On the 28th of March, Parisians can taste the products of some of France’s most notorious winemaking bloggers.  Antonin from Vindicateur and Eva from Oenos are organizing this epic wine tasting at l’Hedonist which will include seven properties.   All the details about the seven winemakers (only six on the invitation, but they promise seven [...]

I love O’Reilly Media’s famous TED talks. These are 18 minute presentations where famous people around the world share interesting and engaging ideas and knowledge. I also love FRED talks. These are the exact same thing for people who aren’t insanely famous yet. I got to talk about the history of Prohibition in America and [...]

I’ve just launched a new project at kickstarter to fund winemakers who want to write a book about their region.  Do you all know what kickstarter is? Here’s how they describe themselves: Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Every month, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of [...]

While writing my book, I had to make a lot of decisions about self-publishing, format, layout, sales channels, imprints, and a lot of stuff that never really occured to me until I was up to my neck in publishing information.  I found one article from Jancis Robinson’s site particularly useful.  It was written by Monty [...]

I’m always out there trying to convince Languedoc Roussillon wine people to blog. But sometimes I feel like my proselytizing is a big waste of time. Because outside of a few very devoted winemakers who are taking up the charge to explore the Internet with me, I see very few results. I hear a lot [...]

I know I talk a lot about how awesome Languedoc Roussillon bloggers are.  But today, I’m gonna link to some folks outside of the region.  Other young winemakers who use video effectively. Herrenhof – A small family vineyard.  Blogging in German and English.  I feel like this guy is as involved in day to day [...]

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at Paris Web 2010 in mid-October.  We’ll be talking about my experiences with coming to the south of France as an outsider and how I simultaneously used the Internet to highlight that difference (separate myself intentionally from other winemakers) and also to integrate myself (truly becoming [...]

Joe and Ryan O’Connell are ascended fanboys. Why do I always say that, and where does the phrase come from?  TV Tropes. TV Tropes is a wiki-styled site where people store away cultural references and catalog the use of certain recurring tropes in fiction.  The scope is large and its users proudly forgo wikipedia’s notability [...]

Is it part of our job as winemakers in a rural area to assess the current Internet landscape and retool some of the services out their to serve our needs? I’m working on this idea and I’ll keep coming back to it. For sure, there are ways that social media can sell wine like when Twitter-ers bid on wine at a Toques et Clochers auction in rural France. But we might have to actively study these examples if we want to replicate their success.

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.