Lost & Found

I've had my fair share of emails from wine friends asking if I was sick. Why do you ask? Well we noticed your posts have been missing, no online tastings, no winemaker tastings or bottle shots. Correct on all accounts. Even my wife noticed I was not sipping the grape juice.

I temporarily lost the way. The whole reason I got into wine was because I enjoyed sipping. The blog was born as a way to tell the world about the small producer, promote their wines and be their voice. After all who would know Campesiono Cellars  Passaggio Wines   Gallegos Wines Krutz Cellars Cornerstone Cellars Eric Ross Winery Ceja Vineyards and the 1000 other wines started in garages and custom crush facilities.

Being inundated with multiple weekly online tastings became more of a job than the thrill of discovering new wines. With the popularity came sample after sample and no longer was tasting fun. I drifted farther away from the real reason I drank wine....because I enjoyed it. I never missed the TV Tuesday Live show at Cellars Of Sonoma for 4 years and then no real motivation to watch. Today, no online tasting invitations and samples are limited. I'm back to my humble beginnings with a smile.

Even the blog became a bore. The stories stopped and all I posted was tasting notes and the same wording. I was becoming just another blogger in space. No direction no means just words slapped in a couple paragraphs. I was becoming what I said I never would be.... just another wine blog. Tried monetizing with strategic placed ads. What was I thinking? Talking with other bloggers who encouraged me...."we all go through writers block it will come back." It was a dark place with no desire to sip or post then something changed the other day.

Martin Cody posted a wine book Hungry For Wine: Seeing the World Through the Lens of a Wine Glass. It took reading 1/4 of the book to open my eyes. The passion and fun was missing. Wine is fun and shared with friends. It had been too long since the wine boys stopped by for a 3 hr tasting with great wines and great food plus a little joke telling. I pulled out the old Napa/Sonoma pictures from out trip and you could smell the vines and the soil. I'm back and ready to discover. Time to commit to one small production wine per week and get back to my roots. Time to be like Dezel of My Vine Spot a wine friend who enjoys telling the story of each bottle and varietal. It's time to have fun sipping again.

Cheers
Dan