here here! While I understand the PR / winery point of view, there are very few bloggers who actively SOLICIT samples. Yes there are many who accept them, but going out and asking for them proactivly is different. If someone offers me a glass of wine am I really going to refuse it? Not likely.

Cheers!

And I’ll say it again. Fun. Hobby. Spare time. Not my real job. On my own dime and own time. With no ulterior motive. I blogged before samples, waived tasting fees and everything else, and I’d keep doing it whether or not I got anything for it. Because I do it for myself and anyone else who stumbles across my little corner of the wine internet world. I never asked for any of those things….people sought me out.

We’re a very navel gazing kind of group aren’t we?

you have a very valid point regarding the small guys. I completely agree that they are in a different position that a larger operation, and have more limited resources. However, as a blogger, I do not have the same expectations of them as a big guy. To your point, NO, i would not expect a 500 case winery to send me samples of their limited production wine. I would however, welcome (though not expect) the opporutnity to taste these wines, perhaps an access point that the general public does not have.

This is something I have experienced first hand. I think you have a point – the question is just how to figure it out. I think bloggers need to be responsible enough (and most are) to not abuse the system. It is a problem of a few bad apples.

Perhaps I am juts too idealistic, but in my view, I will pay more money for a small production “little guy” wine than a wine from the same vineyard by a corporate winery.

But maybe that’s my liberal ass talking!

Anyway thanks for your input. I think these conversations are important and we need to keep having them so blogger, PR folk, and industry folk can see the 360 view instead of their little slice of the pie. There are always 3 truths:
-Yours
-Mine
-Everyone Else’s

Cheers!

I like your point about about finding news ways to interact wtih bloggers in a useful & meaningful way. That, I think, is the key. Right now, we are sort of swimming like mad to find the surface, and all we are doing is creating a bunch of chop. We need to find a way to smooth surface and float life rafts out.

thanks for your input! These conversations are inspiring, and they open doors.

Also, I wanted to express a thought about the other forms of social media. I use each in a different way. Twitter is my conversation tool, the blog is my journalistic tool. LinkedIn is for business. MySpace is… well, I got annoyed with MySpace. Facebook I use specifically for friends. I mean people that I have shaken hands with in the flesh and would feel comfortable having them see the absolute ridiculous photos of when I was in college. So, being plugged into all the social media is good, but there needs to be a certain awareness that if all we try and do is market ourselves through all the forms of social media that it really detracts from what social media is meant to do, which (in my opinion) is connect us with our friends and those we lost touch with.

I made my Twitter conversation private, but only because I was getting a massive amount of SPAM followers. My blog however, still shows up in search results, which is the important thing.

The other thing you can consider is opening up twitter for certain events, like TTL or WBC. That way, you are open for the important stuff, but still have to be approached if you want to be followed.

This has worked well for me, and I still get 3-5 wine followers a day!

Cheers