Yep. Really.
I’m crazy excited to tell you that I will soon be authoring a freelance wine column on Playboy.com.
So now you have some legitimacy behind the “I’m just going there for the articles, honey!” excuse (you’re welcome!).
The folks behind Playboy.com reached out to me many moons ago, and the whole thing has been even many more moons in the making, so I’m thrilled to be able to get started – and humbled and honored by the opportunity to work with such an amazing brand. I don’t know how long this gig will last, and the column doesn’t have an official name yet (please shout out your ideas in the comments – I’ve got a feeling those will be very entertaining!), but we have some great ideas for content, which naturally will be exploring the more sensual sides of wine.
Now, I’ve never featured beautiful nude women on 1WineDude.com (though I’ve come close!), but I suppose you could say that there’s a bit of “spiritual alignment” in my writing style and the serious-but-accessible-and-slightly-irreverent take on the subject of wine that Playboy.com was looking for. To me, it’s a bit like Forbes.com bringing on Jeff Lefevre’s smart, analytical writing style, or how the populist, grounded voice of Vinography’s Alder Yarrow fits in so well with JancisRobinson.com. So you can add one more name to the list of home-grown wine bloggers being tapped by long-standing on-line brands.
There are a few things you probably should know about this Playboy.com gig…
1) This is a freelance gig, with freelance gig pay, and I’m not an employee of Playboy. But that’s okay by me, because Playboy.com reaches several million eyeballs per month; of course, most of those eyeballs aren’t visiting to get wine recommendations, but that kind of audience volume is substantial, even if most of them are going there more for boobs than booze (I don’t know where puts me on the list of U.S. wine peeps in terms of potential reach… presumably pretty high, but I’ll let the PR people run those numbers and tell us, since they’re supposed to be doing that kind of stuff anyway :-).
2) I don’t yet know when the content will start running (and in fact, I’ve yet to create all of the content; so trust me, you will know when I know).
3) I have not met Hef (yet!). And I have not partied at The Mansion with Robert Downey, Jr. (…yet! Hey, a guy can hope, right?).
4) We’re talking Playboy.com here, and NOT Playboy the printed mag. And NO, I cannot get you free subscriptions to Playboy in either form (so you can stop typing that e-mail to me right now); though some of you in the biz may now be able to claim the subscription as a business expense (again, you’re welcome)…
5) Finally, and most importantly, I want to say… THANK YOU to YOU.
Yes, you.
I’m humbled, honored, and thrilled to have you along this crazy journey with me, and the ride is more rewarding and more fun for having you involved! I fully appreciate that many of you have been getting sick of hearing me say “big things are coming” and then delaying the announcements – all the more reason why I should be thanking you.
I don’t know if this adventure is going to end in sustainable income pooling, luxury yachts and diamond cufflinks for me, but I can promise you it is going to be quite an adventure. So please share the news as you deem fit!
And I’m looking forward to seeing many of you over at Playboy.com in the near future (for the articles of course!).
Cheers!
