Why do I blog?

Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20 has just invited us to join a game of blog tag called "Why We Blog."  Dr. Debs was tagged by Russ at Winehiker Witiculture (the official site of California Wine Hikes), who was first tagged by Ev Nucci at My Life is Murphy's Law, an inspiring site on children with disabilties (Ev was also nominated in the Blogger Choice Awards as "Hottest Mommy Blogger".  The challenge is to list 5 reasons why we blog, and then tag five fellow bloggers. 

When I first started blogging, I had only one object in mind--to give our customers and wine club members a deeper source of information about the winery.  Last year I was asked by Pajama Market, which chose us as a Small Business Blog of the Day, to talk about why I blog, so I'll start with some of the thoughts I shared in that interview.  But the very act of blogging has enriched me, and now I have more than 5 reasons to continue blogging . . .

1.  I started the blog as a way to announce winery news, generate excitement about upcoming releases, and write about harvest and vineyard activities.  As a small winery, we depend on relationships with our loyal customers who know and want our products.  Critical acclaim is not  an effective way to reach our audience because the wines that are reviewed are sold out long before scores are published.  For instance, the 2003 Zinfandel Reserve that Robert Parker scored 91 was sold out two months before the scores were published. Another wine, a syrah, was sold out ten months before the central coast Rhone scores were published. 

2.  The blog connects us with a whole community of people interested in wine that would not otherwise know about us.  The benefits have far outstripped anything I expected. Other bloggers have been very complimentary and generous about providing links. This creates a buzz that is about the winery--our wines, our people, our hospitality, even our sense of humor.

The blog has become far more important, in terms of marketing and outreach, than our website.  The website has become a pantry for our more staple information--contact info, order form, wine club application, etc. The blog is our kitchen--it's where wine, food and life are discussed.

3.  It's a much more personal interface than emails.  Writing the blog has helped me clean up the monthly enews I send almost-once a month. I feel less pressured to include everything. I can keep the email simple, and provide links to more information on the blog. On the blog I can say more about our limited production wines, and the information is viewable far longer and to a broader audience than in emails.  Subscribers can also float around and see if there is any other recent news that interests them.  My statcounter shows that people looking for general wine information or even recipes come to the blog and end up staying for awhile. Sounds like our house!

4.  The exercise of writing short pieces has awakened me to a whole universe of potential stories. Everything that falls in my inbox or passes by my window is potential blogmeat. All I need now is more hours in the day!

5.  The blog itself has become an adventure.  After starting the winery blog, I was asked to start the Women Wine Critics Board blog, which brought me, and therefore Dover Canyon, to the attention of writers like Mike Steinberger at Slate Magazine. And recently I was interviewed by a writer working on a piece for Business Week. These are amazing connections for a business of our size.  I'm getting messages and emails from people all over the world, and I although I can't post every day, I look forward to sitting at my laptop and staying in touch with the world.

6.  Other reasons I blog? 

• I like to write about our wine region and its people, so visitors can see my fellow vintners, our soils, our passion, through my eyes.
• Sometimes I challenge myself to face my fears, or write about things that make me angry or frustrated, but to transform those issues with humor. 
• I love that spark when someone says, "Oh now I get it!"   The blog is a place where I can share articles on sulfites, tannin, steps in wine evaluation, and food pairing tips.
• It's a way to share our quirky yet tranquil life with many people.  Sort of a 'virtual houseguest' kind of place.
• It's become a challenge to write better than I ever thought I could.

And now I'm going to tag . . .

• The Winery Website Report, by Mike Duffy
• Cellar Rap, by winemaker Annette Hoff
• Wine Camp, by wine writer Craig Camp
• Vinography, by Alder Yarrow
• The Pour, by Eric Asimov, New York Times

(That last one may be a bit of a Dream Team assignment, but I would like to know--wouldn't you?)

Here are some photos of where I write . . .

We have a saltbox greenhouse with a western facing sunroof.  In the winter I like to work at the nursery table with a view of the approaching storms.  Our fat, deaf cat Mario is taking a snooze on my notes.

This is the view from my laptop and the dining room table, looking southwest over the hills of west Paso Robles, toward Templeton Gap.  As you can see, we're up pretty high--about 1500'--and we get brisk, sometimes violent, ocean winds.  But no fog--summer fog is caught by the Santa Lucia foothills you see in the picture, and hangs in shreds on those ridges, gracing us with cool ocean breezes and little threat of mildew.

Comments

[Dr. Debs]

Thank you, Mary, for playing along. I love being your "houseguest" whenever you have time for a new post.

And your comment about the timing advantage of the blogosphere really struck a chord with me. There's been a lot of talk recently about how the blogs should be different from main stream wine journalism. I've been making the point that it's not necessarily what we do, but when we do it that is different. No long lead times, no schedules to follow. The result? More timely wine information.

And I covet your office.

[winehiker]

I'm rather enjoying being a house guest here, too, Mary, and am equally covetous of much you display on your site - one of which is the NWF accreditation (and it's true: your office view, too!). I'll certainly be interested to see if the Dream Team will pick up this meme; I'm guessing Annette will post first. (You gals rock!)

By the way, here's a link to where this meme got started. It's a pretty impressive tree structure: http://www.soloseo.com/why-blog-meme.html. Just search for "Russ" and you'll see the activity that's occurred since I got tagged.

[Mike Duffy]

I consider myself well-tagged. Thanks, Mary.

[Paul Mabray]

Mary,
In the wine industry, you are definitely leading the path with your great blog. I usually recommend against wineries blogging and ask them to focus on key business items but you would be the exception. Keep up the excellent work.

Inertia - Powering the Wine Revolution

---Paul Mabray

[Jack Erhart]

It's great to see some local folks getting the word out about Paso Robles wines. We're doing the same thing, only with a different product. You might be interested. We have a great wine club retention program. In your own backyard you might say. I see by your links you are not unfamiler with fresh roasted coffee. We consider what we do to be very much like the industry that surrounds us. I look forward to what you think. Thanks.

[John]

I wanted give you some feedback on reason #2. I've read about your wines on other blogs and found your blog through Good Wine Under $20. Not long ago, I passed a stack of Renegade Red at my local wine shop here in South Carolina and remembered reading good things.

What a great find.

I'll be looking for more of your wines in the future. You've won another fan. Great work on the blog and the wines.

[Mary B.]

Thank you, Paul! That is quite a compliment. I will do my best to keep it up . . .

John, thank you for the compliments, and thank you again for the great review of Renegade Red on your blog, "Brim to the Dregs."

[Oren]

Hi Mary,
We just started our blog: "The Beholder" and we started it with quite similar interests as yours.
Our first (real) post by Limor was the "Why to blog?" post and we also mention reasons for it but there is one reason we (you&us) left out: keeping in touch with our family, just like twitter.com but with more creativity...
this is our post:
http://blog.clirity.com/wb/?p=8

and this is one blog which created for this reason:
http://thewittleone.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/the-impersonal-me/

Cool post :-)

[Mike]

Hi there,

I couldn't help but notice the cute cat on the desk.

I have a website called www.catonmydesk.com which I have recently started (a sister site to my original www.stuffonmydesk.com) and I was wondering if you would give me permission to use this photo on cat on my desk. Alternatively if you could email in a photo of your cat on the desk, that would be much appreciated.

I would be happy to link back to your web site.

Regards,

Mike