2009 European Wine Bloggers Conference

An early wine blogger...?

Some concluding thoughts:

Now back from the Douro and the 2nd European Wine Bloggers Conference is over. However even before this one closed its doors and recycled the last empty bottle of wine, ideas and possible venues for 2010 were being proposed and discussed.

It has all been pretty intense with little time to catch up and write up tastings, impressions, etc but over the next couple of days I should now have time to write up the visits and tastings.

Anyone, who still thought that wine blogging was a temporary phenomenon, should have been disabused of the idea by the sharp increase in numbers from last year's conference up from around 40 participants to nearly 130 this time. 130 very disparate bloggers – most within the wine industry but also some with no wine work connection.

The machine is the message...?

Inevitably the question of how to make money from blogging arose. There was a suggestion that getting advertising from wineries would be acceptable but I, Quentin Sadler and others rejected that completely on the obvious grounds that accepting winery advertising would both destroy one's credibility and forfeit your independence. Ryan Opaz challenged me by asking what is the difference between writing for magazines like Decanter, which accept advertising, and blogging on Jim's Loire. The answer is that I don't know whose adverts Decanter is carrying nor have Decanter ever asked me to write about particular producers.

Ryan Opaz: "Would it be the same if there could be advertising for which you didn't know the source?" I'm not at all sure how this would work – shall have to get more details from Ryan – but I fancy this would also be compromising.

The consensus, if indeed one was reached, was that you are more likely to make money (monetise!) indirectly from a blog (e.g. sales of photos, articles, invitations to talk or lecture, sales if you are a merchant) rather than directly from advertising, etc. Rather depends on the number of visitors you are able to attract.

Poster designed for second #EWBC by Jimmy Pons

Samples – another old favourite – was also raised. As far as covering Loire wines is concerned, having samples is an essential part of the job. I cannot afford to buy all the Loire wines I need to taste and, although it is always valuable to taste wines at a domaine, it is also useful to be able to taste some of the wines later. Tasting wines under different conditions is important and especially seeing how they match with food. My aim is to assess wine samples as objectively as those wines that I have bought. No-one would expect a film critic to pay to see all the films they need to see nor a motoring journalist to buy all the cars they review.

A slightly soft focus Doug Cook

I've already mentioned Doug Cook's Able Grape and internet search presentation. Although perhaps obvious it is good to be reminded that it is better to have a smaller number of committed and focused visitors than high numbers that may well include robotic searchers. Rowan Gormley, whose introduction to Naked Wines and, asked why Able Grape didn't include retailers in their listings as people want to know where to buy wines they read about, his explanation of how they involve their customers and sponsor winemakers was also useful. I hope Doug doesn't include retailers as it is good to have a search engine that cuts out the noise of who stocks what and lists instead just information about the wine, the producer, region, etc. In any case if you search on 'able grape' you'll find the excellent wine-searcher appearing at the top of the list or close to it, so making it easy to check out the retailers. The problem with Google, excellent for many things, is that you often have to wade through long lists of retailers before you find you information you are looking for. I expect to be using Able Grape regularly from now on.

Adegga is another interesting development. Based in Portugal their aim is to introduce unique numbers for wines in the same way that books have ISBNs to identify them.

Because of its flexibility Wordpress appears to be the blog format of choice amongst experienced bloggers. For the moment, at least, Jim's Loire will stay on Blogger as, despite its quirks, it generally allows me to post what I want and in the way that I want it to look. I have, however, been inspired to add a few new gadgets (see next but one post).

As ever the most valuable part of the conference was meeting new people, especially those on the trips – to Terras do Sado and the two-day Douro Boys' excursion to the Douro Valley – new contacts from many parts of the world. I have added a number of new links to Jim's Loire including Able Grape, Adegga, Eat like a girl, Daniele Delgesso's wine on the rocks, Anthony Swift's Wine pleasures and others.

Are we seeing a progression to small is better and better? Blogs have taken traffic away from some traditional wine websites. Now twatter (do you mean twitter?) may be doing the same to blogs. Will it be the European Wine Twitters Conference next year??

Related article on samples

The Gray Market Report: Dear FTC I take freebies

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• Bloggers Conference: what I'd say if I was there! (wineanorak.com)
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• AVIN: The ISBN Of Wine? (winerywebsitereport.com)
• Doug Cook - Creator of Able Grape and Head of Twitter Search (winebloggersconference.org)