We have made several trips to wine regions in Oregon. The Wine Bloggers Conference takes place in Portland from August 16th to the 19th. After tasting many Oregon Pinot Noirs, I have a favorite. Archery Summit’s (over $100) Pinot is clearly my favorite. I did notice that Archery Summit will be pouring some wine at the conference. It is a bit of a risk pouring wine at the bloggers conference. They will write about the wine. A winery shouldn’t expect all glowing reports. The bloggers have many different palates and what may be highly praised by one blogger may be trounced by another. However, this does afford wineries an opportunity to showcase their best.

There were some bloggers at last year’s conference in Charlottesville, Virginia who were upset with the evening dinner and wine reception at Monticello. They let their feelings be known to the blog world. They ranted on the temperature being over 100º F. They couldn’t get over their misery with the weather, to entertain the idea that they were eating and drinking at Monticello, a renowned historic site.

My son lives in Portland. He warned us that the temperature last weekend reached 102º. Perhaps the organizers of the Wine Bloggers Conference should consider holding the conference during a different season. I’ll have my fingers crossed, hoping for cooler temperatures for this year’s conference.

I’ll also hope to discover some Oregon wines that fit the profile for a wine I like. I like a Pinot Noir that is dark ruby to black in color and has bold to outrageous tannins to accompany the fruit. I hope Archery Summit reads this post. For whites, my perception of Pinot Gris was ruined at a different conference where a panel of winemakers all called it boring. This conference gives Oregon a chance to change that perception. Ready for next week’s conference, now if I could just learn how to pronounce some Portland street names like the locals.

Cheers,
Terry