No doubt I’ll be following the happenings and pronouncements from WBC. I’m hoping someone will finally reveal the secret to making loads of money by blogging. That would make the conference worth attending.

I’ll post about WW&S, which takes place at Hall Winery in St. Helena on Sunday, June 27. I’m going with a group of friends; our numbers keep expanding year after year. This is year four!

And no wonder.  You get a critical mass of 300 or so bloggers blogging about Virginia wine.  Add in the thousands (if not tens of thousands) 0f tweets all of us sent out while visiting Virginia wineries and tasting Virginia wines.  The Virginia wine industry has been growing over the past 40 years.  I had never tasted a Virginia wine, and knew nothing about the state’s wineries.  Now that I’ve been to six Virginia wineries, and tasted dozens of the state’s wines, I can tell you that Virginia is on its way to being a player in the wine world.  Not all wines were good, and they do make a lot of sweet wine. Even so, you must get to know the wines coming out of this state.

Before the conference began, I joined a small group of bloggers on a tour of Virginia wine country.  We visited four wineries in Loudon County, called D.C.’s Wine Country, as it is 30 minutes to an hour outside of Washington D.C.  During the conference I visited two wineries near Charlottesville.  I can tell you I was very impressed not only with the quality of the wines — most very good, some not so much — but also with the passion of the winemakers and what they are doing.

When all is said and done, there are 10 takeaways from my time at the Wine Bloggers Conference, on Virginia wine and on blogging.

1.  Thomas Jefferson never made wine. I think we all assume since Jefferson loved and collected wine, that he also made it.  Not true.  He planted cuttings from European varietals, but the vines died.  Jefferson is basically the figurehead of Virginia wine.  He would be very proud of how the contemporary Virginia wine country has taken root and continues to grow.

2.  Norton, a red varietal grape, is native to Virginia. But Missouri has claimed it as its state grape.  Norton is the rare red skinned grape that also has red juice.  Most red grapes have clear juice.  The jury’s still out on this grape for me.  I much prefer the Cabernet Francs poured at several of the wineries.

3.  Virginia is for Viognier lovers. Viognier is Virginia’s state grape, and there is a good reason for this.  Nearly every Viognier I tasted was wonderful — full of peaches, white flowers and honey.  I even had a sparkling Viognier, from Horton Vineyards and a fabulous aged Viognier, a 2002 vintage, from Barboursville Vineyards that was amazing.

4.  There are 193 wineries in the state of Virginia. The state’s vineyards have come a long way since the early days of the Jamestown settlers.  In 1619 a law was passed that required every male settler to plant and cultivate at least 10 grapevines.  None of the plantings took root.  It wasn’t until the early 1970′s that growers tried again, and vineyards started to flourish.

5.  Virginia wine producers use (and often prefer) Virginia oak barrels over French or other American oak barrels. Didn’t know Virginia produced oak for wine barrels.

6.  Twitter has jumped the shark. That’s according to a few wine bloggers who feel Twitter is just noise and ego (I have to agree).  Do we need 300 wine bloggers tweeting about the wines we had at dinner?  On the flip side, an initial analysis of tweets generated on the last day of the conference (a half day really) shows a reach of 404,903 people.  What I can be sure of is that Virginia wines probably have never received this much (free) publicity.

7.   About four out of 300 bloggers depend on their blogs as their primary income source. The rest of us have a long way to go before we see any profit from our writing.  Most bloggers have “day jobs” that pay the bills.  I certainly do!

8.  Wine bloggers are really wine writers. That’s according to Jancis Robinson and Eric Asimov.  Finally, validation that we’re all not hacks.

9.  Bloggers will start calling out wineries or distributors who still ship wine in styrofoam and/or use heavy glass bottles. The wine industry needs more greening.  Please don’t send me samples in styrofoam shippers.  You’ve been warned.

10. Eric Asimov challenges all of us not to write wine tasting notes for a year. Think we can do it?  I know I’ll try my best not to write useless tasting note.  That’s so boring.  You just want to know whether a particular bottle is good or not.  You know how to taste it.

A group of wine bloggers is interested in creating an an online community for writers and our readers where we can have a collective conversation.  One goal would be to impact on the wine industry. For example what would happen if we all blog about direct shipping laws or styrofoam?  Could we move the debate to one side or the other?  It’s an interesting concept, and we’ll see if anything like this gets off the ground before the Wine Bloggers Conference 2012 in Oregon.

I took advantage of an option to visit a few Virginia wineries before the conference.  I’m glad I did as I discovered some wonderful Viogniers.  This white varietal is the state’s official grape, even though Viognier is native to France, where its spiritual home is in the northern Rhone Valley, in the region of Condrieu.  Virginia is also known for Norton, a red grape variety that is native to the state.  However, Missouri claims Norton as its state grape. Go figure.

I’ve sipped Condrieu that was life changing – and tempted me to splurge on a bottle with a $100+ price tag. I’m always on a quest for the next great bottle of Viognier (at a much lower price too).

Why does Viognier do well in Virginia?  Earthquakes aside (a few of the state’s wineries had minor damage and bottle breakage), it’s a warm growing climate.  The grape clusters on the vine are bunched loosely, allowing air to flow through and dry any moisture that might lead to mildew.  The grape also has a thicker skin and can stand up to rain.

Loudoun County was the destination for our Virginia winery tour.  Loudoun calls itself “DC’s Wine Country” because the 22 wineries there are within an hour drive outside of the nation’s capital.  As we left metropolitan Washington, DC, the landscape turned into gently rolling hills, pastures and vineyards as we approached Tarara Winery.  The 475 acre property is on the Potomac River (although we never saw the river and it’s too bad that we never got to go into the vineyards).

I’d never tasted a wine from the state and wasn’t sure what to expect.  Winemaker Jordan Harris put my mind at ease.  Virginia is home to serious, talented and passionate vintners.   The first sip was memorable: Tarara’s 2010 Viognier from the Williams Gap Vineyard ($15).  I thought was a lovely wine with a beautiful floral nose and peach notes.  It’s summer in a glass, and a great introduction to Virginian Viognier.  Otherwise Tarara is known for Chardonnay and their red blends.

At Breaux Vineyards we met owners Chris Blosser and Jennifer Breaux Blosser.  Jennifer is a WineFashionista with a great sense of style.  Her family is Cajun and they honor that heritage with the red crawfish on the wine labels and with the Cajun Fest in June (too bad we missed that!).  Breaux has been voted Virginia’s favorite winery for the past three years running.

We went on a hayride through the vineyards on the 404 acre estate.  Breaux grows 18 varietals, including Viognier, on 105 acres.  In the barrel cellar we tried the 2010 Viognier ($24), full of stone fruits and white flowers.  Breaux is also known for Nebbiolo, and a barrel sample of the ’07 was fantastic.

I also went to two wineries in the Charlottesville area during the conference.  Vintner Dennis Horton is a legend in Virginia wine country.  At Horton Vineyards, he was at the forefront of the state’s modern day wine industry by being the first to produce Viognier and Cabernet Franc.

Horton makes a beautiful Viognier (2010 – $20), but the real gem here is the sparkling Viognier.  I’d never even heard of such a thing.  It’s a non-vintage wine made in the traditional Champagne method.  This brut sparkler is delicious and lively.  I bought one bottle ($25) and now wish I had more.

Barboursville Vineyards has deep roots in Virginia’s history.  James Barbour was governor of Virginia and Secretary of War under President John Quincy Adams.  He was also friends with Thomas Jefferson, who designed the Barbour home, which was reminiscent of Monticello. Ruins of the home still remain from the fire which destroyed it in 1884.  You can stay in a small in next to this, in a restored carriage house from the Barbour estate.

The Barboursville Viogniers were not just good, they were the best I’d tasted during the entire conference trip.  Off the charts good.  We got to taste a vertical that included a 2002.  It was divine, complex and still had plenty of fruit.  Who knew Viognier could age this well? Ok, maybe some Condrieus do.  I convinced them to sell me a couple bottles of the 2002 and I also bought the 2009 ($22) which was completely different, fruiter and not as complex as the older vintage.  Both yummy.

You’ve probably noticed that the Virginia wines don’t cost what comparable wines in California or even from France cost.  makes them a great bargain (and why I shipped a case of wine home).

If you’re a Viognier lover like me, you want to get to Virginia wine country as soon as possible or seek out some pretty amazing bottles.  Now I can’t say every Virginia wine is good or worth seeking out.  Me and my fellow bloggers had some that we’d call plonk at best.  The point is that it’s about time the really good wines – especially the Viogniers -  get the recognition they deserve.