KNOWLEDGE IS KING

Thanks to the Internet, there is a King’s Ransom in information available – all you have to do is seek it out. I’ve been at this wine thing awhile, and since the Internet came along, hours searching for articles and books at the bookstore or the library are replaced by minutes on the Web. And with all the various wine bloggers out there, I have access to dozens of perspectives and opinions that not only help me in my quest for ultimate wine knowledge, they help me stay better informed on the various trends in the wine industry – trends I need to know as a buyer.

There are literally thousands of wine blogs out there, with a wide array of points-of-view, all aimed at giving you another piece of the picture. The printed magazines such as Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and others, are one side of the vast landscape that is the world of wine, and they do a great deal to keep people up to date, yet they do have an agenda – it’s no surprise. They are in the business of selling magazines. They sell ad space and provide a reciprocity that is either overt or unintentional, but there nonetheless. I don’t fault them for it. I am in the business of selling wine, and need to do what is necessary to show reasons for carrying the wide range of wines the stores I work for do sell. Business is business. So when it comes to information, it is beneficial to the student to glean said information from as many sources as possible.

For wine, the best resource online is The Wine Lover’s Page, the brainchild of Louisville columnist Robin Garr and his army of likeminded winos. Assembled there is a huge wealth of knowledge all linked together in one neat Web site. It’s not elaborate by any means, nor should it be. The meat of the Site is the content, not the graphics. A great new resource is The Palate Press, founded by friend David Honig, and contributors include over 20 of the Web’s current bloggers including Joe Roberts of 1 Wine Dude, Jeff Lefevre of Good Grape, Gabriella Opaz of Catavino, Kori Voorhees of Wine Peeps, and our own local blogger friend Michelle Lentz of My Wine Education.

Some of my favorite must reads are Wine Enthusiast writer Steve Heimoff, one of the most articulate and irreverent bloggers out there, Samantha Dugan of Samantha Sans Dosage, a brutally honest writer who doesn’t back away from speaking her mind about anything, not just wine, and Tom Wark from Fermentation, the daily wine blogger who takes on the industry and doesn’t back down from the fight.

If you only look at the blog roll at the right of the screen, you can see the list is long and distinguished, and really gets longer every day. There is always a new voice to discover, and another piece of the puzzle to add. Knowledge is essential in this business. And if you are a true geek like me, it takes on a very twisted impression of fun.