Good Grape: A Wine Blog Manifesto

June 13 2006

Cluetrain #6--The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possibl

The blogging book Naked Conversationsby Robert Scoble and Shel Israel quote a German philosopher named Arthur Schopenhauerwho says:

“Every truthpasses through three stages before it is recognized. In the first it isridiculed, in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded asself-evident”

Forthose living in the Internet Age, and for those living in the Blogosphere ofthe Internet Age, Cluetrain #6 might be viewed as self-evident.

Forresterresearch, as found on the Web 2.0 marketing guru Steve Rubel’s Micropersuasionsite, has aggregated a nice matrix of all of the various companies occupyingthe very real and very tangible ‘social networking’ space.

And,social networking, at its core, really means that we are meeting and creatingrelationships in ways that are facilitated and enabled via the Internet.

Takefor example the Wellfed Network and Wine Sediments. Dayton, OH based news reporter and wine columnist, Mark Fisher,edits the site. Mark and I have arelationship. If I email him, he willanswer me and vice versa. We exchangecommunication probably three times a week on various and sundry things—he anacquaintance around a hobby of mine and I’ve found him to be a nice, warm,engaging chap. I likely have a betterand warmer digital relationship with Mark then I do with some real lifecolleagues whom I’ve worked with for the past four years. But, the rub is, I’ve never met Mark—inperson, or on the phone. I don’t knowhis voice and I might miss him on the street. There is a 98% likelihood that we would have never met in the real world.

Thesesorts of things are happening all around us and they are changing the way wework and play. While possible five orsix years ago via message boards and the like, and even really 10 years ago viaBBS’s, digital relationships are now coming to the forefront as center of gravityfor our life slowly moves around us.

Forthe blogosphere this is the third-stage—it’s self-evident to us.

But,the implications are much greater for wineries. Within the wine community, blogs probably aren’t evenridiculed—that presumes a level of understanding to create derision. I think blogs, for the most part, are metwith confused non-understanding or indifference.

AlderYarrow, a similarly nice chap whom I’ve also exchanged emails with, writes theseminal wine blog, Vinography. His sitelists approximately 22 wineries that have blogs. 22. There are at least5000 in the U.S. alone, according to Wine Business Monthly. Really, that’s a shame because asinformation breaks down the barriers of the Tower of Babel, you hope that morethan a handful of wineries seize the agenda to win new customers and grow theirreputation.

The conversation ishappening. It’s happening all aroundus. Are there any wineries, save for a handful,--the folks that desire and want new customers--listening?

For a twenty page, engaging, white paper look at this same topic, click here.

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