My main concern with the American Wine Blog Awards is not the name, although I’d prefer something more international, no it’s the voting process. If the Oscars used the same system as these awards, ‘Spider-Man 3′ or ‘Shrek the Third’ would likely win Best Picture as they were the most popular movies last year from their box office receipts. Both are well crafted films but they are not in the same league as ‘No Country for Old Men’ which finished 36th in 2007 ticket sales but took the top Oscar this year.

Why this discrepancy? Because only those in the film industry vote on the nominations and final awards.

So I propose that wine bloggers consider an association that creates an independent awards program modeled after the Motion Picture Academy Awards. As a placeholder, let’s call it the “Wine Bloggers Guild” but we’ll change the name if the discussion warrants. I’ve started a new thread over at Open Wine Consortium for wine bloggers and podcasters to discuss this idea and see if there is consensus for my proposal.

My intention is not to criticize the American Blog Awards, just create an analog to the Oscars to Tom’s People’s Choice Awards. I think there’s room for both. What do you think?

If we’ve crossed paths via Gmail or Gtalk, it’s likely that you will see my shared links automatically appear in your Google Reader. I’ve also posted the widget to the right sidebar of the blog so you can see what I’m reading. Because I went back and shared all my previously stared items today, most of what is there now is a bit old. Going forward, you can keep up with the best posts from wine blogs in my shared feed.

Yesterday Hugh posted some thoughts on his blogging (or lack, thereof) that rang true with me:

clipped from gapingvoid.com So this last week I’ve been telling people I work with, I’m changing the game plan. I’m going back to basics. From now on building “the gapingvoid brand” will become my first priority.

Like Hugh, I’ve let the various demands of commerce get in the way of my blogging and podcasting here. So it’s back to basics with daily posts and more wine reviews. My bi-weekly podcast regime is also back in action, which will be maintained from here on. It’s easy to let this blog slide as it produces next to no income but it’s what the conversation triggers that produces the reward.

Winecast is back in business full-time… thanks once again, Hugh!

Besides not writing or podcasting I pretty much stopped my blog reading. As I returned to Google Reader last week, I had the maximum 1,000+ posts on each of my subscription categories. So I simply pressed the “Mark all as read” button on most categories except for wine blogs.

In my perusal of the past several days, a few posts stood out. But none of these got me thinking more about wine blogging than Jeff’s post over at Good Grape on how 98% of Wine Bloggers Are Hacks. When I saw Ryan’s post today asking the difference between amateur and professional wine writers, I started to think about my credentials, or lack thereof, for what I do here.

Jeff’s post highlights veteran wine writer Matt Kramer’s piece about how 10,000 hours of training is the minimum to attain expert status in any field. Said another way, that’s 3 hours a day for 10 years. It’s been 9,458 days since I turned 21 back in the early days of the first Reagan Administration. To be fair, my wine drinking started three years earlier due to the drinking age in New York being 18 at the time but I really didn’t get into wine until I transfered to a university in northern California in 1980. If I assume that I spent an hour each day studying wine since then, I’m nearly at that 10,000 hour mark now. But my daily consumption of wine didn’t really begin until the mid-80’s and tasting wine is not the same as reading about wine.

So I’m still very much a hack by this definition.

Ryan’s post this morning asked when a blogger crosses the threshold from amateur to professional status? Since by definition an amateur does not get paid for doing a particular task this seems like an easy question. But in this age of affiliate marketing and sponsorship most wine bloggers can earn some sort of income from blogging. But this is not yet enough to earn a living for any wine blogger I know so I guess most of us are still amateur wine writers (or critics, if you like).

But I don’t think this matters very much as wine bloggers are starting to be taken seriously by consumers. Expert or professional status might have been the hurdle for wine writers in the print era but in today’s low-cost, online personal publishing era this barrier has evaporated.

I’ll still working on getting my 10,000 hours in, anyway

Now seems like the right time to put on the table how this system might work in practice. After thinking about this some and considering what Ryan wrote the other day, I humbly propose we wine bloggers adopt the following rating scales:

Overall Wine Quality

* Flawed, Not Recommended
** Average
*** Very good, Recommended
**** Delicious; A Wine of Distinction
***** Outstanding; A Classic Wine

Value/QPR

* Bad Value
** Average Value
*** Good Value
**** Great Value
***** Excellent Value

We can discuss the merits of adding half-stars to this mix once I get a read on the community’s reaction to this proposal. In the meantime, vote on what our icons should be below (aggregator/email readers might have to click back to the site to vote):

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on this modest proposal. I believe we are making some progress here.

El Jefe laid me bare in his post early this morning (insomnia?) with his poetic argument regarding scores. Let me be clear here, the score is the exclamation point on a bit of prose on the wine in question. Sure, I’m a bit clinical and detached in my reviews sometimes but I do have some passion to spare that Spock might not express. I’ll work on expressing this a bit more.

But I stil think the 5-star (or glass/bottle/cork/bung/unicorn) system is the way for us wine bloggers to go…

Discuss

1) I want to share my passion for wine: This is really the heart of the matter; I love wine and want others to discover it, too. I hope what I do here will get more people into wine.

2) I want to grow & learn: The podcast and blog have compelled me to try new wines I would not have otherwise. This has opened up an entirely new wine world to me. Each week I look for new wines to try and not the big jugs of plonk.

3) Wine blogging & podcasting is cool: OK, so this was one of the reasons back in 2004 when I got started. Now it’s just nerdy but I don’t care

4) I like the gigs: Kinda like a musician, this blog has provided me with employment marketing the beverage I love. How cool is that?

5) Because I can: I wish this didn’t sound so egotistical but the tools to share my thoughts about wine are well within the reach of tech geeks like me. I hope more folks with similar passions and technical chops follow, although it’s really pretty easy these days…

I hope I’ve shed some more light on why I do what I do and now will tag a few others in the wine blogosphere and ask the same question: Why do you blog?

St. Vini from The Zinquisition
Beau Jarvis from Basic Juice
Andrew Barrow from Spittoon and Wine Sediments
Tyler Coleman, a.k.a. Dr. Vino
Mark Fisher from Uncorked and The Dayton Daily News

You have all been tagged!

Thanks, Alder!

John Lindner does a nice job of learning about Winecast, Wine Blogging Wednesday and me from his line of questioning and his editor does some magic to make me sound somewhat like I know what I’m talking about

Check it out on the player below:
mp3

Another new article will be cross-posted here tomorrow.

.

They are:

Best Single Subject Blog
LENNDEVOURS
THE WINE COLLECTOR
SHIP COMPLIANT BLOG
RETHINK WINE BLOG

Best Winery Blog
STORMHOEK
CIMA COLLINA CELLAR RAP
DOVER CANYON WINERY BLOG
PINOT BLOGGER

Best Wine Podcast or VideoBlog
NAPA VALLEY WINE RADIO
CELLAR RAT
WINE LIBRARY TV
GRAPE RADIO

Best Wine Blog Graphics
VIVI’S WINE JOURNAL
LENNDEVOURS
THE GOOD GRAPE
WINE WAVES

Best Wine Reviewing Blog
WINE WAVES
QUAFFABILITY
JAMIE GOODE’S WINE BLOG
VINOGRAPHY

Best Wine Blog Writing
THE POUR
WINE CAMP BLOG
VINOGRAPHY
DR. VINO

Best Overall Wine Blog
THE GOOD GRAPE
VINOGRAPHY
THE POUR
DR. VINO

Congratulations to all the finalists. The voting is now open to determine the winners until Friday, February 16.

Since these rankings are based upon incoming links, link to your favorite wine blog today. Yep, I’m on the “B-List” with the rest of the top wine blogs…

Imagine my surprise this morning when I read that he was cutting off the list today and would post only one more photo. So I hastily set-up this shot in my typical blogging environment. Hope it makes it just under the wire

I promise to post a more interesting location with the T a bit later on; perhaps while tasting at ZAP (bet I’d get some looks

Thanks, Steve!

(photo from Engadget)

I think this is a very good idea and encourage you to participate. Thanks, Tom, for the leadership here.

Update, 1/8: The nominations are now open and will run until January 18th. I posted my nominations which you can check out at FERMENTATION.

Update 2: I noticed that the Bloggies are also open for nominations. They have a “best food weblog” category where wine blogs might fit, but in looking back at past years it looks like this award is too broad for the wine genre. This, of course, makes the American Wine Blog Awards the place for our niche.

In writing up my last review, I looked for the W.H. Smith website to link to but also to look up the fact sheet since I didn’t capture the alcohol percentage in my notes. What I found there was an out of date website. Nothing that serious but anoying to someone like me looking for information about a wine released 3 months ago.

I’m sure the reason for this is the agency or designer who put this site up is also the webmaster and it takes several emails or phone calls to get anything updated. Running a winery is busy enough without having to worry about keeping your website up to date. It doesn’t have to be this way as open source blog software like Wordpress is free which can create websites that anyone can edit with a web browser. So even if you don’t want to blog, you can use this software to build your website; check out this site to see what I mean.

This type of thing is becoming increasingly important as wine enthusiasts look to find out about specific wines. Perhaps there’s a business here for some enterprising marketer with technical chops

Wrong! I am a geek (from a purely technical sense, of course).

And I may be in conflict with myself but I am a marketer with technical expertise, as noted

I’m also for hire, but that’s another story… thanks, man.

It’s good to see a popular blog like Aristide post a nice write-up on Bottletalk and WineLog. Judging by the comments, it would seem there are fewer folks drinking the “Wine 2.0 Kool-Aid” in Italy than us English speakers. I also found a blog called “Vino 2.0” which seems to have been created after I started my writing on the subject here (Grazie for the Second Life coverage, Giusy).

I love the discussion no matter which language it’s written in.

I just noticed that this blog is the City Pages MN blog of the day today; cool!

This time last year was another Wine Blogging Wednesday and, as was my custom then, I both blogged and podcast the monthly theme that was, “Judge a Bottle By Its Cover.” I think I had an entertaining post and podcast featuring the 2005 Norma Jeane Merlot and Lavradores de Feitoria, “Tres Bagosâ€Â? 2002. My only embarrassment is that was Winecast 48 and I’m only up to 69 right now; how could I have only done 21 shows in the past year? Pathetic.

Thanks, Beau; I think I need to record something right now…

Quite powerful stuff when a wine sale starts to look like a PS3 or Wii queue.

1. The most passionate and loyal wine customers are members of the tribe of the internet. Via wine forums, email newsletters, websites, blogs and podcasts they are consuming information and recommendations that carry almost as much weight with them as Parker scores.
2. The new “wine experts” are anyone with a passion for the subject and the means to express themselves online. These manifest themselves as blogs, aggregators, wikis, mash-ups and podcasts.
3. Millions will join this tribe in 2007 as RSS goes mainstream in Windows Vista, IE 7, Firefox 2 and Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard”.
4. Customers are looking for great wines at the lowest price. They are using search engines to find them. Wineries need to be plugged into what these networked customers are saying and actively join the conversation.
5. Bad news travels at the speed of light around the world. Wineries need to be a part of the online discussion or they will pay the price in lost sales and damaged reputations.
6. Wineries need to treat all customers like an old friend whether they buy a single bottle in the tasting room or 10 cases in the wine club. You never know how your reputation spreads via word of mouth, but some will likely share their opinions online.
7. eCommerce does not equal Wine 2.0. Online sales is a key channel of Wine 2.0, but the essence of this new online wine conversation are communities who share information. Online sales only comes after this interaction and the social promotion of recommendations.
8. Wine 2.0 includes feedback that can be measured and quantified. It is based upon sound direct marketing practices and technology platforms.
9. Customers are making their own choices and are not blindly following critics scores, traditionally marketed and distributed brands or the winery with the most impressive website or print ad.
10. On the internet, there is unlimited shelf space and the means for customers to find your “porch“.
11. Wineries can sell 100,000 cases a year without spending millions on marketing.
12. However you join the conversation about your wines, do so with a pure heart, speaking with an honest voice. And never stop responding.

- Version 1.0, by Tim Elliott, November 24, 2006

This Minifesto was inspired by Hugh MacLeod’s call at gapingvoid.com that was inspired by John Dodds’ “J Train” Minifesto who seemed to have read The Cluetrain Manifesto and is familiar with ChangeThis.com

This is a draft for discussion that I hope will be carried forward to version 1.1 after the Wine 2.0 event in Second Life next week. Comments, trackbacks, etc. welcome.

Rock on, Hugh!

Sure, you have St. Vini (formerly Huge Johnson) pointing the stick in the side of the wine business every once in a while and Alder has his rants, but nothing is close to the tone of someone like Jason Calacanis or the writers of Valleywag.

I agree with Jeff’s thoughts on this issue and will join him in arms here in coming days, weeks and months.

Arrr! It be time for a manifesto after ye smartly hoist me colors!!

The good Dr. Vino got the ball rolling with some interesting suggestions starting with the food friendly Sauvignon Blanc, then turning to Cru Beaujolais, an Aussie Grenache and a few other obscure wines. His dessert wine, a late harvest Viognier from Argentina, sounds like something that I’ll look for around town this week.

Then Lenn blogged the traditional Pinot Noir and Riesling match. He also said he’ll serve some NY bubbly as a starter; a very nice choice.

Alder makes some great recommendations over at Vinography. Champagne, Grenache and Gewurztraminer sound tasty and it’s good to see him not sit this one out like last year.

The Wine Cask Blog makes some good suggestions starting with Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel. I agree on the last two, but most New World Cab’s would overpower the bird IMHO. Perhaps they were thinking about some Bordeaux, as they do point out that an aged Cabernet is a good idea. Riesling, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc are the whites mentioned; no argument here.

And finally, the Thanksgiving For All blog has quite a list of recommendations starting at $5 and topping out at around $50. They even suggest the widely disliked White Zinfandel, a bold, but logical choice (as a bonus, listen to Blake Gray’s comments about white Zin on the latest Chronicle Wines podcast).

For our table I haven’t yet decided what to match with the turkey and side dishes. Since everything will be on the savory side, it will probably be just reds. Perhaps a southern Rhône blend or Merlot with some age on it. For starters, I think I’ll try the Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais Nouveau 2006 I picked up Thursday. I’ll post my final choices on Thursday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!