...which, indirectly, means that Iron Horse Vineyards has a blog, since Laurence is "Operations Manager" for Iron Horse, as well as a member of the Sterling family, founders of Iron Horse.
Given that Laurence has been blogging since 2006, I was surprised that I just discovered his blog (on the first page of results for a Google search on winery blog, doh!). Especially so, since I know Laurence personally (our daughters were in grade school together) and our paths cross every so often.
You can read recent posts to his blog here. PDF archives of earlier stuff are also available (2008, 2007, 2006). Laurence is a genuinely smart, funny, and well-educated gentleman, so it's terrific that he's acting as the blog ambassador for Iron Horse. Lots of pictures, too.
One small problem: he's not using blogging software, which means that there are none of the nice features of Typepad, WordPress, or even Blogger (like an RSS feed, integrated archives, better photo support, etc). I can't subscribe, which makes it hard for me to keep up with someone I *know* I want to follow. And I can't link to a specific post, like Buzz Word Winemaking which shows off both his knowledge and humor
The class got me thinking about what it is we’re doing at Iron Horse, both in the vineyard and in the winery, and how it all seems so ‘conventional.’ We’re not organic or biodynamic, we filter, use commercial yeast, etc., simply un-cool. ... I won’t dwell on biodynamic, other than the only way to be certain to have a defect-free wine is to have no crop at all, which is an option if biodynamic.
(read the rest about three-quarters of the way down this page)
For those of you considering starting to write a winery blog, please take my advice: don't reinvent the wheel. Use a standard blogging platform. Somehow, others have managed to do it quite nicely. If your Webmaster or designer can't figure out how to integrate your existing Web site with a standard blogging platform, give me a call (888-WINERY-WEB) or drop me a line (mike@winerywebsitereport.com).
You too, Laurence.
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