I’m listening now. Great podcast… taped during the 2008 North American Wine Bloggers Conference this past October.

So listen to dr_XeNo on Wine Biz Radio. Also on the podcast are Philip James, Alice Feiring, and Judd Wallenbrock.

After getting both of our outfits squared away, we decided to start the celebration of the end of 2008 with a stop at one of our favorite local steakhouses and cocktail bar, Moresi’s Chophouse in Clayton, CA. Moresi’s is housed in were two historic 1800’s era buildings, now combined, in the long-standing rural enclave of Clayton, CA. Ed Moresi, longtime proprieter of the outstanding family dining and sports bar establishment Ed’s Mudville Grill (check out the amazing collection of sports memorabilia!) son Dom and the rest of the Moresi clan have created a wonderful stop within the small, comfortable downtown of Clayton.

The morning of the second day of the inaugural North American Wine Bloggers Conference presented me with an energetic dilemma: which Vineyard Walk do I partake?? This part of the conference was to be an exciting off-site activity, courtesy of Allan Wright (Twitter), conference organizer and owner of the other main sponsor, Zephyr Wine Adventures. After debating between the many walks/hikes available, I finally settled on the second of the two Dry Creek Valley walks, as it was a tour of the Biodynamic estate of Quivira Vineyards & Winery. I was compelled to visit this winery after the great discussion that I had with Nancy Bailey at the previous evening’s Wine Growers of Dry Creek Valley tasting, of which I have previously written. Not yet knowing the full extent of the amount of physical activity that I might undertake, I literally sprinted over to Longs to get some protein-based snackies and I ran back to hop on the shuttle that was just about to pull out towards Dry Creek.

Last Sunday I had the distinct pleasure of joining Lisa de Bruin (Twitter) of Wine Diver Girl and Hahn Family Wines at the inaugural Hahn Wine Blogger Forum, alongside many of my fellow wine bloggers. Also invited were various other wine people prominent in the new social media wine landscape, including the busy Judd Wallenbrock (Twitter) of Michel-Schlumberger, Drink Charitably and his own Humanitas; John Pianetta of Pianetta Winery in Paso appellation and the man who also straddles many worlds, Jeff “El Jefe” Stai (Twitter) of Twisted Oak and El Bloggo Torcido. Aside from organizer Lisa, Hahn had a few other people in attendance: Evelyn Pool, VP of Marketing; Bill Leigon, President; and most interestingly the Winemaker for many of the wines, the nicely zany Adam LaZarre and the warm-hearted Vineyard Manager, Andy Mitchell.

I caught a ride up with my comrades-(increasingly)-in-arms, the Brix Chicks, Liza (Twitter) and Xandria (Twitter). Thanks for the ride, ladies! We arrived just as the last piece in our chaotic vinous puzzle pulled up, Thea (Twitter) of Vinquire and Luscious Lushes. A few hello’s later and the group decision that we were now “professionally” early as opposed to “unfashionably, do you really need to drink wine so” early…we headed in to the Napa headquarters of Hahn Family Wines.

Day 1 of the 1st annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference started with a whirlwind of activities. I caught a ride to the conference with the very gracious founders of WineQ, Marshall (Twitter) and Brittany (Twitter). We arrived right on time at the conference hotel and center of activities, the Hotel Flamingo in Santa Rosa and made our way in a roundabout fashion to Registration. It was a very surreal and invigorating walk to say the least…just in the 100 yards it took to reach the registration room, I handed out 5 or 6 WineLog.net biz cards, three of those contacts being people that I had met through Twitter or their blog…whew!

This is my first Twitter Taste Live!, #5 The Bloggers Take Over! TTL was started by the man behind the online wine savings outfit Bin Ends Wine, Craig Drollet (Twitter). TTL is an exceptionally innovative integration of the new social media and wine tasting, taking wine to an even greater level of consumer-directed interaction.

I received an invite to the annual Southern Wine & Spirits Pennsylvania portfolio tasting at 5:20 Monday evening. That was the good news, the bad was it started at 6:00 and would take me an hour to get there in rush hour traffic.

I arrived late, around 7:00 but went to the tables with the precision of a skilled surgeon. There were in the vicinity of 300 wines to choose from, so the spittoons really received a workout from me! Below are the wines that made the cut.

B.R. Cohn, Sonoma winery producing wines from a wide array of varietals. Chardonnay 2006, $21, straw color, bright fruit flavors of apple and citrus, with a nice background of vanilla balanced by mouthwatering acidity and a long finish.

Stuhlmuller Vineyards is located at the crossroads of the Alexander, Dry Creek, and Russian River valleys. I am familiar with Chardonnay grapes coming out of their property and being made by Mazzocco vineyards, one of my favorite Cailifornia producers. Chardonnay, Estate 2006, $25, a lovely wine, nice fruit on the nose with nice balanced oak matching the evolving citrus flavors.

(more after the break!)

After finishing up at the last WBC lunch and tasting, the Luxe Sonoma lunch, I headed out with the Brix Chicks, Liza (Twitter) and Xandria to another party, this time hosted by Agent Red and Agent Green (Twitter) of The Wine Spies.

The Wine Spies is a interesting and effective wine sales site that specializes in 1 great wine a day. It helps both the winery to connect directly with its clientele, and allows consumers to discover a new wine each day and at significant, one-time savings. It is extremely effective at getting the word out about small boutique wineries and their choice of wines is top-notch, including some of my own favorites such as Galante (WineSpies) and Parsonage Village Vineyard (WineSpies). Their style of James Bond-ish secrecy and elite info dissemination keeps the wine very accesible and fun, while refusing to compromise on great background and techinical information.

Waking up on Day 3, Sunday, of the WBC was definitely harder to do than the the last! Late night Oak Room tastings in the Flamingo, plus even MORE shenanigans afterward with other kids including Anthony (Twitter) from Farmstead and El Jefe (Twitter) from Twisted Oak led this blogger to be feeling a wee bit [...]

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 [...]