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April 22 2009
I am pleased to host and announce the May edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday with the theme, “California Inspiration.”
Appropriate thanks go to CorkDork for a job well done in April and, of course, to Lenn from Lenndevours for fostering this monthly commune, now in its 5th year, in online wine conviviality.
Thematically, this month is intended to be broad while acting as homage to Robert Mondavi, the 1-year anniversary of his passing on Saturday, May 16th.
Because Mondavi was such an inspiration physically, spiritually and philosophically to so many – both in the industry and to consumers, while acting as the forefather of the modern California wine movement, I would like for WBW participants to revisit a California wine that they have enjoyed, or have a particular fond memory of, and tell a story.
Simply, Mondavi promoted an air of inclusiveness, not exclusiveness, conducting many of his business practices around a philosophy of aiding other wineries in knowledge and practices to create a profile for California wine that would rival the world’s finest wines.
Mission accomplished.
The easy route for this theme would be to taste a Mondavi wine, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Mondavi would have preferred an air of openness. No good is accomplished by a singularity of purpose that acts as an exclusionary barrier for others.
Likewise, Mondavi was a people person, fostering a spirit of goodwill amongst friends new and old while promoting a life well lived that included wine and food as complementary companions on the table and in life.
As wine enthusiasts, some of our fondest memories, the various chapters in our lives, frequently have wine as a major player. It is these stories that I want to see relived and recounted, with a California wine as the centerpiece.
What is your “California Inspiration?”
Nostalgia, recent experience, poignant, triumphant, all stories are welcome, just make sure that it has a beginning, middle and an end with a specific wine.
Please go buy or pull from your stash, a bottle of whatever that wine was that created a memorable chapter in your life, revisit the bottle, and share your story.
The deadline for submission is May 13th. Please email me, post a link on my WBW post, or at this post.
I look forward to learning more about each of the participants through their words and stories.
As a bonus, the best story, as judged by Lenn and myself will win a 1-year subscription to Sunset magazine, the lifestyle magazine for California and the West Coast.
A couple of Mondavi quotes as grist for your writing mill:
- Out of all the rigidities and mistakes of my past, I’ve learned a lesson that I’d like to see engraved on the desk of every business leader, teacher, and parent in America: The greatest leaders don’t rule. They inspire.
- I’ve always wanted to improve on the idea of living well, in moderation, wine is good for you - mentally, physically, and spiritually.
- It is giving me a great satisfaction, because I had the notion that we could make great wines equal to the greatest wines in the world, and everybody said it was impossible.
- There are a lot of people with a lot of money, and I’m amazed they don’t understand what a great pleasure it can be to give.
- Wine to me is passion. It’s family and friends. It’s warmth of heart and generosity of spirit. Wine is art. It’s culture. It’s the essence of civilization and the art of living.
- Wine has been a part of civilized life for some seven thousand years. It is the only beverage that feeds the body, soul and spirit of man and at the same time stimulates the mind….
Goodness and Godspeed to all as you celebrate the Good Grape for Wine Blogging Wednesday and honor Robert Mondavi in the process!
March 8 2009
With the 3rd Annual American Wine Blog Awards now past us, and the torch for the 4th edition passed and now governed by the Open Wine Consortium, this is a good time to pause and reflect on the state of the wine blogosphere.
Some may consider this navel-gazing and self-absorption of the highest order and it probably is. The person that talks about how important what he/she does is, does not do anything very important.
Yet, I also believe, without equivocation, in the future of online content, regardless of niche, so it is not an overstatement to say that today’s blogger will be comingled with tomorrow’s mainstream press with the only difference separating the pro and pro-am being a paycheck, and given trends, it may not even be a separation of dollars and cents.
This should not be a revelation to anybody. The democratization of content is already upon us, arbiters of quality vis a vis mainstream press are paper tigers. Literally.
Other wine bloggers have made recommendations for improvement for the American Wine Blog Awards and there are a number of additional swirling positions around advertising, ethics and such. These issues will not resolve themselves overnight and nor do I want to get into an ideological battle. In this regard, to mix metaphors, chance favors the prepared, discretion is the better part of valor and freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Instead of covering well-trodden ground, what I want to focus on today is what I believe to be the single greatest barrier to widespread adoption of wine blog content online – the lack of usage of RSS feeds.
If I could wave a magic wand that would grant me one wish it would be that every single person that reads or happens across a wine blog would subscribe to RSS feeds.
However, my traffic stats, an unscientific study by Winery Website Report, and Steve Rubel from Micropersuasion tell me that content consumption via RSS feeds are anemic (11%) and potentially not growing.
I have been consuming content in an RSS feed for over four years. To me, it is second nature and it totally changed the way I lived my life as a consumer of information – books, magazines, television, the newspaper, my online activity and knowledge management all changed because of RSS feeds.
No kidding. I will say it again. Reading content online via RSS feeds changed my life as a consumer of information. I also posit that you cannot “get” social media if you do not read information via an RSS feed. The syndication of content via RSS are the wheels on the car that enable the engine of social media sharing.
My wife just set-up a feed reader in the last six weeks and it is as if a benevolent Pandora’s Box opened for her. That is not an unusual occurrence when you go from seeking things in an outbound capacity to inbound consumption of information.
The reason that consuming information via an RSS feed is important is because there is a finite capacity to proactively seek out information. With the explosion of wine blogs, there is simply no good way to keep track of even 25-30 wine blogs, let alone 100, which represents about 15% of the total wine blogs out there, without reading them in a Feed reader via an RSS feed.
Simply put, wine blogging cannot grow as an influential medium until more people use RSS and feed readers.
So, here is my request, if you are reading this blog and you are not reading this via a feed reader, and you do not have a feed reader set-up, please do so immediately. The below video will give you additional information on why it is important and how to do so.
Okay, now that you’re convinced that reading wine blog content and other topical areas via an RSS feed is important, I want to introduce you to three wine blogs that were not a part of the American Wine Blog Awards, but should be next year. It goes without saying that you should subscribe to their RSS feeds.
My Daily Wine by Amy Atwood
Why You Should Read her Blog: She is in the trade, she is wicked smart, and most days you will find her writing something A) interesting and B) not talked about anywhere else
What Would Alpana Drink by Alpana Singh
Why You Should Read her Blog: She’s a Master Sommelier, she is in Chicago, she provides a grounded perspective on wine, she focuses on food + wine, and, frankly, she’s just simply the real deal.
What Would Alpana Drink RSS Feed Link
Wine Expedition by Neil and Jeff
Why You Should Read Their Blog: This is one of the few general interest, not overly heady, wine blogs that is actually interesting and genuine.
March 6 2009
Thanks to the yeoman effort of Tom from Fermentation, who organizes the awards, and all participants in wine blogging and the online wine conversation, this blog was named a winner in the 3rd annual American Wine Blog Awards in the category of Best Wine Blog Graphics/Presentation.
Thank you to those that nominated this site and those that voted.
I’m a two-time winner in this category which means, well, that I need to make sure I brush up my site for a run at the 4th annual awards next year.
If you’re new to this site, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed in the furthest right column.
When I first started blogging I sought the help of some really talented folks at a blog design studio called, appropriately enough, The Blog Studio. At the time, I wanted the site to be as professional as possible matching what I was striving for in terms of the writing. Even if I didn’t have good furniture in the house, it was going to have darn nice curb appeal. Likewise, it was a leap for my wife who wondered very audibly why I was spending a not inconsequential amount of money to design a site for what amounted to be a hobbyist pursuit. I brought home a boat catalog a couple of days later and we looked at $30K boats that we would use 1/3 of the year and presto-change-o work commenced on the blog design.
And, likewise, anybody that has followed this blog for awhile knows that it took me some time to dust off my writing skills that had been left neglected and confined to business communication for ten years. To this day I still butcher the use of the possessive and write passive sentences that change tense. And, it’s still difficult for me to keep posts to a word count that doesn’t cause a sudden bout of somnambulism, but, like life, it’s a work in progress.
That said, The Blog Studio knocked the design out the park and most every compliment I get for the site starts and nearly ends with the design. So, thanks to Peter and Lucia and team at TBS for really amazing work and helping me go in a visual direction that is still somewhat out there in progressiveness.
Thanks very much to all. It might seem funny, silly, or peculiar, but it’s things like this that keep me and a whole bunch of other bloggers fired up and motivated to write about our passion for wine in a way that somebody else might find interesting, useful, humorous or valuable.
Godspeed to all and I look forward to being a part of the online wine conversation in ‘09 and in the future.
February 1 2009
Tom Wark’s 3rd Annual American Blog Awards began the nomination process on Saturday, January 31, 2009.
Nominations are open in seven categories until February 8, 2009:
• Best Wine Blog Writing
• Best Single-Subject Wine Blog
• Best Winery Blog
• Best Reviews on a Wine Blog
• Best Graphics & Presentation
• Best Business Industry Wine Blog
• Best Wine Blog
I am pleased to have been a finalist for “Best Business Industry Wine Blog” in 2008, a finalist for “Best Wine Blog” in 2007 and a winner in 2007 for “Best Wine Blog Graphics.” Will I be able to make it to a finalist role in 2009? Hard to say, as the competition is a lot different then it has been in years past. Simply, there are more and better wine blogs now. More credentialed wine folks are writing wine blogs and professional wine writers are writing blogs, as well. Similar to the quality increase in wine over the last 15-20 years, we are seeing an increase in wine blogging quality at a rapid clip into more niches.
If you’re a reader, but you don’t feel like you have a command of the wine blogosphere to make nominations, I would encourage you to do a couple of things in your selection/nomination research process:
First, go to Alawine and check out the following link –
And, then go to Alltop and check out their list of wine blogs –
1) Alltop Wine
Finally, go to Fermentation and Vinography and check out links to wine blogs til you feel like you have a sufficient understanding and sampling of the wine blogs available –
1) Fermentation
2) Vinography
Before you make your nominations, I would encourage you to think about the following things relative to a blog –
1) Is it original – does the writer take a unique perspective and point-of-view?
2) Does it feel like you know the person writing based on their writing “voice?”
3) Is the actual writing of a sufficiently high-enough quality that it doesn’t detract from the message?
4) Is the writing trustworthy and defensible in opinion?
And, finally, of course, support the sponsors of the American Wine Blog awards, as well. Mutineer Magazine, Open Wine Consortium, and Riedel glasses.
Now – go and nominate the best!
Good luck to all.
December 20 2008
A while back, a friend of mine with teen kids told an amusing story about teen boys and Axe body spray, no doubt a precursor to the dubious Burger King cologne, with hints of ‘cooked meat,’ that was launched this week, in time for the holidays.
As the story went, these freshmen in high school dudes would finish their gym class to shower and get ready for their next class and so vigorously spray themselves down with Axe body spray of differing scents that the locker room would be choked with a powdery residue hanging in the air and a nausea-inducing stench.
Eventually, body sprays were banned from the locker room. Public safety, I suppose.
Little known to most of the free world, those tragic-comic Axe commercials about Axe body spray helping teen guys land woman, apparently work with 12-15 year old teens.
Who knew?
According to Wikipedia, though I have not seen it, Axe rolled out commercials this year for their chocolate scent, Dark Temptation, “a chocolate smelling fragrance that implies that because women like chocolate, they will find men who smell of chocolate irresistible.”
Clearly, Axe was the inspiration for the simultaneously awe-inducing and head-scratching announcement this week that Burger King was selling promotional cologne called “Flame” that promises to marry “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.”
My only question is, because there are wine-related perfumes available, as featured by Dr. Vino a couple of years ago, what burger perfume do you pair with what wine perfume?
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