After a fun-filled and informative weekend at the 2009 Wine Bloggers conference, I have come away from the trip with a new outlook on the California wine “scene.” As we work exclusively with wines from Europe, it was a nice break to explore the wines being produced in my neck of the woods- especially because I have limited knowledge about California wines. Many people will ask, “What, you haven’t had a Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon from California?” Yes, yes, I have thank you very much, but there is much more to the area than just Chard and Cab, which can only be experienced by visiting the area.

From having over one hundred variations of soil, to the exploration of growing varieties like Tempranillo, Albarino, and an ongoing struggle with the TTB to resolve issues dealing with the pending Calistoga AVA, there is a lot happening in Napa. This was interesting for me as we have had to deal with similar problems in Europe in regard to DO’s and DOC’s dealing with what types of grapes can or cannot be grown, how high plants can be grown, how far apart they must be, etc. To have a controversy like this only a few states next to where I live, I was surprised (and a bit ashamed!) that I didn’t recognize the scope of what is happening in California.

However, the main reason for my attending the conference was for the social media aspects, meeting new contacts, and listening and learning from the fantastic speakers throughout the weekend. I learned a great deal how to better our site, our blog and what I can do now and in the future to get a better hold on the markets we currently sell to. While the speakers focused more on the blogging side of things (obviously), being an importer I still took away a wealth of information from the weekend even though blogging isn’t the most important aspect of my job.

The best part of the weekend for me was meeting all the wonderful winos out there that I’ve been following on twitter and facebook but have never met in person, so it was great to meet the faces behind the blogs! I had wonderful and humorous conversations with The Whineaux and her husband, and even hitched a ride back into San Francisco with them.

Not to mention the incredible outdoor tasting and panel discussion we had about AVA’s at Storybook Family Vineyards, being hounded into taking a pull of a bottle of Absinthe with the fellas from Mutineer Magazine, and managing to rock the late night “tasting” put on by ViniPortugal, the weekend was fun-filled to say the least! I was also fortunate enough to meet and be welcomed to dinner to the private residence of the owners of Lieff Vineyards who opened up their home to 30 random strangers (and bloggers of all people) which was definitely another highlight of my weekend.

It was also great to catch up with my friends from Catavino.net as well as Oscar Quevedo from Quevedo Port Wine and chat about the upcoming European Wine Bloggers Conference coming up this fall in Lisbon Portugal that I hope to attend. I hope to be fortunate to attend the EWBC and hopefully have a similar experience this October and November in Portugal.

A huge THANK YOU to all the volunteers, sponsors, and organizers of the WBC 2009, I had an amazing time and look forward to Walla Wall in 2010!!!