Was I interested?  Well… Duh.

I was amazed at the finished product that Alana produced for me, which you can see below (click to embiggen), for those of you who are tweetdeck fanatics and never visit anyone’s twitter pages directly.

I’ve been thinking about giving Alana’s biz a plug on here for a few months, and never really got around to it because I suck and should be destroyed, and probably should mow Alana’s lawn and then pay her $2 when I’m done.  Anyway, better late than never!

Here’s how Alana describes her new biz:

“I create custom websites and logos for individuals / small companies, offer graphic design & logo services, as well as social media services (from setting up an account for someone to running an account should the individual want to outsource that).”

You can check out her wares at www.sixtwentymedia.com which should be going live soon, or email Alana if you’re interested in a kick-ass twitter background.

And yeah, I know this has nothing to do with wine but you’ll get over it because you’re cool like that.

Cheers!

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…

Boku amounts of this type of Franciscan info. exists on-line, thanks mostly to the brand being part of the Constellation portfolio.  Presumably, this info. was put together for the internal use of Constellation employees, but it’s not locked down in ay way so you can freely access what’s out there – if you’re willing to put up with the fuss of searching for it.

Take, for example, a more-or-less traditional Corporate America slide deck that provides an intro. to Franciscan (with a quiz at the end to ensure you were paying attention and not Facebooking instead when you were supposed to be learning).  The presentation isn’t mind-blowing, but it does have links to videos where Franciscan winemaking director Janet Myers talks about current releases and the winemaking approaches behind them.

The videos are cool, if only because they put a human face on the brand – a human connection.

Why isn’t this stuff on the Franciscan website? Dunno – seems a missed opportunity to me. I guess I’ll have to ask them next month.

Wineries are sitting on such a potential wealth of information that could connect them to their consumers, and it’s easy and very inexpensive to get started on it.  And yet… hardly any of them do it.

Sigh…

During my research, I also came across a few other interesting items that might tickle your wine geek fancy:

• If you’ve ever wondered, while driving through Napa, what winery brands have their hands in what vineyard locations, the Oakville Growers Association have put together a handsome and handy interactive appellation map that tells you just that.
• If you dig the Franciscan presentation linked above, Constellation has similar material on nearly all of their other wine brands at their Academy of Wine website – well worth a look if you happen to be sampling one of their wines and are curious for more info.
• The Academy is also available in a mobile format, which looks smart-phone-friendly and offers quick facts about the brands and their wines.  Looks like a salesperson’s tool to me, but I could see value in it if you’re at the wine shop considering a purchase and want to check out some more facts about the brand.  Considering how big the Constellation portfolio is, I’d wager that this link could come in handy even though it has info. only on the Constellation brands – especially considering that it also contains vineyard profiles, pronunciation guides, and links to wine-related vids.

Cheers!

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…

Take me as an example in terms of a potential wine “expert.”  If you look at the header of this blog, you will see various wine certification credentials.  Do they make me a wine expert?

NO.

They make me a potential expert on the topic of wine, which only means that I can tell you a lot about wine itself (how it’s made, for example).  I can bore you to tears, and drive you to near insanity talking about it, actually.  That doesn’t make me a wine expert any more than writing a book about day care makes you an expert on how to best relate to any one child in daycare that is having a bad day and missing his mommy.  What worked for one child in that circumstance probably probably won’t work for all of them.

The logical final conclusion of experts not wearing their authority heavily, coupled with the general embracing of the subjectivity of taste, is the abdication of their authority in terms of that authority being based on knowledge.  In other words, my certifications don’t give me any more knowledge over and above what you could freely obtain on the Internet.  What matters is how that knowledge is utilized to help you connect with your inner wine-tasting god or goddess.

What matters most when it comes to knowing wine is not that you memorize arcane details (e.g., how different soil types impact the styles of sherry); what matters is that you get the most enjoyment out of wine that you can, and that you push the wine industry to continually offer a better quality product for your money.

Wine is a consumer good, but it’s also capable of being a work of art.  Few other consumer goods have that kind of breadth. Are there basic levels of quality that underpin all wines?  Maybe – and that’s where those 100-point scores might be useful.  However, no matter how talented any expert wine taster might be, fundamentally they cannot tell you whether or not YOU will enjoy that wine.  That’s where the 100-point scores fall flat.  Guess what – only one person on earth can make that kind of call.

That’s right, mirror boy: I’m talking about YOU.  Experts?  Please – in the arena of finding wines that you will love, any expert’s skills are worth precisely f—k-all unless targeted at you in a useful way.  Forget about wearing their authority more lightly – in this case, the experts’ authority is like wearing the Emperor’s new clothes – transparent and ultimately totally useless.  It’s a bit like the ‘readerly’ view of postmodern literary criticism – just as the novel cannot exist without the reader, the wine expert is ultimately worthless unless somehow helping others to enjoy wine in some way.

At this point you might be thinking, So why should I be listening to you then?

Well, that’s easy: if you want to learn about wine in general, listen to me. If you want to learn what wines are best for your palate, then don’t listen to me, listen to your palate!

If you want to become an expert on the topic of wine, by all means go ahead and do it.  Or rely on those you trust who have already made the time investment to become experts – there are many out there and several of them are very, very talented.  But if you’re looking to those people to tell you what wines are the best wines for you, then you need to remove your head from the sand and manifest your real destiny.

That destiny is to become your own personal wine expert.  And there’s only one person ever born who can actually step up to that challenge. That’d be you!

Cheers!

(images: cstv.com, 1winedude)a

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!)…

Everybody else is doing it, and you can’t reap the benefits of its value until you join in.

That’s it, really.  I’m done.

What, you want evidence?  Alright, alright… How about this…

The entire spectrum of people who are poised to influence the future of wine (how it’s sold, how it could be made, what brands to which Gen Y will start to connect) are talking about wine collectively on twitter.  Dale Cruse has dedicated a substantial portion of his wine blog to documenting this wine twiterati, and it’s likely that from those same ranks will one day emerge the future power brokers of wine media (please note I said “future” and NOT “current”).

Don’t believe me?  Well then, consider this: Darren Rowse, the mastermind behind the truly awesome and inspiring ProBlogger.net and one of the few people globally who can make a comfortable living doing nothing but blogging (not to mention being someone who not only has his finger on the pulse but is actually influencing how the future of social media is taking shape) picked up on Dale’s Top 10 wine twitter people to follow and highlighted the list on his twitter-focused blog.

I think that my good friend Jeff Lefevere summed up the importance of the wine world going on-line in this quote, taken from a recent interview with Jeff published by Sacre Bleu Wine:

“The long-term impact of this whole Internet thing is our media is changing.  Newspapers and magazines aren’t going to go away, but we’re seeing the big ship make its long turn and instead of the Internet being one component of a marketing mix that is predominantly offline, we’re seeing the Internet turn into the main focus supported by offline activity.  It’s a 180 degree change we’re going through now and the natural result is some new voices will emerge that are no longer hindered by legacy gatekeepers.”

If the Internet is the main focus for that juggernaut Argo wine ship, then twitter is its “wave motion gun.”  Damn, did I just throw out a Starblazers reference?  CHECK IT!!!

Now, at this point you might be thinking “But Joe, I’ve heard that only 14 year-old girls use twitter?”

You have my permission to smack whoever told you that squarely in the face (you may want to first ascertain that this person is smaller than you, doesn’t know some form of martial arts, and/or is a slow runner before administering the face-slap).  Look at it his way: how many 14 year-old girls do you know who discuss fine wine online?

In case you haven’t noticed, most of the wine people talking on want to talk to you on twitter, as well.  They’re offering an open invitation for you to join the conversation, in fact, provided you don’t do it simply to perform blatant sales pitches to them (hint: that’s not conversing, it’s being the annoying ‘close / loud talker’ at the party ).  For example, some of you may have noticed the [ SARCASM WARNING! ] subtle reference to my twitter account located on the blog:

[ END SARCASM ]

I guess what I’m saying is that the on-line wine world has reached a critical mass on twitter.  There’s no turning back at this point.  Twitter itself could crash & burn, but the conversation would still remain (taken up at Facebook or possibly on another service that has yet to be invented).  The point is that the conversation is happening, and you can’t be heard unless you join in now.

Just one word of warning – apparently, using twitter negatively impacts a form of memory called, uhm… ahhh…, crap, I forget…

Cheers!

(Images: generatorland.com, umd.edu, 1WineDude, bloggodown.com)

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…

I can’t tell anyone how to be successful, because in blogging it’s fundamental that you define your own terms of success.  Maybe you want to be the next Robert Parker.  Maybe you want 300,000 page views a month.  Maybe you just want a steady stream of wine samples so that you don’t have to buy as much of your wine out-of-pocket.  Whatever it is, be clear about it and go for it.

What I can tell you is that wine blogging, as an institution of sorts, has arrived.  That’s indisputable now.  The discussion about whether or not wine blogging is relevant to the wine industry is over; the discussion is now how relevant its impact can be.  The 2nd annual American WBW, being held this week in Sonoma / Napa, has over 250 blogger & winery participants, and the organizers have more or less had to beat sponsorship requests back with a stick.  If wine blogging was irrelevant, none of that would have happened. If you’re in the wine industry and you’re not paying attention to the reach of bloggers and other social media vehicles, then I feel very sorry for you (or, rather, for your bottom line in the future).

Now that wine blogging is part of the present of the wine industry – not its future; those who are still debating that distinction are behind and should be desperately playing catch-up if they aren’t already – it places an interesting burden of sorts on those of you that want to blog about wine but haven’t jumped into the fray yet.

Namely, you have to be yourself.

Forget everything that people are telling you about how blogs are supposed to operate, what you are allowed to do, and what you aren’t allowed to do.  Blogging may now be somewhat mainstream in the wine world, but it’s still too young to be saddled with too many rules.

So go to WBC `09.  Learn some blogging rules.  Then go break them.

But most importantly, if you’re going to come to the party, then you’d better Come Original.

Or don’t come at all.

Cheers!

(images: transcultural.files.wordpress.com)

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…

Enjoy!

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Cheers!

(images: tastelive.com)

Time for another Twitter Taste Live! event.

I know what you’re thinking.

Will this herald yet another untimely celebrity death and bring twitter to an equally untimely end?

I sure hope not.  At the very least, I hope I have a chance to be buzzed before twitter takes a dump all over the Internet.

So onward we will press… This time around, wine twitter-maven and all-around ubiquitous (and hilarious) on-line wine goddess Thea (a.k.a. WinebratSF) will be leading us through a tasting of wines hand-picked for Summer enjoyment from venerable Napa producer St Supéry Vineyards.

Proceedings will kick off at 9PM ET on Saturday, July 11.  You can read Thea’s energetic intro to the event here.  A run-down of the wines looks promising:

• Moscato 2008
• Sauvignon Blanc 2008
• Virtu 2006
• Cabernet 2004
• Elu 2004

I’ll be in attendance, as I can’t seem to achieve escape velocity for any TTL event… nor would I want to, come to think of it…

Hopefully, I’ll see you on-line as well (you can RSVP here).  In the past, I’ve tried to capture some of the twitter banter via plug-ins on 1WineDude.com, but TTL has now become so successful that there aren’t any plug-ins that can track and replay enough twitter accounts to make a replay worthwhile!

As one of the few people who’ve been able to participate in TTL form the very beginning, and to watch it grow (and contribute a bit to its success) along with its generous founding members… well, in a way it makes me very proud and happy to see how far it has come.

TTL is officially ROCKIN’ LIKE DOKKEN, baby!

On Saturday, I’ll be toasting to what will hopefully be many, many, many more TTL events.

Twitter Fail Whale be damned.

Cheers!

(images: tastelive.com, twitter.com… sort of…)

winecliQ has now moved out into public beta, which means that you can jump into the winecliQ fun if you’re so inclined.  The idea behind the program can be summed up (in the words of AmericanWinery.com) as “Drink Wine, Get Paid.”  A summary / overview from the winecliQ website:

Select your favorite wines at AmericanWinery.com. Add ‘em to your winecliQ. Promote your picks through email, Facebook, your blog, website, etc.

People who dig your style buy the wines you recommend direct from the wineries through a secure checkout.

Wineries handle shipping and customer service.

You get cash just for talking about the wines you like.

Now your wine “hobby” can pay for itself!

There are new FTC regulations that could end up throwing a wet blanket on the winecliQ party, but as far as I’m aware there’s nothing stopping you from joining and possibly profiting from it in the short term if you have a blog or website.  In addition to the sidebar widget, you can also get a customized landing page for your wine picks, and an “individget” that can be used to highlight individual wine picks (if they’re available for sale on AmericanWinery.com, that is).

There’s also been a Ning.com social network set up for winecliQ users at social.winecliq.com.  Can’t say I’m making a mint from this, but I do like the idea of supporting American wineries that I think are making good juice, and possibly cashing in on that… someday…

Anyway – worth checking out especially if you’re blogging about U.S. wine.

Cheers!

(images: winecliQ.com)

Words that will, no doubt, come to define my on-line “brand”… and come back to haunt me… (Epitaph: “Didn’t Spit” ?).

French Oak Media has posted their video coverage of Boston’s recent Wine Riot! event, which frequent 1WineDude.com readers will recall was taken over for the multi-country / multi-timezone / biggest-ever Hospice du Rhone Twitter Taste Live on-line tasting (which is given ample coverage in the vid).

I make a short cameo appearance towards the end of the vid, as does TasteLive! creator Craig Drollett.  I think Craig was more sober than I was, so pay more attention to him.

You can watch the vid below, or here after the jump.

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The Wine Riot – Taste. Learn. Love. from French Oak on Vimeo.

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Cheers!