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Has Wine Enthusiast Lost Some Modicum of Their Objectivity?

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 06:54 — rich

The word from Wine Enthusiast is out.  They have named Virginia one of the world's top ten wine travel destinations.  Alix Bryan, WTVR.com/CBS6 Web Producer published a video replete with testimonials by Jason Tesauro, Bartholemew Broadbent, and other dignitaries.  It might have been edited to modify audience perceptions of the intended positions of those speaking.  The media splooge left me cold.  Please bear with me while I frame my POV on the matter.

I love Virginia.  I lived and worked in Arlington for 8 years. I frequently went hiking, climbing, camping, and spelunking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I attended the 2011 North American Winebloggers Conference in Charlottesville, tasted many of the fine wines from all over the state, and thoroughly enjoyed visiting many of the nearby wineries, as well as speaking with many of the winemakers at the conference.

Pictured above, 400 bloggers rally through the streets of Charlottesville to find key tasting spots in the Rioja Crawl late on a Saturday Night July 23, 2011.

At the same time, I'm not entirely convinced that I myself would prefer to tour wineries in Virginia over British Columbia, Oregon, New York, or Washington States where the natural beauties are formidable and larger numbers of internationally recognized wineries have received a great number of higher accolades than those attributed to Virginia. I still love Virginia, but I am not convinced of the Wine Enthusiasts' choice in their award. #Respect but #Skepticism