Really unbelievable that so much was packed into such a short span of time. From the moment the conference started till right now when I am going to bed, there has been an immense about of wine. But that is what we are here for right? To taste oodles and oodles of wine.
I will get into most of the wines that I tasted and what I thought of them later in the week, once I review my notes (scattered and drunken as they are). For now let me just give you some overall impressions of the conference.
No question I am falling in with the kids table. I found that, while I might not be the youngest person at this conference, I am close. In fact, I am exactly the fifth youngest person at this conference (which has 275 people at it). Loving every minute of it.
Everyone at this conference is married, and many with children. Many I would say are well experienced individuals. I would say that the bloggers are also heavy one the website design/IT/technology side of things that have a comfortable job that allows them to buy a lot of wine and are passionate enough to write about it online. I do not think many seriously consider their blogs to be avenues to make money, and the presenter who gave us a 30 minute talk about the next evolution in their website programing might not have considered that in his talk.
There was a speed tasting portion of the day, which was a lot of fun. It was supposed to be a "live blogging" event and everyone was supposed to tweet/blog as they tasted. Unfortunately, I COULD NOT GET ON THE INTERNET! Nor could many others. I cannot say it was a bust because there were some great wines poured. Top wine was the Le Cigar Volant 2005 from Bonny Doon. I have always been a fan Randall Grahm's wines and I think he is a fantastic winemaker. The 2005 was stellar!
Tomorrow, another day of mass tasting and socializing and meeting the bloggers. I cannot image why everyone does not blog about wine...
