This summer the city of Walla Walla, Washington will be overrun by bloggers from around the country for the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference. We will descend on the city like so many thirsty locusts. Personally, I am in secret plans with my friend Sean Sullivan from Washington Wine Report to perform an armed annexation of the Walla Walla Valley portion of Oregon, so please don't tell anyone.
Sean had a really interesting post up on his blog last week about "Washington's Dirty Little Secret". The Walla Walla Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) obviously shares a name with the location of the upcoming conference, but it turns out that this AVA stretches into Northern Oregon, and a lot of quality grapes are being produced there, and contributing to some wonderful wines produced in Washington. Sean goes on to say that Washington has been able to lay exclusive claim to the Walla Walla designation thus far, but he sees the potential for sub-AVA status among some of the Oregon areas of the Walla Walla AVA challenging the branding monopoly that Washington has on the AVA. Really interesting stuff, you should definitely read the whole article.
So what, outside of commando raids on Northern Oregon, will I be doing in Washington this June? Well, drinking a lot of wine. There are a whole hoard of Washington wineries who will be present for this conference, and I am looking forward to expanding my Washington wine experience. I was in Washington last October, and I really loved a lot of the wines that I got to experience while I was there. I'm really looking forward to trying even more great wines from the Northwest this summer. We will also be hearing some great speakers who will help us sharpen the tools of our trade, which should benefit you who faithfully read our blogs. I am actually looking forward to hearing Steve Heimoff's speech, and hope that I have the opportunity to meet him in person. This is really the thing that I'm most excited about. I look forward to getting to meet a lot of the friends that I have made in the blogging community in person, including Josh Wade from Drink Nectar, Steve Paulo from Notes From the Cellar, Ed Thralls from Wine Tonite, Amanda Maynard from The Wineing Woman, and Joe Roberts from 1WineDude, just to name a few. I couldn't possibly name all of the friends that I will be meeting up there for the first time, there are just too many (not to mention that it's hard to get a count of who all you know is for sure going to be there).
I am planning to start a blogging exploration of Washington in the upcoming months. I want to learn as much as possible about Washington wine before I hit the Dubba Dubba in June. I hope to do some interviews with some people involved in different aspects of Washington wine, including some of the great bloggers who are covering the wine scene in the US's second biggest wine producing state. Hope you all have fun joining me.
I’m seriously looking forward to this. I don’t want to get too excited in the event that I don’t get a scholarship, but man. It’ll be awesome. I hope I’m lucky enough to get there.
Very interesting stuff about the Walla Walla designation. Off to read more about that…
I look forward to your ‘pre walla2′ journey. Can’t wait to meet in real life and tip a few back talking about the subtleties of life!
Cheers, Ben!
Should be fun! Hope the baby doesn’t come too late, nixing my plans
Yeah, I was hoping you were going to be there. I couldn’t remember if you had said for sure whether you were coming. Hope the baby cooperates.
Me too! I’m definitely looking forward to hanging out in W2 with you Josh, talking wine, music, baseball, and who knows what else.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you on the scholarship front. Would love to hang out in Washington.
You and me both, on both sentiments.
Hoping I can make it, would love to meet a whole bunch of people, too.
Failure to get you to WBC10 is not an option.
Just kidding. I’m definitely hoping that you are able to make it. I’ve pretty much beem counting on talking some baseball with you in Walla Walla. 
This guy would like to make it as well. Unfortunately, I just don’t see it being in my budget, even with a scholarship. I’ll be there in spirit, though. Maybe I’ll pester one of you guys with a phone call at some point just to make a brief presence at WBC.
Look forward to storming the castle with you. Folks, please note that while the Wine Bloggers Conference is filling up, there is plenty of room available in my Walla Walla Militia Militia. Especially for folks looking to be out front. Please bring a bed roll and 3-4 days of MREs.
Yeah, I’m bummed that you won’t be able to join us. Just won’t be the same without you.
I’m happy to do my part in the recruiting effort. So far the reports of excessive hazing rituals have been thwarting my efforts. I keep telling people that we are not forcing recruits to drink a full bottle of Yellow Tail, but some of them aren’t buying it.
I will happily take part in the battle. I have a plan to escape to San Francisco, a much safer town than Walla Walla, after the initial attack. Thus, my name shall never be associated with violence.
Sounds like a clever plan to me. I’ll be escaping back to Texas, where I’m quite sure the repercussions for my actions won’t be able to find me.
Look forward to meeting you in June!
LOCK & LOAD!!!
If you’re joining us, I don’t think they stand a chance.
Can’t wait to meet you in W2!
Sounds great. I can’t wait to learn more about the region.
Hey Shannon, are you going to be able to join us in Washington? I don’t remember if you’ve told me before.
I’m thinking about coming out if it’s not too late to sign up. It all depends on whether it conflicts with my wife’s travel schedule… Hope it works out.
Unfortunately, I am not. I will, however, be there in spirit!
Cool, hopefully you can make it. I think it’s going to be a great time. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
We’ll miss you. I’ll make sure and give you a full report after.
I refuse to take part in a war of Northern Aggression. Maybe we could load up the buses and bring “The Rocks” north a few miles.
Hmm, so a work day instead of a war. I’ll talk with Sean, but he seemed pretty keen on an annexation.