Discover Walla Walla

No, they aren't techie geeks who dress in costumes and live in their parent's dark basements. Nor are they bon vivant high brows whose cellars are filled with cases of 1787 Chateau Lafite, once owned by Thomas Jefferson. They are your neighbors and co-workers. They are attorneys, waiters, professors, artists, teachers, PR consultants, hiking tour guides and even winemakers who all have one thing in common: They write about their wine experiences on the internet. They are known as "wine bloggers."

Once ignored or referred to as "wannabe critics" and "hacks" by traditional media and the wine industry, wine bloggers are now being recognized as a driving force behind the wine social media. And when you think about it, wine bloggers aren't that much different from the mainstream wine journalists, other than with two exceptions: there are no editorial politics to answer to and the most crucial thing, yet sometimes an advantage in the integrity of the wines they review, - - no pay check. And believe it or not, the majority of the wines reviewed in blogs, are purchased by the blogger.

I started wine blogging five years ago without a clue of what I was doing. All I knew is I wanted to keep a diary of my personal wine experiences. At the time there were maybe 300 wine bloggers in the whole world and before I knew it, I was embraced by my Bacchus blogging peers! Oh sure, in those last five years we have seen many wine bloggers come and go and several still barely hanging on by the thread of a cheap screw cap. But one thing I discovered in these wine blogging years, it's the dedicated wine blogger who will be recognized and respected by their peers and sometimes even in the traditional media. I also discovered wine bloggers are a tight knit group. Where ever one wine blogger goes, others follow - - and we did - - to Facebook, Twitter and the Open Wine Consortium. And when the wine bloggers asked for a face to face meeting, we were accommodated with conferences in North America and Europe.

The last two years, the wine industry of Napa and Sonoma have embraced the wine bloggers by assisting in the sponsorship of the North America conference at Santa Rosa, CA. In fact, I just came back from the July conference! It was a wonderful experience! Ideas were tossed around and votes were taken and I am so excited to spread the word that the North America Wine Bloggers Conference for 2010 will be moved out of California and into Washington State! In fact - - Surprise, surprise! Walla Walla!

Wine bloggers from all over will be able to share with their readers our beautiful area and of course, our world class wines. And it is the support from the Walla Walla Wine Alliance, the Washington State Wine Commission and Chateau Ste. Michelle that is boosting and validating this exciting movement of the once misunderstood wine blogger.