Reacquainting With Roussane (I Never Forgot Viognier)

The story: I think of myself as somewhat of a Rhone grape devotee. This is 1/3 Paso Robles' fault, as we tend to spend some time there every year, 1/3 the value that wines from the Rhone can offer, and 1/3 the fault of those tasty little grapes themselves. But frequently when people say they love Rhones, minds jump to syrah, grenache, and mourvedre. A Rhone devotee is looking for Chateauneufs, and Cote Roties. For a true Rhone-ophile this is only half the story. Thank God that the Rhone valley has had an equal opportunity relationship with the white grapes viognier, roussane, and marsanne. And thank God that the Rhone Rangers made sure we grew them and promoted them in America as well.

Curtis winery grows Rhone varieties in the Santa Ynez valley, and tastes them out of their room in Los Olivos. They chose Santa Ynez and Rhone grapes as a natural fit, siting the long sunny days, foggy nights, and rocky soils full of sand and limestone. This profile certainly fits the Southern Rhone, and winemaker Chuck Carlson is convinced that the fruit he gets out of these vineyards need minimal processing to display amazing complexity and structure.

The wine: The Curtis 2008 Central Coast Heritage Blanc is 52% viognier and 48% roussane. It is a light golden straw color, and gives off one of the most expressive noses I have found in a white wine so far this summer. The play between the two grapes offers first a bit of citrus and chalky minerality, but as the wine warmed slightly it literally burst forth with pineapple, jasmine and white floral tones, and a cinnamon-sugar toast topping that forces you back for more sniffs. Across your mouth the wine was fairly medium bodied, with a bit of an oily viscocity, lots of nectarine and lime and some very zippy minerality. The wine finished with some spicy cinammon notes and a vanilla cream soda that lingered for just a few seconds. With all of those flavors going on it was great to find just enough acidity to keep it crisp. The wine was slightly hot on the nose. At 14.6% abv there was just a lingering bit of alcohol that did not blow off but also did not translate into the taste profile.

The verdict: This wine was delicious, and between the friends went down quickly. The nose and palette offered a lot of flavors, but they were really friendly California sunshine-type flavors. This made it an interesting wine, but not an 'overthinker'. Serve this wine on a warm day among friends and it will certainly be a favorite. I suppose the heat keeps it from being stellar, but at $14-18, and as a true alternative to the white wines most people naturally reach for I think this is a great find. Score of 3.5/5.

The 2009 vintage of this wine is now out and they have added some marsanne. It also recently wone Double Gold at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. Check this wine out.

Impressions of Washington: Merlot

You can not do a series on the wines of Washington without mentioning the grape that put them on the map. While merlot might be struggling from a misintended (and misinformed) popularity slump for the last 10 years, it is the grape of the Bordeaux Right Bank, and the grape that made many people first take notice of what was happening in Washington.

Merlot is often a very approachable and appealing red wine. It is described as fleshy and fruity, identifying both its appeal and often its flaw. When grown or vinified lazily merlot can be too soft, too unstructured, or too much like a big chocolate covered cherry offering nothing of interest beyond its initial taste attack.

The terroir and weather of Eastern Washington however offer growers and winemakers a perfect opportunity to put some minerality, some acidity, and real tertiary beauty into their merlot, and many step right up to the challenge. While I must say that the merlots being poured on my tour of Washington were not always among my favorite reds, here are several examples of some stellar wines:

Sparkman Cellars 2007 Ruby Leigh - 65 % Merlot from Hedges North Block and Klipsun on Red Mountain this wine offers an abundance of complex flavors coupled with the soft mouthfeel that makes well structure merlot so appealing. Chocolate, vanilla, and flowers on the nose, with dark fruits and pipe tobacco across the palette made me take notice of this wine in a crowded tasting event. This is not a large production wine, with only 265 cases. However it is still available from the winery for $42.

Chateau Ste. Michelle 2006 Canoe Ridge Estate Merlot - Made with fruit from the Horse Heaven Hills it is no surprise that the royal family of Washington wine produces one of my favorite merlots. This wine gave off a lot of cherry but also some leather and coffee. It was quite approachable, generally delicious, and an overall pleasure. We were served this wine paired with a duck breast and I was reminded how a food friendly wine that enhances the bite, while providing an interest of its own, is one of the finest things in the world. Available widely for around $22 this is a fine buy.

Baer 2007 Ursa - Just under half merlot, this wine was a great example of how fruit grown with care can offer great structure and lush fruit. The Ursa gives bright red fruit, with darker notes of chocolate and spice, but it is the mouthfeel that made this wine stand out. If you want to understand what wine reviewers mean when they say velvety tannins, this is a wine that will make you understand. At $35 this wine is a great value for the quality that it offers.

I think that the examples of merlot I found in Washington furthered my experience. I find it to be a pleasant and drinkable wine, with an opportunity to be terrific when made well, and also a tendency to be a bit boring or flacid. While I tried dozens of merlots these wines stood out to me as examples of terrific winemaking. They all can give you a good idea of what merlot is capable of, and remind you why Washington first got attention for the merlot it was producing.

Wine For A Crowd

My brother got married last weekend, and between the families it was one hell of a weekend. It was a destination wedding in Anderson Island, WA. However the arrival potluck, followed by the rehearsal picnic, the golf tournament, the reception, and the post-reception party got me thinking. What are some guidelines to follow when buying mass quantities of wine for a crowd at a non-wine centric event? In other words, I have to buy a bunch of wine for a party, what do I do?

1. If the focus of the event is far from the wine, or pairings (and weddings really are) then don't over do it. Most people in attendance are not focused on the wine and just want something pleasant to drink.

2. Provide a variety as this is not the time to expose people to new things. I can't stand it when people say things like 'I only drink white wine' or 'I only drink red' but they are here to party so let them have their uninitiated misnomers for one more night.

3. The weather and venue are as important of considerations as the food. Have an outdoor party in 80 degree heat and everyone will reach for the colder, crisper wines.

4. If you want people to mingle, and you want them to drink, make sure there is plenty of stemware. Things get set down, or misplaced while on the dance floor. The wine was supposed to be inexpensive enough that people feel encouraged to just go get a new glass if this happens.

5. If you want to splurge on at least one good wine for your decerning guests, I say make it the sparkling wine. This wine is the center of a specific part of the reception ceremony, and the part of the party in which nearly every guest will partake in a bit of wine. Choose a delicious one.

My new sister did a really good job in following all of these suggestions, and I thought that her wine choices were excellent. If you are really looking for someone to suggest exactly what to offer, here is what we had:

• A dry riesling - This wine represented a local choice from the Pacific Northwest, and the chilled, crisp wine was a popular and approachable option. It also was bound to go with almost any of the banquet food (no beef) that people chose to eat. A safe and smart choice.


• A simple chardonnay - Many guests are going to feel comfortable with a chardonnay. This one had a touch of oak, but some nice fruit and was quite inexpensive to offer the guests as much as they would like.


• A soft fruity red blend - In general while mingling and eating a variety of appetizers, salads, and main dishes, heavy tannins and complex tertiary flavors are not welcome. A simple but delicious table wine will do the trick and keep your red wine drinkers happy.

Well that does it. If the selection is antagonizing or overwhelming to you as the planner it may very well have the same effect on your guests. So relax, go a little bit budget, and make the wine as fun as you hope the party will be.

3 Pinot's Head to Head for #PinotNoir

The concept was simple, drink pinot, and tweet about it. Twitter is as easy as talking, and pinot is as smooth as silk so how hard could this be? Well, sometimes FedEx gets an inadvertent hand in things and makes things WAY more difficult than they need to be. I live in Pasadena but work in San Francisco and being a mid-week event I needed to get my pinots to San Francisco in order to participate in the #PinotNoir twitter tasting. I got them, but it did involve a 2 hour rental of a car, a grand and expensive tour of the city, and a few very confusing explanations to my co-workers about what in the hell a Twitter tasting is. This co-worker confusion quickly turned to acceptance when they were given the leftover wines the following morning.

Besides offering a large and aggressive consumer impression for Pinot Noir itself, this tasting was designed to have a bit of competition between the great Pinot Noir regions. Joe Herrig of Suburban Wino offers a comprehensive list of the Twitter hashtags that were used to submit votes for each individual's favorite region. I was lucky enough to taste a Willamette Valley, Edna Valley/San Luis Obispo, and Santa Maria Valley/Santa Barbara County pinot noir and record my impressions:

Tolosa 2005 Pinot Noir Estate Edna Ranch - A slightly translucent scarlet red, this wine had a tart strawberry rhubarb nose, with a bit of herb. The fruit seemed a bit retracted as the supple mouthfeel gave off flavors of dusty red fruit, a pronounced earthiness, and some nice spice. The finish was short and gave the impression that the wine may have been more enjoyable when it was initially released (it is no longer available for purchase). The 2007 vintage is currently available from the winery for only $28. At that price, and with the vintage information that is coming out about the 2007 Edna Valley pinots, I would recommend trying this wine. View the winemaker's live tasting video of the 2007 wine here. I score the vintage I tried at a 3/5 but my interest in Edna Valley is peaked enough that I will visit Tolosa next time I am in San Luis Obispo.

Consilience Bien Nacido Vineyards Pinot Noir 2006 - Located rather close to Edna Valley, the Santa Maria Valley frequently produces some of California's most praised Pinot Noir. Consilience is a rather small producer, producing just 654 cases of this wine. The pinot was much more opaque than the previous wine, with a nose full of ripe cherries, a bit of gamey leather, and some very intriguing musty mushroom (LOVE THIS). With a big 'ol swirl of the glass I also picked up a very present Big Red cinnamon whaff. The mouthfeel on this wine was very silky, with ripe red cherry and strawberry flavors and hints of vanilla. The wine is 16% abv and did have a bit of heat on the finish, but this settled down the longer the wine sat open. The Consilience sells for $36.00 which is actually a nice price point for what this wine offers: 3.5/5.

But the winner of the evening was the Willamette Valley Vineyard 2008 Founder's Reserve Pinot Noir. This translucent purple-red wine was a bit closed at first (it isn't even released yet) but ultimately offered up seductive aromas of cherry, blackberry, some toasted oak, coffee, and some good old fashioned earthy funk. It was medium bodied with some slightly tart cherry flavor, smoke, fresh earth, and just a bit of a piney mint. This wine almost makes you blush in its appeal, and epitomizes why pinot has the reputation of being irresistible to those who have given into its beauty. This wine will be released at around $30 and earns a 4/5 and a strong recommendation.

I hate the way that pinot noir makes me describe it, because it can sound so grandiose. However, the grape seems to have that power on me. In the end both the Consilience and the Willamette Valley Vineyards wines are bottles that you think about for several days afterwards. This was a great event, and while Willamette Valley won out in this particular setting, all 3 regions proved to me that we make some great pinot noir on the west coast of the US.

(The Consilience and Willamette Valley Vineyards wines were received as samples with the intent to participate in #pinotnoir)

A Much Needed Redesign

I started this blog on a whim, as an experiment. I had no idea how fulfilling and fun it would become, and how much work I would pour into it. Over the last few months The Vino File has grown considerably in readership, interaction, all of those things that make the blog fun. But there has been a big problem. I feel like the scrawny, homely kid who is completely unaware that puberty has done good things for them. I was comfortable in my Cherokee jeans and teal sweatshirt. But good thing for me I have friends who would outright tell me, 'the blog template you are using looks outdated and stank.'

I am not artistic. I am not visually creative. I am not gifted when it comes to shapes, colors, fonts, nor obviously photography. But I do have great friends who have more talents than I. Today the long overdue redesign of The Vino File goes live, with a simpler, more modern, more individualized look and feel. A HUGE thank you goes to my lifelong friend Peter Walker for putting in the hours to make this happen.

For those of you who are reading this through a feed reader please for today click through and check out the changes. Let me know what you think, unless you do not like it and then I probably don't really want to know. And for those who have no idea what the blog used to look like, consider yourselves lucky.

Impressions of Washington: Semillon

Ah semillon, the white grape of Bordeaux and once a very prolific grape in South Africa and Australia. It is not a grape that many Americans drink, partly because it is not very widely grown domestically and also because it has never gained the widespread awareness of chardonnay or riesling. Many have criticized the grape for producing wines that are too simple, or lacking in acidity. For this reason semillon is often blended with sauvignon blanc allowing its unique profile and texture to be countered by the acid and offer the best of both worlds.

While tasting throughout Washington I encountered two semillon/sauvignon blanc blends that I thought were excellent. They both stood out in a crowded field of chardonnay, riesling, and viognier and made me wonder why more Washington producers are not featuring this interesting grape. The wines that intrigued and delighted were:

DeLille Cellars Chaleur Estate Blanc 2008 - At 62% sauvignon blanc and 38% semillon this wine gives a big wollop of grapefruit. However, it is clearly not a simple straightforward sauvignon blanc as the semillon adds a bit of viscocity and almost creamy honey-like flavor. The entire wine is made slightly richer by its oak treatment with whisps of vanilla and toast, making it a complex and delicious wine. It is a bit expensive at $34 but will make guests and your wine enthusiast friends really take notice. This wine is truly unique.

L'Ecole No41 2008 Semillon Columbia Valley - This wine is 89% semillon and 11% sauvignon blanc, and offered a completely different profile of honeydew melon, pear, and an interesting minerality. All of this combined with a slightly oily viscocity and crisp acidity that made the wine stand out from many of the other whites being poured. This wine is an absolute outright bargain at $13, and was one of the wines that I have subsequently purchased for friends and family.

The quality of these two wines make me want to seek out semillon from other regions (France and Australia perhaps?) and also continue to perpetuate my strong appreciation for what Washington wineries are doing. The diversity of grapes that they can successfully grow and use to produce amazing wines is truly astounding. Still to come in this series - merlot, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, and other whites of note.

volunteer Cabernet Sauvignon

The story: Winemaker Tony Leonardini does not have a lot of time to mess with his wine. This allows the wines to develop their own character uninterrupted. Part of the reason Tony remains busy is because he serves as a volunteer firefighter for the city of St. Helena, smack dab in the middle of the Napa Valley. He started Little Lion Wine Company, and has put out cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, chardonnay and syrah from both Napa and Sonoma fruit, since the 2006 vintage. His largest production wine, the volunteer Cabernet Sauvignon, is named for his dedication to the fire department, and a reminder that it is sometimes more of a sacrifice to give an hour of one's time than it is to write a check, but can often be more meaningful and helpful.

The wine: The wine is 83% cabernet blended with the usual suspects cab franc, merlot, petit verdot, and malbec but also has a bit of petite sirah, and syrah from Santa Maria blended in. The wine got a light treatment of French oak (20% new) and was crafted to be enjoyed relatively young. The nose gives off some red fruit, with tones of blackberry and plum, and a bit of tar, spice, leather, and cedar. The wine drinks well, is medium bodied, and offers lots of red fruit with savory leather and tobacco notes. As the wine opened up the savory aspect became almost a roasted/caramelized tomato thing, with licorice spice that as strange as it sound was interesting and tasty.

The score: 3.5/5 This wine was pleasant, and priced nicely for a Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon at $30 (still available from the winery here). It had some complexity, and what it lacked in body and concentration it made up for in interesting savory notes. I enjoyed the wine and would recommend it.

Impressions of Washington: Cabernet Franc

I was surprised at how much cabernet franc was presented to me as I tasted my way across Washington on the WBC or Bust tour bus. I guess I just did not expect to see so much of it, although it seems a natural fit among its Bordeaux counterparts merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Generally a blending grape in Bordeaux style blends cabernet franc has some devotees who love it as a varietal bottling from Chinon, parts of Italy, or from California. I did not realize how many Washington wineries are now producing it, although this has only really taken hold in the last 15 years.

Tending to be a little bit lighter, smoother, and more floral than cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc frequently can have vegetal aspects (leafy, green bean, even green pepper aromas and flavors.) In an effort to combat this many growers leave the berries to hang a little bit longer to guarantee they are ripe. We were told a couple of times while in Washington that cabernet franc is almost always one of the last grapes to be picked in the vineyards (along with cabernet sauvignon).

Overall the cabernet francs were pleasant but did not show the consistency of the outstanding merlots and cabernet sauvignons. I did not find the Washington cabernet francs to suffer from 'green' qualities, except for a bit of green olive that was present in several examples (however this is not something that I dislike personally). What I did find is that they were frequently overripe for me. They were a often a bit jammy and lacked the acid and tannic structure to prevent them from pushing towards flabby. This was not across the board by any means, but as a whole I would suggest that you will happen across better quality in the more widely produced varieties.

A few producers that I tasted however offered beautiful examples of cabernet franc. Those examples include:

Cougar Crest Winery 2007 Cabernet Franc - This Walla Walla winery produces award winning cabernet franc from their own vineyards just on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla AVA year after year. This version was tasted while we spent some time with winemaker Deborah Hansen in these very vineyards. The wine offered up plenty of red fruit flavor with some great spice notes and hints of tobacco. There was plenty of the floral aroma that makes this grape appealing as well. Overall it was one of my favorite cabernet francs and is available from the winery for $35.

Fielding Hills 2007 Cabernet Franc - With very small production from vineyards on the Wahluke Slope this little winery regularly garners rave reviews. This wine was very berried, with some blueberry shining through. The more earthy elements, including coffee were buried a little deep but came through on the finish, all in balance with some nice acidity. This bottle sells for $30 and you will have to call the winery to find out if they have any left. If they do not, don't worry - the 2008 vintage is going to be released in early Fall.

However, for my palette cab franc shines as the Bordelais discovered long before Washington was here, and that is as a magnificent blending grape. One of the highlight wines of all 300+ wines I tasted while in Washington was a cab franc predominant blend:

Andrew Will 2007 Ciel du Cheval - 45% cabernet franc, 40% merlot, and 15% cabernet sauvignon this beauty offers dark berry flavors, and some beautiful milk chocolate. In blending I think that the winemaker was able to make a gorgeously structured wine that displayed some aging potential but is absolutely delicious right now. This one has a bit of a following, and shows it in the $68 price tag, but certainly shows why a Right Bank styled blend may just be one of Washington's greatest opportunities.

Domestic Rosé Defends Itself

The story: I encountered two resistive statements to rosé this week and found that they came into direct conflict with each other. The first was not against rosé in general, but the wine blogger extraordinare Alder Yarrow posted a rant on the poor quality of domestic rosé. His argument was that U.S. produced rosé are often too big, too powerful, too extracted to truly offer what a great rosé should: a crisp, dry, refreshing, and light profile. Yarrow notes that 95% of domestic rosé is not distinctly 'pink' and rather a slightly retracted red wine in disguise. Grapes for rosé should be picked at a lower brix (the sugar content of the grape that gets higher as it gets riper) than grapes grown for red wine, but many domestic producers use the same grapes simply bleeding juice off of the skins after a day or two to make a few barrels of rosé. This practice absolutely affects the crispness, the acidity, and the flavor profile.

The other resistance was my friends who saw me bring a bottle of rosé to dinner. The menu was quiche and salad, plates of olives, fresh summer tomatoes and hummus, and all served outside under a big oak tree. What could be better with this than rosé? However (and sorry for selling you out J) comments where made such as 'you brought a pink wine?' and 'shouldn't we just open a pinot?'

And yet it was this second rebellion that made the first one a moot point in the end. The rosé we drank that night had a little meat to its bones, offered a hints of a red wine profile but with a crispness that made it clearly not a red wine. The wine was delicious chilled, slightly fruity, and converted my skeptical friends to rosés place in a wine drinker's repetoire. So Yarrow may be correct in the difference between domestic and European rosés, and he may have a point that there is something insanely appealing about a Provencal rosé that dances across your palette, but that does not mean there is no place for what the U.S. producers are doing. This is not an excuse for lazy winemaking, or for producing rosé as an afterthought, but it is an argument that there is a place for bigger, New World styled rosé and it is NOT only 5% of the production.

The wine: At the dinner party we poured the 2008 Anglim Rosé. Made up of 67% grenache, 19% mourvedre, 10% syrah, and 4% viognier this is all Paso Robles fruit and only 229 cases were made. The Anglims did use the saignee method, bleeding the juice off of the red wine grapes in order to reduce its exposure to the skins (which give red wine its color, tannins, some of the flavors, etc.) and they did this the same day for the syrah, the next morning for the grenache, and 2 days later for the mourvedre. This left the wine a bright pink color that leans towards red and away from salmon. The wine gives aromas of fresh strawberries, a subtle mix of herbs, and a faint savory aspect reminisent of smoked meat. The wine has some great red fruit up front, particularly strawberry and ripe cherries, a bit more of the herbs and spice across the mid-palette, and finishes with some nice acidity to hold it all together. It is so obviously a rosé in that it really does not offer any tannins or over extracted fruit flavors, but instead comes across as crisp and refreshing.

The verdict: I can see where this rosé leans into some of what Yarrow was complaining about, but I have to wholeheartedly disagree with his dismissal. It was precisely the fruit, and the hints of complexity that the mourvedre and syrah brought to the wine that made my friends so positive on this rosé. It paired beautifully with our food, was incredibly appropriate for a warm al fresco summer evening, offered lots of complexity (the herbal, savory aspect) even when chilled, and was wonderfully different from the white wine before it and red wine after. This wine sold for $15 from the winery, and showed so well in the tasting room that it sold out (in two months). I know the Anglims have already said that they will make more next year, so contact them here to inquire about getting your hands on some next spring. In the meantime they have a zinfandel and grenache that would go beautifully with summer grilling, and a rousanne that really highlights the unique white grape and would drink great on a summer day. As for a score this rosé gets an easy 3.5/5 which when coupled with a $15 price tag, makes this a must buy for me.

I'm for one am an advocate of domestic rosé from here forward.

Happy 4th of July

Today is the day that as a nation we stop and celebrate our birth, our founding, our victory in gaining our independence. I laid in bed this morning a few minutes extra to think about what that meant to me. I am grateful for so many aspects of what America has meant for my life, and while that does not always mean that I am proud and supportive of everything we do, this country has allowed me to live the life that I live and I am thankful. Today I write just a few things that I am thankful for, things that being an American have meant to me:

• I got a free education that has enabled me to go on to higher education and given me great choices in my career path


• I feel safe, and feel that my family is safe


• I am thankful that as my nieces and nephews are born into the worst economy in a generation this does not mean that they want for food, shelther, or health


• I have neighbors from every race, blue collar, white collar, gay and lesbian, and all ages and we all feel welcome


• I can write whatever I want to on here (with 1 or 2 exceptions) and the consequences are only the reactions of my peers


• If we don't like it we can vote on it


• The beauty of the land in this country rivals anywhere I have been in the world

These are things that instantly came to mind. For one day I sit back and celebrate America, and wish all of you a relaxing and safe 4th of July!! What are you thankful for today?

Who are the Wine Bloggers?

One of the questions that was discussed at length at the Wine Blogger's Conference was the difference between a wine blogger and a wine writer. It was a lengthy discussion with no real conclusion, although my personal opinion lines up with Ryan Opaz of Catavino in that a blog is just a tool with which some choose to communicate. The decision to use this tool does not in and of itself differentiate one writer from another. But at the same time the conference gave me a chance to spend five days with hundreds of wine bloggers and get a sense for them as a group of people. One of the best parts of my time in Walla Walla was the people, and the sense of open community that this particular group of people created together. So my definition of a wine blogger, while not complete, is fairly confident in these characteristics:

Genuine - These people are real and willing to present themselves in their writing and face-to-face contact. There was not a lot of pretense, a new blogger like myself was treated with the same acceptance and respect as some of the old more established guard. People did not hold back with who they were and respectful disagreements, new friendships, and future collaborations all developed with a feeling that you could be who you were. It may be easy to assume that a room full of wine snobs would be filled with, well, snobbishness, but the extreme opposite was true as I found them to be some of the most genuine people I've ever met.

Passionate - If one thing was clear at the conference it was that nobody is making any money with a wine blog. Wine bloggers write for the passion of both creating their blogs, and the absolute love of their topic (uh, wine of course). Absolutely everyone would light up at the opportunity to discuss a specific wine, terroir, social versus traditional media, whatever it was. This was a group fueled by passion for what they do, and doing it because they love it. If you are going to write about the virtue of cork versus screw top, you better have some passion behind your writing and people like Hardy Wallace set the tone for exuding this excitement throughout the weekend.

Collaborative - Wine bloggers are on each other's side, and while they are certainly up for a good hearted (and occasionally heated) argument, they tend to see each other as collective owners of their craft. If one blogger is doing something great it is good for all of us. This sets up a mood of open and willing collaboration. If I know something that you don't know, or have access to information that would enhance your site there seemed to be an unwritten code of wine blogger conduct to help and share. This collaborative spirit is currently being harnessed by Rick Bakas in an all out effort to make wine blogs better, more accurate, and more fun for people to read. I'm all for it.

Accepting - Wow, here is were my slight agoraphobia kicks in. I went to a party the week before the Wine Blogger's Conference with 35 people I did not know well and felt quite awkward and out of place. I'm just not the type of person to make the first move. I didn't have one minute of that feeling during the conference itself, and actively noticed as people from all walks of life mingled, interacted, and were treated with respect and equality. I don't mean to be sickeningly auspicious but I do think that the people who have chosen this as a hobby, a pursuit, or even a slightly delusional career have a character trait that makes them open to others with the same interest.

Sincere - The wine bloggers had no reason to be anything but authentic. They spend their days putting their voice, their spin, their opinion out for the world to read and nearly across the board they were personable and sincere in their 'real' lives as well. I may be getting redundant but there was this strong sense of an openness to be 'who you were' and bring your view of the world to the table. This sincerity is exactly what I think makes the diversity of wine blogs so appealing to read and to interact with.

So conclusion about 'who these wine bloggers are' comes down to this: a passionate group of real people who are creating some interesting content that SHOULD be taken seriously. This is a group of people that I wholeheartedly recommend reading and interacting with. As Steve Heimoff noted, this is the group of people that has forced transparency onto wine writing. These are the personalities that move the conversation and do it out of passion. I've met the wine bloggers, and I can say they are good people.