It looks like my fears of VINO 2010’s “Blogging on Wine and Social Networking: New Tools in reaching Consumers of Italian Wine ” panel discussion possibly deteriorating into a blogger-bashing session can probably be put to rest.

In an attempt to expand the reach of the event beyond the walls of the Waldorf Astoria, VINO 2010 appointed James Rodewald, former Drinks Editor of Gourmet magazine, as its official blogger representative.  James will be tweeting live from the event as well as covering the event on the official blog (which contains a blogroll of the bloggers who are attending VINO 2010) – all steps in the right direction.

What really convinced me, though, are the panelists for the session on Blogging, which include friends of mine who I know for a fact understand the power of blogging in the wine world – namely, Alder Yarrow of Vinography.com and Steve Raye from Brand Action Team. 

And what sold me lock, stock, and wine barrel was this: for the panel on social media and blogging, the details will be covered live via the web and James will be taking questions for the panel via twitter:

“On Thursday, February 4th at 10AM – the "VIRTUAL VINO, MILLENNIALS, AND SOCIAL MEDIA DECANTED" panel discussion moderated by Anthony Dias Blue with Alder Yarrow (vinography.com), Dave Cook (Twitter), Steve Raye (Brand Action Team), and Ronn Wiegand. James will be monitoring the Twitter feed and posing questions Tweeted in from throughout the country. The seminar will focus on social media and wine bloggers as the future of consumer wine education, and potentially the wine trade.  You and your readers can tune in to the panel discussion at www.italianmade.com/vino2010.”

Now, if the on-line wine community excels at anything, it’s keeping people honest.  So I expect a pretty balanced and honest discussion about wine blogging and social media for that panel.

Whew… ok, I feel better now…

Cheers!

A funny thing happened on my way to the 2010 Pro Wine Writers Symposium.

I did some research, and found what I was looking for, just not where I expected to find it.

Since my Symposium fellowship was underwritten by Franciscan, I’m planning on a visit to the winery when I’m in Napa next month.   So I was digging around on the ‘global interwebs’ to get my bearings on all things Franciscan before the visit.  Reasons being that I wanted to get a solid starting point of Franciscan knowledge from which to branch out when I ask them questions and generally get all, you know, in-depth on them (you know how I am); also I’m a total geek and that kind of stuff is fun for me.

Not that I am without some knowledge of Franciscan – I’ve tasted some of their flagship wines, and their website is chock full of background on their Napa legacy (and with a past that featured Agustin Huneeus and one of the first real “Meritage” wines, your bragging rights around having a ‘legacy’ are pretty safe) and their take-it-to-perfectionist-extremes focus on blending.

As for what’s happening now (and I mean, right this second) at Franciscan… not so much.  I didn’t find anything at their website to connect me to the current happenings of the people there.

Nada.

I did find some of that information, though – just not at Franciscan.com, and not without a bit of digging…

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I have seen the future of wine criticism, wine dialog, and wine expertise.

Wanna see it?  Great – go look in the mirror. Because the future wine experts look an awful lot like you.  You look great, by the way – did you cut your bangs?

A little over a week ago, Slate.com ran a piece penned by Mike Steinberger in which Steinberger, among other things (like skillfully recapitulating the recent kerfluffle over code of ethics violations on the part of Robert Parker’s staff, and ending sentences with prepositions), offers a glimpse of what he sees as the future of wine writing and wine experts:

“Like other journalistic niches, wine writing is in crisis at the moment… We are moving from a monologue to a dialogue, and this reflects a fundamental truth about wine: It is a matter of taste, and taste differs from one person to the next. There’s still a need for expert opinion, but authority is going to have to be worn a lot more lightly going forward, and it isn’t going to command quite the deference that it used to.”

I know what you’re thinking: Did Joe actually use the word kerfluffle? Also, what’s the big deal about that?  This post isn’t about blogging, is it?

Don’t worry, this post is not about blogging.  It’s about you, and (albeit tangentially) about how Steinberger might have gotten it just a bit wrong.

You see, wine writing isn’t in a state of crisis, unless you get paid for it, in which case it’s in no more a state of crisis than any other form of paid journalism – welcome to 2009, folks.  If you’re a consumer of wine information, on the other hand, then wine writing is actually in a state of liberation.

I think Steinberger is right on the money when he says that tastes are ultimately personal, and that there will still be a need for expert opinion – he’s just missing the point of where that opinion is, which is of course with YOU. That’s because YOU are the new wine expert…

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Remember Internet chat rooms?  Sure you do – those were the simple, on-line places where you could converse, via written text-based messages, with other seemingly like-minded folks about an endless array of topics, ranging from politics to puppy grooming.  Well, converse until the person on the other end asked “Are you a chick?  are you hot?”

Back in those days, I had two buddies who would frequent on-line chat rooms dedicated to topics about Wars, and strike up a group conversation.  Once they thought that they’d earned the trust of the folks chatting on-line, they would say something deliberately inflammatory like “all of the Star Wars books suck!” and start a short-lived but vicious flame-war, during which they would often change sides to try to confuse the poor people who jumped into the fray.  It was kind of like an all-out Star Wars chat room ballroom brawl.

Ah, the heady, youthful and poignantly ignorant days of the Internet!

Forums came next, but aren’t real-time, and in the on-line wine world the forums most closely associated with print media (eRobertParker.com and Winespectator.com) have been marred by the negative perceptions of hostility on the part of both members and moderators.

In these more recent days, the chat room and the on-line forum have been superseded.  We have seen the future of on-line wine chat, and it’s full of wine twits like me.

There is a place where wineries, media, bloggers, and wine lovers are congregating to chat about wine on-line, and it’s called twitter.  And if you love wine, you need to be part of this virtual community.

I’m not going to ‘explain’ twitter here.  Mostly because it’s very difficult to explain twitter, and I’m lazy.  Instead, I’m just going to try to convince you that if you’re not yet part of the wine community on twitter, then you need to be.

Fortunately for me, that’s actually pretty easy, because it pretty much boils down to one only reason (and even I can explain that one!)…

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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…

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This past Saturday saw yet another successful Twitter Taste Live! event, with the theme being Summer wine selections (read: value-priced, easy-quaffing vino) from Frederick Wildman & Sons, the venerable importing business that celebrates its 75th birthday this year.

I suppose it’s hard not to like a company with as diverse a portfolio as FW&S, but I think it’s even harder not to like a company launched by a man whose nickname was “The Colonel” and who once said:

“Business, and particularly the wine business, should be conducted as to bring pleasure, pride and friendship to those engaged in it.”

The fine wine industry could use heaping portions of all three of those elements these days.  I suppose the pleasure part is easier for the wine industry than it is for most other business endeavors – but it’s the pride and friendship piece that reminds us that what we do needs to feel good in our heart-of-hearts and should ideally to foster mutual benefits (those last two also separate the Colonel’s description of the ideal wine biz from being able to describe prostitution using the same sentence…).

Anyway, let’s get off that topic before I get tempted to add pics of NYC street hookers in this post.  Following is a recap of the twitter banter that flew fast, wittily, and furiously as we tasted through six (yes, I’m hungover) FW&S wine selections…

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