70% more wine bloggers at European conference

Published: 28 October, 2010

The European Wine Bloggers Conference (EWBC), held in Vienna over the weekend, attracted 70% more bloggers this year than last.

Organisers have just confirmed that the 2011 conference will take place in Franciacorta, Brescia, northern Italy, between October 14 to 16.

Robert McIntosh, of WineConversation.com, and Ryan And Gabriella Opaz of Iberian wine site Catavino.net, who co-ordinate the event, also revealed they will reward the best digital wine content the new Born Digital Wine Awards, which will be presented in spring 2011.

The awards will recognise writers and artists for text, video and audio articles online. The judging panel will be made up of wine industry professionals, including Jancis Robinson MW and Elin McCoy, author of The Emperor of Wine.

This year's event was sponsored by Austrian Wine, and speakers included European head of Wines of Chile Michael Cox, along with Rowan Gormley, founder of Naked Wines.

McIntosh told Harpers the event had grown in popularity because of increased recognition of bloggers from the wine trade. "It's a combination of the industry taking bloggers more seriously. Lots of brands now recognise the value of reaching out to bloggers. Wineries themsleves are also getting involved in becoming bloggers. I think once one or two people from a country attend they spread the word. Last year we had about three French bloggers, this year we had 18."

All in all 30 differnt countries were represented ?last year 120 bloggers attended, but this number grew to around 200 this year.

As part of the event, 50 bloggers also visited Wachau, and planted Grüner Veltliner along the Danube River. In the Austrian Wines Undiscovered Stars tasting seminar the Rotes Haus Gemischter Satz 2009, by Gerhard Lobner, was voted the crowd's favourite, and listed online with Naked Wines.

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