Straight up cool, Joe! All of your friends at Wine Biz Radio are thrilled for you (well, I'm putting words in Kaz and Christophe's mouths, but what's new there)!

Start setting up a photo album for all the photos with the stars! Only a matter of time!

AAAAH BACKLIT!!!

Please, please move the comfy chair or get some lights for your face! As a video guy, I beg you.

Joe,

Fabulous site refresh, very clean. When I first saw the cartoon likeness, I thought, "wait a second, this is a cartoon version of Joe from like ten years ago, ya think?"

Just don't be shocked when you find new readers that see what you really look like and say, "you look NOTHING like your picture on your site." Unless that's the goal, in which case: GOOD JOB.

Hey, if you're not busy enough, let's talk about getting you a regular commentary spot on Wine Biz Radio. Let me know if yo're interested.

Very nicely phrased, and I think an appropriate response to the so-called kerfuffle. I know Kaz has had similar complaints about how to respond to criticisms that he's received on sites like Yelp, where a single person can come along and bad-mouth his business in a manner that is sticky and difficult to refute in any way other than he-said-she-said tactics.

The use of lawyers just shows that the subject winery has very opportunistic lawyer friends. A proper PR response would've been more along the lines of what you describe, Joe: counter with facts and opposing opinions, not with red-hot emotions and vitriol. Doing the former shows that you're a class act and will even get respect from people who don't like you; doing the latter leads to situations like this, where large communities of people who were mildly positive to neutral supporters turn into opponents who will now seek to ensure you get no coverage on their medium.

Advantage goes to the wine blogger community for your leadership on this, Joe.

Shut it, Joe. You're the best overall wine blogger (written in English) for 2010; you got an award that says so, and I'd say that nobody would refute you. Therefore you CAN and should compare yourself to Karen MacNeil, and the sooner you get that you're playing at the same level, the better off you'll be.

Loved seeing you, as usual.

Oh SNAP! Look at Joe bringing the facts! You bringing that sassy mouth of yours to Walla Walla soon?

I'm mostly interested in hearing gasbags like you talk about yourselves as if you're IMPORTANT or something! :-D Seriously, I'm getting more excited by the millisecond as Walla Walla approaches, and I'm personally looking forward to raising a glass with you and catching up face-to-face.

Mutual Admiration Society notwithstanding, I would hope that the advanced blogging panel touches, however briefly, on conducting deeper research (something like, "you've written your first 100/500/1000 blog posts and have seemingly run out of topics. Now what?"). Alternately, talking about the "investigative journalism" side of wine blogging would be cool (but might require someone like Lew Perdue sitting on the panel).

Otherwise, Pamela Anderson's bra size works for me. See you soon, brother!

I think we hit "Submit Comment" a bit too quickly there!

I agree in principle with Jeff on some of this, though I think there is a place in the world for long-form wine reviews (a la Sonadora/Wannabe Wino). The CT/GrapeStories approach appeals to the instant gratification/litmus test for whether a particular wine should be considered for purchase.

The latter is more suited to reading an interesting story about wine, what it means to the writer, how they craft the story, what details they put in (or don't). This is one of the reasons why I read Alice Feiring's blog on a regular basis; her story-telling is phenomenal, whether or not I'll ever drink any of the wines she loves.

As for the "creating an online brand via social media", Gary V says it best: if you're fake, we'll figure it out quickly and shuffle you off to the sidelines. The community and the audience really is self-correcting in that regard.

Perhaps what needs to happen is a comprehensive audience analysis, where wine bloggers can send their readers to an online survey that measures some demographic data that can be associated with the blog in some meaningful way. This is the sort of data that ends up in advertiser kits that wind up in the hands of potential sponsors or advertisers.

The trouble of course is:

a) Getting wine bloggers to let go of their fear of measuring their audience, however small that audience might be.
b) Getting a critical mass of wine bloggers to opt into this online survey idea.
c) Crafting it to be generic enough and comprehensive at the same time.
d) Aggregating the data to provide some sort of big-picture view of wine blogging from an advertiser's point-of-view.
e) Publishing the data in a somewhat non-partisan manner, so that the data is seen as impartial and free from bias.

I have ideas on how to do this, I'm just concerned that you'll all hate me if I do it. You know how my self-worth is locked up with whether wine bloggers love me. ;-)