Monday, June 28, 2010

Not Another Top Ten List From the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference!

This past weekend I attended the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, Washington. I experienced a wine-soaked journey through blogging, social media, wineries and people. My Top Ten list is focused on my observations while visiting wineries, talking to bloggers, PR people, Social Media experts and pretty much anyone who'd listen to me.

1. It was a thrill to meet some fine people who I'd been emailing, tweeting and IM'ing over the past few months. The new friends I made are all great people, and I can't say enough about how friendly everyone was.

2. Washington Syrah is amazing. Just see the Skylite Cellars 2005 Syrah and Alma Terra Minick Vineyards 2007 to see why I fell in love.

3. The debate between "guerrilla blogging" and wine writing is lively, informative, contentious, but above all good for the entire wine community.

4. Walla Walla has a very cool Main Street with some fun places to taste wine. The town did an amazing job hosting the 2010 Conference.

5. It would have been helpful to have some bread during the speed tasting events. My palate got a bit burned out from both of them.

6. Guys like Joe Roberts (@1WineDude), Steve Heimoff (@SteveHeimoff) , Hardy Wallace (DirtySouthWine), and Tom Wark (@tomcwark) have a voice, a damn good one. More so, they're approachable and friendly people. What a great community!

7. Shooting a guerilla tasting video with Dan and Chas of Wine Is Serious Business (@wineissrsbiz) was hilarious, easily made this list. They are just throwing content out there and their personalities make it worth watching, to say nothing of the wines they try.

8. House parties full of wine bloggers make me happy. Dance music + 30 open bottles on the table are the perfect recipe for a great night.

9. Your roommate (@thevinofile) may or may not remember you walking in at 2:30am, and may or may not (but probably won't) remember what you may have drunkenly mumbled to him about what you were up to.

10. I belong in the wine community and in the wine business.

Beau Carufel

3 comments:

  1. ah, my roommate was subjected to the 2:30 AM walk in a couple times.

    Great to meet you, and excited about some great stuff on your blawg!

    Sláinte! Joe @suburbanwino

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  2. Ah ha Beau, I do remember you walking in but am not sure that anything I said at 2:30 made any more sense than what you said!! It was great to get to know you a little bit, and I have every intention of bringing down that Smasne Syrah to San Diego to open one of these days.

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  3. Scott I can't even remember what I said, something about wine no doubt. You were a very cool roommate, and I'm glad we got to know each other. Please come on down to SD soon, I'll open that Skylite Syrah I bought and we can compare notes.

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