As if I wasn’t behind enough on my ramblings here on 1WD (I’ve still got several Sicily updates to share with you, after all!), I’m going to put myself even further behind! Overachiever here!
Here’s the skinny: it’s going to be light on the feature content here on 1WD (though I expect to keep up, for the most part, on the weekly mini-reviews), probably throughout February.
The reason is that I’m smack-dab in the middle of a book contract, and the pace is Ludicrous Speed through at least the first week of March. Ostensibly, this is actually good news. I’m not sure how much I’m at legal liberty to divulge with respect to the book, so I’m uncharacteristically erring on the side of caution.
What I can tell you is that it’s a wine book, and it’s targeted mostly at the beginner end fo the wine drinking spectrum, which is exactly the kind of wine book that I’ve kept asking over the years, as each one was released, if the world needed yet another beginner-oriented wine book. But the publishers have done their homework, and see a market need for the particular type of book in which I now find myself enthralled; and we both saw a fit in terms of voice and style.
So… I’m excited, and am now frantically typing my little wine-stained fingers off, and hope to share more details with all of you in the (very) near future (and get back to writing my usual freakish features and market screeds on these virtual pages).
Just a quick-hit today to let you know that I’m the latest victim subject of the “Turning the Tables – Interviewing the Interviewers” series over at Wine Industry Network. In those articles, Carl Giavanti (who, I must say, has the coolest glasses in all of the wine biz) flips the script on us journalist types, asking us the questions.
You can read my little TtT feature at the WIN Advisor website, if you’re so inclined (and so foolish) as to actually want to get inside of my head for a few minutes. We tackle topics such as recommendations to wineries when working with journalists, my most memorable recent wine tasting experience, whether or not I consider myself an “influencer,” why my postmodern writing style is sometimes the publishing equivalent of (bad) experimental jazz, and how to effectively de-feather a live chicken while driving at high speed in a Ferrari (I might be lying about that last one). You know, the usual stuff.
Next Monday (or June 11, 2018, at the time of this writing), will mark the final run of the Wine Mini-Review Round-Up posts in their current incarnation here on 1WineDude.
I originally began reviewing wines on twitter (and, as far as I’m aware, I might have been the first person to do so) about a decade ago, in an attempt to both a) provide an additional outlet for an increasing number of wine samples and tastings that came my way, and b) have some fun trying to cram something pithy, meaningful, and edu-taining about a wine in 140 characters.
Over the years, it’s become increasingly difficult to maintain those reviews across multiple social media accounts, automate the reproduction of the mini-reviews on to the “traditional” blog format here (hey, twitter: “thanks” for shutting off the RSS feeds years ago… for which you can totally suck my white ass!), and try to keep all of that content within manageable numbers while also providing links to finding those wines for the curious, and dealing with the advent of twitter reducing the fun in the exercise by increasing its update character count.
After all of these years, we are just way overdue for a change-up with respect to all of the above. Like, years overdue, at this point.
Here are how things will look moving forward with respect to the whole Mini-Review thang…
A weekly list of short wine reviews (in Mini-Review format) will appear here on 1WD, with more direct and vintage-specific links to where the wines can be found for purchase.
Like all 1WD posts, a link to the article will be cross-posted to twitter, FB, etc.; but If you want ’em, you’ll need to come here to get `em!
I will finally be posting stuff to Instagram (probably just good old-fashioned wine recommendations, and not formal reviews).
So… hopefully this is all fairly clear, and those of you who are following the reviews at 1WineDudeReview won’t get too pissed-off (if so, refunds for your $0.00 outlay are available at any time).
In any case, there will be similar content, just probably more of it (which means more wines to talk about here!), and with extra wiggle-room on each wine for my bizarre commentary.
Normally for these year-in-review recaps, I start by going into some details about my life over the last twelve months.
F*ck that sh*t this time. I’m focused full steam ahead on the future, baby.
If you need a summary, 2015 was the year that I gifted myself my freedom. The results are much more positive than I’d expected: while far from being perfect, generally speaking my life is great. Most importantly, my kid is doing great. And what I do for a living is still, well, great (although, from here anything else would be a pretty serious letdown, unless I could finagle a paying gig as a hammock nap tester).
So this year I am skipping the detailed recap, and getting right to the good stuff (you’re welcome!).
Here are the top ten most popular 1WD articles published in 2015, as measured by visits (if I’m utilizing my website analytic skills correctly, that is… which is a seriously sizable if)…
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