There are two significant wine conferences taking place in Dallas this weekend.The GO TEXAN Drinklocalwine.com event starts tonight with a dinner at Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts. On Saturday the all-day conference will feature seminars focusing on trends in Texas wine, the distinctive grapes that Texans are using to make those wines, and how consumers can work to get more regional wines in stores and restaurants. The final event of the day will be a Texas Twitter Taste-off, moderated by Russ Kane of Vintage Texas. Participants will taste some 40 Texas wines and blog or Twitter about them. Their votes will pick the conference’s favorite wines. I’ll be one of those Twittering fools (DSideDish). BTW, the event is sold out.
On Sunday, the fifth annual Texas Sommelier Conference (TexSom) kicks off at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas. The two-day event includes lectures and tastings with the nation’s preeminent wine experts. There are five classes on Sunday, August 16 (some tickets still available) and a grand tasting on Monday evening, August 17th. A separate set of courses, designed exclusively for the trade and media, will take place on Monday. While the courses are conducted, a competition for Texas’ Best Sommelier runs behind the scenes. On Monday evening, the conference concludes with a Grand Tasting(a few tickets available), where wine professionals and the public come together to taste world-class wines and witness the drama and celebration surrounding the naming of Texas’ Best Sommelier 2009. Last year’s winner is Scott Barber of Dallas’ Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. He dominated 24 other competitors and won the coveted title after a rigorous three-part examination involving wine tasting, service and theory. Once again, I will be a Twittering and blogging fool.
