I’ve previously mentioned my love for the Never Said About Restaurant Websites tumblr which delivers ironic praise for poorly designed restaurant websites.  And more recently, Andrew Jefford published a similar opinion about poorly designed winery websites.  And The Oatmeal made a comic about bad restaurant websites too. And I’ve slowly but surely been working on [...]

VinoCamp Languedoc was full of interesting conversations.  One of the round table discussions, led by ethiquettes.fr, was about sharing success stories and fail stories of winemakers going online. This session might itself be seen as a success story (or a fail story).  On the success side, I think it’s remarkable how many winemakers were present [...]

L’Independant carried an article last Friday (March 11th 2011) about La Confédération paysanne de l’Aude and their refusal to pay any more money to the CIVL (interprofessional group for winemakers in the Languedoc).  I don’t know much of the legal framework, so don’t take any of this as canon.  And feel free to correct me. [...]

Thierry Desseauve is a really cool dude.  He’s obviously had a huge role in creating the contemporary wine scene that exists in France.  He’s come a long way since his departure from RDF and I’m glad he had time to talk at Vin 2.0 (a conference I talked about previously) since he’s usually busy with [...]

For the Francophones out there, this is my presentation at Le Vin 2.0 where I spoke about developing commerce through social networks.  They wanted me to be sort of living proof that independent winemakers could use Internet tools to develop their commerce. I took the approach that the Internet allows us to publish on any [...]

The winemakers of the Cabardes all got together recently for a dinner in the events room at Chateau Pennautier, often billed as the Versailles of the Languedoc.  It wasn’t the Hall of Mirrors, but it was very cozy and the food was delicious.  Naturally, we all brought wine along, so we drank well too. One [...]

Unless you’re already insanely famous, very few people will devote time to you on a regular basis just to find out what the weather is like on YOUR vineyard.

I refuse to leave our fate in the hands of the global press who are, at best, mildly curious about our region. And, at worst, totally oblivious to it. Aside from a few rare examples, the world’s largest wine producer is also the world’s most ignored beauty.