The consumption of wine has a pyramidal shape. On the wide part you find the large producers, who make commercial, appealing wines at good prices, since they can reduce their costs with their buying potential. We are attending at a strong concentration of brands in this segment, with many wineries being bought by a few groups. These names count with strong funds for marketing and publicity, for what they get the attention of the generic and specific mass media (most of these publications live out of their advertisers, not their readers).

In the high, narrow part of the pyramid are the independent producers, usually making a very small production, with almost no money for publicity at all, and strongly dependent on their quality and originality. Obviously, wine magazines have also eyes for these wines, since these are the most interesting stories for their readers and, in a way, legitimize the use of their paper. However, standardization affects wine writers -who try to follow the trend settled by one or two leaders- and also attacks the wine makers, who see themselves trying to please these leader’s taste to receive high scores.

Internet has changed and developed the communications in our society; one of their current pillars lies on the possibility to create your own way to express yourself, what has been named ‘blog’. Not depending on high costs, the wine blogger can afford to write with plenty of freedom, and some of them are being followed by many wine lovers who read their lines with interest.

But the wine blogger has to face a good bunch of problems.

As any other writer, still depends on collecting readers: the more visitors, more incomes from publicity. If the blogger does not want to make money with the web page, it will be difficult for him or her to get access to rare, independent or expensive wines.

As Ignacio Ramonet –editor of Le Monde Diplomatique and one of the most respected writers on Communication- says in one of his articles, “as always on Communication History, when a new media is born –since the first newspapers in the XVIII Century until the ‘free radio stations’ on the sixties and the actual Internet- the first impression is that Freedom of Speech has been increased, but then it falls into the hands of the economic powers”. Just write “wine” on Google and see how many independent writers you find along the first pages.

As it happens to us, the small producers, wine bloggers will have to find a way to keep their independence and originality, financially resisting at the same time. If they sell their signature to the “great market”, if their articles stop bringing fresh air to wine literature, they will lose their readers as a wine maker loses a consumer.

Miguel Merino