Did you ever forget your birthday was coming up and only realized a few days after the fact that you’d missed it? Amidst the post-holiday cleanup and beginning of the New Year we passed a milestone here at Vinography.
When I started this blog five years ago I had no idea where it was going to take me. It was merely a personal project that became a creative outlet, that became an excuse to drink more wine, that became something entirely with a life of its own.
I’m not entirely sure when this blog ceased to be an experiment and started being a real media outlet, but sometime within the first year, my relationship to the writing and to my growing audience changed. In short, I started to take the blog seriously, and for the first time, considered what it was that I thought I was doing.
While I still may not have entirely answered that question for myself, I do know that I’m trying to honestly present an alternative to the “glossy” forms of wine journalism. That’s not just about dropping an occasional F-bomb or exercising the other liberties that come with no editor, publisher, or financial concerns. I’ve been trying to write about wine the way I want to read about it: with some humor, with some intelligence, and above all, with the stories that help wine transcend points and tasting notes.
I’m proud to have helped to pioneer wine blogging, and thrilled at the increasing numbers and quality of wine blogs that continue to proliferate throughout the blogosphere, thanks to other passionate consumers like me, as well as the host of professional journalists that have taken up the practice.
Pride isn’t enough, however, to sustain me and push me to keep writing about wine nearly every day for five years. No amount of awards or mentions in the mainstream press could have kept me at this for so long, if it weren’t for you folks that actually read what I write and talk back. I’m constantly humbled, delighted, and impressed by the contributions that you readers make to this site. Your reactions, thoughts, expertise, and insights have turned what might have been a lonely exercise into a wonderful conversation that I hope will continue in the years to come.
As Vinography begins its sixth year of existence, I’d like to thank you all for your support, your continued readership, and your love of wine which keeps this whole thing going.
Cheers,
Alder
