The Good
Every once in a great while a post so epic, so innovative, so damn funny that it just can’t be ignored comes along. Earlier this week, such an event took place. I have long been lamenting the lack of truly quality satire in wine blogging. I mean, sure there are those who take a stab at it, but most of the attempts are incredibly ham-handed and obvious, which makes the more imaginative posts that much more enjoyable. Josh Wade from Drink Nectar posted a really great introduction to the new sport of “Speed Wine Blogging”. Trust me folks, this thing is going to be huge.
Photo taken from DrinkNectar.com
The Bad
There really isn’t much that I could say negatively about the 2010 edition of the Wine Bloggers’ Conference, but I will say that there was one miscue that sorta sucked the energy out of a really exciting portion of the event. During the Wine Blog Awards ceremony, it was announced that several categories were won by people not in attendance, and then those awards were all handed out together. Talk about removing all of the suspense from something that should have been one of the higher energy moments of the whole weekend. That being said, the award ceremony was still a lot of fun, and I really couldn’t argue too much with the final selections, even if some of my choices would have been different. Here are a few posts that talk about the winners and the award ceremony -
Tasting Room Confidential – Wine Blogger Conference 2010 Blog Awards
Wine Predator – 2010 Wine Blogger Award Winners Announced
1WineDude – Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! (Brought to you by the Letter “W”)
Catavino – North American Wine Bloggers Conference 2010 – A Few
Thank You’s
Update – Just to be clear, the Wine Blog Awards ceremony was awesome on the whole, it was just the premature announcement that the winners for certain awards were not present that killed the vibe. Thanks to 1WineDude for pointing out in the comments that this might not have been clear in the post above. As you were.
The Ugly
Photo courtesy of kwtastings.com (via WineTonite)
There are always so many directions that I can go with this last category. Do I find a post that has an ugly picture in it? Maybe I can find some really ugly piece of news. I could always go with a cop-out and say that the ugly this week was having to say goodbye to all the great friends that I met in real life (the studio audience lets out an, “ahhhh”.) With so many choices, this week was especially tough. I decided to go with a post brought to us from Joe Powers of Another Wine Blog fame. This post gains “The Ugly” for a couple of reasons. The first is that Joe chronicles the “ugly” state that the collective wine blogging community’s livers were in upon departing W2. Personally, I was engaged in some level of drinking for a week straight, which even with all the spitting, will still leave you feeling the effects. The second is an unfortunate photo of our friend the Beer Wench on the blog, that pretty much describes how I felt a couple of the days we were there. Constant activity for a week straight is not my friend.
Cheers!
First, the wenchie photo is EPIC!
Second, I was kind of surprised to see the WBA in the “Bad” portion given that Mutineer at least made an *admirable attempt* to inject some energy into it. On the whole, I think it was given too little time, but it was certainly a bit less dry than the presentations from last year’s WBC. I would make sure that you get the feedback to Joel, Reno and the crew though – I’ve been sending them ideas and basically telling them that it would be good to have a bit more energy and humor woven nto the proceedings.
Cheers!
The best aggregator of the week’s posts…EVER!
Joe, here’s where the wind got sucked out, and it was subtle enough that many didn’t notice:
Alan said (and I recall that it was for “Best New Wine Blog”, because two of my buddies in the room- Josh Wade and Steve Paulo- were up for the nomination), “okay, these folks aren’t here, so we’re gonna go through these quickly.” My first thought was, “what does he mean they’re not here? Josh and Steve and the other guy are here…oh, he means the winner isn’t here. But he hasn’t announced the winner yet. Boo.” Basically, Josh, Steve, et al were told up front that they didn’t win. That was (forgive my lack of eloquence here) shitty.
Joe, you are totally right about the presentation overall being great. I do not disagree at all. It was a lot of fun, which made the miscue that much more of a letdown. I even said in the post that it “sucked the energy out of a really exciting portion of the event”. There was so much energy during the awards, and then it was like a huge crash when they said that the winners weren’t present. I will definitely get my feedback on this to the guys, and will let them know that I loved the overall energy.
Hmm, yes that is a very unfortunate photo of Ashley. I’m sure she’ll really appreciate you directing everyone to view it who hasn’t seen it yet
What a classic photo! (the ugly)
Ben,
I knew what you meant and agree the “these awards were won by people not present so we’ll zip through them” was a mistake.
That section of the presentation was like the section in the Oscars where they announce the technical awards that had already been given out elsewhere. Except in this case, the nominees in the room were not given much courtesy.
I love this G,B,U feature BTW. Nice Texas feel.
It ain’t easy being ugly. My liver thanks you.
And for the record, everyone know how cute Ashley is. She was ACTING!