The Winery Web Site Report

Long Time, Same Story

I've had this blog for a long time (April 2005, nearly 8 years).  I'm sure I've written posts about why wineries should have a blog (in fact, the topic of my second post ever).    I used to actually make regular posts about new winery blogs.  I even have a category for blog posts on the topic of winery blogs.

Some wineries actually do have blogs, although the percentage is still miniscule in terms of the 6,000-odd US wineries.  I'd like to think that such wineries are more successful as a result, but there's no data to support or deny that hope (since wineries are notoriously quiet about their actual sales and profits).

The fact is, most wineries don't blog.  It's just surprising that more don't, notwithstanding Paul Mabray's belief that there are other things wineries should do first (with which I agree).

Anyway, I was reading my Twitter search results for "winery blog" (which is one method I used to keep track of new ones), and came across Why Every Winery Should Have A Blog which does a good job of beating the dead horse of winery blogging one more time.

Comments from wineries, both pro and con on the question of winery blogs, are welcome.

 

 

Your Winery Blog

Don't have one?  Neglecting the one you already have?

This post points out why you might want to reconsider the value of a winery blog.  With a new emphasis on fresh content, Google's latest search engine update (called Caffeine) makes regular posts to your winery blog even more valuable.

Of course, you should already know (using a tool like Google Analytics) what percentage of your traffic comes from search engines, and that will help you make an informed decision about the value of search engine traffic.  Here's a picture of the traffic sources for this blog over the past 30 days from Google Analytics:

What's yours look like? 

New Winery Blogs, March 2010

Another month has passed, and there are new winery blogs to report:

• Alma Sol Winery
  http://www.almasolwinery.com/

• Morrison Family Winery
  http://morrisonwines.wordpress.com/

• RoxyAnn Winery
  http://myfriendsatroxyann.wordpress.com/

• Warwick Wine Estate
  http://blog.warwickwine.com/

As always, they've been added to my comprehensive list of winery blogs.  Please let me know of ones I've missed.

Pay Attention To Your Permalinks

 

Lots of people use WordPress as a content management system (CMS).  It's a great tool, has an active user community, and it's free.

You can use it to run your blog or your whole Web site.  You can use it as a free hosted service at WordPress.com (with some limitations), or run the software yourself (many Web hosts offer it pre-installed as part of a hosting package).  One thing, though, is you still kinda need to read the manual if you want to maximize its value as a tool for marketing your winery and wines.

I was reminded of this while looking at Wine Industry Insight.  The "permalink" (URL) of a post at wineindustryinsight.com looks like this:

 http://wineindustryinsight.com/?p=10476

This is the default, and its format is a dead giveaway that WordPress is in use.

A better format for this permalink, one which could increase the search engine ranking for this post, might be something like:

 http://wineindustryinsight.com/2010/04/07/wine-industry-news.html

since search engines tend to pay attention to keywords in a URL.

Fortunately, WordPress allows you to control how your permalinks will appear.

One thing to watch out for: if you change the permalinks for existing posts, you need to create permanent redirects (HTTP 301s) for the old URLs if you want to preserve the current search engine rank/information about those pages.

This is why it's important to set up your permalinks correctly from the get-go.

New Winery Blogs, February 2010

It's almost April, and I just noticed that I'd forgotten to mention new winery blogs that have come to my attention.  Here are the ones that showed up last month:

• Isaak of Salem
  http://blog.isaaksofsalem.com/

• Millbrook Vineyards & Winery (Millbrook Musings)
  http://www.millbrooksmusings.blogspot.com/

• Oliver Winery
  http://oliverwinery.wordpress.com/

• ROCO Winery
  http://rocowinery.com/wp/?m=201001

• Vinos Ambiz
  http://vinosambiz.blogspot.com/

As always, please let me know of any winery blogs I've missed, so I can add them to The List.

"...make things that SELL."

A great quote, and a great story about the challenges of changing distributors from the Clos LaChance blog: Now that you know, buy some wine.  Even if you don't read the entire post, click through and read the last sentence.

You might also appreciate their previous post on why they changed distributors: Just don't lie.

A minor complaint:  I wish Clos LaChance didn't post under the name "administrator" -- that name has about as much personality as a lug nut.  If you're blogging, give your account a real name.

And some praise: take a look at their contact page.  You can't say it's hard to find someone to talk to at Clos LaChance!

(In other news, today's my 55th birthday.)

How Often Should I Blog?

"As often as you want people to think about you."

One of the best answers to this question that I've heard.  Of course, you have to balance that against how often people actually want to think about you.

More good answers to common blogging questions from Rich Brooks at Flyte New Media.

New Winery Blogs, January 2010

New winery blogs continue to appear on the scene.

• Jordan Winery (The Journey)
  http://blog.jordanwinery.com/

• Kaella Winery
  http://tinyurl.com/yzw27jf

• Longboard Vineyards (barreled)
  http://longboardvineyards.com/blog/

• Mandola Estate Winery
  http://mandolaestatewinery.com/

• Modus Wines (My Life as a Winemaker)
  http://www.winemakerjasonmoore.blogspot.com/

As always, they've been added to The List, my comprehensive list of winery blogs.

New Winery Blogs, November 2009

Another month, another batch of winery blogs!

This month's list of newly-discovered blogs includes Robert Mondavi Winery, which started blogging in October of this year.  Even though it's great to see this name with a blog, the content seems to be primarily event announcements rather than something more authentic and engaging.  Ah, well.  It's still a resource for Mondavi fans.

• Bennett Lane Winery
  http://www.bennettlane.com/About/Blog/tabid/125/BlogID/1/Default.aspx (no RSS feed)

• Casa Barranca
  http://www.organic-wine.com/blog/

• Conundrum Winery
  http://conundrumwinery.blogspot.com/

• Robert Mondavi Winery (Grape to Glass)
  http://blog.robertmondaviwinery.com/

• Sunfire Winery (Try Tempranillo)
  http://www.sunfirewinery.com/blog/

As always please check my comprehensive list of winery blogs, and let me know if I've missed yours or one you know of.

A Winery Blog Post: Match Vineyards

I've been toying with the idea of a "winery blog post of the week," but it obligates me to more than I'm willing to undertake.

In lieu of that, I will occasionally point out a winery blog post that I think is worth looking at, and try to explain why.

In that spirit, I'd like to recommend this post from Match Vineyards on their Baconbrook vineyard.  Go read it.

Having read it, aren't you interested in drinking the wine from this vineyard?  There's a story (the second, unintended vineyard purchase), the tiny vineyard, the quality of the grapes, the description of the wines made from this vineyard.

Does this post resonate for you?  Why or why not?  There are no right answers, so please leave a comment.

(If you're curious, you can see all the wine-related and winery blogs I follow here.  Just scroll down to the Ws.)

Where's Your Manifesto?

This is a great blog post from A Donkey and Goat Winery.  It talks very specifically about why they make their wines the way they do.  Here's the opening bit:

We make our wines for the table, not the cocktail glass. We make Rhóne varietals in both colors plus an unusual Chardonnay. We (my husband and winemaking partner Jared and I) strive to make wine as naturally as possible. We've done so since day one. Of late, natural is fashionable, which we do of course appreciate, but the reality is we've done this from the start because we feel it makes a superior wine while aligning with our environmental objectives.

Their "manifesto" goes on at length and in detail.  I recommend you read it.  You may or may not agree with how Donkey and Goat wines are made, but I think you'll have to agree that Tracey and Jared are very clear about what they're doing.

You should have a page like this on your winery Web site or blog.  It's a very powerful, personal statement that will help sell your wines to the people who care about the way wine is made.  As a wine purchaser, it makes me want to buy a Donkey and Goat wine, to see how it stacks up against wines which I like, but don't really know much about how they are made.

Of course, it requires that you have thought carefully about why you make your wines the way you do, and that you're willing to be honest about it.  A manifesto like this gets right down to the nitty-gritty: are you proud of the wines you make and sell?

New Winery Blogs, October 2009

Another month, another group of winery blogs discovered:

• Airfield Estates
  http://www.airfieldwines.com/blog/

• Deux Punx
  http://blog.deuxpunx.com/

• Durvillea Wines
  http://www.durvilleawines.co.nz/

• Karra Yerta Wines
  http://karrayertawines.blogspot.com/

• San Martiño Winery
  http://sanmartinowinery.blogspot.com/

Even with more than 230 winery blogs in The List, still only a small fraction of wineries have blogs, despite the fact that they are easy to update, and well-regarded by search engines.

The most important requirement for winery blogging is to commit to regular writing.  The second most important requirement is the ability to tell a good story.

Search Phrases

It's virtually impossible to make your winery Web site the number one result when someone searches for wine, or red wine, or even pinot noir.  You may use Google AdWords to place your advertisement on the first page of results for these terms, but you'll pay dearly for the privilege, and may not see much in the way of results.

Allow me to suggest an alternate way of thinking, by way of this image:

 

Optimizing for search terms which indicate a person is ready to buy wine right now is probably a more effective approach (and cheaper, too).  To quote the Wall St. Journal:

Sprint is buying the top ads tied to phrases consumers tend to search for when they are close to making a purchase, such as "cellphone rate plans" and specific products like "Samsung Reclaim," rather than more generic phrases they search for at the beginning of the shopping process, like "Sprint," "AT&T" and "cellphone."

Of course, it gets back to the fact that you need to be able to update your site easily.  Otherwise, you won't be able to create pages which are targeted to particular types of searches.

And yes, it takes time, always in short supply at a small winery.  Which is why a winery blog can be a great tool for this sort of thing.  Which of your wines goes well with pizza?

No Time To Blog About Your Winery?

Rich Brooks calls BS:

You see, blogging isn't some self-indulgent activity; it's investing in the future of your business. Blogging increases your search engine visibility, establishes your credibility, and generates inbound leads. In my opinion, it's probably the best marketing tool you have at your disposal, and once you get it set up it's nearly free.

Paul Mabray of Vintank has said that a winery has no business blogging until it has the basics down pat.  His list:

• Customer Service
• eCommerce
• Site Design
• Content Strategy

is hard to argue with.  Unfortunately, these tasks look a little daunting if you've already got a Web site for your winery.  It's even worse when you know you need to make changes, but it seems you have to move mountains to make anything happen.

Because it's easy to set up a blog, I see it as an entry point for improving your winery Web site.  If you start a blog for your, and it gets results (readership, interaction with your fans, increase sales) then perhaps those basics look a little less daunting.  Maybe blogging belongs on Paul's list as an element of "content strategy."

There are some clear advantages to blogging for your winery.  First and foremost, you control it.  This means you can update it whenever you want.  In addition, 

• Blogs appear to have higher search engine visibility  (at least if they are updated regularly)
• It's easy to add new content in response to perceived needs or sudden news
• A blog post allows you to call attention to pages within your primary Web site
• Your blog  provides a way to interact with your customers and potential customers through comments
• The tone of your blog can be more personal and less marketing oriented
• Adding images and video is easy

The truth is that having a effective online presence of any sort takes work, and there's always more that can be done.  If you're willing to make a commitment to blogging, don't let the fact that you haven't quite gotten the basics perfected on your winery Web site keep you from using a blog to market your wines.

I guess what I'm trying to say is to find an online marketing approach that works for you.  Then make continuous incremental improvements.  Static is another word for "dead."

(although, if you're screwing up Customer Service, please stop everything else and fix that right now.)

New Winery Blogs, October 2009

I uncovered a lot of winery blogs last month, partially because I took the time to Google the phrase "winery blog" and plow through 20 or so pages of results.

• Bernardo Winery
  http://blog.bernardowinery.com/

• Billsboro Winery
  http://billsborowinery.com/blog/

• Carpenter Creek Winery
  http://www.carpentercreek.com/blog/

• Charnu Winery
  http://www.charnuwinery.com/blog/

• Ciccone Vineyard & Winery
  http://community.mynorth.com/profiles/blog/list?user=0ltntr5vlbdnu

• Eleven Winery
  http://elevenwinery.blogspot.com/

• Erie Shore Vineyard
  http://erieshorevineyard.blogspot.com/

• Gustafson Family Vineyards
  http://gustafsonvineyards.com/blog.html

• Hearthstone Vineyard & Winery
  http://www.hearthstonevineyard.com/blog/

• Klinker Brick Winery
  http://kbwinery.wordpress.com/

• Middle Ridge Winery
  http://www.middleridge.com/blog.html

• River Valley Winery
  http://rivervalleywinery.blogspot.com/

• Robert Hall Winery
  http://www.roberthallwinery.com/blog/

• Rued Wines
  http://www.ruedwinery.com/blogr/ (no RSS feed)

• St. James Winery
  http://www.stjameswinery.com/index.php?option=com_wordpress&Itemid=82

• Salvestrin Estate Winery & Vineyards
  http://www.salvestrinwineryblog.com/blog/Blog/Blog.html

• StableRidge Winery
  http://stableridge.wordpress.com/

• Stonehenge Vineyard & Winery
  http://stonehengevineyard.wordpress.com/

• Swedenberg Winery
  http://www.swedenburgwines.com/blog/

• Tokar Estate
  http://tokarestate.com.au/blog/

• West Wind Farm Vineyard & Winery
  http://www.westwindwine.com/index.php?pr=blog

My comprehensive list of winery blogs now contains over 225 entries. If you know of a winery blog that's missing from my list, please let me know with a comment or e-mail.

What's Your Most Popular Blog Post?

And why you should care.

This follows on my previous post which outlines that it doesn't matter whether people read your blog.

A Great Example Of Winery Blogging

This post from Tablas Creek.

What makes it great?  It satisfies the three requirements: interesting, informative, and useful.  It's well-written and tells a story, which makes it interesting.  It contains lots of information about wines under screwcap and cork, so it's not fluff.  And if you drink wine, it's actually useful to you when selecting wines.

It's not trying to sell you on Tablas Creek wines, although they are clearly part of the story.

What it really sells is how fundamentally passionate Jason & Co. are about the wines they produce.

First runner up: this post from Sanglier Cellars.

Why Winery Blogs Are Important

As astonishing as it may sound, it doesn't actually matter if people read your winery blog on a regular basis.

What matters is that your blog posts contain information that people are searching for.  This is a really brilliant insight, courtesy of Rich Brooks over at Flyte New Media.

In short, it's a way of increasing your visibility when people search for topics related to your wines and winery.  Is your winery Web site short on the phrases which people search for?  Your winery blog can help remedy that shortcoming.

25 Ways To Promote Your (Winery) Blog

Rich Brooks at Flyte New Media posts 25 ways to promote your blog .  Not all of them seem 100 percent relevant to wineries (e.g. article marketing), but it's a good thought starter.

One that I can speak to directly: always remember to link to your Web site from your blog, and your blog from your Web site.

I recommend you sign up for Flyte's monthly  e-newsletter, which gives you the added benefit of a number of useful free reports related to blogs and Web sites.

New Winery Blogs for August, 2009

Only two discoveries this month:

• Moonstone Cellars
  http://www.moonstonecellars.com/blog/blog.html

• Stone's Throw Winery
  http://stonesthrowwineryblog.wordpress.com/

I guess I need to look harder!  The good news is that every month yields some new winery blogs to add to my comprehensive list of over 200 winery blogs.

Please let me know if I've somehow overlooked your winery's blogging efforts.  Thanks!

Are Winery Blogs Important?

This study by HubSpot isn't specific to wineries, but to the extent that wineries are like other small-to-medium-size businesses, the answer is a resounding YES!

Sites with associated blogs get an astounding 55% more visitors that those that don't.  More traffic (in general) means more conversions (the caveat is that the traffic needs to be traffic with an interest in what you're offering).

Of course, if your winery Web site sucks to begin with, more visitors won't help much.  

The point?  You need to make sure the basics are working right before considering launching a winery blog.  And you shouldn't consider blogging unless you can willingly commit to posting something interesting at least once a week for a year.  If that seems like too much trouble, then don't.

Blogging isn't for every winery.  But if you can do it, it clearly has a benefit to your overall Web presence.

New Winery Blogs for July, 2009

Every month, I turn up a few more winery blogs to add to The List.  

How do I find them? Some people write to tell me about their winery blogs, some people write to tell me about blogs they've seen, some come from my Google alert for "winery blog", and some come from following Twitter for the same phrase.  Every once in a while, I search for "winery blog" on Google and really drill down.  I wish there were a more reliable way.

Here are the July, 2009 additions:

• Cuvaison Estate Winery
  http://www.cuvaison.com/blog

• Heron Hill Winery
  http://heronhillwines.blogspot.com/

• Martin Ranch Winery
  http://martinranchwinery.wordpress.com/

• Waters Winery
  http://waterswinery.blogspot.com/

This month's additions appear evenly split between WordPress (Cuvaison and Martin Ranch) and Blogger (Heron Hill and Waters).

As always, please let me know of any winery blogs that I've missed. Thanks!

New Winery Blogs for June, 2009

The month of July got away from me!  Normally, I try to make this post during the first week of the month, and here it is the 22^nd.  In June, I discovered the following winery blogs:

• DeLoach Vineyards
  http://deloachvineyards.wordpress.com/

• Domaine Lisson (English version)
  http://lissondiary.wordpress.com/

• Hawkes Wine
  http://www.hawkeswine.com/

• Pantheon Cellars
  http://panthos.blogspot.com/

• RIDGE Vineyards
  http://blog.ridgewine.com/

• St. Supery Vineyards & Winery
  http://www.stsupery.com/currents/

• Taft Street Winery
  http://taftstreetwinery.blogspot.com/

All of them have been added to The List, my comprehensive list of active and inactive winery blogs.

If you're a winery person (owner, marketer, etc.), take a look at what wineries are doing with blogs.  It may be something you should be doing for your winery.  

Got a favorite winery blog (listed or not)?  Found one that's not on The List?  Leave me a comment!

On The Internet, No One Can See Your Tongue

On June 8^th, I wrote about what I felt was a missed customer service opportunity by Chateau Julien.  After they received some "negative comments" on what they had intended to be a "tongue in cheek" post, they've asked their readers to "make the call" as to whether to remove the original post altogether.

(you can read the comments on their original post here)

On the one hand, I feel badly for having called attention to Ch. Julien's gaffe.  They made a common beginning blogger's mistake and experienced the wrath of anonymous commenters.

On ther other hand, it's instructive to others who write winery blogs (and blogs in general) that written humor is sometimes elusive.

I guess my bottom line is that there was probably a better way to have written the original post.  For example, here's one from El Jefe.

If you have comments, please leave them here, and give Ch. Julien a pass this time.

Thinking as a winery owner, would you remove the comment?

Sites Which Are Blogs

I have a number of alerts which help me find new winery blogs for The List, and one of them turned up the Hawkes Wine blog. 

What makes Hawkes Wine worth mentioning is that their site (like the original Stormhoek site) is a blog, built using WordPress.  In other words, the front page of the Hawkes Wine Web site is the home page of their blog.

Any other good examples of this type of site?  Leave a comment.

Are Winery Blogs Dead?

Are Facebook pages replacing winery blogs?

I saw this interesting comment on the Wind River Cellars blog:

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been such a lame ass with the blog lately...   I'll try to update this blog more frequently, but to tell you the truth, it's easier to just post things on Facebook. I prefer Facebook because it's easier for you all to post pictures and comments. If you're a Facebook geek, just search "Wind River Cellars" and become a friend.

And thinking about it, Joel has a point.  Facebook has a richer interaction environment than common blogging platforms like Wordpress and TypePad.

Of course, Facebook can be confusing.  When I followed the instructions above, here's what I saw:

(click for a larger image in a popup window)

I couldn't immediately tell what to do:  join the Wind River Cellars Fan Club group, or add Wind River Cellars as a friend?

Of course, an untended Facebook page for your winery is just as bad as an untended winery blog.  In the end, you've got to decide whether you really want to interact with people online (I think you're missing something if you don't, but would love to hear "responsible opposing viewpoints").

What's your take?  Leave a comment!

(Interesting related post: Should a Facebook Page Be Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy)

Lazy Sunday: Help Your Readers with RSS

If you have a winery blog, you can help your readers by showing them how to subscribe to your RSS feed.  Just like I've done below, you can create a post with the YouTube video embedded.

To embed a video, just go to the YouTube Page, copy the "Embed" code from the right column, and paste it into your blog as HTML.

Although I prefer Bloglines to iGoogle, it's probably because I follow over 450 feeds (and the largest single group is winery blog feeds).  You can see all the RSS feeds I subscribe to with Bloglines.

I'd be really pleased and flattered if I saw this video popping up on winery blogs.  If your goal is to make it easy for your fans to get updates about your winery, teaching them how to use RSS is the best way to do it.  Embedded video makes it easy to teach them.

(And if you haven't already, please subscribe to *this* blog!)

UPDATE 2009-06-07: Stephen Bachmann pointed out the bad link to my RSS feeds, which I've corrected.  Scroll down to "Wine-Related Blogs" and "Winery Blogs" to see what I'm reading.  Thanks, Steve!!!

New Winery Blogs for May, 2009

Every month, I take a look at The List (my comprehensive list of winery blogs), and list the blogs that have been added in the past month.  Here are the additions I made last month:

• Decalier Wine Company
  http://wineblog.dacalier.com/

• Dr. Loosen Wines
  http://www.drloosen.com/blog/

• Hickory Creek Winery
  http://hickorycreekwinery.typepad.com/hickory-creek/

• Kumkani
  http://blog.kumkani.com/

• San Leonardo
  http://blog.sanleonardo.it/en/

• Stag's Hollow Winery
  http://www.stagshollowwinery.com/blog/

This brings the total on the list to 191 of active and inactive winery blogs.

A Long Path to Adopt A Grape

Yes, I have.

This all started when my pal Edward Wallis of Wallis Family Estate sent me a link to Calwineries ("California's wine defined" -- now what the hell does that mean?), with which I was unfamiliar.  It appears they are trying to build a community of people who are interested in California wines.  A tough row to hoe, I think, given all the other "social media" avenues that are competing for your attention.  But I digress.

I noticed that Calwineries has a blog, so I went there to see what I might find past the "official" face of their Web site.  Blogs, in my opinion, give you a pretty good flavor of what's happening.  If the blog is fresh and interesting, it says good things about the company behind it.

At the top of their blog, I found this video of respected and well-known winemaker Heidi Barrett talking about something I found interesting:  How do you decide when to pick the grapes?

I love finding examples of video that's interesting to watch (since so many winery videos are like watching paint dry while water drips slowly on your head).  In less than three minutes, you get a pretty good picture of how she approaches the problem.  It helps that Heidi is well-spoken and photogenic.

(Note: I decided to watch the video for two reasons.  I recognized Heidi Barrett's name, and the still image of the video looked like it wasn't going to be "corporate speak".  Something to think about for your own video.)

Since I'd never heard of the video's creator, Adopt A Grape, I decided to listen to their introductory video as well:

Duane Hoff of Fantesca Estate & Winery is the man behind Adopt A Grape, and appears in the video.

Since it's my job to stay on top of new online approaches to marketing and promoting wine, I "adopt'd" a grape (it's free).  I got to choose a grape from one of seven different blocks of grapes (2 Petite Verdor, 5 Cabnernet Sauvignon).

Although the above video was posted relatively recently (3 months ago), the Adopt A Grape site itself seems pretty quiet.  The last update for my adopted block of Cab was in November of 2007, which certainly doesn't feel very fresh.  The latest post on the Adopt A Grape site/blog is apparently December 18, 2008.

Any winery could do what Adopt A Grape is doing in creating a tighter bond between the winery and the (potential) customer.  Of course, it takes a fair amount of effort to blog and create videos.  Situations like that provide a business opportunity for someone willing to provide and manage the service. I wonder if Adopt A Grape was started with the idea of expanding to multiple wineries where people could adopt grapes.  Since the signup contains an opt-in to learn more about Adopt A Grape wines, they were clearly hoping to build a permission mailing list where they could offer wine for sale (note the choice of words - you can only interest people in buying).

One goal of your winery Web site is to inspire enough interest and trust in people, so that they will give you their e-mail, so that you can contact them about more interesting stuff in the future (some of which might inspire them to buy some of your wine).  One way to create interest and trust is with short, interesting video, and Heidi Barrett and "Laurie" Wood are two good examples from Adopt A Grape.

(If you're interested, there are more Adopt A Grape videos at Vimeo and at VIRB.)

Should A Winery Blog? Probably.

Last Friday, I wrote Should A Winery Blog?  Probably Not. It didn't make me very happy.

So I thought some more about VinTank's view of winery blogs as last on the list of marketing activities for wineries.  It's instructive to remember why blogs became a powerful extension (and later, alternative) to Web sites.

It's all about updates.

The number one problem with winery Web sites was -- and remains -- freshness.  Most wineries hired people to create their Web sites, and any change required the designer/webmaster's involvement.  This lead to changes which were slow and expensive, and hence, infrequent. 

In contrast, a blog offered freedom.  Without any assistance, winery people could go to Blogger or TypePad or WordPres, set up a blog, and begin cranking out regular updates.

As I've said before, your Web site should change on a monthly basis.  It's not hard if you sit down once a year and plan the next 12 months.

If you're not getting your Web site updated on a regular basis, a winery blog may still be your quickest (and best) solution.

How do you tackle the problem of updating your winery Web site?  Leave a comment with your best tip or biggest problem!

Should A Winery Blog? Probably Not.

The worth-a-read new (free) white paper from VinTank on the state of wine industry social media answers the question thusly:

With all the activity that you need to do online do you really have the time to blog? We at VinTank believe in blogs, all types even winery blogs. However, with the limited amount of resources, with the amount of work it takes to build audience that differentiates you, and with all the other activities you need to do (e‐commerce, interact with customers, social networks, etc, etc) we feel that a winery blog is last on the list of marketing tactics (and we have been a loud opponent of winery blogs for some time). Approximately only about fifteen winery blogs even show up with traffic in Compete tools.  

Moreover, we have heard consistently [from] blog readers complaining about infomercials and conversations about terroir, the weather, or a picnic that they had. If you do pursue a winery blog then commit to it. Find a voice or multiple voices at the winery that create interesting and meaningful content. And all the best of luck but send us your blog and we promise to add it to our RSS feeds and comment when we can.

In short, "Not unless you've got all your other marketing taken care of," which is equivalent to "No," since most wineries are chronically short of time and resources.

Frankly, this makes me sort of sad.

I do agree that there are marketing activities more important to a winery's success than blogging.  I'm not convinced that those more-important activities include Twitter or Snooth, though.

And I'm not convinced that Compete's analytics will do much in the way of turning up any niche-oriented blog, since they are sampling a population of 2 million users that may or may not overlap well with customers of small wineries.  I'm sure this blog doesn't show up, either.

Certainly, the vast majority of winery blogs could be more focused and interesting.  We're not all Stephen King or Jon Krakauer when it comes to telling gripping stories.

Still, the past Best Winery Blog nominees really are doing something special, and I'm glad they spend the time doing it.  And I'm glad that others have been willing to take a stab at blogging about their winery and wines, even when every post isn't a gem.

So, if you're a winery blogger, take a long moment to think about why you're doing it.  Some of you know, quantitatively, that your blog is increasing your sales (otherwise, why do it?) by engaging our customers and potential customers.  Some of you enjoy the writing, even if no one reads it. 

The rest of you have permission to stop.

And don't even think about starting one. <grin>

New Winery Blogs for April, 2009

Here are the winery blogs I discovered last month:

• Backsburg
  http://www.backsberg.co.za/blog

• Churchhill Estates
  http://churchillsestates.blogspot.com/

• Daedalus Cellars
  http://www.daedaluscellars.blogspot.com/

• Jonathan Edwards Winery
  http://jedwardswinery.blogspot.com/

• Lénne Estate
  http://lenneest.typepad.com/

• MacRostie Winery & Vineyards
  http://kiltmansteve.blogspot.com/

• Ponte Family Estate
  http://www.pontewinery.com/Ponte-Temecula-Winery-Blog/Blog

• Qeuvedo
  http://www.quevedoportwine.com/

• Redbank Winery (Sally's Paddock)
  http://sallyspaddock.blogspot.com/

• Steven Kent Winery (Wine in the Valley)
  http://wineinthevalley.blogspot.com/

As always, they've been added to my comprehensive list of winery blogs, bringing the total to over 180.

Note to winery bloggers:  one of the best ways to increase traffic to your blog is to make intelligent comments on other blogs.  Of course, that means you have to be reading those other blogs.  And the easiest way to do that is to subscribe using an RSS reader of some sort (Google Reader, Bloglines.com, Firefox, IE7, ...).

New Winery Blogs for March, 2009

Only two new winery blogs this month, I'm afraid.

• Fiasco Wines
  http://fiascowines.wordpress.com/

• Trivium Wine
  http://triviumwine.com/wordpress/

Fiasco is from Down Under.  Trivium is Napa-based.  Interesting to note that both are Wordpress-based, although one (Fiasco) uses the free hosted version at Wordpress.com, and the other (Trivium) has a copy installed on their server.  Both are worth a look.

As of today, our comprehensive list of winery blogs has 176 entries.  I'm always interested in hearing about yours!

A Winemaster's Notes

As Steve Heimoff pointed out, Kendall-Jackson winemaster Randy Ullom has a blog.  He's only posted twice, but his blog is brand new.  Randy is so entertaining and knowledgeable in person, sure I hope that he continues to post regularly.

If you know Randy, give him some encouragement!

A Good Topic for A Winery Blog Post

What's the worst thing that's every happened at your winery?

Why is this a good topic?  Because it makes for an interesting story.

And it almost forces you to be honest and authentic.

And it generally makes people sympathetic.

And it shows that you're willing to be open and transparent.

And that's what makes for a good blog post: a good story, honesty, and authenticity.

New Winery Blogs for February, 2008

Only one this month, I'm afraid.  It's from New Zealand, and they've already posted 23 times this year, which is a positive sign.  Check it out.

• Sandihurst Winery
  http://www.sandihurst.blogspot.com/

As always, you can find all the winery blogs I know about on The List.

Survey Results: How Do You Read Blogs?

Here are the results of my How Do You Read Blogs? survey conducted a couple of weeks ago:

Out of the 51 respondents, the majority use a Web-based reader like Bloglines or Google Reader.

The second largest category still types in a URL (or uses a bookmark) when they want to visit a blog.  Ack!   Let me just say to these people that you will enjoy reading blogs so much more when you start using a tool that shows you when something new has been posted.  Trust me, a Web-based reader is easy to use, and you'll be able to follow more blogs more easily if you use a tool designed to help your maximize your productivity.

The third largest category was Other, with 8 respondents, but a closer examination reveals 4 of those 8 use Google Reader and 1 used the RSS feature built into Safari:

Since Google Reader is Web-based, and Safari's RSS feature is a browser built-in, that means that the vast majority of people (who took the survey, anyway) are using a tool to read blogs -- most likely, a Web-based tool.

I'm glad to see that people are subscribing to blogs, even though roughly 25% are missing out on the convenience of a subscription.  If you are are a winery with a blog, you might want to consider showing people how easy it is to subscribe to your blog.  The directions could be sent to them via e-mail, in your e-newsletter, or as a one-page insert in your next snail mailing.  The nice thing is that it doesn't just help people read your blog -- it makes all their blog reading easier, and that reflects well on you.

At the very least, show your fans how to use FeedBlitz to receive your blog posts via e-mail.  It will save them the frustration of visiting your blog only to find there's nothing new to see (which makes for grumpy fans).

An Exemplary Winery Blog Post

This post from Selene Wines on bottling their 2008 Sauvignon Blanc has lots of great pictures and explanation.  It gives readers the experience of being there.  Only one question: how does the wine get loaded into the system?

There are lots of great winery blogs out there, but it's a pleasure to call attention to The Selene Wine Blog.  I'm glad to see that someone nominated them for Best Winery Blog of 2008 over at Fermentation.

New Winery Blogs for January, 2009

Quite a few new winery blogs this month (34!!!), perhaps as the result of New Year's Resolutions.

• Bodhichitta Winery
  http://www.bodhichittawinery.com/blog

• Cadaretta
  http://www.cadaretta.com/blog/

• Caliza Winery
  http://www.calizawineryblog.com/

• Champagne Tarlant
  http://champagne.typepad.com/tarlant/

• Diliberto Winery
  http://dilibertowinery.com/blog/

• Dunham & Froese Estate Winery (The Back Label)
  http://backlabel.blogspot.com/

• Duplin Winery (Behind the Vine)
  http://www.duplinwinery.com/index.php?page=duplin-winery-blo

• Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards
  http://www.florasprings.com/blog/

• Forty-Five North Vineyards & Winery
  http://fortyfivenorth.com/

• Fotinos Brothers Winery (Amuse Bouche)
  http://blog.fotinosbrotherswinery.com/

• Gherardi Wines (Margaret River Blog)
  http://www.margaretriverblog.com/

• GarageVino.com
  http://garagevino.com/

• Hahn Estates
  http://hahnestates.blogspot.com/

• Harney Lane
  http://www.harneylane.com/blog/

• Harpersfield Vineyard
  http://www.harpersfield.com/blog/index.php

• Hollywood Hills Vineyard
  http://hollywoodhillvineyards.blogspot.com/

• Iridesse Wines
  http://iridessewines.wordpress.com/

• J. Kirkwood
  http://www.jkirkwood.com/page20.html

• J. Maki Winery
  http://www.jmakiwinery.com/journal/

• LaBelle Winery
  http://www.labellewinerynh.com/

• La Péira
  http://lapeira.wordpress.com/

• Levendi Winery
  http://blog.levendiwinery.com/

• Lionheart Wines (The Grapevine)
  http://www.thegrapevineblog.com/grapevineblog/

• Little Hills Winery
  http://www.littlehillswinery.blogspot.com/

• McPherson Cellars
  http://mcphersoncellars.com/blog/

• Monteluce Wine
  http://robbeecham.wordpress.com/

• Olypmic Cellars Winery
  http://www.olympiccellars.blogspot.com/

• Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery
  http://www.parallel44blog.com/

• St. Josef's Winery
  http://stjosefswinery.com/blog/

• Sanglier Cellars
  http://blog.sangliercellars.com/

• Seven Stones Winery
  http://sevenstones.ca/blog/

• Sodaro Estate Winery (Scion Says)
  http://sodarowines.com/news/

• Summerwood Winery & Inn (The Winemaker, The Chef and The Blog)
  http://thewinemakerthechefandtheblog.wordpress.com/

• Zucca Mountain Winery
  http://zuccamountainvineyards.blogspot.com/

The List now contains 171 entries.  If yours isn't on it, please let me know!

Why Blogspot Is Not The Place For Your Winery Blog

A fair number of winery blogs are hosted by Blogger (see The List) , meaning they have URLs that look like

acmewinery.blogspot.com

Rich Brooks of Flyte New Media offers several good reasons why this is a bad idea:  Why Blogspot is the Wrong Place for  Your Business Blog.

I know that wineries are hesitant to plunk down money (even $100 a year) for anything, but if you're at all concerned about the impression you make on visitors to your blog, listen to Rich's advice.  Having a Blogspot blog is like having a GeoCities web site or an AOL.com e-mail address - neither communicates care for your brand name.

Ideally, your blog will appear at the URLs

http://www.AcmeWinery.com/blog/ 

and 

http://blog.AcmeWinery.com/ 

both of which live within the AcmeWinery.com domain.  And, of course, your Web site navigation will have a clear link to your blog.  If you or your Webmaster can't handle this, get some help.  It's not that hard.

Are Rich and I off base?  What do you think?

A Blog By Any Other Name...

Most winery blogs have fairly mundane and expected names, e.g. The Acme Winery Blog.

But, there are exceptions:  Michel-Schlumberger's Benchland Blog, Coral Mustang's Tempranillo Tango, and  Far Niente's Terroir: Dirty Talk About Wine among them, and The List tries hard to include them.

My new favorite winery blog name is Back Label, from Dunham & Froese Estate Winery.  Those wacky Canadians!

Something To Shout About: A Checklist

If my wines were listed here or here, you can bet that I would do all of the following:

1. Create a high-quality image of the bottle with the award (suitable for the media to use)
2. Update the front page of my Web site  
3. Update the product page(s) for my award-winning wine(s) 
4. Write a post for my winery blog
5. Tweet the news to my followers on Twitter 
6. Send an e-mail to my mailing list 
7. Make sure I mention it in my next newsletter 
8. Do a press release (along with a nice bottle+award image)
9. Let my distributors, retailers, and restaurant know about it with a updated product PDF and shelf-talkers
10. Make sure that everyone in the tasting room knows about it (employees and visitors)

In every case, you have the opportunity to make a special offer to the people you are contacting.  For example, people who have already bought the wine might want to add to their cellar.

I can almost bet, though, that most of the award-winners won't do any of  these things.

Winning an award isn't just a time to feel good, it's an opportunity to advance your brand.

(Thanks to the Harney Lane blog for inspiring this post)

WineBusiness.com Suggests The Best Winery Blogs

From the WineBusiness.com list of winery blogs:

Thinking about starting a blog for your winery? Interested in seeing what other wineries are doing? See our editors' picks of the best winery blogs.

I was glad to see that they added their own twist to information from The List, by adding thumbnails and a quick editorial summary (although it looks like they may have just copied the taglines from the various blogs).

The Most Prolific Winery Bloggers of 2008

Here are the top five (along with the number of posts made in 2008):

1. LaFond Winery & Santa Barbara Winery  (178)
2. Sokol Blosser  (145) 
3. Stefania Wine (112)
4. August Briggs (101) 
5. Twisted Oak Winery (97)  

An honorable mention goes to Michel-Schlumberger's Benchland Blog, which had a partial-year total of 57 posts, the best of any blog started in 2008.

Although quality and quantity don't always go together, that doesn't seem to apply here.  It's probably because wineries that are interested enough to make 2-3 blog posts a week also care about making posts that are going to engage their communities.  It's pointless to blog if you don't see an ROI of some sort from it, and poor-quality posts (flat-out uninteresting, lacking in information or context, not useful to the audience) kill blog ROI, however you may define it.

As a side note, all of these blogs make extensive use of photographs, either as the focus of the post, or to increase interest in what's being written about.

Surprisingly, neither of the top two  blogs have a link back to their winery Web site(s), although there are certainly obvious places for such a link (LaFond has the name of each winery at the top of the page, but they aren't links!).

If you're a winery blogger and you're not subscribed to these blogs, then you might want to consider it for two reasons: 

• Seeing what other people post about (inspiration), and
• Commenting (when relevant and thoughtful) is a good way to bring traffic to your own Web site or blog.

If you don't know how to subscribe to a blog, 2009 is definitely the year to learn how!

(If you think your winery blog was overlooked, please let me know.  I did my best to check all the winery blogs which I know about, but not having an RSS feed may have caused me to miss your prodigious blogging output.)

New Winery Blogs for December, 2008

The following winery blogs were added to The List last month:

1. Humanitas Winery
2. Madonna Estate 
3. Pioneer Valley Vineyard 
4. Windswept Winery 

This brings the total number of winery blogs that I track to 136 (plus one already added for this month, GarageVino).

Winery blogs are no longer remarkable in and of themselves, like they were when Stormhoek (now a shadow of its former self, IMHO) was the very first winery blog to get noticed in a big way.  Now winery blogs must be remarkable because of what they deliver to their readers.

A winery blog is really just a way of communicating with your 1,000 True Fans.  The trick is to make it so interesting/cool/useful/informative/... that the people who read it want to become your fans too.

New Winery Blogs For October/November, 2008

Thirteen (!) heretofore-uncatalogued winery blogs were added to The List during October and November:

1. Bethel Heights Vineyard
2. Brandborg Winery 
3. Cartlidge & Brown Winery 
4. Cline Cellars 
5. Donum Estates  
6. Gundlach Bundschu 
7. John Tyler Wines
8. Piña Napa Valley 
9. Prime Cellars 
10. Scott Harvey Wines 
11. Sculpterra Winery (no RSS feed)
12. Volute Wine 
13. Windswept Winery 

Our comprehensive list of winery blogs now totals 132 active and inactive blogs.  If you know of any winery blogs not on our list, please leave a comment or drop me a line.

Six Good Tips For Winery Bloggers

If you sometimes find yourself stuck for things to blog about on your winery blog, here's a handy list of ideas from ProBlogger's Darren Rowse: How to Improve Your Blog When You Don't Have Computer Access.

(Ignore that "when you don't have computer access" part -- the tips apply equally well in either case.)

Update: broken link now fixed.  Thanks, Fabio!

AmericanWinery.com

Although it's not a winery, AmericanWinery.com does have an interesting blog (I subscribe to its RSS feed, and find it worthwhile to follow).

Here's an informative article from the NY Times with the backstory on AmericanWinery.com.  Basically, their idea is to create a community and sell wines to it, which differs a bit from the more traditional retail approach taken by both Wine.com and Amazon.com.

New Winery Blogs for September, 2008

The following winery blogs were added to The List during August:

1. Adirondack Winery

2. Bastianich Wines

3. Casa De Las Vides

4. Grace Hill Winery

5. Tertulia Cellars 

Our comprehensive list of winery blogs now totals 119 active and inactive blogs. 

New Winery Blog: Foggy Bridge Winery

\

More and more, new wineries have a blog before they have wine to sell.  Capozzi Winery was probably the first, and Foggy Bridge Winery is the latest example:

  Housed in a former 1920s airplane hangar and Army machine shop located on Crissy Field, Foggy Bridge Winery will offer an authentic winery experience including a working winery, tasting room, casual café and 110-seat restaurant, all overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay.

Their initial wines, made by Daryl Groom, will be released in fall of 2008.  So far, there are only a couple of postings from Holly Myers (Director of Marketing and a principal), spaced a couple of months apart.  It sounds like an interesting experiment (the first urban winery in a US National Park), so I hope that they will step up their posting frequency.  There have to be some good stories in there somewhere.  The owner of Foggy Bridge is John Kontrabecki, a commercial real estate developer.

My take is that Foggy Bridge is more of a tourist attraction than a winery, with great views of the Bay, a restaurant/canteen, wine for purchase, and (incidentally) a working winery.  Will the wines attract a following?  It remains to be seen.  I don't think wine sales alone will make this winery a financial success, although they do have some interesting wine club options, including barrel futures (limited to 50 "owners").

Foggy Bridge's blog becomes the latest additions to The List, our comprehensive index of winery blogs.