I’ve penned my first piece for Palate Press, the on-line wine magazine that is taking the global blog-o-world by storm!

Ok, maybe “taking by storm” is a bit of an exaggeration… until I showed up and the party could officially start, that is!

Ok, maybe the whole “the party can get started now” thing is a bit of an exaggeration as well. 

Actually it’s a total exaggeration – Palate Press doesn’t need me, they’ve been kicking total ass since their launch earlier this month; I’m just a straggler who finally got around to writing something almost good enough to make a cut into the article rotation.  (Since I’m friends with the editor and publisher, they probably let me slide.  Just this once.)

Anyway, if you’re interested in my take on the idea of Pennsylvania’s godless, communist liquor control board to poison the economy of the good Commonwealth with wine kiosk machines that automatically dispense bottles of wine after doing some sort of personal scan that I think destroys part of your soul and drains the blood from innocent babies (hint: I’m not a fan of this plan), then head over to Palate Press and check it out!

Cheers!

Intrepid Wine Enthusiast editor and fellow blogger Steve Heimoff pointed out to me this week that 1WineDude has somehow found its way into the top slot in PostRank’s wine blog rankings.

Steve and uber-wine-industry blogger Tom Wark have both recently penned blog posts about the various rankings of wine bloggers in one form or another – both takes are well worth a read.

What does the PostRank ranking mean?  Aside from the obvious – i.e., temporary bragging rights over #2 Wine Library TV – I’m not sure what it means.  I attempted to find out by checking out how PostRank comes to its ranking decisions, but I couldn’t figure it out in 15 seconds, so I gave up.

I’m grateful, I’m happy, and I don’t plan on changing anything because all of this ranking business doesn’t tell you whether or not you’d like reading 1WineDude.

For those bloggers finding themselves at the top of any of the various ranking algorithms these days, I’d offer the following bit of time-honored wisdom:

According to General George Patton, "For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning…”

I like to think that warning went something like this:

“The higher the monkey climbs, the more you can see of his butt.”

Cheers!

(images: postrank.com)

“One not only drinks wine, one smells it, observes it, tastes it, sips it, and—one talks about it.”
- King Edward VII of England

If the events of the past several days are any indication, one also enters it into wine competitions, and then one talks – and talks, and talks – about the results!

In case you’ve been living inside of a bottle lately, here’s a recap.:

Last week, the Journal of Wine Economics issued a report that included an article by Robert T. Hodgson titled An Analysis of the Concordance Among 13 U.S. Wine Competitions.  Hodgson’s report analyzed data garnered from 13 wine competitions and more-or-less concluded that the distribution of medals from those competitions showed no difference statistically then if the medals had been awarded by chance.

My personal take was that the report lacked sufficient analysis of the potential context impacting wine competitions for the data to support the conclusion drawn in the report – even if that conclusion might ultimately be true. Several people agreed and disagreed with me – which is one of the great things about blogging, after all!

The article was probably designed to kick-off discussion on the relative value of wine competitions in general, and no mater what your view of Hodgson’s analysis, it would be difficult to refute it’s success in doing just that.

The repercussions of the report were discussed on Dr. Vino, Vinography, and right here on 1wineDude.com – and judging by the excellent and myriad opinions on the topic that were voiced in the responses to those articles, the topic has more legs than half a glass of 16% abv Grenache.  The topic even found its way into the discussion forums on the mead website GotMead.com (seriously).

Topping it all off, on Friday the Business Section of the L.A. Times ran a story by Jerry Hirsch on the aftermath of the report, in which I was quoted.  What I liked about the L.A. times piece, aside from the fact that they spelled the name of my blog correctly (though they incorrectly stated that I am a Certified Wine Educator – I’m not, I’m a Certified Specialist of Wine, which is a different cert. but from the same organization), was that it had a slightly different take on the report  – namely, how the competition results are used after the competition is over…

Read the rest of this stuff »

Wow – I feel like I’ve arrived!

This week, 1WineDude is featured on Tom Wark’s long-standing and excellent wine blog Fermentation.  This mention is extra-special for me, because I’ve really enjoyed Tom’s Bloggerviews series and have often been turned on to new and interesting writers that Tom has featured.

To me, when Tom features a blogger on Bloggerviews, it usually means that they’ve really hit their stride as a writer.  I don’t know if I quite qualify as hitting my stride, but I’m certainly honored to have been included in the great company of wine bloggers that he’s featured.  I think that Tom’s prescription for eyeglasses may need renewal, however, since he mentions in the feature that I’m a good-looking guy… clearly his glasses require work (or at the very least, need a good cleaning).  Anyway, check out Tom’s post here:

http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2009/08/bloggerview-25-joe-roberts.html

Tom begins his feature with the words “Here’s what I think about Joe Roberts…”  Well, I need to tell you all what I think about Tom Wark.

Tom deserves a medal for the work that he has done, sometimes behind the scenes and outside of the public eye, as Executive Director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, with a mission to further the fight for a free market for wine in the United States.  To put it simply, if you are able to have wine shipped to your home directly then you probably owe a small debt to Tom and the SWRA for helping fight to maintain that right for you.  If you can’t yet have wine shipped directly to you legally, then Tom is the person you want on your side in the battle to get there.  Keep fighting the good fight, Tom!

You can follow the SWRA’s Wine Without Borders blog here.

Cheers!

(images: fermentation.typepad.com)