The 2016 Wine Bloggers Conference will take place in one of California’s great historic winegrape growing regions – Lodi, California on August 11-14, 2016. Registration for WBC16 is open now!
Lodi is important in terms of wine grape growing. While California leads the nation with 90% of all wine production, Lodi accounted for over 17% of the grapes in the state crushed for wine in 2014. A classic Mediterranean climate pervades the region and as such, the region boasts a broad array of winegrape offerings – over 75 different varieties at commercial levels.
Lodi is now also emerging as a well-known and regarded wine producing region. Anthony Giglio noted in Details magazine recently that “Lodi, California is the next Napa Valley.” In 1986, Lodi was officially designated as an AVA and subsequently seven distinct sub-appellations have been designated, highlighting the region’s diversity in climate and gerography.
In the last 20 years Lodi has seen a rapid increase in the number of wineries making great wines from the region, now boasting over 85 wineries. The region is also seeing increased interest from winemakers throughout California and the country to make their wines from Lodi grapes – wineries such as Turley, Bedrock, Ramey, Cline Cellars, Forlorn Hope.
Our local partners are the folks at Lodi Wine, who are doing an outstanding job promoting Lodi and are welcoming us with open arms. Timing couldn’t be more perfect as some grape varieties will probably be being harvested, vineyards will be abuzz with activity and cellars will be gearing up for the 2016 vintage while we’re there. See the video below for a better sense of the area.
Lodi has an excellent downtown community and conference center called Hutchins Street Square, which has been reserved entirely for the conference. Hotel room blocks will be announced in the near future and transportation between the venues will be provided by our local partners. As a community, Lodi is a bucolic agricultural town of about 60,000 people which is deeply entrenched in the wine industry – many of the shopping centers in town are named after vineyards or grapes, the city bus line is “The Grape Line,” and the city crest bears a cluster of grapes.
“I can’t tell you in words how much I’m looking forward to this adventure. #WBC5 will represent my third-in-a-row conference. Each one has helped to shape me both professionally and personally and I hope it does that for each and every one of you. The Wine Bloggers Conference is as much about the joy of wine and the power of online journalism as it is about friendship and community. Packing my bags this weekend and am proud to be part of this amazing group.”
That comment came from Sujinder Juneja in advance of this year’s conference and we thought it was sort of a fitting end to the 2015 conference as we look forward one year to when we will all be packing our bags for the WBC once again.
We are super excited to be headed to a new region for the ninth annual Wine Bloggers Conference, one which is so critical in grape growing, now established as a wine producer, and growing in importance in wine tourism. Register now for WBC16!
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http://goo.gl/rXKp82Woot! Next year will be great – I can’t wait to learn and taste Lodi with my WBC people!