2009 Wine Bloggers' Conference July 24 -26

Just a few weeks now until hundreds of enthusiastic wine types will converge on Santa Rosa, California for the second wine blogger conference.

This is a rare and excellent opportunity for any winery operation to see how it works and how blogging and social media can work for their operation.

As new media and social media begin to carve out their own turf in the world of information transfer (our world of ideas), wineries are beginning to make some interesting discoveries.

Like many businesses, the give and take between customer and producer in the wine world has always been present. Now with blogging and other forms of social networking, wineries and their fans can feel like they're one step closer to each other.

For some, it means they can skip the role a large media conglomerate plays. They don't have to worry about censure, interpretation or house policies. Bloggers are citizen winedrinkers who simply post their opinions about something they enjoy and, in some cases, feel very passionate about.

Wine bloggers come in many styles. Some work for wineries; helping to link the consumer directly with the producer. Some are pure reviewers; they drink the wines and post their scores and thoughts for anyone to read. Others deal with the business side whether that be growing grapes or devising clever sales campaigns.

So where do I fit in?

I've been blogging about my wine making life since about 2005. At times it's lacked focus. And it's always been haphazardly scheduled. I'd be surprised if I blog more than 3 times a month on average. Others are much more productive like this one. I think she's posted at least daily for the last half year! WTG, WannabeWino!

There are not a lot of wine maker bloggers. Some are ghosted by other writers and some wineries have other staff doing the company blogging. Until recently, I was independent. Now, of course, I blog to promote my own label Black Cloud . Despite this change, I'm still one of the laziest bloggers I know.

At the conference I hope to: find out if another platform will be better for my blogging, discuss ways to monetize the efforts, discuss collaboration projects with other bloggers, and try to determine if the knowledge I've acquired is worth anything. Or should I just leave it to the experts?

One thing I do know, it's time to engage! I urge wineries, wine marketers, wine writers and food people to attend or sent their representative. It's a great deal for the dollar, too!
Here's the link:
Wine Blogger's Conference

Wine Bloggers' Conference - It's a GO!

Looks like I'm headed to California in late July.

I signed up and paid for the second-ever Wine Bloggers' Conference to be held in Napa and Sonoma counties this summer.

Last time they did this, a couple hundred wine nuts (more or less attached to the internet) showed up and traded ideas, got up to speed, tasted an enormous amount of wine and generally had the opportunity to understand each others' unique perspective.

Participants travelled from all over North America and the world. They were extremely well treated by conference organizers and sponsors.

I was not able to go. (insert pout here)

It was in late October. Around that time, we here in the Okanagan are buried scrotum-high in grapes. It behooved me to remain at my post.

Other people in more gentle climes on the production side of things made some noise and voila! - summer in California for this version.

I'm really looking forward to this. That's the essence of understatement. I will have the opportunity to show off my wines and indulge in the following recipe.

Blend:

1/4 geek

1/4 webjourno

1/4 wine maker

1/4 Californiaphile

Top with sun, pool, hikes, bikes and good food.

Serve.

I strongly encourage my readers and associated wine folks to consider attending. Attendance is capped at 250 and I understand the sign-up has been brisk.

Precision Viticulture.

PV is beginning to make some waves here.
It's all about making use of some technological analyses to help a vineyard produce better grapes.
If you're not a techie (as I am not), it's a little mind-boggling the first go around.
But don't be a Luddite. Don't be afraid of the future.
Josh got into it over at Pinotblogger - read my comment and others HERE.

Wine Blog Awards Last Day!

Sometime Friday the 16th the voting will come to an end for the American Wine BLOG Awards.

There are several categories and this blog wasn't nominated.

But go vote anyway.

1. you don't have to be an American to vote.


2. there's no write in to vote for this blog if you wanted to. You can vote for me by commenting on this post.


3. the awards ceremony will probably be a huge affair - get your tux rented now!

Check out the nominees. There's some excellent writing to be found.

The American Wine Blog Awards

Take a moment from your busy schedule watching "Fame" reruns and assembling your toe lint collection to head over to Wark's
American Wine Blog Awards
and nominate me. Nominations close Thursday so don't delay!
I'd do it for you!
I think the single subject category is the one.
If you do this I promise not to start posting stories about the cute things my dog does around the winery.

Did I say THANKS?