June 2010 Archives
WBC or Bust PLUS Wine Bloggers Conference 2010
By Phil Anderson
The past five days has been all about Walla Walla (and Washington, in general) wines and hospitality.
It’s all in the rear view mirror
I just wrapped up a five day wine tasting frenzy that started last Wednesday, June 23, in Seattle and finished last night back in Seattle. What happened in between will take multiple posts to unravel in better detail but I will attempt to give you a general overview through this particular column. I haven’t broke my notes out yet (and there are aLOT of them, so it really WILL be a general overview, based off my memory.
As you probably already know, if you’ve been reading these missives recently, I won a seat on the WBC or Bust: The Road to Walla Walla bus with about ten other winning wine bloggers (the ones who didn’t win a seat would be the ”whining” wine bloggers) who wrote something about Washington State Wine and live outside the State of Washington. There were over 100 entries that were submitted and I feel very blessed and fortunate that I was one of the chosen few to participate in the trip.
Marcus Pape, founder of Wine Chatr, spearheaded the idea of this trip and organized all of the events and participation as well as the sponsorships so that he didn’t have to declare bankrupcy afterwards.
And off we go
On Wednesday, all of the winners and selected media were collected and put on a bus and thrust up to Woodinville, Washington where we had a private tour of Chateau Ste Michelle given by the white winemaker, Wendy Stuckey, and then offered a wonderful, light food and wine pairing while sitting with the Wendy and culinary Director, John Sarich.
Immediately following we were ushered just across the street to Willows Lodge and a Grand Tasting of select wines from various Woodinville producers poured by the winemakers themselves! It was a very warm day (finally!) and so some of the wines struggled with getting too warm. Our group then had lunch at the Barking Frog restaurant which is located in the resort. It might surprise you to find out we enjoyed some fabulous wines at lunch as well.
After lunch we sashayed back to Seattle for a “change of pace” tasting of some of Seattle’s finest local beer at the Pike Brewery. I have to tell you, I absolutely love beer, but during this stop I only tasted each beer (about six of them, as I recall) and then dumped the rest in a spit bucket. Turns out this would be a precurser for the rest of the week while tasting wine.
After checking into the Renaissance Hotel we headed toward the Waterfront Seafood Grill for a Winemakers Dinner. An outstanding dinner by one of Seattles finest seafood restaurants with superior wine. We didn’t get out of there and back into our rooms until about 11:00 and we had to be up quite early the next morning.
Morning came quickly
After watching the tail end of the USA Soccer Teams win to advance to the second round of the World Cup we boarded the bus heading East. Our first stop was at the Cave B Inn for some simple appetizers and, of course, more wine tasting. This day marked the first day in my wine career that I learned to spit while tasting. I’m here to tell you that I have been completely converted! No more swallowing when tasting umpteen wines.
After a brief and (the ONLY, it turns out) non wine stop for burritos we found our way to Milbrandt Vineyards tasting room for a Yakima Vallety Grand Tasting with more food! Stop after stop, wine after wine. This stopped featured wines from Washington’s Yakima Valley and everything was scrumptious, except I was not very hungry at that point so I didn’t eat much.
The last stop of the day was in Walla Walla at Walla Walla Vitners for some brick oven baked pizza and some of their fine wines. They also had chilled beer which I declined because I was enjoying the scenic property while drinking their wine. I met Colby and Kori
I am enjoying a glass of Walla Walla Vitners finest with Kori Voorhees (M) and Colby Voorhees (R) of Wine Peeps.
(I had met her the day before in Woodinville) Voorhees of Wine Peeps, which I have as one of the few sites under my blog roll to the upper left of this column.
I poured myself into bed at my bed and breakfast, which I will write more about later because it would take too much time, room and effort now and I wouldn’t be giving it justice.
And we’re off!
On Friday we checked in at the Wine Bloggers Conference registration table at the Marcus Whitman hotel in Walla Walla. During this first day we tasted wine, were served tacos from
Host Kaz (L) and co-host Randy Hall (R) of Wine Biz Radio, out of Sonoma, California interview me at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, WA.
a taco truck (it’s better than I make it sound), heard Steve Heimoff deliver a keynote speech, attend the Wine Blogging and the Wine Industry seminar with Craig Camp, Lori Narlock and Bob Silver, took in an hour of speed tasting of 12 different white wines, accepted a Ste. Michelle Wine Estates sparkling wine at the pre dinner reception, then dinner sponsored by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and ending the evening with a Walla Walla walkabout where all the downtown tasting rooms stayed open for us.
WHEW!
Here we go again!
Saturday was, by far, my most favorite day. After an early 8AM dynamic Terroirs of the Walla Walla Valley talk presented by geologist Kevin Pogue we all boarded 15 different buses that went to three different wineries. Our bus number 10 stopped at Abeja, Woodward Canyon and Va Piano. Loved, loved, LOVED this part of the conference! We met the winemakers at each stop and really learned, in an intimate way, about all the passion that is poured into each wine.
After we got back to the hotel I sat in to listen to Andrea Robinson (whom I met the night before at Walla Walla Vitners), Barbara Evans and David Honig talk about Growing Your Audience From Other Bloggers To Consumers. After this ended I up and ran off to the next one about the use of video in your blog with Lisa Mattson, Andrea Robinson and Christian Oggenfuss. All very informative.
We did speed tasting with reds, which I must say is a kick, then the pre dinner reception and dinner, both provided by the Washington Wine Commission. At dinner, Lettie Teague, who now writes about wine for the Wall Street Journal (I miss John and Dottie!) gave a keynote speech which I have to say was completely out of place. Glasses, plates and silverware (OH MY!) were clinking and you could hardly understand a word she was saying. Fortunately, she conducted a question and answer session the next morning.
Right after dinner there was MORE WINE as an after hours fiesta with Rias Baixas Albarino and wines from Spain was presented to us. 12 Abarinos from Spain were being poured and, with rare exceptions, they all tasted the same to me. Of course, my palate could have been destroyed by that point of the night.
I must have thought the same thing that night as that was my last endeavor for this very long day.
Last day already?
Sunday morning I forced myself out of bed early so I could listen to Lettie Teague answer questions which was very informative–much better than the night before.
Craig Sutton talked about Increasing the Conversion Rate of Your Blog at the first seminar I attended and then we had Top Gun Blogging with Andrew Lazorchak, Ben Simons and Joe Herrig for the last seminar (they actually called them break out sessions) of the conference.
A very action packed Food & Wine Pairing Seminar with energetic chef Jeffrey Saad talked about the “rules of thumb” regarding food pairings. I learned a lot during his non stop, non scripted talk. That was a good preview of what was to come: A Wine & Food Pairing Lunch with Chef “Bear” Ullman that featured five white wine and food combinations and five red wine and food pairings. I only did the red but it was spectacular!
I barely had time to gather my things in time to load back onto the bus heading West this time. But the weekend hadn’t ended quite yet, no siree….
Other than Seattle, our last stop was at Alexandria Nicole Cellars for an unbelievable lunch and a tasting of 13 of their wines. CEO and Winemaker, Jarrod Boyle, took us into heaven and back with the wines he served us. As we left he graciously allowed us each to take a wine of our choice with us to take home! What a great way to end this unforgettable weekend.
Even an hour and a half delay over Snoqualmie Pass didn’t cast a shadow on the weekend, though a few of the passengers missed their flights home.
I have to say, this will be an experience that will propel me into the next phase of wine education. I want to thank Marcus Pape of Wine Chatr as well as each and every person in our group. We had two Sommeliers in our group as well as media and other bloggers. I can’t wait to get back to Walla Walla.
Until next time, remember, bottoms up! (And you don’t have to spit if you don’t want to!)
Taste Washington Takes On A Whole New Meaning
By Phil Anderson
In the month of June “Taste Washington” has taken on an entirely new meaning for me. To start, on June 6th I completed the Hat Trick of pouring at the White Out Table at Taste Washington! Spokane for the third year which is held at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane, Washington. This year we had double the white wines to pour. These are all supposed to be wines that pair well with seafood, which is good because our White Out Table was immediately following the Anthony’s Seafood bar which boasted muscles, clams and oysters (oh, my!). With their plates full of fresh seafood, people continued on to us hoping to find a great wine to pair with their delicious seafood.
Phil Anderson (that's ME!) pouring at the White Out Table at Taste Washington! Spokane!
The past two years we poured between 20-25 white wines but this year we were around 40-45 ranging from your standard whites that pair well with seafood to a Rose or two and even a sparkler. There was a Terra Blanca Chardonnay that was quite delicious; of course, the Ryan Patrick Naked Chardonnay, as well. Gifford Hirlinger brought a Pinot Gris for us to pour so that was kind of cool, because that was one of our favorite stops in Walla Walla last November.
One thing that was interesting was just the Friday before I had stopped in the tasting room at Jones of Washington in Quincy, Washington, to taste some of their wines on my way back home from Wenatchee. We actually enjoyed their Chardonnay and a Rose of Syrah that Friday night, with the Rose of Syrah REALLY standing out and hitting the spot with outstanding mouth feel. And come Sunday, there was that same Chardonnay from Jones of Washington so we could really add some insight for people when they had questions about that wine, since we weren’t given ANY tasting notes this year.
Yvonne Swanberg, General Manager of San Juan Vineyards (left) and Vivian Flanagan, co-owner of Ryan Patrick Vineyards.
A highlight of the evening was when I got to venture out among the masses to taste and visit and I went directly to Ryan Patrick Vineyards’ booth to introduce myself to Vivian Flanagan (and it turned out Terry Flanagan, as well) and it turned out they were right next to San Juan Vineyards’ booth! You might remember Yvonne and San Juan Vineyards from the previous two years when I went on and on about their Madeleine Angevine. We poured that again as well as their Siegerrebe, which I STILL cannot pronounce to save my life! I tasted a Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Ryan Patrick that was wonderful and a Cabernet Franc from San Juan Vineyards that would stand up great with a juicy steak.
It’s always a pleasure to see Jill from Townshend Cellars and I said, “hello” to her and Marlene from Woodward Canyon told me she reads this blog all the time, which I am very grateful for. Now, if I can only find the time to write more than once a month! (Remember, last year I was a complet failure at this point of the year. I vow not to let that happen again!)
Some other reds that stood out during the evening were Five Star Cellars Super Tuscan Red, a Tempranillo from Kana Winery, Hedges Family Estate Red Bordeaux Blend, Robert Karl Claret and Forgeron Cellars Syrah. You just can’t taste every wine at the event but every year I give it my best go!
This year we stayed at the hotel which was wonderful. The room was extremely comfortable and it was such a luxury not to pack everything in the car and then drive an hour back home after tasting wine for four hours and then helping to break down for another two. Personally, I think we’ll do that every year from now on. Click here to watch a short video of Taste Washington! Spokane and look for me pouring at the white out table in the upper left hand corner (bald dude!) at about the 2:08 mark and at the end!
As for the rest of the “Taste Washington” scenerio, I will be partaking in the North American Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla this weekend, preceded by the WBC or Bust Road to Walla Walla tour, sponsored by Wine Chatr, that I won a seat on because of this very blog. It starts Wednesday and we will arrive in Walla Walla on Thursday night. I am going to do my very best to blog about each of the days’ activities, but there are no guarantees! I can’t begin to tell you all of the things that are lined up for the journey to Walla Walla and then the conference once we get there.
And lastly, I have just entered TWO (count ‘em, TWO) contests with a blog that ALSO won a seat on the WBC or Bust trip, Another Wine Blog and at Andrea Wine. The first one is for a set of The One wine glasses developed by Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson and the second contest is by that same Master Sommelier that developed The One wine glasses as she is giving away a trip to Napa Valley! If you are going to enter those two contests, as well, I wish you luck!
Remember, if you really DO like drinking wine you should absolutely show your passion by “liking” drinking wine on Facebook (it’s kind of like becoming a fan but then they changed it!). Everyday you’ll find a little tid bit about wine and you can share your OWN general wine thoughts, as well!
So, until Wednesday night, ciao for now and remember, bottoms UP!
