Lessons Learned at a Wine-Soaked Writers Symposium
March 20, 2012
I’m usually too busy drinking and writing about wine to really hone my craft. But last month, I received a fellowship from Terlato Family Vineyards to attend the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, where I had four days and four nights in the Napa Valley to do some serious navel-gazing. I normally wouldn’t subject you all to such self-indulgence (or overindulgence), but with books on our mind this week, I thought I’d share some of the more universal highlights of the week and what I learned about wine writing.
Posted on C-ville Weekly by Megan Headley
Visit Website
No Boundaries: Reflections on The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers
March 15, 2012
Two weeks ago I returned home from The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, held at Meadowood Napa Valley in St. Helena the week prior to Premiere Napa Valley. I’m kicking myself for not accepting the invitation to stay for Premiere – the Napa Valley Vintner’s annual “bake sale,” as NVV Executive Director (and all-around delightful person) Linda Reiff puts it – but that has to be my only complaint about the week. That and the fact that the snow falling rather violently outside my window when I returned was an unwelcome shock after near 80-degree weather in St. Helena.
Posted on Palate Press by Erika Szymanski
Visit Website
Antonio Galloni Wine Advocate Taste-Maker?
March 1, 2012
At the recent Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, I had the opportunity to talk quite a bit with Antonio Galloni of The Wine Advocate. He also agreed to a lengthy interview. He said on numerous occasions and in different ways that it is not his goal to be a taste-maker nor an agent of change for wine styles. Of course, being a wine reviewer with enormous readership, his writings may have that effect nonetheless.
Posted on San Francisco Wine School by Fred Swan
Visit Website
What I Learned at The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers
March 11, 2011
During the last week of February, I attended the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood Napa Valley. I was lucky enough to win a fellowship to this incredible gathering, thanks to another winner who had to cancel at the last minute. It all happened rather suddenly, but now that it’s behind me, and before too much time goes by, I want to share a little of what I learned.
Posted by Jill Silverman Hough
Visit Website
How To Make Money Writing About Wine (A Glimpse Into the 2010 Wine Writers Symposium)
March 5, 2010
In summary, there have probably never been so many challenges combined with so many potential opportunities when it comes to writing about wine and making any money while doing it.
The challenge is that, as we said in the panel discussion, “the genie is out of the bag” when it comes to free content and wine: people expect to be able to get high quality content about wine on the Internet, and pay nothing for it. This is putting severe downward pressure on wine writing payment in general.
Posted on 1WineDude.com by Joe Roberts
Visit Website
Wine Writers and Social Media: The Panel Video
March 2, 2010
As some of you know, I spent the week before last at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers in Napa. I published a recap of some of the highlights last week, but as some attendees pointed out, there was a glaring omission: the panel that I moderated that dealt with wine writing and social media.
Posted on Vinography.com by Alder Yarrow
Visit Website
Symposium for Professional Wine Writers: the good and the bad
Feb. 25, 2010
The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers is three and a half days of full immersion in wine and writing for better or worse. It’s not a baptism exactly, but it can change your outlook in the same way that an oyster’s irritation can make a pearl.
Posted on ChronicNegress.net by Claudia Perry
Visit Website
The Argument for Boxed Wine
February 24, 2010
The issue of alternative packaging came up repeatedly at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers, which I attended in Napa Valley last week. While opinion was mixed on whether this would be an important issue to follow over the coming year, the moaning was collective when the subject of boxed wines came up.
Posted on the New York Times wine and spirits blog, The Pour, by Eric Asimov
Visit Website
Final thoughts — I promise! – on the Wine Writers Symposium
February 23, 2010
I returned home in a euphoric state of mind. (My therapist had to explain the difference to me between “manic” and “euphoric.”) All this stuff about monetization and ethics and “blogs into books” may be boring inside-the-beltway fare for 99.9% of the wine-drinking public, but it’s the meat-and-potatoes of the writer’s life, and it was so educational and pleasant to be able to explore these issues with our own kind.
Posted on SteveHeimoff.com by Steve Heimoff
Visit Website
Highlights From the 2010 Symposium for Professional Wine Writers
February 20, 2010
I spent most of the week playing hooky from my day job and pretending that the only thing that mattered to me was writing about wine. It was a lot of fun. Every one of the five years that I've attended the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers has been uniquely interesting, largely due to the group of attendees that joins us every time.
In past years I've been able to blog a bit more in the course of the event, but this year I found myself using spare time to catch up on other things, so here are some of the highlights from this year's event.
Posted on Vinography.com by Alder Yarrow
Visit Website
Piero Antinori Interview: Tuscan Tradition and Napa Innovation
February 20, 2010
Just a short one today, this time from the Silverado wine trail. It has been one heck of a week, meeting Frances Mayes, seeing Margrit Mondavi again after all these years and being around all these great wine writers at the Napa Symposium. Today I caught up with my old friend Piero Antinori, who was in town (St. Helena, CA) for Premiere Napa Valley. Piero and his family have the Antica wine estate in Napa Valley.
Posted on On the Wine Trail in Italy by Alfonso Cevola
Visit Website
The 2010 Wine Writers Symposium in 10 Easily Digestible & Tasty Morsels
Feb. 19, 2010
Alternative title: “What I Learned (So Far) At the 2010 Professional Wine Writers Symposium in Napa”
Symposium Chairperson and Wines & Vines editor Jim Gordon, may, in fact, be the sweetest and most patient person on the planet (there remains one more day of symposium activities in which to properly test this theory).
Posted on 1WineDude.com by Joe Roberts
Visit Website
The tipping point for wine blog advertising is NOT EVEN CLOSE
February 19, 2010
The people who participated in the 2 panels were a diverse lot. They consisted of famous bloggers, authors, editors, publishers, web wizards, technology experts, social media entrepreneurs, winemakers, chefs, academics and others interested in social media and who are ardent believers in its future (including me).
Posted on SteveHeimoff.com by Steve Heimoff
Visit Website
At the Wine Writers Symposium
February 18, 2010
I came out to give the keynote welcome to the Wine Writers’ Symposium, organized by Jim Gordon, the team at Meadowood, the Napa Vintners and Culinary Institute of America. En route, more shock. The wild bright yellow mustard is blooming in the vineyards and rains have turned all the hills green, green, green. Some vineyards are carpeted with golden poppies. This forms a menace because people slam on brakes at a particularly gorgeous scene and someone leaps out of the car to take a picture. I, too, snap one from the car window but my phone camera is not up to capturing such glory.
Posted on FrancesMayesBooks.com by Frances Mayes
Visit Website
Day 2 at the Wine Writers Symposium
February 18, 2010
Eric Asimov and Karen MacNeil had a panel on “Sensory Analysis vs. Wine Reviews” in which Eric reprised an earlier topic about “the tyranny of the tasting note.” He calls tasting notes “pernicious” because it makes wine seem “unambiguous,” which it isn’t, and “rips the heart of out its mystery.” Well, yes…and no. Yes, because it’s awfully hard to summarize the experience of a wine in words. No, because if you’re reviewing a wine, you have to say something, so all you can do is your best. That is, after all, what writing is all about: doing your best.
Posted on SteveHeimoff.com by Steve Heimoff
Visit Website
What Wine Writers Talk About
Feb. 17, 2010
Tomorrow I lead a panel discussion featuring Steve Heimoff, Patrick Comiskey, Doug Cook, and Joe Roberts about the role of New Media in wine writing. But for the past two days I've been experiencing the symposium as a participant, which means hanging out with a lot of people who are actually good enough at writing about wine to get paid for it.
Posted on Vinography.com by Alder Yarrow
Visit Website
So You Wanna Be a Wine Writer?
December 10, 2009
Posted on Vinography.com by Alder Yarrow
"The wine world is made of dreams. Some people dream about drinking wine. Some people dream about making wine. And others dream of writing about it. For all those that have ever toyed with the idea of writing about wine, and for those who have dabbled in it, I have a small anecdote to share from my college days...."
Visit Website
