Wine bloggers – not “whine” bloggers – coming to Virginia

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell announced yesterday that the 2011 National Wine Bloggers Conference will be held in Charlottesville. Over a three day period, an estimated 300 bloggers are expected to attend.

McDonnell said:

“Virginia wineries are garnering lots of attention across our country and around the world. By hosting the Wine Bloggers annual conference in Charlottesville, interest will continue to grow thus attracting more visitors to Virginia and its wineries. Since taking office, we have been looking at new and innovative ways to promote Virginia wines both domestically and internationally. In addition to announcements of major national conferences choosing Virginia, our major initiatives supporting tourism and the wine industry took effect last week on July 1st. Virginia is now the nation’s fifth largest wine producer and seventh largest commercial grape producing state, and we are committed to growing this important, job-creating industry in the years ahead. I look forward to welcoming the Wine Bloggers Conference to the Commonwealth next July.”

You’ll recollect that on July 1, the following law went into effect:

SB237 (Watkins)/ HB588 (Landes) – Dedicates a portion of the wine liter tax to wine promotion

• Requires the portion of the wine liter tax collected from the sale of wine produced by farm wineries to be deposited in the Virginia Wine Promotion Fund for use by the Wine Board.

The press release continued…

The Wine Bloggers Conference is the premier event for wine bloggers and others involved in the new media of online wine writing. Over 300 bloggers and social media experts involved in the wine industry will gather to meet each other, learn about blogging and social media, and taste hundreds of wines. There are over 800 English-language wine blogs that have a growing audience and influence on consumers. The conference is organized by Zephyr Wine Adventures (www.ZephyrAdventures.com) and the OpenWine Consortium (www.openwineconsortium.org) and 2011 will be the fourth annual conference.

My personal favorite Virginia wine is regional from the Williamsburg Winery: Arundell Cabernet Sauvignon. I also like the Two Schilling Red. So, do we now qualify for the event? Especially the tasting!

Also, as Brian Kirwin wrote via email yesterday – these are wine bloggers coming to Virginia – not “whine” bloggers. We already have plenty of those.

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About the author

JR Hoeft

Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.