A great EWBC 2010 in Austria

I’ve just landed in Lisbon after a great week in Austria where I attended the 2010 edition of the European Wine Bloggers Conference.

I was a speaker at this year’s conference and my presentation was included in the panel about Online Wine Commerce. Rowan Gormley, CEO of NakedWines and Evelyne Resnick, Author of Wine Brands Blog were the 2 other panel participants. Julia Sevenich carefully led the panel where we presented and discussed the new world of online wine commerce. A great moment at the EWBC that I hope others have also enjoyed.

Presenting at the conference created an opportunity to meet lots of cool people and to have great conversations with new and old friends from the wine world. I got lots of feedback on Adegga and the AVIN and interestingly, I even was invited to speak in another wine conference (in Croatia in 2011) just minutes after I finished the EWBC presentation!

Apart from the sessions I really enjoyed the big wine tasting room where you could try dozens of delicious Austrian Wines. Amazing Rieslings (starting in 1973), Gruner Veltliners, Pinot Noirs, etc.

All this in the beautiful Orangery at the majestic Schönbrunn Castle. Simply a great venue.

I spent the last 3 days of the conference visiting two different Austrian wine regions. First Weinviertel where the new DAC system has changed the way the region is making is classifying its wines. Lots of quality wines as you’ll be able to see in the tasting notes that will be uploaded to Adegga in the next few days.

Then 2 days in a fabulous trip around the Danube which included visiting the regions of Kremtal, Kamptal and Traisental. Again great wines, great modern architecture and great food. We stayed at the Arte Hotel in Krems, visited such cool wineries has Wiengut Loimer (amazing cellar architecture!) and Weingut Huber and had lunch in the new Loisium Wein & Spa Wellness Resort Hotel. All great moments in a carefully planed weekend.

The common point across all EWBC moments is people. People who love wine and traveled to Austria to share that love with other people. People who show that love by creating delicious wines and more importantly people who care about this great world of wine that we’re all passionate about. Thanks to Ryan, Gabriella and Robert for organizing another great event.

As for Austria, I have only just started discovering one of the most amazing wine regions of the world. The richness, the attitude and above all the taste of Austrian wines have made me comeback to Lisbon wishing Vienna was just closer to me that it really is.

More pictures on Facebook.