It's #Wine Time In Navarra!

(img src:http://www.jpmoser.com/hotelelperegrino-d.html) 

Tomorrow morning at 10am, my journey to Navarra begins. Along the way, I stop for a few hours in Dallas and Madrid. Upon arriving in Navarra, I'll meet up with my fellow wine bloggers drXeNo, cuvee_corner, wineissrsbiz, and WineHarlots. For the next six days and seven nights, we'll be sipping (and spitting), eating, thinking, and writing our way through Navarra to gain a better understanding of the wines in the Kingdom. It is my hope that along the way, I'll find out where these wines fit into the American palate and how to best open this nation's eyes to what is still a relatively undiscovered region.

Frequent readers to this blog will know that over the past year I've participated in multiple "live" Twitter Tastings of Navarran wines. Here's a list of previous blog posts to look at, should you be interested in what I've tasted and reviewed so far:
Tasting Wine From Navarra, Spain.
A Winner From Navarra: 2006 Bodegas Ochoa Tempranillo
Back to Navarra!
Bodega de Sarria Senorio de Sarria Vinedo no. 5...A Rosé By Any Other Name.

Also, a superb moscatel from Bodegas Ochoa made it into my dessert wine tasting earlier this year and proved to be a smash hit.

Needless to say, when I first started wine blogging back in late 2009, I never expected to be going on a wine blogger media trip. This past May, I was asked if I was interested in going on a trip, naturally I jumped at the chance. Of course, I'd seen reports from famous bloggers like Joe Roberts and Alder Yarrow of the awesome trips they took, and those guys set the bar very high for the rest of us in terms of reporting and educating our readers. I will attempt to reach that high with my own blog posts.

Mike Wangbickler of Balzac Communications & Marketing will be there with us too, because Balzac is working directly with the Wines of Navarra people to promote and inform the American audience. Mike will be the bloggers liason with the wineries, as far as I understand it. That and he'll of course try to keep up with us bloggers as we "taste" and "learn" about all the wine we possibly can! (Just kidding, Mike!)

Stay tuned to my Facebook page to see pictures as I journey through Navarra, I'll be uploading pictures every night, time permitting. Also keep your blog reader tuned here to follow along as I attempt a series of micro-blogs throughout the week. Will they succeed or fail? I'll know in two weeks!

I'm all packed, checked in on American Airlines (anyone wanna upgrade me to Business Class to Madrid??), and my batteries are charged for this trip. Who'd have thought, me, a 28 year old wine geek from San Diego would get to go to Spain to taste and learn about wine? Cheers!

Beau Carufel