By Lenn Thompson, Editor-in-Chief

Photo courtesy of Dezel Quinlan

Despite the New Jersey Turnpike's best efforts, I made it home last night from a great weekend in northern Virginia where I attended (and spoke at) Drink Local Wine 2010.

I'm still gathering my thoughts about all the goings on at the conference, but this much is clear: the people were the real star of the conference — just like every other blogger-heavy gathering I've attended. Meeting bloggers is always an extreme pleasure for me. The passion they have(and share) and the nuanced wine knowledge they exhibit about their niche of choice are both awe inducing and awe inspiring.

This is a picture of me with the crew I jokingly referred to as the Virginia Wine Mafia a couple weeks ago (the name has caught on by the way — even some winery owners are using it). From left to right, we have John Witherspoon (Anything Wine), Dezel Quinlan (My Vine Spot), Me, Frank Morgan (Drink What You Like), Brian Kirby (The Other 46) and Warren Richard — with Paul Armstrong behind the camera — (Virginia Wine Time).

These guys have an amazing wealth of knowledge about Virginia wine and as I said during the social media session where I was a panelist, the Virginia wine industry is lucky to have them.

The blogging community is too. These are some of the good guys in the blog world, doing good work through earnest exploration of an under-appreciated region. I dig that.

My weekly story tomorrow will focus on the conference as well, but these guys (along with the other great bloggers and people I met) are deserving of their own little shout out. Who knows, some of them just might become the Lenn/Evan/Bryan for the Virginia Cork Report.