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On Wednesday evening, August 13th, to get the 38th Annual Conference of the Society of Wine Educators off to a roaring start, conference attendees took a short bus ride across Seattle to Chihuly Garden and Glass.

Located just under Seattle’s famous Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass is an indoor/outdoor museum featuring the innovative glass sculptures of Dale Chihuly.

Attendees were treated to a spread of local seafood and other delicacies, and well as a wide selection of Washington State Wines.

For more information on Chihuly Garden and Glass, see their website.

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On Tuesday evening, to start off SWE’s 38th Annual Conference in a delightful way, several busloads of lucky diners made their way north to Richland, Washington for a winemaker dinner at Columbia Winery.

After being greeted in the courtyard by an array of Washington Riesling, guests made their way to the barrel room where a jazz band awaited.

In the barrel room, three of Columbia Winery’s wines were paired with local salmon prepared three ways.

During the dinner, winemaker Sean Hails told us the story of the wines and gave us insights into the chosen pairings. Despite the threat of rain (after all, this is western Washington), a wonderful time was had by all!

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Today we have a Conference Preview from Tim Gaiser, MS. Tim will be giving his Tasting Mastery session on Wednesday, August 13th at 1:15 pm. Read on for Tim’s take on what this session is all about!

My tasting “Tasting Mastery” seminar is all about best practices.  In my session I’ll introduce strategies for all aspects of tasting taken from my interviews with Master Sommeliers, Masters of Wine, Certified Wine Educators, and other top industry professionals over the last several years.  We’ll explore the strategies of these top tasters, in particular their methods for establishing a deep focused state of concentration needed for successful tasting, developing a highly acute sense of smell and taste memory, accurately calibrating structural elements, and building complex internal wine maps.  In addition we’ll go through exercises to explore all these strategies which can be quickly learned and replicated.

Tim Gaiser is a nationally renowned wine expert and Master Sommelier.  From 2003 to 2011 he served as the Education Chair and the Education Director for the Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas.  He has also served as an adjunct professor for the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley. Tim has experience in all phases of the wine industry – online, wholesale, retail, winery, and restaurant – including stints at Heitz Wine Cellars in the Napa Valley and Bix and Cypress Club restaurants in San Francisco.  He has developed wine education programs for restaurants, winery schools and wine distributors; and taught classes on wine and spirits at every level of education.  Prior to developing his wine expertise, Tim received an M.A. in Classical Music from the University of Michigan. He played classical trumpet as a freelance professional and as an extra with the San Francisco Opera.

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Today we have a guest post from the Very Reverend Paul M. Bailey, who also happens to be a CWE.  Rev. Bailey will be presenting a session entitled “Aging Gracefully” at SWE’s upcoming conference in Seattle, and he’s here to tell us all about it!

The future, some say, is getting old.  That’s not altogether true, of course, but what is true is that significant numbers of our population—known as the Baby Boomers—will be retiring in the next twenty years.  I know; I’m one of them.

Some members of that huge population will be retiring into Continuing Care Retirement Communities.   Retirement communities like this exist throughout America (I am privileged to serve on the Board of Directors of one of them), and they are remarkable places, providing comfortable living spaces, excellent dining, a variety of activities that keep people up and going—they really do epitomize communities of care and interconnection.

The residents are economically comfortable, eager to learn new things, and have time to pursue them.  And they represent a largely, maybe entirely, untapped venue for wine education and sales.  Now, at the beginning of this wave of retirements, is the time to begin turning our attention toward the opportunities provided by these communities.

This largely untapped market for wine education will be examined at a session during SWE’s Seattle Conference coming up this August. The session, called “Aging Gracefully” will examine how these Retirement Communities work, take a look at how a wine program has been established in one such community, and consider how participants might take the idea into their own local communities.

If you are a wine educator looking for new opportunities, this is the session for you! As this is new territory, all ideas and reflections are welcome as we explore the possibilities offered in the coming years by association with retirement communities!

The Very Reverend Paul M. Bailey is Rector of Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Hammond, Louisiana.  A graduate of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1993.  He is a graduate of contemplative leadership programs at the Shalem Institute and provides leadership for retreats, workshops, and quiet days.  He also serves on the Board of Directors at Christwood Retirement Community in Covington, Louisiana.  He has a long-standing interest in and love for all things enological (as well as theological) and holds SWE’s Certified Wine Educator (CWE) designation.