To prove how excited I was to be heading to this year’s Napa Valley Wine Writers Symposium, I tipped over my wine glass. To acknowledge my celebration, the restaurant owner didn’t refill it, reassuring me that I had had enough excitement for the evening.
The Symposium, as the site says, draws top wine book authors and editors, wine magazine writers and critics, newspaper wine columnists, and bloggers to Napa Valley to speak, listen, debate, explore themes prevalent in contemporary wine writing and network with their peers for four days. A combination of lectures, panel discussions, group and individual writing sessions, wine tasting and fine dining make the symposium an unmatched career enrichment opportunity.
Yes, there will be wine!
I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to listen to such wine and lifestyle literati as Lettie Teague (Wall Street Journal), Richard Bradley (Worth Magazine), Susan Kostrzewa (Wine Enthustiast), Bruce Schoenfeld (Travel & Leisure Magazine), and many others. Not only are the speakers amazing, but so too are the participants. I envision long, boozy evenings of debate and comraderie, where we finish the evening the best of friends… if I can stay awake. (I am a morning lark, not a night owl.)
Anyhoo, I’m pleased to be attending this symposium on the Saintsbury Fellowship, offered to the wine writer who exemplifies the spirit of George Saintsbury, the literary scholar and wine writer for whom the winery is named. This is a writer who strives for excellence in creative and effective writing on the subject and sensibility of wine.
Have you read George’s classic tome Notes on a Cellar? If not, you must.
