As a Tranche Staff member and local Walla Wallan, I was fortunate enough to be able to get a last minute ticket to the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference, held at The Marcus Whitman Hotel this past weekend. A highlight for me was a talk entitled, Terriors of the Walla Walla Valley, presented by Dr.Kevin Pogue of Whitman College. There were both a live white wine blogging event on Friday and a live red wine blogging event on Saturday that were fast and furious. The idea was to taste through a flight of wines and offer our opinions to the blogosphere immediately. On Saturday, we 300 bloggers, in groups of 15 or so, boarded school buses for lunch destinations unknown. My group had lunch above McQueen Vineyard, owned by Drew Bledsoe. This vineyard is sited to the South of Seven Hills vineyard and has the most astonishing views of the entire Walla Walla valley. My camera did not capture the actual beauty of the scene. Chris Figgins, Consulting Winemaker for Doubleback, and Winemaker for Leonetti Cellar hosted, along with Drew Bledsoe and Heidi Wells of Doubleback. We enjoyed wines from each of their cellars. An amazing lunch which was catered by Graze Catering included petite hamburgers, the beef which was supplied by Lostine Cattle Company, a true free range cattle company established by Chris Figgins in 2008.
