I Need Your Feedback, Seriously

Today, I'm not really writing about wine. Instead, in this blog, I am blogging about this blog. It's not easy every day writing about wine or in the case of today, writing about this blog. But, every morning, with a few exceptions when it has flipped over to afternoons, for slightly more than 370 of them now, I've persevered. Sometimes that's been easy; sometimes, it's not.

I expect that most of you who read this do so by grabbing it on your Facebook or Twitter feed. Some of you follow this blog through Blogger and some get daily emails. But, from any who are willing, I'd like to know what you like and what you don't. What makes you want to read? You can comment in the Facebook feed, reply on Twitter, comment on this post on the blog, or contact me some other way that you know will work (email, text, phone call, probably shouldn't senf me a letter via the USPS).

The other thing that has come from a number of you is that I should turn this into a book. If I were to start one, it wouldn't be the first time I started a book. But, if I finished it, it would be the first time I finished one. 

Let's suppose I were to do so. One thing I could do would be to simply assemble all these posts into an e-book and self-publish, I suppose. Were I a reader, I wouldn't like that. It's haphazard. It's all over the place. Some person trying to make me feel good would say that is the part of the charm. You'd have to work really hard though because I'm not sure you could make me believe you.

On the other hand, suppose I had a catchy title. The only things that pop into my head are plays on Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days," so that I might wind up with something as silly as "Around the World in [pick whatever number I wind up with] Wines." Maybe one of you has one for me. If I do write such a thing and get to the point of getting it out there to the public, I'll give you credit, I promise.

If I were to go down this road, though, I think what I would do is take the reader on a vicarious wine trip around the world with the travel in an orderly sense. So, for example, we might start here and end here, but visit all the places we have visited, but in an order that makes travel sense.

Help me. Talk me out of this ... or talk me into it.

And, while I'm asking for your help, I'm going to give you a quick preview. I recently came into possession of a new wine of which only one barrel was produced. That's less than 300 bottles ... in the world ... anywhere. While I've not tasted it yet and likely won't for a while, tomorrow we're going to visit the winery where it was produced, vicariously of course, while we vicariously drink the wine.

Thanks in advance for your help.


Comments

Post a Comment

I'd like your feedback and questions.

Popular posts from this blog

Gruner Veltliner

With some time to kill and wanting to see the countryside, but obviously not able to drive ourselves, we hailed an Uber to go from northern Italy to Wachau, Austria right on the Danube (little did I know that I would need an additional credit card for this trip). We're going to drink wine from the most widely planted grape in the country, Gruner Veltliner. As we arrive on the east bank of the river, we see a number of bottles set out for us. But, something is odd. None of them are the traditional 750 ml bottle that we are used to. No, the wine sometimes affectionately known as Gru-V is bottled in chubby, almost cylindrical with their short necks, 1 liter bottles with crown (you need a bottle opener, not a corkscrew) caps. In Wachau, most Gru-V wine is grown on steep, terraced slopes that have almost no ability to retain soil. Winemakers believe that the stress from lack of soil enhances the flavor profile of Gru-V. Our wines are white with a slight very pale green tinge to them
Read more

Mount Veeder

Bordering Los Carneros and almost directly to the north, what a difference a few miles makes. Today, we are in the Mount Veeder American Viticultural Area (AVA). The ride here takes only 15 minutes and if there were a raod that would take us directly, it might be only 5, but the terrain. climate, soil, and virtually everything else about Mount Veeder makes it unique. Likely the single most unique thing about Mount Veeder AVA among the Napa Valley appelations is the slope of the hillsides. When we visit the other mountain AVAs within the broader Napa Valley AVA, we see some pretty steep slopes that grapes are growing on -- 10 degree grades, 15 degree grades. In the Mount Veeder AVA, that would be looked at as perfectly flat. And, that is what makes Mount Veeder different. The typical 30 degree grades make access difficult. When we think about what a 30 degree slope really means, consider what it is like to get mechanical equipment into the vineyards. For the most part, it's just not
Read more

Wineries and Wine Clubs

Wineries treat their wine club members well. At least most of them do. And, they should.  Think about it. A wine club member is an automatically repeating customer. And, in being automatically repeating, these are not just any wines, these are the sought after, usually higher priced, limited production wines.  Wineries have three kinds of direct-to-consumer customers: those who come by the winery or buy through the winery website and buy once, those who are fairly frequent customers, but on their own schedules, and those wine club members who get multiple bottles of wine at scheduled times during the year and frequently buy more.  Frankly, it's a symbiotic relationship. The winery gets a group of loyal customers. It gets predictable purchases from a dedicated group. The wine club member gets access to wines that other might want and some other special perks. Some give occasional gifts, some give free shipping, almost all give discounts, and if you visit the winery, you likely get t
Read more