Feb 24, 2012
I think I'd be a pretty good wine reviewer. After 20 years of tasting wine regularly and with a certain cache of knowledge in the subject of wine, and given my propensity to be able to focus intensely on a matter, and, finally, having a certain confidence in my writing that allows me to compose rather quickly, I am certain I could act as a responsible and useful wine critic. Yet I don't. The reason is pretty simple: My day…
Feb 15, 2012
First…All wine bloggers are wine writers, but not all wine writers are wine bloggers. That said… Wine blogging isn't dying. But it is tired. Enthusiasm for the platform and for the practice is on the wane. The same can be said for blogging in general. While the wane in blogging in general is an interesting phenomenon, I'm more interest in the state of wine blogging. Consider this chart created at GoogleTrends that indicates the search interest in the term "Wine…
Feb 13, 2012
One of the defining aspects of on-line wine content today is that it has become increasingly difficult to track what is available on the Internet, whether you are a consumer or a member of the trade. This is as much so for myself—who has a job that requires tracking of wine content—as it is for the average (or even above average) wine consumer. And so when I come across new sources of wine content and information that arouse my interest…
Feb 3, 2012
Every now and again I like to take account of what wine books will be coming our way in the next few months. It's a way of glimpsing what I'll be thinking about in the near term where wine is concerned. Following are a selection of wine books scheduled to be released along with their publication date and the level of "anticipation" I have for their release. A Carafe of Red — By Gerald Asher (HIGHLY Anticipated)This will be the…
Jan 31, 2012
As a wine publicist, I almost always am dealing in minutia, not Big Picture thinking. It's the nature of the job. What's the best way to deliver this message? How to define this niche? What's the import of this particular marketing practice. Minutia. For some reason, the past couple weeks I've been thinking about "Big Pictures" in the wine industry. Defining and determining what the Big Pictures are isn't as easy as one thinks. But no matter how you define…