I’m sitting in the second of the Breakout Sessions at the very first North American Wine Bloggers Conference here in 2008 at the Hotel Flamingo.  I’ve already had yet another whirlwind of a day at the conference and would like to give you all a little taste of what I’ve been fortunate to enjoy today and have yet to enjoy for the remainder of the afternoon and evening.

After waking up in a surprisingly good mood and feeling a very nice lack of exhaustion, I got ready for one of the many highlights of this conference the Vineyard Walks. There were a lot of hikes to choose from and I have to admit, I had a tough decision to make.  I decided to do Dry Creek Valley II, a vineyard hike, lunch and paired lunch at Quivira Vineyards & Winery.  Quivira is a smallish operation, producing only about 12-13,000 cases annually.  They are a leader in organic biodynamic farming and winegrowing.  I actualy chose this walk because of some very favorable wines that I tasted durign the “unofficial” Dry Creek Valley tasting that was held in Suite 301 the night before and a great conversation that I had with Nancy, the General Manager for the winery.  I chose correctly!  It was a briliiant learning experience for myself and the others that partook of this tour.  We learned from the source of the wines himself, winemaker and a very unique personality, Steven Canter.

The Breakout Sessions have been very informative, especially in regards to my concerns about the ethics and credibility issues surrounding blogging, ie free wine samples, etc. I chose to attend the Wine Blogger Credibility and Wine Industry & Wine Blogger Interaction sessions.
After the sessions are out, I will be attending the Grand Tasting of Sonoma Wines followed by a very intriguing dinner at Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery with a keynote speech by Alice Feiring.

Look for more live posts in the next two days and many more brief precaps and longer recaps in the coming weeks!