Towards the end of the month, I have something for you that will be entirely different here at Wannabe Wino. I’ll be off to Portugal to visit a couple wine regions and to attend the European Wine Blogger Conference! I won the trip through a contest Jo at Wine Blog Juicy Tales By Jo Diaz held for her new client, Enoforum Wines. I had to write why I wanted to travel to Portugal with Jo, and then Jo selected the winner from the applicants. As a result, my trip will be paid for by Enoforum Wines. They also offered a stipend for my writing, however, I turned that down as I do not want to be paid for my writing. So let’s make that abundantly clear: ANYTHING I WRITE HERE ABOUT PORTUGAL OR THE TRIP WILL BE BECAUSE I WANT TO NOT BECAUSE I AM PAID TO OR REQUIRED TO WRITE. Got that all you ethics police? TURNED DOWN STIPEND. Ok. Now that we have that out of the way, let me give you a preview of the trip, because I am super duper excited to have won!!
I’ve never been to a wine region outside the United States. That in itself is making this trip worth it me! Not only that, but Jo and I will be doing lots of things outside of just wine tasting and vineyard visiting which also makes me happy as I’d hate to get all the way to Portugal and miss out on the history of the country. We’ll be arriving on October 29 and departing November 6. During that time we will take about 2 days to attend the European Wine Blogger Conference, which just happened to fall over the time we are visiting! It will be great to catch up with some of the European wine bloggers that I met at the 08 North American Wine Blogger Conference and to meet so many more that I haven’t yet had the pleasure of encountering.
After the conference, we’ll be playing wine tourist! We’ll be visiting Lisbon, Sintra, Évora, Monsaraz, and the Algarve region. We’ll tour old town Lisbon, see the S. Jorge Castle, visit Pena National Palace, wander around Belém…it just looks like a fabulous trip, and something I probably would never get to do if I hadn’t won this trip. I look forward to telling you all about Portugal and the European Wine Blogger Conference, and Portuguese wines! Wannabe Wino will become a bit of a mix of a travel/food/wine blog for a week and a bit! So look for those posts starting toward the end of October!
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Wannabe Wino Wine Blog 
You are so lucky!! You are going to have an amazing time! I too have never been to a wine region outside the US (only dabbled with wines at dinner in foreign countries), but hopefully that will change soon!
I had the opportunity to attend the Vini Portugal tasting in Boston on Sept. 29th and they have some pretty fantastic and interesting grapes! I’d love to see them paired with native dishes!!
Enjoy! You’re going to have a blast!
Have a great time! I am looking forward to reading all about it!
Hi there, congratulations!! I’m a starter in wine blogging myself.
I will be in Lisbon by the time you arrive with Jo. See you soon.
Ps: the weather here is amazingly warm 😉
Sonadora, Happy trip to us!
What a sad state of affairs bloggers are now all in today, though, to have to get the “ethics police” out of the way first, before we can write anything, anymore. It’s amazing to me that some print magazines take money from a client, and turn that into editorial without any disclosure at all; but a wine blogger, like yourself, who was offered the $1,000 to compensate for perhaps not being paid during the trip – remember, I didn’t know ahead of time who would be winning this trip, and freelance writers live and die by being compensated for their work – has to be so upfront about that fact that you don’t need the stipend. (This issue is going to be haunting us for a while, I’m afraid, as we just try to write about our passions, not newly released government restrictions.)
So… Now that I’ve got that out of the way, too, on to happier things.
What an amazing chance of a life time we’ve both been given. On my New Years Day blog, I wrote: “Wine Country New Year ~ 2009 Comes in Bearing Gifts”. It was a book written by Martin Page, from Delfim Costa entitled, “The First Global Village, How Portugal Changed the World.” As my resolution, I decided to read the book, and learn as much as I could about Portuguese culture in the upcoming year. Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think that I would be traveling to Portugal before the year ended! Nor did I know that the universe would deliver a Portuguese client. I feel like I’m on some kind of fast track because I dared to dream.
So, here’s to our journey… Here’s to all of your readers, who will live the trip vicariously through your travels and stories.
It is amazing to me that our journey is not going to be noses-to-the-grindstone, but it includes so much cultural exploration and adventure.
Also, I never – in my wildest dreams – thought that this year’s WBC was going to be – for me – the EWBC. I sent my assistant/daughter Melanie to this year’s WBC in Santa Rosa, and thought it was over for the year.
We are blessed on so many accounts – and there are only 17 days to lift off, my dear!
I am SO excited for you! I’ve never been to Portugal either, and I can’t wait to hear about your adventures. Lucky duck off to EWBC and beyond!
Have a great time and I look forward to reading all about your adventures!
Just returned from Portugal (an RV trip across Spain and Portugal, actually) and thru Twitter, I connected with Oscar Quevedo (@quevedo) via @catavino. amazing visit to the Duoro Valley to a teeny town called Sao Joao de Pesqueira. Highly recommended – I’m sure Oscar will be there. Make him pour you his Rosé Port – it’s delicious.
Awesome for you, chica! Congrats!
I know you’ll have a great time! Taste lots of lovely wines and send us the good words!
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