Our third of three Wine Tasting breakout sessions will be Off the Beaten Path Varietals with Master of Wine Sheri Sauter Morano and sponsored by Winebow.

If you were to ask one hundred wine lovers for a list of the grape varieties they tend to drink the most, there’s a good chance the majority of lists would be pretty similar. But given there are thousands of different grape varieties to choose from, why do we always tend to stick to the ones we know? And more importantly, how can we change this?

We cornered Sheri to explain more about this session:

I am reminded of one of my very first wine purchases – made two days after my 21^st birthday. I went to my local wine store and cornered the first employee I could find. I wanted to know, I told him, exactly what a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay tasted like. Why those four grapes? Well, not only were they the ones I felt the most comfortable pronouncing, but they were the ones that everyone seemed to talk about.

Well, fast forward a few (ok, 16) years and while I have learned a lot more about those grape varieties since then, I have also discovered there is much more to the world of wine than just the classics. In fact, one of the most enjoyable parts of my exploration of wine has been to venture off the beaten path.

Since finding unusual and different wines can actually be a bit of a challenge, this session will give wine lovers a chance to discover a selection of unique grapes from around the world. With more than 10,000 different kinds of grapes grown around the world, we had more than a bit of fun deciding which wines to include.

So join Sheri on Saturday, August 18 at 2:25 pm for a fascinating tasting discovery session. You’ll taste through a variety of interesting wines and discuss not only what makes them unique, but also how to communicate with others about them and ultimately, how to inspire more people to expand their grape horizons.

Our second of three Wine Tasting breakout sessions will be on Current Trends and the Future of Wine Sales, presented by California negociant Don Sebastiani & Sons.

From critter brands to the Sideways effect, we’ve seen many trends and fads in the world of wine over the past decade. So what’s the next big thing? We will attempt to shed some light on the subject.

Many factors can affect what wines catch the consumers’ interest. In the case of Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck), it was the first time varietal wines were offered for under $2.00. With brands such as Yellow Tail from Australia and Smoking Loon from California, it was a combination of attractive packaging, pricing, and wine quality.

In this session, Don Sebastiani Jr. and others will explore what’s hot and what’s not in the world of wine. Don (or Donny to his friends) literally grew up around wine. As a fourth generation California vigneron, Donny has a unique perspective on the American wine business and a vision for where it’s headed. Donny and his fellow panelists will discuss subjects such as up and coming varietals/blends; new packaging innovations; and consumer consumption trends. In addition, the session will include a tasting of wines from these hot varietals and packages.

Attendees will walk away from the session with a better understanding of the factors that affect consumer interest and purchasing habits; determine long-term marketing and pricing strategies by producers; influence the distribution channel to adopt new products; and spur innovation in wine production.

About Don Sebastiani & Sons

At Dan Sebastiani & Sons, four generations of Sebastianis have made their mark on the wine business, starting in 1904 when Samuele Sebastiani opened his own winery in Sonoma, California. Today, the tradition lives on at this family-owned wine negociant Don Sebastiani & Sons, led by Don Sebastiani Jr., great-grandson of the Sebastiani patriarch. Don Sebastiani & Sons is a purveyor of upscale, moderately priced varietal wines that are sourced from some of the best growing regions worldwide. The company produces sophisticated, innovative wine brands and aims to consistently create noteworthy wines in a style that is recognizably their own.

It took much longer than we expected and we are sorry for the delay but we are happy to announce three Pre-Conference Excursions in advance of the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference. (Editor’s Note: We just added a fourth excursion! Check out the Excursions page.)

We realize many of you fly in from out of the Oregon area and seeing the Oregon wine country is a big part of your goal. While you will have that opportunity during the Friday visits to wine country as part of the conference, these pre-conference visits will provide you with a more intimate and in-depth experience.

We are working with three local associations to set up the excursions in three different parts of Oregon:

• Eugene, Cascades & Coast
• Travel Salem
• Washington County Visitors Association

Each excursion starts on Wednesday afternoon and finishes around 5:00 PM in Portland. Each excursion provides hotel, three meals, local transportation, and winery or other visits for the price of $90 -  a great deal. The excursions have different themes, so you can choose your excursion based on the theme and the location.

Excursions are limited to 20 or 25 people and are first come, first served. You must be registered for the conference to attend an excursion and can register for the excursion when you register for the conference.

On Saturday, August 18th during one of the Wine Bloggers Conference breakout sessions you will have the opportunity to join Erath (@erathwinery) winemaker Gary Horner for a discussion about Oregon terroir, vineyards and Pinot Noir clones. This is one of the three Wine Tasting breakout sessions that will be presented and we’ll cover the remaining two in subsequent posts.

We’ll start in the vineyards and learn about the appellations, vineyards and diverse soils in which Oregon wines are rooted. Then we’ll taste the result in the glass – sampling Pinot Noir sourced from single vineyards within several appellations. Next we’ll dig a bit deeper and learn about clones and how they play a role in crafting Pinot Noir. Like spices in a spice rack, each offers their own unique characteristics that contribute to the final blend.

Taste three individual single-clone wines – sourced from the same vineyard, treated with the same barrel regime and made by the same winemaker. This is an opportunity to compare and contrast three individual clones that are literally within feet of each other in the vineyard. Then taste the wine with all three clones blended into one wine.

About Erath and Winemaker Gary Horner

As one of Oregon’s wine pioneers, Erath winery’s founder, Dick Erath, was driven by the belief that the future of Pinot Noir was in Oregon. Today Erath wines are an expression of the land that the winery has cultivated for more than 40 years, longer than any other winery in the Dundee Hills of Oregon. Winemaker Gary Horner, who shares Dick Erath’s background in science and a reverence for Oregon’s unique terroir, strives to reveal classic Oregon Pinot: light, delicate and fruit-forward. His goal is to make the best Pinot Noir the region has to offer – it’s time-honored, authentic and uniquely Oregon.

As we noted in our previous post, on Saturday at the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference we will have three hours of breakout sessions with three sessions each hour. The nine sessions in total are broken up into three different categories: Wine and the Wine Industry, Wine Blogging, and Wine Tasting. We’ll have one of each category per hour.

Here we present the three Wine Blogging breakout sessions:

Research on Wine Blogging: We are lucky enough to have three Canadian professors (David Cray, Alex Ramirez, and Louise Heslop) from Carleton University in Ottawa who have done research on our favorite subject – wine blogging! The study analyzes opinions from 200 active wine bloggers on why they write, what they offer their readers, and how they interact with the wine industry. They have done additional research with a graduate student on the content of wine blogs and how this affects readers’ impressions. The research will soon be published in the International Journal of Wine Business Research. At least one of these professors will be in attendance to talk about this research and answer your questions.

Monetization: We all know Google Adwords is probably not going to make you rich via your wine blog. However, are there other ways to turn your hobby into an income producer? Hear from a panel that will discuss various forms of monetization including advertising, building a brand to engage in consulting or create events, writing a book or e-book, and more. Speakers include:

• Zeke Camusio owns The Outsourcing Company, a Portland Internet marketing company. He is a serial entrepreneur, marketing speaker, and author of The Internet Marketing Bible. He has even written articles on blog monetization, so is a real expert in the subject.
• Russ Kane from Vintage Texas recently published The Wineslinger Chronciles and will talk about how to go from blog to book.
• Joe Roberts from the blog 1 Wine Dude was the 2010 Best Overall Wine Blog award winner. He has leveraged his blogging success to provide consulting and set up wine events as well as writing a paid freelance wine column for Playboy.com.

Social Media and Your Blog: How can you best use Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, YouTube, and other social media sites in conjunction with your blog? We will be treated to a talk on this by expert Ryan Lewis, President of Bonfire Social Media in Portland. Bonfire is a social media marketing consulting firm that does everything from developing social media marketing strategies to implementing them to providing training seminars on the subject.

On Saturday at the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference, we will have three hours of breakout sessions with three sessions each hour. The nine sessions in total are broken up into three different categories: Wine and the Wine Industry, Wine Blogging, and Wine Tasting. We’ll have one of each category per hour.

Here we present the three Wine and the Wine Industry sessions. We hope you like them! See the Agenda page on this website for details on when each session will be presented but since these three are all at different times, you can attend all three if you choose. We’ll present the Wine Blogging and Wine Tasting breakout sessions in upcoming posts.

Biodynamic, Organic, Natural, and Sustainable Wine: What do these terms mean, do they matter and why, and can you taste a difference in the wine? This is a hot topic in the wine world and this is your chance to learn more about it from three experts.

• Katherine Cole is a Portland writer who authored Voodoo Vintners, a book that “explores the mysteries of biodynamic winegrowing and explores its practice in Oregon vineyards”.
• Darryl Joannides owns Cork, a Portland retail bottle shop that was named Best Portland Wine Shop by portlandfoodanddrink.com in both 2010 and 2011.
• Jason Lett is winemaker and vineyard director of The Eyrie Vineyards, which in 1965 did “the first planting of Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and related varieties in the Willamette Valley, and the first Pinot gris in America” and whose wines are made exclusively from grapes grown without the use of irrigation, insecticides, herbicides or systemic fungicides.

The Winery View of Bloggers: We’ll hear from three industry experts (two winery representatives and a blogger turned winery marketer) who will explain whether they work with bloggers, how they cooperate, and whether bloggers have an impact on the winery’s visitation, sales, or image.

• Ed Thralls from the Wine Tonite blog is now the Social Media Manager for Vintage Wine Estates (includes Girard, Kunde Family Estate, Cosentino, and Windsor Vineyards as well as several boutique brands)
• Christopher Watkins from Ridge Vineyards runs the winery’s blog, 4488, a finalist for Best Winery Blog in 2010 at the Wine Blog Awards
• Sasha Kadey is the Director of Marketing for King Estate Winery in Oregon, one of the largest and most active wineries in the state

Neuroscience of Wine Tasting: Take your winetasting to a whole new level by hearing from Tim Gaiser, Master Sommelier and previously the Director of Education for the American Chapter of the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas.  He will explain his large-scale project involving the use of behavioral and neuro sciences to teach and improve olfactory and palate memory and synethesia in relation to wine.  His cutting edge research in this area is increasing the awareness of how our minds recognize and code smells and tastes.

Update: Since this was posted, we had plenty of volunteers and have filled our moderator positions:

• How Bloggers Can Influence the Wine World: Michael Wangbickler and Fred Swan
• Are We Wine Writers, Wine Bloggers, or Both?: Tom Wark
• Blogging Workshops: Pamela Heiligenthal, Bill Eyer, Mike Veseth, Cindy Rynning, Debbie Gioquindo, and Amy Gross
  

Thanks to all our volunteers and see below for details on the blogger-to-blogger sessions.

On Saturday morning at the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference, we will have three “blogger-to-blogger discussions” going on at the same time. We could use your help.

We first did something similar at the very first Wine Bloggers Conference, way back in 2008, when we included a two-hour “unconference”. At an unconference, topics are presented and led by participants and people have the freedom to walk around and sit in on whichever discussion they choose. It worked pretty well and we have tried something similar most years since.

This past year in Virginia, we morphed from an unconference to having three specific discussions, each with designated moderators (who are not presenters), and it seemed to work pretty well. In fact, the only complaint was we didn’t provide enough time. So for 2012, we are increasing the time to 75 minutes and moving the discussions to Saturday morning, prime time at the conference.

The three topics are:

• How Bloggers Can Influence the Wine World: What can wine bloggers do individually to have more impact on the world of wine? Should bloggers attempt to influence the wine world by all focusing on one topic at a time, as Eric Asimov suggested in 2011?
• Are We Wine Writers, Wine Bloggers, or Both? What is a writer? What is a wine writer? Is a person writing about wine using a blog platform a blogger, a wine writer or both? Is payment the only difference between professional wine writers and wine bloggers? Join your fellow wine bloggers to discuss in depth the current thinking on the nature of wine writing, where bloggers fit into that category, and the degree to which wine blogging has changed the overall arena of wine writing. Moderated by Tom Wark of Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog.
• Wine Blogging Workshops: Sit at a table with a group of bloggers, including at least one experienced one, who will view, critique, and make suggestions on your blog. If you are looking for hands-on (or eyes-on) advice for your blog, this is the time and place to get it.

As you can see from the above, only the second discussion already has a moderator. The third discussion actually has one experienced blogger moderator (Pamela Heiligenthal from Enobytes) but we need four more. Additionally, we need two moderators for the discussion on How Bloggers Can Influence the Wine World.

If you are interested to volunteer as a moderator and will be attending the conference, please leave a comment on this blog or email allan@zephyradventures.com.

Sideways author Rex Pickett has joined the Wine Bloggers Conference line-up as our second keynote speaker. Pickett will sit down on stage with blogger Alana Gentry (Girl With a Glass) in a candid Q&A-style conversation that is sure to inspire the author in each of us.

Pickett has written a number of books and screenplays, the most well known being the Writers Guild, two Golden Globe and Academy Awards-winning Sideways. Sideways was filled with rich, descriptive writing about wine – specifically Pinot Noir – that struck a chord with its audience, literally decreasing worldwide sales of Merlot and increasing Pinot Noir. When Girl with a Glass Alana Gentry approached us with this opportunity, she pointed out that Willamette Valley, being mostly planted in Pinot, would be the perfect setting for discussing impactful writing with the Sideways author.

“If you want to impact the wine drinking world (big or small), you have to understand how to do it through blog posts,” Alana says. “Other workshops will give you insights about when and how often to post, analytics and such, but it all comes down to finding your voice, being yourself and relaying it through your writing. Rex is well-known for his candid and entertaining way of showing folks how that works.”

Special boxed sets will be available for purchase at the conference as well, featuring Sideways and its newly released sequel, Vertical. In addition to the new sequel and a number of other writing projects, Pickett has a Merlot he is releasing along with (Sunstone Winery) in St. Ynez Valley, named – ironically – “The Apostate.”

Pickett’s writing tips can be found on his blog as well as on Twitter (@RexPickett), where he shares free writing advice and inspiration with any and all aspiring writers.

Join us in welcoming Rex Pickett to our keynote speaker lineup!

It was a long process before we finally come up with the content sessions for the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference.

We started by discussing the overall structure of the weekend with our blogger advisory board. We then solicited content suggestions from the board and openly via the blogging public. Last week we completed a vote with all wine bloggers and past WBC participants, on 23 potential topics.

This all resulted in the following sessions to be presented at the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference. If your preferred topic did not get selected, please understand we simply had too many great ideas and had to take those that were most popular!

These sessions are subject to change. We will next fill the panels with speakers and will provide that information soon. We hope you are looking forward to a great conference!

Blogger Discussions
This is the “blogger-to-blogger” session of the conference and is designed to be more discussion than presentation. We will have three separate sessions going on at the same time.

• How Bloggers Influence the Wine World: Do bloggers have an effect on wine sales? On winery practices? Should bloggers attempt to influence the wine world by all focusing on one topic at a time, as Eric Asimov suggested in 2011?
• Are We Wine Writers or Wine Bloggers? Join your fellow attendees to discuss the differences and similarities of the two groups, including what impact wine blogging has had on wine writing and why the EWBC is no longer called the European Wine Bloggers Conference.
• Blogging Workshop: Sit at a table with a group of bloggers, including at least one experienced one, who will view, critique, and make suggestions on your blog. If you are looking for hands-on (or eyes-on) advice for your blog, this is the time and place to get it.

Breakout Sessions
We will have three one-hour time periods with three breakouts each, which means you have to choose your favorites!

Wine Tasting Sessions

• The Art of Oregon Pinot – A Clonal Tasting: Learn about clones and how they play a role in crafting Pinot Noir. Like spices in a spice rack, each offers its own unique characteristics that contribute to the final blend. Taste three individual single-clone wines – sourced from the same vineyard, treated with the same barrel regime and made by the same winemaker.
• Off the Beaten Path Varietals: Consumers are familiar with Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Cabernet and Merlot but may have yet to taste Albarino, Lugana, Sauvignon Gris, Bonarda, Nero d’Avola and other off the beaten path grape varieties.  Taste eight grape varieties, learn about their unique characteristics and explore ways of piquing the interest and expanding the palates of your readers.
• One More To Be Announced:

Wine and the Wine Industry

• Biodynamic, Organic, Natural, and Sustainable Wine: What do these terms mean, do they matter, and can you taste a difference in the wine?
• The Winery View of Bloggers: We’ll hear from several wineries who will explain whether they work with bloggers, how they cooperate, and whether bloggers have an impact on the winery’s visitation, sales, or image.
• Neuroscience of Wine Tasting: Take your winetasting to a whole new level by hearing from Tim Gesier, Master Sommelier and previously the Director of Education for the American Chapter of the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas.  He will explain his large-scale project involving the use of behavioral and neuro sciences to teach and improve olfactory and palate memory and synethesia in relation to wine.  His cutting edge research in this area is increasing the awareness of how our minds recognize and code smells and tastes.

Wine Blogging

• Research on Wine Blogging: Hear from three professors from Canada who have done research on our favorite subject – wine blogging! The study analyzes opinions from 200 active wine bloggers on why they write, what they offer their readers, and how they interact with the wine industry.
• Monetization: Hear from a panel that will discuss various forms of monetization including advertising, building a brand to engage in consulting, writing a book or e-book, and more.
• Social Media and Your Blog: How can you best use Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, YouTube, and other social media sites in conjunction with your blog? You’ll hear concrete recommendations from experts.

We have published the first list 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference Participants.

As of February 3, we have 138 people registered for the conference. In addition, we have another 20 or so spots reserved for sponsors, meaning we are about half way to selling out, six months in advance of the conference.

Participants have signed up from 20 states, two Canadian provinces, and one foreign country (Portugal). We have really not done any promotion yet to bloggers and hope to increase the number of Canadian bloggers and those from outside North America.

84% of those signed up are either Citizen or Industry Wine Bloggers. The other 16% are organizers (us), sponsors, press, or others interested in the arena of wine blogging.

Don’t wait to register! The Wine Bloggers Conference has sold out four years in a row.