Hijacked Blog Content or Valuable News Resources?
Have you ever had your material hijacked, stolen or plagiarized? What are your rules for quoting, distributing or sharing your content? In the last week, I’ve been acutely aware of several different types of sites that are thriving on using others content for their own gain (financial and web traffic). Some bloggers subscribe to the Creative Commons thought and others hold to traditional Copyright laws. How would you feel if a post you wrote about a wine business topic ended up in the next issue of a wine magazine? You might be excited for the exposure, but would you expect […]
2010 Beaujolais Nouveau – A Celebration of Marketing
Marketing! Pure marketing brilliance. Some wines are all flash and no substance, pretty packages, gimmicky labels, marketing fluff and no flavor. If the Gamay found in the Beaujolais Nouveau was in any other bottle some might say it fits in the previous sentence…and maybe it does. Each year, with great fanfare and celebration, the French celebrate the completion of harvest with the release of Gamay from Beaujolais Village. The wine in the bottle was still hanging as grapes on the vine just 6-8 weeks ago. Seemingly everyone is familiar with Georges Duboeuf’s “don’t need to buy a vowel” wine. […]
When Pork and Bourbon Make Love
Fat washing. Depending on your culinary outlook, that either sounds vile and repulsive or intriguing and potentially even romantic. I definitely fall into the latter category, particularly when we’re talking about the chemical marriage of bacon flavor and bourbon. Of late I’ve had this growing addiction, and I figured it was time to come out of the closet, as it were, and share what I’ve learned. *This post is from guest blogger and long time friend, Dustin Cann @dustincann But before we get to the “how” let’s talk about the “why”. Let me start by saying that if you hate […]
A Virginia Wine Virgin No More
Virginia is home to some of our country’s early history, 8 US presidents (including 4 of our first 5), Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, a strong military ship yard, beautiful beaches, and some of the most amazing Fall scenery in the U.S. With some of our countries earliest history of wine, Virginia is not just for lovers, it is for wine lovers. 38 years ago I was born among the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Roanoke, Virginia. The childlike fondness I have from living there for 10 years remains with me. While we occasionally go back to VA to visit […]
Selling Out – Does Going Pro Mean the End of Credibility?
Wine blogging is a tangled vine of mystery, intrigue, passion, eroticism, and cow horns. Topics like bio-dynamics, Robert Parker’s 100 point system, the use of sulfites and stolen grapes stir the tank of controversy on a daily basis. Once one enters under the canopy of darkness…there is little hope of making it out alive (or at least with white teeth). Since when did mixing commerce with blogging become the antithesis to credibility? The medium of blogging affords a great freedom in expression and also lends itself to a speed that cannot exist in traditional media. Bloggers were first to respond […]