Please note that there may also be opportunities for pre-trips outside of Austria. However, we unfortunately will not have this information for you until mid-August.

Post EWBC Trip the Danube: Kremstal DAC, Kamptal DAC and Traisental DAC
Monday, Oct 25th, 8:30 am – Tuesday, Oct 26th, 5:00 pm

This trip will show you Austria’s new origin-typical wines: Grüner Veltliner and Riesling from the Kremstal, Kamptal and Traisental DAC-regions. The first day will begin at the beautiful Stift Göttweig monastery, where you will be given an overview of the regions and their wine archetypes. This will be followed by a tasting of Kremstal DAC wines. Then, in the romantic region of Traisental, you can taste freshly picked grapes and see how they are processed. In addition, a tasting of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling musts in different stages of fermentation will help you learn more about these varieties before you taste Traisental DAC wines. The next day will feature a visit to the Kamptal, where you can participate in a harvest at the Heiligenstein, the most famous single vineyard of the region. Afterwards, Kamptal DAC wines will be waiting for you in the famous wine museum, Loisium. If time permits, a quick stroll through the museum can be taken before the return trip to Vienna.

Post EWBC Trip Burgenland: Leithaberg DAC, Mittelburgenland DAC, Eisenberg DAC
Monday, Oct 25th, 8:30 am – Tuesday, Oct 26th, 5:00 pm

The Pannonian Plains of Hungary meet the last foothills of the Alps on Lake Neusiedl
in Burgenland. Just as the landscape is diverse and stunning – so also are the wines of Burgenland. These encompass not only the dry, mineral, vibrantly structured white wines from the slopes of the Leithaberg, but also exquisite sweet wines from the shores of Lake Neusiedl. Burgenland is also Austria’s predominant source for superb red wines, in particular from the indigenous Blaufränkisch variety. On this trip you will have the chance to compare the inimitable terroirs of the Burgenland appellations Leithaberg DAC, Mittelburgenland DAC, and Eisenberg DAC. You will encounter state-of-the-art winery architecture and meet numerous vintners. Because there is no end to food pairing options with the wines of Burgenland, you will have a chance to experience this versatility with a hearty, rustic meal in regional wine tavern as well as in a fine restaurant with haute cuisine. More exact details for this trip will follow mid-August.

Massimo is a lawyer admitted to the Turin Bar Association in 1996. He is specialised in commercial and contract law, with a focus on intellectual property. He carries out the main part of his activity in the IT/ IP and telecommunication sectors, negotiating and drafting IP/IT agreements, as open source and free licenses contracts, advising public and private entities in special projects as well as in judicial proceedings. He carries out regular teaching activity at Masters and specialization courses and writes for national and international journals. He is member of Turin Bar Association Commissione Informatica, International Association for Entertainment Lawyers Executive Commettee, “Centro Studi di Informatica Giuridica” Scientific Committee and fellow of Nexa Center. He participates to the Italian working group for Creative Commons licenses.

We are very excited to announce that Elin McCoy has agreed to share her experience and insights at the European Wine Bloggers Conference this fall! According to Elin, her talk will be based on:

“Beyond Ivory Tower Wine Criticism
The internet and the explosion of wineries and wine regions worldwide have changed the landscape of fine wine criticism forever. What will the future bring? Is the era of gurus ending? A look at what wine writing is in 2010 and how I’d like to see it evolve in the future.”

Biography: Elin is an award-winning journalist and author, focusing on the world of wine. She is a wine and spirits columnist for Bloomberg News, where she writes a bimonthly column for their global news wire as well as a monthly column for Bloomberg Markets, and a columnist at Zesterdaily.com. McCoy’s most recent book is The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste, which garnered international praise and has appeared in seven foreign editions. She is also the co-author of Thinking About Wine, as well as several children’s books, a parenting book, and a travel guide.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, McCoy attended graduate school at the University of London and New York University. She was a contributing editor on wine at Food & Wine for 25 years and has been a columnist for House Beautiful, Las Vegas Life, Shattered, and Drink. In addition, she has written on a wide variety of subjects for many national publications, including The New York Times and House & Garden. McCoy serves regularly as a wine judge in American and international competitions, appears on radio and television, and is a frequent speaker at wine festivals, symposia and industry events.

“The digital dawn in book publishing opens up a whole new world for publishers – direct to consumer sales. The delimiting factors to success will be finding ways to logically, and cost effectively, amass an audience of readers who don’t shop for content based on publisher brand. In this talk, he will offer a vision for community based content portals that work with multiple content types from books to blogs to video to magazines and beyond.”

To understand a bit more about Evan’s new role at Bloomsbury, please take a look at the press release copied below:

Bloomsbury makes senior appointment
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc announces today that Evan Schnittman has been appointed Managing Director Group Sales and Marketing, Print and Digital. He will lead Bloomsbury’s sales and marketing in the UK, US, and Germany across all divisions of the group.

Evan Schnittman comes to Bloomsbury after eight years at Oxford University Press where he was vice president of corporate & business development and responsible for digital partnerships and licensing across OUP’s various content divisions. Evan has over 24 years of publishing related business experience having held positions as Executive Vice President at The Princeton Review, Senior Editor at Little, Brown, and editorial and sales positions at FA Davis. Evan started his publishing career at Barnes & Noble’s main store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Evan is widely known in the industry as a thought leader – and is widely sought out to speak and write on the key issues facing content companies in a digital world – across Asia, Europe and the US. His blog, BlackPlasticGlasses, has become required reading for anyone wishing to understand book publishing in the digital age.

Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury, said “I am delighted to welcome Evan to Bloomsbury. The creation of the role of a worldwide head of sales and marketing and the appointment of a highly experienced American with considerable digital experience reflect our view of the future of the publishing market place.”

We’re very excited to have Evan join us at the EWBC, and we’ll be announcing more exciting news in the coming days! So please give Evan a big welcome and stay tuned to further announcements!

What is VinoCamp?

VinoCamp is essentially an extension of Bar Camp, a spontaneous and international network of user-generated technology conferences. Also known as “unconferences” they are geared towards people passionate to exchange ideas as to how they can evolve their industry, but in a more relaxed and informal setting.

VinoCamp has taken that very same model and merged technology with wine. Tomorrow, Saturday, July 10, 2010, wine and tech geeks from around the world will be meeting at La Cantine in Paris. The objective is, essentially, not to have an objective. Though there are several speakers from the tech and wine world, both attending and skyping in, to pitch their individual projects, what will actually be debated and discussed is up for grabs – which is what makes the unconference model so unpredictable and exciting!

How is the EWBC Participating at VinoCamp?

At 6:30pm, Parisian time, our very own Robert McIntosh will be skyping into La Cantine to make a heartfelt pitch as to why each and every one of the attendees should join us in Vienna this fall. Robert has told us that he’ll courageously put his best foot forward and give his speech in French, though we’re not entirely sure if he won’t be speaking in English with his best French accent

We wish everyone at VinoCamp the best of luck, and truly hope we’ll see many of you this coming fall!

This year, we’re going to make it worth your while. TheWineHub.com has been running a fun series of quizzes on regions around the world for well over a year now. And in honor of its quality content, we’ve decided to collaborate to give these quizzes even great exposure! Over the next 5 months, starting tomorrow, we’ll be running an Austrian Wine Quiz on the 4th Wednesday of each month. Each week, you’ll be asked to answer a series of questions about Austrian wines and the top winner of each quiz will win Wine Genesis, with 4 more people also winning t-shirts and books. This is an entertaining and great way to brush up on your Austrian wine knowledge!

However, here comes the real treat! On the 22nd of October, at the EWBC in Vienna, we will host the last and ultimate quiz made up of questions from the past 5 months, plus a few others. Anyone can participate, but obivously, if you’ve played along all 5 months you’ll have the winning advantage. The winner at the  EWBC will get a brand new Apple iPad to take home! We’ll also be giving out a HD Flip Camera as a second prize, and for third prize, an iPod Nano with video! All three prizes are sponsored by APCOR and will be a great addition to any blogger’s tool box!

May 26th is the first quiz so make sure to check it out! http://www.thewinehub.com/learn/quiz

And in light of our mission to spread the good word about Social Media, we decided to kick off the 2010 EWBC with a tasting of Austrian Wines spearheaded by Willi Klinger, President of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board. Have fun watching the film, and don’t forget that we’re still looking for people interested in proposing a seminar or workshop at this year’s conference!

EWBC 2010 Launch from Ryan and Gabriella Opaz on Vimeo.

EWBC 2010 is coming up sooner than many of us would like to admit. We know that most of you are thinking that October is a long, long way away. But guess what?! We’re living it already. Hence, we kindly ask that all of you step into our world for a moment and lend us your expertise.

This year, we’re working on a slightly different format for the event. Based on a considerable amount of great feedback we’re trying to squeeze in more content and ensuring it’s relevant as well as fun and exciting. In an effort to do this, we really need you, the heart and soul of the EWBC. We’re hoping that you will share your expertise to make suggestions on content, considering that many of you are very well educated in the ways of wine and the web.

We have various types of sessions, all in English at this stage, so as to offer a greater variety and range of content. First, we’ll do an hour and a half of “quick burst” 20 minute sessions. The concept: present an idea, get some immediate, creative, and specific feedback and then move on. In total, there will be 6 of these sessions. They will be fast and quick moving, but the idea is to give a “burst of information”, or better yet, pitch an idea to be discussed by others on their websites.

Second, we’ll have 3 one hour sessions, where you can really dig in and present an idea, flesh it out and engage the room. We will reward those whose ideas engage and challenge the audience, as opposed to a monologue, slowly lulling us to sleep.

Finally we have 3 one-hour Workshop sessions on offer. These are special because they’re aimed to not only teach the audience, but offer hands on experience! Video editing? Photography? Writing workshop? Tasting workshop? Sabrage? Who knows!? You tell us!

Hence, this is a Call for Papers from those who would like the chance to take ownership of one of these sessions. Send us a brief overview of your ideas by email or on our Contact form. As you know, we focus on robust, thoughtful discussions, as well as opportunities to helping us become better skilled. Consequently, we will favor those papers that are not self promotional, but rather explore ideas and/or help to educate.

The deadline for all submissions is the 15th of July, and you must be registered as a participant to apply. If we have a large number of quality submissions, we’ll turn it over to you, the registered participants, to decide. You are free to present your paper as an individual, or even a small group of people, but remember, we will be awarding points for quality, originality, creativity and style … as well as content. Let’s try to think outside the box!

Any questions?

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We chose this location for several reasons; the first of which pertains to its grandeur. The Schönbrunn Palace, beyond being an exquisite piece of architecture, dating back to the 16th century, is an amazing place for participants from around the world to experience.

The second reason pertains to culture. For many of you who have joined us in the past, you know that we truly aim to give you a very honest and real flavor of the culture. We ensure that you’ll drink ample amounts of wine across the host country, savor regional cuisine in both modern and traditional forms, and beyond a doubt, experience key cultural elements. It is our firm belief that wine cannot be experienced in isolation. To truly understand a winemaker’s roots, philosophy and strategy, you must see their vineyards, taste their foods, hear their music and listen to their stories. Thus, the Schönbrunn Palace is the ideal place for participants to experience various stages of architecture, history and one of the epicenters of classical music.

And if this wasn’t convincing enough, the gardens are considered to be one of the most exquisite and culturally significant in Europe containing: the world’s oldest existing zoo (founded in 1752); a sculpted garden fit with a proper “you’re so going to get lost” maze; a French, English and Botanical garden; 32 handcrafted sculptures; and an elaborate and decadent Orangerie.

The European Wine Bloggers Conference will be held in the old Apothecaries’ Wing on the east side of the palace grounds containing: the elegant Orangerie and the Habsburg, Maria Theresia and Joseph Franz rooms. It is this wing that was the most convincing reason for us to host the conference here. Open, yet cozy, it provides the perfect area to not only host various tastings, while looking upon the vast gardens, but to also obtain the technical and staff requirements we needed to make the event spectacular. Hopefully, you’ll agree with us!

Please make sure to follow the Schönbrunn Palace on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Spread the Good Word

Please let your community know about the European Wine Bloggers Conference and how to register. You can link to us on Twitter @EuroWBC, Facebook or  our website.

Our main task is to decide on a conference venue for EWBC 2010. So much of the rest of our organisation depends on sorting out this detail that we are making it our top priority. Vienna is full of gorgeous palaces and historic buildings, but it seems that the original architects and builders failed to take into account the needs of 150 21st Century wine bloggers for conference spaces, power points and WiFi … so a little inventive sleuthing is required.

We have a number of interesting prospects already sorted out, so we will report back as we visit our favourites. (Photo from Wikipedia)

However, all work and no wine, does not make these EWBC organisers happy, so we also planning some friendly meetings, interviews and lots of general enjoyment of Viennese hospitality. As well as an exciting planning meeting with our hosts, Wines from Austria, and some potentially superb sponsors, we would like to hook up with local wine bloggers to get to know more about the Austrian ’scene’.

Therefore, we’ve reserved a table at Gmoakeller for Tuesday, March 16, at 7.30pm, under the name “Wine Blogger”. Any blogger that would like to join us are more than welcome, but please rsvp below.

Looking forward to sharing exciting feedback on Vienna very soon.

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