Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog

Nakedness & Having Your Way With Wine Blogs

The following comment was recently posted on the Fermentation post that announced
the American Wine Blog Winners:

You have a very nice blog. I enjoy the information and access to other blogs. I'm a new blogger... have you seen the naked woman on the newest Imagine Wine label? Check out www.imaginewine.com. It is beautiful. I tasted the wines recently at the Santa Ynez Vintners Festival too and the wine is good and a great value, but has to be bought off the internet.

I get this a lot. Folks posting seemingly flattering comments with a suspicious plug for their own winery or wine product or blog, or even not so suspicious plugs but very blatant plugs. I understand why it's done. Believe me, I do.

But here's a hint for those of you who want exposure on Fermentation:

1. If you maintain a wine blog, just email me with the name and URL of your blog and I'll post it in the blog roll.

2. If you are a winery and think there's a really good reason why I should investigate your wines and story, pitch me a story via email with your idea and tell me the most compelling reason why I should let my readers know about your wines and winery.

3. If you produce a wine-related product or have a wine-related service that you think Fermentation readers will want to know about, tell me in an e-mail what is unique, compelling, significant or relevant about your service or product.

Alternatively, you can let me know that there is some element of female nakedness associated with your blog, winery or wine-related service or product and I'll probably take notice.

Bottom Line: Blogs are like any other form of media. They may be interested in what your story is. Interested enough to write about it, even. BUT...assume you need to make the effort to pitch the story in a creative and compelling way.

Offering up female nakedness might work with me at Fermentation, but it's unlikely that other wine bloggers are as easy as I am. Make the effort. Do the research. Pitch the story directly.

The Best New Wine Writing Talent Is Found On Blogs

Those of us who are regularly looking for evidence that the online world of wine is able to reach into the physical or non digitized world of wine need examples to that effect. We have a new one.

Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV has been published...ON PAPER.

The publisher is Rodale and the book, "Gary Vaynerchuk's 101 Wines: Guaranteed to Inspire, Delight, and Bring Thunder to Your World", I schedule for release on May 13. This is good news for the online wine publishers such as bloggers because it helps legitimize this medium and it gives other publishers a little more confidence in looking into our world for other voice that might deserve a wider audience.

Gary is not the first blogger to see his work published. Tyler Colman (AKA Dr. Vino) will see published later this year, "Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink" and "A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys and What to Sip for Each Season."

I can't stress how important this kind of move from the blogging world to the world of print is for the rest of us who blog and who believe that being settled in the blogosphere means living with the appearance that our work is less credible. Despite the explosion of blogs and their impact on consumers, politics and our information intake, ink on paper still represents something more credible...even more important.

I can almost guarantee that there will be more such moves. But it will come slowly. Nonetheless it will happen that writers once tied to their wine blogs will find themselves published on paper.

The best new talent in the wine writing genre today exists in the blogosphere.

Ignorance & Quality: The Big Wine Question

"In yet another anti-intellectual effort to take fancy-schmancy wine down a peg or two, a new book purports to demonstrate that price bears little relation to quality and that the experts don’t know what they are talking about."

This is how Eric Asimov at The Pour begins a post that I think is deliciously provocative.

The "effort" he is referring to is a new book entitled, "The Wine Trials". The book describes a set of blind tastings of wines costing between $2 and $150 undertaken by 500 experts and non experts alike. The less expensive wines are preferred or, as the author says, "hide the label and the truth comes out."

So what? We've heard this before. A tasting or study reveals that often less expensive wines beat more expensive wines in blind tastings. Asimov answers the question of "So What" this way:

"Since when is popularity an indication of quality?....I’m not arguing for snobbery, but I am arguing for standards....Look, people like what they like...But you cannot rationalize ignorance. It’s perfectly fine to be ignorant about wine. Nobody should feel obliged to know a thing about it...But ignorance is not a virtue, nor is knowledge the equivalent of being a snob. People who know something about wine have made a commitment to it, so their opinions ought to matter more."

I think Eric, as a wine writer and reviewer and wine expert, is reacting to this book and its ideas a little differently than the average person does because in essence this book is taking aim straight at him: the expert. The whole point of the wine trials is to use "experts" as a punching bag in order to make a simple statement: when it comes to wine trust your palate, not the expert.

Just as Eric has not read this book, neither have I cracked it. But even so, I think I can say this: The book  does not suggest that less expensive wines are of higher quality (as I think Eric suggests the book is saying), but rather that less expensive wines tend to be preferred. The reason I assume the book is not making this distinction is because were it to make such a distinction it would destroy the very premise of the book: that as consumers we should rely on our own palates to determine what we prefer. Surely the author would not contradict Eric Asimov's palate were he to taste a $2 wine and a $40 wine and prefer the $40 wine, would they?

But now to the heart of Eric's provocative post that you must read. It begs a very important question:

WHAT STANDARDS SHOULD BE USED AND WHAT CRITERIA SHOULD BE SET DOWN TO DETERMINE QUALITY?

Is it possible that what wine experts understand as "quality" is really only the possession of the knowledge of what has been preferred by experts in the past and in the present? (there is that word "preferred" again.)

What makes Ridge Montebello Cabernet better than Charles Shaw Cabernet?
What makes Dom Perignon better than Andres Sparkling Wine?

Eric suggests that those that can not recognize that the Monte Bello and the Dom are of higher quality than the 2 Buck Chuck and Andres are ignorant. To be ignorant is to be without knowledge.

What knowledge do those that prefer the less expensive wines not posses that those who prefer the more expensive do posses? It strikes me that not knowing what the experts prefer has nothing to do with any objective standard of quality, but rather with how widely the two groups have read on the subject.

So I have to ask again:

WHAT STANDARDS SHOULD BE USED AND WHAT CRITERIA SHOULD BE SET DOWN TO DETERMINE QUALITY?

This question can be asked by an individual about their own approach to wine criticism AND it can be asked about the wine criticism generally.  One thing is for sure, if you are going to review wine, you damn well better be able to answer this question for yourself. And if you aspire to expert status, I think you at least are obligated to answer this question in general.

Now, I happen to agree with Eric Asimov. I too believe that "standards" ought to apply to the art of wine evaluation as they should to any critical evaluation of any work of craftsmanship or art if we are going to go about comparing things and if we are going to take those comparisons seriously. I further believe the process of coming to a determination of what those standards are is another word for "education". Coming to the conclusion about standards is exactly what drives those of us who choose to contemplate wine and the culture of wine.

So, let me end with one more question: Did those folks who took part in "The Wine Trials" apply appropriate standards in, seemingly, determining that less expensive wines tasted better?

Wine Bloggers Are Bought and Paid For

In case you didn't know it...

WINE BLOGGERS ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR!

WINE BLOGS ARE REGULARLY INFILTRATED BY WINERIES POSTING GREAT REVIEWS OF THEIR OWN WINES ON OTHER PEOPLE'S BLOGS

YOU CAN'T TELL WHAT CONTENT ON A WINE BLOG IS INDEPENDENT AND WHAT IS PAID FOR.

BLOGS HAVE NO QUALITY CONTROL OF THEIR CONTENT

MOST OF WHAT'S IN THE WINE BLOGOSPHERE IS RUBBISH

WINE BLOGGERS DON'T DELIVER FRESH IDEAS

How do I know all this is the case? I read it in an article published in a wine trade magazine.

I consume A LOT of wine media: magazines, newspaper articles, blogs, retailer websites, radio show, television. I have 3 separate services sending wine articles to me via email, and I pay for two of them— thousands of dollars of year in fact. I've been consuming wine media at this rate for more than 15 years. I say this to note that I have some bona fides on the subject of the wine media. I mention this in order to assert that if anyone is qualified to call an article about wine "CRAP", it's me.

Well, THIS IS CRAP!

All the claims made above about wine blogs come from this article in Wine & Spirit, a UK trade magazine (NOT the outstanding American consumer wine magazine that operates in the plural). And with these serious claims not a single shred of evidence is offered. The author is Claire Hu. She should know better.

From the article:

"As well as major retailers and suppliers trying to get in on the act with their own blogs, the bloggers are being offered cash in return for favourable product reviews on their sites. And a US supplier that regularly posts favourable reviews of its own products on bloggers' sites is just the tip of the iceberg. It's becoming increasingly hard to distinguish which content is independent and which is commercially motivated."

Forgive me if I request a peek at the rest that iceberg.

Woops....I spoke too soon, here is Ms. Claire's evidence a couple paragraphs down:

"Others, though, do accept cash from merchants and suppliers in return for reviews. At great personal risk to himself (imagine hundreds of wine nerds descending on your home), Charles Short, of cluelessaboutwine.co.uk, has decided to lift the lid on what he sees as the hijacking of the editorial integrity of wine blogs. "You have a lot of wine companies asking if you can write about products for £15 or £50," he says. "You have to submit your piece for approval before it goes up. Lots of companies are trying to do product placements on blogs. But I don't want to compromise my integrity for a bottle of plonk."

I'm sure we are all very proud of Mr. Short's integrity in this matter. However, I'm still looking to see if we are talking about an iceberg or just an ice cube floating in the ocean. This is as close as Ms. Hu gets to backing up her claim that "Other...do accept cash from merchants and suppliers in return for reviews".

Now get a load of this little piece of disingenuous hackery. In advance of discussing Stormhoek's use of blogs and the Internet to promote their brand, Hu writes the following:

"The more intelligent companies are starting to grasp how to use blogging as a marketing tool themselves, rather than infiltrating other peoples' sites."

She makes it out to seem that blogs are "infiltrated" or used by wineries and retailers on a regular basis. Where's the evidence? I dare say this kind of shoddy writing is what happens when you don't have a press release from an advertiser or or supplier to rely on to help you formulate your thoughts in preparation for penning something that quite kindly might be called journalism.

This piece in Wine & Spirit is presented as "An Investigation" into wine blogging and is offered to the readership of Wine & Spirit that consists primarily of the UK wine trade. Maybe there is some sort of real investigative piece that I missed. Who knows. But, what a tragedy that what is probably this magazine's first significant article on wine blogging is at the same time such a deliberate hatchet job performed by an agenda-wielding "writer" with clearly little or no understanding of her subject matter. What? You ask, "Tom, where's the evidence Ms. Hu has an agenda?" Evidence? I don't need no stinking evidence.

There are a number of really great wine magazines out there that serve consumers and the wine trade. And more arrive ever year. But even so, I'd argue that one of the reasons that wine blog readership is increasing is due in part to articles just like this one. You read something like this and you become disillusioned with the ability of traditional wine magazines to actually cover any subject with any competence. This disappointment doesn't deter you from satisfying your interest in wine. But it does spur you to look for something with more credibility. And while there might be a certain amount of inanity masquerading as content on wine blogs, one thing that wine blogs do offer is honesty. They have to if they want any readership at all because they can't rely on the perceived authority that is granted to writers who's words appears on paper but who, as this article makes clear, have none at all.

(A tip of the hat to Robert at Wine Conversation for alerting me to this story and where he has some comments to make on the topic at hand)

Wilma Hits The World of Blogs

I just now became aware of a TERRIFIC new wine blog from a long time wine industry insider that has all the markings of being a great regular read.

Many of you will know Kim Stare Wallace. Kim is VP of one of Sonoma County's most loved and most venerable wineries: Dry Creek Vineyards. In her newish blog, Wilma's Wine World, she legitimately and properly refers to herself as an "insider". As Kim writes in her "About" section:

"I literally grew up in the wine industry and have spent the last 23 years of my professional life working for our family winery, Dry Creek Vineyard I’ve held just about every job imaginable--from the office to the cellar, but figured out long ago that I was a lot better at the marketing side of the business than the winemaking. (Thank goodness for our wines too!) Currently I serve as Vice President working side by side with my husband running the daily operations of our 35 year old business."

What's really interesting is the insight Kim offers on just this issue (being an insider) in one of her blog posts where she takes note of the fact that more and more she does not know all the players in even her local industry. This speaks not only to the new blood that has entered the Sonoma Wine Industry of late but also of its vibrancy...not Kim's lack of insider status.

What you are going to get at Wilma's Wine World is some really fun reading the comes with glimpses into the life of a person at the dead center middle of running a very respected and very visible winery. The most current post is a perfect example wherein Kim explains the dynamics of the regular "family meetings" that occur and that are not all smiles and simplicity. It's great stuff.

The challenge for any winery owner that takes up blogging is keeping up with the necessary task of regularly writing. It's not like Kim has nothing else do do and can sit around in skivies and write blog posts all day. She's got to get that Fume Blanc into the market, make sure the right corks have arrived and make sure her distributors are doing their duty.

Here's to hoping that Kim can give us enough of her time.

Very Quaffable Innovations

John Gavin, best known as the author of Quaffability Blog and popular web designer to the wineries is on a roll with two new and innovative websites that wine lovers probably should be aware of.

WEB TASTING ROOM

It's a video blog. It's a source of excellent deals. It's a message direct from the winemaker. What John has done here is create not just a web site the provides access to good deals on wines, but gives you much deeper insight than normal into who is behind the wine. One deal is offered at a time (right now it's an SB and Red blend from famed winemaker Mia Klein) that most often includes a fantastic deal on shipping. The current offered delivers two very rare wines with SHIPPING INCLUDED. In addition you not only get detailed info about the wine but a video interview with the winemaker. Pretty cool!

FREEWINESHIPPING.COM

While I like the WebTastingRoom concept, this particular website is the one I think will lead a number of folks to sign up for their mailing list and RSS Feed. John is regularly posting links to wineries and retailers who have a deal going that offers free shipping. How cool is that??? "Free Shipping" is the number one promotion that consumers want from wine sellers. Not 10% off. Not 20% off on a case. It's "free shipping" or its equivalent that is desired.  Gavin is searching the web and posting his finds, be they from wineries or retailers. If my wife finds out about this I'll need to raise my rates to Wark Communications clients.

Cheers to more very cool wine innovations on the web!!

A Graphic Display of Wine

Logos!

Over the years we've done more than our fair share at Wark Communications. We're pretty good at it. The real key to creating a good logo is to understand perfectly the idea that a simple image is supposed to convey and who you are primarily going to be communicating to with the logo.

Why do I note this?

Well, your chance to prove your Wine-Related-Logo-Creation-Skills are upon you.

The venerable Wine Blogging Wednesday folks are having a logo design contest that will result in a new logo for the group. We don't know what the prizes might be yet, but consider it a challenge any good, self respecting, graphically inclined wine lover might want to pick up and run with.

To get you started, here are my "Thinking Tips" for your approach to logo creation:

1. Determine the top two ideas associated with the thing the logo will represent

2. Before you begin creating, play a series of word association games (words represent ideas)

3. Know how the logo will be used (will it be reduced in size in places, will be primarily in a 72dpi format)

4. Try to stay away from think fonts when creating an logo to be used on the Internet

5. The logo should have a color and black and white format

6. Try to present variations (The name spelled out, just the initials, black and white, color, vertical, horizontal)

I've never participated in Wine Blogging Wednesday because I don't review wines. However, I follow its results religiously as do numerous other folks. I also consider Wine Blogging Wednesday one of the most successful Internet-based group wine efforts every.

NOW....GO LOGO!!

Terroir's Reign

"While wandering the aisles of a Lithuanian supermarket recently..."

If you aren't willing to at least investigate a wine blog that begins a post like this then you really shouldn't be in the business of open minded wine inquiry.

It has been a while since I recommended a new wine blog. But Reign of Terroir, written by three highly educated wine lovers and educators, is well worth a recommendation if only for the intellectually rigor and thoughtfulness they put into their posts.

To-date, those posts are not many. ROT was begun late last years so it's just notw gaining speed. An early post identifies their purpose with the blog: "we will provide a wide variety of commentary on all things vinous. From International Terroirs and Travel to local Vineyards and Wineries, from Tasting Notes to Restaurant and Book Reviews, and much more, we will do our best to provide sober and useful information on the World of Wine."

And so they do. In fact the writers of this wine blog range widely in their interest. I was personally and finally taken with the blog upon reading a fairly long post about the royal history of the Bordeaux region that went on for five very long paragraph before wine or vines was ever mentioned. What impressed me was, as always, really good, entertaining context.

Reign of Terroir also includes a recent post on what is one of my favorite topics to consider on many levels: Terroir. This post, which includes in its title the mind whetting "Part 1", explores the various ways the idea of Terroir has been defined. Not an uncommon topic, but in the hands of a Reign of Terroir writer we find very insightful offerings and the lure of more to come. Outstanding.

Of course as I'm want to be, I find myself disappointed that more is not being written at ROT. It's the 16th of January and but 4 posts have been posted this year. That's not enough to satisfy me and my curiosity with this blog. Perhaps they'll step it up.

That said, I very much like this new wine blog. It has an intellectual rigor to it that is not common enough on blogs, yet each of the three contributors also writes with great style. The subjects of the posts are varied, yet always brought back to the point: what can we know and how can we better enjoy wine.

The Good & The Bad

The issue of direct shipping brings out the best and the worst in folks, no doubt about that. But I also think the Direct Shipping issue is the kind of topic that can demonstrate the power of online media and the power of blogs.

First the good in people. Alder's post on the Wine.com Stings has resulted in a remarkably coherent and well thought out set of comments on the issue. I can tell you that people are reading them too. In the past few days I've been interviewed by upwards of 8 different media outlets on the issue and what it means for retailers in general and to direct shipping in particular. But I want to bring you back to this issue of bringing out the good. Consider the comment on Alder's Vinography by one Emily & Stephan of Winemonger.com. It's at the bottom  of the comments. If you want to see a comment on a blog that not only sets the issue in context, but also delivers an appropriate rebuke, is amazingly articulate and actually takes action by putting their money where their mouth is, theirs is the comment to read.

More than anything you have to congratulate Alder for having what is clearly one of the most involved and well spoken readership anywhere.

But then there is the Bad that this issue of direct shipping brings out. I simply must highlight a comment I received on the post just below this. It is in fact the kind of comment I like to see if only because I know they are reading Fermentation. But it also highlights what this issue of direct shipping can do to people who are personally engaged in the issue. "The Big Boys" had this to say:

The last thing this world needs is a presumptuous prick like you telling everyone else that a system thats worked great for 70 years is corrupt.

You think you've got this figured out don't you. If there weren't any wholesalers you and your faggy California vintners would be up shit creeke.

You think drinkers and your precious SWRA will win against distributors then think again. You don't stand a chance and it's not cause of few mllion doallars. Its because no one wants to buy 100 dollar bottles of wine ovr the Internet. And it's because states don't want kids ordering booze.

Why don't you take your shitty blog, your shitty SWRA and leave the work to the big boys."

The issue of Wine.com and its stings will eventually fade away and we will all be on to another topic and another conversation. But the fact that the issue was unwrapped by bloggers and blog readers and by those that comment on wine bulletin boards will be remembered by Wine.com, "The Big Boys" and all those in the media and the simple wine lovers that found introduction to the issue online.

 

Wolfgang Spumes!

In the first place I'm willing to check out any wine blog that names itself with a genuine word I've never even heard of. Hence, SPUME is something I wanted to check into. But then I realize that SPUME is a new blog written by Wolfgang Weber, the second but better reason to check out this brand new wine blog.

Wolfgang is is Senior Editor at Wine & Spirits Magazine, a very well respected (particularly by those in the wine business) consumer wine publication you can find on any good magazine rack. Wolfgang brings more than just his editorship to the world of wine blogging. His background includes a stint at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, a time at Red & Green where he help produce outstanding Zins, and time with wine importer Bartholomew Broadbent.

Wolfgang joins the likes of Eric Asimov, Alice Feiring, Ray Isle, Jim Gordon and Mark Fisher—all professional journalists and writers who have turned to blogging to, I suppose, scratch an itch that isn't completely satisfied by their day job. That's good for folks who read wine blogs and folks who want excellent, authoritative wine commentary.

There is a very comfortable, personal, insiders feel to Wolfgang's new blog. It will be interesting to see if he talks much about the process of working in the world of wine journalism. I for one would be interested in reading about the intricacies of that life. The fact is it's a world very few people get a glimpse into and this is why, I presume, we regularly hear criticisms about wine publication not to mention claims of nefarious intentions when it comes to their coverage and review.

Still, back to "Spume". I actually looked up the word in my handy dictionary just to confirm that Wolfgang wasn't trying to put one over on us by defining the word as: "a mass of bubbles formed by a liquid, often through fermentation". Indeed, that is a good definition.

So, I'm looking forward to reading Wolfgang and tracking his "Spume". Now all I need is an opportunity to casually use the word in a conversation.

Most Interesting Wine Stories of 2007

The 2007 calendar year is coming to an end an that prompts me to think harder about the past two months, to make assessments and to try to learn some lessons before we move on the perfectly lovely arbitrary notion of a "new year".

The wine new of 2007 when looked at retrospectively turns out to be truly educational as well as a signal of what to anticipate in the coming year and years. Here are my most interesting news stories of 2007

Ernest Gallo Dies
You don't see a death like this every year. The man was 97 years old, the patriarch of the most important wine organization in the world and had led a company that literally spanned the entirety of the modern history and development of the modern American wine industry. I can get kind of morbid when these types of passings occur and start thinking who among us has the potential to illicit the kind of full on pause when they pass and the kind of jaw dropping awe when we are forced to consider the meaning of their lives to our industry. I can think of only one living person in the American wine industry who possessed similar industry personification potential.

The Case of Wine & Family and Books
The reception that Julia Flynn Siler's "House of Mondavi" received did not totally surprise me. W hat surprised me was that it was published to begin with and received such wide distribution. Though probably  a case of my being blinded by being inside the forest rather than in the clearing, I'm still stunned at how well this book on the travails and successes of the Robert Mondavi Winery did. Most books sell few copies. This book sold MANY copies. It's a testament to Flynn Siler and her publisher. But it should also be message: the goings on in the wine business ARE interesting to those outside it. I see the success of "The House of Mondavi" similar to the success of Sideways: There is ample room to exploit the goings on of the wine business that will be of great interest to the general, beer and coke drinking society.

$162 Billion and Counting
That was the amount that MKF Research determined the American Wine Industry contributes to the economy. This is a big Frigg'n number and was not lost on policy makers in Washington when it was unveiled there in January. It's hard not to take seriously an industry that generates this kind of contribution to the economy. When you combine this revelation with the related revelation that America will soon become the largest wine drinking country in the world and all sorts of ideas start swirling in your head from the change that has overcome our culture to the willingness of non-traditional wine producing states to support their developing industries to the potential to use the American wine market to explore new ways to promote and market wine.

Gary Vaynerchuk
It's very difficult to predict the course any public personality will take in the future, particularly Gary's. But it's important to note things about Gary's success with and and as a result of WineLibraryTV: 1) It has been a very long time since a true "personality" has emerged from the American Wine Industry that has the potential to transcend the cynical gaze of the industry itself and appeal to an audience of "regular people". Gary is doing that. 2) Gary emerged from an online presence. I think he'll eventually shed his association with the world of wine online. But the fact that he burst on to the scene in the form of ones and zeros is significant to a lot of people and should be significant to a lot more people.

"Screw'em"
That was the message that emerged from the Illinois Legislature during the middle of the year as lawmakers their bent to the will of wholesalers and striped Illinois consumers of the right to purchase wine from out-of-state wine merchants. The push to keep wine from being shipped from out-of-state retailers to Illinois consumers was a truly cynical effort on the part of nearly every organization involved. The same effort was made in Oregon, where it failed. And it was the same effort that succeeded earlier in places like California, New York, Michigan and Texas, all states where lawsuits are in place opposing this kind of anti-consumer and unconstitutional lawmaking. The successful effort in Illinois to screw consumers raises a very fundamental question: What will it take to demonstrate conclusively that state-mandated monopolies that deliver unchecked power to wholesalers are not just wrong, but almost always result in immoral results?

No More Wine X
I'm not sure how many people remember the brief impact the story of Wine X Magazine closing d own made. But I do. I think I remember more vividly because I know the publisher pretty well, I understood his vision for the magazine, I recall the rancid reaction from the wine industry when it first emerged with its truncated and off the cuff reviews. Wine X never became a big name publication. It never competed with the Wine Spectator, Robert Parker, etc. But it did change the way many people think AND write about wine. Darryl Robert's short, sometimes hilarious wine reviews that often used pop culture references or compared wines with body parts, music and celebrities is something you see in lots of places now. It doesn't matter if you like this practice. It only matters that you recall what magazine opened the door to allow it to become popular.

Turmoil Caused By Costco
When Costco convinced a Federal Judge in Washington State that it was unconstitutional for a state to allow its own wineries to sell direct to retailers and restaurants but force out-of-state wineries to use wholesalers to get their wines to market all hell broke loose. In 2007 we began to see the results of this. Naturally, America's wholesalers hate this development. It opens doors behind which they know lies the the shredded remains of their faux necessity. Nevertheless, the ruling changed a lot of things for a lot of people. In Virginia, a serious winemaking state, wholesalers convinced legislators to take away their wineries right to sell direct to retailers. In Illinois the legislature curtailed local wineries' ability to use "self distribution" to their hearts content and even stripped the larger wineries of their right to do any self distribution. It's important to note that these negative reactions to the ruling were all taken for the specific reason of protecting wine wholesalers from protection. But it's more important to note that the ruling will and is leading to some of the most interesting innovations that will have a huge impact on the American wine industry.

There were other important stories in 2007. There may be more to come. But these are the ones that really made me stop, sit up and think.

Turning Three Years-Old

Is three years a long time to have been writing a wine blog? I guess in the context of the wine blogging world it ranks up there. Today marks the 3rd anniversary of Fermentation. This blog entry is number 1,446 since the beginning of the blog. That's 1.3 blog entries per day for the past 1,095 days. I'm not sure what that means either.

The past year, as related to blogging and Fermentation, has been interesting. I've had the pleasure of speaking before a number of groups on the very issue of blogging. I've been asked consulted professionally with a number or business on the issue of blogging. Advertising inquiries at Fermentation have increased significantly. The American Wine Blog Awards were created. My readership has increased to around 23,000 Unique Visitors Monthly. My RSS subscriptions is at 800. I receive inquiries as though I were a member of the wine media at the rate of 3 or 4 per day.

All this because of my unfortunate tendency to be a Know-It-All.

I'm not a Know-It-All, even though I fancy myself one. In fact, the more time I spend blogging, reading the number of amazing wine blogs that have emerged and the longer I stay in the wine industry I discover that I'm actually a  Know-It-Less-And-Less. But what I do know for sure is that in the capacity of a wine blogger I have a perfect venue for exploring those things about which I know less while still feeding my inner Know-It-All.

I find myself in a very enviable position in my professional life after three years of blogging. I'm still enjoying the blogging. It's a source of amazing pleasure. I also find myself professionally in a position of working with a set of clients that can only be described as the best combination I've ever brought together at Wark Communications: Vinfolio, Inertia Beverage Group, Specialty Wine Retailers Association and Mayo Family Winery. The more astute reading this entry will notice something about that group of clients. They represent, together, an obvious point on a specific trajectory that my public relations and wine industry career has taken. I think Bill MacIver, If he keeps track of me, would be proud. Others who read Fermentation regularly will also see this career trajectory informing my blog posts.

Finally, when I reflect on three years and 1,446 posts worth of Fermentation, I always get the feeling I'm in the middle of something very unique that is churning around me in a vigorous and always surprising way. In my Bloggerviews I ask the subjects if blogging is having an effect on the world of wine. It is. I don't pretend that Fermentation is very significant in the way that wine blogging effects the industry. But I do recognize that by blogging about wine I find myself in the midst of something that is developing into an arm of the wine industry that will cause some folks, some time from now, to reflect, "wow, do you remember where there were no wine blogs?"

This is fun.

A Wine Blogger's Lists...

So many people with so much to be thankful for. A Set of Thankful Top 10 lists...

TOP TEN THINGS FOR WHICH WINE BLOGGERS SHOULD BE THANKFUL
10. The 24th Hour in the Day
9. Cheap Wine
8. Established Wine Writers that begin Blogging
7. The Controversy that is the 100 Point Rating System
6. Spell Checkers
5. The Wine Industry's Voracious Appetite For Publicity
4. Cheap Blogging Services
3. The Wine Blogging Community
2. The American Brand of Free Enterprise
1. The Robust American Appetite for Wine Information

TOP TEN THINGS FOR WHICH THE CALIFORNIA WINE INDUSTRY SHOULD BE THANKFUL
10. The Internet
9. The Old World Winemaking Heritage
8. Robert Parker, The Wine Spectator and the Rest of the Wine Media
7. Costco
6. Undocumented Workers
5. The Japanese and East Asian Wine Lovers
4. Napa Valley
3. Having the Regulatory Freedom To Experiment
2. Existing in an Affluent Country
1. A Remarkably Good Climates for Growing Grapes

TOP TEN THINGS FOR WHICH I AM THANKFUL
10. My Blog Readership
9. A Good Education
8. The memory of my Father
7. Having a Comfortable Home
6. Having a Career I Enjoy
5. Residing in Sonoma Valley
4. True Friends
3. Having My Health
2. My Whole Family
1. Being Alive

Now go forth, eat, drink and be thankful!

Why Ads On Your Favorite Wine Blogs Are GOOD!!

There has always been a bit of a cringe-factor among wine bloggers when it comes to the issue of running advertisements on their blog. It results, I think, from an intense desire to try to show themselves as being apart from mainstream publications that make their money off ads and who have always been accused of showing favoritism to those who run ads in those magazines.

But, advertisements are GOOD for Wine Bloggers as well as readers of Wine Blogs.

The vast majority of of folks that take ads on their wine blogs, and there are not many, are able to charge anywhere between $20 and $200 per month for a spot. The first thing to recognize is that if you are willing to show favoritism to an advertising client just to get, say, $100 per month for an ad on your blog then you clearly have more pressing problems than the compromised nature of your character.

But here's what's GREAT about Blogs that take ads: They motivate the blogger to create a better product (blog). No one wants to sell and ad to a company then see their readership languish or decrease. And in the world of blogging, readership increases as you increase your postings and as you keep your postings compelling for the audience you write for and for the audience your advertisers hoped to reach.

As you can see, we take ads at FERMENTATION. We sell companies these ads because we can. And the fact that folks do want to advertise on a blog that originally was created just for me to to spout off is a source of pride. But I don't think I'm any different than the vast majority of wine bloggers: I want to make sure that those who have expressed this kind of confidence in me and my blog are rewarded...and I'm not embarrassed by not living up to their expectations. That means I try to continue to make FERMENTATION a blog that more and more of a particular audience will want to read.

This is why ads on Wine Blogs are a good thing. They motivate the blogger to give you a better blog, whether you are an advertiser or a reader.

When is Wine Info Reliable?

What is "reliable" information?

This question might take on more significance when discussing matters of life or death, the value of your home or information upon which you are going to base business decisions. With regard to wine and our passion for the beverage I'm not sure it's nearly as important. After all, if someone tells you, "This is the best wine in the universe" and it turns out not to be...big deal.

But it still remains something we should all keep in mind as we peruse blogs like this one, the various wine magazines, as we listen to wine experts and as we take in the various wine-related political riffs that folks like myself and other bloggers and writers indulge in from time to time.

How then does one determine if the information we suck up is reliable? There are some basic rules that deserve repeating.

Is a source cited?
When you read or hear that X did or said Y, can you get to that source? The fact that blogs and increasingly non-blog but Internet-housed information does this quite well generally is an overlooked asset to the blog format. We tend to link. The other day I ranted a bit about what appeared to be a web site that stereotyped gays. And I linked to the site. That allowed a number of folks to look at the site and offer their opposite impressions. Look for citations.

Know who is Doing the Talking
These days if I can't know the name and the affiliation or background of the person making the claims or doing the commenting I simply won't spend time at that website. It's a matter of putting one's name behind something. Increasingly, I won't give much time to a blog or website that doesn't give me a way to contact the person doing the writing outside the comment section. If they feel the need to be detached from their reader, I don't feel the need to be their reader.

Objectivity
It seems a diminishing commodity these days, but given the amount of biased (celebratory bias?) one is exposed to these days, a source that self consciously tries to be a genuinely unbiased source is a real treasure. In the wine world there are a few of those sources: Wine Business Monthly, Wine Market Report, Wines & Vines, Practical Winery & Vineyard, Vineyard & Winery Management. What all these have in common is they serve the trade...business. They attempt to be sources of information that others can use to run a business. Those behind these publications surely have biases. But they rarely come out in the news and research they report.

The entertainment an lifestyle publications are biased. In fact you want them to be if you are looking for a good, provocative, interesting read. The reviews of wines are by definition the source of bias. What else could they be. And, the editors and writers bring to the table a solid idea of what they believe is a compelling story. There is no way to do this without using one's bias. If a reader knows this, they can get a great deal more out of the wine publications.

Experience
I'm looking for experts. I'm looking for folks that have been around the wine business long enough that they've seen and heard a lot. I expect them have a bias, but I also have a great deal more respect for these folks. They've tasted widely, talked to more folks, including others like themselves and, importantly, they've seen trends come and go. These folks may not give us unbiased information, but that is different than unreliable information. My experience is that the information I get from those that have been around this business for 20 years or more is going to be of a higher caliber, better filtered, more contextual.

More and more I'm thinking about what's reliable information and what's not. I've not been burned of late by relying on bad information. But of late I've seen more opportunity to be burned.

Is Wine Gay?

Yeah, I'm in PR. A marketer. At heart, I'm a salesperson (hell, I once made a good living selling vacuum cleaners door to door). So I understand the importance of getting the consumer's attention and setting yourself apart.

I understand the idea of market segmentation. I understand the idea of looking at the market by age, by ethnicity, by geography and by mindset and catering a product or pitch to the difference that exist between the market's segments.

I understand too the benefits and potential of catering to the gay marketplace. I've worked with wineries that have specifically catered pitches to a gay demographic.

But there is something about Risquesommelier.com that gives me the heeby Jeebies(sp?).

Is it still necessary to appeal to the purely sexual when marketing to the gay community? Must a product or sales pitch to the gay community assume that  my neighbor down the street  is primarily concerned with getting laid? From the look of Risquesommelier.com you'd think this is the only thing on their mind.

The site describes its focus this way:

Sommelier is a Wine Interest style BLOG site targeting the Gay consumer that goes far beyond the basic “Wine Critique” into detail riche experiences in Wine, Cuisine, Travel, Luxury Goods, Art and Music… all with a little lighthearted risque mischief."

Is there a wine blog that peddles sexual insinuations along side wine that is aimed at straights? Someone point me to it. I can see the benefits of a blog post on how to incorporate wine into the art of seduction. I can see the idea of a blog post that highlights the nexus between sex and wine. I can even wrap my arms around the idea of a blog that chronicles how a person incorporates wine into their love life. But a blog that insinuates that gays must see some kind of connection to sex in order to get interested in the content simply strikes me as too stereotypical to be of use.

Maybe I'm wrong.   

Fighting Back By Blogging

The number of blogs on the internet that cover the issue of direct shipping and consumers rights and shipping regulations is few and far between. There is the blog you are reading, the ShipCompliant Blog and Inertia's REthink blog.

NOW THERE IS A NEW ONE....dedicated to covering this issue particularly from the perspective of retailer-to-consumer shipping, but delving into the world of wine shipping issues on a daily basis.

WINE WITHOUT BORDERS is the new blog created by the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, for which I act as Executive Director.

Wine Without Borders will be the second blog I'll be maintaining on a regular basis, but this time I'll have help from the various members of SWRA who will also be posting commentary.

One things is clear: if the wine industry including retailers, wineries and consumers don't support efforts to make wine shipping easier and more open, then it simply won't happen. Today, retailers can ship legally into only 15 states. Wineries may ship into roughly 35. Why not all of them?

But here's how I hope Fermentation Readers can help...
IF YOU MAINTAIN A BLOG OR A WEBSITE, JUST PUT UP A LINK TO WINE WITHOUT BORDERS.

Help us get the message of free trade in wine out to a larger audience. One link per blog/website....That's all we ask!

Wine Without Borders will try to do some heavy lifting by being the ongoing communication vehicle for issues surrounding direct shipping. That means keeping you up to date on legal, legislative, political and philosophical issues concerning this issue. It turns out that the the interests of retailers are the interests of consumers. It's this conversion of interests that allows retailers to be always on the side of consumers on this issue.

So help out the cause if you can. Read the blog from time to time. Spread the word. Link Up. Please.

How will I maintain two blogs? I've committed to reducing my amount of sleep. But no tears for Tom. He don't need no stinking sleep!

The Most Important Wine Blog Is New Again

I think it's worth noting when the most popular wine blog on the Internet undergoes and launches a re-design. That's what Alder Yarrow has done at his Vinography.

Redesigning and launch a site as well populated with posts and information isn't an easy chore. As Alder puts it, "It's been a long road to get here. Like remodeling a house."

What's noteworthy is the organization of all this information. There is a subtle balance to be considered between using organization to communicate importance and using organization to communicate aesthetics. One thing that Vinography now does is list only a portion of the copious links it provides. For example, in the "Wine Blogs In English" section Alder lists only 10 blogs on the home page. To see the rest in this section you must click on "View All". This is an improvement from a purely design perspective. But I'm willing to bet there was some significant thought that went into taking all those links off the page. I think he did the right thing.

But what's interesting is that the blogs that do show up in those initial ten appear to be the ten newest added to that section. In case anyone doesn't realize this, it's a real gift to those blogs. Alder's site gets lots of traffic and here are the newest blogs Alder has found right there in front. This more than anything about the redesign is indicative of the publisher. Well Done Alder.

I like the new design. It's clean and remarkably easy to navigate. The ads are incorporated well. And the posts, the real meat of any blog, stand out nicely and draw you in.

Cheers to the most important wine blog on the Net!!

Who's a Pro?

I've been thinking about what makes "professional" ever since reading Ryan's Post and the following comments over at Catavino.

Ryan's query was: "Does it make someone more of a professional if their (wine) reviews are only accessible through payment? Does the exchanging of money make a person’s opinion (what any review by anyone really is) worth more?"

I'm not sure if the question is different if it's applied merely to blogging vs. wine reviewing. I don't think it is. Nonetheless, I started to wonder if I've become a professional "something" as a result of my blogging. Let's look at the details:

1. The work on Fermentation is mine.
2. I take money in exchange for the placement of advertising on the blog
3. I often consult for money specifically on the issue of blogging
4. I give talks to professional organizations on the topic of blogging
5. I regularly receive press releases based on my blogging.
6. I get invited to events based on my blogging.
7. I spend about a half hour to an hour a day focused on my Blog in some way.

Is it possible to be a professional anything if you only spend an hour a day working on that thing about which you presume to possess professional knowledge?

Clearly it is possible.

Does it come down to whether or not one makes a "living" based on this thing you profess to have professional knowledge of? I think so. I think this is the hard, cold fact. Unless you can support yourself financially based on your blogging, your are not a "professional" blogger.

I've often wondered what would become of Fermentation if I worked 5-6 or even 8 hours a day on its content and services. I think that would make me a professional wine writer working in a blog format. However, I'm still not sure what it would look like or what it would become. It would be interesting to know.

At this point Fermentation is an outlet for my personal thoughts and opinions, a place to encourage the growth of a publishing format inside the wine industry, a promotional vehicle for Wark Communications and an advocacy vehicle for change I think needs to occur. But, one thing it is not is a venue for a professional wine writer.

The comments and the post over at Catavino are very interesting. Take a look.

Tivo, Wine & iPods: Consuming Podcasts

Yesterday was my monthly trip down to the studios of KSVY 91.3 in the town of Sonoma to appear on the "Wine Biz" radio show with Kaz and Randy. I love doing this. It's a casual Radio show geared toward what's happening in the Sonoma Valley wine industry with occasional jaunts into "that other valley" as well as inquiries into what's going on nationally in the world of wine.

Randy, one of the hosts, finally has put together a system where each week's show is turned into a podcast. This of course is nothing but great news. But it also spurred me to take a closer look into where the world of Podcasting was at this moment.

My experience with podcasting amounts to regular listening to GrapeRadio, Winecast, Napa Valley Wine Radio, Mouthful and a few other intrepid wine broadcasting pioneers. But when I looked into what's happening in the world of podcasting today I was not prepared for what I found.

The list has gotten long. The production value is high. The accessibility is easy-peezy. And, in many cases, many of these wine-related podcasts are down right fun and interesting.

I did my investigation using iTunes and simply searching for the keyword "wine" in the podcast area. Below are the podcasts that are very specific to wine. This list does not include those podcasts that include wine as a regular feature in an otherwise food or travel dominated show. The list would be much longer had I included those.

I realize the list below represents poor blogging etiquette since I don't have links to any of them. For that I apologize. Chalk it up to laziness. However, I presume you could do a Google search on any of them, include the term "podcast" in the search along with the name and happily find all of them. What's striking about this list is its size and the diversity of apparent subject matter that is being focused on in the expanding world of wine podcasts. And keep in mind, this is only doing a search using iTunes. There are bound to be scads more out there not yet on iTunes.

Savor the Flavor with Jim White
S A V O R  Wine and Cuisine 
¡Klink! The Spanish Wine Podcast 
3 Fast, 3 Furious 
3 Wine Guys   
A Guy, a Girl, and a Bottle Wine Podcast 
Astor Wines and Spirits presented by podcastGO.com 
BathTalk with Kidder and Jade   
Bedrock Wine Co.   
Berry Bros. & Rudd Wine Podcasks 
booktalkradio's Podcast 
BottleTalk 
California Wine Clips 
Cellar Dwellers - Home Winemaking 
The Cellar Rat: Pinot 2.0
The Champagne Whoare 
Château Julien Wine Estate 
Chronicle Podcasts: Wine 
The Classic Wines Minute
CrushingGrape 
Dining on the Vine 
Don Sebastiani & Sons Podcasts 
El Wine Bar
Enjoy Wine - How to Host a Wine Tasting Party 
Good Libations 
Grape Radio 
Groovy Wine Blog & Podcast 
Learn About Wine and Wineries in Southern Calif. 
Mouthful   
Napa Valley Wine Radio®
Nashville WinePress - Geek Speak 
NBC11.com - In Wine Country Podcast   
The Oz Wine Show 
Pannotia Vineyards Podcasts Featuring Doug Frost Pannotia consultant and consigliere 
People in Wine 
Red or White? A Wine Forum
Ridge Vineyards Podcast
Sacre Bleu Wine Network
Screwtops Podcast    Free
Secret Sommelier Wine Podcasting 
Something to Wine About®   
South African Journeys 
South African Wine  - 2007 Harvest Report   
Steve's Ten Dollar Wine Challenge    Free
Sublime Wine Radio: Wine Podcast for Wine Lovers 
Talking About Wine - a Podcast by Henry Barrow 
thewinescout's Podcast 
Time to Make Wine Podcast 
Two Hands Wines: Wine Podcast Series 
UK Wine Show 
The Valley Vine
VegasWineGuys.com
Vilafonte luxury wine blog 
Vine Cast - Wine, Food & Travel Podcast 
VineVoyage.com 
Virginia Wine Talk with Brian and Bill   
Virtual Wine
VOICE OF WINE - The English Podcast
Will Write for Wine
Wine Australia: CRUSH by Max Allen
Wine Biz Radio
Wine Club Italia Tuscan Edition
Wine Discussions and Interviews 
The Wine Dude...Tasting As You Go 
The Wine Experience™ Daily Show 
Wine for Newbies   
Wine Industry Report 
THE WINE INSIDERS: VIDEO Interviews With Napa's Top Wineries 
Wine Library TV   
Wine Lovers Page Shoe 
Wine Making Radio   
Wine Press Northwest Winecast 
Wine Selections by Sean Cawley 
Wine Spectator Video Podcast 
Wine Week: Pouring Rapid Tips 
Wineass.com - Wine Reviews, Without the Bull 
Winecast   
WineFix 
Wineparties.co.uk 
WLTV Uncorked   
WLW-WineGeek's Podcast 
Women and Wine Radio   
X Marks the Spot for Albarino Wine

Do we really have this much to say about wine? It appears we do. The question as regards podcasts is HOW do we listen and learn from all that is being said in them.

My audio intake is done via the radio (almost always in the car) and via my trusty iPod (either in the car, in the house or in the yard while hanging in the pool or hot tub or working—my wife calls it "puddering")

That means if I'm going to listen to a podcast I generally need to put them on my iPod. That's easy enough to do...But...I have to DO it. I don't have to do anything to listen to the radio. Nor do I have to DO anything to listen to Art Pepper from my iPod. The point is that there is a bit of doing or setting aside of time to indulge in podcasts with their regular updates.

This is why I recommend that if you want to really want to hear what's being said about wine you make an effort to make doing so as easy as possible. There are various ways to organize the podcasts you want to monitor and listen to either via your iTunes or other services.

My own secret podcat weapon is my Tivo Box. I honestly don't know how to consume television without Tivo. I tried surfing the channels live the other day and I nearly ran to get a razor blade so I could end my suffering. If you have a Tivo and if it is hooked up to a home network then your little Tivo box will monitor the current episodes of your favorite podcasts. Just tell it which ones.  This allows me to relax in bed, listen to podcasts with my headphones on and flip through my mail, magazines, and stuff.

It's hard to embrace new media without new technology. That's a fact.





 

Wine Conversations

When it comes to wine blogs, I tend to be biased toward those that make me think, make me self evaluate and which offer something different.

Wine Conversations hit those marks for me. Robert MacIntosh, the man behind the blog, describes his motivation this way: "Having experienced the peripatetic lifestyle I am now keen to promote community where I can, be it in wine, or locally around my home."

His posts have of late been evaluative of the wine blogging and wine social networking communities. What's interesting is that in his latest post he hits on the notion of Blogging Fatigue, something that I tend to see hit newcomers somewhere around their sixth month of blogging.

Robert focuses on that original feeling the new wine bloggers get...the one that makes them think they'll really get into this. Then a community of sorts arises around their blogs and they find themselves commenting and working the social networks and finding less and less time to blog.

I hadn't thought about this side of the equation. What I tend to see much more often is the optimistic blogger who, likely because the readership or community hasn't developed, drops the project except for occasional posts.

Robert, however, seems concerned that the various wine social networks start getting their members to do the real work of wine enthusiasts: "buy, drink, rate and write about their wines". This seems to Robert more important than the networking...the work of keeping up if you will.

Robert's own blog seems to be on a weekly posting schedule at this point. If he bumped that up to twice a week his already thoughtful writings would be twice as good. I'll be satisfied with once a week, however. Robert has that kind of mind that tends toward exploration rather than reportage and that results in his readers being forced to think rather than be informed.

I wonder if he is getting burned out. I hope not. I hope he keeps exploring the ideas that sit between wine, community and culture. There aren't that many blogs that do this.

Wine Blog Ratings?

I had the happy opportunity to give a talk to a gathering of Wine Australia  yesterday in San Francisco. Wine Australia is the promotional arm of the Australian wine industry. You've heard of this industry, haven't you? That's right, it's the industry that might be the most innovative technically and marketing-wise of any national wine industry on the globe.

They had me to their gathering of Australian wine marketers and executives to talk about the issue of blogs. I choose to talk about blogs as part of wine media, rather than the issue I think many of them have thought more about..."should I start a blog". The latter is a much more complicated issue than the former. Where blogs sit in the context of the global wine media is a much simpler, more straightforward issue. So sue me, I took the easy route.

I've been getting a number of such invitations of late. It's a compliment. But let's not stop there. It's really indicative of a realization of those in the wine industry of the importance and significance of what's happening with wine blogs.

I started my wine blog in November 2004. By my count there were about 50 to 75 wine blogs on the Internet at that moment in time. Today, by my best estimate, there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 600-700 wine blogs on the Internet. What's going on is something of a snowball effect.

-Blogs are easy to create
-People see other wine blogs and want to join in
-Wine Blogs start to get recognition
-That spurs more people to start wine blogs.

I don't think we are going to see a slowdown in the number of wine blogs that are create. I think we are in the middle, rather than the end of the initial burst of wine blog creation. By this time next year I'd bet we see at least 1000 wine blogs on the Internet.

After yesterday's talk someone I respect greatly came up to me and made a suggestion that was very very interesting, but if carried through would certainly piss off a number of bloggers who thought the act was presumptuous:

"Someone needs to start a rating system for wine blogs."

He he he he he....

"How would you rate them?"
"Who are you to say what's good and what's not?"
"What qualification to you have to do such a thing?"
"It's just exclusionary!"

Indeed...to all of those things. However, let's at least admit that wine bloggers who review wines consider all these issues then go right ahead and review wines.

The suggestion was made based on the fact that it's nearly impossible to sift through all the wine blogs on  the internet to determine which are worth pursuing and why. And this, of course is the exact same rationale for reviewing wines. The person who suggested a Wine Blog Rating System told me that last years American Wine Blog Awards were very helpful to them in ferreting through the vast array of choices, but it really didn't scratch the surface. He's right.

There is already a Blog Rating System out there, but the system is admitedley quantitative, not qualitative.

The idea of a Qualitative Blog Rating project does speak to me positively for reasons that are surely indicative of real personality flaw I carry with me that has something to do with ego. However, the time it would take boggles the mind. Nevertheless, I'll say straight out that it's a great idea.

The Wine Australia folks were just great. Very inquisitive and thoughtful when it came to the subject of blogs and where they fit into the realm of wine media. They, like others, are right now beginning to figure out how to deal with them and why to deal with them .

Two To Spend Time With

I still get a real kick out of discovering new wine blogs by folks who are doing it well or have real potential to do it well.

I tend to judge blogs on a variety of criteria, but mostly it boils down to 2 things: 1) do they have interesting things to say and 2) do they say them in a compelling way.

Two such blogs have crossed my radar of late. Both are nicely designed, both have a casual air about their prose and both are written by folks with a good deal of wine expertise.

WINE SCAMP (A good name) is the product of a Society of Wine Educators Certified Wine Expert who gets around...geographically. Currently a Texas gal, the Scamp writes nice, long, contextual and informative reviews of wines that have a breezy, easy, well-informed quality to them. One of the signs that I like a blogger's writing style is that I read the posts, rather than skim them. I've been reading the Scamps posts. She appears to be on a twice to three times per week posting schedule.

The casually named TIM'S BLOG is an extension of Wine Expert, a leading supplier of home winemaking kits with a market that appears to be mainly in Canada. There are very few parts of the wine industry that are better suited for a blog than the home winemaking sector. Talk about the potential for community.

Tim's is a surprisingly wide ranging blog given the focus of the business he is involved in. He prose are casual and filled with opinion. Tim's posts appear to be inspired by his own approach to the industry combined with a regular communing with other bloggers and writers. He's on a regular schedule of blogging too which is admirable.

I'd bet we are up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 wine blogs by now. I come across a lot of them. These two are keepers.

My Sense of Wine Blogging: An Update

I sense a change or perhaps "evolution" in the world of wine blogging.

It's not so much a change in the way wine bloggers are blogging, but rather a change in the way observers of wine blogs are observing.

In part this sense I have comes from the fact that I am now receiving upwards of around 5 press releases or story pitches sent to me on a daily basis. I have to admit it remains a bit weird for me, a PR Guy, to get the story pitches and press releases rather than being the source of them. Nevertheless, these press releases and story pitches are coming from wineries, event producers, restaurants and those who produce products that relate to wine. I still receive at least one offer of samples per week. I've tried to be clear that I don't do wine reviews. Still, I get the offers.

I suspect that other bloggers are also receiving more and more press releases and story pitches.

This all adds up to the realization that more and more people who are concerned with what the media has to say are treating wine bloggers more and more like legitimate media. And of course we are.

One of the interesting things about the wine blogging community is that there is a severe camaraderie among the bloggers. I always thought this was case because wine bloggers were, together, setting off on a path that had not been trodden as the world of wine blogging was relatively new. There is safety in numbers. But this has evolved, it seems to me, into something different...something that has always existed: a camaraderie among writers/media.

There has always been clubby connection between writers, reporters and media types. They all do the same thing: they watch and observe as a profession. That's a pretty weird profession when you think about  it. What's weirder is that the "writer" has always been something of a celebrity in our culture and most cultures because they acquire an audience for the results of their observations. This also makes them attractive to marketers.

It was Gore Vidal I believe who once said, "A little part of me dies every time a friend succeeds." There's an ugly truth in this personal observation of Vidal's that most people can understand. But Vidal's comment on his insecurities doesn't remark on the other effect of a friend's or colleague's success: it creates motivation, as well as a little pain.

Any wine blogger that takes their blogging seriously doesn't mean it when they say, "I just like to blog for my own satisfaction." And I hear this from time to time.

As this evolution I sense takes off and becomes something more, as it becomes a state of affairs where bloggers' words and commentaries have a measurable effect on buying habits and opinion making, I suspect we will see a real separation of the wheat from the chaff. Those who take their work and their growing audiences and their significance seriously will be viewed as even more serious and significant by folks like me—PR and marketing folks. They'll also be taken very serious by their readers and even by casual observers of the world of wine.

The 2008 wine blogging season is going to be very, very interesting. The evolution I sense now will, I think, coalesce into a state of affairs where wine blogs become the center of attention to a great number of people in the wine industry. That's going to be exciting for a lot of wine bloggers who choose to make a grab at the prize.