8 WEEKLYPRESS.COM • UCREVIEW.COM • JUNE 12, 2013


WHITE’S WINES: Wine Blogging Grows Up L


By David White


ast week, about 250 wine bloggers gath- ered in Penticton, a small city in British Columbia, Canada, for the sixth annual North American Wine Bloggers’ Conference.


That so many wine enthusiasts would travel to a city five hours east of Vancouver isn’t surpris- ing. Held in a different winemaking region each year, the annual confer- ence brings together bloggers from across the world to meet one anoth- er, share tips and tricks,


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and learn from industry leaders.


What is surprising, though, is just how mature this group has become. What started as a small collection of amateur wine journalists embracing a new form of communication has evolved into a group of writers that’s virtually indistinguishable from the “conventional” wine media.


The blogosphere has


been trending in this direction for quite some time. Tom Wark, a wine industry publicist who


helped start the annual bloggers’ conference -- and who also runs the popular wine blog Fer- mentation (fermentation- wineblog.com) -- wrote about this development two years ago.


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“The wine blog is now fully integrated into the world of wine writing,” he explained. “If any- thing of significance dis- tinguishes wine bloggers from traditional wine publishing, it is [that] wine bloggers publish in a now recognizable and predictable diarist format, and that they are largely unpaid. Beyond these two factors, little separates the blogged wine writing from the traditional or commercial wine writing.”


Indeed, leading wine bloggers now contribute regularly to traditional media outlets and estab- lished print critics feel obligated to write online.


Consider Alder Yarrow, the founder and editor of Vinography.com, an influential wine blog that launched nearly ten years ago. He’s on the edito- rial board for Sommelier Journal, a popular trade publication, and a colum- nist for Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages.


Or look at Joe Roberts, who founded 1WineDude. com in 2007 to make clear that “learning to appreci- ate wine does not have to be daunting, expensive, or reserved for some strange elite with magical noses.” In 2012, he secured a regu- lar writing gig with Play- boy.com.


The list goes on. Kyle Schlachter, author of Col- oradoWinePress.com, has contributed to Wine Spec- tator and Decanter, two of the world’s most popular wine publications. Ty- ler Colman, a lecturer at New York University who writes DrVino.com,


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has been published in Food & Wine, the New York Times, and countless other outlets. Conversely, established print writers have turned to the web.


Few oenophiles had


heard of Steve Heimoff, the West Coast Editor for Wine Enthusiast, until he launched his eponymous blog in the spring of 2008. This past February, Antonio Gal- loni, a top critic for Rob- ert Parker’s Wine Advo- cate, left his job to start an online enterprise. Wine blogs haven’t


replaced traditional out- lets, of course. Publica-


tions like Decanter and The World of Fine Wine remain tremendously important. Hyper-spe- cialized outlets like Allen Meadows’ Burghound and Peter Liem’s Cham- pagne Guide offer mate- rial that simply can’t be found for free. Obviously, wine blogs


aren’t created equal. To- day, there are more than 1,500 active wine blogs -- while many are worth visiting, few have real reach.


But the blogosphere


has grown up -- and more and more blogs are worth following. Those who take the craft seri- ously recognize that if they desire relevance, they have to create con- tent that’s interesting, engaging, and frequent. Just look at Elaine


Brown’s WakawakaWi- neReviews.com, a site that launched in the fall of 2011.


continued on page 12


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