SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSanta Barbara wine country is stunning. The Wine Bloggers Conference was my first trip not only to California, but also to one of these conferences and I can honestly say that I am hooked. Santa Barbara is well known for having some fantastic wines in which the wine makers themselves are welcoming, inviting, and some of the most interesting people I have ever met.

To wine-centric people like myself, meeting a wine maker is like meeting a celebrity; scratch that, it is meeting a celebrity!

While attending some excursions into Santa Barbara, we stumbled upon Solvang. This adorable SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESDanish town is known for the amazing bakeries, adorable Danish setting, and many tasting rooms. We visited five tasting rooms and then had a wonderful dinner at Cecco. To my surprise, many wine makers joined us for dinner, and I wound up sitting right next to Jennifer Arant, of Lion’s Peak Vineyards as well as Louis Lucas from Lucas and Lewellen Vineyards! It was an incredible experience to sit down with them, drink their wines, and just chat. Winemakers are down to earth, exciting, and just all around great people; well, at least the ones I have met.

Keynote speakers also were a big part of the conference, and I was excited to hear that Whitney Adams was speaking because I have always wanted to meet her. Many know her blog, Brunello’s Have More Fun, which is now WhitneyA.com. She and Claire Thomas, from the Kitchy Kitchen (another blog I love) spoke about videos, blogging, photography, and the impact it has on your blogging career. This was one of the most helpful seminars of the entire weekend, because they really opened up about how long it takes them to get shots, what it takes to get the perfect one, and that it doesn’t just happen like magic. They work hard but have fun doing what they love, and that is why they are as successful as they are.

            The wine bloggers conference was a wonderful experience, in which if you are a wine blogger, I suggest joining us in the Finger Lakes next year, August 2015.