"The Symposium" Starts Today

In about an hour, I'll be hopping into the car and driving out to Stony Brook University's Southampton campus for The Art of Balance: Cool Climate/Maritime Wines in a Global Context, a symposium that I hope will be as educational as it will be fun.
Looking at the agenda, which is filled with lectures, tastings and panel discussions led by prominent winemakers and vineyard managers from top cool climate/maritime wineries, I can't imagine that I'll be disappointed.

I had planned to do some live blogging on-site, but organizers weren't able to pull WiFi access together for me because I'm not a student at Stony Brook (annoying), but they have set up a "blogging area" in the back of the theater where I will be able to plug in. Now I just need to find an ethernet cable before I leave the house. I know that fellow LENNDEVOURS contributor Bryan Calandrelli got to the Island last night, and that Eileen from Cellarette will be attending but I'm curious to see what other bloggers will be there.

Sorry that the blogging has been so thin of late. Some of you know why, but things are returning to normal at LENNDEVOURS headquarters, so blogging will commence throughout the week.

Comments

[Rowland]

yea sounds great till you see this;

General Public Pricing:
Symposium Lectures (days 1 or 2): $180.00 each day
Includes breakfast, lunch & lecture tastings
Both days Symposium: $360.00 includes grand tasting*
Grand Tasting only: $75.00

A special discount is being offered to wine industry affiliates. (Upon registering, you will be asked to fill in your affiliation on the form. This will allow your discount.)

Wine Industry Affiliate Pricing:
Symposium Lectures (days 1 or 2): $150.00 each day
Includes breakfast, lunch & lecture tastings
Both days Symposium: $300.00 includes grand tasting*
Grand Tasting only (no discount): $75.00

... makes you wonder if they really are trying to spread the word and expand viticulture, or whether it is just one more exclusive Long Island rich man's club.

[Lenn]

Thanks for the comment...

While I can understand your concerns about how much tickets cost for this event, I think you're a little off-target in general.

It's important to first understand the target audience for this symposium and also the return on that sizable investment.

The primary audience for the symposium is winemakers, vineyard managers and other industry members from cool/maritime climate wine regions. Many of the sessions were highly technical at times and the general public probably would have been bored in some instances.

As for what you get for $360...if you're a member of the audience above, the information and access to world-class winemakers is worth far more I think.

Perhaps some of my other readers, both in and out of the industry, can chime in and say if they think it was worth the money.

[Bryan]

The information in each of the presentations was well worth the price of admission if you are a winemaker, vineyard manager or winery owner.

If you want to just taste wine and mingle with industry folk, I can recommend Wine Spectator's Best of the Best event that I attended at the South Beach food and Wine Festival.

The actual Grand Tasting event at Stony Brook was only $75 and included some 200 wines. Since most of the presenters and local industry folk were there, that fee certainly included access to them as they tend to drop their guards with so many open bottles around.