My Wine Bloggers Conference started in the Red Mountain AVA. This is Red Mountain, which is neither red nor a mountain.

One of our first stops on Red Mountain was Kiona Winery, one of the first vineyards in the region…

…where we had a blind tasting comparing Red Mountain wines with other Bordeaux-style wines from around the world.

I got to spend some time with Chris Upchurch, the rockstar winemaker at DeLille Cellars and Upchurch Vineyard. A guy with much better hair than me.

One of my favorite wines from the tasting was made by Tim and Kelly Hightower of Hightower Cellars.

The last stop on the Tour of Red Mountain was a visit to Barnard Griffin and Rob Griffin, Red Mountain legend who made the first Red Mountain wine with Preston Vineyards in 1977.

After the excursion to Red Mountain, Amy Johnson of Muret-Gaston drove me an hour south and east to Walla Walla, where my first stop was dinner at Cadaretta Winery’s Glass House for an incredible sunset.

Yeah. Sunset.

Dinner was at Cadaretta’s Glass House with Kris Middleton.

There are many different wines at the Wine Bloggers Conference from around the world. Perhaps my favorite import was this wine from the Lugana DOCG in Italy.

I stepped in for Rodney Strong, pouring their wines at a couple of tastings. Hopefully, I represented the brand well!

Friday night I returned to Doubleback Winery for another incredible dinner…

…prepared by none other than Andrae Bopp…

…of Andrae’s Kitchen, which is famously located in a gas station (where he gets $35 for a lobster roll that sells out every Tuesday).

It was fantastic to catch up with Josh McDaniels, winemaker and GM at Doubleback.

It was also great to visit with Mary Derby of DAMA Wines for lunch at her tasting room on Main Street in Walla Walla.

Perhaps my favorite session was this Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine pairing seminar on Saturday run by my friend and sommelier Sarah Tracey.

Oh. There were also a few parties in my room. Nothing really serious, though.