For the last few days, myself and Fine Wine Marketer Juel Mahoney, have been in Brescia North Italy, for this year’s European Wine Bloggers’ Conference (EWBC).  Set in the heart of the Franciacorta region, where some of Italy’s finest bubbles are produced, this fantastic conference brought together 216 individuals from all over the world; individuals who all share a passion for both wine and the online conversation that surrounds it.

Now in its fourth year, the EWBC has gone from strength to strength, with 2011 seeing record participant numbers descend on the beautiful city of Brescia. The four day conference involved brilliant talks from the likes of George Taber, Jeremy Parzen, Emily Troutman, Paolo Casalis, plus video, photo, oral and written workshops, enabling participants to improve communication techniques, and learn the art of storytelling…the theme of this year’s EWBC.

Alongside all the serious stuff, there was also plenty of wine, with top tastings of Sparkling wines from around the world, Austrian sweet wine, a Franciacorta tasting and an Italian tasting, plus some fine visits to wineries within Franciacorta and the surrounding regions of Soave and Alto Adige. Enough wine to suffice the most eager of tasters, and with 216 wine fans armed to the teeth with their iphones, ipads and laptops, all the goings-on were being communicated around the world for all to see.

Here are a few snaps from our time at the EWBC –

The road to the Santa Giulla, the EWBC base -

The Impressive Conference Hall -

Piper-Heidsieck Brut Rare 1988 at the Sparkling Wine Tasting -

Italian Sommeliers at ease! -

 Juel and Italy’s Franco Ziliani -

 Video workshop with Paolo Casalis on the sunny streets of Brescia -

 Some of Franciacorta’s finest!

 An Italian invasian -

Brescia at night -

The European Wine Bloggers Conference 2011 took place in Brescia between 13 – 16 October. Check out all the chat of the ewbc by following the Twitter hashag #ewbc . If you are interested in communicating about wine in any way, shape or form then keep an eye out for the EWBC 2012.

Bibendum Times

Over the last few weeks we’ve been having a sort out of the many thousands of images we have on file here in the marketing department.  With so many producers and so many keen Bibendumites eager to visit these wine producing regions, we’ve over the years accumulated a huge array of winery and vineyard pics.

Big fans of wine and all that encompasses it, it was fascinating to look back through these images from across the world, with some going back many years.

You could say…once you’ve seen one vineyard, you’ve seen them all.  But some of these images are fantastic, and really show how stunning wine producing regions can be.

Here are a few of our favourites from our European producers -

Bodegas Tabula, Ribera del Duero, Spain -

Casa de la Ermita, Jumilla, Spain –

Dinastia Vivanco, Rioja Alta, Spain -

Castello Banfi, Tuscany, Italy –

Quinta do Vallado, Duoro, Portugal –

Alois Lageder, Alto Adige, Italy –

Talenti, Tuscany, Italy –

Dr Loosen, Mosel, Germany –

Bibendum Times

Following on from last week’s post, The Vineyards of Europe – In Pictures, where I posted a few images we had dug up following a sort out of our photo library here in the Marketing department.  Here is another selection of great photos, but this time from a few of our New World producers.

Accumulated over the years, these are just a few images from the many hundreds of pictures we have stored away. And being massive wine geeks, we love taking a look back through these images from around the world.  These are just a few of our favourites.

Seival Estate, Campanha, Brazil –

Valdivieso, Lontue, Chile –

Chilcas Estate, Maule, Chile -

Estapor Venir, Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico –

Dry Creek Vineyards, Sonoma, California –

Graham Beck, Robertson, South Africa –

St Hallett, Barossa, Australia –

Spy Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand –

Marmesa, Central Coast, California –

Howard Park, Margaret River, Australia –

Bibendum Times