Dover Canyon Winery

Our Podcast Premiere: WineCast

This week Dover Canyon was a guest on Winecast's Unfiltered podcast series, with hosts Tim Elliott and Jeff Lefevere of Good Grape, and guest Alyssa Rapp of Bottlenotes.

Join us for an hour-long round table conversation as we discuss Alyssa's successful wine club, the 2007 central coast harvest, recent wine news, high alcohol in wine, the story behind our carmenere, online wine forums, and wine writer Dan Berger's latest commentary at Appellation America. 

• Winecast:  Unfiltered
• Good Grape
• Bottlenotes
• Dover Canyon 2005 Carmenere
• Dan Berger's article: The Berger Merger Report
• Appellation America

Thank you to Tim and Jeff for inviting me! 

Un blog, un’avventura

It certainly is an adventure to find my previous post, Why do I blog? translated into Italian.  According to Fabio at Vino 24 it was "una fonte di informazione più profonda." 

My thanks to Fabio for the cool link.

10 Tips for Successful Business Blogging

A big thank you to Des Walsh at Business and Blogging for featuring our last post, Why Do I Blog? on the B5Media network. 

Des says, "I suggest that some reasons for blogging, from a winery owner, could be useful for the consideration, not just of others in the wine business, but for time-strapped business owners generally."

I've been compiling notes on 'how to blog' for my friends in the wine industry, and it occurred to me—after Des pointed to our blog—that some of the techniques and lessons I find most useful would apply to any type of business blog.

Of course the first step is to choose a blogging platform, and there are a lot of great ones out there that make blogging so easy you can start writing and posting to the web within minutes.  Once you’ve decided to launch a blog and chosen a blog interface, whether it’s custom-designed, self-hosted, or a popular service like Typepad or Blogger (see Blog Software Smackdown for other top choices), it’s time to face the initially daunting aspects of design and content.

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. 

Wine Scoring Worksheets

I have received several requests lately for an easy-to-use wine scoring worksheet.  Customers are telling us with increasing frequency that they would like to start or join a neighborhood tasting group.  Let us help you get organized!

• Here's a simple wine scoring sheet
• A description of the UC Davis 20 point scoring system
• The eGullet free course on Wine Evaluation, sponsored and written by Dover Canyon Winery
• Instructions on making your own sensory aroma kit

Let us know how your group activities are going, and please send us pictures.  We'll be happy to post your stories and pictures here on the blog!

Dover Canyon is on the Map

Dover Canyon debuted this month on the AlaWine Top 100 list of wine bloggers at #58!  Alawine author Ken Waggoner sent us this nice message:  "You can take some substantial pride in having one of the very few winery blogs crossing over into mainstream popularity."

And today, Dover Canyon is one the first winery blog markers on the Wine Blog Atlas.  This cool site is just getting started.  By clicking on the map markers, you can visit wine and winery blogs from all over the globe.  Got travel plans?  Find a wine blogger covering your destination and get the scoop on local wines before you go.  Be sure to bookmark the atlas--new markers are being added all the time.

Also, our original blog article Taking Your Dog to Wine Country is now a feature article in this month's issue of Fido Friendly--a nationally published dog/travel magazine. 

And we were asked by the award-winning podcasters at GrapeRadio to contribute an article for their quarterly newsletter, "Over the Barrel."  The spring publication includes my article, Wine: The Last Frontier.  Sign up for GrapeRadio's free newsletter here.

Cheers!

Napa Valley Wine Radio

Our online friends at Goosecross Cellars have upgraded their already fun and educational blog to a new podcast format--Napa Valley Wine Radio.  The well-written blog continues (today's post is a humorous warning to fellow wineries that spring break is coming). 

You can download the podcasts with iTunes and similar software for PC and Macs.  They also have a forum section for open discussion.  This site reminds me of visiting Napa Valley in the early 1970's--attendants would scoot baskets of salty oyster crackers toward us, and urge us to take a tour.  Give the good folks at Napa Valley Wine Radio a visit. 

Wine Blog Award Winners Announced

Winners of the American Wine Blog Awards have been announced!

Our congratulations to Josh at Capozzi Family Winery, aka Pinotblogger, who won the Winery Blog category.  Although Capozzi is a new Russian River winery that has yet to sell a single bottle of wine, Josh has successfully utilized blogging to attract a mailing list of potential customers and create a relationship with them. 

I predict that next year there will be at least four times as many candidates in the Best Winery Blog category, and competition for the top four slots will be fierce.  I also predict that the finalists in this category will be those wineries that venture far beyond the 'company line' to provide original, insightful, educational, and even controversial commentary on wine production and viticulture. 

Thank you!  I extend my warmest and most heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted for us in this year's inaugural competition.  It is such an honor to be included among the four top ranked winery bloggers, and to be among the first who recognize that a winery journal is like a ship's log.  Although we are not new to winemaking and marketing, Dan and I are eternally young when it comes to wine philosophy.  This is our journal of discovery, and our voyage into the unknown.  I hope you will join us.

Dover Canyon Chosen as a Finalist

I am pleased to announce that Dover Canyon Winery has been chosen as one of only four finalists in the winery category competition for the first annual American Wine Blog Awards!

Finalists in each category were chosen from over 600 nominations by a panel of judges selected for their knowledge of the wine industry and wine journalism.

Winners will be decided by online voting. The other finalists include two of my favorite winery bloggers, Annette Hoff's Cima Collina Cellar Rap, and Josh at Pinotblogger.  Stormhoek, the South African finalist, is an internationally distributed winery with a huge readership and the amazing talent of cartoonist Hugh MacLeod.

Therefore, I shall not be bashful in asking you to vote for Dover Canyon in the American Wine Blog Awards competition!

To have been chosen as a finalist among so many other fine writers is a personal, as well as a professional, thrill.  Some of the finalists in other categories include Eric Asimov, wine writer for the New York Times; Craig Camp, who was named one of the top wine bloggers by Food & Wine magazine; Britain's Jamie Goode; and Alder Yarrow, author of the award-winning blog Vinography.  A big thanks to Tom Wark at Fermentation for undertaking this groundbreaking project.

Go to the Fermentation website to vote. Voting ends Friday, February 16, 2007.

Thank you for your support!

Dover Canyon Blog Featured by Typepad

We are pleased to learn that today we have been selected as a featured blog at Typepad!  It's a thrill to be selected as one of the best examples of Typepad blogging sites.

We use Typepad for designing and hosting our blog, and I'd like to thank the staff at Typepad for their great product and friendly, responsive customer service. Typepad widgets are also featured this week in the New York Times.  Typepad makes it really easy to offer polls and other features which we hope our customers and fans will enjoy.