Hey - ever wonder what I think about wine blogging?
No? Really?
Oh, well - just in case you change your mind: I recently asked to help start up responses to questions about wine blogging by the fine folks over at WineBlogger.info.
Or maybe I was just the first one to see the request and respond. Not sure.
Anyway, you can check out my responses to their questions on wine blogging here - and as always, you're welcome to join in the discussion yourself (whether here or at WineBlogger.info).
Cheers!
(images: wineblogger.info)
Showing posts with label wine blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine blogging. Show all posts
My Take On Wine Blogging at WineBlogger.info
Garden Party: How To Keep Wine Blogging From Going Mainstream
So... I'm "freshly pressed," so to speak (specifically in terms of palate fatigue and possible liver damage), from the first North American wine bloggers conference in Sonoma. Overall it was a fantastic event, about which I could pen a great number of virtual pages in covering. But that's not what I'm going to write about.
Not exactly, anyway.
I'm also, as I type this, just returned from a visit to C. Donatiello winery in Healdsburg. I could write a lengthy amount (what else is new, right?) about how nice owner Chris Donatiello is (he's quite pleasant, and generous), how beautiful the aroma garden grounds were (very), or the quality of their wines (extremely promising for a first vintage, but unfortunately not yet widely available - anyway, more on those upcoming on my twitter wine review feed).
But that's not what I'm going to write about. Not exactly, anyway.
Instead, I'm going to write about how the face of wine media is changing, and why that's dangerous for wine bloggers. Because I just spent the better part of three days at a conference where I and my fellow wine bloggers were being at times courted by the Sonoma wine industry, which helped to sponsor the event.
The congregation of 150+ wine bloggers at the WBC, whose individual influence in the world of wine could by-and-large be considered modest (at best), or insignificant (at worst), has amassed the collective power and reach of this new(ish) arm of the wine media - one that is now drawing a larger and larger amount of wine marketing attention. Gary Vaynerchuk underscored this during his WBC keynote speech, when he provided the energetic NJ businessman's view of the opportunities available now that the 'old guard' is no longer the all-dominant force in wine media. The attention given to bloggers by PR departments is a natural progression - and now this is happening for the world of wine.
This is a dramatic turn of events compared to how wine blogging was viewed (more or less as a fad) a little more than three years ago. The winemakers, PR, and the Sonoma wine industry in general "get it" - and it's all happening rather quickly thanks to the immediacy of the Internet.
Which means that wine blogging has the potential to completely screw itself now.
First, I need to make one thing very clear: there is nothing wrong with what the PR departments in Sonoma are doing by sponsoring the WBC and courting the wine blog-o-world. It's their job - one that they've been doing for years with the traditional wine media.
In a way, wine blogging has arrived. The danger is that, as guest panelist Tracy Rickman told us during one of the conference breakout sessions, outside factors (such as the potential influence of the courting PR) can influence us to become more and more mainstream. At the moment we actually become mainstream, we have lost our edge (and might as well be 'overtaken' by the next phase of wine media, whatever that may be).
Uh-ohhhhhh...
In the same breakout session, Wine Enthusiast's Steve Heimoff cautioned that winery PR would no doubt attempt to "use" us, and that we needed to be prepared - and cautious about to whom we lend our trust. Keynote speaker Alice Feiring (yes, she actually entered CA wine country for this...) added (among some very inspiring dialog), "Trust no one."
What's a wine blogger to do?
Go on blogging, of course!
I'm not saying that bloggers need to become prudes who completely shut down at the very thought of having to walk a tightrope line of credibility just because they've been invited to an industry event, or a personal winery tour, or the like. Heaven knows I've got no problem whatsoever being courted by winemakers, PR contacts, or the wine media in general (in fact, my view is that it's about time this has happened).
The trick is maintaining the willpower to keep a unique, individual, and (hopefully) credibly opinionated voice as a blogger while the "courting" ramps up.
I don't know what the future will bring, but I'm looking forward to the ride...
Cheers (and "Organic Flow" forever)!
(images: 1WineDude.com)
The 1WD @ The WBC08 (or "How Drunk You Can Expect Me to Be This Weekend")
What do you, me, and the upcoming first-ever North American Wine Bloggers Conference (Oct. 24-26 2008 - yes, it's on a weekend, presumably because none of us wine bloggers make any money blogging so we have day jobs during the week) have in common?
I dunno, either.
Uhm.... We're all carbon-based life forms consisting mostly of water, that like to drink wine?
Other than that, I'm not really sure. And okay, conferences technically don't drink wine; conference attendees drink wine.
Anyway, this week I'm off to the Flamingo Resort in the greater Sonoma area to take part in the 2008 WBC. What this means is that you can expect to see some poorly scheduled and erratic posting activity from me over the next 10 days as I try to capture at least some of what the WBC event is all about. Plus, I've got some time off in Sonoma after the WBC to hang out with Mrs. Dudette and the little Dude-el. Family QT, here I come!
I'm not sure exactly which parts of the 2008 WBC I'm going to cover. I'm sure that the event is going to be a blast for us wine bloggers, and I expect a good number of my wine blogging colleagues to cover the event in detail. What you shouldn't expect from me during the next week and half are any boring recaps of the WBC breakout topics. Nothing against my fellow wine bloggers or the WBC organizers (who have done a fantastic job with the agenda), but I just can't imagine the average wine-drinking dude or dudette 1WineDude.com reader has much interest in reading about how to monetize wine blogs, or the waxing philosphic of how wine blogging can achieve media credibility.
Hell, I'm a wine blogger and I barely care about those topics. But... I think that you might care about some of the other awesome stuff that is going down at the WBC this week (click here for details).
What you can expect from me during the next week and half:
- Live Tasting right here on 1WineDude.com! At 6:30 PM ET on Oct. 24 (Friday), I will be blogging LIVE with tasting notes from the WBC Live Wine Blogging "Taste-a-thon" (wherein bloggers like me will be seated at tables to which wineries will 'rotate' with a very limited window for us to taste and blog about the wines). You can come right here to 1WineDude.com to track my (increasingly drunken?) progress during the tasting. We'll be trying out CoverItLive.com for this... hopefully it works... Anyway, I'm going to try my best to adhere to my own advice (hint: it invloves spitting) when it comes to pacing myself during the first day of the event, which has us inundated with wine tastings, but I can't promise I'll be entirely sober for this one!
- Recaps (eventually) of the Kiwi Wine Tasting, Sonoma Grand Tasting, and the Vineyard and Winery visits that are planned during the weekend.
- Opus One Winery visit. I've been invited by the venerable Opus One winery to visit them as part of a series of posts that I will be doing on West Coast vs. East Coast wine making... which will culminate next month in a blind taste-off between the Left & Right coasts! Stay tuned...
- General goofiness as it ensues. Well... duh...
Cheers!
(images: 1WineDude.com, maps.google.com)
Found in Translation (Wine Tidbits to Kick-off Your Weekend)
OK... I've been sitting on a few wine-related tidbits that, taken individually, I probably wouldn't have written about; but taken together, they seemed kinda fun.
The first tidbit comes to us by way of Italian wine website Sommelier.it, and proves that anyone can be wittier than me without actually trying too hard!
The folks over at Sommelier.it were kind enough to mention me - the fun comes in the English translation of that mention (as provided by Google). Here's the original website text, in Italian:
"Un altro wine blog molto originale, nel linguaggio, nell’aspetto e nel modo, spiritoso, di trattare i temi, 1 Wine Dude, Serious Wine talk for not-so-serious drinker , ovvero discorsi seri sul vino per bevitori non poi così seri"
And here is the Google translation, in English:
"Another wine blog very original language, appearance and manner, witty, to deal with the issues, 1 Wine Dude, Serious Wine talk for not-so-serious drinker, or Speeches for serious wine drinkers not-so-serious"
"Speeches for serious wine drinkers not-so-serious"? Man, that is way better than my tagline! Dammit....
The next tidbit comes to us from global beverage news website Just-Drinks.com and was kindly pointed out to me by a friend / reader. I couldn't make this story funnier if I tried so I'm just going to reproduce wholesale for your enjoyment:
FRANCE: "Vin de merde" wine producer sells out
24 September 2008 | Source: just-drinks.com editorial team
A French winemaker who named his latest vintage "Vin de Merde", or "Shit Wine", has sold almost his entire production in what is seen as a triumph over severe advertising restrictions.
[ Editor's Note: Told you I couldn't make this any funnier if I'd tried ]Asked why he named his wine "Vin de Merde", Jean-Marc Speziale, from the Languedoc region of France, said the area needed the attention.
"This draws attention to the fact that we make very good wines," he told just-drinks yesterday (23 September), adding his 5,000 bottles were almost gone after the nationwide publicity they garnered.
The bottles labels are decorated with a fly on the corner of the label, and a tagline underneath the name reads: "The worst hides the best."
Speziale's success comes at a time when the internet remains an illegal medium for alcoholic drinks publicity. The wines, a red and a rosé, retail at EUR39 for a case of six bottles.
And here I thought it was sex that sells, and it's actually shit that sells. Go figure...
And last but not least, fellow wine blogger Arthur over at Wine Sooth has launched an interesting experiment that involves YOU. He's started another blog called Wine Surveys, which seeks to congregate input from the wine drinking populous on various wine topics.
The survey Arthur is currently running is gathering data on how you drink your wine and what serving temperatures you prefer for various wines. Check it out here, and add your voice.
Enjoy your weekend!
Whoops, one more thing 'ere I go, I wanted to give a shout out to Beer Wine & Cigars, who recently featured 1WineDude.com as their wine site of the week. Thanks, guys! Don't let the title fool you, they don't necessarily think that you need to enjoy their namesake in that particular order, and wine lovers who don't dig cigars will find plenty to like on their site.
Cheers!
89 Bottles of Wine on the Wall... (An Update on the "89 Project")
It's been one month since I posted about the 89 Project, the brainchild of 2 Days Per Bottle's David Honig. I figured it was time for a check in to see how the little guy was faring!
You might recall from my previous post (the one that Wine Enthusiast's Steve Heimoff, bless his soul, interpreted so darn incorrectly as a disparagement of the 100 Point wine rating system, which isn't quite what I was goin' for...) that the 89 Project is a collaborative effort involving several bloggers that pokes a bit of good-natured fun at the current state of wine ratings. When you rate wines using a 100 point scale (like the big boy wine reviews in the big boy wine mags), giving a wine a 90 or above is ticket to 30% plus price hikes. Conversely, an 89 or below might get you into the discount bin - and could get overlooked by the general wine buying public, since many retailers don't publicize those wines. A viscous cycle of non-showcasing, non-buying, non-showcasing, non-buying ensues.
Anyway, the 89 Project has wine bloggers from all over wine blog-o-land giving their take on 89-point wines. If you're interested in learning more of the goals and genesis behind the project, check out David's explanation via podcast from his guest appearance on WineBizRadio.com.
I'm pleased to report that the 89 Project is not only still alive, it's alive & kicking. Not only was it featured on WineBizRadio.com, it's also got its own discussion group over at the Open Wine Consortium (I love me some OWC!), and it's now up to 30 contributors....
Personally, I've been having me a good time with my 89 Project contributions (you can check out my 89 Project reviews here). First, it's an absolute hoot to go through a wine store looking for points, which I usually avoid like the plague (because, let's face it, nobody talks in points, unless they work for Wine Spectator...). It's even more fun to run through the wine store pushing a cart, taking pictures of the point ratings and getting positively giddy when you are finding wines clearly labeled as being given ratings less than 90 points.
The wine shop employees (especially in my local PLCB stores) think I'm totally insane now. It's great...
So - stayed tuned to the 89 Project. You might find some interesting recommendations that you might otherwise have missed. And if you go looking for some of these wines, you just might, if you're lucky, get yourself one hell of an "interesting" reputation among the wine shop employees in your neck of the woods...
Cheers!
(images: ggpht.com, wikimedia.org)
History in the (Wine) Making: The Inaugural Vintage of Rockaway Vineyard
Here's a question for you budding wine history buffs out there.
To make it challenging, it's in the form of an SSAT 'association' test question. You know, the ones you had in grade school, that were so odd that they presumably measured your ability to mimic the exact thinking process of the test question authors:
Rodney Strong is to Sonoma as
A) Dandelion is to Space Shuttle
B) Robert Mondavi is to Napa Valley
C) Absquatulate is to Pedantic
D) PLCB is to Communism
The CORRECT Answer is B) Robert Mondavi is to Napa Valley.
[ If you picked A), you may want to seek professional help, by the way. ]
Though not quite as famous a household name as Mondavi, Rodney Strong did every bit as much to put Sonoma wines on the map as Mondavi did to promote his beloved Napa Valley. Like Mondavi, Strong recognized the potential of a unique spot of California land to become more than just an assembly line for cheap jug wines, and pioneered Sonoma until it could stand with sure footing on the world stage of fine wine production.
Planting his first vines in 1959 (when there were less than 20 wineries in the U.S., and table fruit was seen as the future of Sonoma agriculture), Strong spearheaded a quality movement that resulted in an explosion of Sonoma wineries, some capable of producing wines that are considered among the world's best.
There were detractors. Regarding them, Strong once said, "You are never going to please everybody, and if you try, it is the shortest route to mediocrity you will ever find."
Those are not the words of a follower. There the words you say when you are trying to make history.
Rodney Strong Vineyards (the winery founded by Strong) is still going, well, strong. And like their namesake, they are also making wine history...
Over the last ten years, Tom Klien, owner of RSV, has been quietly setting the stage to create the ultimate expression of Strong's dream of fine Sonoma wine - by crafting a flagship 'winery-within-a-winery' brand, with the potential to achieve cult Cabernet status. The result is Rockaway Vineyard, which is releasing its inaugural vintage (2005), on September 1st.
Klien began Rockaway by purchasing - and then replanting - choice vineyards in the northern stretches of Alexander Valley. He then brought together a near dream team to make wine from those plots. According to RSV's PR Director, Robert Larson, "the team assembled to make Rockaway favorably compares with any in the world. Rick Sayre [RSV's primary wine-maker] has the history at Rodney Strong to know and grow the capability of quality production. [Winemaking consultant] David Ramey has the known capacity to make extraordinary wine. Gary Patzwald is as good as they come when it comes to an amazing palate and an incredible commitment to nailing the details. Doug McIlroy [director of wine-growing] has an incredible background and years of experience growing wine in Sonoma County. Bob Steinhauer is very well regarded in the winegrowing world due to his time with Beringer."
If you want to create the ultimate expression of Sonoma Cabernet, then you'd better pick an amazing spot for your vines - because land in CA wine country isn't exactly being given away. RSV thinks that they've found such a sweet spot for Rockaway.
"CA viticulture and winemaking is ever-evolving, and the high-end game includes narrowing down to sweet-spots in a variety of ways," says Larson. "There are single rows and plots within vineyards that taste better than others. You’ll notice, by viewing our website, that we communicate the vineyard’s USGS coordinates, which is our way of saying that place is, above all else, the most important factor in quality wine."
Google-mapping GPS coordinates to show off your vineyard plots? Now that's confidence.
And it seems well-founded: southwest facing slopes, with good elevation (approx. 750 ft), the chosen Rockaway plots are made up of gravelly clay and sandstone, with good drainage. All the elements are there for excellent CA Cabernet. On paper, at least.
So what do they do with that fruit, now that their primo vines are producing some fit for vinifying? Back to our friend, Mr. Larson: "Rockaway is completely made from free-run juice, and from only the best rows/vines on the vineyard. Everything that can be done to ensure getting perfect berries into the fermentation tanks is done. The grapes are sorted in the vineyard, picked into half-ton bins and delivered early in the morning, right next to the tank where they’ll undergo fermentation. There, they are cluster sorted again, de-stemmed, and berry sorted, prior to being gently pumped - using a pump like used for fruit-cocktail, very gentle - into tanks. Every detail and decision in building the winery-within-a-winery was about preserving the fruit."
In other words, if you're sitting on potentially amazing fruit, don't f--k it up.
Alright, so it's quality from the word go - on paper. How does vintage numero uno taste? Here are the vitals: 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec, 4% Petit Verdot; 24 months in 100% French Oak barrels; 15.4% abv (yowza!).
Rockaway's color is gorgeously opaque, almost inky. At first, the nose reveals about as much as trying to look at a Picaso through a glass of this sucker's dark color. It starts closed, like a powerfully clenched fist. And then, with some air, come hints of black fruit, cassis, and oak; they are not overwhelming, but they are as pure as the wine is dark. In your mouth, prune flavors dominate, finishing long and strong with hints of raisin and alcohol (at 15%+ abv, there's just no getting around that).
As closed and powerful as Rockaway is, it's suprisingly accessible now (it just needs meat, and a lot of decanting). It's got plenty of potential to get better with ageing; there's just enough pure fruit to stand up to all of that booze. In about 6 years, a miracle might occur in that bottle... It's as good and solid a young Cab. as I've ever tasted out of California - complexity TBD, but the purity of fruit is right there. Reminds me a bit of Opus One (but likely way cheaper, and with a little more California swagger).
You might be wondering what the 'big boys" of wine media think about Rockaway's inaugural effort. You know, Robert Parker, Wine Enthusiast, etc., etc., etc.
Well, we don't know, because they haven't published their reviews yet.
And that's the final bit of pioneering history-making surrounding this stellar first effort from Rockaway. Upon its release, reviews of this wine are hitting the blogosphere before they are hitting Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, and other "traditional" wine media.
That's because, for what may be the first time ever, a high-end wine debut is in the hands of wine bloggers simultaneously as the long-established wine mags.
What a second... Wine Bloggers' reviews are hitting before Robert Parker has the chance to give this wine 90+ points and send the purchase price into the stratosphere? What the hell are Rockaway thinking? Are they clinically insane? Why on earth would they do that?
I posed this question (sans the effusiveness, and without questioning his sanity directly) to Rob Larson: "Pulling the trigger is based on a hunch, and a gut feeling about how people are gathering information and forming their buying decisions on this style and level of wine."
And here you thought that wine bloggers were just a bunch of wannabe wine critics.
Not any more, apparently.
Seems that Rodney Strong's pioneering, history-making spirit that helped to put Sonoma on the map has done something else: it's helped to put Wine Blogging on the map as well.
History in the making, indeed.
If you want to get your hands on Rockaway, you'll need to sign up on the mailing list. I suggest you do it quickly, 'cause just like a fashionable cult Cab., it's an allocated brand - the mailing list is the only place it will be available to wine consumers.
Tell 'em 1WineDude sent ya. And while you're at it, ask them to save me another bottle...
Cheers!
Full disclosure: 1WineDude.com is part of a group of bloggers who have received Rockaway for reviewing purposes. For more on this historic release, follow these other fine wine bloggers: (images: 1WineDude.com, RockawayVineyard.com)
Are Wine Bloggers Insecure? (Hint: Not Quite...)
Are wine bloggers insecure?
Wait a second... why are you asking? You trying to say I'm not any good?? Who the hell do you think you are, anyway, buck-o!!?!??
Ahem.
Sorry about that. Seems that some topics can touch a bit of a nerve when it comes to blogging - especially wine blogging.
You see, the upside of wine blogging is the total freedom from the aspects that can sometimes hamper more traditional wine media (deadlines, 100 pt rating system, advertising conflicts of interest, editing...).
The downside of wine blogging is the total freedom from the aspects that can sometimes help more traditional wine media (editing, enforcement of quality writing standards, bona-fide wine tasting credentials...).
If you look at some of the topics that wine bloggers have been discussing lately, quite a few of them are in the area of establishing credibility, codes of conduct, and highlighting quality. Here are some examples, and these are just a sprinkling of topics that I found from one source alone!:
A call for wine blogging standards; effect of wine blogs in the real world; questions about the quality, impartiality, and professionalism of bloggers; how to recognize the best in wine blog writing.
After perusing this stuff, I started to wonder why wine bloggers seem so, well, fixated on the topic of credibility. Does the answer to gaining credibility for wine bloggers lie in the quality of our content? Or in gaining real-world wine certifications? In banding together as a community? All of the above?
Or are we running the risk of appearing as if we're just trying to allay our own fears and insecurities because we're not part of the world's "traditional" wine media at the moment - who, let's face it, give us barely a passing mention and more-or-less treat us as a group of well-meaning but ne'er-do-well wannabes? We're kind of like the Canada to their USA; the New Zealand to their Australia; the Wales to the their England.
"Ha ha-ha," they chuckle as they watch us from their desks in their magazine offices, "aren't those wine bloggers so darn cute..."
Just for fun, I decided to post the question to the Wine Bloggers Group over at the Open Wine Consortium. I was so struck by the quality and openness of the answers, that I wanted to highlight some of the responses from other wine bloggers here at 1WineDude.com. They demonstrate a level of maturity, honesty, and grit that I would argue isn't highly valued in more traditional wine media. What they don't demonstrate... is insecurity. Enjoy!...
Mike @ TheNakedVine.net:"Anyone who starts a blog believes that they have something to say that's relevant, and that goes for anyone from teenagers pining away while listening to the latest Conor Oberst offering to million-hit-a-day political blogs. All of us want to be part of the larger conversation. One of the traps that many people who blog, including us, fall into is trying to sound too much like the "traditional" wine media. Our biggest problem is finding a consistent audience. And THAT is where the insecurity comes in...the fear that we're not being heard."
Bradley Cooper @ Wine & Vince BC:"Some very popular wine bloggers are, to me, almost unreadable. On the other hand, there was a wine blogger I followed and thought was hugely talented who got bored and abruptly stopped.
There has to be some desire to exhibit your wine-related expressions. These expressions can take many forms but whether we do it with photography, charts, writing or design, it all comes down to sharing ideas in a community that cherishes the form if not the result."
Carol Bancroft @ Pour More:"I find it interesting how seriously people take blogs in general (and some wine blogs are no exception). For me, it's a hobby. And the way I look at it -- if someone finds information that I wrote educational or helpful, then that is very cool. But I'm not going to spend all kinds of time worrying about how credible I am or whether I'm meeting someone else's set of standards. Sometimes a blog is just a blog."
Nick Gorevic @ WineScholarship.com"I think anyone who's reviewing wines should have a statement about how their ratings work and whether or not they receive any compensation from the winery or commission for sales in some way. Something about what qualifies them to taste would be nice, too. Those are two things a lot of people feel Robert Parker would not honestly be able to write down, by the way."
Michael Wangbickler, DWS @ Caveman Wines:"The beauty of blogging is that it is NOT like traditional media. That's the point. Traditional media absolutely has it's place, but blogs fill a particular need. More and more, readers are turning to blogs because they are seeking the opinion of peers rather than the "establishment." There is increasing mistrust of traditional media, and bloggers are increasingly becoming the influencers. That's the whole appeal of social media. It's generally open-ended but self policed, and not controlled by big corporate entities with political agendas. Bloggers should be proud of their maverick status, not insecure."
Hip2Wine.com:"I do not think a wine blog should be evaluated on whether there is an about page that lists certifications etc. A blog is a place that can be free from popular media constraints. Wine writing in general is not overly accessible, which is the biggest reason I started writing about wine, to make a space where that's not the case. Blogs are a chance to write about wine in new ways."
Lia Huber @ Swirling Notions:"You build credibility by doing something well--whether it be blogging about restaurants or food cultures, the balance of a wine or the ambiance of a meal. If you do that, people will want to continue to read your words, and if you don't, they won't."
Dirty South Wine:"I'm not sure about insecure, but I think a lot of wine blogs are recreating the wheel into the shape of a wheel. When I look at blogs, I don't want to read just reviews and scores, but I want to read about someone's experience with the wine. Where were they? What was the setting? Did something funny happen? Was the wine worth the price? If I want only notes and scores, I can just go to cellartracker.com. Though I have some certifications, I keep those off my site. I'm a consumer and don't want to be confused as an expert (which I'm not). I'd take incredible vs credible any day."
Cheers!
(images: xinister.com, despair.com)
Three Reasons Why You Should Be a Wine Blogger
A few days ago I published a somewhat controversial post giving you three reasons why you shouldn't become a wine blogger.
Now, I'm about to give you three reasons why you should wine blog. [Editor's note: is 'wine blog' a verb now?]
My intention is not to flip-flop a position. I'm just trying to give you both sides of the bogger coin. And this is definitely the shinier, more polished, 'much-more-coolly-embossed with some awesome emblem' side of that coin. [Editor's note: is 'coolly' an adverb? My god, man, we're off to a shaky start here!!]
Anyway, let's get down to business; here's my Top Three Reasons Why YOU Should Be a Wine Blogger...:
1) You need to be original from day one.
No, you're not going crazy. Yes, this is the #3 reason I listed previously for why you shouldn't be a wine blogger. No, it's not easy to offer an original voice in the wine blogging community. Or is it...? The positive flipside of this coin is that you have a no-to-low cost opportunity to have your voice heard on a topic that you are passionate about - and in time, people will listen to that voice. The line between professional/expert opinions and the voice of the on-line masses is blurring. There's never been a better time to be a part of any topic for which you have a passion.
2) Two's company, Three's a crowd, and 600 is a Wine Blogging Community.
This one might look familar to you also [Editor's note: Sensing a theme here? ]. According to some sources, social media has overtaken porn in on-line popularity. We musicians in the rythym section often say "if you're not part of the groove, you're part of the problem." Well, if you're not part of social media, you're really not part of the Internet. Not only is it a great time to be a part of the wine blogging community, it's ridiculously easy to do so. Hop on over to OpenWineConsortium.org, join (for free), friend me up, and start blogging. Total cost: $0.00. Total time: about 6 minutes.
3) Democratize the Wine World.
It's not often that you get to be a part of history. And history is being made in the world of wine, on the web, right now as you read this. It might sound a bit overly dramatic [Editor's note: OK, a lot], but can you think of a better term to describe a movement that gathers people together (albeit virtually) from all over the globe and tries to put the power back into the hands of the people? That is what is going down in the Wine 2.0 movement; the view of what is considered quality wine is shifting from the hands of a few influential critics, and into the masses. Don't miss out - we just might be onto something special here.
There you have it. Enough positivity to rescue from the depression of my previous post. Come on in - the water's (or is it the vino's?) fine...
Cheers!
(images: gapingvoid.com, suzylamplugh.org, biziki.com, preston.gov.uk )
Three Reasons Why You Shouldn't Be a Wine Blogger
So... you wanna be a wine blogger, eh? [ Editor's note: sorry, did not mean to sound Canadian there...].
Well, I'm here to tell ya NOT to do it.
Now, before you flame me with nasty e-mails and comments, please bear in mind that I will be following up this post next week with three reasons why you should be a wine blogger. But I can't in good conscience do that before I tell you what you're really up against if you want to wine blog.
Any type of blogging worth its salt is going to require genuine commitment from you. It will also require that your writing not totally stink. But these are not the reasons why you should think twice (or thrice, or... uhm... whatever comes after thrice) about starting up a wine blog.
Let me clue you in on the real scoop of wine blogging - the gritty reality behind the glitz, the glamor, the fortune, the fame...
1) There is no glitz, fortune or fame in wine blogging.
Sorry to have to break this to ya, but there's no glitz, glamor, fortune or fame when it comes to wine blogging. You will NOT be quitting your day job. You will NOT be raking in the bucks from ad revenue. You will NOT be interviewed on CNN to expound on your wine smarties. Blogging revenue is usually tied directly to traffic. Who gets the most traffic in the on-line world? Social networks, porn, and productivity blogs (basically in that order). Wine blogging is NOT in the top three. It's probably not even in the top 300 - and it probably never will be.
2) Two's company, Three's a crowd, and 600 is a Wine Blogging Community.
Guess what? You're not the only wine blogger out there. You are in very good company. According to Alder at Vinography.com (arguably the granddaddy of all wine blogging), there are now over 600 wine bloggers. At least 200 of those are in the U.S. alone. It's not just a crowded field - it's a REALLY crowded field. And all of those bloggers are competing in some way, shape, or form for a similar reader pool as you. Doh! Even better - most of them probably know all the tricks of the trade in blogging to maximize their search engine karma, technorati authority, google page rank, etc., etc., etc. Double Doh! Which leads me to our next reason not to wine blog...What you get out of wine blogging will depend primarily on what you put into it. In that sense, it's a relationship between you and your blogging.
3) You need to be original from day one.
To wine blog, you need to offer something original to the community of 600+ and their potential readers. This will NOT be easy to do in a field of 600+ and their potential readers. In fact, it will be really, really, really difficult. And you won't have much time to do it, either. Potential readers will decide in a matter of seconds whether or not your blog is worth reading ever again. They can do this because if they don't like yours they can very quickly try another one of the 600+. Standing out is essential, and it's not easy to do. Have fun!
It may not seem like it from the timbre of this post, but personally I don't think that any of the above should stop you from wine blogging if you're really passionate about it. What you get out of wine blogging (or any blogging, for that matter) will depend primarily on what you put into it. In that sense, it's a relationship between you and your blogging.
More on that next week. In the meantime, have a safe and wine-filled weekend.
Cheers!
(images: interfacelift.com, workfarce.files.wordpress.com, aquariumdrunkard.com)
Who Cares What We Think? (The Influence of the Internet in the World of Wine)
So, really - who cares what I think?
Maybe not too many wine consumers.
According to a new Pew Internet study report, the Internet has a small influence on consumers' buying decisions when compared to offline channels (like recommendations from salespeople, friends, etc.). That includes Internet sites like, oh, for example, 1WineDude.com.
Hmm... maybe I should be putting a little more time & effort into my off-line consulting...
Anyway, according to the Pew report (which, to be fair, measured on-line impact on purchases of music, housing, and cell phones only):
"No more than one-tenth of buyers... said that online information had a major impact on their purchasing decision."Well... crap!...
And here I've been trying to steer wine consumers right and not realizing the whole time that nobody is listening (er - I mean, reading).
What's also interesting (assuming you still might care what I think at this point) in the Pew report is the gap between those who actively contribute to the on-line dialog (by submitting reviews, for example), and those that simply consume the information:
"The large gaps between contributors and readers are understandable; not all consumers
are interested in lending their voice and many may be content to free ride on the efforts of
others. However, with the growth of broadband adoption at home and the buzz about
online participation in a Web 2.0 world, widespread activity in this arena might be
expected. Yet the data in this report do not show this; there is clearly a distance between the numbers of those who contribute and those who lurk."
I can't say I'm too surprised by that finding. In my experience, especially with people of my g-g-g-g-generation, I've found that there is a need to consume information via the Internet, but very little drive to create that information themselves.Case in point: my friends will tease me about the number of websites that I maintain (official number: too many), and in the same conversation will ask me why I've not updated one of the websites in the past 3 days.
They want to consume - they just feel that it's someone else's place to author that content. Is this "The Architecture of Non-Participation?"
Deep down I'm a skeptical guy - which in my twisted in mind is being patriotic (hey, the U.S. was founded by a bunch of skeptics!) - but I gotta admit, deep down I am also feeling like wine is different.
I know, I know - wishful thinking, right?
But hear me out (if you still care what I think, that is): Buying wine is different than buying music or a cell phone, because wine is meant to be shared. By its nature it's a social beast, to be enjoyed with others. It's one of the few goods we can buy that actually becomes an event unto itself. A cell phone can be nifty but it's probably not going to be a lubricant for life. And try sharing your cell phone with someone else without going totally insane.
If you take a look at social networking websites like the Open Wine Consortium, Corkd.com, and CellarTracker.com, you will find lots of wine consumers willing to share their views, reviews, and recommendations. I would find it hard to believe that those interactions don't influence the wine buying decisions of consumers somehow.
And wouldn't it be great if, instead of wine distribution monopolies, stuffy media mags, and 2 or 3 critics dictating nearly all of our wine purchasing choices, we actually influenced each other and helped each other out based on our own experiences of wines that we thought actually tasted great?
But then again, who cares what I think?
Cheers!
(images: thoomp.com, allposters.com, imagechef.com)
2008 American Wine Blog Awards - Get Voting, People!
Blame it on the full moon, the equinox, or (purple!) monkeys from space... but strange things are afoot...
The little dudette is coming a week early! Mrs. Dudette's water broke last night, so new 1WineDude.com content will likely be a bit slow in coming over the next two weeks or so. Never fear, Dude has lined up some interesting stuff and maybe a guest post or two for your enjoyment in the meantime!
The 2008 American Wine Blog Award Finalists have been announced, and (as expected) 1WineDude.com, as expected, is not among them; remeber that technically I'm not eligible as a finalist, as I've explained in a previous post. But once again THANK YOU to all those that nominated this here blog anyways! It's still uber-important that you vote, and that your voices be heard. So head on over to the Fermentation Blog and Rock The Vote!
If you're not familiar with the finalists and are wondering where your vote should be cast, I've made it more than clear in the past that I consider Alder's Vinography to be the creme-de-la-creme of the current blog scene in terms of quality wine writing, so Alder (for what it's worth) has my "official" endorsement (though there are many fine blogs among the finalists that deserve your consideration).
UPDATE: There has been some serious (and high quality) debate... er, I mean discussion on this topic over at the Open Wine Consortium. Certainly worth checking out if you're interested in how wine bloggers operate and cooperate as community on-line. By the way, I think you should still vote.
Cheers!
In the News: Drinking Can Cut Risk of Heart Disease (+ Other Tidbits)
(image: healingdaily.com)
Mark Fisher, who writes the Uncorked blog at the Dayton Daily News, has posted an interesting piece this week with his thoughts on a recent American Journal of Medicine alcohol study.
Mark's thoughts are always worth a read, and this article is no exception (and thanks to him as well for mentioning my previous post on the same overall topic of wine consumption and health).
While the study itself highlights the positive effects of alcohol on middle aged baby-boomers, Mark uses the study to point out that the issue of alcohol consumption and health is not a simple one.
I.e., trying to binge on wine in your 50s to make up for the booze that you didn't have when you were younger is not gonna help you reap any wine health benefits. That kind of thinking is more likely to fatally turn your liver into a large hunk of scar tissue.
The good news is that the liver can recover from short-term damage - it just needs a break from the likes of coffee, medication, and especially alcohol. So if you've been hitting the wine tastings with added gusto lately, consider giving yourself and your liver the gift of a few days (if not a few weeks) of abstinence. Remember, I'm a wine nut, so if I'm saying it's a good idea to lay off the vino from time to time, it's not because I just like to type!
Also, for those of you playing along at home, Wine Blogging Wednesday #44 has just been announced by Gary V. over at Wine Library TV. Yes, that Gary V. The theme this time around is French Cabernet Franc. So, if you want to join the wine blogging community in a review, go pick up a wine and transcribe your thoughts! Details are available here (including what areas of France to look for at the wine store if you want to participate).
Cheers!
How To Navigate Wine on the Web (3 ways to Keep Up With Wine Online & Still Stay Sane)
(images: epicurious.blogs.com, i.ivillage.com, chungkiddo.blogspot.com)
In a recent post on her blog, the venerable Dr. Debs wrote about a recent survey commissioned by Constellation Wine Brands (a big, big conglomerate that own dozens of wineries, including Mondavi). The study concluded that more and more wine consumers are overly confused when it comes to what wine they should buy - enough so that Constellation cited increasing consumption by "Overwhelmed" wine consumers as their (Constellation's, that is!) biggest opportunity.
This finding isn't surprising. There are over 7,000 wine brands available to consumers in the U.S. That's a sh*t-load of wine choices, and even the most over-educated wine geeks among us can get overwhelmed (especially if we're trying to understand German wine labels). In fact, it's one of the main reasons that I got "seriously" into wine in the first place - I sat the WSET Intermediate Certificate exam so I'd be better able to buy wine at my local store!
Dr. Debs (quite rightly) points out that there's already an easily-accessible vehicle to help the Overwhelmed wine consumers out there:
So is there a way to help the Overwhelmed, send them armed and ready into Wine Warehouse to face the Sauvignon Blanc aisle, and point them in the direction of wine enthusiasm rather than wine frustration? Yes. It's called the Internet...
It's likely that companies like Constellation have uber-smart Marketing-types, but it's unlikely that those Marketing-types are going to help clear up anything for us Overwhelmed wine consumers unless it has the added benefit of further lining their pockets with more of the shiny gold stuff. Sure, you can use points to help make buying decisions, but who the heck talks in points about, well, anything (other than cholesterol numbers, I mean)?
(Imagine this conversation: "Hey - did you see Rothlisberger pass all over the Bengals last night? He totally deserves a 111.4 QB passer rating." "No way, man - he's not a tenth of a point over 99.7. Puh-leeeeeze!" Not gonna happen. Plus, people can't speak in hyperlinks - though that would be cool....).
While it's true that the Internet is an amazing resource for Overwhelmed wine consumers, it can itself be a bit, well, daunting. I don't know about you, but I liken whittling through the vast array of info. on the Internet to find anything useful to trying to reach into a narrow rats' nest to pick up a nugget of gold.And sometimes the rats' next is full of hungry, nasty rodents. With razor-sharp teeth. And surly dispositions.
It doesn't help that by taking one or two days off from your on-line life, it feels more like an eternity when you return only to find that you've missed 375 twitter updates, 900 blog posts, 250 news stories, 30 "friend requests" and god-knows-how-many e-mail messages. And I'm an IT geek - I can only imagine how the "Internet? Is that the one with the e-mail?" crowd feels.
How can you make sense of it all? My advice is to follow the same Zen-centric approach to handling wine info. on the Internet as you would handle any stream of information overload. Here are three tips that have served me (and my sanity) well in my on-line wine life...
1) Minimize & de-clutter your blog Inbox.
Humans are just not set up to suck in multiple streams of information and retain it all. We're more built for trying to quickly decide whether or not something is gonna eat us and deciding when we should run like hell, etc. There are oodles of articles on-line that offer great advice on how to approach absorbing information (see this great post at Lifehack.org for an example). But the first trick is to limit the information coming at you.To do this, you need to get a bit ruthless about the wine blogs and the wine websites that you follow. This won't be easy - there are quite a bit of good ones out there. You need to find the ones that work best for you, and follow those. This doesn't mean that you can't read a great post on a blog that you don't normally follow - it just means that you need to set a cap on the amount of websites that you do follow on a regular basis, and be very selective about the ones that make the cut to get a piece of your increasingly-precious time.
This of course can help you for any topics that you follow on-line (not just wine). For other tips on time and information management, I recommend getting the ZenHabits.net eBook.
2) Bring the Mountain to Mohammad.Once you've got a firm cap on the number of wine blogs and websites that you follow, then you can stop following them!
What I mean is, get yourself a good RSS reader, and make those updates come to you. I'm a total Netvibes convert. IT geekiness aside, Netvibes allows you to customize and gadgetize the hell out of your on-line life. I'm not sure if I could get by without it at this point (click on the inset pic for a screenshot example of my Netvibes home page). I log in, and can quickly check for interesting blog posts in my day job / music / wine "lives" - minimizing the time I have to spend looking for that information, because it comes to me.
If your tastes are a bit more Spartan, at the other end of the spectrum is the pared-down-to-basics Google Reader. Just be careful, as it's also easy to go overboard with these RSS tools (for an example of this itself can get overwhelming, check out friendfeed.com). Stick to the program!
3) Trust yourself.
This piece of advice is the most wine-specific. Nothing that anyone writes on-line should influence your own personal preferences and tastes. Your experience trumps all. Trust it, and trust yourself.If anything, we in the wine blogging community should be educating you, entertaining you, and (most importantly) opening your mind to wine possibilities that you may not have otherwise known about. We should not be trying to convince you that what you like isn't "correct" or "proper."
(Warning: Shameless plug): For more about learning how to determine what you do (and don't) like in the wine that you drink, check out my eBook.
Cheers (and happy surfing)!
Wine Blogging Wednesday #43 - Wrap-Up
Hey everyone - the wrap-up of articles for Wine Blogging Wednesday #43 has been posted over at the Wine Life Today blog. Check it out - the wine bloggers involved wrote some great stories and reviews for this WBW.
The topic this time around was "comfort wines" and Joel over at WLT has done a great job summing up the submissions. I'm also very humbled by the kind words Joel offered up describing my article. Thanks, Joel!
Apparently WBW #44 will be hosted by the venerable Gary V. over at Wine Library TV. God help us! J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets! (just kidding, Gary).
Cheers!
My Readers are Smarter, More Talented, and More Attractive than Me (Reader Haiku)
(image: dailyzen.com)
It's official.
1WineDude.com readers are smarter, funnier, more talented, and in all likelihood more attractive than I am. I say this because:
- I am arguably an impish gnome with a half-baked palate trying to earn an honest living from near-constant drinking (curse you, Zane Lamprey - you stole my job!), and
- I have received incontrovertible proof of how awesome 1WineDude.com readers are.
...As haiku! And they're better than my original reviews! Just try this example on for size - let's compare my original with WillyBouy's reworked version:
Original:
`06 Sauvignon Republic Sauvignon Blanc (Russian River Valley): Just not into this wine. Citrus and tropical fruits, but what's w/ the toast?
As haiku:
`06 Sauvignon Republic Sauvignon Blanc (Russian River Valley):
why does toast surprise
the citrus, tropical fruits?
Climbing out of here.
And my personal favorite -
Original:
'06 Misterio Malbec (Argentina):
Coats yer palate like smokey black fruit tar. A steal at $7
haiku:
'06 Misterio Malbec (Argentina):
palate is soothed
smokey black fruit tar
wallet is still fat!
Classic! Read on for more excellent haiku versions. Thanks, WillyBouy!
'05 Bracco Chianti Classico (Italy):
bracco soprano
still struggles to find her voice
- reduced, overpriced.
`06 Touraine Sauvignon La Pointe Domaine Ricard:
pink grapefruit grenade
launched from the valley loire
tingles the nose bright.
`05 La Crema Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, CA):
red berry hinting smoke
tasting great in the moment
is there a future?
'00 Ch. de Sales (Pomerol, Fr):
a mouse in the house
- supple velvety red fruit
leaves no worries.
'06 Misterio Malbec (Argentina):
palate is soothed
smokey black fruit tar
wallet is still fat!
`04 Quintessa Cab (Rutherford, CA):
fruit as black as night
finishing suburb complex
lay your money down.
`05 Bon Cap Cab Sav (Robertson, SA):
softly the blind feel
red currants dance free
- organic bliss now.
NV Perrier-Jouet Fleur de Chapagne (Epernay, Fr):
apple pear bubbles
burst in nose with toasty spice
- heart leaping joyous!
`05 Le Premier Pas Domaine Le Pas de l'Escalette (Cot. du Languedoc):
grapes of the south Rhone
- french red without the shackles
blend harmonious
`05 Banfi Centine (Tuscany, It):
burnt cherry sunrise
to sunset gently biting
- economico rosso.
Ratzenberger Spatburgunder `04 (Bacharacher, DE):
alcohol pools a
slowly drifting berry boat
nicely delicate
`03 Savigny-les-Beaune "Le Grands-Liards" Patrick Javillier-Guyot (Meursalt):
leather greets nicely
but calls out for fruit hidden
- prudence calls to me.
Aleveda Vinho Verde (Portugal):
drunk in the meadow
crispy spritzy citrus-y
pennies drop lightly.
Frog's Leap `05 Napa Zin:
plum, blackberry yes
sweet toasted coconut hugs
vanilla oak, yum.
Opus One `98 (Oakville, CA):
a bad year undone
fruit, red and black, on oak
dear in all respects.
Twin Brook Cab. Franc (Pennsylvania):
wafting red berry
but tepid palate saddens
- all hope is lost now.
`05 Rosso Piceno Tourquis Brunori (Marche, It):
sangiovese
joins montepulciano
kicking me to smile.
`04 Domaine André Bonhomme Viré-Clessé (Burgundy):
bourgeosie madam
proletariat nightspot
- apricot, oak – class
NV Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle (Champagne):
fresh baked almond bread
with honey triumphs – grace and strength
my spirits soaring.
'03 Castello Banfi Rosso di Montalcino (Italy):
pour, sniff, slurp - again
cherries and leather greet me
with a warm embrace.
'06 Lorenzino Ettore Germano Dolcetto d'Alba (Italy):
cherries, tobacco
sing out harmoniously
- could be livelier.
`05 Ravenswood Old Vines Zin (CA):
berry and spice nice
for the right amount of dough
haiku cannot rhyme
Cheers!
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