Our first stop on this family vacation was Bush Gardens.  You can see here how Michael and Melanie began their introduction into the wine industry, hard at work stomping on those grapes.  They thought it was all fun and games.

After the fun at Bush Gardens there was some history to be seen.  A stop at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s home) led us to the Jefferson Vineyards.  Then to First Colony Winery.  We arrived at First Colony Winery with our two young kids at the same time as a rather distinguished look couple who shot us a “I can’t believe you are bringing children to a winery” look .  The owner Randy was very welcoming even to our kids and took the 4 of us and the distinguished looking couple on a tour of his new winery.  At the end of the tour he asked if we had any questions.  My son raised his hand and asked “How do you know when the grapes are ready to be picked.”  That was a great question said Randy and now the distinguished looking couple were at ease with my children.  After the tour we went in for a tasting and as you can see, my kids sat down and amused themselves playing cards, while us adults tasted and we chatted with the distinguished couple.

Now 7 years later Virginia has a booming wine industry.  I am looking forward to attending the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference this week.  God willing I will be there.  Hopefully I will get up to First Colony Winery and see how they’ve grown in the past 7 years.

I'll be driving down I81 - anyone have any good suggestions on where I can stop on the way to taste?

Here is a look at the VA Wine Industry today.

Hudson Valley Wine Goddess sums up the WBC09

I just returned from the Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma. What an outstanding conference it was! Joel Vincent and Allen Wright did a wonderful job in organizing it. They deserve a round of applause.

I tweeted thanking the sponsors of this conference and someone wanted to know who they were. Well they wouldn't fit in 140 characters or less. Here is the list of sponsors and I would like to thank them. They went beyond and we were treated like royalty.

Thank you: Open Wine Consortium,Zephyr Wine Adventures, Sonoma Vintner,Sonoma Winegrape Commission,Sonoma Tourism,Napa Valley Vintners, Sonoma Valley Vintners & Growers,Bouchaine Vineyards,ViniPortuga,Russian River Valley Winegrowers,Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley,Rueda,WineFuture Conference, Wine Biz Radio,Wine Business Monthly,Mashable.com,Mutineer Magazine,Wines & Vines,Wark Communications,Washington Wine Commission,Rodney Strong Vineyards,Bonny Doon Vineyard,Vinfolio,Sherry Council of America,True Fabrications, ListenShare, Benziger,BottleShock.

The weekend was lots of fun and informative. I received a Spicy Zin tattoo Friday. (It's almost gone now.) Tasted lots of wine. Had a wonderful lunch at Hess Collection in the vineyard on Saturday.


Saturday evening concluded with an amazing dinner at Antica Family Estate. The view was incredible as was the food. They went all out for Bus #1 (We definetly had the best bus with the best stops and the best wine!)
Sunday morning was spent in Social Media seminars. I was honored to have the Hudson Valley Wine Country ning site show up as an example on Janet Fouts presentation. At the conclusion of the conference there were many wineries having events for us bloggers. Unfortunately I didn't attend. I headed to San Jose with the conference organizer Joel Vincent to hang with my friend Diane of 29 years. No matter how long between visits, we seem to pick up, just where we left off. Time went by to fast, as the next thing I knew, I was on a flight Monday morning heading East.

One of these trips to CA, I might not board that plane back home. In any event, I did, I'm back and I'm getting ready for the Bounty of the Hudson Wine Festival.