So the wine blogging world is a weird one, especially when it comes to handing out awards. I have befriended some of the winners, and a lot of the losers (myself included), but the awards that bum me out the most are the one’s doled out by local newspapers/magazines, the ones that local folks nominate and vote on. While it’s nice to be acknowledged by your peers, it’s nicer to have readers and fans that AREN’T in the same business as you.
There are literally THOUSANDS of wine blogs out there, some extremely professional, with well-written, highly journalistic articles, interviews, and even videos. Other blogs are simply done, and can encompass a variety of subject matter, including wine reviews, short tutorials, travel notes, and so on. There are numerous points-of-view, styles, and levels of knowledge.
I must admit, there are some terrible blogs out there (you’re reading one right now!), but the original intent of a blog is, and someone correct me if I am wrong, an online diary. It’s supposed to be personal, explorative, and revealing at least one new thing about its author with nearly every post. While it is an admirable goal (and an extremely lofty one too) to want to make money from a blog, and garnered critical acclaim and commanded increasing influence with a blog, those goals are not easily attained, nor are they very likely to happen. However, the real beauty of the blogosphere is not necessarily the quality, but the sheer volume of bloggers out there. For so long, wine was an elitist sport, owned by the few and enjoyed by the privileged. At its heart wine is the simplest beverage ever bestowed to us, yet it had been transmogrified into some earthly version of ambrosia, coveted not by gods, but by shepherds of wealth and power.
Those days have long departed, and us common folk not only enjoy wine, we now champion its joy and wonder through social media. Wine is currently in the era of demystification, a time of amazing miscellany, with wines from all over the world available right here, right now. Not factoring all the fallacies of America’s three-tiered system, Canada’s big wine bureaucracy, or lack of specialty wine importers in Asia, we are enjoying a truly global renaissance of wine.
When it comes to blogs, there are thousands, as I said before, and each one speaks to someone out there in cyberspace. When you can find a universal voice, one that touches not only your senses, yet connects to your heart, mind and soul, that is when you have achieved something akin to crossover – you have transcended one genre and now you have a little something for everyone. Not many writers can do this. My hero (or heroine) of this feat is Joyce Carol Oates, who pens all genres of fiction skillfully. In the blogosphere, there are a few people who manage to perform similar feats.
One person, who I find myself commenting on her site with some sort of regularity, is Samantha Dugan. Her blog, Samantha Sans Dosage, is a personal account of her life, and how wine plays a pretty significant role in it. Like me, she is a wine retailer, specializing in French wines for a wine store in California. Reading her blog, you get a shoulder-side seat to her world, whether she is reveling in an amazing glass of grower Champagne, or cheering on her World Champion L.A. Lakers. It’s not textbook wine writing. It’s her way. And our world is better for it.
Another blog I find myself reading a lot is Gonzo Gastronomy, by Katie Pizzuto. While Sam is like Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson, Katie is Hunter S. Thompson. She has a shitlist that she gets to one annoyance after another, and she does it with kamikaze wit and take-no-prisoners point-of-view.
Which brings me to the undisputed King of skewering this industry, Ron Washam, from Hosemaster of Wine. Ron has been in this business longer than I have, and his wisdom makes for amazing comedic timing. He lampoons everything held dear and overtly serious in this industry, and does it in a way that is engaging, irreverent, and timely.
Now, I am not condemning or lambasting the folks that write reviews, or write overly-long, or ridiculously short pieces. I am not here to judge anyone. My blog, as I have stated in the past, is written for me. The reviews I post are actually mental notes I make of each wine presented to me, whether by one of my sales reps, or from the samples that are actually sent to me (which are not many), assessments for whether or not I will bring these wines into my store for my customers to buy. It’s that simple. Earlier in the year, I took Tom Wark (of the blog Fermentation) up on the gauntlet he threw down, essentially challenging bloggers to become more influential in the industry by writing more reviews. I took the opportunity I have of tasting so many wines each week as part of my job and made the most of it. Yet I still am only writing for me, and if anyone else gets something from what I write, that’s great.
I read a lot of blogs every day, as well as trade mags (like Market Watch and Beverage Dynamics), the standard mags (like Spectator, Enthusiast, Parker, etc.) because as part of my job, I have to know what is going on in this volatile industry. Change is happening every day, and I wouldn’t be able to function in my job if I couldn’t adapt to it all. I read blogs like Sam’s, Katie’s and Ron’s because I get something more from their posts than most – I get a real point of view, some stunning revelation of character, and a connection that is much more personal than many. And that’s okay. Just about every blog I have linked on my own blog I read nearly every day, but I start each day with those three. So I was a bit bewildered by Sam’s recent post, referring to one of the writer’s at Quarterly Review of Wines, who counted her as the Worst Wine Notes. Really? I’ve read far worse. Yet as I said before, Sam transcends simple wine writing, and morphs it into writing about life. I don’t know what this guy was expecting when he clicked onto Sam’s blog, but whatever preconceived notion he had, he was obviously in the wrong place (he should’ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque).
Wine is an awesome business to be a part of in the fact that it revolves around celebrations, big and small, and encourages its customers to look at life under positive light. It always seems strange to me when anyone gets too bitchy about the details (myself included).
I guess I am just the goofy kid who’s trying to get everyone to play happily together in the same sandbox.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
ANOTHER YEAR OLDER: FIVE YEARS OF INTOXICATED MAYHEM AT UNDER THE GRAPE TREE
Five years. On a day that would seem as if I were announcing the punchline of a really long joke, instead, I am rather proudly stating that it has been five years since I first began Under The Grape Tree. Blogging (despite its rather vulgar sounding verbage) has always been a way for me to “get my ya-ya’s out” as the Stones once so eloquently put it. I am a writer at heart, as I have droned on about all this time, and the few people that have read this litany of tasting notes and edicts from my besotted brainpan can attest. I make no money from this blog, and I am not getting tons of samples like most of my fellow blogging brethren do; my samples come from my suppliers. Working in the business, I feel my perspective to be a bit different from the folks who are passionate about wine, and blog about it as their hobby. I live this stuff every day. Wine is my career, my life.
I am not disparaging anyone here. Just stating where I am coming from with UTGT.
When I started this thing, I was in herd mentality, trying to emulate the random half-dozen or so bloggers I would read daily, and putting my own neurotic spin to it. I incorporated music, posted videos, paid homage to one of my favorite writers – Hunter S. Thompson – by coming up with titles to posts with subtitles and subtitles to the subtitles, and picked fights, albeit virtually, with several of the famous wine writers who had been long-since established, and rather easy targets.
But after the majority of bloggers out there jumped onto this trend or that trend, it was time to be my own voice.
These days, I do post my tasting notes. It is a way of keeping track of all the wines I taste, whether on the job or at home, and while there are those instances where some PR firm sends me samples, the majority of the wines I taste come from the various wholesalers who operate in the state of Kentucky. I have taken to give everyone I work with – co-workers, bosses, wholesalers, importers, winemakers – nicknames, creating a cast of characters that grows each day, creating a world within my world, with a purple sky and a rosé sun, with rivers of sparkling wine just outside my door.
Often times, I play it straight, give up the notes, and move on to the next post. Other times, I indulge myself in a kind-of prose masturbation, stringing words and epithets together in ways that usually aren’t meant to be together. I throw shout-outs to fellow bloggers around like a father-son game of catch, and bury veiled pop culture references in the titles of my said prose wanking.
I am quite grateful for those of you who have dropped in and read my insanity, and even those who have taken the time to leave a comment or two. Being for all intensive purposes, a local wine blog, having folks from California, Europe and South America even, read this web diary of mine, is a real honor.
And having been able to share with all of you my incredible journey, and what I can honestly say is the coolest job in the universe (next maybe to All-Being, Master of Time, Space and Dimension), is indeed a thrill.
April is a month full of anniversaries for me, beginning with this one. Some are joyous, happy celebrations (my wife and I celebrate 13 years of marriage April 22nd), and others a bit more tragic (I lost my Grandma Keith 13 years ago, April 10th and my father, 26 years ago, April 29th). April has always been a commemoration of change. And as this anniversary of UTGT marks my first with The Party Source, I can’t wait to see where my blog will be in 5 more years.
Again, thank you so much dear reader. Cheers!