What Draws Readers to a Wine Blog — A Post List

It’s always interesting to go back and take a look at those posts here at FERMENTATION that attracted the most readers over the past year. It tells me not only what kind of topics my readers enjoy reading, but it also gives me a sense of which topics resonate most within the industry (My readership is primarily made up of industry members). With that in mind, here are the top 10 most read posts here at FERMENTATION over the past 12 months.

The Relationship Between Total Wine and Consumers Explained (March 4, 2019)
This post looked at the position Total Wine took in response to a retailer wine shipping bill in Connecticut in 2019. Total Wine, the most powerful retailer in America, argued that allowing CT consumers to receive wine shipments from out-of-state retailers was just too dangerous. It was a very disappointing position to see this company take.

“Wine Country” Is Not On Fire — A Message To The Media (October 28, 2019)
During the Kincaide fire in October the national media gave the impression that all of “Wine Country” was on fire—a very harmful message to disseminate.

Amazon Is Coming For Wine and That’s a Good Thing (April 20, 2019)
This post looked at Amazon’s options for getting into the wine sales and delivery business. In the end comes the conclusion that for Amazon to do wine and wine shipping the way it likes to do things, it really needs an open national market for wine retailers — which is exactly what independent wine retailers (potential competitors of Amazon) desire.

Saying Goodbye to Napa Valley (January 3, 2019)
This somewhat personal post was the announcement that I and my family were picking up and moving from Napa Valley and Northern California to the Willamette Valley. It was among the most bittersweet posts I’d ever written.

Firstleaf and the First Rule of Wine Marketing — Tell The Truth (April 11, 2019)
This post emerged after having too many times seen the Facebook ad from Firstleaf wine club claiming that the average $20 bottle of wine was worth no more than $3.00. It is a remarkably duplicitous claim and needed to be called out.

My Exit Interview from Napa Valley Wine Country (January 18, 2019)
I had a few things I wanted to say to Napans before leaving for our family’s new home in the Willamette Valley. Though loving Napa, I did have some suggestions for those that stayed behind.

The Real Meaning of the Tennessee Wine Supreme Court Decision (June 28, 2019)
I think this is probably my most important post of the year. I had a few days before posting it to do nothing but study and think about the recent Supreme Court decision Tennessee Wine v Thomas and its confirmation that the anti-protectionist principles of the 2005 Granholm decision applied as much to retailers as it does to producers. That’s the point of this post: to assert for readers and the industry that everything they know about the Granholm decision also applies to retailers.

Our Sex, Our Wine, Our Dress, Our Time (May 19, 2019)
Is it right that criticizing a woman for wearing a bit too little at a professional event is a matter of the “Patriarchy’s” lingering control over women? I didn’t think so.

Wine and the Evil Cabal of Patriarchs (October 31, 2019)
A response to the Eater article by Victoria James that claims a cabal of white male restaurant buyers work to exclude women and people of color from the cabal. The suggestion too that white men possess a palate different from women and people of color is also pushed back against.

The State of Discrimination in Wine (May 8, 2019)
It had been quite a while since I outlined which states blatantly discriminate against out-of-state wine stores by allowing in-state retailers to ship in the state, but bar out-of-state retailers from doing the same. This post made clear which are those states.

HONORABLE MENTION:

An Oregon Wine Rebellion Reflects a Maturing Industry (October 29, 2019)
A little bit of chaos came to Oregon this year, which led to various attempts at legislation and, most recently, the formation of a new, state-wide association of wineries and growers to push back against the more established industry associations. In my view, this was all an indication of the maturation of the Oregon wine industry.

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