Wine Blog Awards Judges: Michael De Loach

Michael
It would have been so easy for Michael De Loach to simply take up with the near-empire that his father, Cecil, had built at De Loach Vineyards. Sure, as a teen and young man he worked in the vineyards and wineries but in the end, he chose to go it alone. Michael De Loach left the family business and took off into the Advertising Industry in Florida and made quite a name for himself, winning numerous awards for his efforts and running accounts of some significant girth.

I hope I would have done the same thing if my father had created an opportunity for me to walk into a made business.

I hope too I would have eventually come home…as Michael did.

Today Michael runs the sales and marketing at Hook & Ladder Winery, the new De Loach family project that came on the heels of Michael’s father selling what really was an iconic modern California wine brand built on the foundation of an amazing set of vineyards in the Russian River Valley. In two short years, Michael has helped build the Hook and Ladder brand into a very good sized winery with distribution in most of the states.

What I think sets Michael apart and what led me to ask him to be a judge in the American Wine Blog Awards is his keen understanding of how interpersonal relationships really dictate not only how the wine industry works but how they drive the consumer marketing of wine. This same thing is often what sets a good wine blog apart from an average wine blog.

Since I began working with Michael and Hook & Ladder it has been clear that he understands the significance of the world of wine bloggers. When I first suggested we send samples off to a number of wine bloggers he looked over the new on-line world of wine journalism and came back to me with a resounding…"Duh! Of course we should."

There’s nothing that better recommends a person for admiration than the quality of being astute.

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