My knowledge of any sort of Wine Bloggers Conference begun in 2013. It took place in Penticton (so close to home!) and so it was a bit of a bummer that I couldn’t make it. The knowledge of the next one rolled around and a friend stirred up my excitement – I was eventually convinced to go, leading to eager registration during a tight schedule, i.e. attempting to apply for the WBC scholarship on an iPad during a movie night with friends. (For the record, we watched “The Purge”, which would have paired nicely with a smoky and gamey Pinotage reminiscent of gunpowder and revenge.)

Obviously I was thrilled when I found out that I had earned the scholarship, and thusly I immediately had a 5-minute Madonna dance party where I replaced all instances of “Holiday” with “Chardonnay”. Or so I remember.

I am but a young grape. I always hate to make my age A Thing, but a sudden interest in wine at the age of 19 and my current age of 22 makes wine a strange interest (and undoubtedly, expensive – I’m looking at you, Canadian and British Columbian government) – and it is the donors that I will repeatedly thank for a long period of time for providing me with this experience, allowing me to simultaneously explore Santa Barbara’s wonders and enjoy the conference through my slightly-drunken eyes. I perhaps feel a little out of place here, but perhaps that’s the point, and maybe that just means I’m fulfilling my mission of being here. Thank you, merci, gracias, kirimvose.

Therefore, I’d like to thank Rodney Strong Vineyards, Malm Communications, Wine4.Me (who provided the crafty participant gift of Advil attached to a bottle of water), Hello Vino, Enobytes, and Tercero. And then the specific grapes and committee: Thea (@luscious_lushes), Megan (@wannabewino), Cindy, (@GrapeExp_Cindy), Becca (@academicwino), Shawn (@awanderingwino), and Melanie (@dallaswinechick). You are all FANTASTIC stars. Stars that create a constellation that looks like a wine glass, and that makes me cry happy tears every time I look at it.