Technically speaking, there are approximately a boat load of wine blogs out here on the “global interwebs.”

I know what you’re thinking.

What, there are wine blogs besides 1wineDude.com?  Really??

A recent count has us at about 1,000 wine blogs being published worldwide.  Nearly 50% of those are published in English.  That’s about as dizzying an array of choices to the average American wine consumer as his or her available wine brand choices, which some estimates have pegged at about 7,000.

Personally, I subscribe to a paltry, tiny percentage of those blogs.  Not because only a small percentage are any good; it’s mostly because I’m lazy.  In fact, I am constantly amazed at the quality of many of the wine blogs available.  But… I’ve got a toddler running around the house, a side career in music, and an IT career.  Oh, yeah, sometimes I like to see my wife, too.  So time isn’t exactly a luxury at Chateau Dude.

For those of you who are also busy, I’m going to start featuring small pieces on other wine blogs that I follow.  The idea is that if you have 5 minutes, I’ll give you five wine blogs that you should check out in those 5 minutes, if only to bookmark and come back to them later when you do have more time.

Hopefully these blogs make it into your RSS reader of choice, if they’re not there already.  Just remember to come back to 1WineDude once in awhile, okay?

So… here is the first edition of “5 in 5”…

Read the rest of this stuff »

I love writing about wine.  And I often encourage people who love wine to blog about it, since it’s so easy to set-up a blog, and it’s such a great way to record your thoughts, feelings, and observations as you travel your own personal ‘wine journey’.

Sometimes, when a wine lover that I know gets a bit more serious about their quest for wine knowledge and for wine blogging, I get asked questions about how they can monetize their blog, and what type of money the can expect to bring in via their blog.  The conversation usually goes something like this:

Them: So… what kind of money are you making on 1WineDude.com?

Me: Not much.

Them: Really? Like, how much is not much?

Me: Like, almost nothing.

Them: Really?

Me: Really.

Them: Oh.

[ insert awkward silence and disappointment ]

For reasons that I find difficult to comprehend, some people tend to think that wine blogging can become a source of direct income. If you’re one of those people, I’ve got some bad news for you.

You’d better be passionate about wine if you want to blog about it, because monetary reward is not really going to be part of the pay-off for you. 

Simply put, you aren’t going to make any serious money from wine blogging…

Read the rest of this stuff »

One year ago, nearly to the day, I posted my thoughts on why you should be a wine blogger.

A year later, on the eve of the 2nd annual American Wine Bloggers Conference, I find myself posting about almost the exact same topic.

While writing last year’s post, I found myself asking what I imagined many readers of that article would ask.  Namely, Why Should I Care What You Think? And today I find myself answering that question.

You shouldn’t care what I think.

Ironically, I’m saying this in response to an increasing amount of questions that I am getting from those new to blogging (and in particular those new to wine blogging) – at least, newer to it than I am – about how to be a “successful” wine blogger.

My advice is this:  Wine blogging has arrived.  So stop caring what I think and get on with it…

Read the rest of this stuff »

Here we go again.

I don’t know why wine writing icons feel compelled lately to disparage wine bloggers as a whole, but it seems that the venerable Anthony dias Blue is joining Robert Parker in painting all wine bloggers with an overly broad and negative brush. As in the case of Parker’s blogger diatribe, by casting aspersions on wine bloggers with such a broad brush, Blue undermines his own (otherwise very compelling) argument and credibility.

Blue’s attack comes in the July 2009 issue of Tasting Panel in a piece titled “…And Who Regulates the Bloggers?” Blue starts by coming to defense of Robert Parker with respect to the recent brouhaha that Tyler’s article drummed up on his Dr. Vino wine blog. You might recall that Tyler uncovered what appeared to be very inconsistent behavior by some of Parker’s staff, behavior that didn’t seem to line up at all with Parker’s published code of ethics. This event generated quite a bit of discussion on the Internet, and even prompted Janis Robinson to (finally) detail her own ethics code with regards to samples and reviews.

Strangely, he cites “barbarian bloggers” instead of simply referencing Tyler’s Dr. Vino blog. I don’t recall anyone but Tyler breaking the Parker story, so I’m confused as to why Blue would use a broad and disparaging term to describe bloggers a group.

Things get much worse…

Read the rest of this stuff »