My 500’TH Article as a Wine Blogger

According to my publisher WordPress, this is my 500’Th article that I have written about wines.  In the world of Blogging, I am sure that this may not be much of a milestone, but I am proud of the fact that I have gotten this far and still having fun with it.  I call myself The Wine Raconteur because that is what I am, a story teller, I relate stories to the wines that I have enjoyed over the decades.  I am a self taught wine devotee, and I have no degrees or certificates from the industry.  I enjoy good wine and good food, and sometimes to the chagrin of my Bride, I can be a real pain in the arse about both.

Through out the decades, we have had some great dinners, some stellar wines; we have visited wineries and done tastings.  We have also had some mediocre dinners, undrinkable to good wines, and some trips to wineries that are not that memorable.  We have been to tastings where we were treated like royalty and we have been to some tastings where we felt like we were intruding, even though I bought a bottle of wine from them, that was about a hundred and fifty dollars (I wanted to try the wine and to own a bottle of it, we should have bought more, but because of the poor treatment we didn’t and I still have not opened the bottle, because of the treatment).  Wine is fun, and through the course of writing The Wine Raconteur, I have had the pleasure of corresponding with other writers and I have even had the good fortune to have met another Blogger and his wife.

People presume that one writes a Blog for monetary benefit, and this is far from the truth.  I have not had to worry about a code of ethics, as I have not received a single bottle of wine gratis, from any concern wishing for a review.  Then again, my writing style is not one of glowing verbiage trying to neither convey the nose and taste of any wine; nor do I write detailed notes about the intricacies of a particular winery’s production.  I feel that all of the technical jargon can be found on the websites of the winery or producer.  I enjoy the moment of having the wine, which is the memory for me.  There are the occasions where I have had such a great wine that somewhere in a back alley of my brain, when I try a wine, I will be told by that part of the brain, that it is not as good as another bottle that I have had.  I do try to keep that part of the brain, hidden only for my own recollections.

My publisher has a grand report that they have furnished me; suffice it to say that I will mention only a few highlights.  The first year of writing, I maintained a regime of an article a day, just so that I would get used to doing it, and to prove to myself that I could.  After a year of writing, I tapered off to an article every other day.  From the report that I will highlight some numbers and facts, bear in mind that it is only for one current year and not a grand total.  Last year I had over 17,000 viewers and they came from many different areas, as I had readers from 96 different countries.  The readers found me from my publisher, other Bloggers, Facebook, Google as well as other search engines.  Not surprising to me that my two biggest articles relate to growing up in Southwest Detroit.  One day I had 220 views of an article about Vince’s in Detroit, Michigan and my second best article for viewers was about Joey’s Stables, which is also in Detroit.

I am very pleased with my work, and I do hope those that take the time to read my prose appreciate it as well.  It is amazing what a hobby can do to a person, not to mention that I had to teach myself some skills in carpentry to build my wine cellar, as I am just a working man, who had a grandiose wish to have his own cellar.  I look forward to more writings and remembrances, as well as discovering new wines and new restaurants to visit.  I wish you all could join me.