Speaking of the Cellar Rat, he is back with a second video podcast covering his Pinot 2.0 project. Check it out below or at his site. I’m also diggin’ the tunes from The Corkdork.

Beau from Basic Juice has joined the Cellar Rat as a fellow CrushPad winemaker this vintage. The creatively named “Juice Crew” is also featured on the Crushnet site. If you are so inclined, join in on the fun!

Tyler, the good Dr. Vino, made a guest appearance on David Tamarkin’s “Get Saucy” podcast. It’s an excellent discussion about the notion of terroir, his PhD dissertation, appellations and what winemaker’s don’t talk about much. Definitely worth a listen and I’m looking forward to hearing more audio from the good Doctor. Check it out here.

Last night I complained about Jancis Robinson’s post on her website about wine blogs. Since I currently read 64 wine blogs — about 25 of those daily — I though I’d post my top 10 picks for those looking for a few suggestions like my favorite British wine writer. Picking 10 from so many good blogs was tough and I might switch out some of these from time to time. Instead of just posting a list of them like my fellow blogger Lenn, I thought I’d follow Andrew’s lead and put them in a snazzy Grazr aggregator on the right sidebar. If you don’t mind the tiny size, you can read the posts right there. Or you can pop the aggregator into another window and resize for more sensible reading. To do this, just click on the icon on the top right of the Grazr and pull the bottom right corner of the popped out page to make it larger. Click on each blog to see the posts and then to the post you want to read. Very handy. For advanced users wanting to subscribe with another aggregator, I have posted my OPML right below the Grazr. By the way, my picks are in no particular order with the exception of Vinography, which I think is the best wine blog out there and a continual inspiration for me.

So here are 10 wine blogs for Jancis to start with; let’s hope she posts again after truly experiencing the wine blogosphere.

A good discussion is going on in the comments of a recent FERMENTATION post on Alder Yarrow’s speaking invitation at Antonia Allegra’s Symposium for Professional Wine Writers. I challenged Tom’s assertion that no “breakout” wine blogs now exist and nominated Alder’s Vinography blog as a current example. Tom responded that his definition of breakout is a, ” …must read for those involved in wine and for wine geeks a la Spectator, Parker, Wine & Spirits, Connoissuers Guide, or Tanzer. I’m thinking of the kind of blogger that helps sell wines because their reviews show up on case cards and shelf talkers an bottle neckers.” Tom goes on to say that Vinography might be that breakout blog if Alder writes, “…about 50 to 100 reviews per week…”

This got me thinking about how many wine reviews are needed for the average blog reader to take a wine blogger seriously and affect the sale of the reviewed wine. I know that my reviews here and on my podcast have sold wine from reader and listener emails, so even a very small number of reviews can be effective if even in a very small way. But for true legitimacy, and significant impact on wine sales, a certain threshold must be crossed in order for wine stores to put our reviews and scores on shelf talkers and the like. But is it 200-400 a month? Something less? More? Whatever it is, one day in the not too distant future a wine blogger or two will cross-over into the space now occupied by wine pubs and critics. I’m not sure that the review model is the same as existing wine publications or critics, however.

The first winery blog I linked to was Champagne Tarlant. I can’t remember exactly when, but it was early in 2005 right after they linked here. I just received an email from Mélanie Tarlant asking me to vote for their video podcast (a.k.a vlog) for a Belgian blogging award. It is against some strong non-wine competitors so they need all the help they can get. If you read French as poorly as I, you might need some translation help to determine your votes in the other categories. My vote in the final section is recorded in the photograph.

Bonne chance, Mélanie.

As mentioned here in the past, I’m a fan of Tom Wark’s FERMENTATION blog. Not only does he post often, he regularly is provocative in his views on the business of wine. From time to time he puts his tongue a bit in his cheek and posts Top 10 lists; today’s post got me thinking about the top 10 wine blogs. I know there is a list out there of the top 100 wine blogs, but it seems a bit off for me with non-blogs and defunct blogs listed. Since I wanted this information for a couple of projects I am working on, I looked into the only objective ranking system I trust in the blogosphere: Technorati. Over the past few weeks I have chipped away and logging in 50 wine blogs gleaned from my aggregator and the “top 100″ list, weeding out the entries that aren’t actively being published or are not really blogs in the first place.

The results are far from complete, but here are the current “top 10″ wine blogs sorted by Technorati Ranking:

1. Professor Bainbridge (1,209)
2. Vinography (5,129)
3. Stormhoek (6,372)
4. FERMENTATION (15,346)
5. LENNDEVOURS (16,150)
6. Winecast (16,513)
7. Basic Juice (17,772)
8. Spittoon (19,648)
9. Dr. Vino (20,594)
10. Grape Radio (24,143)

I’m pleased (and humbled) to see my blog on this list and happy to see that 20% here are podcasts. I’m sure I’ve missed a few blogs on my list, but think this is an interesting first cut. Let me know if you have another approach that makes more sense.

So I guess this blog is not on Tom’s proposed, “Top Ten Wine Blogs That Don’t Advocate Top Ten Lists”

I’m getting ready for our summer vacation and ten days without the trusty Macbook. That doesn’t mean I won’t be blogging here or reading my favorite wine blogs as I have a Windows Mobile handheld. My only gripe as I load up the feeds into Egress is that some of my favorite wine blogs don’t provide full text posts on their feeds. I’m talkin’ to you Alder and Jeff! Please ease my pain and do what Andrew does and provide the alternative full text feed. Or just make your main feed full text like I do and my friends Lenn and Beau. It will make my days on the beach in San Diego so much better; thanks in advance

Ryan started a Q&A meme over at Catavino that I participated in; you can check out the exchange here. What I didn’t know was that there were so many Portuguese wines here in the local market. I’ll be rounding some of Ryan’s wife Gabriella’s picks for a future podcast. You can follow Ryan’s Q&A with fellow wine bloggers here. Great stuff!

Basic Juice, another of my favorite wine blogs, turns two years old today and blogger Beau Jarvis has asked for wine matching suggestions. Since the blog is from the 2004 vintage, that’s the vintage I’d choose to celebrate with. And since it’s a touch toasty in Beau’s home state of Utah at the moment, I’d stick to whites or roses. From my tasting log there are really a couple stand-outs:

A German Riesling from the Rheingau. Johannishof is one of my favorite producers and I’ve had some great ’04’s. If you can’t track that producer down, my second choice would be Leitz (Rüdesheimer Klosterlay). Both of these producers Kabinett wines can be found in the U.S. for $20 or less.

The second stand-out varietal from 2004 is Sauvignon Blanc. If you like the lightly grassy, floral style, look for Cliff Lede SB from the Napa Valley. If you like the “slap-your-face” gooseberry and acid whack attack, Kim Crawford’s SB from Marlborough, New Zealand is hard to beat for under $20 a bottle.

I’m looking forward to many more years of Beau’s wisdom, tasting notes and whimsey. Happy 2nd Birthday, Basic Juice!

Like a lot of wine geeks, I read quite a bit of online content but for some reason have never participated much in online forums like eBob. So I was tipped off to a recent “conversation” on eBob reading Alder from Vinography. He points out a particularly heated recent exchange that included Mr. Parker deriding some participants as, “…point pimps and and whores…” Wow, pretty strong stuff considering the issue here is the timing of the electronic version of the Wine Advocate newsletter versus the mailing of the print version. Alder’s take on this issue is more a comment on human nature and online communities; mine is mild shock with how addicted some wine lovers are to scores. To make up your own mind, check out the thread here. Interesting reading, yes, but not the kind I like to spend my time on most evenings.

For me, I’ll stick with the relative civility of the wine blogosphere. If you don’t know where to start, here are my top ten picks:

Vinography
Basic Juice
LENNDEVOURS
Good Grape
Fermentation
Spittoon
The Zinquisition
The Pour
Pinotblogger
Cellar Rap
Bonus: Wine Blog Watch

Over the past several days, I have been posting reasons for wineries to use blogs as another tool to increase their online exposure and ultimately sell more wine. It occurred to me that there is a basic fear that also needs to be overcome before more wineries join the wine blogosphere. The fear is not controlling the message or what becomes of the online conversation.

When I was at Kodak, I was trained by PR flacks on how to answer any type of question and not say anything that was “off-message”. In many cases, this leads to repeating the same canned response highlighting the product or services’ key benefits and how much we care about our customers’ business… blah, blah blah. Much of this attitude still pervades large companies today and most likely the wine industry where healthy egos and lots of money are also at stake. I only mention this because blogs, as marketing guru and blogger Hugh MacLeod says:

“…are not selling channels, they are disruption channels.”

What winery wants to be disrupted? Aren’t battling the weather, rogue insects and the taste buds of Parker and Tanzer enough?

I’d say most every winery needs to be disrupted and blogging is the most efficient medium to accomplish this goal. Why? Because of direct shipping, oversupply, brutal price competition and industry consolidation. Disruption is everywhere in the wine industry and most wineries need to change in order to stay competitive. Why not be on the leading edge and expand your market beyond the interests of your distributor and the status quo?

Johnnie Moore, another marketing consultant/blogger, summarizes the value of blogging well:

“…the value may not be the immediate impact of their words on the market, but how the conversation changes the blogger. As Hugh says, it may be a mistake to focus on using blogs to sell things; it’s more about creating real engagement – where you are changed too.”