Taking it across the Pond

So, not to brag, but I've had a fairly awesome couple of weeks. I was tasked with the burden of receiving Berry Bros. & Rudd's award for Best Industry Blog 2016 at the Wine Blog Awards, which were being presented at the Wine Bloggers Conference in... Lodi, California. It was difficult to accept such responsibility, but – ever dutiful – I obliged and rapidly booked flights. And two weeks' holiday around the conference.

I split my time before and after the conference between San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Napa/Sonoma. I met so many wonderful people (including some fabulous bloggers, hello Wine Not Whine, Pig & Vine and 80 Harvests, and many many more), and had the chance to visit 15 producers, tasting 174 wines and driving 1,079 miles. While I feel I had the chance to see the full spectrum of California's wine scene (from the more unusual and currently trendy to the established, polished and utterly glamorous), it's hard to feel like I've totally grasped what's going on: the state is huge and the sheer number of producers utterly daunting. But it is exciting to taste refined, elegant and restrained wines that are in stark contrast to the huge, over-ripe and highly alcoholic wines of yore.

You can have no doubt that I'll be writing up features on my visits and the region soon with my take on the region, but – in the meantime, and if you happen to be at a loose end – you can read my report on Lodi here on bbrblog.com.