 Hello! Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. Hi, I'm Sherene Tan. Welcome back to the show today. Today is kind of a thoughts and review episode. I'm really excited because we recently got back from the Wine Writers Symposium 2018 at Meadowwood Napa Valley. We were finally going to Napa Valley. So actually it was really cool. We actually both received fellowships this year. Something that we weren't expecting. We thought maybe one of us would get it, but we both got it, which was very cool. And what is it? It's a three-day event and located in the gorgeous Meadowwood Resort of Napa Valley. It's three days of workshops, panels, tastings with 28 fellows, 15 faculty, and just coming together in the spirit of Napa Valley, I would guess, right? That's correct. And what are the objectives? I think it's just to bring people, bring wine writers, editors, and critics together so they can mingle, exchange ideas, and learn more about wine writing. Yeah, I agree. But I also think that it's particularly apt for Napa Valley to be doing this symposium because I felt like when I was there encapsulates the spirit of Napa Valley as well. Been the region that brings people together, been at the forefront of wine industry, been open-minded, and always nurturing creativity. Yeah, but why did we actually want to go? This is the second year that we've applied, both of us, and up beyond is the reason I wanted to go. All I want to do every year and look at the wines I taste, I wanted to taste all the wines. I think it's an opportunity to taste a lot of these wines that are hard to get, or you need a big-time budget if you want to taste all those wines. So that's really the main reason I wanted to go. Yeah, you were amazing and you really cracked me up because you were so enthusiastic about it, and you were really dedicated to tasting the wines at every single tasting, I must say. For me, I think of course I wanted to taste the wine, but it was also because we were kind of at the crossroad of exotic wine travel, and I was thinking about, oh, so what's next for us? What's next for exotic wine travel? How do we bring the business to the next level? How do we nurture ourselves as wine communicators and writers? Yeah, and basically what the program was, it was lectures, tasting panels, networking, and I want to tell you a little bit about what we liked. I like what Shireen liked about the whole event. You know, one of the cool things is the first day we did a down and dirty tour, it wasn't a normal wine visit you really got in deep, and I'll talk about my experience first. I went to Wheeler Farms, a fairly brand new property by the Arroyo family, they used to have the Arroyo sellers, and they're trying to build like a biodynamic community, I guess not fully certified demeanor like yours, but there was gardens, there was beehives, there was chicken coops, there was a custom crush pad, which means that there were three brands making their wine in the facility, and the cool thing that I got at Wheeler Farms, the thing that I took away the most, it comes back to wine, is I do not really enjoy Napa Sauvignon Blanc, and the Wheeler Farms Sauvignon Blanc was outstanding, I was so sad that you didn't get a chance to taste it, it was guava pineapple ripe fruit, but it was snappy, spicy, it had this really really nice spicy finish, I thought it was really beautiful, all stainless steel, so good job Wheeler Farms on that one. Would you consider that as your favorite Sauvignon Blanc from Napa Valley? The Spring Mountain that had Semi-On, but I don't count okay what did you like about it? Fair enough, fair enough, so I'll talk about my dull and dirty experience first, I visited Raymond, and I thought I didn't know anything about Raymond until I got there and I tasted their basic Sauvignon, and I asked the marketing manager Megan, is that label typically in wine, and she said yeah and I said I tasted this wine many years ago in Singapore, when I tasted it everything just came back, and I thought it was kind of like a serendipitous moment to not really coming full circle, but re-experience something all over again, so Raymond is biodynamic Demeter certified, and there are so many things to talk about, because we saw them doing their preparation, we met a, I don't know how, what's his official position, but he is basically the leader in working in Raymond, leading the biodynamic practice in the vineyard, so there's actually someone else, a vineyard manager, and they work together, and I thought that was, that really shows the dedication of the winery that they really want to push biodynamic forward, another thing that I learned from them is they are so intentional, I mean we've been to many biodynamic wineries all over the world, in Austria and Italy, but I think also because of the communication problem at times as well, they couldn't fully communicate with us why they do the things that they do, so at Raymond it was really eye-opening for me to experience and hear all of that. And we signed up, we signed up to go on the same tour, but we were spun up because there's only three people per group. I'm happy about that actually. So what else did I like? The Stephen Spurrier tasting, so Stephen Spurrier actually chose all the all the red wine estates that he chose for the 1976 judgment of Paris that was portrayed in the film Bottle Shock where American wines won top prize in white and, and sorry, white and red over French counterparts, so it was awesome. We got to taste some of the classic Napa Valley Cabernet's new vintages and older. For me, I thought the Heights, Martha Vineyard 1997 was awesome. We had a Heights from a new single, from 2013, the Stagg's Leaf showed well, for you it was all about my accounts. Yeah, but before that, you liked Heights so much, you drank your tasting pour and then you would turn to me and say, can I take your wine? And you just took it and just dialed the wine. I was diligent about spring the whole time, but I definitely drank that my account. The 1979 Clos du Fall Cabernet Reserve was beautiful also. Mayakamas for you, what else did you enjoy? Mayakamas Spring Mountain, but I was really blown away by Mayakamas because when we tasted the old vintage and the young vintage, I really could feel the consistency, the texture, the mouth feel. It was really brilliant and it was probably one, the first time that I remember like, you know, the wine is so concentrated and textured that you felt like it was a ball rolling in your mouth. Free Mark Abbey and Chateau Montalini showed well as well, but those were, you know, those are standouts for us. Another cool thing that we liked a lot about the program was in the middle of the program, there was a grab-and-go dinner, actually where we got some gifted wines. I'm really excited to start trying these. We got a Maryville Cabernet Franc 2014, this is a special edition, a priori Cabernet Seven Young Reserve 2014, Gurgage Hills Petite Verdeau 2013, you can't escape Croatian wine, you know, Aruso Milady Chardonnay from the Haynes Vineyard 2016. So that was cool. So we get to, you know, have dinner with our colleagues outside the Meadowood Resort. And I think that covers the sensory benefits of the trip and also the learning aspect as well. I think it's also worth mentioning that we had a gala dinner and eight master sommeliers came in to do the wine pairing dinner of four dishes for us. I thought that was spectacular. And I had one of the best pairing that I've ever had in my life, one of the best. Do you think so? It was the squab ad and the Zinfandel. Oh, that was crazy. I actually, we had a last Serena, it was a Sera-based wine. I can't remember the name of it, I'll put it up on the screen. We also had a beautiful ribolda gala from Matthias and it was two weeks on the skins. It was a cool event. It was beautiful too. They decorated the room, it was really, really beautiful. Yeah, that was spectacular. And I think most importantly for me is always the interaction. Interaction with the panel, people as well, the faculty members, but also among the peers. I probably benefited the most out of the casual conversations that happened with people in the team. I have to give a shout out to Todd Kuhlman. His last name is Kuhlman. And I think I still don't know what is the real impact yet, but it was through my personal interaction with him that I realized that I really need to be more vulnerable as a writer. And we exchanged a couple of, he gave me a couple of his writings and I think it was something that really moved me. So what are the things that we did not like about the symposium? So for me, first of all, you know, there was a cool session. I'm going to sound like a jerk when I say this. There was a long session, two long sessions about the fires in Napa Valley where they brought in professionals, insurance people, talking about what was going on. And it was awesome to see what the community was doing. But those were two sessions a whole afternoon. I think it took away from what could have been other learning experiences. I don't know how else we would have got that information because it was valuable, but that's, you know, honestly, that's what I think. I think there's an elephant in the room for other participants as well. Another thing is I would have liked to see more structured tastings. Most of the tastings we did were at lunch when we were in a rush to eat or at dinner. The only real structured tasting was the one with Steven Spurrier, what we talked about earlier. I would have liked to see one, maybe at least one, maybe two more structured tastings. I do agree with you. Adding on to that point, I was hoping to do a, I'm hoping one day I could actually do an AVA tasting, maybe Cabernet Sauvignon from all the 16 AVA's. It really would help us to get to know Napa Valley as a leading wine region better. Also kind of adding to your point as well, the fire, one of the best quotes that I've gotten from the symposium was actually at a session. It was, it was through the fire, it's not about what we lost, but it's what we saved. Again, I kind of think that it encapsulated the spirit of Napa Valley, but yeah, I do also hope that there will be more tasting sessions as well. One of the things that we talked about a lot is back to why I wanted to attend the symposium. I was thinking about what is next for exotic wine travel, how can we move forward and all that. So I was really hoping to hear more about the business model or potential, business model of publishing or potentially what is next for wine writers and communicators. I come from a 10 years background in, in corporate background. So you know, we're seeing HR people moving from HR manager into HR business partners. Marketing managers in the past, today they are known as what? Community managers, sometimes social marketing managers. And putting that point back to wine writing, I'm just wondering, I don't have the answer, but I want to know that what's next? Do we stick with just writing? Do we need to pick up new skills? Is social media very crucial? How can we leverage social media to to build our future career? Yeah, I think a lot of the conversation was around, you know, just like journalism. My journalism is dying. It's hard to make. Same thing about wine, about wine. Everyone was kind of a little bit sad about it. I would have liked to see the conversation pushed forward instead of being defensive, but that's the one. I even wish that we could have a inspiration speaker coming in to actually pick up the spirit a little bit. So to sum it up, would we apply again? Absolutely. Of course, we can't apply next year because we got it. It was four nights fully paid for in the Glorious Meadowwood Resort. All the tastings, lunches, meals were all paid for. So that was awesome. We can apply again to the next year. If you do want to apply, I think the guidelines change every year, but you have to submit at least two pieces of paid wine writing that was published within the last year. Submit two letters of recommendation. And I think that's it might change every year to year. So I want to thank I want to thank Meadowwood, the Napa Valley Vintners, the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone for a fantastic event. I really enjoyed myself. What about you? Very much. Anything else that you want to add before? I think that it depends on what how prepared you are for the symposium as well. If you are ready to look for something or you come with an objective, you can definitely get a lot out of the symposium. So guys, check it out. If you are a wine writer, if you can pay to write about wine, I'll put the link in the description box so you can apply. If you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Shuffle. I will see you at the next episode.