Good Grape Wine Company

November 10 2009

Wine Writing:  Beyond the Slope of Enlightenment

The year 2009 will be known for many things: notably the most difficult economic period of time since The Great Depression, a circumstance that has left little unaffected.  However, less notably, 2009 will also be known as the year that our wine media intractably changed forever.

Despite much virtual ink being spilled this year about mainstream wine writers and their amateur counterparts on the Internet (bloggers and such), it’s still a conversation fraught with teeth gnashing and in situ analysis;  it’s a crystal ball gazing conversation about the great big maw known as the “unknown” and what it will bring.  And, while all of these conversations are framed in an “us vs. them” “now vs. future” context, the reality is that the lines have already broken down to the point of indecipherability.

It’s less Faustian bargain and more manifest reality.

To quote the comic strip Pogo from 1970, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

In years past, wine writers mostly wrote offline for a masthead with some dabbling online.  Nowadays, however, most wine writers write online with some dabbling offline.  It’s a 180 degree turn around and it has mostly happened in the last 14 months.

Simply, there are no professional wine writers or bloggers anymore – we’re all in the same online pool now as a new set of standards take shape for classifying merit.

Two summarizing points:

A) The term “blogger” is passé

There are professional wine writers, professional-amateur (pro-am) wine writers and people that keep wine journals online.  Ultimately, the delivery vehicle doesn’t much matter anymore.  And, frankly, I don’t want to be considered a blogger anymore and neither should others who consider their work thoughtfully.  While it’s a very “affected” thing to say, it’s true.  To quote Bernie, a supporting character in the 1986 movie, About Last Night, “A pro, Danny? A pro is how you think of yourself.”

B) The conversation of how people that write about wine get paid has less to do with advertising and more to do with endorsements and sponsorships.

This is a topic I’ll get into in a subsequent post, but it will blur the lines of editorial to a far greater extent than what is indicated by a recent post elsewhere on wine writers hopping back and forth between public relations and journalism.

By way of context, I’ve noticed several things that have led me to these seemingly simple conclusions that are far from simple.

1) Wine Writers Symposium sees wild shifts in audience

W.R. Tish wrote an article on the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers in the June edition of Wine Business Monthly. In that article he noted:

As a group, the symposium-goers represented the reality that wine writing has become a many-headed beast. What separated these writers from their peers was a desire to congregate with fellow scribes in a setting both rich in wine and deep in talented panelists and presenters. What they lacked in Parker-esque panache they more than made up for in passion and commitment.
So which way is the wind blowing in wine writing these days? As an attendee at the first (2005) and most recent symposia, I can state with certainty: it is blowing, with gale force, toward the Internet.

2) Wine sampling to online wine writers has increased 20X

While a novelty in the beginning, wine samples, as indicated by the now standard FTC disclosures, has increased at an incalculable rate.  By my personal estimate, I would say at least by a factor of 20X based on quantity.

3) Top bloggers are … professionals

A recent Wine Opinions polled named the top seven wine bloggers and the list comprised, well, all professionals of some sort – Eric Asimov, Jancis Robinson, Stephen Tanzer, Eric Orange from Localwinevents.com, published book author Tyler Colman, wine retailer and personality Gary Vaynerchuk, and Alder Yarrow.

4) Lifestyle journalist starts an online food and wine property

Corie Brown, ex-Los Angeles Times reporter, who covered wine topics, has started an online media property called Zester Daily (as noted in the comments section at Vinography.com).

5) Technorati says of blogging, “Mo Betta’ ”

The 2009 Technorati State of the Blogosphere report, the fifth edition of this annual survey of all things blogging, doesn’t have much new to say except discussing professional bloggers.

6) The book, “Say Everything,” says what needs to be said

In an impeccably researched historical view of blogging, author Scott Rosenberg notes in his book, Say Everything:  How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming and Why It Matters, “Historically, the succession of media forms and technologies follows a predictable pattern:  every innovation arrives with a fanfare announcing that it will replace its predecessor.  But when the dust settles, the newcomer almost always winds up having redefined that predecessor rather than eliminated it.”

7) The Gartner Hype Cycle moves blogging down the path

Most probably aren’t familiar with the “Gartner Hype Cycle.”  Conducted by Gartner, a technology research and advisory company, they provide a framework for placing trends in context based on sentiment and adoption.  In the most recent “Hype Cycle” for social software, released in July, they moved “blogging” from the “slope of enlightenment” to the “plateau of productivity” year over year.

By the Gartner definition, this move has blogging transcending a 2008 sentiment of, “experiment to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology” to 2009’s, “A technology reaches the ‘plateau of productivity’ as the benefits of it become widely demonstrated and accepted. The technology becomes increasingly stable and evolves in second and third generations.”

My overall point is this:  when hindsight being 20/20 turns into perfect vision, 2009 will be the year in which we note that the cheese moved for good.  There are no longer bloggers or professional writers.  They are one and the same.  Some writers are better than others.  Some writers write for a living, while others are hobbyists.  Even those hobbyists may pursue their craft ardently; a separation from those that keep online journals for more satisfaction and less externally provided, feedback-oriented gravitas.  But, it’s here and it’s now. 

In my next post, I’ll define the changing landscape of a little thing called money.

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