Now that it’s been a few gradually less-hazy days since the 2009 Wine Bloggers Conference, it’s time for me to distill the jumble of moments I encountered while in attendance. On the whole, aside from some rather frustrating wireless bandwidth issues while in session at Santa Rosa’s Flamingo Hotel, I’d say the conference was a successful one. Why? Because the conference largely did what conferences are supposed to do: bring people and industry together to create, build and strengthen relationships with each other.

Jeff Lefevere, author of the Good Grape blog, proudly displays
his American Wine Blog Award for Best Graphics, an etched Riedel decanter.
But was the time it took to present this award ceremony of value to attendees?

I say “largely” because there was a certain background feel to the conference that suggested there was less reaching out for understanding between the various participants than there could have been. In the hotel’s meeting halls and hallways as well as in some Napa Valley venues, bridges were not particularly being built between bloggers, PR/marketing types, and winery reps. Perhaps those that were not regularly engaged in blogging or other social media avenues were on-hand merely to witness what all the fuss was about. Perhaps others hadn’t developed a clear strategy as to how to engage with bloggers. Perhaps with all the activities slated for our fast-and-happy two days, there simply wasn’t enough time for informal networking. So could certain elements of the program have remained off the docket to allow for more schmoozing? Only the survey results will tell. Having done a little reading this week, I see that other bloggers in attendance have also noted these things; we observed ourselves being observed, as if blogging and social media are a phenomenon that still exists outside the grasp of many of the entities that were present.

That’s not to say that we bloggers and twitterers – industry and non-industry alike – didn’t have a merry time of it; indeed this winehiker can assure you that very many of us embraced each other, new faces as well as old. With that kind of spirit guiding us, I hold out hope that bridges were indeed built across the boundaries of the “get-its” and the “don’t-quite-get-it-yets”. I just know that, despite the number of overtures that I made to a number of winery and other industry people that I hadn’t previously met, very few people that I didn’t already have a relationship with – whether virtual or 3D – approached me for my thoughts.

Well, perhaps that’s because Hardy Wallace and Rick Bakas were also in the room. (Love those guys, by the way – even before they became famous this past month.)

Despite this perceived fishbowl dilemma, there certainly appeared to be a more high-quality presentation at this year’s conference over last year’s, both in the wines we tasted and the wine venues we visited. I’ll be diving into those waters in a forthcoming post.

Hilarious hijinx ensues when great Russian River Valley wines flow.

Meanwhile, this week has brought its share of post-conference fallout to the wine blogging world, much of it good reading not only for the recounting of recent memories of the weekend but also for the perceptions of the Wine Bloggers Conference (a.k.a. “#wbc09“, a Twitter hashtag) and its activities, filtered through the experiences and viewpoints of many diverse and talented bloggers. Some of that fallout has once again, however, generated concentric discussion about wine bloggers, our ethics, the value we create for our readers, and the notion that some wine blogs are less than palatable for consumption. While the timing of these pronouncements relative to the conference may be no more than coincidental, I believe they represent the opinions of a mere few, and these few are entitled to them. I suppose, however, that if “bad blogs” exist – and no doubt they do – people will eventually choose not to read them. Reader loyalties may ebb away and wineries may no longer ship wines to their authors for review. But as long as such blogs maintain a readership, and as long as their authors have a desire to grow their wine passion and writing skills, I feel, as do many of my colleagues, that there is room for everybody.

Quite frankly, since they are not compelled to read “bad blogs”, nor for that matter need to be concerned about anybody else’s ethics other than their own, I simply have no idea what the naysayers are afraid of.

One has every right to criticize one’s peers, I suppose, though aside from a lot of defensive back-pedaling, I’m not sure what there is to gain from needless criticism. (Bad press and/or a lot of comments on one’s blog may be considered good press, I suppose, but it’s still bad press.) I postulate that if one is not also taking steps to engage with one’s peers where they reside in the social arena, I suspect he or she is merely observing the bulk of their peers from over against the wall – in which case his or her motives may be suspect, even his or her credibility. Yes, I’m not naming names. I suspect I don’t have to.

There is room for everybody. And so we come back to the possibilities for which the Wine Bloggers Conference was created: to bring wine bloggers and the wine industry together to create, build and strengthen relationships with one another.

In the collective cauldron of creativity that passion for wine brings to the wine country and to the social sphere, I believe our collective goal is not to expound upon the the glory that wine writing might once have portrayed, nor should we be confused about where wine blogging is heading (for nothing is ever certain). Instead, our purpose is to embrace all that which is wine blogging today so that we may together seek our path toward guiding tomorrow’s wine-loving readers.

~winehiker

As this week approaches its climax, I face a very memorable and paroxysm-inducing experience for my liver at the 2nd Annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa, California. And yet before I show up Friday morning, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who have made it possible for me to attend.

For I was not going to attend this year.

I simply could not afford to go. The cost of attendance for business-related blog writers had doubled this year over last, and yet the real reason I had decided to decline was that I’ve been out of work for quite a long time: July 31st makes one full year of being unemployed at my profession as a technical writer. It’s the longest period in my adult life in which I’ve been without a paycheck. Not for any lack of trying to improve my situation, mind you – I simply could not justify the cost. And therefore I was truly going to miss hobnobbing with my family of wine-loving scribes and scalawags, makers and mentors, brothers and sisters.

It’s not news that the California economy has been poor. Relative to other U.S. locales, the technology sector as exemplified by my local Silicon Valley economy has been even worse. And to top that off, my tour business has dried up.

It’s not to say that my website isn’t getting visitors. In fact, quite the opposite: my hit rate has sprung dramatically upward since early Spring. Even Alexa.com now ranks californiawinehikes.com as being at or near the top 250,000 websites worldwide for traffic – quite a leap in traffic compared to this time last year. Interest in me and conversation via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook has rocketed in that timeframe, too; in the case of Twitter, that interest has reached well beyond the subscription level of my blog, and in much quicker fashion. These things have occurred despite the decrease in frequency of my blog postings over the same timeframe. But despite the heat-map stats telling me that 50% of my website visitors on average over the past six months are clicking through to my shopping cart, it’s become painfully obvious that they’re not clicking further: nobody since January has purchased a single California Wine Hikes tour. Those numbers are staggering, and they’re problematic.

Mind you, I’m not griping. But I am scratching my head. Nevertheless, I’m only facing a reality that many business owners large and small are facing. In short: in a down economy, the general population, despite maintaining some lifestyle interests, is and has been pulling back on discretionary purchases. They’re beginning to save, they’re staying home instead of traveling, and they’re not spending on luxuries. Certainly, despite my site stats, guided hiking and wine-tasting tours are a luxury not included in the same vein as keeping a roof over the family’s head or putting food on the table. In my particular niche, it’s easier to justify buying a tangible bottle of wine than it is to justify the purchase of an intangible tour guide service for which perceived need is not nearly so great. (Until you’re actually participating in a winehike, that is – you can trust me on that point.)

And so I find myself scrambling to execute my next moves. I’m not always certain about what those next moves should be. But I do know that over the last four years, the collective notion of combining wine and hiking has yielded a very tangible Gestalt.

Some wineries are already folding, unable to stay afloat – the aptly-named Midlife Crisis Winery being a recent prime example. And yet other wineries are finding ways to keep the interest in their products high, even employing social media strategies to bring in new consumers. These strategies seem to be working; at least there appears to be interest in the wineries who are executing on them. Time will tell if such strategies will positively affect the bottom line. But in the meantime, these wineries are initiating and maintaining conversations with many wine-loving consumers. One of those consumers is me.

I want to work with these and other wineries who have acknowledged a passion and desire to build two-way relationships with their customers. I especially want to work with California wineries that maintain their own vineyard plantations. Why? It’s simple, really: you have a beautiful property that exists beyond the experience contained within your consumers’ wineglasses, plus you have a built-in supply of wine club members eager to experience your wines. In my view, those wine club members are also eager to know not only about the grapes that go into each glass of your wine that they pour, but the land upon which those grapes grow.

That land is key to so much of what draws every wine lover to his or her love of wine, whether they know it or not. For anyone who’s ever spent a day walking the land – or merely working or exercising outdoors – it’s no stretch to believe that such an experience only heightens the desire and taste for the good food and wine that can follow.

Big Lake and hillside Cabernet vines showcase their allure at St. Supery’s Dollarhide Ranch

I’d like to say that as a naturalist, I know a few things about the relationship between love of wine and love of land. I therefore put forth the notion that a reasonably large proportion of your wine club membership will always appreciate a guide who can connect them to the land which ultimately bears the wines that they love. That connection may be vital to my business in the short run; but to your business as a winery, it will undoubtedly reap multiple long-term benefits, the best of which will be the building of a solid and loyal base of repeat purchasers – purchasers not only of wine but of real, honest, trail-dust-breathing wine experiences. The kind of people who tell others about what they’ve experienced only because you chose to approach them.

Heck, I probably don’t have to sell you with that last paragraph; you’ve no doubt walked your vineyards and know what it means to want to be out there on the land every chance you can. But why keep that to yourself? It’s a potential revenue stream. So I would ask you to consider another way in which you can solidify your customer base via the experience channel – the winehiking experience channel.

Think about it, won’t you? And then, please share your thoughts with me on twitter – I’m @winehiker.

The beauty of Hahn Estates’ vineyards under the Santa Lucia Range

In the meantime, I plan to personally show my gratitude to all of the following individuals and organizations – people who found common purpose in supporting and funding a scholarship program that has made it possible for a number of wine bloggers to attend the 2nd Annual North American Wine Bloggers Conference. As a recipient of this scholarship, I can now anticipate networking with the members of my wine family new and old, people I may not have otherwise had the chance to learn from and engage with this coming weekend – laments from my liver notwithstanding.

To each of you I say: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Individuals

Melissa Dobson, Family, Love, Wine
Thea Dwelle, Luscious Lushes
Marcy Gordon, Come For The Wine!
Ward Kadel, WineLog
Megan Riley Kenney, Wannabe Wino
Jeff Lefever, Good Grape: A Wine Manifesto
Diane Letulle, Wine Lovers Journal
Amy & Joe Power, Another Wine Blog
Liza Swift, BrixChicks
Ed Thralls, Wine Tonite!
Joel Vincent, Wine Life Today
Michael Wangbickler, Caveman Wines

Organizations

~winehiker