When, where and why did you begin blogging?

Strictly speaking I’m not a wine blogger. I post wine reviews on Cork’d, Bottletalk, Snooth and other “Wine 2.0″ communities, and I comment on wines and food on my Flickr pages (http://flickr.com/ricard67). I started posting my thoughts about wine online two or three years ago probably for the same reasons as everyone else: it’s free, fun, easy, and it’s the best medium there is to get a voice and get feedback and find out what people are thinking. The web is incredibly rewarding in that respect: it gives you instant access to the world, it can be as narrow or as broad as you want it to be, and you can make friends and connections from anywhere. It’s hugely democratic, powerful, vibrant, refreshing and often contains articulate, informed voices you wouldn’t find elsewhere.

In a few short sentences, summarize your intention with your wine blog.

To share, to learn, to compare.

How would you describe your readers?

Mostly wine and food maniacs.

Is blogging a professional endeavor for you or more of a personal outlet?

I do in fact work in the sector, as an e-commerce and e-marketing specialist for TodoVino in Madrid, but I’m attending the conference in a personal capacity and as someone who’s interested in the phenomenon of blogging, and who loves wine. I also have a philosophical interest in some of the debates, such as rating, and the question about whether it’s possible to have an “expert” opinion on something that’s widely regarded (in my view mistakenly) as “subjective”.

Something I totally didn’t expect is to have my food and wine photographs published in places as prestigious as The New Yorker (Feb 2008) and the Sunday Times (Aug 2008, forthcoming). This shows that print is now going online for “amateur” content because it might be just as good, and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring a “pro”.

What tools or resources have you found to be successful in marketing your blog?

The obvious one is SEO, of course. When I tag or title thoughtfully and strategically I get more traffic. It has an instant effect. I also attach the URL to my email signature, and if I had a newsletter, I would undoubtedly attract a lot of traffic. Also leaving links in strategic places helps to boost qualified traffic. These are standard practices and work fine.

How would you describe wine blogging to be different than print media?

Well, other than the obvious difference of medium, blogging has a healthy (but not necessarily always successful) disregard for the concept of expertise. Anyone can do it, no matter how competent or otherwise. Print media has a much longer history of checks and balances to ensure that only the most professional and knowledgeable are given a voice. However we all know, without naming names, that even this tradition is fallible, and perfectly uninspiring voices make it into print. I sometimes compare blogging to traditional letters to the editor pages in newspapers. Newspapers have a person who reads all the letters and chooses, presumably according to some pre-existing editorial policy, what to publish and how to edit what’s published. Blogging enables anyone to post responses instantly. The difference is spectactular. Blogging has enabled articulate, thoughtful tasters/drinkers/winos to make their thoughts known and to develop an audience and a following. Blogging is now so influential that many bloggers are now mainstream players. You cannot fail to recognise Gary Vaynerchuck’s vertiginous rise to the very top of the influence ladder through Internet presence alone. It wouldn’t surprise me if every drinker under the age of 35 in the US trusted Gary Vee more than Robert Parker. That’s an incredible achievement in such a short time, it’s breathtaking.

Do you believe wine blogs have made any marked impact on the wine industry or wine culture?

I’d like to think so. I think it’s certainly true if we extend the definition of “blog” to include older, pre Web 2.0 websites such as Jamie Goode’s Wine Anorak or the traditional forums such as eGullet or the still hugely popular CellarTracker. These are now influential, respected and powerful places where people converge to read, compare and discuss. And many pre-web experts such as Jancis Robinson now all have websites which are quite possibly their main sources of income. You can say “Oh, but blogs are free, and many of these websites require paid-for subscription.” Yes, but Jancis (or Wine Spectator, or Wine Advocate, or Stephen Tanzer) have tasted tens of thousands of wines for decades, and have as many tasting notes, and write with authority. Plus, many bloggers take advertising, which is also a way that their readers “pay” for the content. But yes, people are listening more and more to bloggers. The combined audience for wine bloggers is huge, and it’s in itself influential by word of mouth. I’ve made many purchasing decisions on the recommendations of bloggers.

Where do you see wine blogging in 10 years?

On the one hand, there’ll be more wine blogs, and therefore more mediocrity and “noise”, and on the other, there’ll be consolidation of the most authoritative, lucid voices. These phenomena will develop side-by-side without conflict. The self-regulating nature of the web will create a sort of 80-20 rule (Pareto’s Law), in which a small minority will attract most of the traffic. Popularity, of course, will be no indication of quality. Sometimes the two will happily coincide.

What do you hope to gain from this conference?
Mostly to meet others, to learn from their experiences, to share thoughts, to persuade and be persuaded, and maybe to taste some great wines I didn’t know about.