International Wine Tourism Conference 2012--Perugia, Umbria

I can't believe it's only 60 days away--the 2012 International Wine Tourism Conference is fast approaching. The location for the conference is deep in the heart of Umbria, Italy in the town of Perugia, a beautiful medieval town set high on a hill with tremendous views of the surrounding valleys. Perugia, the capital city of Umbria is well known as an art center, as well as for it's Jazz and Chocolate Festivals and the Università per Stranieri the Univeristy for Foreigners that was recently in the news for all the wrong reasons. Last year the conference was held in Portugal and you can find a list of links to all my posts about it here. Or I guess I mean this years conference, as it was just this past February.

The conference hotel for IWINETC 2012 is Hotel Gio and it's looks like the ideal setting with it's Jazz  and Wine themed rooms. Check out that bedside lamp and desk chair in the photo below!

The 2012 Conference Program is packed with some great sessions including two with Michael Wangbickler ( @mwangbickler) who hails from my neck of the woods here in California. A few program highlilghts include: Wines of Italy Grand tasting led by Master of Wine Jane Hunt, Wines of Puglia tasting and a Wines of Croatia tasting. Yay! I just visited Croatia in October and very excited to see what wines will be featured at the conference.

I'm looking forward to making new contacts and seeing old friends from last year including: Norm Oches, Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo, Melba Allen , the power couple Lara Dunston & Terrence Carter, also hope to see Jethro if his busy schedule allows.

Most of all I'm looking forward to the Blogger/Media trip which is a wonderful learning experience and major fun too. The trip takes us to Montefalco, Orvieto, Torgiano, and the Campania wine region and will include:

* Truffle hunting in teams. Release the hounds!

* Cooking classes, food & wine pairings and an olive oil museum.

* Wine, Wine, Wine and more wine at select wineries.

Birthday dinner at Quinta do Pego

Once again it will be my birthday during the trip. It will be hard to beat the celebration we had this year on the Douro-- read about it here... but I'm sure it will be equally spectacular somewhere under the volcano in Campania.

If you are considering attending the conference--don't delay-- it will be here before you know it. If you are a wine blogger it's a great event to get acquainted with wines from around the world as well as from the host country. And for those of you who are travel writers, the event is the perfect place to meet tour operators and wine region destination managers from around the globe.

See you in Umbria!

For more information and to register, visit the Wine Pleasures site: http://www.iwinetc.com/