It is now 6:15 AM in Sonoma County. Last night after the Blind Tasting Challenge we went right into a self-paced tasting of over 100 New Zealand wines. Those who were interested took a trip around the room with a printed guide. I wasn’t able to do this but Randy Cunningham of Vino Chapeau was nice enough to point me to his favorite Pinot after tasting all 100 wines.
Dinner last night was the main banquet of the conference and was sponsored by Sonoma County Tourism with wines provided by the Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley. We were treated to the winemakers themselves who joined us and spoke about their wines, followed by a rousing keynote speech by Gary Vaynerchuk, who said despite his success he feels just like one of us and whose message was “go out and kick some a$%”!
Allan & Joel,
Thanks tremendously for organizing this conference, which was even better than I imagined. It was dynamic, fun & thought-provoking. Cheers to you both!