The Good
The good this week is a couple of my favorite bloggers taking some major leaps in their careers. Joe Roberts of 1WineDude posted this week on his move to the ranks of wine blogging professionals, which brings the grand total up to one I think, unless you count Dr. Vino.
The other major leap is being taken by my good friend Josh Wade from DrinkNectar. Josh is opening up a new tasting room in Spokane, where he will host 5 different wineries in one Spokane location. This week we got a cool sneak peek into the new space.
I wish the best of luck to both Joe and Josh in their new endeavors.
The Bad
This week we are mourning the loss of a great wine blog. Tamara Belgard announced that she would be taking a hiatus from her SipwithMe blog. This is a development that is sad for us readers, but the hiatus is actually due to Tamara finding a great new job with an Oregon winery. This is something that she has been pursuing for a while now, so it’s actually good for her. But this is really all about me, so I’m calling it bad.
The Ugly
I know I’m way late to the party on this one, but I was in the middle of moving across the country as all of this Charles Smith story was fomenting. For those who missed it, Washington State Rockstar Winemaker Charles Smith is suing a host of commenters on a blog that issued a negative story on him. There is a great analysis of the situation on Another Wine Blog that really goes much deeper than the typical “does he have a case?” chatter that I have seen elsewhere. Amy Corron Power says that there might be an actual case, but I think the real question is why Smith feels it’s necessary to file the suit anyway. To me this case comes across as a rich businessman trying to bully a bunch of normal people who haven’t really done him any substantial harm, but instead just hurt his feelings. Unfortunately, this incident has the potential to cost the commenters a lot of money, even if Smith doesn’t have a case. Hard to feel much sympathy for a guy like Smith in this situation.
Cheers!
Ben, I hope things are settling down with the move to Washington. The issue with Charles Smith was something I originally wanted to discuss the issue on our show, but haven’t really found a constructive angle to pursue. The problem really has to do with how wineries can best deal with negative comments or feedback on sites like blogs, Yelp, and so on.
Obviously, someone like Smith has a lot of resources and can hire a fleet of lawyers to do the work of protecting his good name (if you want to call it that); the vast majority of small and medium-sized wineries can’t afford such a strategy. It would be much better (and infinitely more affordable) to counter negative feedback and perceptions with a well-crafted PR/social media strategy.
I agree. I think that this is sort of a childish way of reacting to negative press. It seems like this was an opportunity for him to respond directly and in a more positive manner, and he chose to instead take a more petulant route to dealing with it. I really think that this ultimately reflects much more negatively on him than the original comments did. In the long run he might be sorry that he took this approach.
Ben, that is so incredibly sweet. Thank you for this very thoughtful inclusion. While it’s definitely hard, I’m looking forward to blogging on a different level soon. Best to you and all your changes. And thanks for the info on Joe Roberts, had no idea he went pro, awesome!!
You bet. Excited to see what you have coming up. Lots of changes for our friends in the blogging world these days. I’m looking forward to seeing what the upcoming year has to offer.