A Eulogy for a Wine Blog
We are gathered here today to mark the passing of a Wine Blog.
And not just any wine blog, mind you. The recently departed was among the most ambitious uses of the wineblogspace yet conceived.
Carolyn Tilly’s Ultimate California Wine Blog attempted to showcase a different California winery tasting room EVERY DAY. And not just a review of decor. Carolyn trained her eye on the people, the wines, the experience, the essense of the tasting room. There was nothing quite so outlandishly ambitious on the web.
But, the Ultimate California Wine Blog is done.
Yes, the results of her frantic traveling and typing remain for all to see. But the anticipation her dedicated readers felt, wondering what the next tasting room review would be is no longer a part of our lives.
Tilly now lives in San Francisco and has abandoned Blogging for more lucrative writing assignments. She’s a ghost writer, a travel writer, a wine writer and a food writers. And she’s good.
But the death of "The Ultimate California Winery Blog" makes me think about the fleeting nature of wine blogging. When a magazined stops publishing there are issues to pick up, printing contracts to negotiate out of, many a person looking for new employment, and a readership that has paid for subscriptions to deal with. Blogs…well, blogs just go static.
I know what you are thinking. Blogs and magazines…different things. True. Abandoned blogs remain after their demise. They are like digital markers that can not be dislodged from the ether. They remain target for search engines and searchers.
I miss the Ultimate California Wine Blog. I miss the anticipation I brought to my daily reading of its content. I wanted there to be closure of some sort for its end, rather than just…..just…nothing more.
It forces me to think how one day Fermentation might end. Is there are way to go out with a bang? Should it be pulled off the net altogether when I choose to shut it down? And if I choose to let it stay, unattended, after it is given no more posts, will it just be taking up space on a server somewhere?
An additional point is – if and when you choose to stop blogging – do you do a final last farewell post – or just stop? This is something I have noticed on multiple blogs where there have been no posts for 6 or more months – there is often no explanation of where the author has gone – have they just become bored, changed identity, or met with some misadventure?