Mike Duffy at Winery Website Report. El Jefe at Twisted Oak, and Paul at Inertia hit me with the “Why I Blog” tag today. Many thanks fellas, I always enjoy talkin’ ’bout myself! Here’s what I came up with…

• First and foremost the blog is a cheap, fun marketing vehicle and personal relationship builder. Crass perhaps (at least the marketing part), but true. The thing is I think that relationship building is marketing, and it’s actually one of the very best parts of the job. I think that if you’re going to go into the wine business you absolutely have to like people and want to welcome them into your life.
• I blog because I noticed it was far too hard to find solid information on how to start a winery. It’s a complicated process in a complex, over-regulated industry. I figured a blog outlining how one person went about doing it would help aid others who were trying to round up this kind of info.
• In that vein, I also hoped to get (and was lucky enough to receive) some feedback on the process by other folks more experienced and knowledgeable than I (not too hard). I talk to a lot of folks in my neck of the woods, but a blog brings in voices from hither, thither, and etc.
• Finally, there’s some sappy chick movie I watched once where one of the characters said about his father: “Things don’t really seem real to me until I’ve told him about them.” I can’t for the life of me remember anything else about that flick, but I feel the same way about all the seminars, classes, research and discussions I have about the industry. Ideas only really get cemented in my mind when I have to sit down and post on what I’ve learned, hopefully in a semi-entertaining way. Building this winery is my unending passion and sharing that passion on this blog seems like the best outlet I have.

  If I didn’t write, I’d be even worse company at dinner parties than I am now, boring people with talk about Precision Viticulture. There are probably only 14 readers in the world interested in PV, but dammit I want them all.

So now it’s my turn to tag a few others! Tag, you’re it.

Craig Camp @ Wine Camp Blog
Steve @ The Wine Collector
Jamie Goode, the Carl Sagan of Wine
Jeff @ Good Grape
Alder @ Vinography