Above, from left: George Taber, Wei Ran Chen, Gregory dal Piaz, and Franco Ziliani.

There’ a lot of grooving stuff happening here in Brescia at the European Wine Bloggers Conference but yesterday’s show stopper was lion-hearted author George Taber’s keynote address where he told the group of 216 wine bloggers: “In my view, the wine writing establishment — Robert Parker and so forth — has sold out.”

He was answering a question posed by Evan Dawson (below, left, with my fellow Texas Katie Myers) who had asked George to address ways that a journalist can distance himself from his subject and maintain her/his objectivity.

“By and large,” George said in his talk on storytelling this morning, “the Robert Parkers and Wine Spectators do nothing else but cheerlead.”

Wow… no regrets, coyote… there it is, right there, for all to see… and the declaration was made by an authority on wine and wine writing whose gravitas would be challenged by few…

Organizers Ryan and Gabriella Opaz and Robert McIntosh (above, from left) have done a super job here in Brescia. There’s seamless, high-speed WiFi throughout the Museum, Church, and Monastery of Santa Giulia where the conference is being held (in Italy! unbelievable!), things are running nearly ontime (also remarkable for Italy), and there’s a great energy and sense of collegiality that makes everyone feel welcomed and happy to be here.

More later… Stay tuned…