Summer fun in 2009: The North American Wine Bloggers Conference or the Montreal Jazz Festival

July is the summer month — full of sun, fun, festivals, and gatherings. This year, two of my favorite things are showcased in July of 2009 — good wine at The Second Annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference and the sounds of jazz at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

The WineEnabler Crew attended the First Annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference, and we had a blast. The people were great. The wine, at times, was exceptional. The conference offered lots of good information. And the hotel accommodations were reasonably priced and just retro enough to be fun.

Last year’s conference was in October, and the weather cooperated with warm days and cool nights. This year, the organizers have moved the conference to July, which would be OK, but the July date for the conference is very close to the scheduled dates for the Montreal Jazz Festival, so we had to make a choice.

The 2009 Wine Bloggers conference will, no doubt, provide good wine, laughs and some valuable insight to the world of wine blogging. There are, however some changes to the conference that are not as enticing. The vineyard walk, which was one of our favorite parts of last year’s conference, has been moved to Sunday and is “optional”. So if you want to go on the walk, you basically need to stay an additional day. Also the hotel rates have increased — not a lot but enough that if you stay the extra day, this year the conference will cost about $200 plus tax more than last year.

On the other hand, the Montreal Jazz Festival offers all kinds of music, from all over the globe. Montreal is a beautiful city, but somewhat crowded in July, particularly during the Jazz festival. There is some local wine, but the vineyards do not offer the variety found in Napa and Sonoma. There are however plenty of bistros and wine bars to quench our thirst. And there is the weather. The average high temperature in Montreal for July is 80 °F and the average low is 60 °F.

It was not an easy decision to make, but WineEnabler.com will not be attending The North American Wine Bloggers Conference this year. Instead, we will use our frequent flier miles to go to Montreal in July for the jazz festival.

But we cannot go for a whole year without attending a wine conference, so we have made our airplane reservations for the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon this October. So far, there are only about 16 or 17 folks signed-up to attend, so I am not sure what to expect. I hope there will be lots of European wine and a few familiar faces from the American side of the pond.

This year, WineEnabler.com will just have to read all about the North American Wine Bloggers Conference on DirtySouthWine.com, WineSlueth.com, the BrixChicks.com, and all the other great blogs that will be represented in Sonoma. If after all that fun, you want to know about the goings-on at the European Wine Bloggers Conference, check back for our posts from Lisbon.

Check out these related posts:

1. Off to the first annual Wine Bloggers Conference
2. Recap of the first Wine Bloggers Conference
3. Sensing revolution at the Wine Bloggers Conference
4. The 2008 Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma, CA
5. Speed tasting at the Wine Bloggers Conference