This week, Alder Yarrow posted video coverage of the Wine Writing & Social Media panel discussion that he moderated at the most recent Wine Writers Symposium held in Napa.

I was fortunate to have attended the Symposium and to have sat in on the panel that Alder moderated.  It’s great to have the video captured for posterity, and in hindsight I’m not sure whether to laugh or to cry at the state of wine writing and its monetization possibilities.

In summary, there have probably never been so many challenges combined with so many potential opportunities when it comes to writing about wine and making any money while doing it.

The challenge is that, as we said in the panel discussion, “the genie is out of the bag” when it comes to free content and wine: people expect to be able to get high quality content about wine on the Internet, and pay nothing for it.  This is putting severe downward pressure on wine writing payment in general.

The opportunity is that the market for consuming information about wine has never been larger, and the price of entry is free, for now.  Personally, I fully expect that market to become saturated, after which it will become expensive to enter, and it won’t expand again for probably ten years.  If you want the details on that, well, you’re gonna have to watch my not-so-pretty face on the video!  Actually, fellow panelists Doug Cook, Steve Heimoff, and Patrick Comiskey make the video well worthwhile despite my inappropriately timed humor.

Would love to know your thoughts on this – please check out the video, and shout out in the comments; where is the future of wine writing and its monetization going?  To hell in a hand basket? Or soaring to new heights?

Cheers!

I’m thrilled to be hosting the next Wine Blogging Wednesday (#67) right here on 1WineDude.com, which will take place on Wednesday, March 24th!

I haven’t hosted a WBW event since November 2008 (WBW #51), so I wanted to make sure that I had a really cool theme for the event – and I think the one that WBW founder Lenn Thompson and I agreed on is pretty cool and will generate some great discussion.

The Theme

This month’s WBW theme is Seeing Red For the First Time.

To participate, you’ll need to pick a red wine that you would use to introduce a white wine drinker to red wines for the first time.  Think of a person that only ever drinks white wine, and answer the question: What Red Wine would I use to convince that white-wine-only person that they should also drink reds?

Include a review of the wine, and be sure to tell us why you chose that style of wine, or that wine in particular (or both).

We’ve deliberately kept this theme open-ended so you can go as crazy as you like in your choices.  ANY still red wine is eligible (including Rose wines, provided that they’re made primarily of red varieties).

Would you ease them into the world of reds with an off-dry Rose? Or go full-bore and knock their socks off with a classic, expensive, explosive fruit bomb?  You decide!

The Logistics

The way that WBW works (in summary): You get a wine that lines up with the theme, you review said wine, post your review and related thoughts, and send a link to the host, who will then summarize the event and write a wrap-up with a link to your review.

So, to participate in this round of WBW, post a comment to 1WineDude.com on or before March 24th (either comment on this post, or to my WBW post that will appear on March 24), and include the link to your review.

Easy-peasy-nice-and-squeezy.  Please spread the word, this one is going to be fun and has the chance to introduce many of us to Reds that we might not otherwise be trying – and that’s always a good time!

I know that I’m looking forward to reading what you come up with!

Cheers!

(image: matteogonet.com)

Last week, Vino 2010 (self-described as “the biggest Italian wine event ever held outside of Italy”) officially touched down in NYC.

One of the most anticipated discussions of Vino 2010, at least in the eyes of PR, media, and wine writers, was the panel “Blogging on Wine and Social Networking: New Tools in reaching Consumers of Italian Wine” moderated by Anthony Dias Blue.  1WineDude.com readers will already know that I was a bit concerned when I’d heard that Dias Blue would be moderating, as I felt that he was too publicly anti-blogging based on quite negative statements he’d made about wine bloggers last year.

That was before I learned of the panel members, who included some very pro-blogging (and very, very talented) friends of mine (blogger Alder Yarrow, PR wiz Steven Raye, and search guru Duog Cook), and the very public and open way in which the panel would be held.

The panel result is freely viewable on the Vino 2010 website, and has been included below in its entirety.  All 2+ hours of it.  If you care at all about wine PR, wine writing, wine blogging, and how to engage them all in the changing wine marketplace, then Id say all 2 hours are required viewing – and this is coming from a guy who normally cannot watch more than 3 consecutive minutes of video at any one time.

Why?  Because the panel members offer advice on how to engage wine writers in the new decade that is so spot-on it might as well be a blueprint for how it should be done.

Why is that important?  Because wine brands need to get into the engagement game if they have any prayer of truly understanding (and ultimately influencing) the conversations happening about their brands.

And I know of what I (virtually) speak here, because last week I started getting a firsthand lesson in brand-awareness…

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I found out that I finished in the top ten of PostRank.com’s list of the most engaging wine blogs of 2009.  PostRank’s list is based on algorithms that measure online social network reactions to blog articles.  I think, anyway – it all seems a little complicated and makes me glad that I like writing instead of math.

I’m pleased as spiked sangria punch to be sharing the top 10 list with such talented and esteemed company.

I’m less pleased at how similar we all seem to be.

As you will note from this handy inset graphic, the list is comprised almost entirely of white males (click to embiggen):

To be fair, both Decanter and Lenndevours are blogs with talented staff, not all of whom are white males.  Just the vast majority of whom are white males.

The lack of diversity is kind of odd, and sad.  I wonder if we represent the majority of wine consumers?  I doubt it, considering the studies that point to women being the driving force behind wine consumption (especially in the U.S.).

I’ll stop now as I expect to get flamed for even bringing up the topic (those of you who know me have figured out by now that I can’t help myself) and turn to the somewhat safer discussion of which 2009 1WineDude.com blog posts PostRank measured as being especially engaging.  But I’ll warn you, that this list had me scratching my head just as much as I did over the ‘white guy convention syndrone’ of the top 10 list…

Read the rest of this entry »

Well… this is… interesting.

Fellow wine fanatic and blogger Robbin Gheesling passed this tidbit onto me earlier this week:

Remember Anthony dias Blue?  He’s the guy who just this past summer had this to say about wine bloggers:

“…bitter, carping gadflies who, as they stare into their computer screens and contemplate their dreary day jobs, let their resentment and sense of personal failure take shape as vicious attacks on the established critical media.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Seems he might have changed his mind – dias Blue is currently scheduled to give a talk on wine blogging at the upcoming VINO 2010 Italian Wine Week in New York.

Here’s the skinny from the program:

Seminar # 7
Room: Louis XIV  Suite (4th Floor)
Presentation: “Blogging on Wine and Social Networking: New Tools in reaching
Consumers of Italian Wine ”  
Moderated  by:    Anthony  Dias  Blue  ,  WCBS  Radio,  journalist  and  author,  Los
Angeles, California

WTF?!??

I don’t want to disparage the guy the possibility that his tune on wine blogging has changed – and I sincerely hope that it has.  I just really, really, really hope that dias Blue has had a bit of self-revelation and has seen a turn-around in his thinking since July, or this might get really ugly, really fast. 

Because the last thing that wineries, PR, and media need to hear is that blogging and social media aren’t important or are somehow full of “barbarian… militant bloggers” (his words, from July), because both are patently false.

Cheers!

(images: gayot.com)

Feels like forever since I posted the first edition of 5 Blogs in 5 Minutes.  Time to pony up five more wine blogs that I think are worth checking out!

Another Wine Blog – The brainchild of Amy &  Joe Power, this is a site that has been on top of the hottest topics in the wine world lately.  The writing is done well, which makes up for the confusing (to me anyway) new layout of the website.  Anyway, what I really like about this couple is that they always provide an educated and opinionated take on those topics, which is why I read blogs, after all!

Wine Without Borders – Talk about fighting the good fight… This blog from the Specialty Wine Retailers Association sheds the harsh light of truth on the despicable practices of those who are trying to keep a monopolistic strangle-hold on alcohol distribution in the U.S. Living in the Communist-wealth of Pennsylvania, I have a vested interest in the SWRA’s success.  This is an organization and a movement that needs and deserves your support.  Tom Wark deserves a medal for the work he’s doing here.

Rockss and Fruit – Think that I speak my mind?  Well, Lyle Fass makes me look like a U.S. Ambassador to Saudia Arabia.  Normally, stream-of-consciousness style blogs bore the hell out of me, but Lyle has a way of making even the mundane seem interesting and his recollections of interacting with some of the world’s best wines borders on the poetic.  And when he tears something down, damn, he really tears it down!

Drinks Are On Me – Is there anybody who doesn’t know Bostonian Dale Cruse?  If not, you’re in for a treat.  Dale is one of those truly unique figures in the wine world – funny, articulate, and thoroughly original in the items that he decides to cover on his blog.  What I love about DAOM is that I never know what Dale is going to talk about next, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be laughing my ass off when I read it!

Wine Lovers Page – This site has been around for a good long while and while not technically considering itself a blog, it more-or-less functions as one anyway.  I’ve always found this site to be insanely useful and approachable.  They also have wine-related forums that are a few-thousand members strong. Worth checking out.

Cheers!