Sogg Blogs Truth About Wine

DanielSogg Former wine critics don't go away, they just blog.

And this is a good thing.

For many years, Daniel Sogg worked on the West Coast for The Wine Spectator. He reviewed wines, wrote features and wrote news reports. He understands as well as anyone the world from inside the confines of a key wine review publications. However, now he is a consultant. And now he's also a wine blogger:

The Sogg Blog: Speaking Truth About Wine.

To-date, Daniel has only posted two stories. However, their content and the authority behind them makes Sogg's new blog something to watch closely. In his second blog post, Sogg makes the case that it is time to rethink wine criticism based on the notion that wine critics don't serve consumers since they don't taste wine and evaluate wine in a way that coincides with the way consumers drink wine. Consumers don't to large, multi-bottle tastings of groups of like wines, like most critics. They open a bottle of wine to drink with dinner. The disconnect, Sogg argues, is the reason that critics don't adequately serve consumers.

Of course, this begs the question, what is the best way for wine critics to taste wine and what kind of review will be serve consumers? You can bet that Daniel Sogg will be attacking this question in the near future and I suspect it will be an authoritative take on this important issue.

On another note, Sogg is the latest mainstream wine writer/critic to wade into the world of blogs. Many SoggBlog have come before him including Steve Heimoff, Eric Arnold, Eric Asimov, Paul Gregutt and others. Daniel's entry into the world of blogging reminds me that the Wine Blog is merely another form of publishing, and not something totally separate from traditional wine writing venues such as daily newspapers and wine publications. As I've noted before, all wine bloggers are wine writers, but all wine writers are not wine bloggers. The distinction between "mainstream wine media" and wine bloggers is becoming nothing more than a distinction in the capability of the writer to gain an audience. I don't think there is anything substantially different in content, methodology or philosophy between those who write for blogs and those who write for wine magazines or newspapers.

Sogg's re-entry into the world of wine writing is very good news. Based only on his first couple of posts, I highly recommend wine lovers and the trade seek out his words. I think the Future of The Sogg Blog is bright.


5 Responses

  1. Arthur - February 14, 2011

    Incredibly original concept, byline and initial posts (what’s the emoticon for tongue-in-cheek?)

  2. Lizzy - February 14, 2011

    Maybe there is a difference between those who write for blogs and those who write for traditional main stream media (in Italy, I mean): the second are paid for their writing, the first aren’t. It is not a small difference, for me.
    Lizzy

  3. ttv - February 17, 2011

    That’s a good idea for publishing the truth about wine.

  4. escalante blogger - February 17, 2011

    So far I’ve known, wines are made only with a grape fruit..

  5. [email protected] - February 24, 2011

    Interesting post. Thanks! Btw, have you guys heard of lovethis? I’ve started using it to get wine recommendations, pretty useful. Check out my recommendations and I’d be interested to connect with you guys to find some interesting labels and new producers. Here’s a link to my profile: http://ow.ly/42A6l. Keep up the great blog, how do I subscribe?


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